The future of cameras seem to be heading to is smaller, more portable, more disposable and mirrorless (DSLRs have a mirror). When Nokia’s Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki told 2010 that Cell Phone Cameras Will Replace DSLRs, I could not believe that on time. But it really seems to become more and more to truth in 2014: Nowadays you can take professional level (“good enough photos”) using consumer level cameras and smart phones. Technical quality is good enough for majority. There is going on a rampant replacement of point and shoot cameras of all flavors and varieties with smart phones and their built in cameras. Now the market is being effectively gutted. Gone. Non-existent. Same thing is happening to video as well.
Part of the technical race came to a (maybe temporary) end: “How can I match and exceed the quality of conventional metrics that we used to get from medium format film.” There’s nothing else pressing to solve, technically. Many photographers are fully equipped but uninspired to move forward. We have have set down for “good enough.” The engineering idea is that we’ve hit the sweet spot and to go for a Six Sigma improvement would be costly and unnecessary.
DSLR sales were down in 2013, worldwide, by 18.5% according to CIPA. The total decline in the entire dedicated camera market is closer to 43.5%. The decline will continue. Credit Suisse prediction: “Only those who have a strong brand and are competitive on price will last – and only Canon, Nikon and Sony fullfil that criteria”. Mirrorless cameras are not a big market: According to CIPA is the total sales of mirrorless system cameras in N. America was slightly fewer than 39,000 units. Total.
The challenge will be: How do you bridge that gap between high photo-capture quality and high-quality camera devices and the cloud where every amateur photographer’s images live? The company which has the most innovative post-processing, easy to share photos feature set wins! The future of photography is same as future in pretty much everything: software and connectivity. Camera manufacturers have been slow on those: we are just now seeing cameras with full operating systems like Android The advantages to smart phones are size, constant (annoyingly constant) access, multi-task tool set, and the ability to send your images, electronically, to an audience just about anywhere in the world.
Several smartphone makers have clear strategies to take photography to extremes: 40 megapixel camera is already on the market and several manufacturers are playing with re-focus after shooting options.
Consumer video device trend is that separate classic video cameras have pretty much faded from market. New smart phones have high definition video cameras in them, so for most users there is no need for separate video camera. For special uses there are small “action” video cameras that are so tiny that you can place them almost anywhere and they can take some beating while you perform your extreme sports. If the video quality of those do not suffice, many people use their DSLR to shoot higher quality high definition video. For professional video production there is still some market left for professional and prosumer video cameras.
The world seems to be heading to situation where separate DSLRs and separate video cameras will be more like high fidelity audio, which used to be common selling point in 1970s, 80s and early 90s, but now only some geeks care about audio quality. This will more or less happen to photographs and video.
Connected TV technologies get more widely used and the content earlier viewable only on TV can be now seen on many other screens. Your smartphone is the screen in your pocket. Your computer is the screen on your desk. Your tablet is a screen for the couch. This development is far from ready. Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable.
Video streaming has really become mainstream as Netflix And YouTube Account For Over 50% Of Peak Fixed Network Data In North America. Because of the rise in video services like Netflix and YouTube, peer-to-peer file-sharing has dropped (meaning less piracy of movies and TV series). Netflix remains the biggest pig in the broadband python, representing 31.6% of all downstream Internet traffic in North America during primetime hours in September — well ahead of any other streaming service. In other parts of the world, YouTube is the biggest consumer of bandwidth. In Europe, YouTube represented of 28.7% of downstream traffic.
Post HDTV resolution era seems to be coming to TVs as well in form of 4K / UltraHD. It was introduced in the 2013, and the manufacturers start to push it more in 204 because all LCD makers are looking to move their business models on from cheap mass production to higher-margin, premium offerings. They try to innovate and secure their future viability by selling fewer, but more profitable displays. On this road giant curved TVs is gaining ground: LG announces that it will present the “world’s first ” 105-inch curved ultra-hd-TV in January in Las Vegas at CES. Almost at the same time , however, Samsung also announced the proposal at CES “the world’s first and curved” 105-inch ultra HD television.. TV screens are in fact higher resolution the basic 4k level of ultra hd: Samsung and LG screens resolution is 5120 × 2160 pixels in the image (11 megapixels).
4K resolution ecosystem will get more ready for use. Netflix is testing out 4K video streaming and Netflix’s House of Cards was shot in 4K. Amazon Studios also just recently announced that it will shoot all of its 2014 shows in that format as well.
4K and 4K streaming are definitely coming in 2014 regardless of how many people can actually view it. 4K will still require a lot of work “with the compression and decode capability” to be ready for mainstream use. There are a great many things that need to happen before 4K really becomes a reality or needs to do so.
