By Jessica Roy 4/16 7:44am

Linkages

Bye bye. (Photo: Netflix)

Booting Up: Netflix Is Finally Going to Ditch Microsoft Silverlight

If you were hoping to get rich off of being one of the first to build apps for Google Glass, think again: Google has prohibited developers from using ads or charging for apps. We’re betting Google wants to keep  that potential ad revenue all to itself. [The Verge]

Sources tell Bloomberg Twitter is seeking a deal with Viacom and Comcast that would allow it to host clips (as well as ads alongside those clips) on the site. Can’t you at least verify @Jack’s parents first? [Bloomberg]

Binge-watching shows is about to get a whole lot easier: Netflix is finally ditching Microsoft Silverlight in favor of HTML5 video. [The Verge]

IBM execs are headed to Washington to try to convince politicians to pass CISPA. Paging Alexis Ohanian! [Hillicon Valley]

Cory Booker’s Waywire startup has finally launched in beta. [PandoDaily]

By Jessica Roy 12/10/12 3:00pm

McAfee Speaks

Like Romeo and Juliet. (Photo: Robert King/Vice)

Sorry, Suckers: Montreal Production Company Secures Rights to Inevitable John McAfee Biopic

When not blogging from a prison cell, antivirus software creator John McAfee is reportedly busy planning the next iteration of his media blitz: The Hollywood Reporter writes that Mr. McAfee has successfully sold his life rights to a TV production company called Impact Future Media.

Mr. McAfee has skillfully played the media these past few months, getting a Wired reporter to speak on his behalf and telling his story to Gizmodo before inviting Vice to join him in his escape from Belize. That decision ended with his capture when a Vice employee published an iPhone photo still containing the metadata that revealed his location. Mr. McAfee still managed to temporarily convince Vice‘s photographer to lie for him. Read More

By Jessica Roy 12/06/12 9:00am

Dreams Do Come True

(Photo: MTV)

Silicon Valley Finally Gets the TV Treatment It Deserves, From the Dude Who Wrote ‘Beavis and Butt-head’

If the sunny, overblown drama of Bravo’s Start-Ups: Silicon Valley has left you aching for a bleaker take on Valley culture, then we have some wonderful news for you. Deadline reports that HBO has just greenlit a new pilot called Silicon Valley, produced by cult comedy icon Mike Judge.

The show will be a single-camera affair, offering a dark take on the “high tech gold rush of modern Silicon Valley, where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success.” You know what that means: hoodies! Read More

By Jessica Roy 12/05/12 8:53am

Patently Absurd

Soon, he'll be able to hear YOU. (Photo: Fonesea)

Creepy New Verizon Patent Would Let Set-Top Box Serve Condom Ads When It Hears You Having Sex

When last we checked in on creepy technologies that wholly encroach on your sense of personal privacy, Microsoft had registered a patent that would allow the Kinect to detect how many people are in a room and stop playback on a movie if it sensed more people than the copyright allowed. But a new patent filed by Verizon takes that concept a step further by allowing a set-top box to observe what’s going on in your house and serve you ads based on what it hears. Read More

By Jessica Roy 10/18/12 8:50am

Internet Drama

(Photo: CNN)

Violentacrez Admits He Did It All for ‘Meaningless Internet Points’ on Anderson Cooper 360

Michael Brutsch, the 49-year-old Texas resident whom Gawker outed last week as the man behind the racist and misogynistic Reddit troll account Violentacrez, is slated to appear tonight on Anderson Cooper 360.

In sound bites published to CNN’s Press Room blog, Mr. Brutsch speaks with CNN’s Drew Griffin about his experiences moderating the controversial subreddit Jailbait, where users posted sexualized photos of minors before it was shut down by Reddit last year. Read More

By Myles Tanzer 10/10/12 2:55pm

This Happened

KristinResizeGIF

Here is the TV Show Based on GIFs That No One Was Waiting For

After the strange initial success and eventual flameout of the Twitter-inspired sitcom, $h*! My Dad Says, it was only natural that memes got their own TV show too. LOLwork, a show about the interoffice workings of Ben Huh’s Cheezburger Network, premieres Wednesday, Novemeber 7th on Bravo. And now that memes have already been done, there’s one final frontier in Internet-inspired TV shows–the GIF.

Everyone’s new favorite medium was used to save the Olympics, as well as reinvigorate the presidential election and now it’s going to save TV too! CBS just bought the rights to a show based on the reaction GIF blog and What Should We Call Me clone site, Hollywood Assistants. The GIF has finally arrived. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 7/13/12 8:30am

Over The Aereo

Mr. Diller

Fresh Off a Legal Victory, Aereo Eyes Expansion Plans

Aereo won an important legal victory earlier this week, when a judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction that would’ve essentially shut the TV-streaming service down until a broadcasters’ lawsuit against the company is decided. Not only might the move have smothered the company in its cradle, but the ruling also bodes well for Aereo’s ultimate fate in the lawsuit.

Well, now that one existisitential threat has receded, it looks like the swagger is back in the company’s step.

Yesterday media mastermind and spry septuagenarian Barry Diller informed Bloomberg TV, “Within a year and a half, certainly by ’13, we’ll be in most major” markets. We like to imagine the line was accompanied by an enormous, satisfied grin.

Nor will Aereo continue hiding its light under a bushel. Mr. Diller also told Bloomberg that, “We’re going to really start marketing.” And while it may seem like Aereo is all you ever hear about, despite the occasional splashy party and a demo at New York Tech Meetup, the company hasn’t exactly been making the full-court press to consumers.

Come on, Barry, now you’re just trolling the poor broadcasters.
By Jessica Roy 7/11/12 6:08pm

Law and Order

Mr. Diller

Judge Sends a Heartfelt “F U” to Big Broadcasters, Throws Out Aereo Injunction

Looks like even big money and a mob-like grip can’t keep one New York startup down. A cluster of broadcast companies filed an injunction against online TV startup Aereo back in May, claiming that its very existence threatened their big, bad business.

Today, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan threw out the injunction, siding with Aereo’s argument that its business would also be harmed if the injunction went through.

According to Reuters, “Nathan concluded that the so-called ‘balance of hardships’ did not tip ‘decidedly’ in the broadcasters’ favor.” Read More