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Filed under: Internet, Video, News, Web services

Wal-Mart kills online video store

Wal-Mart video store closes
Wal-Mart has closed down its video download store. We'll forgive you if your forgot that Wal-Mart was selling video downloads in the first place. We kind of forgot too. But the company jumped on the digital media bandwagon late last year. But apparently sales were a bit lower than expected.

Wal-Mart closed down its video download store after Hewlett-Packard decided to discontinue the technology that powered the store. Wal-Mart is reportedly not going to bother looking for another partner, thanks to the underwhelming performance of the video download store.

This isn't to say that there's no money to be made in online video distribution. But Wal-Mart is the single largest seller of DVDs in the US, so whatever the company was making in digital sales was probably small potatoes by comparison. That, and while you might think of Wal-Mart when you're looking for a place to get cheap retail goods, it's not really the first name that pops into our heads when we're thinking of places to find downloadable movies.

If you've already purchased movies from the Wal-Mart download store, you can play them as many times as you like on your current computer. But thanks to the magic of DRM, you'll lose them if you ever switch computers.

[via paidContent]

Filed under: Internet, OS Updates, Linux, Google

Download gOS, the operating system of Wal-Mart's $199 PC

gOS
This week Wal-Mart started selling a $199 PC with a Linux based operating system called gOS pre-loaded. A lot of websites mistakenly reported that the "g" stands for Gogole, because this stripped down operating system has direct links to a bunch of Google services like YouTube, Docs & Spreadsheets, and Blogger. But gOS is actually a stripped down "green" operating system based on Ubuntu.

And you don't need to buy a $199 PC to load it. You can download gOS right now. Unfortunately, the developer's site seems to be down at the moment, but you can find gOS on several Torrent trackers.

The ISO weighs in at 728 MB, making it a tight fit for a CD-R, but leaving plenty of room on a DVD-R. And like almost all Ubuntu-based operating systems, gOS comes as a LiveCD, meaning you can take it for a test drive without installing anything. Just boot your PC from the DVD. When you're done, shut down, pop the DVD out and reboot into Windows, Linux, or whatever you've been using up until now.

[via InsideGoogle]

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services

Live customer service going the way of the dodo bird

Wal Mart hangs up on customersBack in the day (meaning, only about five years ago), when you needed the customer service department of a company to solve a problem, you simply picked up the phone and talked to a real, live person. That soon gave way to working your way through phone trees more complicated than the schematics of the International Space Station. Gradually, we found ourselves shouting, ""Return a package....reeeee-turn a paaaaack-age!" to disembodied robotic voices that ask why we're calling.

Sick of the process? We are too, so the idea that Wal-Mart would do away with all that filled us with child-like glee. Until we realized what they had in mind.

Read more →

Filed under: Business, Video, Apple

1.3 million movies sold on iTunes

AppleAfter three short months, sales of Disney movies through the iTunes Store have hit 1.3 million downloads, in addition to 20 million television show downloads. However, Paramount has been the only other movie studio that has joined Apple since October of 2006. Why? No one wants to upset colossal retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, which are responsible for the majority of DVD sales. But will these latest sales figures help convince other companies in joining the digital download game? Finanicial Times reports that Disney CEO Bob Iger said digital distribution is "creating more consumption of media....The message that we deliver to our traditional [retail] partners is that the pie is getting bigger." Part of the retailer argument against digital downloads is the lower pricing. Because, you know, $12.99 is apparently a good deal for a lower quality (than DVD) movie download without any extras and limited viewing capabilities. However, Apple has previously expressed its unwillingness to change its current pricing structure. Ultimately, it seems almost guaranteed that digital downloads will continue to gain market prominence, but only time will tell to see if and when other companies will hop onboard with Apple.

Filed under: Internet, Video, News, Web services

Wal-mart planning to sell video downloads

Wal-VideoThat's right, we haven't even got the whole digital music thing down yet, there are still plenty of questions, but here comes the video tidal wave anyway. With Amazon and Apple offering their respective services or Netflix and now Wal-Mart getting ready for prime time, we will soon (as consumers) have video out the wazoo, whether we like it or not. I fear we will have the whole DRM/fair use debate and issues all over again, but the heat of these issues will intensify. Questions bombard the mind like a science-lab particle out of control. Who will reign supreme? Who has the most downloads? Who has the best flexibility and security on downloads? Should downloads be ad supported or paid for? Will the MPAA have the same issues and be involved in lawsuits on a grand scale? Will studios co-operate? Does Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD even matter if the trend is moving to digital downloads and hard drive or flash based players? Will traditional media CDs, DVDs be a thing of the past? This is just the beginning. Here we go again.

Filed under: Hardware, Google

Rumor alert: Google to sell Google PCs at Wal-Mart

GoogleThe LA Times' Sallie Hofmeister has published her business predictions for the new year, and there's a lot of interesting speculation among them, but most interesting is this tidbit: "Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC." Of course this isn't the first talk of a Google-branded computer, and if anyone could pull it off it would be Google. Hofmeister speculates that Larry Page will use his keynote at CES this Friday to announce the Google PC. Me, I'm not holding my breath, but I will definitely be watching.

[Via Digg]

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