As other technology companies announce their product plans — including Apple’s new iPhone today and Amazon’s new tablets last week — now it’s Nintendo’s turn to talk about what it has in store for the holiday season. The company will be streaming its Wii U event live tomorrow at 7 am PT. In a video with Nintendo’s North American President Reggie Fils-Aime (flanked by Luigi and Mario), he invited customers to tune in to the company’s Facebook page to hear the announcements as they occur. While Fils-Aime did not provide any hints, at this point everyone is waiting to hear two crucial details: When the Wii U will go on sale and how much it will cost. The Wii U was first unveiled more than a year ago at E3, where Nintendo surprised the industry with the first tablet-size controller for a videogame console. The hardware also represents a nice upgrade from the current generation because it supports HD graphics and hardcore game play. It will be connected online to offer new social experiences, including video chat . However, Nintendo is increasingly going head to head with a whole range of consumer electronics companies as other devices, from phones to MP3 players and tablets, are being used for gaming. Today, Apple claimed the iPod touch was the most popular portable game-playing device (presumably over the Nintendo DS portable game systems), and last week, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos said he was shocked by how many Kindle games they were selling. The Wii U will emerge in a gaming landscape filled with uncertainties: Will a new device revive the struggling console gaming market? Will consumers continue to shift their gaming habits toward more personal devices, like phones and tablets? Price will definitely be a deciding factor for some as they weigh the difference between buying a tablet over a console that comes with a GamePad that isn’t designed to leave the house — much less the living room.
Read MoreLet’s face it: Most Ultrabooks look alike. When browsing through rows of these tapered, lightweight laptops in a Best Buy, many consumers wouldn’t see much of a difference between models. So, in an effort to stand out from the pack, Toshiba has introduced an eye-catching, ultra-widescreen Ultrabook. Its display is much wider than it is tall, with a 21 by 9 aspect ratio — wider than even the rectangular, 16 by 9 aspect ratio that has become standard for most HD TVs. Called the Toshiba Satellite U845W, this laptop, with its extra screen real estate, is aimed at heavy media consumers and multitaskers. It measures 14.5 inches by 7.9 inches, and is .83 of an inch thick. At four pounds, it’s substantially heavier than the 2.96-pound MacBook Air, but in line with some other Ultrabooks. It felt surprisingly lightweight when it was open and resting on my lap. [ See post to watch video ] The Satellite U845W hit the market in late July. The base model, which has a mid-level Intel chip, comes with a 500 gigabyte hard drive plus 32GB of solid-state drive and retails for $1,000. The model Toshiba sent me for testing costs $1,500, and has a faster, 256GB solid-state drive and Intel’s third generation Core i7 chip. Both machines are built with 6GB of RAM. While the Satellite U845W was designed with Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system in mind, it’s currently running Windows 7. And, unlike some upcoming Windows 8 laptops, this one lacks a touchscreen. Overall, it’s a solid laptop, with fast processing and boot-up speeds and terrific speakers. I did find the widescreen display to be useful for multitasking, because I was able to view a couple of Web pages side by side on the screen, such as a live video stream next to my Twitter feed. But the design is a little too awkward for my taste. The wide screen feels lopped off at the top, and the laptop doesn’t fit some of my larger purses as well as other Ultrabooks do. Plus, I couldn’t find a ton of video content with a 21:9 aspect ratio to fully enjoy the widescreen experience
Read MoreTV News: President's acceptance speech offers dose of policy goals
Read MoreWith digital video faster, cheaper and slicker than ever before, all kinds of media outlets, even YouTube, once best known for homemade cat videos , are upgrading their election coverage. On YouTube’s recently launched Politics channel , users can view content from eight major media partners, including ABC News and The New York Times . But results have been hit or miss. YouTube pundit Philip DeFranco’s channel often sees tens of thousands of views, while BuzzFeed, the Times and ABC News sometimes garner no more than a few hundred. “Basically, [YouTube] is not driving any views at all,” said a staffer from one of the Politics channel partners. “The real problem is that [YouTube] has no editorial sensibility at all. It’s a bureaucracy. They need the minutes; they don’t care about content.” Digital video analysts pointed out that YouTube is still in an experimental stage as it curates content that’s produced on a daily, even hourly basis
Read More“There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.”
Read MoreDon’t look now, but Hewlett-Packard’s mobile strategy is starting to look increasingly confused. Earlier this week we learned about Gram, a stealthy, wholly owned subsidiary that is being fashioned out of the webOS remnants of the company formerly known as Palm. It has even taken to buying up cool domain names . Anyway, today we were reminded, again via a memo leaked to The Verge , that there’s still another mobile group within HP, and this one, unlike Gram, will be building hardware. In the memo, Todd Bradley, head of the Printing and Personal Systems Group (PPSG), which encompasses the world’s biggest manufacturer of both PCs and printers, announced the creation of a new Mobility Global Business Unit that will operate within PPSG, and named Alberto Torres, the former head of Nokia’s abandoned MeeGo smartphone operating system efforts, to run it. I’ve confirmed from sources that the memo is authentic, and I’ve also gotten one bit of clarification for anyone who may still be confused.
