demand

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Newtown, outrage is turning into political and social action. In a "Demand a Plan" ad in The New York Times, a number of technology industry executives and other leaders called on President Obama and Congress to come up with a plan to end gun violence.

In a blog post, one of the signatories of the ad, venture capitalist Fred Wilson, wrote that tech industry leaders are working to mount a "sustained social media and regular media campaign to pressure our leaders to do something about the gun safety problem in … Read more

The iPad Mini appears to be on its way to eclipsing the Retina iPad, according to NPD DisplaySearch.

Apple had originally expected to sell 6 million iPad Minis in 2012. But that's turning out to be a laughably low forecast, according to DisplaySearch analyst David Hsieh.

Now, Apple is asking display panel makers to "ship more than 12 million" iPad Mini displays in the fourth quarter, Hsieh said in a research note.

"The iPad Mini apparently is selling better" than the new iPad 4, Hsieh said in response to an e-mail query. "It seems … Read more

Demand for Windows 8 touch-screen PCs is strong, according to two analysts who spoke with CNET.

"Touch machines are actually selling above expectations," said Bob O'Donnell, a program vice president at IDC.

And that means supply shortages. "Some vendors are actually facing shortages because touch panels are in limited supply. Vendors are saying they can't get as many touch-based machines as they would like to meet the demand that they're seeing."

Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli, echoed O'Donnell's comments. "We've talked to a number of PC makers … Read more

Redbox Instant -- Verizon's stab at a video streaming service to compete with Netflix -- is said to be launching by the end of the year.

Users may be able to start using the service as soon as December 17, according to GigaOM. Also, it's looking like Redbox Instant could cost as low as $6 a month.

Redbox Instant is a joint venture announced in February between Verizon and Coinstar -- the company that owns the Redbox DVD rental business. The companies aim to develop an on-demand video streaming service with DVD rentals, much like what Netflix offers.… Read more

Here's a cyberfight it seems anyone could have seen coming.

Among the hundreds of new generic top-level domains under consideration by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) -- everything from .Google to .music and .home -- one batch, not surprisingly, has caught the attention of the U.S. federal government: applications for .Airforce, .Navy and .Army.

The company that applied to run those domain extensions is Demand Media, the content farm king behind eHow and the owner of Go Daddy competitor eNom. Demand spent $18 million to apply for 26 so-called domain strings through a subsidiary … Read more

There are plenty of apps that can stream movies and TV shows to your tablet or smartphone -- Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, Netflix... shall I go on? -- but very few that let you download content for offline viewing.

That's kind of a bummer, because it means if you want to watch something on, say, an airplane, you have little choice but to buy from iTunes or rip from DVDs.

If you're a Comcast subscriber, now you have another option. The newly updated Comcast Xfinity TV Player app (Android|iOS) now offers the enviable … Read more

Google TV is expanding its reach and moving into Korea. The local provider, LG Uplus, is now offering an integrated Google TV set-top box with its television subscription service.

"If you've ever considered moving to Korea to enjoy its kimchi and K-pop -- starting today we have another reason for you," Google wrote in a blog post. "New and existing LG Uplus subscribers can get the u+tv G starting today, bringing live TV and 50,000 on demand titles, now integrated with Google TV apps like Search, YouTube, Google Play and Chrome."

Avast Free Antivirus for Mac is Avast's answer to concerns about how to browse safely. The application is packaged with a brand-new, easy-to-understand graphical user interface, with access to all features available at single click.

The application's onscreen tools are well-organized, and its live graphics enhance the feeling of safety -- you can see that the antivirus software doesn't sleep and is always working to protect you from any viruses circulating on the Web. Avast's free software provides three shields to protect your computer: a file system shield, an e-mail shield, and a Web shield. With … Read more

Streaming video may be cost-effective and convenient, but consumers are still renting more movies via the mail and physical retailers.

People renting DVDs and Blu-ray discs through retail stores, kiosks, and Netflix's mail service totaled more than 62 percent of all movie rentals in the first half of the year, according to NPD Group. In contrast, those renting digital movies via subscription streaming, pay TV video on demand, and Internet VOD added up to only 38 percent.

Though physical discs still lead the rental landscape, their popularity has been waning. Rentals of DVDs and Blu-ray discs dropped by 17 … Read more