Technology – Page 141

GameTap’s Free

Gamers who visit GameTap.com can now stay to play—for free. The broadband entertainment network from Turner Broadcasting System has launched a free-to-play, ad-supported service that is accessible to more players—expanding beyond North America to reach a global audience. GameTap also announced the debut of its digital store, featuring a large library of titles from vintage to brand new.

“We’ve opened the door even wider—so that practically anyone with a broadband connection can give GameTap a spin,” said Stuart Snyder, Turner’s executive vice president and chief operating officer of Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media. “We want people to sample not just the massive library of GameTap titles, but the adrenalin rush that attracted over 20 million game plays last year.”

The free service provides access to a rotating sample of GameTap’s library of more than 900 video games, including Metal Slug, Joust, Robotron: 2084, Rampage, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend, Scrapland, King of Fighters, Bust-A-Move, and Space Invaders. Games can be played on a drop-in basis, with even broader access to PC, Dreamcast and Saturn titles for players who register. No credit card or financial commitment is required. Visitors also have free access to hundreds of GameTap TV streaming videos, including interview segments with My Chemical Romance, Akon, Evanescence, Fall Out Boy, and many others.

The full-strength, all-you-can-play version of GameTap remains available to subscribers in the United States and Canada with unlimited access to more than 900 games, including GameTap Originals like Sam & Max: Season 1 and Myst Online: Uru Live, as well as GameTap Indies titles and a host of other hits like Panzer Dragoon, Deus Ex, Galaga, Civilization III, and Street Fighter Alpha 3. Paid members can also view GameTap TV’s web-based content and select programs from Cartoon Network/Adult Swim. The service is completely ad-free during game sessions and is available for as low as $6.95 a month. A Mac version will be released later this summer.

Today also marks the grand opening of GameTap’s digital online retail store, selling the best video game titles for digital download. With more than 450 titles, the store offers both classic games and new releases – including Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which is available for purchase June 5th, the same day it hits retail shelves. Examples of other titles available for purchase now include Space Empires IV Deluxe, Civilization IV, Psychonauts, and Resident Evil 3.

Fox Buys Flektor and Photobucket

Fox Interactive Media (FIM) today announced separate agreements to acquire Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com) and Flektor, Inc (http://www.flektor.com). Photobucket is one of the Web’s most popular photo- and video-sharing services, and Flektor is a next-generation Web site that provides users with a suite of Web-based tools to transform their photos and videos into dynamic slideshows, postcards, live interactive presentations and video mash-ups. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

“The acquisition of these two companies is a perfect strategic fit for us that reinforces FIM’s leadership in user-generated content,” said Peter Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive Media. “As a leading site for creative expression Photobucket extends our reach among personal media sharing enthusiasts and the innovative new entrant Flektor brings highly-differentiated new tools to the table that will drive the next generation. Together, they represent a powerful combination and we are thrilled for them to join our network.”

Photobucket and Flektor join a number of other leading online destinations within FIM, currently the Web’s most-viewed network in the U.S. with more than 45 billion page views per month.* The group’s properties include MySpace, IGN Entertainment, FOXSports.com, AmericanIdol.com and others.

PHOTOBUCKET
Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com) has over 42 million users* linking billions of personal photos, images, slideshows, and videos to hundreds of thousands of Web sites. In addition, 47% of all Photobucket users link to social networks such as FIM’s MySpace (http://www.myspace.com), the world’s leading lifestyle portal.

Photobucket is expected to remain in operation as a standalone site while its technology and tools will be used to enhance sites across the FIM network, as well as the more than 300,000 other Web sites linked to by Photobucket’s users. Photobucket is based in Denver, CO, with additional offices in Palo Alto, CA.

“Becoming part of the Fox Interactive Media network will have a tremendous and positive impact on our ability to serve our users’ needs,” said Alex Welch, CEO Photobucket. “We plan to continue developing innovative tools that enhance self-expression and allow our users to have the best media sharing, linking and searching experience on the Web. Partnering with FIM will give us the resources and support to deliver on this vision, as well as the ability to offer new opportunities to our end users, customers and partners.”

FLEKTOR, Inc.
Flektor’s innovative technology enables users to edit video and audio content in real-time, and either publish the finished product to Flektor.com (http://www.flektor.com) or embed it on any number of Web sites, blogs or social network profile pages.

By offering both editing and storage capabilities, Flektor gives content creators the tools to easily create mash-ups or other types of user-generated media clips without incurring the cost or technical expertise necessary to store and manage large files. Flektor’s approach to streaming photo slideshows and videos allows users to incorporate live features, such as quizzes and polls, into their creations and update previously-posted content without having to re-post the files.

”We founded Flektor to give Internet users the tools they need to easily create, connect and share content,” said Jason Rubin, co-founder of Flektor. “Becoming a part of the Fox Interactive Media network will enable us to deliver these tools to the broadest possible online audience.”

iTunes Plus

Apple today launched iTunes Plus — DRM-free music tracks featuring high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings — for just $1.29 per song. iTunes Plus is launching with EMI’s digital catalog of outstanding recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone,
Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums available on iTunes for the first time.

iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today — 128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM — at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside the higher quality iTunes Plus versions when available. In addition, iTunes customers can now easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to iTunes Plus tracks for just 30 cents a song and $3.00 for most albums.

“Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound quality of iTunes Plus,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year.”

“This is a tremendous milestone for digital music,” said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group. “Consumers are going to love listening to higher quality iTunes Plus tracks from their favorite EMI artists with no usage restrictions.”

With the release of iTunes Plus, customers can now download tracks from their favorite EMI artists without limitations on the type of music player or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. iTunes is also offering customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to the iTunes Plus versions. EMI music videos are now also available in iTunes Plus versions with no change in price. iTunes Plus songs purchased from the iTunes Store will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, widescreen TVs with Apple TV and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players.

iTunes U

Apple today announced the launch of iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) featuring free content such as course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights and campus tours provided by top US colleges and universities including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Duke University and MIT.

“iTunes U makes it easy for anyone to access amazing educational material from many of the country’s most respected colleges and universities,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “Education is a lifelong pursuit and we’re pleased to give everyone the ability to download lectures, speeches and other academic content for free.”

“From its earliest days, Stanford has sought to serve the public by sharing the knowledge generated by our faculty and students,” said Stanford Provost John Etchemendy. “Our partnership with Apple and iTunes U provides a creative and innovative way to engage millions of people with our teaching, learning and research and share the experience of intellectual exploration and discovery that defines our university.”

Created in collaboration with colleges and universities, iTunes U makes it
easier than ever to extend learning, explore interests, learn more about a school and stay connected with an alma mater. Content from iTunes can be loaded onto an iPod with just one click and experienced on-the-go, anytime, making learning from a lecture just as simple as enjoying music.

The iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog, adding new education content to over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 500 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over two million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.

Sanctuary webisodes

Sanctuary

Webisodes have been around for a good amount of years, but usually they were fan films and overall low budget. Sanctuary is the first epic sci-fi webisode series that I can say I want to watch!Judge for yourself by watching the first full episode on The Pipeline’s Indie Film show. After that you can watch the preview for the second episode. As of this post, there have already been four episodes released. Best of all each episode has high definition versions available for purchasing at only $2.49! Regular standard definition versions cost $1.99 per episode.

Check out the series official website at www.SantuaryForAll.com.