Microsoft kicked off E3 with a packed list of announcements this morning across its mobile and gaming platforms.
First up: music. Microsoft announced the launch of their new music service--Xbox Music. After the demise of the Zune player, it looks like Microsoft is refocusing its energies in a different direction.
Microsoft also announced a new partnership with Nike to create a fitness training system on the Kinect. The motion capture technology is rigged to provide better performance statistics and record and report feedback on workout techniques.Xbox Smart Glass was the third product announced today--one that would integrate TV watching on the Xbox with all major mobile platforms--iOS, Android, and of course, Windows devices. TV on a device will pick up where you left off watching on the Xbox, and will be enhanced. For example, while watching Game of Thrones, a map will track the dense and well-dispersed narrative through the series' fictional setting of Westeros.
Facebook Tests Access For Pre-Teens
Facebook is testing features which could allow kids under 13 to access Facebook under parental supervision. The Wall Street Journal reports that among the features in the works are those that would allow kids to create an account that was linked to, and managed by their parents' accounts. Facebook may even charge parents for the additional features. Though Facebook has a strict age restriction on the users that sign up to use it, kids under 13 circumvent the barriers in place and slink in. Rather than try to stem the pre-teen ingress (a tricky problem because many parents don't know about the age restriction and a high percentage of those who do help kids set up accounts anyway), and though it brings up numerous privacy concerns, a more effective method to keep the social network safe for kids would be to let them in supervised, Facebook sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Nintendo Officially Reveals Wii U Controllers, Key To Next-Gen Console Gaming
Nintendo has revealed the final-configuration hardware that'll control its Wii U next-negeration gaming console, the company's great white hope to win the next-gen console game market from Microsoft and Sony. The hardware has been subject to much speculation since it was shown in prototype form as a tablet-like device with game controls around the edge. Now the controller is known to have NFC tag read and write skills, the ability to act as an independent TV remote, gyro sensors, and has more conventional analog stick inputs--much like its competition. Nintendo is hoping to gain the sort of sales popularity that it saw with its original Wii gaming device, which has long since ceded dominance to its traditional competition and the rising threat of casual gaming on devices like the iPhone and iPad--the last two capturing a market which, alone, is predicted to rise to $7.5 billion worldwide by 2015.
Nintendo made the unusual move to tease us with what may be the most innovative part of its Wii U console ahead of its bigger press event at E3 2012 this week.
SwaggSec Hacks China Telecom And Warner Bros.
A group that calls itself SwaggSec ("Hacking Today for an Entertaining Tomorrow") has owned up to breaking into China Telecom and, in an apparently unrelated move, Warner Bros. as well, CNET reports. Post-hack, on Twitter, SwaggSec goaded Warners Bros. to fix the gaps in their security infrastructure. SwaggSec's last high-profile coup was in early February this year, when the group hacked Foxconn's servers and extracted and published usernames and passwords of employees.
China Blocks Tiananmen Square Searches On 23rd Anniversary
On the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising, China has censored search terms related to the crackdown. Banned search terms include the Chinese translations of "23," "six four," "never forget" and according to some,"today," the BBC reports. China's government has a track record of blotting out search terms related to politically sensitive topics, which has led Chinese political activists to express themselves on microblogging platforms like Sina Weibousing representative metaphors and images. As censor-defying memes for protest are getting more popular, the government is getting better at spotting them and snuffing them out too--the candle emoticon, usually used to mourn deaths on Weibo, is also blocked today. Google, which has long opposed the China government on the subject of search engine censorship last week, announced a new feature that would alert users when search terms they entered were censored. Chinese search engines like Baidu are previously "sanitized" for sensitive information, but since Google's servers are out of reach, their service is simply disrupted when a banned search term is entered, the New York Times explains.
• Flagship Biosciences LLC Acquires IHCtech, a Leading Provider of Research Immunohistochemistry and Histology Services More...
• Hi-Tech Pharmacal (HITK) Acquires Cormax Brand Rights from Watson Laboratories, Inc. (WPI) for Undisclosed Amount More...
• Orexo AB Acquires All US Rights for ProStrakan Group's Abstral and Receives a Net Cash Consideration of £55 Million More...
• Alize Pharma Closes EUR 3.3 Million Funding Round More...
• Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) Secures Additional Funding from Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to Pursue Post-Exposure Prophylaxis Indication for BioThrax More...
• AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Completes Private Placement of $10.0 Million More...
• Astellas Pharma Inc. (YPH.BE) and Drais Pharmaceuticals Partner to Develop Second Astellas Compound Through Seldar More...
• Baxter International, Inc. (BAX) Announces Collaboration with Chatham Therapeutics for Factor IX Hemophilia B Gene Therapy Treatment More...
• New Agreements to Give Quintiles, Inc. (QTRN) Access to De-Identified EMR Data Representing 40 Million Patient Lives More...
• Nouveau Life Pharmaceuticals (NOUV) Announces New CEO More...
• Codexis, Inc. (CDXS) Appoints John J. Nicols as President and Chief Executive Officer More...
• Targacept, Inc. (TRGT)'s Chief Executive deBethizy Steps Down in Shake-Up More...
• Apricus Biosciences (APRI) Announces Appointment of Paul V. Maier to Its Board of Directors More...
• Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Appoints Paul L. Berns to Its Board of Directors More...
• Simulations Plus (SLP) Reports Preliminary Third Quarter FY2012 Results More...
• GenScript Corporation Completes $40 Million R&D Center in Nanjing More...
• New Roche (RHHBY) Drug Slows Breast Tumor Growth More...
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) Immune Drug Shows Promise in Three Cancers, Success May Spur Industry Race More...
• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Prostate Cancer Drug So Effective Trial Stopped More...
• Bayer AG (BAY.F) Drug Stalls Stomach Tumors After Standard Treatment More...
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Melanoma Drugs Beat Chemo in Pivotal Trials More...
• FDA Asked to Ban Lice Shampoo for Kids More...
• FivePrime Therapeutics, Inc. Announces That Human Genome Sciences Files U.S. IND for HGS1036/FP-1039 FGF Ligand Trap More...
• Premature Babies May Have Increased Risk of Psychosis, Archives of General Psychiatry Reveals More...
• Open-Fire Cooking May Affect Child Cognitive Development, University of California, Riverside Study More...
• University of Maryland Medical Center Study Questions Fruit Sugar Role in Hypertension More...
• More Vitamin D Might Help Older People Stay Active, Wake Forest University School of Medicine Study More...
• Antidepressant Helps Relieve Pain From Chemotherapy, University of Michigan School of Nursing Study More...
“All points in the direction that this is actually the man,” Martin Steltner, a spokesman for prosecutors in the German capital said today in an interview. “Once we have ascertained that, we will release more information.”
The arrest comes five days after Canada’s police sent out a nationwide warrant for Magnotta, who is also known as Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, after severed body parts were mailed to Canada’s governing Conservative Party headquarters. Interpol had since listed him as a wanted person.
A foot was found at the Conservative Party’s office a few blocks from Parliament on May 29; a hand was found by the postal service in Ottawa, and a torso was found near an apartment building in Montreal, according to Montreal police department spokesman Ian Lafreniere.
The victim of the killing was Jun Lin, a 33-year-old Chinese student studying in Montreal, the CBC reported June 1, citing Montreal police. Montreal police believe Magnotta killed Lin and videotaped a sequence of repeated stabbing and dismemberment before mailing the body parts, CBC reported.
German authorities are still checking “last questions” about his identity and will release more details tomorrow, Steltner said. Canadian Press reported that police stopped Magnotta after someone recognized him outside an Internet café in Berlin.
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) fell to the lowest level since 2003, marking four days of declines since the struggling maker of the BlackBerry smartphone forecast a first- quarter operating loss and said it had hired banks to explore strategic options.
RIM declined 5.9 percent to $9.66 a share at 12:12 p.m. in New York, for the lowest price since Dec. 22, 2003.
RIM said May 29 it will report a quarterly loss, the first since 2004 for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and RBC Capital Markets have been hired to help RIM evaluate options, including forging partnerships, licensing its software and looking at “strategic business model alternatives,” the company said
Based on an internationally acclaimed format by BBC held in 22 countries, the initiative is to select that one great Indian after Mahatma Gandhi who is the most influential, iconic & inspirational and has impacted your life.
