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XBox Turning into Over the Top TV Solution? XBox Live TV Coming…

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 12:42 PM on October 5, 2011
Xbox TV partners

Xbox TV partners

I watch over a lot in the Over the Top Television space. Internet TV, IPTV, whatever you want to call it, it’s a great way to get watchable content without having a full cable lineup.

Last week, Steve Ballmer announced their TV initiative over XBox Live. Over 40 providers have signed up for this venture, including Comcast, HBO, BBC, Rodgers on Demand (Canada), Televisa (Mexico), and other countries including Germany and Italy (20 in all). Best part, if you already have an XBox 360, you have the hardware to do this.

“Today’s announcement is a major step toward realizing our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Combining the world’s leading TV and entertainment providers with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360 and the intelligence of Bing voice search will make TV and entertainment more personal, social and effortless.” – Press Release

Add to conventional TV line-up the on-line video providers like Crackle, YouTube, Zune and more. Then there is audio content from Last.fm and iHeartRadio. Finally, Social networks like Twitter and Facebook to round off the service.

The Game System that Became More

Whereas companies like Roku that integrated smaller games like Angry Birds, XBox won’t have that problem. It’s a game system over a TV content distributor. You can play Gears of War, Tweet about it, then watch a video on how to play Gears of War (or another show).

Unified Dashboard in XBox Live

With the unified dashboard (looking similar to the Zune software), you can browse your shows, play the games, work your social networks and more. You will connect to the Comcast Xfinity service to get all that service has to offer.

Getting Rid of the Remote with Kinect

This might be the best part about the XBox TV. By using voice controls and your Kinect, you can gesture to a channel, play, pause and move on. It might get harry if you have more than one person wanting to watch different shows. Still, could you imagine a world without a remote control?

It won’t all be free, though.

Right now, to get HBO Go, you need to have a cable subscription with HBO. I don’t expect that to change anytime soon – especially with channels like HuluPlus. Of course, that is just like many of the OTT systems out there. Pay for a subscription and get the content.

Once again, there could be conflict if you have multiple family members where one wants to play a game and the other wants to watch a movie. So this might not replace a cable box or DVR just yet.

The Xbox Live TV service is expected to come out before the holiday season. The announcement comes before then so you can plan purchasing an XBox 360 or Kinect system for your loved ones to connect up quick. While the OTT solution is more pricey than a Roku or Apple TV, it does do more than just watch video, view pictures or listen to music. It also has some great game titles. It also has a new way to browse through your content.

Contest Post-Tweeting: How People Don’t Read Contest Info

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 12:28 PM on September 4, 2011
iPad

iPad

Next week I’ll be headed to San Francisco for TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco. Naturally, I added the hashtag #tcdisrupt in my Tweet deck. I went through the posts, and one seems to keep coming up:

TechCrunch Giveaway: White iPad 2 and Nook Color #TCDisrupt {link removed} via @techcrunch

I went to the page in question and they gave away a White iPad2. Yes, I said GAVE AWAY. This was for TechCrunch Disrupt in New York that happened back in June.

This is not the first time I’ve seen this tweet reaction. Someone sees a post saying “Win this, retweet and your entered”. You do so, but you don’t see the link they post. Now you’ve just entered into a contest that has been over for months.

I have held contests from time-to-time. I remember one where I was trying to increase my followers and said to Twitter the link information and hashtag. Weeks after the contest, I was still getting tweets. I even remember one guy who tweeted me “Did you draw a winner yet?” I had to reply “Yes, but that was back in April.”

This seems to be an interesting way to build people, but also is a bit deceptive. Of course, if people don’t read the rules, it’s not your fault, right?

In this case, I would say “wrong”. Why? Because TechCrunch hasn’t updated the page to say in the first line “CONTEST OVER”. Even in the title, they should put that information.

In the meantime, people are thinking they’ve just entered a contest for a white iPad2.Too bad they didn’t win…

GNC #698 Need some More Cores!

Posted by geeknews at 10:25 PM on August 22, 2011

Meetup in Albuquerque is Wednesday night details out tonight to those who have agreed to meetup.. Really need more cores on the road, time for a laptop update buy man really hate buying another PC you all know the drill. Show 700 Contest Details!

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Listener Links:
Google Mapping Amazon.
Recording Google+ Hangouts.
Automotive Internet Radio.
UW System Battle over Broadband.

