| Will Apple Upset the Rental Cart?
In much the same way it upended online distribution of music, Apple may now be poised to redefine the way movies are rented online. According to published reports, Apple (AAPL) and Fox (NWS) plan to bring movie rentals to Apple's popular iTunes Store, and through that to its family of iPod media players and the iPhone. The two companies are said to have concluded an agreement that will have Fox movies available for limited-time viewing via iTunes as they are released on DVD. Online film rental is only now getting off the ground. Netflix (NFLX), which specializes in mail-order movie rentals, recently launched an online movie rental service that lets consumers order movies and watch them instantly on a computer. Netflix said in August that its customers had watched some 10 million movies and TV shows on their computers.
VeriFone to Offer Managed Payment Services to Mexico Merchants
VeriFone Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PAY) today announced formation of VeriFone Access to provide merchant hosted services for managing electronic payments, beginning in Mexico. VeriFone Access was formed with VeriFone�s investment and in partnership with Tienda-kit, an innovative Mexican third-party acquirer and merchant services provider, which now operates as VeriFone Access. VeriFone Access will offer a variety of merchant payment services in Mexico and other emerging economies. The company�s first offering will be a hosted managed service platform based on a proprietary transaction handling technology and on VeriFone�s PAYware software products. �Managed services are an increasingly important component of VeriFone�s strategy to broaden acceptance of electronic payment and increase the delivery of value added services,� said Douglas G.
What's in store for 2008?
Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson are back, along with host Ryan Seacrest. The fun actually begins about 8 weeks into the show, and sometime in March we'll see the final 18. The New Year will begin with the release of Jack Nicholson's new film, The Bucket List, which co-stars Morgan Freeman. Nicholson, 70, one of the greatest talents in Hollywood says he drew on his own experience in the hospital for his new film. Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, 70, co-star as cancer patients who decide to travel the world following their wish list of things to do before they die. “A lot of this movie was informed by my being not what I thought I would be, an excellent patient, but rather a poor one," Nicholson told reporters recently, according to AP radio. “That happened by coincidence just before this movie," he said.
ACS, Ingenix Form Strategic Alliance
DALLAS and MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (NYSE: ACS) and Ingenix today announced a strategic alliance to provide Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS) decision support solutions to state governments. Under the terms of the alliance agreement, Ingenix and ACS will work with each other to supply decision support solutions for ACS' state MMIS initiatives. ACS will license its portfolio of federally certified decision support technologies to Ingenix, which will provide ACS' MMIS clients with its broad array of decision support methodologies, software applications, and related consulting services. Decision support systems analyze data to help health administrators assess Medicaid program status, analyze healthcare policy, monitor budget trends and measure program performance.
Who Won the Battle of Pennsylvania?
The draft quotes the president of the Millersville University Republicans talking about a professor who discussed his anti-Bush views during the 2004 presidential campaign, and at least once in class noted this student’s conservative leanings. Apparently she survived, as the report goes on to quote her saying that she had signed up for another course with the same professor "because I find him to be a brilliant professor." The draft report describes in considerable detail the hearings held by the committee. And while Democrats and some academic leaders say the current draft favors pro-Horowitz testimony, there don’t appear to be many disputes over the accuracy of the quotes and descriptions. The report goes on to note that there is no evidence of any but "rare" cases in which students are punished for their views, and that no legislation is needed.
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