WebProNews

Tag: Entertainment

  • mSpot: That Netflix/Epix Deal? We Get Those Movies 6 Months Earlier

    You may have read that Netflix announced a new deal with Epix worth $1 billion. mSpot has taken the opportunity to point out that they get movies much sooner than Netflix’s streaming service does, most likely including many of the same titles.

    The deal gives Netflix Epix movies, which include titles from Lionsgate, Paramount, and MGM. mSpot says it has deals in place with Lionsgate, Disney, Warner, Paramount and others. mSpot says what Netflix is paying a billion dollars for, they are getting six months earlier.

    A representative for the company provided this little timeline:

    1. Theatrical release: aka, "in theaters now"

    2. DVD release: this usually starts 3-4 months after theaters

    3. VOD: 3 months after DVD release – AVAILABLE ON MSPOT

    4. Pay TV: 6 months after DVD (HBO, Starz, Epix, etc.)

    5. Free TV: 9 months after DVD (TNT, NBC, etc.) – AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX

    "A growing trend with studios including Warner and Paramount is to release ‘day and date’ movies as VOD, meaning that mSpot is getting many of the movies at the same time as the DVD release," the rep says. "The incentive for the movie studios to do this is that they get higher revenue shares from ‘day and date’ than VOD."

    mSpot Movies - Stream to iPad, iPhone

    What mSpot doesn’t have, however, is an actual DVD-by-mail service, which Netflix is obviously known for first and foremost. Netflix users have basically received acess to its streaming catalogue as an added bonus, rather than having to pay for these movies like with some of their competitors.

    Last month, mSpot, also known for its free (up to 2GB) music storage/streaming service, launched mSpotMovies for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, which lets users stream movies from these devices. Mobile users are still waiting for such apps from Netflix (though they will almost certainly be here at some point). mSpot users can rent movies for $2.99 – $3.99.

  • Zynga Reportedly Pulls Farmville From MSN

    Zynga Reportedly Pulls Farmville From MSN

    Zynga has apparently removed its massively popular game Farmville from Microsoft’s MSN Games, and nobody seems to know why. The timing of this is interesting as Google has reportedly been in investment talks with Zynga, while it has been acquiring other social game-related properties.

    While Zynga has offered no comment on Farmville’s absence from MSN, Chris Morrison at InsideSocialGames.com (via VentureBeat) writes:

    The departure from MSN looks much more notable, in the grand scheme. MSN itself claims to have about half a billion monthly users worldwide between Games and Messenger — equal to what Facebook claims for itself.

    Farmville - No results on MSN One of the big stories in social gaming right now is that developers are interested in moving beyond Facebook, keeping a line back to the social network’s graph with Connect. With partnerships like FarmVille on MSN, Zynga has been a leader in that move.

    The move seems pretty odd to say the least, and I suspect the picture will become clearer before long.

    Zynga has been expanding its reach and making moves that should help it expand more in the future. Besides a reported investment from Google, the company recently acquired Japanese gaming company Unoh, and launched Farmville in app form for the iphone.

  • Blockbuster Adds Xbox, Playstation, Wii Games to Subscription Rental Service

    Blockbuster Adds Xbox, Playstation, Wii Games to Subscription Rental Service

    Blockbuster has announced that it’s adding games to its mail rental service. Customers now have access to over 3,000 titles for Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 and Wii through the company’s mail subscriptions service.

    Blockbuster says the move makes them the only entertainment company to offer rentals of games, movies, and TV shows for home delivery through a single subscription service.

    "The addition of games for our BLOCKBUSTER By Mail customers – from families looking for entertainment experiences they can enjoy together, to serious gamers – is yet another convenient way to access entertainment content from Blockbuster," said Kevin Lewis, Senior Vice-President, Digital Entertainment. "This enhanced offering supports Blockbuster’s multichannel strategy and shows our commitment to being the leading provider of home entertainment content."

    Customers have received emails like this:

    BlockBuster adds Games to subscription service

    The move is smart and probably overdue. The competition in this space is heating up on both the movie side and the games side, and Blockbuster has yet to make a significant impact on the movie side with regards to the direction things seem to be going in (streaming). Netflix continues to bolster its streaming offerings and other online-only content sources offer streaming and downloadable movies. Redbox also recently expressed interest in moving towards streaming.

