Horizons

Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, poses in Beverly Hills, California, December 8, 2005. (Fred Prouser/Reuters)

Nearly 2,000 Netflix movies to disappear overnight

By Aimee Ortiz / 05.01.13

Netflix lost 1,794 titles overnight. Dubbed “Streamaggedon,” the Internet TV giant lost many of its classic titles when the clock struck midnight on April 30.

The loss of the titles comes at the heels of a deal expiration and the introduction of a new streaming service. Netflix’s deal with Warner Bros., MGM, and Universal came to an end last night, which resulted in the loss. MGM and Universal titles will now be available for streaming through the $10-a-month service, Warner Archive Instant.

While the vast majority of the films will not be sorely missed, the loss could be an indicator of Netflix’s future.

“This licensing deal lapse could just be the beginning of Netflix losing key content that keeps its subscribers coming back,” writes Business Insider’s Kevin Smith.

To further add to the loss, it was recently reported that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is considering not renewing a deal with Viacom. If Mr. Hastings does not renew then Netflix will lose titles from networks such as MTV, Nickelodeon, and BET.

Streamageddon 2013 also serves as a reminder of the "great Starz purge of 2012." Just last year, Netflix ended its contract with Starz, consequently losing many big-name movies.

Joris Evers, a Netflix spokesperson, told CNET that a lot of the titles lost came to Netflix as part of a deal with the TV station Epix.

“The vast majority of the titles that expire on Wednesday are older features that were aggregated by Epix," says Evers, according to CNET. "We recently added many great, more recent titles such as ParaNorman (Universal), Hunger Games (Epix), Safe (Epix) and Bachelorette (Weinstein). Tomorrow we will also add MI:2, among many other titles.”

In an e-mail to Mashable, Netflix released an official statement explaining that it will add more than 500 titles today.

“Netflix is a dynamic service, we constantly update the TV shows and movies that are available to our members. We will add more than 500 titles May 1, but we also have titles expiring, this ebb and flow happens all the time,” says the official statement sent to Mashable. “We are selective about what’s available to watch on Netflix. We often license TV shows and movies on an exclusive basis, so we can provide a unique experience. We’ll forego, or choose not renew, titles that aren’t watched enough. We always use our knowledge about what our members love to watch to decide what’s available on Netflix.”

The statement goes on to explain that Netflix sees itself as an expert programmer that offers “a mix that delights our members, rather than trying to be a broad distributor.”

There’s much to speculate about Netflix’s future. The company has successfully launched two of its own series and has delighted users by creating new episodes of Arrested Development. However, the loss of titles whether popular or not, could prove to be detrimental.

For more tech news follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz 

An image displays what a DDoS attack can look like. This was a DDoS on Spamhaus, an anti-spam organization. (Reuters)

Reddit slammed by massive online attack

By Aimee Ortiz / 04.19.13

Reddit suffered a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack Friday that stretched into the afternoon.

At 6:02 a.m., the Reddit status Twitter account tweeted that the website was working to recover from what appeared to be a DDoS. A DDoS is when a botnet is sent out to cripple a server or to steal information from it. The source of the attack has not yet been announced.

A Reddit admin that goes by the username Alienth stated on an AskReddit thread that the person or people attacking the site have “a lot of time and bandwidth on their hands.” Alienth posted a graph of Reddit’s server load, claiming that none of the admins had ever seen an attack at this scale.

"All we know is it is blatantly malicious," says a Reddit representative, according to The Huffington Post.

The attack on Reddit comes the morning that Boston has shutdown as a citywide manhunt continues for one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. Reddit users had been actively pursuing and trying to help solve the bombing. The Internet sleuths offered high-res pictures and information with regards to the case. The users’ interests, however, did not always end successfully. Their own investigations have led to false accusations. As the manhunt began on Friday, Reddit featured a live stream of the breaking events. It is still unclear whether Friday’s events have anything to do with the DDoS attack on Reddit.

Reddit, in the meantime, has stated that it managed to “mitigate part of the DDoS at this time” but that “certain site functions are disabled.”

