Thursday, October 30, 2008

Samsung Shows Off Giant 40-inch OLED HDTV [Televisions]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/DR2tShstxX8/samsung-shows-off-giant-40+inch-oled-hdtv

Way back in 2005, Samsung technically showed off a 40-inch OLED screen. We didn't want to be rude and say anything at the time, but it wasn't sporting HD resolution and the contrast ratio was a measly 5,000:1. Now Samsung is showing off their new 40-inch OLED (that's a mere 8.9mm thick), and needless to say, its specs are more than a little worth our attention.

The prototype runs at a full 1080p resolution and features an overkill contrast of 1,000,000:1. (Most scientists will tell you that the eye cannot distinguish such contrast, but marketers will disagree.)

Its color gamut is 107% of the NTSC standard and it features a luminance of 200cd/m2 (peaking at 600cd/m2).

Unfortunately, Samsung is quick to explain that their main assembly lines are not equipped to produce OLED screens beyond 31 inches (earlier roadmaps slated 40 inchers for 2010). Nevertheless, our home theater system is suddenly feeling extremely inadequate. [NYT and Tech-On]


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Posted by Augustine at 1:59 PM

Cara Lamp is Crystal-Like LED and Silver Circuit-Board Beauty [Lighting]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/q0t0ROSLAXc/cara-lamp-is-crystal+like-led-and-silver-circuit+board-beauty

Those little interlaced blades of ice you sometimes get on the edge of ultra-cold things in wet air: that's the image that popped into my head on seeing the Cara lamp. It's by designer Andreas Ostwald and that fragile crystal-like shape is composed of interlocked flat white circuit boards with silver tracks, sprinkled with 70 white LEDs. How lighting should be to my mind: simple, elegant and stunning. Though presumably it's designer status gives it a price premium that'll place it beyond my lustful reach. [Contemporist via LuxuryLaunches]


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Posted by Augustine at 1:59 PM

HP Wants To Sell You a Carrier-Subsidized Netbook For Cheap With 3G Data [NetBooks]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/00kZDSgHRng/hp-wants-to-sell-you-a-carrier+subsidized-netbook-for-cheap-with-3g-data

We've seen netbooks bundled with a cellular data service contract popping up in other parts of the world, but a report today by the WSJ finds HP considering the same tactic here in the US, where it hasn't been done effectively yet. This would let you buy a Mini 1000 or any other HP netbook at a steep (hopefully), smartphone-esque discount on carriers that may include AT&T and Verizon.

HP is mum on exactly which carriers they're talking to, but those two were mentioned as possible candidates. HP hopes to quadruple their netbook sales to 40 million by 2012 with this plan, so hopefully the subsidy will knock enough off the price to make it worthwhile. Netbooks are mass-market now, but the overlap with people who already pay for a 3G data plan on their phone and want to just tether it will be one issue to surmount. [WSJ]


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Posted by Augustine at 1:51 PM

Dreamoc 3D Display Turns Any Phone Into Hologram Machine [Clips]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cIRbYsxQL9I/dreamoc-3d-display-turns-any-phone-into-hologram-machine

We don't know the last time that a demo kiosk has actually caused us to look twice, but if a place like Best Buy or Fry's were filled with Dreamoc 3D displays, we'd probably be more interested in the sales pitch than the product. Because not only can the system display 3D video—it can display 3D video that mixes with real world objects. In other words, the Dreamoc can make it look like your phone has holograms shooting out of the screen:

Sure, the Dreamoc is a tease, but we're pretty sure that's entirely the point. [via Engadget]


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Posted by Augustine at 1:48 PM

BlackBerrys Get Free AT&T Wi-Fi Too [At&t]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/pZDf-XWTIq4/blackberrys-get-free-att-wi+fi-too

AT&T apparently realized it was elitist to only let the iPhone get free Wi-Fi at its hotspots, so they're opening it up to BlackBerry handsets too. The Bold is getting it first, though all of their other Wi-Fi-havin' BlackBerrys will pick it up later this year. So, um, what about Windows Mobile guys? Smells like elitism to me.

AT&T BLACKBERRY CUSTOMERS TO RECEIVE FREE ACCESS

TO NATION'S LARGEST WI-FI NETWORK

DALLAS, Oct. 30, 2008 —There are now 17,000 more reasons for smart shoppers to buy a smartphone from AT&T. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced it will begin offering free AT&T Wi-FiSM service to current and new customers of select smartphones, including the new BlackBerry® BoldTM, available Nov. 4. AT&T has the nation's largest Wi-Fi network, with more than 17,000 hot spots including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and thousands of other locations.

AT&T is offering the free Wi-Fi service to customers with unlimited data plans. In addition to the BlackBerry Bold, the BlackBerry® PearlTM 8120 and the BlackBerry® 8820 will follow later this year, and AT&T plans to make the offer available to more mobile devices in the future. Additional details, including instructions on how to access the hot spots, are available at www.attwifi.com.

"AT&T is committed to providing its customers with the best connectivity at the best value," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer of AT&T's mobility business unit. "We have the industry's leading lineup of smartphones, along with the nation's largest Wi-Fi network. It only makes sense for us to bring these unique capabilities together for our customers."

