Disney and Sony experiment with in-theater rentals
Culture
Microsoft is serious about cloud computing.
I'm Jeff Bakalar filling in for Bridget Carey, and this is your CNET Update.
One of Microsoft's biggest selling points for the Xbox One is the idea of cloud computing.
And they've backed up that claim with a tremendous amount of resources the company has sunk into the technology that's resulted in some 300,000 servers worldwide.
The latest of these investments has just announced
$700 million server firm in Iowa that will handle Xbox and Office 365 cloud computing.
When Google decided to shut down its Reader service, it opened the door for other third parties to take advantage of the void.
Joining Feedly and Digg, AOL is now launching a similar service that will allow the aggregation of RSS Feeds.
AOL Reader is available for free to anyone right now.
Could Google be readying a new service to complement Google+?
Well, one site says they
think they've uncovered a feature that Google has secretly been working on that will allow users to keep track of their belongings.
So, what does that mean?
Supposedly, Google Mine will focus on all the things you either own or want to buy and allow you to organize them accordingly, whether that means sharing them with your friends or making wish lists.
And speaking of Google, the company's Street View feature will now let you virtually stand on the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
The images ready for viewing are on the observation deck of the 2,717-foot tall structure which houses 163 floors in all.
It seems some of the new features of the popular 6-second video service, Vine, are being leaked out through none other than Vine videos.
Vine creators Dom Hoffman and Rus Yusopov posted teaser videos last week that show what looks like new additions to the product's mobile software.
Judging from the short clips, we can make out that categories and note-taking might soon be added to the feature list, but we'll know soon enough after an app update.
Now, would you rather rent a movie that's still in theaters?
I know I would.
And that's exactly what Disney and Sony Pictures are experimenting with in South Korea on a trial basis.
The same model may not go over so well in the U.S., though, as Regal and AMC, the two largest theater chains in the U.S. want at least 90 days to play movies before they're offered
somewhere else.
Mega corporations impeding on progress?
I've never heard of such a thing.
That's your Tech News Update for today.
You can find more details on these stories at CNEt.com/update and follow along on Twitter.
From our studios here in New York, I'm Jeff Bakalar.
