Computers

Naturally someone feels the need to develop a porn game that uses Oculus Rift.

HTC's website confirms that the One Mini will have a 720p 4.3-inch screen.

#Google's Project #Loon Brings #Internet Access Using Balloons -

Netflix, the massive film and television streaming service, has announced that it will launch in the Netherlands later this year. The move will bring the service’s catalogue of entertainment from Hollywood to users in the country, where it will be be available on phones, tablets, TVs, consoles, and computers. The expansion into Netherlands marks Netflix’s continued expansion into Nordic countries. Last October the company announced its launch in Sweden, and promised more nearby countries would follow. Netflix has released a new website for the country, www.netflix.nl. Users can go to the website and sign up to receive emails updating them on the pending launch. No details at the moment have been revealed regarding pricing or an exact launch date. Netflix currently has over 36 million subscribers in 40 countries. The platform is outgrowing its original reputation as a merely content distributor as it releases its own shows, such as “House of Cards.” Headline image via jcestnik/Flickr

KeywordPhrase: Plextor Demonstrates Massive SSD Benefits To Gamers At E3 2013SSDs are most likely not the first things that pop into your mind when you think about E3. That is exactly what Plextor aimed to change at the event this year – getting more gamers involved in SSDs and SSD technology. We looked around the small Plextor booth which had quite a neat setup. Two [...]This content was created by The SSD Review - The Worlds Dedicated SSD Education and Review Resource |

Fab plans to announce that the company has raised $150 million in new funding as it looks to fulfill its ambitious mission of becoming the world’s design store. The pre-money valuation for the company in this round is $1 billion. Investors in this round include new participant Tencent, which is adding a board member to the company, as well as Atomico, Andreessen Horowitz, ITOCHU Technology Ventures, and existing investors. The new funding is just the initial part of the Series D, and the company wrote that it expects to close further funding as part of this series in the next few months. The company just raised $105 million last July. Fab just announced an ambition plan in April to move beyond flash sales and become a comprehensive design store. We wrote about shift at the time, and what that expansion means for Fab: With this pivot, Fab isn’t completely changing its product as much as it is changing what the Fab brand means. Instead of selling merchandise from other retailers on its site through flash sales (sales of limited quantities of items for limited time periods), Fab is expanding to include products designed by Fab, products designed by others, and ventures like custom furniture and a brick and mortar store in Europe. The company wants to be one of the “next great iconic shopping brands,” it wrote Tuesday, and that shopping experience will maintain the design focus that the company was founded on. The company wrote that its new goals to incorporate design in everything they do could help make them the “emotional e-commerce” company, compared to other companies like Amazon. Goldman’s blog post, which will be available on his blog, explains why they need to raise such a large round: “Differing from the “commodity commerce” players, Fab is the pioneer in Emotional Commerce, helping people discover and buy the meaningful stuff in their lives, like the chairs they sit on, the table they dine at, the plates they eat from, the glasses they drink out of, the pen they write with, the notepad they write in, the art on their walls, the bracelet on their arm – the emotional products in their lives. That’s Fab. I want to be really clear on this as I’m sure there are skeptics who will ask and wonder why Fab needs so much money. Fab is focused on the long term. We are focused on creating “Wow!” shopping experiences that will result in customers making 20+ purchases from Fab within a couple of years. We are focused on being the global brand that represents emotional commerce for decades to come. Fab is not about a single transaction. Fab is about creating Wow! experiences in everything we do, from the unique merchandise we offer, to the user experience on our website and mobile apps, to fast delivery and a delightful out-of-box experience, to the follow-on customer service. We truly believe that it takes investing in Wow! in order to build the next $10B+ E-commerce company, and that’s what we’re doing.” Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Sector RoadMap: Content personalization in 2013How consumer media will change in 2013Social third-quarter 2012: analysis and outlook