PC hardware with 4G capable graphics cards is already available, so decoding the stream is not a problem. The biggest issue is that the market penetration of 4K-capable televisions needs to grow, but to that happen the prices must drop to ranges for the average consumer. Many users have already fast enough fixed broadband connection, but can the networks handle peak usage 4K streaming? According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, it won’t require more than a stable 15 Mbps to stream 4K.
Extreme overkill resolution will also push to tablet and smart phone markets. There are already smart phones with full HD resolution. In high-end smartphones we may be moving into the overkill zone with extreme resolution that is higher than you can see on small screen: some makers have already demonstrated displays with twice the performance of 1080-progressive. Samsung is planned to release devices with 4k or UHD resolutions. As we have seen in many high tech gadget markets earlier it is a very short journey to copycat behavior. And we will see also see smart phones that can shoot 4K video.
For a long time music has been listened mainly with small portable MP3 player and such, which for most users provide “good enough” audio quality. The market had already shifted from separate MP3 players to the same functionality included to other devices (smart phones and tablets), so sales of music players sales have plummeted in year 2013 as much as as one-third. Separate music players mostly only used for listening music during fitness hobby, and growing popularity of fitness hobby is full of players saved the market from total collapse. Uncompressed music player to appreciate the need of a decent storage capacity, so some hifi people buy some high-end separate players, but that’s a small market.
Apple’s iPod continues to lead an ever-shrinking market of portable media players with a staggering 72 percent of the market for standalone music players. Apple has never been afraid of reducing demand for one of its devices by creating demand for another, in this case iPhone. The future of separate music players looks bleak.
Smartphones have taken the music player market. The growing popularity of smart phones and music streaming services will rise in the future to eat even music players sales. If smart watch will become a hit, the music player may be lost in exercisers shopping list.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Court allows EFF to keep donor list secret from patent troll
Podcast campaign supporters won’t be revealed
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/10/eff_patentbattle_donor_names_stay_secret_for_now/
The Electronic Frontiers Foundation in America has won a smackdown against a patent troll that was demanding names of donors to a campaign against its patents.
The battle began last year, when the EFF began a campaign against patents that Personal Audio has been using to try and take ownership of podcasting. Personal Audio has won a case against Apple, and as the EFF notes is also suing a number of podcasters and three US television networks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Neil Young’s Pono Music Faces Two Big Obstacles
http://evolver.fm/2013/08/09/neil-youngs-pono-music-faces-two-big-obstacles/
Neil Young made a big splash when he brandished a yellow object on Late Night With David Letterman last year. This was the mystical Pono audio player
Young and Pono hope to save the digital generation from the compressed audio files it loves so well. There’s truth to the assertion that most people listen to compressed audio on subpar speakers and headphones, but the jury is still out on whether HD audio is the answer.
Depending on who you believe (we’ve published opinions from both sides of the debate), high-definition digital audio, which has failed in the larger commercial market every single time someone tries to do it (DVD-A, SACD, HD Tracks, etc.), is either the one thing that will save us all from horrible sounding music or total hokum.
Pono is one of two phantom “we will fix everything in 2013″ music services we’ve been trying to highlight — the other is Beats Music
Obstacle 1: Where Will The Music Come From?
24-bit master exist, somewhere, for most of the music being released these days. Mixing engineers use 24- or even 32-bit audio to tweak albums on digital consoles before bumping it down to 16-bit 44.1 kHz files for CDs, and then those files are typically compressed into AAC files (iTunes), MP3 files (Amazon), or a variety of formats including Ogg Vorbis (Spotify).
Obstacle 2: How Will People Play That Music?
Apple’s iOS devices, which are specifically the ones Neil Young wants to address, support the following audio formats natively, according to Apple: “AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV.”
Adding Pono to that list would be probably be impossible, especially given that the Pono store or service, when it surfaces, will compete with iTunes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disney Ponders the Biggest Big Media YouTube Bet Yet: Buying Maker Studios
http://recode.net/2014/03/11/disney-ponders-the-biggest-big-media-youtube-bet-yet-buying-maker-studios/
Disney has been talking to Maker Studios about an acquisition that would value the YouTube network at $500 million or more, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
A deal isn’t guaranteed. If it goes through, it would be by far the biggest bet by a traditional media company in a company built on top of YouTube, the world’s largest video site. Maker says it now generates 5.5 billion video views a month, almost all of which take place on YouTube; it works with some of the site’s most popular video makers
Tomi Engdahl says:
EXCLUSIVE: here’s why the HTC One 2014 has two cameras
http://www.gsmarena.com/exclusive_heres_why_the_htc_m8_has_two_cameras-news-8002.php
The so-called Duo Camera will allow the user to choose the focus point and create bokeh effects.