Show Links:
Google TV SDK on Street.
Rdio Family Plans.
OTT on the Climb.
AT&T Perspective.
Is it time for a new Innovator.
Twitter Photo Galleries.
Green with Hard drive options.
Broadband Gateway Drug.
Mobile Advertising Infographic.
Glassboard.
Wikileaks on the run.
Wikileaks Conspiracy.
Cloud Music Storage good to go!
Volunteer and Give up Rights?
More ISP Speak out in New Zealand.
Web Break at work adds Productivity.
Cooking for a long time.
Download.com ha Issues.
Your HP Touchpad.
GE On Shoring?
FTC Do not Track.
Vudu on the Move.
DropBox for Lion.
MacBook Upgrades.
Missouri Teachers Fight.
iOS 5 and LTE.
Microsoft courts Webos Developers.
Skypoe and GroupMe.
The First Camcorder Pirate!
Hotmail Calendar.
Apple to move to ARM?
Toothpaste Squeezer.
Logitech Labdesk.
Cadilac Toothpast Squeezer.
Wingstand.
Game Boy Swim Suit.
Akamai Video Streaming Outlook.
Fox TV Fans Revolt.
Hulu Ad Blocker.
Skip the Phone Support Queue.
PS3 $250.00.
Hulu WD TV.
Verizon LTE 15 More Markets.
Storing Bread I win!

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Anonymous Plans November 5th Facebook Attack – Needs to be Stopped

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 10:27 AM on August 10, 2011

The following message showed up on YouTube. I have transcribed:

Attention citizens of the world. We are anonymous. We wish to get your attention hoping you heed the warnings as follows. Your medium of communication that you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing activist, or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information, then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy. Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so they can spy on people from all around the world.

Some of these so-called “White hot infosec” firms are working for a formatarian governments such as those of Egypt and Seria. Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your “Privacy” settings and deleting your account is impossible – even if you delete your account all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time.

Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more private is even a dilusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family. You cannot hide from the reality in which you – the people of the internet – live in facebook – is the opposite of the anti-sec cause.

You’re not safe from them nor any government.

One day you will look back on this and realize what we have done here is right. Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history.
November 5th 2011. We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive, we do not forget. Expect us.

Why Nov 5th, 2011?

Guy Fawkes Mask

Guy Fawkes Mask

This is Guy Fawkes Day, which commemorates when Fawkes and others placed explosives under the British House of Lords in 1605. Fawkes is the mask Anonymous wears. Therefore, they chose this date to bring a social network down.

Joke or Reality?

That is tough to say. Anonymous is an established group, so the attempt can be taken a little more serious. Since we don’t know who makes up this group, it makes this harder to determine. For all we know, several of the members used to work for Facebook. Possibly even a programmer that might have created a secure back door to initiate this attack.

Bottom Line: This Needs to be Stopped!

This is a terrorist action and Anonymous should be treated as such. There is a famous term that most of us take to heart – We shall not succumb to terrorist threat. Violence does not beget violence.

If Facebook is doing what Anonymous says, then they need to be prosecuted in a court of law. No one group gets to decide their fate.

What will be next? Google+? Twitter? Your website?

Zero Tollerance – FBI Needs to Get Involved.

Think about it – You take down a giant in Facebook like that and it has a major economic effect. People build business around Facebook and with the site forcefully taken down like that, people can literally lose millions. Bringing in a new financial crisis to an already unstable economy.

We do not know how this organization will bring Facebook down – and that is the most important part. We assume that it’s going to be something like a DDoS or major virus. What if it’s a physical attack on their server farms or offices?

Remember: Guy Fawkes Organization used explosives to take down the British House of Lords.

This is not the way to do it. With these actions, Anonymous might find that they are protecting the one thing they want to bring down. A threat is a threat, whether a joke or not.

Facebook has many protocols in place to prevent such an attack. I would suggest, however, that Facebook change some policy and review their systems just to make sure there is no back door. Then make sure they have security in place on November 5th.

This is never something you should joke about. I hope they take Anonymous down. Period.

GNC #672 Big Day for LinkedIn

Posted by geeknews at 7:59 PM on May 19, 2011

Geek News Central Podcast Headed back to Honolulu, I have had a great week here in Texas, much accomplished. Planning a return trip in Mid June followed by a potential east coast trip as well. Lot’s of tech with a political slant tonight kinda weird but seems that at times themes develop in the news reporting.

