Netflix signs pay TV deal for Dreamworks animation (Reuters)

(Reuters) – The online video rental company Netflix Inc. said it has won the pay TV rights to the Dreamworks animated film from 2013, the first time a major Hollywood studio has chosen a player on the Internet on a continuous Traditional cable channel.

The news of the contract led Netflix stock up nearly 7 percent to a maximum of $ 137.88 in early trade Monday on Nasdaq.

Netflix did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.

However, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told the New York Times that the agreement, worth $ 30 million for Dreamworks picture on a number of years, was "changing the game" and represented a bet that the the public will soon make a distinction between content on the Internet or cable.

The agreement will allow Netflix Dreamworks – the studio behind the family, the degree of "Shrek" and "Kung Fu Panda" – is to avoid pay-television HBO on-line transmission, reported Times. HBO is a unit of Time Warner Inc.

"We are starting to see a roadmap to long term where the industry is heading," was Katzenberg said that the newspaper in an interview.

The deal comes days after Netflix content, which has seen prices fall sharply after the influence of a series of errors, struck an agreement to broadcast television, Discovery Communications Inc.

Netflix to add more content to its streaming service to support the development of new customers and fend off competition from the likes of Amazon.com Inc., Google and Apple Inc.

The actions of the former darling of Wall Street has fallen 50 percent in two months.Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has apologized for not moving enough to explain, from an astonishing price rise in July to a separation of its DVD-mails from streaming services and the company tries to win back customers.

However, adding customers are suddenly hard, with Netflix on the receiving end of heated complaints from customers are still upset about the price increase was announced in July.

It lowered its subscriber forecast by 1 million, said it now expected to get 24 million subscribers by the end of the third quarter. Last time, Netflix reported a decrease in subscribers during the second quarter of 2007 when Blockbuster was aggressively driving a DVD rental package called Total Access.

According to the Times Netflix was quick to pump up the Dreamworks deal.

"This is one of the few brands family entertainment that matter," was the Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said."There is also a signal to people that we in no way a departure from films. Our programming is simply more and more people think about it."

(Reporting by Edwin Chan in Los Angeles and Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore, Editing by Peter Cooney, Viraj Nair)

Amazon may sell 3-5 million tablets in Q4: Forrester (Reuters)

One station is dedicated iPad front of a iPhone in the Apple store in New York

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc. may sell as much as 5 million of Tablet PC in the fourth quarter, which is the largest retailer in the Internet's main competitor Apple Inc. in the niche market of rapid growth public consumption PC, Forrester Research, said Monday.

Amazon.com has the price of your pills "significantly" below competitive products and have a sufficient supply to meet demand, but if the company can accomplish this can be "easily" sell from 3000000 to 5000000 units in the three months of 2011, Sarah Rotman Epps, Forrester predicted.

Apple has sold nearly 30 million Cases since the launch of the tablet in April 2010.Competitive products companies, including Samsung Electronics Co., Research In Motion and Motorola mobile phone to a serious challenge to assemble early lead. This month, Hewlett-Packard are destroyed TouchPad after sales languished.

"So far, Apple has many potential competitors face, but none has gained significant market share," wrote Abs. "Not only have the potential to Amazon quickly gain share, but the willingness to sell hardware at a loss, as he did with the Kindle, Amazon makes a bad competitor."

A problem with rivals iPhone was expected that the developers have so far before you make a lot of applications or uses for the devices to create, Forrester said.

Apple says some 100,000 custom-built iPhone, honeycomb, the Google platform, which is the compressed version of the Android operating system, has attracted fewer than 300 applications, says Forrester.

"If Amazon Android-based tablets are sold in millions of Android suddenly much more attractive to developers who have taken a wait-and-see attitude," said Epps.

Amazon Kindle e-reader is lighter and smaller than the iPad, but Apple's tablet has a browser and other services to improve reading and research, says Fred Wilson, a venture capital investor and principal of Union Square Ventures, recently a blog.