The adjustable focus has become very popular since Nokia released the Refocus app and all flagships have it – the Galaxy S5, the Xperia Z2 and the LG G Pro 2 have it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY
Remote Mechanical Shutter Release
http://www.instructables.com/id/Remote-Mechanical-Shutter-Release/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix, Spotify and other streamers drive UK entertainment revenues
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2333658/netflix-spotify-and-other-streamers-drive-uk-entertainment-revenues
UK CONSUMERS apparently can’t get enough of on-demand streaming services, and that market produces a quarter of UK entertainment revenues.
Hard copy physical format sales might be falling, but the UK Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) said that streaming websites – it calls them “access models” – are in the ascendancy.
These include not only Netflix and Lovefilm, but also Spotify and Deezer and in-app purchases.
Internet sales or internet derived sales make up 60 percent of all entertainment revenues, a clear majority.
The fastest growing category is the streamers like Netflix.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix and Spotify help drive UK home entertainment revenues to £5.3bn
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/mar/12/netflix-spotify-uk-home-entertainment-sector
New figures show that three-fifths of Britain’s video, video games and music sales are now derived from the internet
The fastest-growing sector across the online home entertainment market was video-on-demand subscription, including Netflix and Amazon-owned LoveFilm, which was up 120% on the year.
Music streaming services, including Spotify and Deezer, were up 34% on the year.
Sales of physical products from high street stores continued to decline down 8%
“This is stark evidence of the revolution in entertainment consumption being driven by entertainment retailers. The fact that 60p in the entertainment pound is now spent online and 26p in the pound is for access to content rather than ownership is a testament to the huge investment and technological ingenuity of retailers in providing consumers with new ways to enjoy the music, video and games they love.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Selfiest Cities in the World: TIME’s Definitive Ranking
http://time.com/selfies-cities-world-rankings/
To investigate the geography of selfie-taking, TIME built a database of more than 400,000 Instagram photos tagged “selfie” that included geographic coordinates.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VLC now available for Windows 8, no support for Surface 2 yet
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/12/5502100/vlc-windows-8-download-now-available
A Windows 8-style version of VLC is finally here. After months of delays, the Kickstarter-funded project has reached its beta goal and is available to download from the Windows Store. While Windows 8 includes a built-in video player, VLC adds its signature support for a broad array of formats
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kodak names tech industry vet Clarke CEO, aims to be B2B player
http://www.zdnet.com/kodak-names-tech-industry-vet-clarke-ceo-aims-to-be-b2b-player-7000027260/
Kodak, recently emerged from bankruptcy, has revamped, shed debt and is hoping to take its intellectual property to commercial printing, packaging, and services. Competitors for the new enterprise-focused Kodak would be players such as Lexmark, Hewlett-Packard, Canon, and Xerox.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony’s VR tech will be revealed at GDC – and it represents virtual reality gaming’s greatest hope
http://www.edge-online.com/news/sonys-vr-tech-will-be-revealed-at-gdc-and-it-represents-virtual-reality-gamings-greatest-hope/
Sony will reveal its Oculus Rift-beating VR headset at GDC next week, according to developers familiar with the tech.
A prototype is already in some thirdparty developers’ hands, who have told us that Sony’s VR headset is far superior to Oculus Rift’s first incarnation, though that is expected to even out a little with the arrival of Rift’s new, more advanced Crystal Cove devkit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Popcorn Time lets you stream movies via torrents on your Linux desktop
In today’s open source roundup: Popcorn Time brings streaming movies via torrents to Linux.
http://www.itworld.com/open-source/408384/stream-torrent-movies-linux-desktop-popcorn-time
Gizmodo reports that a new open source application called Popcorn Time lets you stream movies via torrents in Linux, as well as Windows and OS X. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of an application that could actually stream movies from torrents, I’m sure the movie industry isn’t going to be happy about it.
Like it or not, there are a lot of people out there who get movies from torrents
The Popcorn Time FAQ points out that there might be legal issues with watching movies via streaming torrents.
The FAQ also notes that you are seeding movies while watching them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is a music stream? Artists and labels in battle over digital income
Dispute rages over how royalties should be split in the age of Spotify, Google and Apple
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/mar/12/what-is-a-music-stream-artists-and-labels-in-battle-over-digital-income
UK artists, managers and performers have called for streaming revenue to be split 50/50 between labels and artists.
The demand was made in a joint submission to the European Commission’s consultation on copyright, via the newly formed coalition AMP.
Independent label group Beggars has been paying its artists 50% of streaming revenues for some time, although it is said to have reduced it recently as streaming becomes a bigger share of revenue.