“The Internet’s not working. Or at least the self-styled ‘front page of the Internet,' ” writes VentureBeat’s John Koetsier. “One thing seems to be clear: The outages are deliberate, not simply caused by a flood of traffic from the ongoing Boston manhunt for the marathon bomber who remains at large.”

Reddit is working for the most part, but the site can be slow to load. For now, the website continues to handle the attack. 

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz

Google cofounder Sergey Brin wears a pair of Google Glass. (Eric Risberg/AP/File)

Google Glass guidelines: No ads, for now. No charging money, for now.

By Ben Frederick, Contributor / 04.18.13

 Google Glass guidelines for software developers were released this week, and the first prototype glasses have been shipping to developers and “Glass Explorers” in batches as they are produced. Those receiving early-access Glass have paid $1,500 for the privilege of field testing.

Along with the shipment, which some users can expect this week, the company released tech specs, and Google's device guidelines.

The guidelines’ terms of use don’t allow developers to place advertisements in the display of the device. They don’t allow developers to track information about the client for advertising purposes, or transmit the data to third-party advertisers (that doesn’t stop them from tracking the data, though).

Google also commands that apps, known as “Glassware,” to be free of charge. According to the New York Times, most developers expect these restrictions to be removed in time. 

Glassware will be cloud-based, meaning the apps don’t live directly on the device, which will have “12 GB of usable memory, synced with Google cloud storage,” according to the tech specs.

As Google’s business model evolves into hardware, rumors of brick-and-mortar Google stores solidify. They already have kiosks in Best Buys to educate consumers about Google’s Chromebook, Nexus tablets, and maybe Glass. Having their own store may help the company compete on the same level as Apple and Microsoft.

Many people see the potential for Glass to invade privacy, or to affect social mores. Mashable.com, envisioning a future where everyone used Google Glass, asked questions about the social and health effects of such a device.

These questions have some people on edge. As The Monitor reported before, the group “Stop the Cyborgs” opposes the potential loss of privacy, and the power of big data to pry into consumers’ lives.

For now though, a select few are living on the cutting edge of technology.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss pose at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston in this 2010 photo. The Winklevoss twins are expected to walk away with between $250 million and $350 million when Facebook goes public. (Adam Hunger/Reuters)

Winklevoss twins try to buy up bitcoin market

By Aimee Ortiz / 04.12.13

The Winklevoss twins (two major characters Facebook creation story) are back in the news, this time making headlines with their $11 million purchase of one percent of all bitcoins, the virtual currency. 

As of Thursday morning, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss own approximately 108,000 bitcoins. The virtual currency has had a volatile week. Bitcoins were trading for as high as $266 each on Wednesday. However, it crashed that same day and sent the online money plummeting down to $105. It eventually stabilized around $150.

So, what is bitcoin? It’s a virtual currency that was created in 2009 by an anonymous person (or people) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoins work on a peer-to-peer computer network. They are not backed by any government. They are worth only what people are willing to pay for them. 

Bitcoins are known for being favorites among hackers and, most notably, as the method of payment on Silk Road – a website where narcotics can be bought and sold. So, what would prompt the Olympic-rowing twins to invest in virtual money?

The New York Times Dealbook states that the Winklevoss brothers believe that the bitcoin will become the next gold.

“People really don’t want to take it seriously. At some point that narrative will shift to ‘virtual currencies are here to stay.’ We’re in the early days,” Cameron Winklevoss told the Times.

The twins also told the Times that the fluctuations are simply the “growing pains” for the bitcoin.

The brothers became known for their antagonistic roles in the movie "The Social Network." The film shows the real-life lawsuit the brothers had against Mark Facebook founder Zuckerberg, claiming that he had stolen their idea for Facebook. The pair settled for $45 million and Facebook stock.

For more tech news follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz 

The Facebook logo as it is displayed on an iPad. (Matt Rourke/AP)

General Motors gives Facebook another try

By Aimee Ortiz / 04.10.13

"If you love something, set it free; and if it comes back, then it’s yours." That proverb seems to ring true for General Motors and Facebook. GM has announced that it will test-run advertising with Facebook after their very public break-up last May, just before Facebook’s initial public offering.

It was very bad timing for Facebook -- a major company pulling out $10 million just before its IPO. But now, less than a year from the split, GM and Facebook have reunited to advertise Chevrolet’s subcompact car, the Sonic. The Sonic is being marketed toward young people.

