It was an absolutely huge week in technology and gadgets, with plenty of news coming in from all quarters to combine into a picture of news so huge that it had to be seen to be believed. With so much activity, it's worth taking a quick look at the biggest events to cap the week with our Week in Review coverage!
First came a discussion of parenting and electronics. Michelle Amodio stepped up her look at giving a “legacy” iPad to a nine-month-old. The American Academy of Pediatrics holds that children under the age of two should have absolutely no screen time – here referring to any device with a screen from a smartphone to a laptop – for fear of developmental problems.
Thus, the decision to give a device with a screen to an infant met with some controversy.
Netflix brought in the next report, with plans to bring in some new debt with some very smart motives behind it. While Netflix would be taking on $400 million in new debt, it would be using the money in part to pay off $225 million in debt which was taken on at a higher interest rate. Not only would Netflix be saving money, paying less in interest expenses, but it would also have an extra $175 million on hand to step into a series of “capital expenditures, investments, working capital and potential acquisitions and strategic transactions.”
Amazon was next, bringing in a strange dichotomy of results with its quarterly earnings report. While the company missed Wall Street estimates – accruing $0.21 rather than the expected $0.28 in earnings per share – they did very well in terms of profit margins. The growth in e-books gave a lot of growth to Amazon's overall outlook, as well as a boost in results from the growth of Amazon Prime.
While big-ticket item sales – televisions, digital cameras and the like – had softer sales, there was still plenty of room for other sales to contribute to growth.
Next was a look at the upcoming Super Bowl. A major event in sports by anyone's reckoning, it's about to get a little extra punch by being only the second Super Bowl ever to be live streamed, and the first ever to be delivered to wireless devices. There will also be a variety of additional features to accompany the stream, including numerous camera angles, live statistics and more, giving the streaming presentation a nice upgrade from its conventionally-broadcast equivalent.
Lastly, there was a closer look at Consumer Watchdog's efforts to get something moving on the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) efforts to start “Do Not Track” legislation. The FTC, for its part, has held regular conference calls and periodic meetings with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in a bid to provide protection for consumers on how data collected about their behaviors is transferred between organizations.
The organization recently issued a report on projections for the monitoring system following Consumer Watchdog’s statement.
That was the week that was in technology, and as you can see from just the high points, it was a big week indeed. Our global online community was constantly keeping its eyes peeled for more, and brought in plenty more where this came from. So be sure to join us back here next week for lots more news in the meantime, and of course, every weekend for our Week in Review!