The labels decided that a download was a sale, and so pay artists about 5% to 20% depending on the deal. Some labels have even continued to deduct costs associated with physical distribution – including packaging deductions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Movie Piracy Phenom ‘Popcorn Time’ App Yanked by Hosting Provider
http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/torrent-streaming-popcorn-time-movie-app-yanked-by-hosting-provider-1201129978/
Popcorn Time, an application described as a sort of Netflix for streaming pirated content via torrent-sharing sites, has been removed by its hosting provider for apparent violations of terms of service.
The free, open-source software had been available to download on New Zealand-based file website Mega, run by Kim Dotcom
The developers of Popcorn Time, via Twitter, said they are looking for another hosting provider. The app was created by “a bunch of geeks from Buenos Aires,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The developers of Popcorn Time, via Twitter, said they are looking for another hosting provider. The app was created by “a bunch of geeks from Buenos Aires,
http://torrentfreak.com/open-source-torrent-streaming-a-netflix-for-pirates-140308/
Popcorn Time, a cross-platform and BitTorrent-powered movie streaming app, may very well be Hollywood’s worst nightmare. The software can be best described as a Netflix for pirates, allowing users to stream the latest blockbusters at no cost. TF talks to one of the developers to find out how the app came about.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Popcorn Time: Open Source Torrent Streaming Netflix For Pirates
http://torrentfreak.com/open-source-torrent-streaming-a-netflix-for-pirates-140308/
Popcorn Time, a cross-platform and BitTorrent-powered movie streaming app, may very well be Hollywood’s worst nightmare. The software can be best described as a Netflix for pirates, allowing users to stream the latest blockbusters at no cost. TF talks to one of the developers to find out how the app came about.
Over the years BitTorrent has become fairly mainstream, with hundreds of millions of people using torrent clients to download the latest entertainment.
“We hate that we don’t have the chance to watch some movies at home. Popcorn Time is an experiment to show that you can do something better for the users, and that you can do it with BitTorrent,” Sebastian says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Most Europeans Download and Stream Pirated Movies
http://torrentfreak.com/most-europeans-download-and-stream-pirated-movies-140214/
Nearly 70% of all Europeans download or stream films for free, a new study from the European Commission reveals. The high costs of legal alternatives such as movie tickets and DVDs are the main justification, with release lags and limited availability also among the top reasons.
The European Commission has released a new report on the film viewing habits of Europeans this week.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Foldscope Promises Microscopes for Everyone!
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/14/foldscope-promises-microscopes-for-everyone/
The Foldscope is an optical microscope that can be made out of paper and printed components, much like a piece of origami. It can magnify up to 2,000X, costs less than a dollar to manufacture, and can provide a sub-micron resolution of 800nm. It requires no external power, fits in a pocket, and could survive being dropped off the top of a 3 story building!
It takes advantage of new technologies that make it possible to print micro-optics, micro-electronics, micro-flexures, and even micro-fluidics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Popcorn Time app shuts down amid threats of video piracy
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/popcorn-time-app-shuts-down-amid-threats-of-video-piracy-194137379.html
Just a few days after the new app arrived on the scene with its incredibly easy to use interface giving users acces to the entire Internet storehouse of illegally uploaded movies and TV shows, it has shut down.
The authors of the Netflix-like software have not identified themselves but appear to have explained the shutdown in an anonymous post on Medium under an account where they had earlier touted the software’s availability.
Thousands of current movies and TV shows are available on the Internet in downloadable digital files via the file sharing network called BitTorrent.
Popcorn Time presented a friendly front end displaying pirated movies and, with a single click, streamed the content instantly onto the user’s computer screen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia’s Refocus camera app is now available to all Lumia owners on WP8
http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/14/nokia-refocus-camera-app-lumia-update/
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Nokia’s “shoot now, focus later” photography app, Refocus, required PureView hardware to run, because until now it’s only been available on PureView-branded phones.
he app has just been made compatible with all Lumia phones running Windows Phone 8, including ones with down-to-earth camera modules. It works by means of a “focus sweep” — you hold your phone steady for a couple of seconds while the camera scans the scene ahead at a range of different focal lengths and then combines these into a single dynamic image
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dual-lens smartphone cameras are coming, and this is why we want one
http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/26/corephotonics-dual-lens-smartphone-camera/?a_dgi=gravity&cps=gravity
a startup called Corephotonics, which is currently pitching precisely such a dual-lens concept to smartphone makers
The big trick here is Corephotonics’ use of two lenses with two different focal lengths. One lens is wide-angle, while the other is at 3x zoom. This means you can switch lenses to magnify more distant subjects without resorting to digital zoom.
By contrast, Nokia’s PureView cameras rely solely on digital zoom such that outputting a 3x magnified image entails a drop in resolution down to five megapixels.