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Subscribe Today: Audio | Video | iTunes | Zune
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Follow @geeknews on Twitter
Geek News Central Facebook Page
Purchase GNC gear from the Ohana Store!
Show Hotline 24/7 1-619-342-7365 or e-mail geeknews@gmail.com

Show Notes:
5 Ways to use LinkedIn
Malware on the loose for Mac Users.
Apple App Store Security Threat?
Chrome URL Bar going Bye Bye?
Religious Reaction by Apple Fanboys?
Fetch.IO
More bad news for Sony PSN?
16hr Cell Phone Marathon on Train?
Twitter Changes Rules Again.
Verizon 4G LTE Growing.
Comcast Sensitive to FCC Hire Tweets.
TokBox Group Video Chat!
Social Media Infographic.
Google Search App.
Verizon iPhone 5 Dual Mode.
Data Hungy Apps making BW Impact.
Twitter providing Reporters Intel.
Little Blue Pill Hearing Loss.
Amazon Gadget Trade In.
Intel Open Mouth Insert Foot x2.
iPhone Oximeter.
Verizon Family Data Plans.
Secret Service 2x Screw Ups.
AT&T No App Restrictions.
Wired Teaches Potentially Illegal Activities.
Philly Police and Citizen Gun Holder Incident.
Amazon and State Sales Taxes.
Who owns the Tweets.
4th Amendment under attack!
Artist to get some money after all.
Apple TV Hack.
Homeless Planets.
Don’t Take Space Program Lightly.
Windows Phone 7 comes to Verizon.
Smartphone Tracking Law.
Dark Mater Hunter.
e-books King!
Warrantless Bill backed by RIAA.
One Headset!
Guitar Self Tuner.
20 iPad 2 Apps.
T-Mobile wants You.
P2P Traffic Surge.

New Infographic – The Demographics of Social Media

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 6:40 PM on May 16, 2011

The website Advertising Age released a cool new infographic comparing various social media – namely Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  There are some interesting facts revealed here.  For instance the Social Media space is lead by the 35-54 age group, the leading country for Facebook is the US, but the second is Indonesia, the leading country for LinkedIn is also the US, but it’s followed by India, and females outpace males as Twitter users.

While some of this strikes me as common sense (like Twitter being dominated by the 35-54 age group), some of it amazes me (like there are significantly more female users and visitors to Twitter).  For anyone who runs a web site this is pretty good information to have.  It can provide a lot of aim to your marketing and SEO efforts.  For those who don’t run a site it’s still a bit of pretty interesting information to parse over.

demographics of social media

GNC #667 Big Media wants a Fight!

Posted by geeknews at 1:08 AM on May 3, 2011

Ohana, over the past month I have been entertaining an offer that would have resulted in new owners of Geek News Central, and the Geek News Central Podcast. The offer was a darn good one and while I would have remained the host of the show it boiled down to I am not done yet. While I am sure I will question my decision for a while, as it was a “really” good offer and the team that was looking to acquire the show was top notch it just did not make sense to do it. Some more insights in the show today, but I just want to assure all of you I am not going anywhere.

Sponsored by:

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Show Hotline 24/7 1-619-342-7365 or e-mail geeknews@gmail.com

Listener Links:
www.biddingtraveler.com
www.bitlet.org
All Aboard!

Show Notes:
UBL Death set Twitter Record.
Twitter CNN Moment?
News Vs Social.
Firefox 5?
Sony Bleeding Credit Card Data.
Android Tethering Crackdown.
AT&T kills the Party.
Can Google TV be Saved?
Radiated Cars?
SETI True Costs.
Judges figuring out IP Pitfalls.
Is Facebook a big Spy site?
Wanna work at Google 16 versus 5 Interviews.
Sony declines Congressional Invite?
New Twitter Ad Units.
New Windows 7 API.
Do you own your Location Info?
Don’t waste your money!
Bigger Pockets for Bigger Devices nerd Alert.
Retro iPhone Charger.
Reduce the Volume Automatically.
Google App Changes.
Dropbox Tips.
Jailbreak Pros and Cons.
Shuttle RSS Retract.
Asteroid Collision.
Endeavor New Launch Date.
Righthaven gets another bloody nose.
NHL has lost their minds.
No fair use in the UK?
Whitehouse 301 Report has IP Wacth List?
Measure your Bandwidth.
Some people get good Genes.
VPS Seedbox.
One Lucky Dude.
AT&T deals?
Twitter buys Tweetdeck.
Google Voice Search.
Measuring the White iPhone.
Hackers hit Pakistani Twitter User.
Another Nuclear Leak.
IOS 4.3.3 to plug Tracking.
Firefox 4.0 hits 10%

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