After months of speculation and 
expectation, Apple has confirmed plans to enter the cloud music space.
The company, in a press release issued Tuesday, said it would reveal iCloud at its Worldwide Developer’s Conference on June 6.
Category Archives: Variety (Print)
Google launches cloud music service
After months of rumors, Google has made its entry into the cloud music space official, testing an online storage system called Google Music.
The search giant unveiled the service Tuesday at its input/output developer conference, putting Apple and Amazon squarely in its sights.
Warner buys Flixster
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is expanding its digital rollout, today announcing an agreement to buy the popular Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes websites.
The deal, which encompasses both sites, is part of Warner’s ongoing studio-agnostic initiative to grow digital content ownership. Both sites will continue to operate independently.
Netflix, YouTube line up original content
While royalty rates may be the first thing you think of in the face-off between Hollywood’s major content creators and outlets such as Netflix and YouTube, there’s a much bigger battle brewing under the surface.
Online video, historically, has not been something that compares well with film or television. Production budgets, if they exist at all, are lower — and due to differences in the ad model, there hasn’t been a lot of incentive to create programming that’s on par with what the studios and networks regularly release.
That’s changing, though, with both Netflix and YouTube taking tentative steps into the original content business. And while both are just beginning to explore the field, the moves already have network and studio brass on high alert.
Playstation Network user info breached
A hacker attack on the online arm of Sony’s 
PlayStation 3 has compromised the personal information of 70 million members.
Sony, in a statement on its company blog, announced the extent of the breach on its PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems Monday, adding that it was still uncertain if any credit card information tied to those accounts was accessed as well. Sony shut down the PlayStation Network six days ago after discovering the breach, but Monday’s announcement was the first that gave substantial information about the scope of the intrusion.
Potshots over portables
For the past four years, Nintendo and Apple have 
been grappling for control of the mobile gaming market — but last month, the stakes got higher.
The 3DS, a handheld system that presents games in stereoscopic 3D without glasses, hit shelves March 27, representing one of Nintendo’s biggest bets in years. And early indications are it was a winning one.
Sony Online Entertainment issues pink slips
With costs rising and competition increasing, Sony has laid off one-third of its Sony Online Entertainment division.
205 of the roughly 700 SOE employees received pink slips Thursday as the company shut down three development studios in Denver, Seattle and Tucson. One long-in-development title was also cancelled.
Amazon launches cloud music service
Amazon is one-upping Apple.
The retail giant has launched a streaming service, allowing users to store their digital music (and other files) online and play them anywhere via the Web or an Android smartphone or tablet.
Vidgames face great divide
Forget Xbox vs. PlayStation. In the videogame
industry, the biggest brewing battle these days is the one between traditional developers and the new breed — those who specialize in Facebook and iPhone titles.
While social networking games and mobile gaming apps are still dwarfed financially by franchises like “Halo” and “Call of Duty,” they’re stealing eyeballs — and talent — from the console world. And, according to some high-ranking execs, they’re putting the future of the industry at risk.
YouTube taps Par’s Carloss for content
Paramount’s head of digital distribution is headed to YouTube.
Alex Carloss, who held that role until last week, has joined the Google division’s content acquisition team, where he will work with Robert Kyncl, who left Netflix for the video streaming services last September.
Chris Morris: Journalist 