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Amazon is reportedly working on a news app for Fire TV
It sounds like Amazon is working on a video news app for its Fire TV. Reportedly, the company has been approaching news organizations to negotiate distribution deals. People from those companies told The Information that Amazon's app will be free, ad-supported and could launch in the next few months.
Facebook can't find enough local news for its local news service
Facebook hoped to help people across the US stay more informed about local news, information and events when it launched its Today In feature in November. But Facebook says it's having trouble finding enough news to feed into the service -- in part because it hastened the demise of hundreds of local newspapers.
AOL's Patch sites get iPhone app for hyperlocal news
AOL has released an iPhone app for its Patch news sites. Patch.com offers hyperlocal news for more than 800 towns across America. Each location has one editor and uses a collection of freelance writers to report the news. The idea behind Patch and other hyperlocal sites is that resident editors and writers can fill the void left by cash-strapped local newspapers, which, thanks to declining staff, no longer have the funds to cover all of the latest stuff in town. Want to know the score of the high school football game? Patch can tell you that. Looking forward to that all-you-can-eat buffet bar opening? Patch has all the deets about the dessert items on the menu. For example, I grew up in the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin, where absolutely nothing happens. Ever. But opening up my Patch app right now, I can see that the Borders on Manchester Road just sold its last book this weekend. Yeah, that's not as exciting as what goes on here in London, but at the same time, it's incredibly cool that I can get such hyperlocal news from my hometown -- and now I can get it right on my iPhone. The Patch app, released this week, features a handy dashboard screen that gives you quick access to your local weather, news, events and a directory of local businesses. It also offers a "Front 5" feature, which is a collection of the most relevant hyperlocal stories of the day. The app has a well-designed UI, and more importantly, the whole Patch concept is a lot more useful now that I can access it on my iPhone while out and about. Patch for iPhone is a free download and requires an iPhone 3GS or later. [Shout out to my Ballwin hommies: The Patch app just told me the Easter Bunny is appearing at Chesterfield Mall every day this week from noon to 1 PM. Rock on.] Disclaimer: AOL is the parent company of TUAW.
Naked Florida man opens fire on SWAT bot with AK-47, no kidding
"Investigators say they've never dealt with a naked man attacking a robot before." So starts perhaps the most insane local news story we've ever heard. According to an ABC affiliate in Florida, a disgruntled man, sporting nothing more than his birthday suit and an AK-47, opened fire on a robot last week, after threatening to shoot himself and anyone who crossed the threshold of his home. The $65,000 SWAT bot was sent in to investigate, and captured every inch of the man on video before being pumped full of bullets. Deputies say the man eventually surrendered fully-clothed and was taken for a mental evaluation. No word yet on when or if the footage will be released in a Robo COPS: Disrobed and Dangerous Special Edition. For now, you can check out video at the source link below.
CNN jumps on the news app bandwagon
CNN released CNN Mobile [iTunes link], an impressive news app but there are some caveats. The app is loaded with features, including the latest international and US News, local weather and traffic, and the ability to share stories with email, SMS, Facebook and Twitter. You can follow topics that are of interest to you, and they get placed in a special spot you can access with a tap of your finger. You can also shoot video if you have an iPhone 3GS, and send it along to CNN. All in all, it's as full featured a news app as anyone could hope for, and includes live streaming of breaking events. If you turn your phone to landscape mode, you get a kind of cover flow of stories, where you can drag your finger across the screen and explore stories in an interesting way.
KHNL NBC 8 launches HD news in Hawaii
Sure University of Hawaii games are still stuck in SD, but Hawaiian viewers are getting another local HD source this year, as KHNL has moved into new digs and started dishing out high definition news every night on the 22nd. Check the video after the jump for a glimpse at the finished newsroom and its many HDTVs, or just stop by the corner of Waiakamilo Road and Kalani Street and say hello.
South Florida's NBC 6 takes local news high-def
No sooner than Comcast announced that it would be upgrading its infrastructure in sunny South Florida, along comes word that WTVJ (NBC 6) has finally made the leap to HD newscasts. Believe it not, the switch -- which happened without much warning yesterday -- makes it the first in the Miami / Ft. Lauderdale area to broadcast local news in high-definition. It's shaping up be an excellent Spring to sit inside down there, isn't it?[Thanks, Josh]
Texas news report blames graffiti problem on "Getting Up"
It's a well known fact that graffiti was on the decline nationwide as recently as two years ago. Spray paint sales were down, wall cleaners were going out of business, and the country's youth were refocusing their energies on local art classes and scrimshaw. Then the unthinkable happened. On Feb. 14, 2006, Atari released Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, a game that went on to become a best-seller and created a new tagging boom.This twisted view of reality seems to be behind this KRIS-TV report, which largely blames Corpus Christi's increasing graffiti problem on Getting Up and games like it. According to CCPD Detective Ramiro Torres, school children use these games to "develop a base of membership to form these tagging groups." The report also implies that "students play this type of game and get ideas." Because, really, no one had the idea to tag a building before these video games were around. The whole concept of putting paint on a wall is entirely a creation of the gaming industry. Look, we're all for fighting graffiti and preventing costly vandalism. But blaming a recent boom on a two-year-old game that was drubbed by critics and sluggish in the sales department is a bit much. Especially when everyone knows it was really Jet Grind Radio that started the graffiti boom.
