Hasta La Gadget!

German luxury brand Loewe experienced a roller coaster day. A trader commented that “Apple supposedly wants to bid 4 euros a share for Loewe,” which sent Loewe shares up as much as 44.5 percent to 3.93 compared to yesterday’s closing price of 2.72. The German stock exchange closed today with Loewe shares trading at 3.35, representing a one-day increase of 23.16 percent.

In May 2012, rumors surfaced on AppleInsider that the company was interested in the German TV manufacturer. Even though Loewe denied the rumor and Apple declined to comment, a buyout wouldn’t be a big risk for Apple. Loewe’s market capitalization is around $58.6 million (€43.58 million).

Yet, Apple would have to convince major shareholders. Sharp now owns 28.8 percent of shares, Loewe’s executives 14 percent and hard-drive manufacturer LaCie 11.2 percent. The German company reported $39 million (€29 million) in losses in 2012. Selling the company to Apple or anyone else would be a way to exit the tedious luxury TV market.

The company is currently trying to cut 1,000 jobs, as well, in order to reduce costs. TV sets remain Loewe’s core product, but the company now manufactures Blu-ray players, DVD recorders, hard-disk recorders, multiroom systems, speakers and racks.

For Apple, Loewe could represent another small strategic acquisition. Yesterday, Tim Cook said that the company closes a deal every other month.

But analysts and traders may be reading too far into the rumors, which were alone responsible for Loewe’s share increase today. It remains to be seen whether those analysts are too excited by Apple’s rumored TV plans or whether they are actually hearing talks between the two companies.

Amazon only managed to land a slice of CBS’ library for Prime Instant Video on the first pass; it’s coming back for a second helping, including one of its first cracks at genuinely recent content from the network. A widened licensing deal gives subscribers access to further CBS and Showtime series that include Jericho, The L Word and an unspecified number of other shows. And for those intrigued by the broadcaster’s upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s Under the Dome, Amazon will be the only choice for many viewers: Prime Instant Video will be the exclusive home for subscription streaming and purchased downloads of the series, delivering streaming episodes about four days after their air date in order to shelter CBS’ traditional advertisers. Amazon may not have have completely locked in an audience between this and the Downton Abbey deal, but the recent set of exclusives is likely to leave Netflix feeling nervous.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Amazon

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Source: Amazon Instant Video

Today at the Dive into Media conference, HBO’s President and COO, Eric Kessler, announced that HBO Go will now support Apple’s AirPlay protocol, and will also be coming to the Apple TV at some point in the future. The addition of AirPlay support means that HBO Go subscribers can beam their content from their iOS devices to the big-screen TV in the living room, provided that you have an Apple TV to do the grunt work.

However, the HBO Go app still requires an HBO cable subscription, so you’re out of luck if you thought otherwise. Kessler didn’t mention whether or not HBO plans to offer a paid version of HBO Go to users who don’t subscribe to HBO, but as of right now, he says that an HBO Go-only subscription just isn’t economically viable at this point.

The AirPlay feature will be added as an update to the HBO Go iOS app and for Cinemax’s MAX Go App, both of which should be set to go in the iTunes App Store. Kessler says that the company’s long-term goal is for the HBO Go app to be on all platforms, including the Apple TV, so hopefully it’ll only be a matter of time before everyone will have access to the app.

Of course, we’ve heard rumors earlier this month that we might be seeing an HBO Go app arrive on the Apple TV, and now it’s finally happening, although the timeline is still a bit blurry at this point. Apple sold over 2 million Apple TV units during this last quarter alone, so HBO will no doubt get a lot of exposure by releasing its app on Apple’s STB.

[via AllThingsD]

HBO Go now supports AirPlay, coming to Apple TV soon is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While Netflix is trying to lure in the grown-ups with the launch of House of Cards, it’s not leaving kids without their own choice of original material. DreamWorks plans to follow up the July release of its animated movie Turbo with a Netflix-only series, Turbo FAST, in December. The episodes will arrive on the service roughly in line with DreamWorks’ 2013 slate of movies, including Turbo. Young viewers may well be happy, but Turbo FAST and the larger DreamWorks deal could be that much more satisfying for Netflix itself — they’re potential foils to Amazon’s multi-show plans that could keep some subscribing families from jumping ship.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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While hackers are usually notorious for breaking into databases and stealing personal information, some hackers simply breach into systems just for the fun of it. Case in point: someone (or possibly even a group) hacked their way into the KRTV affiliate of the Montana News Network and its CW station, prompting an emergency alert message warning viewers of an impending zombie apocalypse.

In several counties in Montana, KRTV says that the hackers broadcasted an emergency alert message that informed viewers that “dead bodies are rising from their graves,” and that the bodies were “attacking the living,” warning people not to “approach or apprehend these bodies as they are extremely dangerous.”

While the hackers used an alert system normally meant for weather emergencies, the network The network assures viewers that there actually isn’t any such emergency, and its engineers are investigating the situation to see what happened. Apparently, the message sparked four calls to local police to see if the zombie apocalypse was real.

It’s certainly an interesting way to hack into a news station, and from what we’ve been hearing about recently with Anonymous and other takedown hacker groups, it’s nice to take a break from that and have a laugh over what seems to be a completely-harmless hack, although we’re sure that KRTV officials and engineers will be working overtime to make their system more secure for the future.

[via FOX]

Hackers warn of zombie apocalypse in news station hack is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.