AMAZON’S LOVEFILM GETS UNIVERSAL MOVIES May 30, 2012 LOVEFILM, the movie on demand service owned by Amazon, yesterday announced a partnership with film giant Universal. Lovefilm subscribers will be able to stream the latest Universal releases, including Snow White and the Huntsman (pictured above), via a range of devices including computers, tablets and games consoles.
Music and film industries offer concessions to keep HMV afloat January 20, 2013 THE WORLD’S biggest music and film companies are backing a takeover attempt for HMV, and are considering new supply terms to keep a rejuvenated company afloat. The likes of Universal Music and Warner Bros are understood to be exploring a range of options, such as cutting prices on CDs and DVDs or easing payment terms. [...]
Sainsbury’s sizes up to Amazon with ebook platform purchase June 12, 2012 RETAIL giant Sainsbury’s yesterday took its first step into the ebook market, taking on the likes of Amazon and WH Smith with the purchase of a majority stake in digital books platform Anobii. The supermarket paid a nominal £1 for struggling music vendor HMV’s stake in the online books retailer and expects to hold a [...]
Barnes & Noble’s Nook has weaker Christmas period January 3, 2013 US book retailer Barnes & Noble saw its fledgling Nook ereader unit falter over the Christmas season, as it sold fewer devices than in the same period last year, and saw growth in sales of digital books and magazines fall. The company, which launched its range of ereaders and tablets in the UK in time [...]
Apple agrees to back down on ebook pricing… December 13, 2012 APPLE and a group of major publishers have backed down over the pricing of ebooks, in a move that could see Amazon set lower prices. The four publishers – Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette Livre and Macmillan – as well as the technology giant reached an agreement with European authorities following a competition investigation. The [...]
Tablets that don’t cost the earth November 21, 2012 AMAZON KINDLE FIRE HD Amazon.co.uk, £129 (seven inch) The Kindle Fire was hailed as the first serious challenger to Apple’s domination of the tablet market – a colour e-reader with access to the web that seamlessly integrated with your Amazon account. In reality it was too heavy and too ugly to ever set the tablet [...]
Kodak patents go for $525m December 19, 2012 KODAK has agreed to sell some of its patents to a group including Google and Apple for $525m (£323m). The bankrupt photography firm is selling the patents in order to pay off its massive debts. However, they reached far less than the $2.6bn that had originally been floated. It is selling around 1,100 patents to [...]
Hot in the kitchen: the top gadgets February 21, 2013 Panasonic Automatic Breadmaker This is the Rolls-Royce of bread-makers. It comes with a diamond-tipped kneading blade and non stick surface that will create delicious loaves from scratch. £119.99, currys.co.uk DeLonghi Icona 310.R This espresso-maker not only looks great in your kitchen (especially in fire-engine red), it also makes a knockout espresso. It is simple to [...]
US investors buy defensive sectors’ stock January 29, 2013 US stocks advanced yesterday, led by defensive sectors, in a sign the cash piles recently moving into the market are being put to use by cautious investors to pick up more gains. S&P 500 is on track to post its best monthly performance since October 2011 and its best January since 1997 as investors poured [...]
Big four tax bosses defend their firms during grilling from MPs January 31, 2013 TAX heads at the big four accountancy firms clashed with MPs yesterday over their role in helping large companies to reduce their tax bills. Margaret Hodge, who chairs the public accounts committee, called for PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young to be banned from doing work for the government in light of the loopholes [...]