Sears Blue Blogger Crew On The Challenges Of Branded Community Building

Sears Blue Blogger Crew On The Challenges Of Branded Community Building

Businesses invest increasingly more of their resources in the branded community building and branded content. We?ve seen a number of successful examples of brands like Hewlett Packard, Intel and Blackberry in the past. American Express stood out in 2010 by winning the People?s Choice award in the nontech company category for its OPEN Forum small-business initiative.

Sears Electronics, kicks off 2011 by emphasizing its online and offline social presence and launching the Sears Blue Blogger Crew at 2011 International CES. The members of the Sears Blue Blogger Crew are established tech bloggers that aim to help Sears Electronics engage with its customers with consumer electronics-related content and stimulate online conversation.

We interviewed Karen Austin, President of Consumer Electronics for Sears Holdings on the launch of the Sears Blue Blogger Crew and the challenges of branded community building and branded content.

Will you incorporate Sears Blue Blogger Crew with MySears?

Absolutely. During CES, we plan on aggregating and repurposing content shared by the five participating bloggers on the MySears blog. Looking into 2011, we will also potentially seek additional opportunities to incorporate their content into the community through guides and other means.

What were your criteria for the selection of the bloggers that form the Sears Blue Blogger Crew?

When researching bloggers for consideration, we wanted to pick the right bloggers who have a track record of solid content and thinking about their content areas. Andru Edwards (GearLive) and Kelly Clay (Lockergnome) are recognized bloggers in the technology field. Jenna Hatfield (Stop, Drop and Blog) and Kris Cain (LittleTechGirl) write about photography and technology, but are mom-centric in their approach. Barbara Rozgonyi (wiredPRworks) knows technology and small business. Together, we think the five bloggers we have engaged really represent a broad reach within the consumer electronics industry and beyond, allowing us to reach our current and potential customers.

What objective is Sears setting with Sears Blue Blogger Crew and how will you measure your success?

We?ve done blogger outreach before, but since this is our first Sears Blue Crew-branded foray into the blogger space, we?re looking to gain several things: trust, customer insight and great content.From there, we hope to boost our digital following, as well as our share of voice. Just by having a presence at CES in this capacity, we?re able to communicate with people we who may not have considered Sears Consumer Electronics otherwise.

How will Sears Blue Blogger Crew mix the off line and online world?

In October, we executed our first consumer electronics in-store product demo, the Sears Megapixel Meetup. We invited nine locally based bloggers to our store on State Street in Chicago, IL for an opportunity to demo the new Samsung DualView camera. From the store, we went on a ?photowalk? around Chicago?s Loop. Through the Blue Blogger Crew, we?ll have an even bigger opportunity to create events like this in multiple markets, and through them, extend our digital reach. You can see some highlights from the meetup here.

Does Sears incorporate the community?s feedback into the company?s function and if yes how?

Yes. With Kmart?s gaming business, for instance, we?ve started incorporating customer reviews onto store shelves for select games. We?re also asking customers about the types of deals they want to see (e.g. BOGO, B2G1) and are incorporating their feedback into our approach. On the Sears side, we are planning to offer more Facebook-exclusive deals based on what our fans want to see from us. How will we know? We?re asking them.

What do you consider the greatest challenge in building an online community and engaging customers through branded content?

Transparency is always a big challenge. We?ve encouraged and we will continue to encourage transparency in our bloggers? content. We want them to give honest, constructive opinions of products and technology that will be represented at CES and beyond. For example at CES, we encourage the Sears Blue Blogger Crew to provide their feedback and insights into what they see in a way that is not only constructive, but will also be useful to their readers and our customers. Through this honesty, we think we can continue to build consumer trust in the Sears brand.

How do you see the branded content evolving in 2011? Will Sears Blue Blogger Crew content be mobile friendly, offer location-based content?

We?re always looking for opportunities to offer content that?s available anywhere, such as QR codes, on store shelves and on an optimized MySears blog. This said, SHC continues to seek the right opportunities to offer customers location-based content and coupons.

In 2010 we often heard the phrase ?every company is a media company?, but where does the the line lie between creating branding content and becoming a publisher?

Brands must create content that?s worth talking about, while also creating content that addresses what customers need to know, as opposed to what they think customers want to know. How do brands know what customers need to know? They ask them. That?s what we?re doing through our blog, our social media channels and through the Sears Blue Blogger Crew.

**

Looks like, with more brands creating content online, the greatest challenges they will face in 2011 will be to stay relevant, stand out in comparison to their competition?s content and translate their online efforts to sales. What do you see as the greatest challenges of branded community building and content for 2011?

