Blockbuster will integrate its OnDemand film download-to-rent service to Blu-Ray player by the first quarter of next year. This was revealed by the company Chairman Jim Keyes. Last week the company released a new gadget for its rental service. This will now allow users to download HD quality movies straight from Blockbuster. Bandwidth may cause problem for users as they will have to wait long to download the movie, admitted Keyes.

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Linux recently joined the Apple’s iPhone platform. It simply means that the Linux OS can now be run on the iPhone. Linux OS on iPhone is controlled through a USB keyboard and supports the first and second generation of iPhones and the first generation of iPod Touch. This may open up door for Google’s Android as there is a possibility to run it on the iPhone. If that really happens then it would create a lot of problem for Apple as they will have to fight in their own territory.

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MySpace Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe said that he's "cautiously optimistic" about ad revenue for the News Corp.-owned social network in the face of a recession, Reuters reported Monday.

Speaking at the outlet's Reuters Media Summit, DeWolfe said that MySpace's "revenue and profits are significant and they continue to grow in spite of the poor economy." Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp. division that encompasses MySpace, Photobucket, and other digital properties, was declared the top destination for display ads on the Web several months ago.

But display ads will be hit hard as ad budgets are cut, many critics have said--harder than other forms of digital advertising like search ads. Market research firm eMarketer slashed its 2009 projections by over $1 billion this week.

DeWolfe also said, according to Reuters, that MySpace's revenue in the last quarter was up 18 percent from the previous year's. He's expecting that they'll continue to grow--just not as much.

Why this is genius: (1) it gets tons of people to follow NameCheap on Twitter (2) it will generate brand exposure as people answer questions with Tweets containing @namecheap (3) it will acquire customers, as you’ll need to sign up for a NameCheap account so you can sync your Twitter account and be credited for $9.69 (the price of registrations) each time you are one of the first three people to answer a question correctly.

The questions are holiday themed, and a new one will be posted every hour until Christmas. In all, that equates to $17,000 in free domains – or about one-quarter of the price of purchasing a half-page ad in BusinessWeek.

Clearly, you can imagine how the trivia-contest model could be extended to a lot of different types of promotions on Twitter, and I’d expect it to become fairly common if NameCheap’s campaign takes off.

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Translation: We've seen impact, but we're still growing--for now. Chris then goes on to set expectations very low:

"Our revenue and profits are significant and they continue to grow in spite of the poor economy. We're up 18 percent year-over-year as of last quarter and we're cautiously optimistic that we can continue to grow our business."

"Cautiously optimistic that we can continue to grow." That's a distinct change from prior expectations. And Chris's caution makes sense, based on what we're hearing elsewhere in the industry:

• We hear that when advertisers cut their budgets under new constraints, the first thing to go is experimental social media.
• Network of networks the Rubicon Project says social media ad spending dropped 3% for ad networks, 8% for young adults sites and almost 20% on entertainments 3. MySpace is all those kinds of sites in one.
• MySpace also depends on display advertising, which we're pretty sure will decline in 2009.

See Also:
Ad Rates Dropped 11% In The Third Quarter

In spite of the general economic downturn, ‘Black Friday’ sales of Apple computers were “better than expected,” analysts told investors Monday.

Like past Black Friday sales, Apple offered discounts on seven products with an 8 percent discount.

However, Mac sales we more than six times what they were in November, according to Piper Jaffray. Analyst Gene Munster said an average of 13 Macs per hour were sold Friday compared to two computers per hour in November. Munster based his numbers on 10 hours of monitoring five Apple retail stores.

Friday, Apple cut its “unibody” MacBooks by $101 and $51 discounts on the $999 white plastic entry-level MacBook. One-day price reductions of $51 on the entry-level 2.4GHz iMac and $101 for the 2.66GHz and 2.8GHz aluminum all-in-ones were also unveiled.

iPhones did not share in the same level of consumer enthusiasm. Munster said iPhone sales averaged 3.4 per hour compared to 1.3 per hour in November.

Although the analyst expects the iPhone will receive a boost in holiday sales, the impact will be “minimal.”

In a wider review of Black Friday Apple sales, Deutsche Bank said “demand for Apple was solid considering the macro backdrop.” Both Mac and iPod sales for the day likely were “modestly above” Deutsche Bank’s estimates. The firm, which reviewed retail and online sales at more than 125 storefronts, expects Apple to report 5 million iPhone sales for the quarter.

Deutsche found the new MacBooks were popular Black Friday offerings with 2GHz and 2.4GHz MacBooks outselling the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

Best Buy locations reported strong demand for the iPhone and shoppers at AT&T stores preferred the lower-priced 8GB iPhone. The reverse was true for iPod shoppers: the 16GB nanos were outselling the 8GB nanos, according to Deutesche.

While earnings for many fell this quarter, Opera Software is one of the lucky few to register success. Its stocks rose by over 11% and exceeded the estimates put out for the quarter. Although the web browsers market share has taken a plunge to trail Chrome that now leads it with 0.8% marketshare.  However Opera’ has seen a tremendous uptake of its mobile browser which has resulted in increased revenues as well. And naturally this increase in revenues has trickled down to the valuation of Opera stocks which registered an increase of 1.9 kroner to touch 18.5 kroner and look quiet bullish for the time being.

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Palm places the blame on its "maturing" product line and "unprecedented dynamics in the global markets" given the current economic meltdown. The company vows to reign in costs even further and goes on to detail some of its latest cost-savings initiatives in the accompanying press release.

Apple met or beat analyst expectations for sales over the weekend, selling 13 Macs and 3.4 iPhones every hour, according to one Piper Jaffray estimate.

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu said that Apple's Black Friday promotions helped drive retail store traffic, according to reports from distributors. Wu also noted that the iPod touch is sold out at Amazon.com, which leads him to believe that Apple could sell $10 billion worth of products this quarter.

Thomas Weisel Partners' Doug Reid got the impression that Apple sales were up from last year. He was less optimistic about Dell's retail performance at Best Buy locations, noting that salespeople there were not strongly recommending Dell models at 35 stores they checked.

Weisel analysts expect Apple to sell 2.4 million Macs during the fourth quarter.

Deutsche Bank analysts also conducted their own checks over the weekend, and found demand to be "solid," considering the current global economic woes. They expect Apple to sell 5 million iPhones this quarter, and reiterated their "buy" rating and price target of $150 per share.

AAPL was down slightly in morning trading.

TUAWAnalyst Roundup: Black Friday pretty good for Apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read on to find out how much we gave in Q4 2008, and to see the list of authors for this quarter!

* Benetech: Creates new technology solutions that serve humanity and empower people to improve their lives. Amount given: $1200

* Nature Conservancy: Works around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. Amount given: $1200

* Mercy Corp: Alleviates suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. Amount given: $1020

* Care: Fights global poverty by serving individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world. Amount given: $1200

* America's Second Harvest Network: Is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization. Amount given: $1200

The authors who participated in this program from September 1, 2008 - November 30, 2008 are:

*Mark Mandel
*Jettro Coenradie
*Igor Polevoy
*Maik Schumacher
*Joseph Lowery
*Ray Camden
*Murray Summers
*Sheri German
*Andrew Voltmer
*Mark Fletcher
*Chris Converse
*David Sklar
*Lutz Albrecht
*Nikola Borisov
*Clive Goodinson
*Ruth Kastenmayer
*Michael Tuminello
*Bobby van der Sluis
*Matt Stow

Thank you, authors, for your contributions to the ADC!