GM pulled its paid advertisement at the behest of its former Chief Marketing Officer Joel Ewanick. Mr. Ewanick stopped paid ads with Facebook under the claim that there was no proof that such ads were more successful than the free GM brands pages.

However, many things have changed with Facebook since then. In January, reports were published that Facebook has become the most used mobile application in the United States. Close to a quarter of the time that Americans spend using mobile apps is taken up just on Facebook. It comes as no surprise, then, that GM will run its advertisements solely through Facebook's mobile site.

“It’s almost inevitable that they would be back," says Brennan White, directing manager of Pandemic Labs in Boston. “Facebook is the dominant mobile application. We’re seeing a huge increase in Facebook advertising dollars and Facebook mobile advertising.”

Mr. White explains that Facebook has put considerable effort into “cracking the mobile nut, so to speak.”  Big companies like GM can better target potential customers if they pair up with Facebook, he says.

So, what else caught GM’s attention?

Facebook’s latest additions proved attractive to the automobile maker, according to valuewalk.com.

“Another key feature is the introduction of FBX ad-exchange, which inserts highly targeted promos into the users’ timeline. It increased the likelihood of users seeing and clicking more ads,” writes Vikas Shukla of valuewalk.  

As was mentioned before, it was GM's Mr. Ewanick that decided against paid ads on Facebook. Ewanick was forced to leave GM last July after not giving full disclosure with regards to Chevy’s sponsorship of the soccer team Manchester United.

GM replaced him with Alan Batey, who has reversed many of Ewanick’s decisions.

In addition to returning to Facebook, Mr. Batey has also reversed Ewanick’s decision to split Chevrolet advertising between Goodby Silverstein and McCann Worldgroup, consolidating it under McCann and changed the “Chevy runs deep” campaign to “Find new roads.”

Mobile ads are becoming a big part of Facebook’s revenue. The recent unveiling of Facebook’s Home app could further cement its seat in the app-universe. The social-network giant estimates that 23 percent of its ad revenue in the fourth quarter came from mobile ad, according to CNN.

Will Facebook and GM stay together this time? Nothing is certain; the ads are, after all, a test-run. However, with the ad market turning digital, Facebook could play a much bigger part in many companies's ad plans.

For more tech news follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz

Models hold a Samsung Galaxy S III Mini phone and a Galaxy S III phone during the Mini's world premiere in Frankfurt in October. Samsung is expected to open 1,400 mini-stores in Best Buy. ( Reuters)

Samsung to open mini-stores in Best Buys

By Aimee Ortiz / 04.04.13

In what looks like a direct challenge to Apple, Samsung has teamed up with Best Buy to bring Samsung boutiques into Best Buys nation-wide.

The Samsung Experience Shop will take up an entire section of Best Buy stores and will display Samsung phones, laptops, cameras, tablets, television, and, of course, accessories.

In addition to a centralized shopping “experience,” owners of Samsung products will have access to in-store customer service.

The mini-shops, set to begin opening on April 8, will have Samsung employees there to assist consumers looking for new gadgets.

“This is our first opportunity to demonstrate connected mobile products in a location with educated Samsung employees able to walk a consumer through the experience,” says vice president of retail marketing for Samsung Mobile's American unit Ketrina Dunagan, according to ZDNet.

Ms. Dunagan goes on to say that "70 percent of the population lives within 10 miles of a Best Buy." A centralized shop for all Samsung products means that Samsung will be able to reach that wide audience.

According to a COMscore report released in March, Samsung holds 21.4 percent of the American smart-phone market. That’s just behind Apple, who ranked first with 37.8 percent.

“This effort is the last of a three-legged stool, from products to marketing and now retail,” says Dunagan, according to Bloomberg News.

Best Buy already sells Apple products from special, dedicated sections on the showroom floor. The Samsung Experience Shop, however, will be larger and will allow customers to purchase Samsung products directly.

Of course, Samsung already has retail locations, however, those shops have not had the success or popularity of Apple stores.

“Operating standalone retail stores has been a huge advantage for Apple, but it's a strategy that few companies have been able to replicate,” writes CNet’s Shara Tibken.

