In addition to Star Wars, headlining new content and merchandising programs in fiscal 2014 are Marvel franchises of Avengers and Spider-Man; plus original programming from preschool brand Disney Junior such as "Sofia the First" and "Doc McStuffins." In addition, plans for new content from both Disney·Pixar and Disney’s animation and live action studios, including Planes and Maleficent, offer myriad merchandising opportunities, according to Chapek.

Disney Consumer Products revenue increased 12% to $763 million in the second quarter (ended March 31), and segment operating income increased 35% to $200 million. Higher operating income was primarily due to increases at merchandise licensing and at retail business.

In fall 2014, a few months after the theatrical release of Maleficent, Walt Disney Studios will open its vault for the release of Sleeping Beauty Diamond Edition on Blu-ray Disc. DCP will support the re-release of this classic with a wide product assortment, which will also be supported through television promotions, short form content, marketing, PR and social media.

“The Disney brand is our most powerful asset and with the acquisition of Lucasfilm, our franchise portfolio has never been stronger,” Chapek said in a statement. “Our diverse content slate is full of opportunities to connect with the consumer in new and ways through incredible storytelling and compelling characters.”

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs talks up the 800 series chips at the company's CES keynote.

Andrew Cunningham

At this point, almost every high-end Android phone we've seen this year has arrived sporting Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 SoC, which combines four of the company's Krait 300 CPU cores with the Adreno 320 GPU used in last year's Snapdragon S4 Pro.

But there's another chip that Qualcomm mentioned at its big, strange CES press conference in January: the Snapdragon 800. This chip combines four Krait 400 CPU cores (basically identical to Krait 300 save for faster L2 cache and higher clock speeds) with a faster Adreno 330 GPU—Qualcomm has allowed some journalists to benchmark its reference platform for the chip, and the initial numbers are quite impressive.

Of the primary sources we have for these numbers, AnandTech is probably the most thorough—they've got plenty of numbers comparing the Snapdragon 800's CPU and GPU to chips like the Snapdragon 600, Apple's A6 and A6X, and the Exynos 5 Dual and Octa. The chip's CPU represents a modest upgrade over the 600, while the GPU is a massive step up that trades blows with the powerful Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX554MP4 in Apple's fourth-generation iPad.

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On Tuesday Nvidia announced that it would make its GPU technology widely available to device manufacturers looking to license it, starting with the company's current Kepler architecture. This build is found in Nvidia's GeForce 600-series GPUs and now may end up in graphics cores from other manufacturers, too.

Nvidia said Kepler's improved performance and efficiency, as well as its Direct3D 11, OpenGL 4.3, and GPGPU capabilities would endear device makers to its licensees. In turn, licensees will receive designs, collateral, and support from the company.

Citing a slowing PC market, Nividia's post suggested that it wants to take advantage of the mobile boom. “[I]t’s not practical to build silicon or systems to address every part of the expanding market. Adopting a new business approach will allow us to address the universe of devices,” the company wrote.

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There was a .25% increase in consumer spending on home entertainment in 2012, the first time in seven years there hasn’t been a decrease, EMA shared at the annual Independent Product Market event.

“This report confirms that our industry is indeed healthy,” said EMA president and CEO Mark Fisher. “There’s a lot of life left in this business.”

Consumers spent almost $18.5 billion on home video in 2012, and they’re expected to spend about the same in 2013, according to Tom Adams, senior principal analyst of U.S. media for IHS Screen Digest. Small decreases in spending are expected annually through 2017, but not much (projected $17.9 billion in spending in 2017).

EMA’s report had Blu-ray sales up nearly 10% in 2012, with the average price paid by consumers declining to $19.97. Spending on digital video game content increased 16%.

Graham Gee, VP and GM of Nielsen, shared data showing DVD unit sales down 7.2% in 2012, but overall Blu-ray unit sales up 22.6%.

“Wider adoption of Blu-ray is having a positive affect on the industry,” he said. “Overall we continue to see stabilization.”

More than 70% of all disc sales came from mass merchants, Gee added, noting that both Walmart and Target saw declining sales.

There were fewer people buying discs in 2012, Gee said, but those who did buy bought more. The top 10% of disc buyers each averaged $572 on content.

Fisher said retailers are adapting, pointing to services such as Walmart’s Vudu and Best Buy’s CinemaNow.

