Filed under: World wide web, Video, Web services

Netflix customers have had the option to watch selected videos on a Computer without waiting for a DVD to show up in the mail since earlier this year. But up until recently there were three major restrictions on the service:

1. It only works with Windows.
2. You could only watch a limited number of hours of programming per month.
3. The selection was on the small and obscure side.

While the service is still Windows-only, several users have reported that Netflix is addressing the other two issues. Netflix is sending out emails letting customers know that there are no longer monthly restrictions on how many shows they have the ability to watch. The email also says that Netflix now has over 6,000 movies and Television episodes available, which is about twice the number the service seems to have had this summer.
[via Zatz Not Funny]

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Business, Web services, Microsoft, Mozilla, AOL

This day AOL announced plans to discontinue development on the beloved Netscape browser. As you may know, Netscape was the first mass market World wide web browser, originally released in October 1994. AOL will stop developing the browser on February 1, 2008 according to the Netscape blog.

This blog’s parent company, AOL gained control of Netscape when they acquired it in November 1998 for the whopping price of $4.2 billion. The software, which is currently on version 9, was dominant in the 1990’s until Microsoft unleashed World wide web Explorer. Recent figures show that Netscape has less than 1 percent market share after having more than 90 during the browser wars of the 1990’s.

The Netscape browser code has not been maintained to the community’s expectations. AOL has also done a pretty good job of obscuring the Netscape name. Netscape.com was briefly a Digg-style social news site, and now the internet site is basically a landing page for AOL.com. In order to even find the latest version of the Netscape web browser, you’ve to go to browser.netscape.com.

What was once a great Internet Suite gave birth to the Mozilla foundation when Netscape code was released to the Open Source community. Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird are remnants of the once-great Netscape World wide web Browser.

Netscape will always have a dear place in our hearts. For many of us it was our first window in to the World Wide Web. Rest in Peace, Netscape Navigator.

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Internet, Video, News, Web services

Wal-Mart has closed down its video download store. We’ll forgive you if your forgot that Wal-Mart was selling video downloads in the first place. We kind of forgot too. But the company jumped on the digital media bandwagon late last year. But apparently sales were a bit lower than expected.

Wal-Mart shut down its video download store after Hewlett-Packard decided to discontinue the technology that powered the store. Wal-Mart is reportedly not going to bother looking for another partner, thanks to the underwhelming performance of the video download store.

This isn’t to state that there’s no money to be made in on the web video distribution. But Wal-Mart is the single largest seller of DVDs in the US, so whatever the company was making in digital sales was probably small potatoes by comparison. That, and while you might think of Wal-Mart when you’re looking for a place to get cheap retail goods, it’s not really the first name that pops into our heads when we’re thinking of places to find downloadable movies.

If you’ve already bought movies from the Wal-Mart download store, you can play them as many times as you like on your current personal. But thanks to the magic of DRM, you’ll lose them if you ever switch personal.

[via paidContent]

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, CBS Corp ‘B’ (CBS)

With the writers still on strike, late night hosts are gearing up to putting on shows without help from any writers [subscription required]. For the past two months, while Hollywood writers have been on strike, late night television viewers have been served up re-runs of their favorite talk shows, but that’s about to change.

It has definitely been a strange time for our late night shows to be on hiatus. With the now heating up presidential race offering up loads of good material, you know that the late night hosts have just been dying to get back into the action. But, don’t anticipate to be seeing the same sort of shows you’re used to seeing when they return to the air next week. The shows should prove to be very different than business as usual.

The exception to this rule might be the two late night shows on CBS (NYSE: CBS). David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants Inc., is currently in talks with the Writers Guild of America and hopes that its “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” will be able to reach a deal to allow its writers to be able to contribute to its shows.

One of the aspects of late night that we’ve come to love and anticipate is the interviews with major movie actors regarding their new releases. While this typically represents at least one guest each night, it could be lacking from the shows when they return in the next few weeks. Most major actors have vowed that they will support the writers and avoid the speak shows. The negotiations between Worldwide Pants Inc. and the guild could be the only thing that leads to actors being able to come out and promote their upcoming releases.

One thing is for sure, as the shows begin to slowly come back on, we’ll all be getting our fill of commentary on the current presidential candidates, and who can complain about that?

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, CBS Corp ‘B’ (CBS)

With the writers still on strike, late night hosts are gearing up to putting on shows without help from any writers [subscription required]. For the past two months, while Hollywood writers have been on strike, late night TV viewers have been served up re-runs of their favorite talk shows, but that’s about to change.

It has definitely been a strange time for our late night shows to be on hiatus. With the now heating up presidential race offering up loads of good material, you know that the late night hosts have just been dying to get back into the action. But, don’t expect to be seeing the same sort of shows you’re used to seeing when they return to the air next week. The shows should prove to be very different than business as usual.

The exception to this rule might be the two late night shows on CBS (NYSE: CBS). David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants Inc., is currently in speaks with the Writers Guild of America and hopes that its “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” will be able to reach a deal to allow its writers to be able to contribute to its shows.

One of the aspects of late night that we’ve come to love and expect is the interviews with major motion picture actors regarding their new releases. While this typically represents at least one guest each night, it could be lacking from the shows when they return in the next few weeks. Most major actors have vowed that they will support the writers and avoid the talk shows. The negotiations between Worldwide Pants Inc. and the guild could be the only thing that leads to actors being able to come out and promote their upcoming releases.

One thing is for sure, as the shows start to slowly come back on, we’ll all be getting our fill of commentary on the current presidential candidates, and who can complain about that?