About the Author

Amalia is a geek with passion for pop culture who treats her mac and iPhone like family and enjoys spending time online exploring the vast potential of social media. She's researched, written and edited on a wide range of subjects for the greek editions of "Glamour" and "House & Garden" magazines. Follow her on Twitter

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/01/05/sears-blue-blogger-crew-on-the-challenges-of-branded-community-building/

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Birthright Citizenship Looms as Next Immigration Battle

?All I want is a better life,? she said after the Border Patrol found her hiding in bushes on the Arizona side of the border with her husband, her young son and her very pronounced abdomen.

The next big immigration battle centers on illegal immigrants? offspring, who are granted automatic citizenship like all other babies born on American soil. Arguing for an end to the policy, which is rooted in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, immigration hard-liners describe a wave of migrants like Ms. Vasquez stepping across the border in the advanced stages of pregnancy to have what are dismissively called ?anchor babies.?

The reality at this stretch of the border is more complex, with hospitals reporting some immigrants arriving to give birth in the United States but many of them frequent border crossers with valid visas who have crossed the border legally to take advantage of better medical care. Some are even attracted by an electronic billboard on the Mexican side that advertises the services of an American doctor and says bluntly, ?Do you want to have your baby in the U.S.??

Women like Ms. Vasquez, who was preparing for a desert delivery, are rare.

Still, Arizona ? whose tough law granting the police the power to detain illegal immigrants is tied up in the courts ? may again take the lead in what is essentially an effort to redefine what it means to be an American. This time, though, Arizona lawmakers intend to join with legislators from other states to force the issue before the Supreme Court.

This coalition of lawmakers will unveil its exact plans on Wednesday in Washington, but people involved in drafting the legislation say they have decided against the painstaking process of amending the Constitution. Since the federal government decides who is to be deemed a citizen, the lawmakers are considering instead a move to create two kinds of birth certificates in their states, one for the children of citizens and another for the children of illegal immigrants.

The theory is that this could spark a flurry of lawsuits that might resolve the legal conflict in their favor.

?This is not a far-out, extremist position,? said John Kavanagh, one of the Arizona legislators who is leading an effort that has been called just that. ?Only a handful of countries in the world grant citizenship based on the GPS location of the birth.?

Most scholars of the Constitution consider the states? effort to restrict birth certificates patently unconstitutional. ?This is political theater, not a serious effort to create a legal test,? said Gabriel J. Chin, a law professor at the University of Arizona whose grandfather immigrated to the United States from China at a time when ethnic Chinese were excluded from the country. ?It strikes me as unwise, un-American and unconstitutional.?

The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, was a repudiation of the Supreme Court?s 1857 ruling, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, that people of African descent could never be American citizens. The amendment said citizenship applied to ?all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.?

In 1898, the Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, interpreted the citizenship provision as applying to a child born in the United States to a Chinese immigrant couple.

Still, some conservatives contend that the issue is unsettled. Kris Kobach, the incoming secretary of state in Kansas and a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who has helped draft many of the tough immigration regulations across the country, argued that the approach the states were planning would hold up to scrutiny.

?I can?t really say much more without showing my hand,? Mr. Kobach said in an e-mail. ?But, yes, I am confident that the law will stand up in court.?

The legal theories are lost on Laura Gomez, 24, who crossed into Arizona from Mexico five years ago while expecting and is now pregnant with her second child. But like many other pregnant women in Arizona who are without papers, she has been following the issue with anxiety.

?It doesn?t seem fair to just change the rules like that,? Ms. Gomez said.

Despite being called ?anchor babies,? the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States cannot actually prevent deportation of their parents. It is not until they reach the age of 21 that the children are able to file paperwork to sponsor their parents for legal immigration status. The parents remain vulnerable until that point.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 4, 2011

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the year that the Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, applied the citizenship provision to a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants; it was 1898.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=069e9bcc782f38f88f6d443c6764ba04

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Asus intros four tablets, Slider, Transformer, MeMO, Slate EP121

After releasing several teaser shots of its new tablets, Asus has properly greeted the devices with a press release. The company has announced four new slates that offer different feature sets depending on your needs: the Eee Pad Slider, Eee Pad Transformer, Eee Pad MeMO, and Eee Slate EP121. All will be on display during CES from January 6-8 between 9:30AM and 6:00PM at The Venetian, San Polo Ballroom - 3501A.

