Archive

The starting gun has just been fired. The new Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet have entered the tablet space, preparded to compete with the Apple iPad. That means this new industry segment will quickly change and evolve into a completely new and different model. The problem is, ...

I'm one of the thousands of Netflix customers who were outraged by the movie rental giant's decision to change its pricing structure. No one likes the idea of paying more for less, and no matter how you slice it, that's exactly what Netflix is asking its customers to do. Begrudgingly, I've decided t...

For U.S. music fans, Spotify's cruel, years-long tease is drawing to a close. The European music platform is finally coming to the United States. For the unhip, Spotify is a platform for streaming music. It was launched in 2008 and now claims 10 million users, 1.6 million of whom are paying members....

Electronic Arts could be on the verge of closing a deal to acquire casual game creator PopCap for a sum exceeding $1 billion. The high price tag on the deal represents a big wager for EA -- the cost is 13 percent of the company's market cap. The move is viewed by some as a "hail mary" attempt by E...

No doubt you've heard the term "Net neutrality." Proponents and opponents have much to say on this topic. However, many Internet users don't even know what it means, or how it will affect them. What is Net neutrality? "Net neutrality" is short for "network neutrality" or "Internet neutrality." The c...

Americans seem to love television as much as ever. But they're increasingly viewing it through non-traditional means, usually involving the Web. The number of mobile subscribers watching TV on their mobile phones, for example, increased 41 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2010, Nielse...

A long list of companies -- including big names such as Amazon, Dish Network, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and YouTube -- appear to be gearing up to enter the online video rental business. Of course, they all have visions of eventually overtaking the current market leader Netflix. It makes sense. Streaming vi...

Blockbuster -- once the king of video rentals -- has reached an ignoble end. The carcass of the once-sterling company has been snatched up for nothing, for its bones. Dish Network announced on Wednesday that it was the winning bidder in the bankruptcy court auction for the assets of Blockbuster. The...

There are several investors positioning themselves to snap up Blockbuster at its bankruptcy auction, scheduled for Monday. They are lining up in competition against Cobalt Video, a venture formed by some of Blockbuster's bondholders, which made an opening bid, or stalking horse offer, of $290 millio...

It appears Netflix is getting ready to begin schlepping content, which would position the video rental and streaming company as a content creator. The move is reminiscent of HBO's emergence as a premium content producer in the early days of cable. Netflix is reportedly in advanced talks about pumpin...

Every opportunity has a life span. Think about its course like a line or a wave that goes up then it comes down again. Fortunes are created, then lost, then created again. New technologies replace old technologies, and then they are replaced by newer technologies. If you know what's coming next, and...

Verizon has shown solid growth in recent years, but there could be signs of weakness in its quarterly numbers. I saw this a few months ago and decided to keep my eye on it. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe this is nothing. Maybe it is a temporary blip that won't keep repeating itself -- but something doesn't...

The airwaves -- or really, electromagnetic spectrum -- are everywhere, but they definitely are not free. At least, the legal rights to use spectrum aren't free. In the U.S., those rights are managed by the FCC, and the commission just granted wireless companies the rights to a significant chunk of u...

Blockbuster, the company that once reigned atop the video rental business, announced Thursday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This may be its last chance at surviving in an industry in which consumers increasingly are gravitating toward services that enable instant access to ...

Verizon Wireless unveiled the much-anticipated Motorola Droid X on Wednesday. The device, which Motorola variously describes as a touch tablet and a pocket-sized home theater, runs Android version 2.1. It will be updated over the air to run on Android 2.2 later in the year. When that happens, the Dr...