Free Wi-Fi access is also available with all AT&T small business broadband plans, AT&T
High Speed Internet plans ! and with qualified AT&T LaptopConnect plans. For customers without an AT&T broadband or smartphone plan, Wi-Fi subscriptions are available for $19.99 a month, providing worldwide access to both AT&T and partner locations.

AT&T iPHONE CUSTOMERS TO RECEIVE FREE ACCESS

TO NATION'S LARGEST WI-FI NETWORK

DALLAS, Oct. 30, 2008 —There are now 17,000 more reasons for smart shoppers to buy a smartphone from AT&T. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced it will begin offering free AT&T Wi-FiSM service to current and new iPhone 3G and iPhone customers. AT&T has the nation's largest Wi-Fi network, with more than 17,000 hot spots including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and thousands of other locations.

AT&T plans to make the offer available to more mobile devices in the future. Additional details, including instructions on how to access the hot spots, are available at www.attwifi.com.

"AT&T is committed to providing its customers with the best connectivity at the best value," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer of AT&T's mobility business unit. "We have the industry's leading lineup of smartphones, along with the nation's largest Wi-Fi network. It only makes sense for us to bring these unique capabilities together for our customers."

Free Wi-Fi access is also available with all AT&T small business broadband plans, AT&T
High Speed Internet plans and with qualified AT&T LaptopConnect plans. For customers without an AT&T broadband or smartphone plan, Wi-Fi subscriptions are available for $19.99 a month, providing worldwide access to both AT&T and partner locations.

[AT&T]


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Posted by Augustine at 1:46 PM

WePC: Intel, Asus Want to Make Your Dream PC [Laptops]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/a2N6PM6sa_o/wepc-intel-asus-want-to-make-your-dream-pc

Intel and Asus have partnered up to create WePC, a website that reaches out to consumers for innovative new PC designs. Visitors to the website are encouraged to share ideas, collaborate and vote on submitted concepts for three main PC categories: netbooks, general notebooks, and gaming notebooks. The goal is to create the first community-designed PCs—although Best Buy already has a similar program called "Blue Label" up and running. Whether WePC is first or not, I really think that involving consumers in the manufacturing process is the way to go. Plus, Intel and Asus are offering prizes for participants based on their creative role in the project. [WePC via CNET]


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Posted by Augustine at 8:13 AM

New Tech Brings Augmented Reality, 3D Models to Books [Books]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/O9Ba9XUS6zs/new-tech-brings-augmented-reality-3d-models-to-books

A German company called Metaio is developing a new system that turns regular old books into reality-augmented 3D objects, with models of things like globes sprouting off of the pages. All you need to get it working is a webcam, the software and a book designed for the system and you'll be checking out things like UFOs flying above your book.

I'm not quite sure how many practical applications there are for this technology, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. [Gadget Lab]


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Posted by Augustine at 8:12 AM

Netflix Teams Up With TiVo The Way We Want [NetFlix]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/xbVrFty5w8c/netflix-teams-up-with-tivo-the-way-we-want

Netflix has revealed the receiver of its next golden ticket of content distribution partnerships, and it's TiVo! The DVR company is the latest team member of Netflix's ever expanding movie download empire, and subscribers to TiVo's Series3, HD, and HD XL sets can now stream cinema directly to their TVs. That's much better than the Netflix-Tivo venture they put forth over a year ago.

TIVO AND NETFLIX ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP

TO INSTANTLY STREAM MOVIES AND TV EPISODES

FROM NETFLIX DIRECTLY TO THE TV THROUGH TIVO DVRs

Deal Provides Netflix with New Content Distribution Channel, Solidifies TiVo's Leading Position as One-Box Solution for Simple Navigation and Delivery

Of the Best Entertainment Content to the TV

ALVISO, Calif. and LOS GATOS, Calif., October 30, 2008 — TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs) and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, today announced that they are teaming up to provide Netflix and TiVo® Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL subscribers with the ability to have thousands of movies and TV episodes instantly streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs.

The two companies said they are initiating a test of the new capability today in several thousand U.S. households and expect it to be broadly available in early December, in time for the holidays. The ability to instantly watch content from Netflix on the TV via TiVo DVRs will be offered at no additional charge to customers who subscribe to both services.

The agreement provides Netflix with an important new te! chnology partner to instantly stream a growing library of more than 12,000 choices of movies and TV episodes directly from Netflix to the TV. It also solidifies TiVo's leading position for simple navigation and delivery of the best entertainment content to the TV.

"For Netflix and TiVo subscribers, this collaboration offers a fabulously easy way to enhance the enjoyment of watching movies in the comfort of their living rooms," said Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix. "Subscribers to Netflix and TiVo are avid movie watchers and this combination gives them immediate access to all of the great content available through TiVo and the thousands of additional choices available to be streamed instantly from Netflix."

"Joining forces with Netflix creates the ultimate video on demand service and solidifies TiVo's leading position as the one-box solution for aggregating, searching, and delivering the best content available anywhere right to the TV," said Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo Inc. "Adding Netflix to our already vast library of content differentiates TiVo even further from any other offering in the market today."

