Netflix, Discovery in TV streaming deal

Netflix Inc. (NFLX-Q132.222.862.21%) and Discovery Communications Inc. reached an agreement to bring episodes of popular TV adventure shows including Man vs. Wild and River Monsters to the streaming service, the companies confirmed on Wednesday.The deal is the first major move by Discovery to make full episodes of its TV shows available for instant streaming, expanding well beyond the short clips that are now available...

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Netflix scoops DreamWorks Animation streaming deal from HBO

Netflix, the DVD and online video subscription service, will this week try to bounce back from a torrid few months in which its shares have halved in value as it unveils a new streaming deal with DreamWorks Animation, the company behind the Shrek films. The deal could be announced as early as Monday, according to people familiar with the situation. DreamWorks Animation is under contract with HBO, the Time Warner-owned cable channel, until the end...

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Retailers slash prices on RIM’s PlayBook tablet

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM-T) is heavily discounting its PlayBook tablet, joining a growing number of companies trying to compete with Apple’s (AAPL-Q) ultra-popular iPad by slashing prices on their own mobile devices. Retailers from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to Best Buy Co. Inc. have begun offering steep discounts on RIM’s tablet computer, which has suffered from disappointing sales since its release in April. The move, part of RIM’s strategy to subsidize...

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BlackBerry users report problems with BBM service

Beleaguered Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM-T) acknowledged Friday that it is having problems with the popular BBM instant messaging service on its BlackBerry devices. In a posting on its Twitter feed, the company said some Canadian and Latin American customers have reported BBM issues, and BlackBerry support teams are investigating the problemThe Twittersphere was rife with complaints on Friday morning – from users in Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean...

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Vocre translation app learns to talk like a local

Asking the way to the bus station in a foreign language is one thing, but travellers often have difficulty with more nuanced requests in localized dialects. But Vocre, a new iPhone app released by translation company myLanguage, leverages crowd-sourcing to continually improve the accuracy of its translations to allow people to express themselves in the same way as native speakers. “It’s like asking your friend down the street, ‘How would I say this...

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Apple shares dip on report iPad orders slashed by 25 per cent

Apple Inc (AAPL-Q403.17-1.13-0.28%) shares dipped nearly three prr cent in early trading after an analyst said the iPhone maker is cutting orders from suppliers of parts for its iPad tablet. JPMorgan Chase (JPM.PR.B-N25.500.040.16%) said in the research note that several suppliers indicated in the past two weeks that Apple lowered fourth-quarter iPad orders by 25 percent.Our understanding is that this is not in preparation for a new model launch,”...

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Falling NASA satellite to pass over Canada

A 6-ton NASA satellite on a collision course with Earth clung to space Friday, apparently flipping position in its ever-lower orbit and stalling its death plunge. The old research spacecraft was targeted to crash through the atmosphere sometime Friday night or early Saturday, putting Canada and Africa in the potential crosshairs, although most of the satellite should burn up during re-entry. The United States wasn't entirely out of the woods; the...

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NASA launches spacecraft on five-year trip to Jupiter

A sun-powered robotic explorer named Juno rocketed away Friday on a five-year journey to Jupiter, the solar system's most massive and ancient planet. Hundreds of scientists and their families and friends watched from just a few miles away, cheering and yelling, “Go Juno!” as the NASA spacecraft soared into a clear midday sky atop an unmanned rocket.“It's fantastic!” said Fran Bagenal, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder,...

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NASA launches twin satellites to study insides of moon

A pair of spacecraft rocketed toward the moon Saturday on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what’s inside Earth’s orbiting companion – all the way down to the core. “I could hardly be happier,” said the lead scientist, Maria Zuber. After two days of delays and almost another, “I was trying to be as calm as I could be.”NASA launched the near identical probes – named Grail-A and Grail-B – aboard a relatively small...

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Reports NASA satellite debris fell in Alberta may be misguided

NASA’s massive defunct satellite hit Earth Saturday, followed by rampant – and perhaps misguided – speculation that it crashed near a city in Alberta. NASA does not know where the six-ton piece of space junk landed, but excited Twitter users are pushing for Okotoks, immediately south of Calgary.But Dr. Phil Langill, director of the University of Calgary's Rothney Astrophysical Observatory 30 kilometres southwest of Calgary, said he hasn't heard anything...

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Facebook Apps create up to 2.3 lakh jobs; $15 bn in salaries

Social networking website Facebook, known as a platform for connecting with friends and acquaintances, also seems to be helping create lakhs of jobs, syas a new study.According to the study by the University of Maryland's Robert H Smith School of Business, the proliferation of various Facebook-related applications could have created more than two lakh jobs this year alone in the US with salaries totalling more than USD 15 billion. Facebook applications...

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Google+ opens up, takes fight to Facebook

Google Inc and Facebook trotted out a variety of new social networking features in back-to-back announcements on Tuesday, underscoring their intensifying competition for Web surfers.Google integrated its flagship search engine into its 3-month old social network -- with membership now open to the Internet public -- and expanded its Hangouts video-chat feature to allow mobile use and broadcasting. The company said on its official blog its well-received...

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Government by smartphone

Cap Gemini undertakes an annual report on how payments are processed. One statistic jumps out: “The volume of mobile payments is expected to grow at almost a 50 per cent rate in the next three years.” These are payments made using a cellphone or mobile wallet, rather than cash, cheque or credit card. Most of us are familiar with mobile payment as the platform for making iTunes purchases or buying apps on the iPhone. Many transit systems allow their...

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