As its name suggests, the Slider ($500-$800, set to launch in May) packs a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for folks that want to use their tablet for content creation and other heavy typing sessions on the go. Key features include a 10.1-inch IPS touchscreen, a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 SoC, 1.2MP front and 5MP rear cameras, optional 3G connectivity, and Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb, the update with enhanced tablet support).

Eee Pad Slider (left) and Eee Pad Transformer (right)


The 10.1-inch Transformer ($400-$700, coming in April) carries the same Tegra 2 chip, Android OS, and front/rear-mounted cameras, but it drops the slide-out keyboard in favor of an optional docking station that "transforms" the slate into a full-fledged notebook. This sounds similar to Lenovo's IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, except the Transformer's dock isn't an entirely separate machine so you won't have to pay $1,300 for a hardware keyboard.

Eee Pad MeMO


Asus' Eee Pad MeMO (starts at $499, due in June) has a smaller 7.1-inch body, making it more portable than the above offerings. It too runs Android 3.0 with a "wide range of productivity and entertainment software" and an emphasis on note-taking (a stylus is included). We assume the MeMO also utilizes Nvidia's Tegra 2 platform, as the press release mentions a micro HDMI port and support for 1080p video playback.

Eee Slate EP121


Last, but certainly not least, Asus' new Eee Slate EP121 ($999, coming this month) departs from the Tegra/Android combo in favor of a dual-core Intel Core i5 and Windows 7 Home Premium. It also carries a 12.1-inch 1280x800 multitouch display with a 178-degree viewing angle, 32 or 64GB of flash storage (expandable via SDXC), a 2MP camera, one mini-HDMI and two USB 2.0 ports, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41829-asus-intros-four-tablets-slider-transformer-memo-slate-ep121.html

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Sony experiments with searchable, clippable movies on iTunes

Major movie studio Sony Entertainment Pictures has started experimenting with new features on iTunes that allow users to search for specific words within a film's script, and select their favorite clips to share with their friends online. The features are being quietly tested in at least three movies, according to PaidContent.

These include The Other Guys, which provides users with the ability to search for words in the film's script, as well as both Salt and Resident Evil: Afterlife, which allow users to select their favorite scenes and then share them with their friends through social networking sites. Users also have access to a playlist of songs from the movie and an opportunity to purchase them from iTunes. The new features are only accessible to users who purchase movies from iTunes; renters cannot use them.

These new iTunes-only features give movie fans an incentive to purchase the latest films from Apple, rather than on DVD or Blu-ray. Given that Sony created the latter, it's quite interesting the company is willing to offer differentiating value on a competing platform, and a digital one at that.

The new additions fall under iTunes Extras, introduced in late 2009 with iTunes 9, a way for movie studios to release additional functionalities with their video content, offering an alternative to bonus features found on DVDs. iTunes Extras has not yet been widely adopted, and Apple itself is at least partially at fault. Support for the additional content is currently limited to iTunes on Mac or Windows and the first-generation Apple TV. The new Apple TV has yet to gain support, and Apple's iOS-based devices are also incompatible.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41825-sony-experiments-with-searchable-clippable-movies-on-itunes.html

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Bit-Gamer Competition #2

Bit-Gamer Competition #2

Posted on 20th Dec 2010 at 11:31 by Joe Martin with 23 comments

Congratulations to the three winners from last week, who told us their favourite games ever over Twitter. We sent them each a copy of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on PlayStation 3 as a prize, but here's what the winners chose, in case you were wondering:

@dragronphreak - Pools of Radiance Ultima 7
@xmvx - Diablo 2
@Krisposkitt - BioShock

Now it's time for our second competition to celebrate the launch of Bit-Gamer.net. This time we've got a copy of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Codex Edition on Xbox 360 to send out - and, yes, this competition is open worldwide.


To be in for a chance of winning, all you have to do is Follow @bit_gamer on Twitter and send us a tweet telling us which game you're most looking forward to next year.

The deadline for this competition is 5 January 2011.

We've already handed out a few unannounced prizes over Twitter too, and we expect to be giving out a lot more of as we've got a ludicrous amount of prizes to be given away. Congratulations to @darth_careful and @alastor2004, both of whom grabbed themselves copies of Diamond Dan on Steam.

We'll be bringing you a new competition after the New Year. Don't worry if you're not interested in signing up for Twitter either; you'll get a chance to win something soon!

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/3W66eQ0uJx4/

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Asus Confirm Honeycomb Will Be Android 3.0

Asus Confirm Honeycomb Will Be Android 3.0

Depending on who you spoke to or where you read, Google?s Honeycomb Android update was going to be either Android 2.4 or Android 3.0.