"What we all want is a hybrid of the two – a Kindle as a full-fledged tablet computer with a browser, programs and OS," Wilson added. "It looks like Amazon will bring to the market this fall … It looks like a killer product."

Amazon shares were down 3.4 percent to $ 206.03 in trading Monday afternoon, so it is now more than 10 percent this year.

Apple's shares rose by 16 percent to $ 389.87. The stock is nearly 19 percent so far in 2011.

(Reporting by Tim Dobbyn Alistair Barr cut and Matthew Lewis)

Motorola Mobility outlook disappoints (AP)

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., maker of mobile phones and cable set-top boxes that are shared by the rest of Motorola in January, is struggling to continue its turnaround and find a stable foothold in the world of smart phones and tablets.

On Thursday posted a loss for last quarter and expected results for the current quarter well below analysts' expectations, sending its shares down.

The Libertyville, Ill., company was optimistic about full year results, but to achieve their goals, it has a lot to catch up during the holiday season.

Motorola shares fell 80 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $ 22.11 in extended trading after it reported its quarterly results. It is closer to $ 20.77, its lowest level since the company separated from the old Motorola Inc. on January 4. At the regular session shares lost 89 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $ 22.91.

Motorola delivered the fourth4 million smartphones during the quarter, up from 2.7 million the year before. Some analysts expect more to prove Motorola defenseless against large competitors like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics.

Latin America and China were the bright spots, and regular phone sales helped Motorola ships a total of 11 million handsets, representing the second year to year as Motorola fortunes began a steep slide in 2006. Apple sold 20,300,000 iPhones in the quarter.

Motorola reported a loss of $ 56 million, or 19 cents per share, from April to June. That compares with a profit of $ 80 million last year.

Excluding costs for stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets, Motorola made a profit of 9 cents per share, 2 cents more than analysts expected, according to FactSet.

Revenue was $ 334 billion, up 28 percent to $ 2.61 billion a year ago. Which hit analyst projections of $ 3.14 billion.

For the third quarter, Motorola expects adjusted earnings from profit to 10 cents per share. Analysts were looking for 27 cents per share.

CEO Sanjay Jha said that the return of profits in the third quarter would be held by the slowdown in Bionic Droid, the first Motorola phone to the new "4G" network of Verizon Wireless data, thanks to falling prices and volumes of tablet computers and a season slowdown in sales of decoders.

Motorola introduced its first tablet, Xoom, in February. He did not come close to matching the popularity of the Apple iPhone and Motorola has recently reduced the price on it.

With the holiday season, Motorola will have at least one smartphone 4G 4G and two more tablets, Jha said.

For the full year, Motorola expects earnings of 48 cents to 60 cents per share, which implies the fourth quarter earnings of 37 cents per share of 59 cents per share. They are riding the average estimate of analysts of 47 cents per share.

Last week, shares of Motorola rose after activist investor Carl Icahn revealed that the company is pushing to squeeze profits from its extensive patent portfolio. Icahn owns 11.4 percent of Motorola and successfully pushed the old Motorola to break into two parts to increase shareholder value.

Icahn was probably inspired by the promise of a consortium that included Apple Inc., Research In Motion Ltd., Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. to pay $ 4.5 billion for a collection of 6,000 patents from Nortel Networks, the Canadian manufacturer failure of telecommunications equipment.

Motorola has more than 17,000 patents on the technology of the phone, or nearly three times as Nortel, but market capitalization is only 50 percent from $ 4.5 million. That raises the possibility of a company or a consortium of wealthy Motorola break because of its patents alone, or that the company could not charge more aggressive about licensing.

It is a battle over patents for technology companies as they seek to shore up the defense of their differences. Almost all manufacturers of smartphones-party complains of patents.

On Thursday, Jha said the company has a patent monetization "very good" in recent years. But he is not "against" a more drastic action to unlock value, said in an interview, without giving examples.

Wal-Mart offers video streaming on website (AP)

NEW YORK – Now playing: Movies at Walmart.com.

