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<title>Haaze.com / ahmadmmaam / Published News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Film theaters fight premium video-on-demand]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=film-theaters-fight-premium-video-on-demand</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=film-theaters-fight-premium-video-on-demand</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ahmadmmaam</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=film-theaters-fight-premium-video-on-demand</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Theater owners don't want digital distributors breaking into their windows.The big film studios may begin to pipe movies to consumers' homes via premium video-on-demand services (PVOD) at the same time the films are up on the big screen, thereby crashing the theatrical window. A &quot;window&quot; is the term used to describe the period of time a film distributor--such as a theater, cable company, or traditional TV broadcaster--has access to a particular movie. The large theater chains are signaling right back that they won't sit still for it, according to a story in today's Los Angeles Times. The theaters are lobbying the studios, prominent filmmakers, and Wall Street to scrap the plan. Their message is that forcing the theaters to compete with home delivery is only going to damage one of the studios' most lucrative sources of revenue--one of the few they still have that isn't ailing. Theater owners say Hollywood is casting about for ways to defeat piracy, and make up for plummeting DVD sales and rentals. According to Patrick Corcoran, a spokesman for the National Association of Theater Owners, the studios' PVOD plans aren't going to help solve the problems. &quot;We understand that the studios have a problem in the home market,&quot; Corcoran said. &quot;It's down, like, 13 percent when you look at DVD sales and rentals. We understand they need to fix that, and we're all for them experimenting. What we're not for is their importing those problems into the theatrical window.&quot; Price and piracyEarly reports about the studios' PVOD plans say the price to consumers would be at least $30 per movie, and subscribers would get access about a month after it hit theaters. On average, movie theaters have exclusive access to films for three months, Corcoran said. PVOD would be made available in high definition and would be distributed by cable pay-TV services. Corcoran says history has proven that the prices the studios charge for home viewing will always tumble. He said they did for VHS and DVD, as well as for cable video-on-demand movies, which began at about $15 but are now in the $5 range. He also noted that the studios predicted that PVOD would be a safer way to distribute movies and help prevent piracy. He doubts that is the case any longer. Last spring, the Federal Communications Commission authorized Hollywood studios to block analog video signals from coming out of cable and satellite set-top boxes during the broadcasts of newly released movies. The studios designed this to prevent copying and to secure the release of new movies into homes. &quot;Technological locks can always be defeated by technological crow bars,&quot; Corcoran said. &quot;[The anticopying protection software on HD movies] has already been cracked.&quot;Below: Movie theaters saw a record-breaking $10.6 billion in revenue in 2009, and if they get any help from films opening this Christmas, such as &quot;True Grit,&quot; they expect to take in about the same this year.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[iPad gaining quickly on Kindle]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-gaining-quickly-on-kindle</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-gaining-quickly-on-kindle</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ahmadmmaam</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-gaining-quickly-on-kindle</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Apple'siPad is gaining on Amazon's Kindle as a general-purpose e-reader, according to ChangeWave Research, more evidence of the irrepressible popularity of the Apple tablet.The iPad's share among e-reader owners is up 16 points to 32 percent since August, roughly a mirror image of the Kindle, which has dropped 15 points to 47 percent, according to a ChangeWave Research survey of consumers highlighted in a research note released today. &quot;The e-Reader market has essentially become a two-horse race between the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad,&quot; ChangeWave said. The rest of the market is comprised primarily of the Sony Reader at 5 percent and the Barnes &amp; Noble Nook at 4 percent.&amp;39'Very satisfied&amp;39' rating for iPad is high compared with the Kindle.(Credit:ChangeWave Research)iPad and Kindle e-reader popularity is trending in opposite directions.