The second benefit to using two parallel lenses, each with its own sensor, is improved low-light performance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RIAA wants Google to do more to fight ‘piracy’
It’s fed up with having to make repeated complaints
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2334274/riaa-wants-google-to-do-more-to-fight-piracy
Oyama had testified that perhaps takedowns are not the best system, adding that it is also open to abuse. She said that Google deals with as many takedowns in a week in 2014 as it was doing in the whole of 2010.
“The best way to battle piracy is with better, more convenient, legitimate alternatives to piracy, as services ranging from Netflix to Spotify to iTunes have demonstrated,” she said. “The right combination of price, convenience, and inventory will do far more to reduce piracy than enforcement can.”
Sherman asked Google to help it end the daily game of ‘whack-a-mole’ that it plays.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Popcorn Time service for pirated movies refuses to stay shut down
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/16/5515364/popcorn-time-service-for-pirated-movies-refuses-to-stay-shut-down
8
inShare
Last week, a movie-watching service called Popcorn Time hit the internet — it promised a Netflix-like experience for any movie you might want to watch, but used the expansive network of pirated BitTorrent movies to deliver content to users. It earned praise for its intuitive user interface, but its creators shut Popcorn Time down on Saturday, saying that the ongoing legal concerns were too much of a strain to deal with.
However, Popcorn Time was always meant to be open source, and as such someone else has now picked up the mantle and brought the service back to life
Tomi Engdahl says:
Acoustic Cloaking Device Hides Objects from Sound
March 11, 2014
Duke engineers build world’s first 3-D acoustic cloaking device
http://www.pratt.duke.edu/news/acoustic-cloaking-device-hides-objects-sound
Using little more than a few perforated sheets of plastic and a staggering amount of number crunching, Duke engineers have demonstrated the world’s first three-dimensional acoustic cloak. The new device reroutes sound waves to create the impression that both the cloak and anything beneath it are not there.
“The particular trick we’re performing is hiding an object from sound waves,”
To achieve this new trick, Cummer and his colleagues turned to the developing field of metamaterials—the combination of natural materials in repeating patterns to achieve unnatural properties. In the case of the new acoustic cloak, the materials manipulating the behavior of sound waves are simply plastic and air.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikon’s New Mirrorless Wonder Fires 60 Shots a Second
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2014/03/nikon-1-v3/
A good thing has happened in the world of cameras recently. The megapixel wars are all but dead. Instead, much of the focus in recent cameras has shifted to speed: Faster autofocus systems, and faster continuous-shooting speeds.
Other key features include built-in Wi-Fi with sidecar apps for iOS and Android
Tomi Engdahl says:
Crap turnover, sucky margins: TV is a ‘terrible business’ – Steve Jobs
Ex-WSJ journo quotes tech titan as Apple streaming telly box bags $1bn in 2013
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/17/steve_jobs_tvs_are_a_dreadful_business/
“TV is a terrible business,” Jobs was quoted as saying in her new book. “They don’t turn over and the margins suck.”
Apple made more than $1bn from its Apple TV set-top box last year, with Tim Cook saying it had turned from what Jobs had once described as a “hobby” into a valid area of business.
Today’s TV-pushers are having trouble getting the 4K-ing boxes out the door, no matter how many curves and ultra-high-def features they add.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Tiny Mobile Printer That Polaroids Your Instagram Pics
http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2014/03/lifeprint/
There was a time not too long ago when photos hung on walls, stuck to fridges, and occupied albums you could thumb through for hours. Now they just get pushed down one’s Instagram feed never to be seen again.
LifePrint is proposing to build small, battery-powered mobile printers that are internet-connected and read from a LifePrint mobile app.
“We’re trying to take photo printing out of the age where it’s an errand,”
At the moment, people like me, who just want to share with friends and family, are the target audience.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s annual TV smear segment drags Nikon’s name through the mud
Last year’s effort saw Apple grovel
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/18/nikon_cctv_consumer_rights/
claiming that some of its D600 cameras were sold with black spots on the lens
The D600 has already been criticised in other markets for the same defects, leading to a Nikon statement on 26 February promising to clean the camera and exchange any defective parts past warranty.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dilemma for music streaming services: labels demand twice what listeners are willing to pay:
The Price of Music
http://recode.net/2014/03/18/the-price-of-music/
Will the recorded music industry ever grow again? Since 1999, the industry has been in rapid decline as CDs became unbundled into downloaded singles. The digital download market never came close to the size of the physical music market. Now we are in the midst of another format transition, this time from downloaded singles to streaming.
The question many people ask — like the thoughtful Marc Geiger — is how big will the streaming market be? I think the answer lies not in consumers’ appetite for streaming songs, but in the price services charge consumers for streaming.
