Barnes & Noble’s nook eReader has hardly been struggling
, but the company’s device hasn’t exactly been top of mind for most shoppers. The iPad and Amazon Kindle tend to leap to most people’s minds first. Today, the company is taking steps to change that.
It’s doing so in a way that makes a lot of sense: Cost. Barnes & Noble has announced a new version of the nook that eschews the 3G connection and only uses Wi-Fi. They’ve smartly priced it at $149.
Indie and amateur filmmakers
looking to add some historical context to their works have a new outlet.
The recently launched CriticalPast.com offers an extensive collection of royalty-free photos and video footage, most of which hasn’t been online previously. With video of everything from Coney Island in the 1890s to World War II to news reports on 1994’s Whitewater scandal, the site has things covered.
Mix three groomsmen, a tiger and major 
memory gaps, then subtract one tooth and you’ve got the ingredients for the most popular On Demand film in the delivery system’s history.
Avail-TVN has put together a list of the 20 most-watched video on demand titles and “The Hangover” tops the list. On Demand viewing has grown exponentially in the last three years, with titles often bowing the same day as the DVD goes on sale, so it’s not too surprising that the list is made of recent films. (None was released earlier than 2007.) There are some surprising omissions, though. No Disney-Pixar film made the cut, for example.
Read more (and see the Top 20) at Variety’s Technotainment blog
Going in to the keynote of today’s Worldwide Developer 
Conference, pretty much everyone knew Apple would be rolling out its fourth generation iPhone. But the Cupertino-based company still managed to spring a few surprises on the crowd.
The iPhone 4, which goes on sale June 24 – will have a host of new features, including the ability to shoot high definition video and easily edit it on the phone. The device will record video at resolutions of up to 720p, shooting at 30 fps – making the new iPhone a possible tool for guerilla video shoots from indie filmmakers.
It was probably only a matter of time… 
Jetstar Airways has become the first airlines to make the iPad available as an in-flight entertainment option for passengers. The Australian carrier (a subset of Qantas) will rent the tablet computers to interested fliers for AUD $10 ($8.40 in U.S. dollars) during a two-week trial at the end of June.
The iPads will be equipped with movies, TV shows, eBooks, games and more.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is a man who’s known for forward-looking
(and often controversial) opinions. For the most part, those have centered around the computing world, but that the ongoing “D: All Things Digital” conference, he had a few thoughts about what might be coming for the film industry.
“I … think you’ll be able to watch a first run movie before it hits theaters… if you want to spend a bunch of money,” he told the crowd in a question and answer session (according to onsite reporting from Engadget).
If there was any lingering doubt, Apple has a 
hit on its hands with the iPad. In just 60 days, the company has sold 2 million of the devices. To put that in comparison, it took the iPhone 74 days to sell just 1 million units.
That count could have been even higher had it not been for some retail shortages. Whereas the iPhone was limited to the tech early adopter crowd, the iPad has been a hit with the broad population – enticing mainstream users at an unheard of rate.
The “Lost” finale may not have set a ratings record, 
but pirates absolutely loved it.
TorrentFreak, a news site that covers the file sharing industry, reports the May 23 finale has broken all previous download records – with nearly 1 million people downloading the concluding chapters of the show in less than one day.
Two years ago, Apple became the biggest retailer in the music industry, knocking Wal-Mart off its perch. Since then, there hasn’t been a lot of digging into how big the company has become. 
Billboard’s latest figures, however, show that Apple’s market share in the music industry now stands at 26.7 percent. That’s over 5 points better than two years ago and more than double where it stood in 2007. Wal-Mart, meanwhile, is seeing its share of the market dwindle – falling from 15 percent to 12.5 percent. Best Buy came in third, with 8.7 percent.
3D is coming to the living room – we all know that. TV manufacturers 
are making certain of it. But what do consumers want from it? Software company Roxio asked over 2,000 consumers about their interest in 3D programming and what they’d like to see.
An impressive 84 percent of those surveyed said they were interested in viewing 3D movies at home. And nearly as many expressed interest in capturing their own memories using the technology – with 80 percent saying they believe they will film or photograph family events in 3D within 5 years. But price remains a factor.
Chris Morris: Journalist 