Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video

The New York Post came out hard yesterday with a piece about how Wal-Mart is threatening movie studios over the iTunes Movie Store, to which the retail giant quickly responded with a statement denying the claims. The NYP claims that Wal-Mart is telling studios that they’ll start ordering fewer DVD movies if the studios jump aboard the iTMS bandwagon, similar to their temporary reaction when TV shows started being sold by Apple. Wal-Mart quickly disputed the claims, saying “While we recognize there are various current and potential providers of this service, we are not dissuading studios from conducting business with other providers.” According to Reuters, a source “familiar with the situation” says that while Wal-Mart “freaked out” over TV show sales, the online sales haven’t impacted their own, and they’re not too concerned over iTunes movie sales. None of this really confirms or denies rumours of Wal-Mart prepping their own download store, but we’re definitely not giving up hope of a price-slasher moving to the online space.

[Via Slashdot]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

There aren’t that many places (yet) where you have to provide biometric data to gain access. Usually they’re limited to high-security areas, you know, places like nuclear research facilities, airports, libraries (!) and by the end of this month, Walt Disney World. Oh yes, the Magic Kingdom will soon be taking fingerprints of its visitors at all four Orlando-area theme parks, and is well on its way becoming a real nation-state, given that it already issues passports and has a standing army of costumed characters (and let’s not even speak of their monstrous robot dominion). Disney says that this is to prevent ticket fraud and officials claim that the company is not actually taking “fingerprints,” but rather, mathematical representations of fingerprints, as calculated by series of points measured on a fingerprint. A little math never hurt anymore, right? Except when it can be tied to an individual’s identity, a record of their whereabouts, and corresponding physical traits. It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears, indeed.

[Via BoingBoing]

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Filed under: Handsets

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video

Straight from the rumor mill to your ears/eyes/brain: iPod Hub is reporting that "anonymous film industry insiders" are claiming that Apple is attempting to get iPod video-friendly versions of theatrical releases included in movie studios' Blu-ray offerings. Since Blu-ray discs can hold 50GB or more, there would certainly be room for the small iPod-compatible files, which would presumably sport pretty strong encryption in order to placate piracy fears of content providers. The move would certainly be beneficial to Apple, as it would create a substantial library of full-length films available at what seems to be the inevitable launch of a "real" video iPod. Further enhancing the believability of this rumor is the fact that Apple already has strong ties to both Sony and Disney, two of the major studios. Still, until we hear official word from one of the players here, consider this to be simply idle chatter for now.

[Via TUAW]

Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Video

We see a lot of product recalls around here, and keep most of them to ourselves (unless, of course, we feel our readership faces certain danger), but we figured you'd be particularly interested in one that could prevent your kids' hands from getting burned. Memcorp, in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, is recalling 102,000 battery packs for Disney-branded portable DVD players sold at theme parks and through Disney's online catalog from April 2005 through last month due to reports of overheating. Apparently the batteries, which were included with five different models (full list available by following the "Read" link), have drawn 17 complaints with regards to their toasty nature, including three reports each of property damage and minor skin irritation. This certainly isn't the first incidence of faulty batteries that we've seen, but usually manufacturers are thoughtful enough not to package them with products intended for children.

Filed under: Handsets, LG, Sprint-Nextel, MVNOs, CDMA

Filed under: Multimedia, MVNOs

Whoa Nellie. The folks who scooped Disney’s ESPN-branded cellphone service — MobileESPN — are now calling for “big changes” in the MVNO. According to Rafat Ali and Staci Kramer who cite “numerous sources,” the doomed MobileESPN MVNO is set for “a phased winding down/transition, or getting sold” outright this week, just before Disney’s fiscal year draws to a close. A spokeswoman for MobileESPN confirmed an announcement was coming, most likely on Thursday, and that staff would not be laid off this week contrary to rumors. Merrill Lynch already asked Disney to pull the plug in a research note published back in July estimating that MobileESPN had only snagged 30,000 of the 240,000 anticipated subscribers since its Superbowl launch representing a loss of some $135 million for The Mouse. All this is potentially bad news for the likes of Amp’d Mobile and Helio who may be in for an MVNO backlash on The Street where investor sentiment is already pretty low. Oh BJ, not you and the Bear too?

[Via GigaOM]

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