    On the games side of things, besides the increasing interest in online, social games, Gamefly is generally thought of as the leader in the console game rental-by-mail space. A couple weeks ago, Gamerang launched its new game rental site with social and API features, hoping to carve out a bigger name for itself in the space.

    Blockbuster’s movie/game combination service does give consumers something they can’t easily get anywhere else – games and movies from a single subscription. That will at least entice some gamers.

    Meanwhile, Netflix continues focusing on increasing its streaming catalog A new deal with Epix was just announced today. This will give Netflix customers more streaming titles from Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM.

  • Netflix Enters Deal with Epix to Stream More New Releases

    Netflix has entered a new deal with Epix, through which it will let Netflix users instantly watch new releases and library titles from Epix. The movies will begin streaming on September 1, and include content from Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM.

    Epic has subscription pay TV rights to new releases and movies from its partners’ libraries, and Netflix will have access to them 90 days after their premium pay TV and subscription on demand debuts. According to Epix, distribution rights to these films are usually pre-sold to pay TV for as long as 9 years after their theatrical release.

    Epix"Adding EPIX to our growing library of streaming content, as the exclusive Internet-only distributor of this great content, marks the continued emergence of Netflix as a leader in entertainment delivered over the Web," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. "The EPIX deal is an example of the innovative ways in which we’re partnering with major content providers to broaden the scope and freshness of choices available to our members to watch instantly over the Internet.”

    Mark Greenberg, president of EPIX, added,  "Netflix is an incredibly popular service and we welcome them as our newest distribution partner. We are pleased to be able to continue our mission of bringing consumers the movies where they want to watch them, while satisfying the differing needs of cable, telco and satellite operators. This deal also underscores the tremendous value of our offerings in the marketplace."

    The more deals like this Netflix is able to make, the better it will do against the increasing amount of competition it faces. Netflix already has a similar deal in place with Starz. 

  • Are You Ready for Some (iPad) Football?

    Are You Ready for Some (iPad) Football?

    NFL Football officially gets underway tonight, as the Hall of Fame game between the Cincinnati Bengals (featuring Twitter legends Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco) and the Dallas Cowboys (Owens’) former team kicks off. While only the beginning of the preseason, football fans are excited for the return of their favorite sport.

    Another reason fans might be excited is that Madden 11 is coming to the iPad on Tuesday. The wildly popular franchise will get some new and interesting features that only an iPad-like device could accommodate.

    TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid got a sneak peek at the game, showing off these features, which include touch screen-based, hot route creation:

    Last year, Madden was available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. If for nothing else, the larger size of the iPad has got to be a step up.

  • Yahoo Expects Millions of OEM TVs/CE Devices to Ship with Yahoo in 2010 and 2011

    As the world waits for Google TV to be unleashed this holiday season, Yahoo is doing its best to remind consumers that it already has a foot firmly in the space. The company did so when Google made its announcement, and now on the heels of a survey released by iSuppli last week, they’re at it again. A representative for the company tells WebProNews:

    As you may know, Yahoo! has created a platform called Yahoo! Connected TV that delivers content via TV Widgets to Internet-enabled TVs from Samsung, Sony, LG, VIZIO and Hisense. To date, Yahoo! Connected TV has shipped on approximately 3 million TVs in more than 100 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Yahoo! expects millions of additional OEM TVs and other CE devices to ship with Yahoo! in 2010 and 2011.

    Yahoo! Connected TV works on all major consumer electronic device chip architectures worldwide, including MIPS Technologies, ARM and Intel.  This means it will become available globally in additional TVs and consumer electronic devices such as Blu-Ray players, media players and set-top boxes. ViewSonic announced a media player running Yahoo! Connected TV.

    Currently, there are 50 Yahoo! TV Widgets available for the service and over 150 in the pipeline. Yahoo!’s Widget Development Kit (WDK) is publicly available for developers at http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/developer.  There are approximately 9,400 registered developers. 

    According to that survey, which we mentioned in another article, global shipments of internet-enabled TVs will amount to 27.7 million units in 2010. That’s quite a bit more than the expected shipments of 3D TVs, which iSuppli pegs at 4.2 million this year.

