The US tech blogs have got onto the fact that Apple has acquired face recognition experts Polar Rose in a deal value varying between $22 million and $30 million, depending on who you believe. So far it has been used in automatic tagging for Facebook pics, but there are apps out there on smart phones which recognize who you took a picture of and file it accordingly, and there may be many other uses linking social nets to phone function. Apple already has face recognition software in its iPhoto photo management app, but perhaps it needs more of a specialist edge.
The most worrying story of the week must be the fact that Intel confirms that an internet posted decryption key which unlocks HDCP, the system supposed to give link protection when delivering HD content around a home through HDMI wires and their ilk, so between Blu-ray players and TV sets for instance. HDCP checks if the receiving device is set up to make copies and if it is blocks the delivery. If it’s key is out in the wild, rather like DeCSS was for DVDs, it means pirates can create pirate configurations of linked devices and copy over an HDMI or DVI cable with impunity. Intel confirmed one of the master keys was seen in the wild, but says that it would still cost a pirate a fortune to build equipment to take advantage of it. Spend a fortune to win a fortune? Sounds like venture capital.
Deluxe Digital Cinema in the US has joined up with EchoStar Satellite Services to form Deluxe/EchoStar, a joint venture which will build a digital cinema satellite distribution network targeting delivery to digitally equipped theaters in the US and Canada. This will put it head to head with Technicolor which has already built such a network over the internet. It also helped arrange funding for upgrades to digital cinemas, and has the prime movie distribution contracts for much of Hollywood. It’s not going to be an easy market entry for Deluxe.
Microsoft said this week it will expand Zune, it’s digital entertainment service into Europe this fall. It’s only 5 years since iTunes did the same thing. It’s all part of Microsoft Zune’s plan to build an almost global footprint of services and put the Zune services on Phone 7 handsets. Microsoft said it will bring the Zune Marketplace online store, Zune Pass music subscription service and enhanced features on Zune.net to new markets, for Windows-based PCs, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox LIVE. The software will be downloadable for free in more than 20 countries, including the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Zune Pass will be launched in the UK, France, Italy and Spain and is a monthly subscription service which will cost €9.99 (£8.99) a month for unlimited streaming and the ability to keep 10 MP3s per month.
VideoEgg, which like its pretentious name has a pretentious description – brand engagement pioneer ‘ said it will acquire Six Apart, which offers ‘conversational media’ and form a new brand called SAY Media. The two say they reach a global audience of 345 million ‘Offering systemic ways for advertisers to engage the social consumer in an era when attention is scarce and interruptive ad models are less effective.’ Well at least that last part makes sense. Video Egg is really an advertising network, which strives to engage people and Six Apart uses social media to attract attention to brands, so both together could be quite effective ‘ if they actually use English words to describe themselves.
US video chip specialist Zoran says that Netherlands based conditional access company Irdeto has certified that Zoran SupraXD 170 and SupraXD 180 processors can offer secure delivery of digital content to pay TV set top boxes using Irdeto’s conditional access system. Zoran is hell bent on turning itself into a set top company, and it is likely that it has a customer ready to take the combined system. Likely customers are in China and India, where Zoran has design wins in two out of six satellite TV suppliers so far, and given that Irdeto has its CEO and many design wins in and around China.
The FCC is about to solidify its White Space rules which will allow equipment vendors to offer broadband in the spaces that exist between chunks of TV UHF spectrum. One issue has been that wireless microphones work in the anticipated spectrum, so we are expecting some frequencies to be set aside for that. While broadcasters illogically want to limit the size of antennas used for it, although all that will do is make it more expensive to build out, not stop interference. The system needs a special geolocation database and GPS built into every device, transmitter or receiver so that it knows physically where it is and what other signals are supposed to be protected in that area. The new rules are expected to be out later this week.
More evidence is mounting that Sony and/or Sony Ericsson, is readying a gaming-centric device which is also a phone. This time it is a job listing which has added fuel to the rumors. An advert looking for Android experience has been seen and since been edited to get rid of the references to the new platform, but they were in earlier versions. Parts of the advert talk openly about gaming on a mobile platform. The applicant will need to know about cloud hosting, Android, mobile and gaming, so get your CVs out.
The US video IP business, Rovi, said at IBC that it has new relationships with 19 European content providers, who want to deliver their content through Rovi’s TotalGuide. That brings the total number of content providers to 34 in Europe. Rovi says that more than 260 TV applications will be available on TotalGuide across 21 countries. New members include Betfair, IndieMoviesOnline and LoveFiLM.
US Home gateway company 2Wire, recently acquired by UK set top maker Pace, has just introduced a new HomePortal intelligent residential gateway which supports VDSL apps such as triple play in the home. 2Wire says that the predecessor to the new 3801HGV gateway, the HomePortal 3800HGV gateway, is the most widely deployed VDSL gateway in the world.