October 2012

In NYC, Show Goes On, Even Sans Audience

For the second night in a row, superstorm Sandy and its aftermath forced David Letterman to live out that performer's nightmare: Telling jokes to a vacant theater, or as he called it, "a big ol' empty barn."

Letterman hosting the "Late Show" to an unpeopled Ed Sullivan Theater was the oddest sight of the considerable and continuing cultural fallout of the hurricane that left New York institutions like Broadway, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center no more open for business than the city's damaged subway system. But the New York entertainment industry was fighting to go on with the show, and none more than several of the city's late-night shows. Though "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show" canceled tapings for the second day, the "Late Show," Jimmy Fallon's "Late Night" and a traveling out-of-towner, ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," went ahead with shows.

ABC Sites Log Record Traffic During Storm

Two ABC stations found a little bit of a silver lining in the clouds of Hurricane Sandy, as the websites of New York’s WABC and Philadelphia’s WPVI recorded record traffic during the storm. Both stations made their broadcasts available on desktops, as well as across all mobile devices for the first time, according to a spokesperson for the network.

Networks Top Ratings with Storm Coverage

For the first time in a long time, CNN beat competitors Fox News and MSNBC in the 25-54 demo in both primetime (1.09 million to FNC's 875,000 and MSNBC's 477,000) and total day (546,000 to FNC's 528,000 and MSNBC's 260,000), though it lagged FNC in total viewers in both categories. It's been a bittersweet few days for the Weather Channel, another network with viewership that fluctuates wildly depending on breaking news. Two weeks after laying off 7 percent of its workforce, the network had its biggest day of the year, with an all-day average of 2.04 million viewers and a healthy 800,000 viewers in its key demographic, adults 25-54. It was also, notably, the highest-delivering cable network in that demo from 6 to 9 a.m. and outperformed all of cable news all day in the key demo.

After Sandy, Wi-Fi Becomes Precious Commodity

During an emergency, one of the most precious commodities is information and the ability to communicate it without impediments. When the old reliable phone networks are creaky and central offices are flooded and wireless phone networks are strained to the breaking point with demand for voice calls, one of the most precious things someone might be able to find is an open, free and reliable Wi-Fi connection. With power out south of about 34th Street in Manhattan and throughout much of New Jersey and Long Island, it seems a little ridiculous at first to wonder where the steadiest free and open Wi-Fi hotspots are. But the need is there.

Comcast offers free Wi-Fi service to all in Sandy's path

Comcast will allow anyone regardless of whether they are a customer or not to access its Xfinity Wi-Fi hot spots in several states hit by megastorm Sandy. The cable operator, which with its cable partners operates 50,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in public places throughout country, said that it would make its hot spots available to anyone who needs them regardless of whether or not users are Comcast customers. (This service is typically password-protected and available only to Comcast or its partners' broadband customers.) The states where Comcast is offering the service include: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Washington (DC), Virginia, West Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.

T-Mobile and AT&T Will Share Networks in Storm-Damaged Areas

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, much of lower Manhattan has completely lost electricity and cell reception. T-Mobile USA and AT&T said that in the affected areas of New York and New Jersey, their customers would be able to use the networks of both companies, decreasing the likelihood of failed calls. In a statement, T-Mobile USA said that when customers of both AT&T and T-Mobile place calls, the calls would be carried by whichever network is available in the area. Both networks use similar technologies, so switching between them will be seamless, and there will not be an additional charge, the company said.

Getting the Most Out of Your Smartphone Battery

Hurricane Sandy has left many people on the East Coast without power. As smartphones have been lifelines for many to family members, local authorities, news and other important information, those dealing with the aftermath are looking for ways to make their batteries last until power returns.

Dim the Screen: Persistent display at the brightest level is a surefire way to put your Smartphone battery into early retirement. Reducing the amount of energy your phone uses on a regular basis will pay immediate dividends.
Notifications: Pick a ringtone instead of vibrate, which uses more energy. Sometimes vibrate is preferable to a ringtone, but try to use it only as needed.
Turn off those Apps: Turning off non-essential functions when they are not in use will go a long way to extending the amount of hours in a battery in settings. Among the biggest energy hogs are GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. All three continuously search for signals/location info whether you are using them or not, so while this is useful when you’re lost, it is not when you are found. Click on your Smartphone’s settings to see what apps are active.
Try an Extended Life Battery: Still need more battery time? An extended life battery can provide several additional hours of use. Or, pick up a portable battery power pack. It’s an easy way to charge your phone on the go, allowing complete access to your phone as it charges.

The Math Behind Disney’s Star Wars Deal

Disney is paying George Lucas $4 billion for his Star Wars empire. Did it get a good deal? That all depends, of course, on whether people want to see the next three Star Wars movies Disney says it is lining up.

It’s a tricky bit of guesstimating, because the people who were young enough to be wowed by Lucas’ first installment when it debuted in 1977, are now oldsters who are 40 and much older. And many of those same people despise the last three movies he put out. But if a new generation of kids like this stuff, then Disney is in good shape. Bernstein’s Todd Juenger figures Lucasfilm does $860 million in revenue a year right now. Next you have to guess what kind of performance Disney will get from the new movies. If each of next three 3 movies does “Avengers”-like numbers, they’ll generate $1.5 billion at the box office, $2.8 billion overall, and generate $1 billion each in profits, and the deal works out for Bob Iger and his successor.

What does the Disney buyout mean for LucasArts' gaming catalog?

The Disney-Lucasfilm deal also included LucasArts, a company with a storied history including hundreds of games, based on both existing Lucasfilm properties and original ideas.

Disney itself is no stranger to gaming, publishing everything from Warren Spector's Epic Mickey to mobile puzzler Where's My Water through its Disney Interactive label. Could the company put those same gaming resources toward reviving Star Wars gaming franchises like Dark Forces or the X-Wing games, or even the more recent Star Wars Battlefront? Not so fast. In a conference call following the announcement, Disney CEO Bob Iger noted that the company is "likely to focus more on social and mobile than we are on console," as far as Star Wars-based games go. "We'll look opportunistically at console, most likely in licensing rather than publishing, but we think that given the nature of these characters and how well-known they are, and the storytelling... they lend themselves quite nicely—as they've already demonstrated—to the other platforms." That bit about "social and mobile" may seem disheartening to fans of Star Wars strategy and shooter games, but there's reason not to get too gloomy. Iger specifically left the door open for licensing the property to other companies for other platforms, a situation that really wouldn't be a huge change from how the company has handled its Star Wars titles of late.

GoDaddy suspends GOP ad firm's websites for anti-Obama texts

Virginia-based GOP advertising firm ccAdvertising was behind a flood of anti-Obama text messages sent the night of October 30, according to Web domain records.

By the morning of Oct 31, GoDaddy, a domain registrar, had suspended the firm's websites for spam and abuse. ccAdvertising did not respond to a request for comment. It is unclear how many people received the unsolicited messages, but many people in the Washington, D.C., metro area took to Twitter and other social media sites on Tuesday night to complain about the unusual campaign tactic. Federal Communications Commission regulations and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 prohibit unsolicited autodialed text messages. Firms are subject to a $16,000 fine for each illegal text message.

Benton

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