    While I have no doubt Yahoo will find itself into a significant amount of living rooms, Google’s strategy may be a hard one to top, as it integrates Android and includes a deal with Dish Network, which could be a key to its success in that it will provide (as the company noted frequently throughout the announcement) a "seamless" experience between television content and web content, particularly when it comes to searching for content, an area where Google has clearly won in the past.

    In addition, while Yahoo’s widgets provide some interesting use cases, they may also have a hard time competing with the ever-growing Android market full of apps.

  • Pandora Puts Privacy Settings Front and Center

    Pandora Puts Privacy Settings Front and Center

    Pandora has updated its site to make it easier for users to find and adjust their privacy settings. Given that Pandora was a launch partner for Facebook’s Open Graph initiative, which set off a huge wave of privacy concerns, this is probably a good idea, if not a bit late.

    "We thought it was important to make this adjustment to better reflect the realities of the internet today," says Pandora Founder Tim Westergren. "If you’re a returning listener you’ve probably already seen a reminder about your Pandora profile page, something we’ve offered since we launched."

    "This reminder provides you with the immediate opportunity to see your profile, make it public, private, or learn more," he adds.

    Pandora - Adjust you privacy settings

    New users will see similar messages, and they’re also sending out emails to users who listen to Pandora exclusively on mobile devices. They’ll have to sign in on a computer to adjust their privacy settings.

    All profile pages on Pandora now have a prominent privacy settings link. If you’re ashamed of what you listen to, go set your profile to private.

    Pandora recently announced that it had surpassed 60 million users.

  • Funny or Die Launches Redesign, New Ad Opportunities

    Popular comedy site Funny or Die has launched a new redesign, adding adds new content and features. The site now provides new themed photo galleries, top 10 lists, and special guest blogs. It also gives advertisers a larger presence on the homepage and more in-video opportunities across the site.

    "Our new design reflects how far we’ve come at Funny Or Die," says CEO Dick Glover. "We’ve grown beyond the top comedy website to become a best-of-breed digital studio producing content for all major distribution channels.  And, along the way we’ve become sustainably profitable."

    The site even has its own HBO show now called "Funny or Die Presents," which premiered in February (and is currently in production for its second season. Comedy Central has also tapped Funny or Die for content, and the company will present its first movie next year.

    Funny or Die Gets Makeover

    The company says this year it has expanded its service offerings to partners and advertising clients. This includes a branded entertainment division creating campaigns that combine brand advertising and viral video.  Examples include campaigns for the Axe Comedy Tour, Cottonelle, Mini Cooper, Pepsi Brisk, Sony’s "The Other Guys," Travel Channel, Edge, Paramount’s "Dinner for Schmucks," and others.

    Funny or Die also points out that it frequently drives trending topics on Twitter, and attracts a great amount of attention on Digg.  Currently Funny Or Die has about 1.5 million Twitter followers and 1.2 million 212,962 Facebook fans.

  • Redbox Now Offering $1.50 Blu-ray Rentals

    Redbox Now Offering $1.50 Blu-ray Rentals

    Coinstar’s Redbox announced today that it is has started rolling out Blu-ray rentals. The company says titles will be available at 13,300 kiosks nationwide.

    "Offering Blu-ray rentals is an exciting opportunity for redbox to expand our product offerings and build on the relationships that we’ve established with millions of consumers nationwide," said Mitch Lowe, president, redbox.  "Redbox is a convenient, affordable home entertainment provider and we’re delighted to offer consumers their favorite movies on the increasingly popular Blu-ray Disc format." 

    Redbox blu-ray rentals

    "According to a recent report by the Digital Entertainment Group, sales of Blu-ray players increased 103 percent in the first half of this year," the company noted in its announcement. "The sale of almost two million set-top players during this time has increased the total number of Blu-ray players sold to an estimated 19.4 million, resulting in more consumers entering the Blu-ray rental market."

    Redbox Blu-ray rentals will cost $1.50. Regular DVDs are only $1.00.

    Redbox recently made public intentions to use a web service to expand its library, which would make it a much bigger competitor to Netflix. That appeared to be mostly forward-looking, however. It’s hard to say when that will happen, and what its offerings will be exactly.

  • Which Sites Drive the Most Referral Traffic?

    John Pozadzides of the Web analytics company Woopra wrote a guest post for ReadWriteWeb looking at the web’s top sources of referral traffic. He breaks it down in to the following categories: social network, social bookmark, search, and media.