(Credit:ChangeWave Research)And ChangeWave said there are some distinct differences between how the iPad and Kindle are used as e-readers--not too surprising considering they are radically different designs (6-inch monochrome screen on the Kindle versus 9.7-inch color on the iPad) and price points (the Kindle is about one-third the price of the iPad). A sizable 93 percent of Kindle owners are more likely to read books on their device, compared with 76 percent of iPad owners. And iPad owners are nearly five times more likely to read newspapers and magazines than their Kindle counterparts, and 15 times more likely to read blogs and news feeds, according to ChangeWave.For the holidays, e-Reader demand remains strong, with 5 percent of respondents saying they are &quot;very likely&quot; to buy an e-Reader and 10 percent &quot;somewhat likely&quot; over the next 90 days, the market research firm said. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[This week in Crave: The such-a-deal edition]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=this-week-in-crave-the-such-a-deal-edition</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=this-week-in-crave-the-such-a-deal-edition</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Nov 2010 08:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ahmadmmaam</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=this-week-in-crave-the-such-a-deal-edition</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Too busy plotting your Black Friday strategy to keep up with Crave this week Here's what you missed, deal seekers.  &amp;149' Acer showed off a new phone, dual-screen laptop, and tablets. Acer&amp;39's Iconia looks like it's aiming to get the best of two worlds. Click the image for CNET's hands-on review.(Credit:Acer) &amp;149' Speaking of tablets, should you wait to buy one  &amp;149' See how Katzmaier is faring a week after cutting the cable TV cord.  &amp;149' Angry Birds is flying over to consoles. &amp;149' Anybody playing games on the Kindle  &amp;149' Donkey Kong Country Returns has, well, returned.  &amp;149' We wish iOS 4.2 could do these things on theiPad.  &amp;149' 'Tron'-inspired watch needs to get real.  &amp;149' Get a Ph.D. in LED-based monitors. &amp;149' Sorry, but these TSA-blocking briefs will probably land you right in the pat-down line.  Got a great story tip for us Put down those shopping bags and how-to manuals and write to us at crave at cnet dot com. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[CONFIDENTIAL! Looks Like &''Google +1&8243' Was Just Accidentally Revealed&nbsp'(Pic)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=confidential-looks-like-8220google-18243-was-just-accidentally-revealednbsppic</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=confidential-looks-like-8220google-18243-was-just-accidentally-revealednbsppic</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ahmadmmaam</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=confidential-looks-like-8220google-18243-was-just-accidentally-revealednbsppic</guid>
<description><![CDATA[While we haven&amp;'t 100 percent confirmed it yet (update: we&amp;'ve confirmed with a source), what you see above is what we do very much believe to be a picture of Google&amp;'s latest social foray. Yes, it&amp;'s the artist formerly known as &amp;''Google Me&amp;'', then known as &amp;''Emerald Sea&amp;'', and now known as &amp;''Google +1&amp;''.As you can see, it&amp;'s a toolbar that exists along the top of Google&amp;'sa4sproperties a4&quot; in this case, Google News. There&amp;'s a Share button, a place for a Google account icon, and a Google username. Next to it is a numerical count a4&quot; it&amp;'s not clear what this is for just yet. (Maybe a share count) And next to that is an options menu.Also note the big red &amp;''CONFIDENTIAL!&amp;'' label.a4sYes, the person who shared this clearly wasn&amp;'t supposed to.One other important thing to note: the &amp;''Loop&amp;'' area in the left side toolbar links. This is exactly in-line with what we&amp;'ve reported so far about Google +1 a4&quot; namely that a key part of it is based around &amp;''loops&amp;'', which seems to be Google&amp;'s word for &amp;''groups&amp;''. Loop is also what we&amp;'ve heard an iPhone app in testing is being called.Finally, remember that we reported on a new Google toolbar area being tested out a few weeks ago. It appears that this is very much to make room for Google +1, which should launch early next year.Below, find some clearer pictures of the area.We&amp;'ve reached out to Google for comment on this image, but have yet to hear back. We&amp;'ll update if and when we do.Update from Google (that was quick!):&amp;''Wea4a4re always experimenting with new ways to improve our products, and we have already confirmed that we are focused on incorporating social elements across Google. But we have nothing new to announce at this time.