TV report: video games 'normalize' killing
Time for another, perhaps sensationalized violent video game report from a local TV station. Omaha's KETV ran a story (which currently appears on the front page of CNN.com) on how video games "normalize" killing, according to doctors. We had trouble finding studies from all the universities they cited and certainly none of them are recent publications (the above Indiana University brains scans come from a 2006 report), so why report on this now? Enter Dr. Greg Snyder, a psychologist at Omaha's Children's Hospital.After citing three university studies that only go so far as to conclude games can desensitize children to violence, the report then inserts the following quote from Snyder: "The more normal it is, the more likely it is they're going to activate or engage in those behaviors when provoked or even unprovoked." Though we're not trying to discredit his opinion, the evidence presented in the report does not lean towards that conclusion (although, given the report's structure, that's what the reader is led to believe).After contacting a doctor for one side of the argument, does KETV find an equally reputable contrasting viewpoint? No -- or at least, there's no indication that gaming researchers or industry officials such as the ESRB or ESA were reached for contact. Said the report, "the video game industry notes that the research also finds that teenagers have similar responses to violence in movies or TV" (no studies or quotes are cited). Instead, those that provide the counterpoint quotes include two teenagers playing Gears of War and a manager of general operations for Gamers in Omaha -- not two sources likely to be held in the same regard as a psychologist.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Fox News Central Texas debuts tonight, HD coming soon
Shortly after hearing that Central Texas would be getting a helping of new HD channels later this month, we've now learned that KWKT-TV (a local FOX affiliate) will begin airing its own newscast tonight. Debuting on the same day as the 2008 State of the Union address, Fox News Central Texas will get its first show underway this evening at 9:30PM local time, but will move to 9:00PM going forward. Tonight's show will mark the station's first foray into local news since it began broadcasting in 1988, and while it won't yet be shown in high-definition, the entire newsroom is already HD-capable. So, what's the holdup, you ask? Just a digital switcher, which is "presently on order."
Local TV visits SOE San Diego
Scott Hartsman posted a link to local San Diego TV station KUSI, who invaded the SOE studios there for a "special report" about the people who make these things called Massively Multiplayer Online games. As mainstream news reports about our favorite pasttime go, it's actually not too bad, though there are a few chuckle-worthy moments-- apparently saying Dad "wasn't too happy" turns into his "outright horror" on local news, and is it just me or did anyone else have the thought that Sasha Foo is probably the most attractive person to ever enter the SOE game testing room? I kid, I kid!But otherwise, it's a pretty solid report on what it's like making MMOs at SOE. If you're an artist, you can probably drool over that paintbox they're using, and there are also shots of Everquest 2 in wireframe, the making of casting animations, a look at some concept art for Rise of Kunark and a few other games and even some news about a new MMO aimed at a younger audience due out next year called Free Realms. Even if you watch it with the sound turned off, it's a cool look inside SOE studios and what it's like to work there.
Atlanta residents rejoice! Local ABC news going HD today!
Oh, do we have some great news for Atlanta residents craving local high-def news. Channel 2 WSB-TV flipped the switch on their high-def local news feed a few hours ago with Channel 2 Action News at Noon. This marks the inaugural HD news broadcast for the station and here on out, all Channel 2 newscasts will be televised in glorious HDTV. The station upgraded miles of copper cable cable to fiber and retrofitted even the stations news copter along with weather maps to provide their viewers with the best possible picture and it will be evident on even SDTV sets. Hopefully local news stations going HD isn't going to be news sometime soon but there are currently only a handful of stations nationwide with this ability.
WFTV-Channel 9 out of Orlando goes high-def
Central Florida can now enjoy their local ABC affiliate, WFTV, local news in beautiful high-def. This station has spent a good amount of money to build a whole new set and upgrade their equipment to handle high definition. Local news is great in high-def and we are happy for the local viewers. Remember that all broadcast stations need to transmit their signal in a digital form by February 17, 2009. Because of this, many stations have chosen to upgrade their news room and take advantage of the new signals. Stations have been doing this for years now and so while WFTV is excited about their new upgrade, we highly doubt their claim as the tenth station in the country to go high def with their local news.Do you have any local news stations in high-def? Lets see if we can get more then ten.[I, Matt Burns, have one. Richard has two and Ben: zero][thanks for the tip Bruce]
