Media

We've still got about five months before the new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 launch in North America, and already blood has been spilled.

From Microsoft gathering an arguably more impressive stable of exclusive games, to Sony revealing the lack of restrictions on PS4 games and a $100 lower price -- to Microsoft now doing a complete 180 on its DRM policies, this next console launch may be one of the most exciting and brutal yet.

And I can't wait to comfortably watch from the sidelines, praising Thor I'm not in either of their shoes.… Read more

MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom was ranting from his Twitter page on Wednesday about his site's former hosting service wiping out users' files.

Dotcom's legal battle with the U.S. government forced him to turn over the data from MegaUpload's severs, but copies were housed on the hosting site LeaseWeb, according to his angry tweets. He said the web-hosting company deleted millions of files, "petabytes of pictures, backups, personal & business property," without warning, earlier this year.

Read more about it at ZDNet: Kim Dotcom: Petabytes of MegaUpload users' data has been destroyed

Twitter has signed a deal to begin delivering social video ads built around Viacom's most popular TV shows.

In the announcement, put out by Viacom, the two companies said that the campaigns would center around shows aired on networks like MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, VH1, CMT, TV Land, Spike and more. The first ads will appear during the MTV Video Music Awards on August 25. During that show, MTV will tweet a series of the most notable moments, as well as backstage access, interviews, and more, all with integrated advertising.

Bloomberg first reported in April that a deal between … Read more

Apple TV is getting live sports and "Game of Thrones" beamed straight to its box, as Apple announces Time Warner's HBO Go and Disney's WatchESPN apps are now available.

But confounding would-be cord cutters, most of the content appears limited to people who already subscribe to a pay-TV provider. It was a sticking point Apple had reportedly fought against.

Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of software and services, predicted in a statement that HBO GO and WatchESPN still will be "huge hits on Apple TV," given the two apps are some of … Read more

The dulcet tones of Apple's Siri and Google Now are getting high marks from most users, but Siri's enticing them to more tasks more often, according to a survey by market research firm Parks Associates.

Adoption rates for voice control are up from last year, climbing to about a fifth of broadband users, and both Apple's Siri technology and Google Now are commonly used for many functions.

But in most cases, save for sending text messages, Siri edges out Google Now in adoption.

Among Siri users, 48 percent turn to the feature for five or more activities … Read more

Apple spent the previous days trying to restate its values and show that it is a company of principle, not one of fad or glut.

Some think the WWDC presentation was no revolution. Others believe it offered some sturdy indications of the right sort of obstinacy and of a consistency of design perspective.

In an attempt to reinforce that thought, Apple released a video (embedded below) that expressed its simple intentions -- not to confuse abundance with choice, for example.

I am grateful to The Loop for spotting that a wag who might have been positively moved by these thoughts … Read more

There has long been a tendency for some media to publish all the news that's fit to be found out through any means possible.

One of those means is the hacking of voice mails. Indeed, News Corp. has settled hundreds of claims from famous people and those temporarily in the news for reasons that might be as sad as they might be trifling.

Now a woman who stood in for Angelina Jolie in dangerous times (but not in sex scenes with Brad Pitt in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith") says that her voice mails were allegedly hacked too.… Read more

Fox Broadcasting is broadening how online viewers can watch its scripted-drama franchise WIGS, expanding the most popular series "Blue" and others to Hulu, beyond just YouTube.

"Blue" has blown past 20 million views on Google's video site, but expanding the program to a lesser-watched platform suggests YouTube's recent push for premium-style content can be complicated.

Ad-supported Hulu and subscription service Hulu Plus now have the first two seasons of "Blue" available. The show, which stars Julia Stiles as a mom who is also an upscale escort, is in a longer, TV-like format … Read more

There's nothing worse than a senseless death.

Not that any death makes sense, of course. But it's easier to accept someone dying of sheer old age than a 16-year-old being crushed in a car because she was texting Polly about the dimples on Charlie's cheeks.

This week, advertising's loudest are meeting at the Cannes Advertising Festival. One campaign doing absurdly well is an absurdist effort from Australia that tries to stop people doing stupid things around trains.

Called "Dumb Ways to Die," it takes the silliness of how people die around trains and raises … Read more