&amp;''CrunchBase InformationGoogleInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Making Fun debuts as the video-game arm of Rupert Murdoch&'s empire]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=making-fun-debuts-as-the-video-game-arm-of-rupert-murdochrsquos-empire</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=making-fun-debuts-as-the-video-game-arm-of-rupert-murdochrsquos-empire</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ahmadmmaam</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=making-fun-debuts-as-the-video-game-arm-of-rupert-murdochrsquos-empire</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Media baron Rupert Murdoch is going into video games &amp;8212' but not in his usually splashy way. Although he could easily drop a billion dollars on the burgeoning games business, he&amp;'s instead placing an uncharacteristically cautious small bet.News Corp., Murdoch&amp;'s media conglomerate, quietly got in the game business by purchasing Making Fun, a San Francisco social-game startup that is run by video game veterans John Welch, cofounder of PlayFirst, and Lee Crawford, cofounder of Twofish. Welch said in an interview that the division of News Corp. Digital Media Group will make social games for social networking sites, smartphones, tablets and other devices.Welch and Crawford started Making Fun in March 2009, about the time both left their former companies. They had both worked together before at Shockwave.com and Sega. They self-financed the company and started doing work for hire for various brands: For example, the company made a game for amusement-park operator Six Flags on Facebook.&amp;''We were very excited to be free at the same time,&amp;'' Welch said. &amp;''We   wanted to create content that could fit the new model of digital   distribution.&amp;''At PlayFirst, Welch built a reputation for pioneering the casual game market &amp;8212' quick, easily playable, often Web-based titles such as Diner Dash, which sold more than 500 million copies in its various forms over the years. PlayFirst was founded in 2003 and it was one of the first modern game companies to attract venture-capital funding.Welch said it was already evident that Zynga was becoming a leader in social games on Facebook and Ngmoco (now owned by Japan&amp;'s DeNA) was a leader in iPhone games. So they decided to sell their company to News Corp. in November and battle the competition as the game-publishing arm of the media giant. Making Fun has just 14 employees, but is now recruiting game developers, particularly at next week&amp;'s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.&amp;''News Corp. is patient,&amp;'' said Welch. &amp;''It wants to get into games, but not by spending a massive amount of money very quickly. It is willing to grow organically and start slow. On the other hand, News Corp.  doesn&amp;'t make investments so that it can create slow-growing businesses.&amp;''Welch said the company already has three projects under way. Making Fun will work closely with small teams of developers. When it finds a really good development studio and builds a solid relationship with it, the company will consider an acquisition.While News Corp. owns the struggling MySpace social network, Welch said Making Fun will target its games at Facebook, mainly because with 600 million-plus users, Facebook is the powerhouse of the social networking business. If any deals with MySpace or News Corp.&amp;'s IGN game-media business make sense, Making Fun will pursue them, Welch said. Making Fun will set its own direction and is mostly investing in original games now, not licensed properties. Welch said he is excited about the future of games ahead, as he believes that Zynga has only won the first round of social gaming, but the market still has huge growth and opportunities ahead.&amp;''Our goal is not to out-Zynga Zynga,&amp;'' he said. &amp;''We&amp;'ve done games like  Diner Dash that have gotten hundreds of millions of people. We are  looking at the next games that could get those kinds of audiences.One of the interesting twists is that Sean Ryan was the News Corp. executive who negotiated the purchase of Making Fun. But Ryan recently left to become the head of game-developer relations at Facebook. Ryan will now work with Welch to signal what is coming ahead for the platform related to games. That&amp;'s important, Welch said, because Facebook games take six months to build now, not six weeks, so developers need to know the changes coming to the platform.Welch said the company&amp;'s first games will launch in the summer.Previous Story: Mobile game maker TinyCo scores $18M from Andreessen HorowitzPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Diner Dash, social gamesCompanies: Facebook, IGN, Making Fun, MySpace, News CorpPeople: John Welch, Lee Crawford          Tags: Diner Dash, social gamesCompanies: Facebook, IGN, Making Fun, MySpace, News CorpPeople: John Welch, Lee CrawfordDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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