At the 1999 peak of the recorded music market, about $40 billion of recorded music was sold.
the average amount spent came to $28 per consumer.
consumers who bought music, they spent $64 on average that year
about $12 per iTunes account per quarter is spent on music, or about $48 per year.
Note that this figure declines year by year as iTunes users are confronted with many more choices on which to spend their disposable income, like apps and videos.
So, the data tells us that consumers are willing to spend somewhere around $45–$65 per year on music, and that the larger a service gets, the lower in that range the number becomes. And these numbers have remained consistent regardless of music format, from CD to download.
Curiously, the on-demand subscription music services like Spotify, Deezer, Rdio and Beats Music are all priced the same at more than twice consumer spending on music. They largely land at $120 per year
This is because the three major record labels, as part of their music licenses, have mandated a minimum price these services must charge.
The data shows that $120 per year is far beyond what the overwhelming majority of consumers will pay for music, and instead shows that a price closer to $48 per year is likely much closer to a sweet spot to attract a large number of subscribers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Streaming Subscriptions Are Now a Billion-Dollar Business, but Music Sales Stall
http://recode.net/2014/03/18/streaming-subscriptions-are-now-a-billion-dollar-business-but-music-sales-stall/
Music subscription services have been around for a long time. Now they’re finally a real business: Companies like Spotify, Deezer and even Google generated more than $1.1 billion in music subscription revenue last year.
But the global music industry, which had finally perked up last year after a decade-plus slide, drooped again.
Worldwide wholesale revenue declined 3.9 percent, to $15 billion, in 2013, according to the music trade group International Federation for the Phonographic Industry. Much of that drop comes from Japan, where sales plummeted nearly 17 percent. If you strip out Japan’s results, sales would have been down 0.1 percent.
Flat — or, at least, a slower rate of decline — has been the new up for many years for the music business, so this won’t be terribly discouraging for the industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Firefox 28 arrives with VP9 video decoding, Web notifications on OS X, HTML5 video and audio volume controls
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/03/18/firefox-28-arrives-vp9-video-decoding-web-notifications-os-x-html5-video-audio-volume-controls/#!AwA91
Mozilla today officially launched Firefox 28 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Additions include VP9 video decoding, Web notifications on OS X, and volume controls for HTML5 video and audio.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony Announces Virtual Reality Headset For PS4
http://games.slashdot.org/story/14/03/19/0322246/sony-announces-virtual-reality-headset-for-ps4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Creates Software That Matches Faces Almost as Well as You Do
Facebook’s new AI research group reports a major improvement in face-processing software.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/525586/facebook-creates-software-that-matches-faces-almost-as-well-as-you-do/
Asked whether two unfamiliar photos of faces show the same person, a human being will get it right 97.53 percent of the time. New software developed by researchers at Facebook can score 97.25 percent on the same challenge, regardless of variations in lighting or whether the person in the picture is directly facing the camera.
That’s a significant advance over previous face-matching software
Facebook’s new software, known as DeepFace, performs what researchers call facial verification (it recognizes that two images show the same face), not facial recognition (putting a name to a face). But some of the underlying techniques could be applied to that problem
First it corrects the angle of a face so that the person in the picture faces forward
Then the deep learning comes in as a simulated neural network
Tomi Engdahl says:
PlayStation 4 update to add rich video editor, 720p Twitch streaming, HDCP off option, and more
http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/03/19/playstation-4-update-will-add-rich-video-editor-720p-twitch-streaming-hdcp-option/#!ADyMe
The Xbox One has already received a few firmware updates and it would seem the PlayStation 4 is about to follow suit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mug Music Is Good to the Last Drop
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/mug-music-is-good-to-the-last-drop/
Mug Music, which turns a ceramic mug of water into an instrument.
The circuit is very easy to replicate with an Arduino, a coil, and a few resistors and capacitors. [Bonnie] wanted to experiment with Disney Research Lab’s Touché method of touch detection, and Mug Music is based on this Touché for Arduino Instructable. The inputs are turned into MIDI notes with ChucK, a real-time sound synthesis language developed at Princeton.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oculus and Sony Throw Down With Competing VR Headsets at GDC
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2014/03/project-morpheus-oculus/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Veronica Mars Fans Ruined the Movie Reboot for Everyone Else
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/03/veronica-mars-fans/
Amidst both the excitement over the release of Veronica Mars last weekend and the upset amongst Kickstarter backers over the lack of a downloadable digital version of the movie
the movie has far more flaws than those, and so many of them are the result of the peculiar circumstances of its creation
Veronica Mars paid too much attention to its fans.
Why did the movie have so many characters, many of whom served next to no purpose to the plot? Because the fans wanted to see them.
