Downloadable full quality movies are a potential goldmine in the online entertainment marketplace, but the killer combination of a player that was affordable and would work well with current streaming and broadband technologies seems to have eluded the market … until now.
Early reports suggest that Netflix via the Roku $100 player may have the potential to be a market changer. Althougy only about 10% of the catalog is currently available, Netflix appears poised to offer *unlimited* downloads to the Roku player. This is getting very close to the ideal online movie environment where you can More»

Labels: CNET, roku, videos

CNET is being acquired by CBS for $1.8 billion in cash. The purchase price is a 44.6 percent premium over last night’s closing price of $7.95. CBS CEO Les Moonves said “CBS stands for premium content and unparalleled reach, and CNET Networks will add a tremendous platform to extend our complementary entertainment, news, sports, music and information content to a whole new global audience. Together, CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest- growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, More»

Labels: cbs, CNET

CNET will cut 120 jobs soon according to an internal memo obtained by PaidContent. In perhaps a testimony to many of the challenges facing CNET they did not even get the privilege of breaking their own big news today. CNET was effectively scooped on the very story it has been writing for some time.
CNET remains one of the internet’s top news websites, and has been one of technologies most recognizable and respected brands for many years, and continues to maintain the high respect of the technology community. Their technology writing and analysis is recognized as some of More»

Labels: CNET, employment, jobs, restructuring

Apple´s feeling the fury and heat for a somewhat tricky feature that led many users to inadvertently install the Safari browser during a recent Apple update. Although it possibly was an innocent mistake, it is more likely that Apple marketing pushed this approach knowing that making the install a defaulted feature would lead to an increase in installs, and assumed the benefits of this would outweigh the criticism.
CNET’s Tom Krazit inexplicable suggests that this is the users fault, saying in his post Look, people, it’s 2008: You’re responsible for what you install on your More»

Labels: Apple, CNET, software

Premier Tech news website CNET has a new editor in chief. Dan Farber takes over today, and as a tech journalist *and prominent tech blogger* the choice of Farber is smart for CNET and a sign that blogging sensibilities are playing an important role even in “legacy” media outlets. Of course it is more than a bit inappropriate to consider CNET - a groundbreaking online news network - a legacy media enterprise but in the rocket-paced online world CNET is … aging fast.
Most of us now turn to TechMeme or TechCrunch or other fast paced blog More»

Labels: Blogs, CNET, world news