Read MorePresident of ad sales David Lawenda is leaving Univision in early September, a memo from Univision CEO Randy Falco to staffers said on Thursday morning. "David Lawenda informed me that he will be leaving the company during the week of Labor Day," Falco's email said. Lawenda leaves the Spanish-language broadcaster, far and away the market share leader in U.S. Hispanic television, at a crucial time. The company's upfront presentation this year was a blowout far beyond any years past, and it has pushed to increase CPMs closer to the rates paid to English-language broadcasters. Univision appeared to be off to a good start in May. Starcom USA and sister agency Tapestry (which focuses on multicultural sales) inked the first deal of the season with Univision, bringing in dollars from Burger King, Mars/Wrigley and Kellogg. The network is also doing huge ratings numbers. It regularly ranks above at least one of the Big Four broadcasters and recently logged a No. 1 spot for the week. No reason was given for Lawenda's departure besides a need "to focus on the next phase of his career," but Falco said that Lawenda's decision had been made "a few months ago." Univision's upfront commitments will start to come due in the fall, and Falco promised staffers he'd have a replacement for Lawenda by that time. Univision's quarterly earnings report earlier this month included some troubling advertising figures. Ad revenue for the half was off by $26 million for the six months ending June 30.
Read MoreThe first week of arguments in the patent slapfest of the year — Apple v. Samsung — is finally wrapped up. And boy , what a week. Over the course of the trial, Apple — a company infamous for its corporate culture of secrecy and well-guarded product development process — was forced to lay bare many internal details that until now have never seen the light of day. For Apple enthusiasts and those curious about what happens behind Apple’s closed doors, it’s an information goldmine. Here are the five most interesting thing we took away from week one. Eddie Cue Liked the Idea of a Seven-Inch iPad No one was a bigger public naysayer of Apple producing a smaller version of its iPad than Apple’s former CEO, Steve Jobs. He famously railed against the idea on a conference call in 2010: “It’s because we think the screen is too small to express the software,” Jobs said. Yet on Friday, an unearthed internal Apple e-mail revealed a doozy: Even Apple’s top brass, like Senior Vice President of Internet and Software Services Eddy Cue, thought it was an area ripe for Apple’s taking. “I believe there will be a 7-inch market and we should do one,” Cue wrote, going on to state that the now deceased Jobs even “seemed very receptive” after Cue mentioned it to Jobs several times
Read MoreNBCUniversal has booked more than $1 billion in national TV and digital advertising for its coverage of the 2012 Olympic games. And while you can count President Obama as one of the Games' sponsors, none of NBCU's windfall appears to have come originated in Gov. Mitt Romney’s coffers. Indeed, over the course of the last 30 days, NBCU has brought in an additional $50 million in ad sales revenue, a surge driven by its expanded package of digital inventory and some late political spend. And while the decision to live-stream 3,500 hours of live competition significantly contributed to NBCU’s ability to reach the $1 billion mark, an incremental investment from President Obama’s campaign also helped move the needle. Insiders say the Obama campaign has snapped up $6 million in Olympics air time, a national buy that includes at least one 30-second prime time spot per night. The first Obama ad will air Friday night (July 27) during NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremonies. The buy includes daytime and afternoon inventory. While the President has secured time on the biggest media platform of the summer, his opponent thus far has given the Olympics a wide berth. With just 48 hours to go before the 2012 London Games officially get underway, the Romney campaign has yet to make a national buy. (Which is not to say the former Massachusetts governor won’t make a late bid for Olympic glory; in what could be a precursor of a late Romney move, the Republican National Committee this week picked up a run of prime time spots.) With an average prime time unit rate of around $350,000 per :30, the Obama campaign has invested north of $5 billion in Olympics inventory. Marketers outside the political ecosphere are paying a steeper rate, as sources estimate the average prime time spot in the 2012 Games is worth as much as $725,000. The Obama buy also includes as many as two dozen ads on the NBCU cable properties NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo. Cable time can be had for a mere fraction of the cost of doing business with the broadcast net. While it remains to be seen if the Romney campaign will make a national buy, one political action committee has already made a big local push for the presumptive GOP candidate. The Super PAC Restore Our Future has bought $7.2 million worth of airtime in 11 states, with an eye toward running pro-Romney spots through August 9. The Restore Our Future ads will air in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. In response to the buy, a newly-formed advocacy group, unPAC , said it has collected 15,000 signatures on an electronic petition calling on NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke to keep the Olympics free of Super PAC ads. “The Games are about national unity and fair competition; special interest negative ads are about division, half-truths, and unfair play,” the group’s mission statement reads
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