E-commerce

Samsung tries to woo TV app developers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--App stores have transformed portable devices. Could TVs be next?

Samsung Electronics think so. The Korean company is here pitching Samsung Apps, an application platform and marketplace, to media and content providers, as well as individual third-party developers.

Samsung Apps, as the platform is called, has been rolled out in other countries, but the company came here for its first developer conference, called Free the TV Challenge, to introduce its new software development kit to more than 100 developers in the United States.

Since app stores have become a given for portables--no phone maker would dream of launching a new smartphone today without access to one--Samsung says people want that same experience when flipping through channels from the couch.

"Consumers want and expect choice and control. Not just on the go, not just in front of computer, but in the living room," Eric Anderson, Samsung vice president of content development, told the group gathered in the ballroom of the Fairmont hotel.

Part of Samsung's pitch to developers on Tuesday was that its position in TVs and mobile phones will provide a large enough window for developers. Samsung already sells 45 million TVs a year and 200 mobile phones, so the implication is that if its TV app store takes off, the developers in on the ground floor will have their apps broadcast to a large chunk of TV owning people or people who will buy one in the next few years.

So far, there are 88 apps already available on Samsung's TV platform, but the company says there will be 200 by the end of the year. Samsung has been selling Web-connected TVs with apps from the likes of Yahoo, Netflix, Blockbuster, Facebook, Twitter, and others since 2009. By opening the platform up to third parties, it expects that number to increase exponentially over the next few years. … Read more

Another day, another social start-up for Google

Google has bought an awful lot of companies in 2010, but it hasn't been hard to spot a theme to its purchases over the last few months.

Inside Social Games spotted news posted on the home page of SocialDeck, a mobile-game developer, that Google has acquired the company for an undisclosed sum.

"We're super excited to announce that someone found our social games as fun as you have--in this case, that 'someone' is Google," the company wrote.

SocialDeck has created mobile games, such as Pet Hero, and Shake and Spell, on the back of a "… Read more

Google, AP reach deal for Google News content

Google and the Associated Press have resolved an impasse over extending their licensing deal, paving the way for AP content to start flooding Google News once again.

A hosting deal that allowed Google News to carry AP news stories on Google Web pages expired earlier this year, and it took almost six months to move beyond a temporary deal to something that appears more permanent, according to a post on the Google News blog. Google and the AP had agreed in February to keep older AP content on Google's site, but Google stopped adding new content in January, until … Read more

Report: Google in talks for movie rental service

YouTube's fledgling movie rental program may soon be getting some Hollywood muscle in the crowded fight for domination of digital movie and television content distribution.

YouTube-parent Google is negotiating with major Hollywood studios to stream movies from their catalogs on a pay-per-view basis by the end of the year, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The service is expected to stream movies on demand for $5 each, according to the report, which cited sources with knowledge of Google's plans.

A YouTube representative declined to comment, saying: "We have nothing to announce at this time." … Read more

Report: Apple prepping 99-cent TV show rentals

Apple could be on the verge of giving users the option to rent television shows from its iTunes Store.

Citing "people familiar" with discussions between Apple and News Corp., Bloomberg reported Tuesday that 99-cent TV show rentals are being talked about. Users would have to watch the shows within 48 hours of purchasing the rental, according to the report.

The rental system sounds very similar to the one Apple uses for movie rentals on the iTunes Store, where users have a specified amount of time to watch the rented media before it expires.

Bloomberg also says Apple is … Read more

RIAA: U.S. copyright law 'isn't working'

ASPEN, Colo.--The Recording Industry Association of America said on Monday that current U.S. copyright law is so broken that it "isn't working" for content creators any longer.

RIAA President Cary Sherman said the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act contains loopholes that allow broadband providers and Web companies to turn a blind eye to customers' unlawful activities without suffering any legal consequences.

"The DMCA isn't working for content people at all," he said at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum here. "You cannot monitor all the infringements on the Internet. It'… Read more

Could MetaMirror reflect future of interactive TV?

Like to get instant player stats and trivia while watching TV sports matches? MetaMirror, a concept software platform out of Ireland, would overlay such data on a secondary device, keeping your television screen free of extra clutter while you watch the big game.

The product would display real-time contextual content over a "mirror" of the television broadcast that simultaneously plays on an iPad, iPhone, Netbook, or other gadget. That might make for some visual cacophony at touchdown time, but Dublin design firm Notion, which came up with the idea, insists that it's a seamless way to connect Web and television experiences, which are becoming increasingly entwined, and make TV more like the interactive devices to which we are all becoming accustomed.

"By bringing together live television, real-time contextual information, and an intuitive user interface, Meta Mirror is positioned to update television from unidirectional broadcast to two-way interaction," Notion says.

It envisions several models for doing this: … Read more

Netflix delights studios with big checks

LOS ANGELES--Netflix probably won't get a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame anytime soon, but the Web's top video rental service has recently become a blockbuster hit with film industry chieftains.

Just nine months ago, sources in the film industry told CNET that Netflix's long string of Wall Street-wowing earnings reports hadn't gone unnoticed at the studios. With all that money rolling in, many studio decision makers weren't happy with their cut--especially when it came to the company's blossoming streaming-movie service.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has apparently solved the problem--at least for now--by … Read more

Amazon sells out of Kindle

Amazon has sold out of its least expensive Kindle, perhaps providing further evidence of the e-reader's popularity, or signaling a new device in the offing.

Anyone who has visited the popular e-tailer's site in the past year or so has grown accustomed to being greeted by the Kindle's image. However, as of Tuesday afternoon, the base $189 Kindle had been replaced on Amazon's home page by the $379 Kindle DX.

The page for the base Kindle featured a note to shoppers saying the device was "temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver … Read more