| February 14, 2013 | News covering the consumer electronics industry |
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| Today's Digital Pulse |  |  |
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- Startup will provide brand-supported products to U.K. teens
Entrepreneur Dylan Collins has a startup called Box Of Awesome, which promises to provide a free box of books, games and other products to young teenagers in the U.K. The bimonthly shipments will be paid for by companies that want to promote products they will place in the boxes. Box Of Awesome is said to have more than 30,000 subscribers signed up. "We’ve got a range of brands, so quite a bit of variety across the boxes, including major book publishers, collectibles (cards and figures), two music labels, two games publishers and one clothing company. And it's not just about big brands. What's really cool is that we're also bringing two completely new companies to our community in the first box," Collins says. TechCrunch
(2/14)      
| CE in the Home | | |
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- Is Apple about to push out an SDK for its new TV product?
A software development kit for the long-rumored high-definition television set from Apple may become available next month, with an introduction of the "iTV" set for this fall, according to Peter Misek of Jefferies & Co. The set's screen would fall in the range of 42 inches to 55 inches and be priced starting at $1,500, the analyst wrote in a note to investors. "Apple is likely to largely rely on leveraging content via partnerships with existing pay-TV operators," Misek wrote. CNET/Crave blog
(2/13)
| From Blue Chips to Startups | | |
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- Microsoft CFO: No turning back on wireless strategy
Microsoft hasn't made a lot of headway with its mobile strategy, but Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein says there is no alternative plan. "It's less 'Plan B' than how you execute on the current plan," he said when asked at an investor conference about options beyond its Surface tablet and Windows Phone pursuits. Klein said Microsoft's Windows 8 platform is perfectly suited for screen sizes from 4 to 13 inches, and he said the company's tablet will help, rather than alienate, its hardware partners because it "allows us to innovate in ways in which we couldn't before." Reuters
(2/13), ZDNet
(2/13), PC Magazine
(2/13)
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| Retail Trends | | |
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- Visa looks to mobile money to fuel growth in emerging markets
Visa set its sights on mobile money programs, which are popular in emerging markets, as it seeks to expand overseas by offering technology that can accelerate development of such systems. Mobile payments and transfers are commonly used where credit cards and banks are in short supply, as in much of the developing world. Mobile money is seen as key to Visa's goal of generating more than half its revenue from international markets by 2015. Fox Business/Dow Jones Newswires
(2/13)
- Best Buy founder may change purchase plans
Best Buy founder Richard Schulze is reportedly considering scrapping his plan to assemble an investor group to acquire the entire company in favor having the group take a minority stake, which would likely be separate from the 20% interest he now owns. Schulze submitted his first proposal to buy the company in August, valuing it at about $8 billion, and has until the end of this month to assemble the financial backing he needs to finalize a deal. The Wall Street Journal
(2/13)
- Ford makes Amazon Cloud Player available in some cars
Amazon Cloud Player has become available in certain 2013 Ford Motor vehicles equipped with SYNC AppLink, including the Mustang, the Focus and the C-MAX Hybrid. "We know that cars and music go hand in hand," said Steve Boom, Amazon's vice president of digital music. The Verge
(2/13)
| CEA Zap | | |
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CEA launching standards effort for mobile handset compatibility
CEA’s Portable, Handheld and In-Vehicle Electronics Committee is beginning a project aimed at ensuring microphone, control signal and antenna compatibility for wired headphones across multiple portable and handheld devices. The new standard, to be called CEA-2046, will describe a method of in-line headphone control signaling to operate device features such as volume adjust, play, pause, select music track, and voice call features. The work will be done by CEA standards committee R6 WG17. All interested people are encouraged to participate. CEA members who already have accounts on CEA's standards development site standards.ce.org may simply join the group. If you don't yet have an account on standards.ce.org you may create one on CE.org. Please note that standards.ce.org is separate from members.ce.org and requires its own login credentials (which you can set to match your members.ce.org credentials if you like).
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DMW Music: New York City's newest music-tech conference
Feb. 20 and 21: Digital Media Wire combines Digital Music Forum East and West into one large event named DMW Music, sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association®. Join 500-plus of the most influential music and digital media leaders as they gather in downtown New York to socialize, share ideas, make deals and learn about new technologies and services. This year's event features a music-tech crawl, classroom style presentations, interactive Pit sessions and a Music Leadership Awards Dinner. Current speakers include executives from Myspace, Sony, Warner Music Group, Pandora, Shazam, VEVO, Clear Channel, and more. Learn more at www.dmw-music.com. CEA members and friends receive 15% off registration with code CEA15.
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