    Six versions of Google top the list for search before Bing makes an appearance. Facebook takes the cake in social networks, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn. In the social bookmark category, StumbleUpon leads, and in media, it’s YouTube.

    Mashable’s Jolie O’Dell reports that a court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia has demanded a Russian ISP block access to YouTube because it hosted what it says is an extremist video. The Internet Archive and three online libraries were also reportedly blocked. As O’Dell points out, a number of other countries have also blocked access to YouTube at different times.

    The New York Times reports that the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would effectively legalize online poker and other nonsports betting, overturning a 2006 federal ban.

    Pocket-lint reports that Amazon claims ebook sales will overtake paperbacks next year. It’s a pretty astonishing notion, but not too hard to believe considering that Amazon recently announced that ebook sales have overtaken hardback sales.

    Mobile Crunch has pointed out that RIM has purchased the domain BlackPad.com, speculating that a long-rumored BlackBerry tablet could be called the BlackPad.

    News surfaced yesterday that a directory containing personal details of over 100 million Facebook users has surfaced on a file-sharing site. BBC News spoke to the man responsible who says he harvested the info for a security tool.

    Back in early May, it was discovered that Google had invested in something called Recorded Future. Now Wired reports that the CIA is involved as well, in the company that monitors the web predicts the future.

    Facebook launched the long-awaited Questions feature yesterday (in beta). Search Engine Land has a detailed walkthrough of the feature.

    According to Ben Patterson at Yahoo News, citing information from Courant.com, U.S. libraries are loaning more DVDs on a daily basis than Netflix and Redbox are renting them. This make sense given that many libraries offer free DVD loans, and cheap prices on new releases.

  • Gamerang Launches New Game Rental Site with Social and API Features

    Gamerang is launching a new site (currently in beta) with "the ever-important social media aspect of games" . If you’re unfamiliar with Gamerang, it’s been renting video games since 2003, with four distribution centers across the United States. Gamerang boasts over 9,000 titles for every major platform. It works essentially like a Netflix for video games, or a Gamefly if you will.

    "While many sectors of the video games industry continue to grow, one niche area has shrunken to only a few companies – video games rental services," a representative for the company tells WebProNews.

    Gamerang CEO and founder Greg Gentling shared some viewpoints with us on topics such as why it’s important to have both rental and sales in this space, the impact of social media on rental activity, etc.

    "Rental is try before you buy," says Gentling. "Our model is rentals AND sales. Some publishers are charging $10 for their exclusive content, for example Tiger Woods 11 which has a code giving you access to downloadable content if you buy it outright. Gamers use their copy and sell it and the next person that buys it doesn’t get that content. When it comes to used game pricing, we will factor that into the price."

    "Netflix is making a lot on the streaming side," he says. "Sony/Microsoft have built platforms. It’s really video games vs movies and there’s some crossover, but they’re targeting different audiences with different usage patterns leading to a very different business proposition."

    Gamerang Now has new social elements, API

    Gamerang’s new offering places a great deal of emphasis on social media and APIs. The company highlights the following features:

    Gamerang 2.0 Beta: Social, community and news features have been added to give members all the information they need in one destination. It’s about getting the maximum content and value out of a service people can enjoy.

    Gamerang Rewards : Members earn points towards Gamerang subscriptions or purchases by posting news, reviews or videos to our social community. The more gamers do what they already love doing, the more points they earn.

    Gamerang QuickReturn: Members with accounts in good standing for two months or longer can simply notify Gamerang that they are sending back outstanding rentals and their next available rentals will be shipped, cutting down the turnaround time of sending back and receiving games.

    Gamerang API: Now it is easy for individual sites to write a widget and grab Gamerang’s extensive social and news content to incorporate into their site.

    "We’re trying to give people more info about a game and attracting people to certain games, creating community, facilitating relationships with other people, expanding the conversation," says Gentling. "We’re pulling and aggregating information via our infrastructure. This involves catering to our consumer demand and increasing the upsell of games, which is why partners want to work with us."

    "It’s easy for individual sites to write a widget and grab Gamerang’s extensive social and news content for their site, [and] thus provide depth to their own opinions."

    Gamerang says it will soon offer more developments as it goes mobile and integrates deeper API features.