The largest retailer in the world on Tuesday began pouring a large number of films on the same day they come out on DVD, in another bid for a share of the popular movie rental business and streaming site Netflix Inc. and just two weeks after Netflix announced new price increases.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. purchased video-streaming services Vudu.com 18 months ago and now offers 20,000 titles that can be seen on almost any device with Internet access, computers to TVs to Sony PlayStation3 and Blu- Ray.

The film is available at Walmart.com for rent for $ 1 to $ 5.99, or buy for $ 4.99 and up. Wal-Mart does not offer subscriptions, making its service more like iTunes of Apple Inc., which charges $ 3.99 to rent newly released movies and $ 14.99 to buy a movie.

In addition to Netflix, another participant of streaming movies and TV shows via a subscription is Hulu.com, which is now a premium service for $ 7.99 per month, offers a late-season shows, movies and more. No subscription, viewers Hulu shows and movies for free in exchange for viewing advertising.

The films are part of the strategy of Wal-Mart Web site offering a "seamless service continuing purchases," said Steve Nave, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart.com.

The announcement of Wal-Mart comes on the heels of Netflix said it will increase the costs separately for streaming and DVD rental. The second price increase in eight months, was the expected increase is 60 percent of Netflix for existing customers, starting September 1. New subscribers must pay the new prices immediately.

Netflix plans to $ 16 per month for services that cost to $ 10 a month if they are together, for example, pooled and used for free. It still change $ 8 per month for streaming, which was launched late last year. But instead of charging $ 2 more on a flat, one DVD at a time via e-mail contains the company $ 8 and is responsible to the DVD plans.

Customers will have on social media, Facebook and Twitter taken to ventilate their anger on Netflix is ​​increasing, but executives said they expected the reaction. The company is willing to risk alienating subscribers signals it needs more revenue to cover rising costs.

Netflix in June had 24.6 million subscribers in the U.S.

Wal-Mart in Bentonville, Arkansas-based have been tested, before the water film rentals. It previously offered a free DVD-by-mail service, $ 12.97 per month for two titles and $ 17.36 per month for three titles.But he has given this program in May 2005 in Netflix, allowing customers to continue their subscriptions with Los Gatos, California, Netflix, without a rate increase. Apple is based in Cupertino, California

AP source: Apple considering Hulu bid (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple Inc. is in talks to allow video-streaming service Hulu, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.

The person who said that Apple is among several companies interested Hulu, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to talk about the issue. In early July, the search giant Google Inc. has been said to be among about a dozen companies in talks to potentially buy Hulu. Yahoo is also believed to be interested.

Hulu, owned by Disney, News Corp., Comcast Corp. and Providence Equity Partners, has begun presenting its financial information to interested bidders at the end of last month after the unsolicited offer prompted his counsel to seek other offers.

The online video service stream movies and TV channel ABC, Fox and NBC, and computers – for a monthly fee – a series of Web-connected mobile devices like smartphones and Tablet PC. Hopefully your payment service, Hulu Plus, with more than one million subscribers by the end of summer and its CEO, Jason Kilar, has said it is profitable.

Hulu acquisition for Apple could boost its iTunes store, the video users can rent or buy offers, but currently does not provide streaming content or a streaming subscription service. It could also help the Cupertino-based iPhone and iPhone-like hanger manufacturer with competitors such as online video pioneer Netflix Inc., the DVD offers by e-mail and video-streaming services and video from Google Inc. 'S popular streaming site YouTube, free-flowing, advertising and film distribution in several major studies.

Apple has a lot of money on hand to make a deal. At the end of last quarter, its horde of cash and marketable securities totaled $ 76.2 billion.

And Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is now retired doctor, has a relationship with one of the owners of Hulu is: It is the main shareholder of the Walt Disney Co. "if a member of its board.

However, if Apple – or any other company – were to buy Hulu, there is no guarantee he would be able to continue to disseminate the contents of the current owners of the company. The buyer may have to obtain a new license agreement for content.

Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said key to any agreement which would involve an agreement to play Hulu video content of its current. And if, as many analysts expect, Apple develops its own television series, adding Hulu would put the company in an "incredibly powerful position," he said.

Hulu is not just interested in exploring possible deals. Earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger told reporters that the owners of Hulu are "determined to sell." He spoke on the sidelines of an annual meeting of media leaders summit organized by investment bank Allen & Co. in Sun Valley, Idaho were. Iger comments reported by Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal.

BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis said it makes sense that Apple would take a meeting with Hulu, but Hulu because some of the activities funded by advertising which is contrary to the current model of Apple to buy or rent videos. It makes more sense for Google or Yahoo Inc. to buy Hulu, he said.

"They are not the most logical buyers," says Gilles de Apple. "Maybe ascent few bills into the hands of Google makes some sense."

But, as with any surgery, he noted that whether or not useful depends on the purchase price.

Hulu is interested in Apple's previously reported by Bloomberg.

Verizon pulls in subscribers with iPhone; new CEO (AP)

In this July 10, 2011 photo, a woman walks past a Verizon stone in Hollywood. Verizon Communications Inc. is seeing a big boost from the iPhone, addin

NEW YORK – Verizon Communications Inc. is seeing a big boost from the iPhone, adding more new subscribers on contracts in the second quarter than it has in two and half years.

Yet AT&T Inc., which has been the exclusive seller of Apple Inc.’s iconic phone in the U.S. until February, still activates three iPhones for every two Verizon does.

When posting a profit for the second quarter on Friday, Verizon also said Chief Operating Officer Lowell McAdam will take over from long-time CEO Ivan Seidenberg, 64, on Aug. 1. The company has signaled the succession for the past year. McAdam, 57, is the former head of Verizon Wireless.

Seidenberg will remain chairman of the company. He became the CEO of Bell Atlantic in 1998. It changed its named to Verizon in 2000 after a major acquisition.

Verizon added 1.26 million wireless subscribers under contract in the April to June period, a result that flies in the face of the slowdown in new subscribers across the industry in the last two years. Since nearly everyone already has a cellphone, gaining new subscribers is chiefly a matter of luring them over from other carriers. A year ago, Verizon added just 665,000 subscribers under contract.

Verizon activated 2.3 million iPhones, well below the 3.6 million AT&T reported for the same period. Verizon sells only the iPhone 4, starting at $200, while AT&T also sells the older iPhone 3GS for $49.

McAdam said iPhone sales haven’t quite been as good as the company expected, chiefly because it believed a new iPhone model would arrive this summer, as it usually does. Apple hasn’t said why there’s no new phone yet.

“We expect it probably sometime in the fall. I think you’ll see a significant jump there,” McAdam told analysts on a conference call.

Analyst Michael McCormack at Nomura Securities said he was expecting Verizon’s wireless revenue to grow even faster, and the fact that the average monthly fees per user hardly budged even as Verizon added high-paying iPhone subscribers was a major disappointment. Wall Street “will have to rethink the longer-term wireless revenue growth opportunity,” he said.

Verizon shares fell $1.01, or 2.7 percent, to $36.56 in late morning trading.

Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo defended the results in an interview, saying average monthly fees are being held back because many of the new devices being added to the network aren’t phones but tablets or Internet modems, with lower monthly fees. But these are very profitable devices and show the way to industry growth beyond phones, he said.

“We’re expanding the market,” Shammo said.

Even with relatively slow iPhone sales, Verizon is handily outdoing AT&T, which recruited only 331,000 new contract subscribers in the quarter. The iPhone is AT&T’s chief draw, while Verizon has other advantages on its side, like a broader “3G” data network and new, ultra-fast “4G” network in many cities. In the quarter, Verizon sold 1.2 million devices that use the 4G network, including laptop modems and the HTC Thunderbolt smartphone.