Vote for up to 10 out of 50 nominees that you think are most deserving here
The Greatest Indian after Mahatma Gandhi
The Greatest Indian is a poll launched by HISTORY TV18 & CNN IBN which is set to trigger a national debate on the one question, "Who is the greatest Indian after Independence?" The show format is based on a path-breaking series featured on BBC called ‘The Greatest Briton’. Launched in 2002 in the UK, the initiative reached out to millions of viewers and broke significant viewership records there. An astounding 21 countries have successfully adopted this format since then, and it now promises to create History here in India too!
PROCESS FLOW:
.png)
Eight years ago, Tabbedout co-founder and CEO Rick Orr found himself waiting nearly an hour to close out his bill at a restaurant. Orr realized there had to be a better way to improve the payment process—both for patrons and merchants-- at bars and restaurants.
Tabbedout is a secure and easy-to-use mobile payment solution that allows patrons to open, view and pay their tab with a smart phone—no more handing over a credit card to a server or bartender or leaving a credit card at the bar after a night on the town. Having come from the security software industry, Orr and Tabbedout co-founder and CTO Dave Lemley knew that security and convenience were the most critical factors in developing this innovative application. The team that built Tabbedout possesses deep domain knowledge and practical experience in the areas of consumer and enterprise software development, specifically in online identity security, payments/PCI-DSS, and point-of-sale software.
Credit and debit card payment information is stored securely on the phone, not on Tabbedout’s servers, and only the last four digits are displayed on the screen. A random secret code is displayed on the screen each time a tab is opened – that’s the only information that a user needs to provide their bartender or server. Tabbedout is securely integrated directly into the merchant’s point of sale (POS) system. Once a tab is opened, users can view the details of their tabs in real time for accuracy, and when they’re ready to leave, they simply enter a tip and pay with the press of a single button.
Tabbedout changes the way people pay at restaurants and bars. Gone are the days of handing over a credit card to someone you’ve never met. We put the power in the hands of the consumer in a device they own, giving them control over how and when they pay.
And the benefits extend to the venue as well. With the ability to open, view and pay tabs from the patron’s own smart phone, Tabbedout improves efficiency and security at the time of closeout, particularly during critical peak hours. This provides the opportunity for bars and restaurants to serve more people as quickly as possible and avoid walked checks, bringing more revenue to the bottom line.
Tabbedout is the changing the way people pay--no more plastic, no more waiting. Total freedom.
But what could have been yet another shrill Internet one-off has turned into a true, ongoing sensation. There is an Annoying Orange videogame, T-shirts sold in JCPenney, and now a Cartoon Network series, debuting Monday, June 11. The original Annoying Orange Web series is still going strong, with more than 1.4 billion YouTube views, 2.4 million subscribers and a whopping 153 episodes so far.
As to how The Annoying Orange grew online and then expanded to other platforms, much credit goes to the Collective, a Los Angeles-based entertainment management and production company that teamed up with Boedigheimer more than two years ago. Co.Create spoke with Gary Binkow, a partner in the Collective, Dan Weinstein, who heads the company’s digital studio, and Boedigheimer himself, to see how they juiced The Annoying Orange for all it’s worth.
AN ORANGE A DAY KEEPS THE HIT COUNT CLIMBING
"Part of it was hard work, and part of it was luck," says Boedigheimer. "When Annoying Orange took off on YouTube, so did the social media pages [on] Twitter and Facebook." From there it was all about being consistent--not just with videos, but with the social media message. "I made it a rule for myself that I had to have a video released every Friday, and a new post on the social media pages every day. I just made sure to keep up with that schedule, as well as interact with the audience by having contests, talking to them, and really keep them involved in the brand. I firmly believe that had I not stuck to that strict schedule, I would not be where I am today."
Even though Boedigheimer is from North Dakota, Weinstein and Binkow recognized early on that he was no bumpkin; he had his own operation already, and was already working to build something long-term. "Dane is not just a genius creator, he’s also very tech-savvy and understands the notion of telling stories and building character," says Binkow. "He has done a fantastic job of keeping [the YouTube series] alive and growing and introducing new characters."
Binkow is quick to point out that the early success of Annoying Orange was no fluke. "This is not a cat throwing up fur balls. This is a real narrative story that goes on every week and he’s diligent about preaching content in a certain frequency and making sure that gets pushed out every week and keeping all of the social media platforms alive and engaged with unique content."