“Retailing is retailing, regardless of the delivery channel,” Fisher said. “Traditional retailers know how to merchandise products, engage the consumer and generate sales. Internet-based retailers have figured how to do the same in the digital environment with new technologies and strategies. Home entertainment retailing today is defined by the confluence of these two vibrant channels.”
 

When ESPN launched the 3D network three years ago, the consensus was it would appeal to a segment of enthusiasts as well as a larger group who would likely use it for special event viewing, according to Ben Arnold, director of industry analysis with The NPD Group.

In a June 18 blog, Arnold says the fact that the global leader in sports television is exiting 3D after investing considerable resources researching viewing habits and making the channel available is a blow to the future of the 3D hardware and content ecosystem.

ESPN’s decision comes at a time when sales of 3D-compatible TVs are up 5% year-over-year, which is down considerably from a 32% spike in unit sales in 2012, according to NPD. There are about 12 million 3DTVs in U.S. homes, with 3D Blu-ray players accounting for a third of 3D-compatible home entertainment devices.

Regardless, the research group said that just 14% of consumers expect to buy a 3DTV this year, which is down from 25% measured two years ago. More disconcerting is the fact that consumer awareness of 3D’s availability as a TV feature is down 9% from 50% awareness in 2011.

From ESPN’s perspective, interest in watching sports in 3D has waned. According to the study, just 56% of fans are interested in watching events in 3D, down from 70% in 2011.

“The discontinuation of ESPN 3D isn’t exactly 3D’s death knell, but with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, it might be time to warm up the bus,” Arnold wrote.

The collections honor the works of Ronald Reagan, Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper and Val Lewton, and each has an SRP of $27.92.

The Reagan collection will include Knute Rockne All American, Kings Row, Storm Warnings and The Winning Team. The Stanwyck collection will include Baby Face, Annie Oakley, My Reputation and East Side, West Side. The Cooper collection will include Sergeant York, The Fountainhead, Friendly Persuasion and Love in the Afternoon. The Lewton collection will include Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, The Curse of the Cat People and The Body Snatcher.

In testimony before a congressional intelligence committee on Tuesday, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) and other government officials staunchly defended the government’s secret surveillance program, noting that the agency has "been able to connect the dots and prevent another terrorist attack.”

General Keith Alexander, director of the NSA, also told the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that his agency’s massive telecommunications surveillance program has helped to stop a “little over 10” plots with a “domestic nexus” and a total of 50 such plots in more than 20 countries throughout the last several years of the program's existence.

Alexander re-iterated that under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, the NSA has the authority to access telephony metadata—the who, when, and where of a call. James Cole, the deputy attorney general, also testified on Tuesday, acknowledging that other law enforcement agencies interpret Section 215 to mean that they can collect other material, including business records. There is also a purge of such data every five years, confirmed John Chris Inglis, the NSA’s deputy director.

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The study from research firm Centris found that 71% of Hispanics now have a smartphone, compared with 58% of American households, and in the past month, 62% of Hispanic households watched video on their phone, compared with 52% of all American households.

Thirty-three percent of Hispanic households subscribe to Netflix, compared with 25% of all U.S. households, and 61% of Hispanic households have a broadband connection, compared with 70% of all U.S. households.

The first release will be the Tibetan-language feature film Old Dog, which follows a family that discovers their dog is worth a fortune.
 

The Belle detector at Japan's KEK facility.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Two different accelerators have found evidence for a particle that appears to contains four quarks, according to papers published in Physical Review Letters. Although particles with two and three quarks are common, this would be the first time that something containing four quarks has been spotted. Depending on the precise nature of the interactions among the quarks, this could be a discovery that keeps the theoreticians very busy.

With the discovery of the Higgs boson, the predicted collection of fundamental particles was complete. But one family of these fundamental particles—the quarks—combine with gluons to make more complex particles called hadrons and mesons. Hadrons include the proton and neutron, and they are formed by combinations of three quarks. Mesons, which are unstable, are comprised of pairs of quarks.

Having only two quarks would seem to make mesons fairly simple, when actually they're anything but. There are three families of quarks, each with a particle and antiparticle, and mesons can consist of any combination of these. They also create some of the more amusing nomenclature in physics, with mesons involving a strange quark being referred to as strangeonium, and those with a bottom quark as bottomonium.

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