Sharp on Tuesday announced that is has entered into an manufacturing partnership with Foxconn that will see the manufacturing giant take a 10% stake in the Japanese electronics company. Hon Hai has invested nearly 67 billion yen ($809 million) in Sharp in exchange for roughly 121.65 million new shares, which will be spread out between four Foxconn companies. Sharp CEO Takashi Okuda said, “Until now we have handled all of our R&D and manufacturing, but going forward we will need to include partnersh...

Instagram, the increasingly popular photo-sharing platform for Apple’s iPhone, has always allowed users to export photos taken within the app to other social networks. The service has never allowed users to upload non-Instagram photos onto its platform, however — until now. Hipstamatic, a similar photo app that takes vintage-looking photos, is set to unveil a partnership that will allow Instagram photos to be uploaded to its service, Fast Company reported on Wednesday. ”When we launched, it wa...

On Tuesday, a report surfaced claiming Netflix was in talks with some of the largest cable companies in the U.S. to discuss integrating the company’s streaming product into cable services. The report stated that at least one cable provider was considering the launch of a trial run before the end of the year. Comcast, however, will not be that company, FierceCable reported. “We have no plans to offer access to Netflix to our customers through our Xfinity TV service, no matter what device,” Comca...

Netflix’s chief executive Reed Hastings has been meeting with some of the largest cable companies in the U.S. to discuss integrating the company’s streaming product into cable services, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The site’s source said that at least one cable provider may experiment and offer the streaming service before the end of the year. If a partnership were to come from these talks, cable operators could offer Netflix as an additional on-demand option that would be added onto a subsc...

Sprint is reportedly planning to walk away from its planned network-sharing deal with LightSquared as early as next week, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Sprint and LightSquared in June agreed to an 11-year deal that would share network expansion costs and equipment if LightSquared could secure regulatory approval for its 4G LTE network build-out. The carrier first gave LightSquared until the end of 2011 to receive FCC approval, and then extended the deadline to March 15th. The FCC blocked LightSquaredR...

Amazon on Wednesday announced that it has entered into a new agreement with Viacom to provide a larger selection of television content to its Kindle Fire and Amazon Prime customers. Under the deal, Amazon’s customers will have access to episodes of The Real World, Chapelle’s Show and the The Sarah Silverman Program from Comedy Central, as well as a number of hit shows from Nickelodeon. “This deal with Viacom brings Prime customers and Kindle Fire users thousands of comedies, kids’ shows,...

Last week rumors began to circulate that Apple was planning to open itsy bitsy retail stores in as many as 25 Target locations. During a presentation on Thursday, Target confirmed that it will have 25 stores featuring “special displays” of Apple products. Neither company has provided details on the partnership, however it will likely be similar to Apple’s deal with Best Buy, which sells the company’s products from dedicated mini stores within more than 600 Best Buy locations. (more…)...

Wholesale wireless reseller LightSquared announced on Monday that Sharp will manufacture smartphones and tablets capable of running on its 4G LTE network. LightSquared said that it will demo the first devices during the upcoming CTIA Wireless trade show in San Diego, California. “Sharp has a rich history of producing unique products that push the extremes of design and functionality, and we’re proud that they will be developing innovative devices for LightSquared’s 4G-LTE network,” LightSquared CE...

Amazon and Netflix both recently announced large content licensing deals. Over the weekend, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos said his company will provide Amazon Unbox customers with access to FOX content, bumping the Unbox library to more than 11,000 available movie and TV show titles. The new content includes 24, Arrested Development, Ally McBeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files and The Wonder Years. Amazon is expected to announce a tablet during a press event on Wednesday and it is largely expected to o...

Amazon and CBS have reached a licensing deal in which CBS will provide Amazon Prime subscribers with access to its television shows.The deal will add 2,000 TV episodes from popular shows such as The Tudors, Medium, Frasier, Cheers, Numb3rs, and the full Star Trek franchise to the Amazon Prime library, which already has more than 8,000 movies and TV shows. Amazon expects the content to be available during this summer and it confirmed that its Instant Video customers will also have access to the library. Read o...

Later this month, Sprint will formally announce its plans to bring 4G LTE service to its subscribers via a network-sharing deal with Virginia-based LightSquared, CNET reports. The move, seen as inevitable by some, was outed last month when LightSquared owner Philip Falcone revealed the deal in a letter to Harbinger Capital Partners investors. “Sprint will become a significant customer of LightSquared’s 4G LTE network,” Falcone stated in the letter. The deal, which could be worth as much as $20 billion o...

Microsoft has struck a deal to provide English search results in Baidu, China’s most popular search engine. According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft anticipates that the Bing-labeled English search results will help expand its Bing brand in China. Baidu also hopes that the partnership will help its efforts to expand its search engine to the global market. Chinese users typically use Google for English search results, however, the Chinese government has blocked that search engine — and other Goo...

Sprint has reached a deal to deploy a 4G LTE network with LightSquared, Bloomberg reports. The deal could be worth as much as $20 billion over the next 15 years according to the report. “LightSquared and Sprint will jointly develop, deploy and operate LightSquared’s 4G LTE network,” LightSquared owner Philip Falcone wrote in a letter to Harbinger Capital Partners investors on Friday. “Sprint will become a significant customer of LightSquared’s 4G LTE network.” It is unclear what i...

It looks like Sling Media and Verizon Wireless have inked a partnership that will bring the Slingbox experience to Verizon LTE smartphones. The service and accompanying fee, which was not disclosed, will provide users with the Slingbox hardware and software necessary to stream live television directly from their TVs to their Verizon, 4G mobile devices.“Users can enjoy their TV while having their oil changed, waiting for a flight or taking a study break,” reads the press release. “Verizon W...