PICKING THE RIGHT PARTNER
When the Collective started representing The Annoying Orange--after there had been about four or five videos online--the team there started developing the long-term strategy. "It wasn’t about just jumping into ‘Let’s move off of YouTube. Let’s do a TV show. Let’s do this or let’s do that,'" explains Weinstein. "It was still early on. We really didn’t know the extent of what the audience could be and so the idea was to spend some time nurturing and building the audience and then figure out the business model behind it."
The Collective offered Boedigheimer an infrastructure and a support base from which to expand. "We have capital that we give him to help him expand and to create more content, hiring more people to help him produce content," says Weinstein. "[We also give] creative input on the stuff he’s doing and help him manage his social media platforms, offering some of the tools and insights that we’ve gleaned from our other clients along the way." [The Collective also works with such online successes as iJustine, FreddieW and Megan & Liz.]
KEEP IT ORGANIC
"We’re not looking to just exploit [the show with] random products," says Weinstein. "We’re being very specific about what’s being produced and we have passed on a lot of ideas."
In other words, no Happy Meals. Yet. They’ve been testing the market with talking figurines at Toys 'R Us, a small test of items like plush toys at Wal-Mart, and T-shirts exclusive to J.C. Penny. But unlike many properties they were aggressive in launching merchandise ahead of the TV show’s debut. Says Weinstein, "I think the success of Angry Birds [merchandise]sort of switched the way the buyers think about the marketplace and that enabled us to go into retail and to be successful independent of the television show."
"We’re not looking to just exploit [the show with] random products," says Weinstein. "We’re being very specific about what’s being produced and we have passed on a lot of ideas."
In other words, no Happy Meals. Yet. They’ve been testing the market with talking figurines at Toys 'R Us, a small test of items like plush toys at Wal-Mart, and T-shirts exclusive to J.C. Penny. But unlike many properties they were aggressive in launching merchandise ahead of the TV show’s debut. Says Weinstein, "I think the success of Angry Birds [merchandise]sort of switched the way the buyers think about the marketplace and that enabled us to go into retail and to be successful independent of the television show."
…AND SUSTAINABLE
As Weinstein explains it, Boedigheimer has been able to respond quickly to audience reaction and adjust the show accordingly. "He introduced Marshmallow in one episode and all of a sudden everybody was like, 'Oh my god, I love Marshmallow! Bring back Marshmallow!" And Marshmallow slowly became integrated into the regular cast, much in the way guest stars like Passion Fruit, Grapefruit and Midget Apple weaseled their way in as well.
About a year ago the team ran a contest asking viewers to submit their own photo of an orange in an interesting situation to compete for a prize. 50,000 photos later, they had catapulted The Annoying Orange's Facebook numbers, all in the name of fan engagement. They’re still showing new photos from that online.
The TV show will go after the same audience, while bringing in an older demo. "Obviously the core audience for Annoying Orange is boys," says Binkow. "And that’s Cartoon Network’s core audience, which is why they’re such a great partner for this show. But they also have an older audience, and we’re hoping that adult audiences and female audience members find this show. There are fantastic adult references in it."
CONTROL YOUR ORANGE
"From day one we had talked about building other opportunities for merchandising, licensing, television shows," says Binkow, who was clear that it should be done in a way that gives Boedigheimer more control, not less, and ownership of his content, rather than follow the traditional TV model, which often leaves creators lost in the process.
"'Who’s going to play the Annoying Orange, and Can we make him less annoying? How about we make him the Endearing Orange?'" That’s Binkow’s impersonation of the traditional TV development process. To avoid that altogether, the Collective financed the pilot and is now financing the series. "Cartoon Network is a pretty unique partner and a traditional media company that actually has a ton of respect and appreciation for us nurturing our audience with them."
Many networks would have insisted that the TV show take over the Web series, essentially replacing it. But that was not an option. The Annoying Orange Web series is staying as low-budget and crude as ever, even as the relatively fancy TV show takes root.
"We don’t want to do is turn our back on that audience," says Binkow. "For the TV show we’re incorporating a lot of the same strategies: we want fans to be engaged in the TV show, have input over character, have input over participation with the theme song, being able to have guest voices on the show."