The Veronica Mars movie has been embraced by fans and judged a financial success; by those two measurements, it’s done exactly what it was created to do.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ultra HD HDMI to MIPI CSI-2 converter chipset
http://www.microwave-eetimes.com/en/ultra-hd-hdmi-to-mipi-csi-2-converter-chipset.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222904833&vID=35
Toshiba Electronics Europe has added a device to its MIPI Camera Serial Interface (CSI-2) converter chipset family. The TC358840 Ultra HD HDMI to MIPI CSI-2 converter chipset supports 4K video resolution for next-generation CE video applications including 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution smart TVs, smart monitors, set-top boxes, and digital media adapters.
The maximum resolution supported is 4096 x 2160 at 24bpp at a refresh rate of 24 fps or 3840 x 2160 at 24bpp at a refresh rate of 30 fps, limited by a maximum 297 MHz HDMI bandwidth.
Toshiba says it is the first company to offer a chipset that can convert an Ultra HD HDMI video stream to a dual CSI-2 video interface on an application processor for use in 4K capable smart monitors, smart STBs, smart TVs and similar devices.
The Toshiba TC358840XBG is an 80-pin device that comes in a small package size, 7.0 x 7.0 mm
Tomi Engdahl says:
Major Multi-Channel Video Providers Lost About 105,000 Subscribers in 2013
Annual Losses Amount to 0.1% of Subscribers
http://www.leichtmanresearch.com/press/031414release.html
Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that the thirteen largest multi-channel video providers in the US — representing about 94% of the market — lost about 105,000 net video subscribers in 2013. Annual net multi-channel video additions in 2013 were about 280,000 fewer than in 2012, when the industry added about 175,000 subscribers.
“2013 was the first year for multi-channel video industry losses, but the modest losses represent only about 0.1% of all subscribers,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cord cutters unite: Pay TV providers lost subscribers for first time ever in 2013
http://bgr.com/2014/03/18/pay-tv-subscriber-losses-2/
The pay TV industry may not be sweating the cord cutting trend just yet but for the first time in 2013 it had a reason to take notice. According to new data from Leichtman Research Group, pay TV providers posted a net loss of 104,000 subscribers in 2013, the first time the pay TV industry has ever lost subscribers year-over-year.
As more alternatives to cable spread — whether it’s in the form of alternative providers such as U-Verse and Google Fiber, or alternative ways to watch TV through the web such as Netflix and Hulu — we’d expect to see this trend accelerate.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I would have expected this trends of increasing vinyl sales, and this article covers it pretty well:
Why Vinyl Is the Only Worthwhile Way to Own Music
http://gizmodo.com/why-vinyl-is-the-only-worthwhile-way-to-own-music-1527750499
CD sales have been declining every year for more than a decade
Even as the recording industry flails, vinyl is seeing a comeback.
Even as physical record sales decline, people are buying more vinyl than they have in decades. In 2013, sales increased 31-percent to about 6 million units year-over-year.
I’m not the first person to point out that vinyl is on the rise after having been considered dead.
I don’t buy the argument that the format is seeing a resurgence because people think it sounds better. There’s an ongoing debate amongst audiophiles and scientists regarding the audio quality of digital vs analog music playback.
Some people choose to dispute science and instead trust their easily deluded senses, or maybe they just like the sound of a record scratching on the surface of a record. These fans only help prove my point: People are turning to vinyl because they enjoy it more.
But scratch isn’t a negative; it adds texture and warmth. Some musicians go so far as to add it to digital recordings to give them “character.”
Vinyl record purchases come with codes which allow you to download digital versions of the music on-board.
The future of music is selling an experience
Music executives hate digital. Once upon a time, they could sell you a piece of plastic at an exorbitant markup, and people paid.
Vinyl isn’t just music. It’s an experience.
Tomi Engdahl says:
They want me to install CCTV to see what YOU did in the TOILET
Anti-social social media – it’s for winners
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/21/cctv-to-find-out-what-you-did-in-the-toilet/
What did stick in my mind was a suggestion that we use part of our promised fibre bandwidth for CCTV. I see this in shops every day, of course, but it never occurred to me that it would have any application in an office. And I still don’t. But apparently I am in a minority in this respect: office-based businesses love CCTV and are using it to spy on their own employees for everything from photocopier abuse to comfort-break frequency.
Besides, the proliferation of CCTV tends to encourage vandalism: specifically, people will try to vandalise the CCTV cameras. This means you’d need a second CCTV system with cameras pointing at the first CCTV system, and a second set of bored security guards to watch live video feeds of motionless video cameras.
All this increases the chances of a backlash; not specifically against CCTV, but against the whole field of digital curtain-twitching that has been inaccurately sold to us as “social media”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How the Jim Henson Company Is Turbocharging Puppetry With Technology
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/03/henson-puppetry-ted/
For decades Jim Henson was able to use television to bring the art of puppetry to massive audiences
Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.
