On Thursday, the Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling that will determine the fate of Aereo, a startup that lets you watch live network TV over the internet through your smartphone, tablet, or PC.
The case could have lasting implications for the way we watch TV in the future, especially when it comes to content delivered over the internet.
Here's a look at what's at stake.
What Is Aereo And How Does It Work?
Aereo is a service that lets you watch live network TV over the internet for $8 per month. The company assigns each subscriber an antenna that can access network TV over the air. The signal is then transmitted over the internet to your PC, tablet, smartphone, and some internet set-top boxes boxes like Roku. Aereo also doubles as a virtual DVR, meaning you can record shows on the company's servers and stream them later to your device.
Aereo is only available in a handful of U.S. cities, but the company will likely ramp up expansion if it wins the Supreme Court case.
Aereo has received $100 million in funding so far. Its CEO is Chet Kanojia. Before Aereo, Kanojia was founder and CEO of Navic Networks, which was a TV advertising company Microsoft bought in 2008. InterActiveCorp (IAC), the big collection of digital companies, owns a 10% stake in Aereo.
What Does Barry Diller Have To Do With All Of This? (And, Who Is Barry Diller?)
Barry Diller has had a long, successful career in the media industry. He worked at ABC, Paramount, Fox, and USA Networks before he founded IAC. IAC has made Diller a billionaire, and he's become the face of Aereo in its fight because he's a well-known media figure.
Wait, How Does Aereo Get All That Content For Free?
It might seem strange in the cable/satellite TV era, but a lot of programming is, and has always been, available for free over the air if you have an antenna. Think back to the days when everyone had "rabbit ear" antennas. You can still do that today and get networks like NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox for free.
Aereo's workaround was to invent a tiny HD antenna that can access over-the-air networks, just like those rabbit ear antennas once did. The antenna itself is pretty impressive. It's about the size of your thumbnail, so Aereo can -- For more information read the original article here.
-- For more information read the original article here.
-- For more information read the original article here.
-- For more information read the original article here.
Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• G-Speed Studio 24TB RAID Storage Solution Takes on Mac Pro Design
• New Retail Chief Ahrendts to Oversee Apple Store Restructuring, New Store Construction
• MacBook Airs as Low as $649 With Best Buy EDU Deals
• Foxconn Looking to Secure Orders for iPhone and iPad Displays with Sharp Partnership
• Newest MacBook Airs on Sale for Father's Day
• Apple Plans to Encrypt iCloud Email in Transit Between Providers
• Buyer's Guide: Discounts on Retina MacBook Pro, iPad mini, Beats Headphones, and More
• Microsoft Considering Expanding Cortana Virtual Assistant to iOS and Android
Apple has settled an $840 million ebook price-fixing claim brought by consumers and US states outside of court. The lawsuit stemmed from a previous ruling by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote who found Apple guilty of colluding with publishers to keep ebook prices high.
...
-- For more information read the original article here.
New changes to Wikipedia's terms of use mean that anyone who is paid to edit articles will have to disclose that arrangement. Which is a good thing.
...
-- For more information read the original article here.
Here's what will be on people's minds during the next seven days in tech:
Amazon is expected to introduce a new product on Wednesday, and most people think it will be a long-awaited Amazon smartphone. The phone is expected to have the ability to display 3D images. And it has a set of front-facing cameras that can track your movements (so you can use the phone without touching it). But the phone's expected technical specs are not as important as the place people expect the phone to occupy in the online e-commerce environment. Amazon realizes that people are using their phones for shopping more and more. With no phone, Amazon's app is at the mercy of Google (Android) and Apple (iPhone). Amazon can incentivize people to use its phone by offering them deals via Amazon, and the phone will keep them within the Amazon ecosystem.
In theory, an Amazon phone platform could rearrange the Apple/Android landscape, assuming it gains enough users. There hasn't been a decent level of three-way competition in the phone market for years, and that's because ...
BlackBerry: As if to underline just how volatile the smartphone market can be, struggling BlackBerry will report earnings this week too. It will be bad: BlackBerry, which one dominated mobile phones in the early 2000s, is expected to report revenues of just under $1 billion — in the same period last year it had revenues of just over $3 billion. The Globe and Mail reports that the company is basically abandoning phones as its main platform and trying to build and "internet of things" platform. Blackberry's global smartphone market share is ~1%.
Also happening this week:
Adobe reports earnings on June 17.
Amazon will unveil a new product on June 18.
BlackBerry reports earnings June 18.
Oracle reports earnings June 18.
Red Hat reports earnings on June 18.
Join the conversation about this story »
Declining organic reach on Facebook has become a growing issue for brands that use the social network. Many brands have seen their organic reach — non-paid content that appears in News Feeds and in search results — fall off sharply in recent months.
Brian Boland, Facebook's vice president of ad product marketing, addressed the issue in a recent blog post.
Boland highlighted two key reasons why organic reach is declining:
- First, the continued growth of content created and shared on Facebook is increasing competition for space in the News Feed. Facebook populates a user's News Feed from a selection of an average of 1,500 stories that could potentially show up each time a user goes to the Feed. The number of potential News Feed stories can top 15,000 for highly active Facebook users.
- Second, Facebook has made changes to how it selects News Feed stories over the last year. The social network believes these changes will increase exposure for high-quality content while cutting down on News Feed spam.
Boland denies that Facebook has made these changes in order to drive brands towards the social network's paid advertising products. "If people are more active and engaged with stories that appear in News Feed, they are also more likely to be active and engaged with content from businesses," Boland wrote.
There is evidence to support Boland's claim.
BI Intelligence, Business Insider's tech research service, has charted Adobe data on post impressions versus engagement. Engagement, which counts the total number of comments, shares, and likes on brand posts, increased through the fourth quarter of 2013, to reach 180% growth year-over-year. Post impressions, or the number of times a post was viewed, also increased by a considerable 150% year-over-year, but still saw a steady decline in growth since September.
Join the conversation about this story »
Because battery technology still relatively sucks, electric vehicles like buses that have to run all day long usually stay tethered to a spiderweb of overhead cables. But as an alternative to that costly infrastructure, researchers at the EPFL have developed an electric bus that can recharge itself at every stop in as little as 15 seconds.
...
-- For more information read the original article here.