ZDNet’s Charlie Osborne explains that opening shops inside Best Buys will save Samsung the vast amount of money and time required to build multiple retail locations.

The announcement could also shake up Best Buy's fortunes. The Minnesota-based retailer has seen a decline in sales, due in part to stiff competition from other retailers like Amazon and Walmart.

“For Best Buy, the move could help further establish the retailer as a player in the mobile segment and reverse trends that have seen Best Buy struggling as consumers increasingly opt for Internet-based shopping,” writes AppleInsider’s Kevin Bostic.

Best Buy’s struggles are nothing new. In a world where CDs and DVDs have been replaced by digital files, the tech retailer has had to find different ways to keep afloat. After realizing that customers were window-shopping in stores but purchasing the items online, Best Buy began to match online prices.

Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly was hired in August to the lead a “turnaround.” Mr. Joly says the Samsung Experience Shop will help revive the store.

So, will taking a page out of Apple’s book help Samsung and Best Buy? We’ll find out by June. 

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz

Indoor GPS would allow Apple's iPhone, and other devices, to give users detailed navigation in buildings. Here, a man looks at his iPhone's screen as he walks down a street in downtown Shanghai. (Carlos Barria/Reuters/File)

Indoor GPS: Why tech companies want to track you inside

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.28.13

Every modern phone has a GPS built in, and some sort of navigation service to give you directions on the highway. But as soon as you get out of the car, that service isn't much use -- you might be able to guide yourself to a store that's a block away, but as soon as you step indoors you're out of luck. GPS can't help you find your friends in a mall, or direct you to the correct gate at an airport. 

But that might change soon. This week Apple purchased Silicon Valley start-up WiFiSLAM, an "indoor GPS" company whose technology can pinpoint a device's location indoors. Indoor GPS works by using Wi-Fi signals, as well as data from phone sensors like a compass and accelerometer, to enable much more precise tracking than is possible with regular GPS. The company says that it can peg a user's indoor location to within 2.5 meters, or about 8 feet.

So far, WiFiSLAM has been marketing its technology to app developers who want to be able to make indoor maps, according to Jessica Lessin at The Wall Street Journal. That might also allow for new kinds of retail apps -- picture what it would be like to have your phone give you sale information about whatever kind of produce you're standing in front of at the grocery store.

The purchase of WiFiSLAM is almost certainly a way for Apple to step up its mapping game against rival Google. Google Maps has included indoor navigation for a little while already, albeit only for buildings that the company has mapped already -- things like sports arenas and shopping centers. (Google says its database includes 10,000 buildings in 13 countries.) Apple, meanwhile, foundered initially as its own mapping service debuted last year to critical reviews. The company has since worked hard to improve Apple Maps, and WiFiSLAM could be a big step up -- for starters, since the technology relies partially on data from phone sensors, everyone using an iPhone indoors would be helping to create maps of the buildings they're in.

Indoor GPS, of course, raises some privacy concerns -- not least because it would allow Apple, or any other company that employs it, to collect pretty specific data on users' movements and habits. Since companies need to find a way to make money on services like this, it's probably not reasonable to expect a free indoor GPS that also completely respects users' privacy.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

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Apple introduced two-factor authentication to iCloud accounts this week, adding an additional layer of security against hacking attacks. Here, people walk past an Apple logo at a shopping center in central Beijing. (Petar Kujundzic/Reuters/File)

Apple tightens account security with two-factor authentication

By Jeff Ward-Bailey, Contributor / 03.22.13

Eight months ago, Wired writer Mat Honan's iCloud account was hacked. By exploiting some loopholes in Apple's and Amazon's security practices, the hackers were able to remotely wipe Honan's iPhone, iPad, and Macbook, and take over his Twitter and Google accounts as well. Mr. Honan's story spread, and in response to the concerns of other users Apple and Amazon quietly took measures to increase their security.

This week, Apple introduced two-factor authentication to iCloud, adding an additional layer of security that addresses some of the lingering flaws exposed by the Honan hack. 