A lot of that process has already happened with the fans online. YouTube has vetted the successes out," says Binkow. "In that year-and-a-half development process that we’ve been working on the TV show, Dane has been building out ideas that we want to introduce and seeing what works and what doesn’t work and he can kind of pivot really quickly there. That’s where we sort of wound up with these scripts that we have, and I think you’ll see in the TV show a lot of these characters have a lot more appeal." (A peel? See what happened there?)
SCALE YOUR ADVENTURES TO YOUR PLATFORM
The Cartoon Network series will have characters and story lines that differ from the Web series. And bigger adventures. "The world’s totally different," says Weinstein. "The characters are going out of the kitchen and into a bigger environment. They’re based in a grocery store and have this human character that works the night shift. When the lights go out at night the characters come alive." And then they can time travel on their magical fruit cart. "One episode might find them in prehistoric times dealing with dinosaurs and then next one will take them on a space adventure where they land on the planet of Marshmallia, where Marshmallow is from." Voice talent will include James Caan, Weezer and John Leguizamo.
Boedigheimer is thrilled with where the partnership with the Collective has taken him. "I laid the groundwork with the things that I did and they’ve helped me build on that in the biggest way possible, by turning Orangeinto a truly multimedia brand. With them, we’ve created shirts, toys, costumes, posters, an iPhone game, and a TV show, for starters. It truly has been an additive relationship. They saw something big in Orange, and were willing to take a chance on it to make it even bigger."
The source, who was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said the offer, worth up to $3 billion, had not been abandoned altogether but would not be going ahead for "some time". Weak markets have hit planned IPOs hard, with luxury jeweller Graff Diamonds pulling its offer on Thursday.
Formula One, whose major shareholder is private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, was in pre-marketing mode and had been planning to launch a preliminary prospectus with the Monetary Authority of Singapore next week.
However, senior officials refuted the news reports and described them as baseless. Interior Minister Rehman Malik ordered a judicial inquiry into the reported killing of the four women as punishment for dancing with men at a wedding in Kohistan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
There was confusion about the number of women reportedly killed.
Geo News channel reported that four women were killed while The Express Tribune reported on its website that five women were killed.
The fifth woman was the sister of one the condemned women, the report said.
A jirga in Kohistan had condemned four women and two men to death after the emergence of a mobile phone video that purportedly showed them dancing together.
Reports said the jirga had decided they should be killed for dishonouring their families. Though a cleric was arrested in connection with the incident, he claimed he had not issued any fatwa to kill the six persons. The two men condemned by the jirga have reportedly fled the region.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain described the news reports about the killing of the women as "totally wrong and baseless".
He said he had talked to the Kohistan district administration chief and the local DIG Hazara, who had described the reports as baseless.
Sachin Tendulkar took an oath as Rajya Sabha member, today. He is the first sportsman to join Rajya Sabha membership. There was a PIL filed in Delhi high court that Sachin's nomination was unconstitutional, but still he manages to be a member of Rajya Sabha and Parliament. Congratulations to him !
A day after President Pratibha Patil approved the nomination of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar to the Rajya Sabha, the Congress party is taking the credit for the move. Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam on Friday even said that the batting maestro was welcome to join the party if he wanted to do so.
Now, Sachin has took an oath to be a first sportsmen in Rajya Sabha. After a criticism that sports person are not allowed to be a member of Rajya Sabha according to constitution, finally, parliament allowed Sachin to be a member of Rajya Sabha.
As we know that, Government is struggling with policies and without support of other parties, It cann't implements reforms. S &P has already downgraded India to negative from stable and might see further credit rating downgrade to junk status.
Government is struggling to win the support in Lok Sabha. Also, UP elections has wipe off any hope about the Rahul Gandhi as a next congress leader that might bring back votes to congress and replace Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. The influence of Mamta Benergee has already pressured about the policies that we have seen in Rail Budget Scene.
As the Lok Sabha election nears, Congress is loosing public confidence as many corruptions and scandals have dented congress party image good image. Meanwhile Lokpal Drama is also going on with no clear resolution in Parliament and Anna movement is getting stronger and might work against Congress in next lok sabha elections.
Congress Party politics might started working for next elections, as it has offered Sachin a Rajya Sabha seat as well as Congress party Seat. Will Sachin accept Congress proposal and be a joker in a pack for next Elections?