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the internet investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Consumer experience, Internet, Competitive strategy, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Wal-Mart (WMT), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Apollo Investment (AINV), Videos, Technology

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) was early to the video download service, beginning to offer movies over a year ago. Now that service has been shut down, according to Reuters. The company states that Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) is no longer offering the technology needed to run the operation, but that seems pretty thin.

Wal-Mart probably figured out that having a lot of customers on the internet does not translate into successfully offering them new services. Most on the internet research numbers show walmart.com as one of the top two or three e-commerce sites. But Wal-Mart customers are often not affluent and may not be ideal targets for a video download operation.

There is also the question of competition. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has its iTunes service, which is growing. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) has another, similar operation, and there are a dozen others.

People might purchase clothes and household goods from a retail website, but that does not mean that the customers can be moved to digital downloads. “Would you like a movie with that shirt?” does not necessarily work.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Share This

Share This

Finance & Grants (CA Dept of Education)
Funding and allow information, financial reporting and principal apportionment-related software, fiscal reports, and guidelines for proper financial …

Yahoo! Finance
Finance Groups Photos Reader Scholar Video YouTube even more

Share This

Share This

Arkansas State Bank Department Homepage
… rules & regs, state/federal banking laws, links to financial institutions, … For information about our Main Office location click here. …

NJ Department of Banking and Insurance - Home
Say regulator of the banking, insurance, and real estate industries. … About the Department. Consumer Information. Banking Division. Insurance Division …

Banking
… and foreign currency trading, in addition to the more typical banking services. … throughout a multi-state area that provide banking services to individuals. …

Banking in Oklahoma | Oklahoma Based MidFirst Bank
… Bank leads the way in world wide web banking services and more importantly, provides a … World wide web Banking ID: … Free Internet banking — allowing you to transact …

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)
Provides banking and financial services to individuals, small businesses, and commercial, corporate, and institutional clients.

U.S. Bank - Personal banking including checking accounts, online … (NYSE: USB)
Diversified financial services company offering a range of financial products and services for individuals, businesses, institutions, and government entities.

banking overview
GMAC Bank provides a number of banking and investment products that enable our … GMAC Bank’s full-featured banking offerings are conveniently available …

Texas Department of Banking - Homepage
Charters, licenses, and regulates financial providers in the say of Texas to ensure that Texas has a safe and sound financial services system.

Bank of Montreal (BMO) (NYSE: BMO)
Chartered bank offering a broad range of credit and non-credit products and … Banking, borrowing, investing, retirement and insurance solutions to meet all …

Online Banking with Free World wide web Bill Pay & More from U.S. Bank
Open an Simple to Apply for a Checking Account with Free Online Banking Internet Bill Pay Services & More! … Account Access > On the web Access > World wide web Banking …

Banking Business Review - Industry News, Information, Research
Banking industry news, research, and analysis aimed at professionals working within the financial services sector.

Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM)
Explore the diversified line of banking products and … On the web Banking Guarantee. About Security & Privacy. On the web Services Agreement …

Share This

Share This

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows Mobile, Productivity, Web services, BlackBerry, Search

Microsoft has pushed out an update to their browser-based local search and mapping site.

Enhancements include:

• 1-click directions for all businesses and street addresses in U.S. This is sweet; you can see directions to the particular location depending on where you’re coming from: north, south, east or west. You also have the option to specify a starting location.
• Additional details for U.S. businesses, including neighborhood, business category, cuisine (restaurants) and hours of operation.
• Pics and reviews for U.S. businesses. The photos are nice; you can check out whether the place is a dive. Are the lights burnt out on the neon sign outside? Chances are the food is suffering as well. The reviews are also extremely helpful.
• Improved motion picture show times Instant Answers (they now show critics rating; one thumb or two?)
• Added interactivity to all maps (clicking on maps now zooms in/out to predefined levels, or advanced to the next waypoint for routing maps)
• Traffic & map Instant Answers
• Mobile search for the China market. Scopes offered are local (no maps, but coming soon), web, images, news and Spaces.

All in all, it’s a very feature rich update, and it should make life in the fast lane a tiny easier to navigate.

Point your mobile browser to http://m.live.com/ for the experience. Don’t forget, Windows Mobile Live Search also includes weather, web search, stock quotes, and more.

[Via SolSie.com]

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Competitive strategy, Top Picks 2007, Chasing Value, Stocks to Purchase, Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG), Technology, Ideal Stocks for 2008

My eight stock picks for 2008 won’t include one of my favorites, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) because of current appreciation in the stock price. Since I am basing my picks on the December 28 close, in two days, it just looks too expensive. The company is not only the leader in producing patented robotic surgical systems; it is the only game in town.

Intuitive Surgical was a strong candidate at $280 to $290, about 20% off it’s high, but not at Wednesday’s closing price of $335.24. It has a trailing P/E of 109 and a forward P/E of 77 if you believe projections, and I do since ISRG is constantly beating them. However, this stock has a 52-week low of $86.20 and a high of $359.59. That’s very high and a 400% bounce has to leave even Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) enthusiasts astonished.

I’ve written favorably about ISRG in the past 22 months, so perhaps some of my readers have shared in the gains. It is one of the few stocks I have mentioned that does not pay a dividend, but it has beat all estimates every year since I purchased it, and is likely to do so again (albeit with fits and starts). It has hardly penetrated its potential market, and already it has grown into a $12 billion company.

At this point, I would definitely put ISRG on my watch list, and perhaps like many volatile stocks, there would be an chance to own it at a lower price.

Disclosure: I own shares of ISRG in several portfolios.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.

Share This

Share This