Verizon ended the quarter with 106.3 million devices connected to its wireless network, making it the largest carrier in the country. No. 2 and chief rival AT&T is trying to leapfrog Verizon in size by buying No. 4 T-Mobile USA for $39 billion.

Verizon said its net income was $1.61 billion, or 57 cents per share, in the three months ended June 30. A year ago, it posted a loss of $1.19 billion, or 42 cents per share.

Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings for 55 cents per share, on average.

Revenue rose 2.8 percent to $27.5 billion from $26.77 billion and in line with analysts’ expectations.

Excluding the sale of phone lines in 14 states at the end of last year’s second quarter, Verizon’s revenue grew 6.3 percent on the back of its thriving wireless operations.

However, only 55 percent of Verizon Wireless’ profits flow to Verizon Communication’s bottom line, because British carrier Vodafone Group PLC owns 45 percent of the cellular carrier.

“In terms of earnings growth and the acceleration of revenue growth, this has been one of Verizon’s best quarters since the 2008 economic downturn,” CEO Seidenberg said.

SKorean lawyer wages privacy fight against Apple (AP)

FILE – In this Nov. 28, 2009 file photo, iPhone fans line up as they wait for the Apple iPhone 3G during the launch ceremony in Seoul to purchase. A Sou

SEOUL, South Korea – A South Korean lawyer who is an avid user of the iPhone is leading a battle against the privacy of Apple Inc. in the device tracking capabilities.

Kim Hyeong-Seok said Friday that at least 16,000 people in South Korea have put him in a class action lawsuit against the company he wants to act with a Seoul court in early August.

The 36-year-old international trade and business lawyer is sentenced to the Korean unit of Apple, the ₩ million ($ 945) an action that he took to a regional South Korean court to gain in April.

His complaint was that the monitoring of iPhone users' sites violates the constitutional right to privacy in South Korea and let them "mental distress."

That has not stopped, continue to use it to your iPhone and iPad 4.

"I like Apple," Kim said in a telephone interview from his office in the city of Changwon, which is about 240 miles (380 kilometers) southeast of Seoul.

In fact, Kim says he is concerned "the mania of Apple."

But he adds his legal battle is "right or wrong."

Apple spokesman Steve Park in Seoul could not immediately be reached for comment.

Kim said he plans to file a lawsuit in Seoul, will be sometime in the first three days of August and its objectives both in Korea and Apple, Cupertino, Calif. Apple Inc.

The suit will seek ₩ 1,000,000 in damages for each participant, he said.

Kim's conflict as the iPhone has shaken up the South Korean mobile phone market since it went on sale in November 2009.

The phone has led to a smartphone war and encouraged local companies Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. to improve his game. Samsung has challenged the iPhone with the Galaxy line of Android-based smartphones, while LG has pushed his Optimus line.

Kim started her legal battle in April after reading that the iPhone is data that could be used to track the movements of users to store.

He filed a lawsuit in the local Changwon District Court for the damage.

Kim said the judge in his favor in May and awarded him damages he sought. The Company does not contest the ruling and Apple South Korea paid the money on June 27, Kim said.

A spokesman for Changwon District Court upheld the decision and payment.

Kim said he believes that the payment was the first Apple has done around the world in terms of the issue of persecution that occurred in April. South Korean agency Yonhap News reported the first time in South Korea.

Apple iPhones-known one that was store locations near the mobile towers and Wi-Fi hot spots for up to one year. These data can be used to provide a rough map of the unit owners to generate movement.

Apple is also facing another legal challenge in South Korea.

A total of 29 iPhone users filed a class action to the outlet end of follow-up of April, Yonhap news agency reported.

__

Associated Press writers May Cho contributed to this report.

Apple fixes security flaw in iPhone, iPad software (Reuters)

A woman uses her Apple iPhone 4-smartphone for web-surfing during a photo opportunity on a street in Seoul

BOSTON (Reuters) – Apple Inc. has a hole in the software that the iPhone, iPod Touch music players which can enable hackers to remotely control these devices to take walks.

