WalMart Acquires Online Video Company Vudu
The world’s biggest corporation, WalMart, has recently notified news agencies that it has completed the purchase of Vudu. Walmart had $404.16 billion sales for 2009 and made a net profit of $13.59 billion but it seems the retailing giants want more money. It currently sells the most amounts of television sets and DVD players through its thousands of retail stores worldwide. Experts are not surprised Walmart made this move. Walmart already tried to venture into the online video retailing business back in February 6, 2007 with 3,000 movies for rent and sale at mediadownloads.walmart.com. Unfortunately, this service faltered and was shuttered in December of 2007. Walmart is hoping to cash in on Vudu’s technology and expertise in video streaming technology. The Vudu Box is currently fancied as the world’s best set-top box for on-demand video distribution.
Vudu Online Video Company Now Owned by Walmart
Picnik Online Photo Editor Review: Simply Splendid!
Google must have been very much impressed by Picnik’s online photo editing software so Google purchased Picnik a few weeks ago. Picnik is the undisputed champion of all online photo editing websites with more than 1.3 million visitors every day. Picnik’s free but comprehensive image editing tools and options have made it the world’s best browser-based image editor. Millions of digital camera owners who didn’t want to spend more dollars in buying a photo editing software have flocked to Picnik. The site’s photo editing software runs on Adobe Flash so nothing needs to be downloaded.
Picnik Online Photo Editor
Google Buys Picnik Online Photo Editor
The Google army just got bigger again. The search engine behemoth recently purchased the world’s favorite online photo editing website Picnik. This is not surprising since Google has been aggressively promoting web-based applications. They are the current messiah for cloud computing and their objective has always been to replace most of today’s desktop applications with browser-based programs. The major push towards online computing for business and home users complements Google’s advertising business where it derives 97% of its revenues.
Picnik Online Photo Editor Screenshot
Palm Inc Is Losing Money Fast, Could Go Bankrupt
The company that started the PDA revolution 14 years ago is now on the brink of going bankrupt or being taken over. Palm has just released their Quarterly financial report to the Securities and Exchange Commission and it sent shock to investors. The company has been losing money since 2008 but the 3rd quarter results for the year 2010 are even worst. Palm reported a $110.8 million loss from total revenues of $343.93 million. Wall Street was greatly disappointed by Palm’s deteriorating performance. It already lost $753.47 million dollars for the fiscal year 2009 ending last May 31 of last year. Experts are already predicting it may not have enough money to operate independently until the end of 2010. But the Palm management is still optimistic about its future that may now seem bleak and hopeless.
Palm Inc Income Statement (Quarterly Data)
AMD Llano Hybrid CPU/GPU Processor vs Intel Atom Processor’s Hold on Laptops and Netbooks
AMD and ATI’s merger will produce AMD Llano Hybrid CPU/GPU Processor. Yup, AMD has announced its new AMD Llano Processor and they said it will be the world’s first with an integrated GPU and CPU in one unit. AMD has even coined a new category for Llano and calls it the “application processing unit.” That’s another new-fangled geek noun for Webster and Wikipedia to add.
AMD Llano CPU and GPU Processor vs Intel Atom and Core Processors
Oracle’s Takeover of Sun Microsystems May Impact Java, MySQL and other Open Source Apps
Oracle announced that they have finalized their $7 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems. The European Commission gave in to Oracle’s argument that it will continue to support Sun’s Java and MySql and the new merged entity will not constitute a threat of monopoly. Oracle was granted by the EU the final legal permission to take over Sun Microsystems and Sun becomes Larry Ellison’s new toy gun to shoot its fiercest rival, IBM. The mainframe company has been vehemently opposed to Oracle’s takeover of Sun but Big Blue failed to convince the European Commission that Oracle and Sun will disrupt open competition in the lucrative corporate data management business.
Oracle Buys Sun Microsystems for $7B
Youtube Videos and Movie Rental Business Venture
Youtube videos are extremely popular but guess what? Youtube will no longer serve videos (only). It has also entered the movie rental business. Google’s money-losing but the very popular Youtube service has started to offer movies since January 20, 2010. The free video sharing site is offering 5 films from Sundance Film Festival to people using their Google Checkout accounts. Viewers can now rent 2009 and 2010 Sundance Festival’ favorites movies such as Bass Ackwards, Children of Invention, Homewrecker, One Too Many Mornings, and The Cove. Customers can rent these movies for whatever price and time period the film-owner decides. Youtube itself isn’t setting the price and video rental validity period. For example, The Cove and One Too Many Mornings are both charging $4.00. But One Too Many Mornings is offered for 72 hours viewing while The Cove is only available for 24 hours. Youtube videos for rent are also ready for immediate playback once you paid the rental fee. This is comparable with Netflix (see release date for Nintendo Wii in the linked article) and Amazon’s movie rental business.
Youtube: Videos and Movies Now Available
Google Buzz: Gmail’s Social Networking App Ala Facebook
Since Facebook recently announced that they are developing their own email system, Google retaliated with the release of its own social networking application, Google Buzz. This open-source social networking was released a few days ago and is tightly integrated with Gmail. I already have it on my Google Gmail account and I am excited to have tested this new app this week. My conclusion: the Google Buzz App is an exciting new feature in Gmail. Game Apps could be on their way to your Google Mail accounts after this development (suspicion).
Google Buzz Now in Gmail Account Login Page
HP Opens Paid Music Service (HP MUSICSTATION) for Europe
The world’s largest PC-maker, Hewlett-Packard, officially launched on January 27, 2010, its new subscription-based music service for Europeans. The hardware giant is offering its HP Musicstation service to key European countries on all of its 16 computer models. These countries are France, Italy, Germany, UK, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands.
HP Musicstation Launched in Europe
Fujitsu Will Sue Apple for Using iPad as the Name of Its Tablet PC
Aha, the magical Apple Tablet PC isn’t available for sale yet but it’s earning itself already lawsuit from Fujitsu. The Japanese company lawyers are drawing up the legal papers in preparation for filing a trademark suit versus the Cupertino California company. Fujitsu is claiming first use of the term iPad and it has enough evidence to claim prior use of the iPad brand name. Apple iPad, as a brand name, can be a goner if this legal case prospers. Way back in 2002, the Fujitsu iPad multifunction device was sold in the United States. Here is a picture of the Fujitsu iPad.
Sample Photo of the Fujitsu iPad