Putting all of our minds at rest Asus has confirmed that the tablet-centric operating system update will officially be Android 3.0, revealing the news as part of a press release for its new line of tablet devices demonstrated at CES 2011.

The press release reads as follows:

?The newly unveiled family of ASUS tablets* arrives with a splash by offering four unique and innovative products. The Eee Pad MeMO has a 7-inch capacitive screen powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon? mobile processor and will ship with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) featuring HD playback capabilities, mobile gaming, an exciting Web experience and is accompanied by a stylus pen for taking handwritten notes.?

There you have it.

We are sure it?s not going to affect anything going forward but it does show that Google?s tablet friendly OS will most likely be completely rewritten to perform optimally on a tablet, not a small version update and a minor version increment.

Asus will debut three Android 3.0 powered devices in the coming months; the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, the Eee Pad Slide and the Eee Pad MeMo.

Expect more details on Google?s Android Honeycomb firmware to come out over the next few days, manufacturers will be literally falling over themselves to educate people as to what the new update will be able to handle on their new tablet devices.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/01/05/asus-confirm-honeycomb-will-be-android-3-0/

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Chrome OS Knows Your Every Move

In early December, Google sent out thousands of free laptops as part of a program to test Chrome OS, an operating system that relies on the Internet for all its software applications.

Computers running Chrome OS don't let users download data or install applications. Instead, everything happens in the cloud. So the laptop?called the CR-48?needs very little storage space, but it requires a constant Internet connection, and it has 3G wireless connectivity built in.

The design of Chrome OS changes such fundamental things as where a user's data resides and how it is managed. It also gives Google access to an unprecedented amount of user data. The company hasn't said how it will use this information, but some clues can be found in the company's previous products and in the rights it has reserved in the Chrome OS terms of service.

Google makes the vast majority of its billions of dollars of annual income by delivering advertising tailored to its users' behavior and interests as revealed by their searches, the contents of their e-mail messages, and their browsing history. Chrome OS could take this to the next level.

"With Chrome OS, Google can obtain deeper system information like specific user behaviors, if they wanted to," says Daniel Cawrey, an IT analyst and editor of thechromesource, a website that has been tracking the development of Chrome OS.

Google's terms of service give it the right to use the information it collects for advertising purposes if it chooses to head in that direction. The terms note that "some of [Google's] services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the services, queries made through the services, or other information." They go on to specify that Google can at any time modify or extend how and when advertising is delivered and that users must agree to let Google advertise in consideration for granting use of its services.

Google's Chrome Web browser?a closely related product that runs on other operating systems?also collects information from users, but it uses this to improve the software, rather than to target advertising. "Information that Google receives when you use Google Chrome is processed in order to operate and improve Google Chrome and other Google services," according to the Chrome browser's privacy policy. In future, however, advertising could conceivably be included under the umbrella of "other Google services." The Chrome browser does collect information that is of interest to advertisers, such as location data and browsing history.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=c5a97bd3a62c5ea5f7f1a32414f7a0c7

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Samsung announces USB 3.0 external HDDs for consumers

Samsung has announced three new lines of consumer external HDDs: two portable and one for desktops. All of the new drives feature SuperSpeed USB 3.0, which provides data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps. The new external storage lines will be available at leading US retailers in April, with pricing to be announced at that time.

Samsung's new portable external drives offer up to 1TB capacity available in four colors: Brown black, Noble beige, Clay orange, and Mist gray. The premium portable drives also offer up to 1TB capacity, but add enhanced backup and security software: automatic and continuous data backup as well as 256-bit full disk encryption. They also have features like SecretZone, which allows users to create a secure virtual drive, and SafetyKey, software that provides encrypted data backup and password settings. A USB docking station will be sold separately for both the basic and premium line products. Last but not least, the external drives for desktop PCs offer up to 2TB capacity available in Brown black and Noble beige.

"These new external drives offer outstanding performance and style," Reid Sullivan, Samsung's senior vice president of mobile entertainment marketing, said in a statement. "With their wide range of capacities, features and price points they offer a variety of attractive choices for todays storage-hungry consumers looking for mobile and backup solutions."

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41824-samsung-announces-usb-30-external-hdds-for-consumers.html

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Democrats Plan Push to Curtail Use of Filibusters

Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, said that he intended to call for new limits on filibusters that would require senators to be on the floor if they seek to derail legislation. He and other Democrats, frustrated at Republicans? ability to tie up the Senate, want to make it harder to erect other procedural obstacles as well.

