Items tagged with Subscription
Few things are nicer on cold winter mornings than sliding into a car equipped with heated seats. Heated seats also make leather seating more attractive to those who live in particularly cold areas. In fact, we'd wager that heated seats (and steering wheels) are a particularly important item on the list of must-haves for a lot of people who are buying a brand-new BMW. However, the automaker has announced recently that it intends to charge customers a subscription fee for features installed in their vehicles, such as heated seats and infotainment features. BMW recently announced via its ConnectedDrive "Add vehicle features" video that consumers will be able to add features to their vehicle via...
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Which do you despise more, advertisements or paying for a service when you've grown accustomed to it being free? Don't feel obligated to answer now, though you should put some thought into the question in case YouTube decides to charge a subscription fee for ad-free access to its streaming video collection. While nothing is yet imminent, there's a good chance it will happen. Susan Wojcicki, a long-time Google executive who took over the company's YouTube operation earlier this year, said that a paid subscription model is currently being worked on, The Wall Street Journal reports. The goal is to pull in more revenue -- and profit, of course -- from a service that Google paid $1.65 billion for...
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This is an announcement that's been a long time coming. Steam has added support for subscription-based games, including conventional MMOs, and has debuted the function with the recently launched Darkfall Unholy Wars. DUW is a self-described "hardcore PvP" title with an emphasis on crafting and player-vs-player action. The game was originally supposed to launch last fall, but was delayed and went through an extensive beta process. It launched on April 16. It's not clear what the payment processing details are, or which MMOs will be adding Steam support. On the one hand, it gives gamers a simple way to manage subscriptions and expands Steam's "one stop" gaming center credentials. The flip side,...
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In early 2011, Robert Murdoch's News Corp took the wraps off The Daily, a new, iPad-centric newspaper that was supposed to revolutionize the digital news business. Murdoch himself described the paper as "unique mix of text, photography, audio, video, information graphics, touch interactivity and real-time data and social feeds provides its editors with the ability to decide not only which stories are most important." It was also the first app to use Apple's in-app subscription system, which allowed charges to be billed directly to your iTunes account without needing to open another window or register a separate billing service. Now, the company is said to be on the virtual chopping block, with...
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Last year, multiple news companies began hopping on the digital subscription bandwagon courtesy of the iPad. The hope was that Apple's 9.7" behemoth would drive a new wave of people to sign up for tablet versions of their favorite news media (paper subscribers were often, but not always, given access to the digital edition for free). After years of losses, traditional print media were desperate to find a replacement engine for plummeting advertising revenue. It hasn't worked. The Pew Research Center has released data showing that while digital advertising with newspapers increased by $207 million in 2011, print advertising fell by more than 10x that amount, to $2.1B. The 10:1 offset is worse...
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Remember Albany, the beta version of Microsoft's subscription-based version of Office and Windows Live OneCare that launched in mid-April? Well, Albany is now Equipt, but you won't find it in the state of New York: for now, starting in mid-July, you'll find it only at Circuit City. In a press release on Wednesday, Microsoft announced the launch: Initially code-named “Albany,” Microsoft Equipt offers consumers Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, giving them the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for their personal and school projects; Windows Live OneCare, the all-in-one security and PC management service; Windows Live tools, such as Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger...
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It's been bandied around for some time: a subscription-based version of Microsoft Office, and on Friday, Microsoft launched just such a service, code-named Albany, in private beta form. Albany includes more than just Office, however.“Albany” is the codename for a new all-in-one subscription service of essential software and services consumers told us were most important to them. We’ve pulled together the productivity tools people need to organize their lives, security to help keep their personal information safe and online services that make it easy for them to keep in touch with friends and family, and folded them all into a single service that also ensures the user’s PC is running the...
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We Just got word from Dell that the company is planning to offer a free subscription to a theft protection service to XPS owners... Sticky-fingered PC pilferers take note: Dell is the first notebook supplier to offer a complimentary one year subscription to theft protection service on select notebook computers. Notebook computers are venturing farther from home and office, and are facing a greater risk for theft. Whether it's a sleek and light ultraportable that's easy to carry everywhere or a power-house gaming notebook that makes the rounds at LAN parties, mobile users want to use their notebooks on the go. Now Dell customers in the U.S. can have more peace of mind, because all XPS notebook...
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