It is already a well-established fact that a mobile revolution is taking place across the world, as people access the Internet via their smartphones and tablets first, abandoning the desktop experience in the process. This preference for mobile is extending to online videos, according to a report from online video firm Ooyala. Smaller screens aren’t deterring people from watching more videos on their tablets and mobile phones, and they are even spending more than half of their total online viewing time watching long-form videos on these platforms. According to Ooyala’s report, tablet and mobile video viewing broke records in the first quarter of 2013. The share of tablet and mobile video grew 19 percent in Q1 2013, and made up more than 10 percent of all online video plays during the period. The growth rate for Q1 2013 was similar to the pace seen in 2012, Ooyala says, when the share of mobile and tablet viewing doubled between January 1 and December 31. “TV is no longer a single screen in the living room. Video publishers who fail to deliver and monetize mobile content on tablets and smartphones are leaving digital dollars on the table,” Ooyala says. In a further indication that screen size is not the key concern for viewers, Ooyala’s report showed that both mobile and tablet video viewers spent more than half of their total video viewing time watching long-form videos (referring to those more than 10 minutes long) last quarter. Out of this, a quarter of total tablet viewing time is spent with content more than 60 minutes long. In particular, viewers in Asia are avid long-form video watchers. Viewing of such longer-duration videos accounted for nearly half (45 percent) of the total time spent watching video online in Malaysia last quarter. Viewers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Thailand spent more than one-third of their total online viewing time watching videos longer than ten minutes across all device types. Ooyala’s findings also show that live video continues to dominate on-demand video content – desktop viewers watched live video an average of 40 mins, 13 times longer than VOD last quarter. “Breaking news, live sports, and special events have an inherent immediacy that hooks connected viewers and leads to longer viewing times across all devices,” Ooyala says. In particular, the Asia-Pacific region is seeing an upptick in live video viewing. Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea all watch live video at least 20 times longer than VOD content, with Singapore leading the region in time per live play, chalking up an average live viewing session of 52 minutes. Ooyala measures the anonymized viewing habits of nearly 200 million unique viewers in 130 countries every month. Video is not the only trend that is being mobilized now. According to a recent Nielsen ‘State of Social Media Report’, half of the world’s social network users visit sites via their phones, with 59 percent of social media users in APAC interacting with Twitter, Facebook and other services directly from a mobile device. Headline image via Thinkstock

Netflix revealed the next target of its ongoing international expansion Tuesday night: The streaming service will launch in the Netherlands in late 2013, making it the seventh European country to get access to Netflix’s service. However, the launch is also decidedly smaller than previous international expansions. Netflix didn’t give any details about catalog size or pricing of the service, but instead pointed out that Dutch consumers will have access to “Hollywood, local and global TV series and films,” including Netflix originals like House of Cards and the newest season of Arrested Development. Picking the Netherlands as the next target for international expansion should appease Netlix investors, some of whom have been concerned about the costs associated with the company’s international ambitions. After crossing the border to Canada in 2010, Netflix made a big splash with an expansion into almost all of Latin America and the Carribean in 2011. Last year, the company doubled down on international markets by expanding to the UK, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Netflix now has a total of seven million subscribers outside of the U.S., but some markets have proven more difficult than others. Latin America, in particular, has been challenging, to the point where analysts have asked Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on the company’s most recent earnings call whether he’d consider pulling out of some of the countries. Hastings answer was no; but Netflix has long tried to address those concerns by tieing any international expansion to global profitability. The company has also said that it intends to expand into only one additional market in 2013, which means that people in markets like Germany, France or Spain have to wait until at least 2014 before they’ll get access to Netflix. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Where the next-generation console fits in today’s video game marketHow consumer media will change in 2013Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1

Eunice Huthart, who says she worked as a stunt double for Angelina Jolie, has filed a lawsuit against News Corp. for intercepting her voice-mail messages. The complaint was filed in California last week and is believed to be the first claim brought by a victim in the U.S. over the ongoing hacking scandal that has been haunting Rupert Murdoch's company. - Hollywood Reporter

KeywordPhrase: SanDisk Announces FlashSoft 3.2 Application Acceleration Software For Windows Server & LinuxSanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory technology, is announcing the release of FlashSoft 3.2 for acceleration of enterprise and data center applications.  FlashSoft 3.2 will integrate with any server, storage and network infrastructure.  This release follows on the heels of FlashSoft 3.1 for VMware vSphere that was released in April. SanDisk’s acquisition of [...]This content was created by The SSD Review - The Worlds Dedicated SSD Education and Review Resource |