Pushing content from a mobile device to a TV screen -- a content-sharing feature that Samsung debuted in its AllShare technology at the Galaxy 4 launch last spring -- pushed further into the technology mainstream this week. Verizon and Motorola bowed a new family of Droid phones, including the Mini, Ultra and Maxx, with Wi-Fi Direct-based Miracast under the hood. And Google’s new Asus-built 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet -- announced Wednesday -- can be paired with a $35 device called Chromecast, which plugs into the USB port on an HDTV, enabling viewers to “cast” online content to the TV screen. Microsoft, meanwhile, announced embedded support for Miracast last spring in Windows 8.1.
Pushing content from a mobile device to a TV screen -- a content-sharing feature that Samsung debuted in its AllShare technology at the Galaxy 4 launch last spring -- pushed further into the technology mainstream this week. Verizon and Motorola bowed a new family of Droid phones, including the Mini, Ultra and Maxx, with Wi-Fi Direct-based Miracast under the hood. And Google’s new Asus-built 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet -- announced Wednesday -- can be paired with a $35 device called Chromecast, which plugs into the USB port on an HDTV, enabling viewers to “cast” online content to the TV screen. Microsoft, meanwhile, announced embedded support for Miracast last spring in Windows 8.1.
Apple shares rose more than 5 percent Wednesday following its Tuesday fiscal Q3 earnings call, despite a drop in profit to $6.9 billion from $8.8 billion in the year-ago quarter. Apple surprised financial observers with a 20 percent jump in iPhone sales to 31.2 million for the quarter, compared with a year ago. Apple sold 14.6 million iPads during fiscal Q3, versus 17 million in the year-ago quarter.
The European Union issued the following trade-related releases July 10-11 (notices of most significance will be given separate headlines):
Content delivery network operators are turning to CDN interconnection as a way to pursue faster and simpler delivery of increasing loads of over-the-top traffic and to maximize their global footprint, the operators told us. CDN interconnection can provide a more efficient, cost-effective alternative to traditional peering and transit relationships, they said, acting as a partial solution to what some see as increasingly contentious peering relationships (CD July 1 p1).
Content delivery network operators are turning to CDN interconnection as a way to pursue faster and simpler delivery of increasing loads of over-the-top traffic and to maximize their global footprint, the operators told us. CDN interconnection can provide a more efficient, cost-effective alternative to traditional peering and transit relationships, they said, acting as a partial solution to what some see as increasingly contentious peering relationships (WID July 1 p1).
Dish Network is implementing its standard procedures for natural disasters to serve customers affected by the Colorado wildfires, it said in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/17MLxgI). It said these customers can pause their Dish service and account, waive equipment fees for lost or damaged equipment and waive installation fees when a customer is ready to resume service.
LOS ANGELES -- Nyko Technologies took the wraps off several Shield, Xbox One and PS4 accessories at E3 this week. For the Shield, it will ship a dock at about $39.99, a $19.99 travel case and $29.99 shell case, said Marketing Director Chris Arbogast. Nyko expects to ship them for the device’s launch this month, he said.
CEA and NCTA have asked the Department of Energy to pause a rulemaking process on energy standards for set-top boxes and instead allow multichannel video program distributors to police themselves, the trade groups said at a joint media briefing Monday. Davis Wright attorney Paul Glist, representing NCTA, said he believes DOE proposals (CD April 10 p19) on whether set-top boxes should be regulated and how they should be tested could be finalized soon. If so, they would be a “switch point” for the cable industry, he said. If the DOE continues with the rulemaking, it will invalidate a voluntary agreement (VA) on set-top box standards that’s already being followed industry-wide, and discourage other industries from working proactively on energy efficiency, “undermining the very thing the DOE wants to encourage,” he said. DOE and the National Resources Defense Council, which backed tighter standards on set-top boxes, didn’t comment.
CEA and NCTA have asked the Department of Energy to pause a rulemaking process on energy standards for set-top boxes and instead allow multichannel video program distributors to police themselves, the trade groups said at a joint media briefing Monday. Davis Wright attorney Paul Glist, representing NCTA, said he believes DOE proposals (CED April 10 p4) on whether set-top boxes should be regulated and how they should be tested could be finalized soon. If so, they would be a “switch point” for the cable industry, he said. If the DOE continues with the rulemaking, it will invalidate a voluntary agreement (VA) on set-top box standards that’s already being followed industry-wide, and discourage other industries from working proactively on energy efficiency, “undermining the very thing the DOE wants to encourage,” he said. DOE and the National Resources Defense Council, which backed tighter standards on set-top boxes, didn’t comment.