“As soon as we could use things like radio-controlled servos, we started using them,” Henson says. “As soon as we could use computers to help perform our creatures, we used them.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Mulls Launching Spotify Rival, Android App as Downloads Decline (Sources)
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/5944778/apple-mulls-launching-spotify-rival-android-app-as
The iPhone maker explores multi-pronged strategy to shore up double-digit drops in iTunes downloads, according to IFPI and RIAA data
Apple has opened exploratory talks with senior label executives about the possibility of launching an on-demand streaming service that would rival Spotify and Beats Music, according to three people familiar with the talks.
Even as download sales have deteriorated, revenue from streaming services have grown, according to two reports released on March 18.
“They are feeling out some people at labels on thoughts about transitioning its customers from iTunes proper to a streaming service,” says one major label source. “So when you buy a song for $1.29, and you put it in your library, iTunes might send an e-mail pointing out that for a total of, say, $8 a month you can access that song plus all the music in the iTunes store. It’s all in the ‘what if’ stage.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple in Talks With Comcast About Streaming-TV Service
Companies Discuss Service That Would Try to Bypass Web Congestion
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702303949704579457554242014552-lMyQjAxMTA0MDIwMzEyNDMyWj
Apple Inc. is in talks with Comcast Corp. about teaming up for a streaming-television service that would use an Apple set-top box and get special treatment on Comcast’s cables to ensure it bypasses congestion on the Web, people familiar with the matter say.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Sweet Irony Of Popcorn Time
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/22/the-sweet-irony-of-popcorn-time/
So the big fun story of last week was this streaming movie app called Popcorn Time. Essentially, it aggregated torrent links and packaged them with artwork and a nice interface that allows one-click streaming of movies.
Popcorn Time is incredibly illegal almost anywhere, but it’s also almost impossible to stop people from using it without ISP intervention. Even though the original version of the app has been killed off, the project has already been forked and replicated by a new group. Now that the concept is out there I doubt it will ever go away completely
The absolutely lovely irony here is that Popcorn Time is doing for distribution of pirated movies exactly what the movie industry needs to do for itself.
Torrents are confusing and a mess.
Popcorn Time unifies them under one roof
In contrast, streaming movies with one click is a much more complicated and tortuous affair. Titles are split across a strata that include a variety of creators, distributors, technologies and pay gateways. There is no such thing as a one-price-plan that offers unfettered access to any movie you want to watch
the pirates are out-innovating the studios — and apps like Popcorn Time prove that the movie industry is not being held back because of technology, it’s the lawyers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disney to buy YouTube network Maker Studios for $500 million
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/24/us-disney-maker-idUSBREA2N1PV20140324
The Walt Disney Co has agreed to buy Maker Studios, one of YouTube’s largest networks, for $500 million, a deal that makes Disney a major online video distributor and should help draw more teens into the Disney entertainment empire.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Music Piracy Goes Mobile
http://recode.net/2014/03/24/music-piracy-goes-mobile/
The music industry faces a new front in its long-running battle against piracy: The smartphone.
Mobile applications have eclipsed file-sharing services, online storage sites known as “digital lockers” and stream-ripping software as the most widely used source of free music downloads, according to a new study from researcher NPD Group, whose results have not previously been made public.
Some 27 million people in the U.S. have used mobile applications to get at least one song in the past year, much of it believed to be unauthorized, NPD found in research that seeks for the first time to quantify the phenomenon. That’s more than the 21 million people NPD estimates use peer-to-peer sites such as isoHunt to download music.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Mystery of the ‘Only Camera to Come Back from the Moon’
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-mystery-of-the-only-camera-to-come-back-from-the-moon
After a furious bidding war in Vienna on Saturday, a Japanese camera collector has bought a Hasselblad camera for $910,000 in a record-setting auction of what’s been widely called the “only camera to come back from the moon.”
But contrary to claims repeated across the Internet on Monday, this isn’t the only camera to come back from the moon.
In fact, some think it may have never landed on the moon at all. And because of rules surrounding most NASA property, its sale may actually violate US law.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital opium set to drive Facebook
http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/en/digital-opium-set-to-drive-facebook.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222920569&vID=209
In a recent Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg announced the acquisition of Oculus, a company who only showcased its first prototype of a virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift at the consumer electronics show in January this year, with yet a real product to commercialize.
The company is actively working on its second version of a development kit, DK2, using two 960×1080 pixels low persistence OLED displays (one per eye) to eliminate motion blur and judder, which the company claims could eliminate simulator sickness. The kit also includes positional head tracking and orientation tracking for better navigation through virtual worlds.