Sony says it's open to
avoiding DVD format war
Maybe
there won’t be a format war after all when the next generation of DVDs
makes it to the mainstream. Japanese electronics companies Sony, TDK and
Philips are currently developing Blu-ray optical discs while Toshiba is
going with a high-definition DVD format. Both technologies stand at a much
higher plateau than what’s available on the market now, but Hollywood
studios are split on which format to endorse. Disney and Sony, which also
includes Columbia TriStar and MGM, are backing the Blu-ray discs;
Universal, Paramount and
Time
Warner, which includes New Line and HBO, are on
the HD-DVD side of things. But on Wednesday Sony said it would be open to
discussions about avoiding such a format war to better benefit consumers.
Comparisons are inevitably made to the old VHS and Betamax format battle,
but this could be much worse because studios released movies in both
formats in the early ‘80s. This time around they likely wouldn’t.
Rupe to editors: Time to get with the web trend
Rupert
Murdoch knows a little something about newspapers, so when he gives advice
to the industry, it often listens. Speaking at an annual meeting
of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Murdoch said the industry is
just sitting and watching while a new wave of online-savvy consumers
forgets about the medium. As evidence Murdoch used a Carnegie Corporation
report that found 44 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds use web sites at least
once a day for news. He said newspapers need to dramatically repair how
they gather and deliver news to better attract readers and advertising
revenue that appear to be drifting online. Murdoch, of course, is CEO of
News Corp., the parent company of the New York Post.
ESPN launching
an ad-friendly version of Motion
ESPN
Motion has been available on ESPN.com for a while now, but the sports
giant is about to make the online video player a little more advertiser
friendly. Motion 2.0 is slated for launch on May 16 and uses Flash
technology to show video, usually sports highlights or in-studio analysis
from ESPN personalities. The original version required downloading
software to view video. Also, ads on Motion 2.0 will allow users to click
for more information on a product, available in a small screen outside of
the video viewer. The old Motion had ads, but they were basically just
made-for-computer TV spots that weren’t clickable. American Express and
IBM are among the companies to advertise on ESPN Motion. ESPN says
visitors to ESPN.com start Motion video about 2 million times a day.
eBay
lesson: Don't sell what you stole from bank
EBay is a good place to unload old items that aren’t
wanted
anymore but only if those items are yours. Police are checking into
the sale of some old bank computers sold on the site that they say are
stolen. Since last year, computers from Partners Trust Bank in Binghamton,
N.Y., sat
in storage after the company laid off
of a slew of its employees.
But investigators say a 24-year-old who was vice president of the bank
illegally sold the computers on eBay—six of them were found in his SUV.
The man has been charged with felony criminal possession of stolen
property while police try to figure out more details.
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