  • Netflix Adds Search to the Playstation 3 Version

    Netflix announced today that it has added search capabilities to its service on the Sony Playstation 3. This is part of a software upgrade from the company.

    Netflix for PS3"This architecture allows us to improve your Netflix experience by adding more and more features over time," says Greg Peters, VP of product development. "Sony is the first of the game consoles to adopt this new software from Netflix, so if you’re a PS3 user, you can now search for a movie or TV episode on your TV via your PS3. No need to go back to your computer to add it to your Queue."

    Speaking as a Netlix on Wii user, I can say this feature would be incredibly useful. Although, if Netflix gets the mobile apps out soon, it won’t be so much of an issue, as grabbing the phone to do the searches would be almost as easy as the console search function, if not more so. Those will come eventually, no doubt.

    In the meantime, Netflix says it will have "more cool features" in store with its continuous improvement architecture.

    Netflix is also seeing increased competition from all sides with the launches of things like Hulu’s paid service and Redbox talking about its online strategy.

  • Logitech Launches Contest to Find Help Promoting Google TV Device

    Logitech Launches Contest to Find Help Promoting Google TV Device

    Logitech has started a contest to promote Google TV, the upcoming service for which Logitech is a launch partner. The contest is called "Host with the Most", and asks if "you have what it takes to be a ‘host with the most’ for Logitech Revue with Google TV?"

    Logitech Revue is the company’s set-top box that will help the Google TV service launch (alongside TVs and Blu-ray players from Sony).

    Logitech Revue with Google TV

    The contest is looking for a "social media rock star" to help promote the device. Google’s YouTube is pretty excited about it (as the device will no doubt bring a great deal more YouTube video watching to living rooms). You can read the official rules here, but YouTube Product Marketing Manager Peter Sherman sums it up nicely:

    If you can prove that you are a true social influencer with a passion for the new universe of TV and video that Google TV will offer, Logitech may select you to become a Logitech host and pay you to spend time in one of their lofts in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. Your mission will be to host a bunch of parties, show off the technology, and spread the word through your social circles.

    Naturally, YouTube is encouraging its users to nominate themselves.

    NewTeeVee looks at a new report from iSuppli, which finds that Internet TV is more popular than 3-D TV. That could mean good things for Google and all of its Google TV launch partners.

  • Ad Age Not Thrilled With How It Was Represented on Mad Men

    The 4th season opener of the AMC show Mad Men aired last night, and in it, the main character Don Draper had an interview with a reporter from Ad Age. While the show is clearly fictional and takes place in the 60s, it seems that Ad Age has taken some issue with how it was represented as a publication.

    Rance Crain has posted a spiel about what the show failed to get right (in Ad Age’s eyes), and how it really was back then:

    What’s wrong with this picture? No. 1, we never did interviews over lunch; No. 2, we didn’t take notes in shorthand; No. 3 we didn’t ask cute-ass questions; and No. 4, our pictures were never bigger than our stories.

    So what was it really like being a reporter for Ad Age in 1964?

    I was a member of the Ad Age editorial staff in Washington, New York and Chicago in the ’60s and, heaven help us, we would knock down walls to be the first to report a big account change, major product introduction or agency startup…

    It continues for about ten more paragraphs. The article is met with numerous comments from readers, including some sarcastic ones. For example, one person says, "This is saying a story-telling medium (television) about a story-telling medium (advertising) might not be ‘authentically’ accurate. I am shocked. SHOCKED!"

    While most viewers probably don’t look to Mad Men for historical facts, it’s understandable that Ad Age would want to make sure it is defending its reputation, particularly given the industry that the publication resides in. The critically acclaimed show does get a great deal of media attention.

    Interestingly, Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter says the show is "hardly a hit on Madison Avenue".

    "Despite all the attention and the show’s affluent viewership, ‘Mad Men’ has averaged far fewer viewers than other summer cable dramas like USA’s ‘Burn Notice,’ and ad rates also are lower," he writes. "An average 30-second spot on first-run episodes of ‘Mad Men’ fetches about $20,000-$25,000, according to a recent trade media report — not much, but it is a multiple of AMC’s primetime movies."

    Google is currently touting Mad Men as a great way to target viewers through Google TV Ads. Last night’s episode ran only limited commercial interruption from BMW.

