Weekly Knowledge Dump for 3.11.11

Streaming Movies Through Facebook

Facebook announced a deal with Warner Bros. this week to start selling digital copies of The Dark Knight through the Facebook fan page for the movie. It costs 30 Facebook credits (or $3 in adult currency) and can be streamed directly from the site. There is also speculation that Sony is in talks with Facebook to add it’s library of movies to Facebook’s movie rental service.

While it might seem redundant to me and other techno-savvy people, I can see why the studios would want to go after Facebook as a way to sell streaming copies of their movies. Everybody has a Facebook account, even the 90 year old lady down the street who smells like cabbages- and more importantly they know how to use the site. It has a much larger install base than somewhere like Amazon or Hulu.

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The iPad 2 Goes On Sale Today

The iPad 2 goes on sale today. It’s probably going to be one of the biggest consumer electronics product launch of the year (or at least until the iPhone 5 comes out in June). Sales are expected to be massive- since Apple beat its own projections for the original iPad by more than three times. Since they were not taking pre-orders there will most likely be lines at Apple Stores around the country for the 5:00 PM launch of the iPad 2. I will be there picking one up along with the inevitable hoards.

There are now 18 models of the device for sale- 3 sizes x 3 connection types (i.e., wifi, AT&T, Verizon) x 2 colors-  so there will probably be plenty of stock in each store.

Keep an eye out for my review of the iPad 2, which should go up early next week.

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MLB and NBA Games Now Streaming LIVE to Apple TV

I realize that this week’s Knowledge Dump is a little stacked toward Apple. There is a reason- besides the fact that they are the largest technology company in the world- it is because they are on a roll this week. With the iOS 4.3 firmware update, the Apple TV gained two new menu items: MLB.tv and NBA League Pass. If you subscribe to these services (which are available through cable companies or directly through the appropriate league) you can now stream live games to your Apple TV. This is a nice addition to the Apple TV’s already impressive content line up.

I can see how the the $99 price tag of the Apple TV might make it extremely attractive to sports fans who want to be able to catch every game and see live scores for various games. If Apple keeps aggressively adding content to the Apple TV, it could become a viable replacement for cable.

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AOL Fires 900 People

AOL completed its merger with the Huffington Post last week. Now it’s firing 900 people. This is the latest in a long line of layoffs that have totaled well over 2,000 people since Tim Armstrong became CEO two years ago. AOL hasn’t given any specifics about why the layoffs were necessary but they probably wanted to get rid of some redundancies now that Ariana Huffington is in charge of all of AOL’s news content (which includes sites like Engadget).

Interestingly enough, the layoffs come just a few days after several Engadget writers and editors jumped ship from the site because they said it was being strangled by “The AOL Way.”

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BlackBerry Playbook Comes One Step Closer to Becoming a Real Product

It looks like RIM might actually release the long awaited Playbook on schedule. Currently it is scheduled for a late April launch- a date that is looking more and more realistic now that it has officially hit the FCC’s database for testing and approval- with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB storage capacities. RIM has been doing some demos of the product for technology sites recently and many writers have commented on just how unpolished the software looked, especially for a product that is supposed to launch in six weeks.

I have high hopes for the Playbook. It looks like it could be the first viable competitor to the iPad.

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