The security breach came to light nine days ago when the website www.jailbreakme.com released code that Apple customers can use the IOS operating system that runs these devices through a process called change "prison break. "

Some Apple customers choose to prison to break their devices so they can download and run programs that are not Apple-approved and use the iPhone handsets on networks of companies that are not Apple-approved.

The jailbreaking exploited a vulnerability in IOS code, which had not previously been published.Its performance has given hackers a project that criminals could use to build malicious software that exploited this vulnerability.

Now that security patch was released, Apple's customers are protected from any malicious code, provided that the installation of software updates on their devices.

Vulnerability in IOS software has the potential to affect millions of units that are central to the business of Apple.

Apple sold 25 million iPads since its launch last year. The company has sold over 18 million of its popular iPhone in the first three months of the year.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle, editing by Bernard Orr)

Courts approve Nortel patent sale to Apple/RIM group (Reuters)

A sign is shown outside the Nortel Carling Campus in Ottawa

Wilmington, Delaware (Reuters) – Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Research in Motion Ltd. and three other technology companies received court approval Monday to buy wireless patents from the bankruptcy of Nortel Networks Corp. for 4, $ 5 billion.

The judges in the United States and Canada has approved the sale of 6000 patents and applications that took three times what some analysts had expected the auction of four days in June

Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors in January 2009, and the courts of both countries to supervise the sale of company assets, as the winds former telecommunications giant to its activities.

The group of six that won the auction, offering a collection of Rockstar Bidco LP, also includes EMC Corp., Ericsson and Sony Corp.

(Reporting by Tom Hals, edited by Gerald E. McCormick)

Security holes discovered in iPhones, iPads (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO – A new security hole has opened up in Apple Inc.’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, raising alarms about the susceptibility of some of the world’s hottest tech gadgets to hacker attacks.

Flaws in the software running those devices came to light after a German security agency warned that criminals could use them to steal confidential data off the devices. Apple, the world’s largest technology company by market value, said Thursday that it is working on a fix that will be distributed in an upcoming software upgrade.

With the security hole, an attacker can get malicious software onto a device by tricking its owner into clicking an infected PDF file. Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security called the flaws “critical weaknesses” in Apple’s iOS operating system.

Internet-connected mobile devices are still subject to fewer attacks than personal computer, but they could eventually prove a juicy target for hackers because they are warehouses of confidential banking, e-mail, calendar, contact and other data.

Software vulnerabilities are discovered all the time. What makes the latest discovery alarming is that the weaknesses are already being actively exploited — albeit in a consensual way.

The latest concerns were prompted by the emergence of a new version of a program to allow Apple devices to run any software and circumvent the restrictions that Apple notoriously retains over software distributed through its online store. There are security risks of doing so, but many people find it liberating to install their own software.

Although this program is something people would seek out, the weaknesses that its authors discovered could easily be used for malice, security experts say.

There is an irony in the controversy: The site distributing the program offers a fix for the problem, but to get the fix, a user has to first install the program in question. So a user must defy Apple’s restrictions to get the protection until Apple comes up with a fix of its own.

Charlie Miller, a prominent hacker of Apple products, said it likely took months to develop the program to break Apple’s restrictions, but a criminal might need only a day or two to modify it for nefarious purposes.

Apple Inc. spokeswoman Bethan Lloyd said Thursday the company is “aware of this reported issue and developing a fix.” She would not say when the update will be available.

One reason for gadget owners to take heart: Attacks on smartphones and other Internet gadgets are still relatively rare. One reason is PC-based attacks are still highly lucrative. Still, vulnerabilities such as the ones Apple is confronting show that consumers should take care of securing their mobile devices as they would their home computer.

“These things are computers — they’re just small, portable computers that happen to have a phone tacked onto them,” said Marc Fossi, manager of research and development for Symantec Security Response. “You’ve got to treat them more like a computer than a phone. You have to be aware of what’s going on with these devices.”