  • You Have Until the End of the Day to Do Something Interesting for YouTube

    Today is "Life In a Day" day. "Life in a Day" is a documentary project being put together by Ridley Scott, Kevin Macdonald, and the YouTube Community.

    "What are you doing today? Something routine like cooking breakfast or taking the dog for a walk? Or is it something extraordinary like your child’s first soccer game or your wedding day?" asks YouTube, describing the project. "Whatever it is, big or small, we hope you’ll capture it on video and take part in ‘Life in a Day,’ a user-generated documentary that will tell the story of a single day on Earth, as seen through your eyes."

    YouTube users have until 11:59 pm local time to film something for submission. The most "compelling" submissions will be selected for inclusion in the final film.

    There is an FAQ page here that gives most of the details you’d probably want to know. It will be interesting to see just how compelling this day turned out to be, once the project is finished.

  • Mad Men Returns with Ads By Google

    Popular TV show Mad Men returns to AMC tomorrow night, and Google is taking the opportunity to get advertisers interested in targeting viewers through Google TV Ads.

    "With season four debuting on Sunday, July 25th, Mad Men fans are buzzing with excitement," says Neha Mandal, Product Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads. "For advertisers, this is a great opportunity to reach an upscale and educated audience. Target Mad Men across DISH Network’s 14M homes and align your message with this high caliber show by creating a Google TV Ads campaign today."

    AMC also has a new series called Rubicon, which starts August 1st (a preview was shown after Breaking Bad’s season finale). "The show promises to ‘tap into our collective paranoia’ by chronicling an intelligence analyst who cracks codes for a living," says Mandal. "This show is a great chance to target adults 21+ who are interested in sci-fi and thrillers."

    Of course Google TV ads aren’t limited to AMC shows, but the channel is developing a reputation for high quality original programming, and Google clearly sees the upcoming premeires as a good chance to push them.

    Google also mentions Real Housewives of DC and the Rachel Zoe Proejct on Bravo, as well as the US Open as potential ad targeting opportunities.

  • YouTube Selects YouTube Play Jurors (Including Darren Aronofsky)

    YouTube has just unveiled the jury for YouTube Play, which was announced last month. The project features over 6,000 videos from 69 countries. The YouTube Play Channel had had over 2 million views.

    The jury includes musician Laurie Anderson, the group Animal Collective, visual artists Douglas Gordon, Ryan McGinley, Marilyn Minter and Takashi Murakami, artists and filmmakers Shirin Neshat, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Darren Aronofsky, and graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister. Guggenheim Chief Curator and Deputy Director Nancy Spector is serving as jury chairperson.

    "Already, this campaign has drawn some remarkable talent, and we’re looking forward to seeing more of your submissions in our quest to find the most creative video art in the world and showcase it alongside van Gogh and Picasso," writes Senior Marketing Manager Ed Sanders on the YouTube blog.

    The deadline for submission is July 31. Over the next few months, the jurors will watch the videos and select the "most creative and inspiring" ones to showcase at the Guggenheim museums in October.

     

  • Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Talks Legal Battle, Won’t See “The Social Network”

    This week Facebook surpassed 500 million users, but that’s not the only reason the world’s largest social network is making headlines.

    This post from O’Reilly Radar breaks down where Facebook’s half a billion users reside by region. Asia appears to be the fastest-rising region for Facebook users, currently sitting at 17% of the social network’s user base.

    Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed by "The Facebook Effect" author David Kirkpatrick and Guy Raz from NPR. All Facebook’s Nick O’Neill put together a list of seven takeaways from what Zuckerberg had to say. Among these were that the company is working on improving Friend lists, the daily percentage of active users has increased, and Facebook has 400 engineers.

    Kirkpatrick contributed his own piece to Fortune, talking about the current legal battle Facebook is in with Paul Ceglia, who claims to own 84% of Facebook (a little more on that here if you’re not familiar). He says Zuckerberg told him there is no truth to Ceglia’s claims. "It was all about his website. I hadn’t even thought of Facebook yet. How could I have given him an ownership interest in it?" he quotes Zuckerberg as saying.