Citing the Constitution and prior Senate rulings, Mr. Udall has argued that senators have the ability to change the chamber?s rules by a majority vote on the first day of the new Congress, which for the 112th Congress begins at noon Wednesday.

?I am intending on offering my constitutional option on the first day,? Mr. Udall said in a telephone interview as he prepared to return to Capitol Hill.

Senate leaders, seeking more time for bipartisan talks aimed at avoiding a potentially disruptive showdown on the Senate floor, are preparing a tactic that would let negotiations continue while maintaining the ability of Democrats to press ahead with their changes if talks prove fruitless.

In essence, Democrats could put the Senate in recess at the conclusion of Wednesday?s mainly ceremonial proceedings to be highlighted by the swearing in of 13 new senators.

As a result, the Senate would technically still be in the same legislative day when lawmakers returned on Jan. 24, and the backers of the rules changes could proceed at that point if they were not satisfied. Mr. Udall could also seek other guarantees that his right to challenge the rules was not harmed by the delay, which he said could give him more time to build support for his plan.

In the interim, Congressional officials said, talks over a rules compromise could continue between Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader. Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat and chairman of the Rules Committee, would continue parallel talks with Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who is in line to be the top Republican on that panel.

Past rules disputes have usually been averted through such negotiations. But if no agreement is reached, lawmakers say they will force a debate, which Republicans and some Democrats have warned could rupture relations in the Senate, tie up President Obama?s agenda and lead Democrats to regret the decision if they return to the minority.

?One of our main focuses is making people stand up and explain to the American people why they are filibustering,? said Senator Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who has been working with Mr. Udall to develop changes in the way the Senate operates.

She said she and others would prefer to work with Republicans to see if they can reach a bipartisan agreement but would not shy away from a floor fight.

Republicans, who forced more than 90 votes to cut off filibusters in the last two years, said they had little choice since Democrats on many occasions refused them any opportunity to propose changes to legislation. Mr. Alexander and others have warned Democrats to brace for a backlash should they act unilaterally.

In a speech prepared for a Tuesday appearance at the Heritage Foundation, Mr. Alexander reiterated his position that Democrats would be making a mistake. ?Voters who turned out in November are going to be pretty disappointed when they learn the first thing Democrats want to do is cut off the right of the people they elected to make their voices heard on the floor of the U.S. Senate,? he said in his planned remarks.

The effort to rein in filibusters has attracted considerable support from Democratic activists who believe that Republicans have abused the rules to thwart the agenda of Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats. Before adjourning in December, all Democratic senators who are returning for the 112th Congress signed a letter to Mr. Reid urging him ?to take steps to bring these abuses of our rules to an end.?

Besides forcing senators to take the floor to defend their filibusters, Democrats also want to make it harder to stonewall the initial effort to bring a measure to the floor, a step known as the ?motion to proceed.? They also want to ban the ability of senators to place an anonymous ?hold? on a bill or nomination.

The tactic of defying the calendar and keeping the Senate in the same legislative day is not a new one. According to the Senate Historical Office, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, then the majority leader, set the record of 162 days in 1980 when he kept the Senate in the same legislative day from Jan. 3 to June 12 over filibuster changes.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=2e98c6ae6ef69b4e6e5d5b6d44d606c7

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Sony experiments with searchable, clippable movies on iTunes

Major movie studio Sony Entertainment Pictures has started experimenting with new features on iTunes that allow users to search for specific words within a film's script, and select their favorite clips to share with their friends online. The features are being quietly tested in at least three movies, according to PaidContent.

These include The Other Guys, which provides users with the ability to search for words in the film's script, as well as both Salt and Resident Evil: Afterlife, which allow users to select their favorite scenes and then share them with their friends through social networking sites. Users also have access to a playlist of songs from the movie and an opportunity to purchase them from iTunes. The new features are only accessible to users who purchase movies from iTunes; renters cannot use them.

These new iTunes-only features give movie fans an incentive to purchase the latest films from Apple, rather than on DVD or Blu-ray. Given that Sony created the latter, it's quite interesting the company is willing to offer differentiating value on a competing platform, and a digital one at that.

The new additions fall under iTunes Extras, introduced in late 2009 with iTunes 9, a way for movie studios to release additional functionalities with their video content, offering an alternative to bonus features found on DVDs. iTunes Extras has not yet been widely adopted, and Apple itself is at least partially at fault. Support for the additional content is currently limited to iTunes on Mac or Windows and the first-generation Apple TV. The new Apple TV has yet to gain support, and Apple's iOS-based devices are also incompatible.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41825-sony-experiments-with-searchable-clippable-movies-on-itunes.html

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