Integrating the Netflix streaming functionality into the TiVo experience will result in quick and easy access to a growing list of movies and TV episodes that can be watched instantly at Netflix. Movies streamed from Netflix via specified TiVo DVRs is done through a wired or wireless broadband connection and a Netflix Queue-based user interface. Members visit the Netflix Web site to add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant Queues. Those choices will automatically be displayed on subscribers' TVs and available to watch instantly through the TiVo service. With the TiVo remote control, users will be able to browse their instant Queue, make selections right on the TV screen, and also have the ability to read synopses and rate movies. In addition, they will have the option of pausing, fast-forwarding, rewinding and re-starting whenever th! ey wish.

For more information on how to have movies instantly streamed from Netflix via your TiVo DVR visit www.tivo.com/netflix.


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Posted by Augustine at 8:11 AM

Translucent OLEDs Go Large, Turn Your Windows into Crappy TVs [Oled]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ExpOWlmDGdI/translucent-oleds-go-large-turn-your-windows-into-crappy-tvs

We've been teased with OLED technology for a while, and with good reason — one of the promises of ultrathin OLED tech is the wide proliferation of HUDs, which aren't served well by most displays' opaque panels. By stretching their translucent OLED panels to about 12 inches, tiling them together and dropping them into a frame, Samsung has reached a symbolically important touchstone: an OLED window.

The display is desaturated, claims a wimpy 840x504 resolution and requires distracting frames that break up the image. Seeing this, though, gives the impression that even if it is years and years away, the day when we can control the natural light in our houses, watch video or displays a HUD on the living room window will come. Eventually. [Tech-On via OLED Display]


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Posted by Augustine at 8:11 AM

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

MAKING SENSE OF CPCs AND HOLIDAY TRENDS

Source: http://googleretail.blogspot.com/2008/10/making-sense-of-cpcs-and-holiday-trends.html


10/28/2008 09:36:00 AM

Labels: , , 

A few weeks ago, Hal Varian, Google's Chief Economist, had a post on "Clicks, Christmas and Conversions". In the post, Hal talks about the importance of understanding the inter-play between CPCs (Cost-per-click), conversion rates (CR) and CPAs (Cost-per-acquisition). Hal stresses that retailers need to focus on the CPA when evaluating the success of their online campaigns and not get hung up on rising CPCs during the holiday season, because they are only one factor in the equation of success. (Of course we could get into a much meatier conversation around ROI and how to accurately measure ROI of online campaigns which it is much more complicated than simply dividing the cost of online advertising/online sales. The true ROI model should include a metric for offline sales generated by online advertising among other metrics...but this is a discussion for a later date)

Therefore, the answer to why we shouldn't get hung up on rising CPCs during the holiday season is: although CPCs rise, conversions rise at a more rapid clip which in turn serves to depress CPAs. The upfront rise in CPCs during the October-November research period is offset by spiking conversions and the resultant plunge in CPAs in the December purchasing period. CPAs are the bottom line!


Taking another look at the graph above, which Hal provided, it is also interesting to note that the CPA does exactly what it should on Black Friday (and the following weekend) and dips down from where it was on Thanksgiving Day. According to Hitwise, Thanksgiving day sees record visits to retail websites (Hitwise Retail Index December 2007 reported that Thanksgiving was when the highest market share of US visits to the Hitwise Retail Index occurred; online traffic to retail websites increased 20% from 2006).

Traffic is high on Thanksgiving day (now often referred to as Brown Thursday) but it is not the peak day for conversions or purchases because consumers are in the research phase on Thanksgiving day, planning out their online purchases and in-store shopping trips for the next day, Black Friday. Black Friday is when retailers traditionally start offering large price discounts. Additionally, Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving), known for its high online retail sales, sees a slight dip in CPA and then December 1 rings in the purchasing season. We also see the clear and expected conversion rate increase on Green Monday (Dec. 10, 2007/ second Monday in December) which has been noted as being the strongest online retail sales day. If the trend holds, the highest online retail sales day of 2008 will fall on December 8th.

Finally, in thinking about the 2008 winter holiday season, here's what we know:

  1. Both research and shopping will start early this year: 31% of consumers plan to start holiday shopping and research before Halloween and a majority (57%) will start before Thanksgiving.1 Therefore, the shopping has already begun...is your marketing strategy ensuring that your brand is top of mind throughout the entire research-purchase process and making it into the consideration set early on?
  2. Consumers will spend more time looking for deals: 43% of consumers say they plan to spend more time this year shopping around for gifts because of the current state of the economy.1 Consumers are taking the time to research the right purchase...Brands will need to focus on having a strong presence and clearly expressing their value proposition to guarantee inclusion in the consideration set.
  3. There are 5 fewer shopping days this year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, than last year: This is when the peak of conversions happen; therefore, retailers need to be wary of the tightened timeline and put strategies in place to lessen the crunch, by urging consumers to start purchasing before Thanksgiving!
1.OTX/ Google 2008 Holiday Shopping Intentions Survey, 9/16-9/24 2008, n=10,039

Posted by Emma Weisberg, Google Retail Team

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Posted by Augustine at 11:56 PM

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