Summary: News: Sony and Disney begin streaming movies still in theaters in a bold move against piracy In a bid to limit movie piracy in Asia, Disney and Sony have quietly begun testing a bold new on-demand service in South Korea which offers movies to rent while they are still playing in theaters. As noted by the Wall Street Journal, the two companies are the first US studios to provide consumers anywhere with the option to buy a ticket to see a movie or watch it in their own home using their cable, internet, or satellite-TV subscription.Django Unchained, Wreck-it Ralph, and Brave had all been made available as part of the trial. In May, Shane Carruth's Upstream Color went online and hit iTunes and Amazon Instant Video after about a month in theaters. Similar attempts by studios have been met with resistance in the past. Tim Burton's film version of Alice in Wonderland was nearly not screened at Odeon cinemas in the UK, Ireland, or Italy in 2010 after Disney attempted to reduce the exclusive theater release window from 17 weeks to 12 weeks in order to bring forward the DVD launch. Disney also conducted an on-demand test in Portugal with a six-week window for animated movie Tangled a year later but has not repeated the experiment until now. As the world's eighth-largest film market, South Korea is a good place for Disney and Sony to start. Should they test the model outside of Asia, both companies will likely be met with greater opposition in countries like the US and UK. With movies like Iron Man 3performing fantastically at the US box office with an $175 million opening weekend (second only to The Avengers), theaters play a major part in building buzz for a title — helping Google to predict future box office hits. That said, the four other major Hollywood studios are said to be watching the situation closely and may follow suit, putting pressure on movie theater chains and the future of the exclusive 90-day play window in the US. http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/24/4458644/disney-sony-on-demand-streaming-korea Ouya CEO 'pissed' at delayed backer shipments as console hits stores The Android-based Ouya is hitting retail stores today, but the occasion hasn't quite gone off without a hitch. Some of the Kickstarter backers still have not received their early-edition consoles, prompting a message from the company CEO. "I am pissed," CEO Julie Uhrman wrote on the Kickstarter blog (via Polygon). "Some of you have not yet received your Ouya--and, to you, I apologize. I did not promise to ship to *most* of you before we hit store shelves. I promised to ship to *all* of you. I've been reading your comments, and we are working to solve this." She wrote that the Ouya shipments were delivered to a partner in May, but some were not delivered as promised. Head of operations Ken Stephens apologized for DHL's tracking system, and said that the "vast majority" of those who have not received their consoles yet are international customers. According to a press announcement released alongside the launch today, the console boasts more than 170 games and media apps so far. 17,000 game creators have registered, a number that must include quite a few indie devs alongside its bigger names like Sega, Square Enix, and Double Fine. The console costs $99.99, and additional controllers will run you $49.99. http://www.shacknews.com/article/79899/ouya-ceo-apologizes-delayed-backers-console-hits-stores ************ Geek This Week: Aaron: Audio-Technica LP120-USB Turntable, BJ Timoner walks across America. Gozer: Redbox Last of Us, Xcom Enemy Unknown Ios, Home Theater, World War Z ETX ************* Feedback and items of Note: Home automation has taken me nearly 4 years to get to the current all inclusive state. Insteon switches are $40+ per, so I spread it out -- getting a few each month -- now I'm done (hopefully no more crazy storms -- Sandy killed a couple of switches with power surges,