Two-factor authentication works by requiring both something you know, and something you have, before you can get into an account. Right now iCloud accounts require only a password, which is backed up by security questions (think of standards like "What was your mother's maiden name?"). Two-factor authentication introduces a device -- like a phone or tablet -- into the equation. When someone tries to access an account from an unrecognized device, Apple sends a verification code to that account's "trusted" device, and the code must be entered in order to open the account. In theory, hackers can't get in without having physical access to the trusted device.

If you're interested in setting up two-factor security (and live in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand), you can head over to the Apple ID site and click on the "Password and Security" tab. Once you've identified your "trusted device," you're pretty much set. Two-factor authentication does away with security questions, which in and of itself probably makes your account safer -- since, in many cases, those questions can be answered based on publicly-available information.

Two-factor authentication is becoming more popular as a security measure: Google, Facebook, Twitter, and many other services all have two-step security options, although they're implemented slightly differently by different companies.

In Apple's case, the authentication code is sent either by text message to a particular phone number, or to the Find My iPhone app, if it's installed. When you set up two-factor authentication the first time, you'll get a recovery key that can be used to access your account in case you forget your password. That's important, since once two-factor security is installed Apple can no longer reset your password for you. (Depending on how you view it, that might actually be an upside: Apple's ability to reset passwords was a key part of the hack that Mat Honan suffered.)

Do you have two-factor security on any of your accounts? Do you feel it's kept your information safe? Share your stories in the comments section below.

For more tech news, follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffwardbailey.

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This file image of a screen grab provided by Google Inc. shows the YouTube website. (Google Inc./AP/File)

YouTube: Eight years in and 1 billion people strong

By Aimee Ortiz / 03.21.13

YouTube has reached one billion monthly users, crossing the threshold a mere five months after Facebook. 

The now Google-owned company announced the achievement at a press event and on its blog on Wednesday. So what does this mean? According to YouTube, one billion users means that “nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube” and it doesn’t stop there.

The numbers

The official blog goes on to explain that YouTube’s monthly viewership is the same as roughly 10 Super Bowl audiences. It also claims that if YouTube were a country, it would be the third biggest country in the world – surpassed only by China and India. Or, as YouTube so quaintly put it, one billion users would mean that Madonna and Psy would have to perform Gangnam Style for a packed audience 200,000 times.

According to YouTube’s statistics page, 72 hours of video are uploaded each minute and over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month. Some 70 percent of that traffic comes from outside of the US. YouTube is localized in 53 countries and comes in 61 languages.

Alexa.com, which tracks website popularity, ranks YouTube as the third most popular site in the world behind Google and Facebook, respectively.

The competition

It’s not surprising to see YouTube ranked near Google and Facebook but what about the other sites? Alexa ranked Yahoo in the fourth spot and Baidu.com, a Chinese-language search engine, nabbed number five. 

So where did other popular sites land? Wikipedia swept up the sixth spot and retail giant, Amazon, sits at number nine. 

The little bluebird of the Internet, Twitter, comes in at number 11.

Then and now

YouTube, which began back in 2005, quickly rose to global success. The website was started by three ex-Paypal employees who saw an opening in the market. By November 2006, the company had reached such fame and success that Google bought it for $1.65 billion.

What started off as a small start-up company has blossomed into a giant subsidiary of Google. In fact, YouTube's success has played a part in the decline of television viewership. 

“To appreciate how important YouTube is, it’s worth knowing the Television Bureau of Advertising reported that total ad spend last year was $74 billion, “ writes Forbes contributor Mike Rogowsky. “And a lot of that money went to television networks whose audience is disappearing in the click of a mouse or the tap of an app.”

The same Forbes article explains the drastic the drop in TV viewers. According to Mr. Rogowsky, "It wasn’t that long ago that a show could become big and find an audience of nearly 20 million regulars (think early Grey’s Anatomy). Now, something like NBC’s Revolution is considered successful with less than half that."

What’s next

While Google's plans for YouTube's future are still a mystery, a small glimpse may have already been released. 

“YouTube confirmed early this year that its evolution as an Internet stage for video may include subscriptions to content that creators expect people would pay to watch,” writes the AFP. 

For YouTube, the road to fortune is paved in cat videos, music, professional content, and more importantly, the people in front of the computer screen. 

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz