Noisecast Roundup: Tuesday, June 21

So here we are. Another day, another roundup. I’ll cut strait to the chase and get you to the roundup. enjoy.

• Apple to launch iOS powered TV this fall?
  I’m going to put this int he dirty filthy rumors column. Tempting to buy into and possible but still seems a bit unlikely. Can Apple do it? Well, yes. With Apple TV, the TV becomes one big gimped All-in-one PC. (Gimped because net connected tvs, and internet tv still isn’t robust enough to be called “the full internet.” iOS may be the changing factor.) I likely wouldn’t be getting an (actual) Apple TV because i prefer the self-assembled htpc rout, but I think this is a positive step in the eradication of the Comcast menace.
• Microsoft’s bold claim: Change tv viewing with interactive ads using Kinect.
  First of all, this is talking about In-Game advertising, but I’d much rather talk about what could be an endgame. TV advertising could be changed, and they likely want to change it in the future. Look, I hate advertising as much as the next guy, but I don’t hate the idea of it. I understand its necessity. What I wish was that there were a way to jump the ads that have nothing to do with me, or have ads that directly appeal to me, interact with the ad to either make it go away faster or get more info instead of trying to memorize details or hoping it airs again. That was a mouthful. My point is that I’m not opposed to ads. i just think they should be optional, interactive, contextually relevant, and most of all, intelligent. It looks like Microsoft has a vision for Kinect that could march things in that direction. The broader question of strategy stands. How does Microsoft intend to match or replace the number of set-top boxes in the country? Is the Xbox about to enter into competition with not just other consoles but Tivo, Apple TV, and that entire ilk of services? Will Kinect become a decoupled periphery that’s bilt into Tvs so that there’s no need for extra gear (oooh imagine an Xbox bundle that includes a TV)? How much wood would a wood chuck chuk, if a wood chuck could chuck wood? These are all vital questions. You can learn more about the technology from the New York Times.
• British police swoop in on possible LulzSec suspect.
  Is this for real? On the one hand, LulzSec says he isn’t one of theirs, that he is just one of many hosts of their legitimate irc chatrooms. There was talk of him being a former Anonymous member who was ousted after an attempted internal coup. Up till now, LulzSec has been fairly certain it will eventually be captured and doesn’t seem to care either way, so denying that one of theirs has been taken seems uncharacteristic. I’m inclined to think the kid is one of the people caught in the wake. Then again, I don’t know these folk, and it could all be bluster. Either way, this is all rather fascinating, whether you think it’s right or wrong.
• Firefox 5 has launched.
  Hold your horses. it’s not as big a deal as you think. Firefox hasn’t really started developing faster. They’ve just changed their numbering scheme. If you see, the updates are relatively minor. But whatevs. On into the future! Tally Ho!
• How to fix RIM.
  This was a brilliant treatment written in-house by our fearless leader, Steven Callas. I attempted to write a similar article and was able to simplify it to one line: “Kill it with fire!” Steven has a far more elegant, intelligent, and enlightened view. I highly urge you to check it out.
• Self-Published Kindle author breaks 1 million in sales.
  This is good news. On the one hand, it shows the growing success of Ebooks in general and the Kindle as an ecosystem. it shows that authors can (the ones who need to) decouple themselves from the (sometimes) tyranny of their publishers and still live well. But it’s especially important to me because I will be wrapping up a book by this weekend and self-publishing soon after. While I don’t expect to make a killing, or any income at all, it is still nice to know that there is a possibility of being compensated for your hard work.
• A Vizio Tablet…
  Trying so hard not to snigger. The only thing stopping me from laughing is that this was largely the result when Vizio first started to break in to consumer electronics. Now, i wouldn’t bat an eyelash when buying a 56 inch Vizio LCD or Plasma TV. So this may be another one of those pleasant incremental steps to creating tablet ubiquity. The problem is that if it’s not an iPad (and it’s affordable) it’s an Android device. Lets stop pretending. Android is a great phone but a shit Tablet system (at the moment). This particular device strikes me as an over-glorified Uber remote, though.
• Hulu considering a sale.
  There are no confirmed details about this, but it looks like Hulu is being shopped around to a number of large private-Equity firms. This is potentially huge. But what does it mean for the studio partners. Clearly it lowers their operational costs to unload it, but will they turn around and try to gouge their spawn? What does this mean for the fight between Netflix and Hulu? What the hell is going on? We’ll give you more as we hear more.

Don’t be strangers.