    Zuckerberg also talked to Diane Sawyer, and dismissed the upcoming Facebook movie "The Social Network" as fiction, though he also says he has no plans to see it. ABC posted the following clip:

    Fred Wilson, an investor in both Twitter and Foursquare spoke at the Geo-Loco conference in San Francisco, where he is reported to have said, "Facebook is a photo-sharing site, really. Maybe with some chat attached to it" and "I don’t think the open graph is important. Everybody’s got a social graph. Every large-scale web app has a social graph. I don’t think Facebook’s social graph is anything to be scared of." He did, however comment on a VentureBeat story about it that he was just trying to be fun and controversial on stage, but that "I do believe, at least in some way, in everything I said."

    Do you believe the open graph is important? Share your thoughts.

  • Pandora Reaches 60 Million User Milestone

    Pandora Reaches 60 Million User Milestone

    Facebook isn’t the only one announcing impressive milestones today. Pandora announced at the New Music Seminar that it has 60 million registered users. That’s not exactly Facebook’s 500 million, but pretty impressive nonetheless.

    It wasn’t that long ago that Pandora’s obituary was all but written, but things are looking bright for the company now.

    Pandora’s collection consists of hundreds of thousands of songs from 90,000 separate artists, and 80% of them are played every month, according to the company. As MG Siegler says, "Think about that compared to traditional radio, where you often turn it on and hear the same things over and over and over again."

    No doubt.

    "Pandora plays the music of tens of thousands of artists every day. It’s a very promising sign for the industry that music fans are so quickly embracing this new form of radio," said Pandora CEO and President Joe Kennedy.

    Facebook Pandora"The New Music Seminar convenes the architects of the next music business and Pandora is certainly one of them," said Tom Silverman, director of the New Music Seminar. "This milestone is a major building block in the foundation of the next music business. We congratulate Pandora on its achievement."

    Not only are Pandora’s mobile apps popular, but the company was one of Facebook’s launch partners for the Open Graph, which likely provided a nice boost. With the Open Graph, users can see music their Facebook friends like on the service, which can make it even more fun.

    As smartphone usage continues to rise, Pandora will probably continue to grow right along with it. As a mobile app, it’s an easy, accessible way to take personalized music with you, and that is something that many find very appealing. As Siegler points out, Pandora is also looking to find its way directly into more vehicles and various other devices as well.

  • Microsoft Announces Kinect Pricing for November 4 Release

    Microsoft announced today that the Kinect for Xbox 360 will include Kinect Sensor and the video game "Kinect Adventures," and that it will retail for $149.99 when it launches November 4 in North America. The Kinect Sensor will work with all Xbox 360 consoles (of which 40 million have been sold, according to the company).

    The company also announced an all-in-one Xbox 360 Kinect Console Bundle for $299. This will include the new Xbox 360 4GB console, Kinect Sensor, and "Kinect Adventures." Additional games will be sold at $49 each.

    Microsoft's Kinect Bundle

    "Kinect truly is a revolutionary product," says Josh Hutto, director of product marketing for Xbox. "We’re bringing controller-free entertainment into the living room. With one purchase, families get Kinect and the most complete and affordable way to have fun."

    Kinect, announced last month at E3, features video and audio sensors that eliminate the need for a traditional controller, while the user uses body motions and voice commands to play games, watch movies, and interact with other Xbox LIVE subscribers.

    Microsoft began taking pre-orders for the Kinect (and the bundle) today.

  • mSpot Launches Streaming Movie App for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

    mSpot has announced the launch of a free app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, which lets users watch full-length streaming movies instantly.

    "The Mobile Movies iPad app makes them the first company to make streaming full-length movies available across Apple devices (beating Netflix to the punch)," a representative for mSpot tells WebProNews.

    Users can start watching movies at mSpotMovies.com on their PCs/Macs and resume watching them on their other devices, should they choose to do so.

    mSpot Movies - Stream to iPad, iPhone

    "We now truly live in an ‘entertainment anywhere’ world where consumers often own many devices to watch movies on-the-go, or at home," says mSpot CEO Daren Tsui. "mSpot Movies allows people to enjoy movies instantly and seamlessly across many consumer electronic devices without the need for cable sync or sideloading."

    The app is free, and users can rent movies for $2.99-$3.99.

    mSpot Movies is available on major U.S. carriers and across over 50 different handset devices, including the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Palm, mSpot says. The company also launched a cloud music service last month.