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...

While the following seems completely improbable, you have to give the idea consideration due to the source. Mobile Review‘s Eldar Murtazin, who is known for his deep Nokia connections, writes that Nokia and Microsoft are working on a partnership that would create “an entire line of Windows Phone devices that may go under the name Nokia [translated].” That’s right: Microsoft’s software, Nokia’s hardware. Now, before anyone gets too excited, Nokia’s lame-duck Mobile ...

It looks like Apple’s musical social network — Ping — is getting integrated with an actual social network, Twitter (burn). Via a post on the company’s blog, Twitter announced that users of Ping and Twitter would be able to link their respective accounts from within iTunes. Once linked, users have the ability to alert their followers of songs, artists, or albums they like or review. As Twitter explains, activity on Ping will “be tweeted to your Twitter followers” and include...

AllThingsD is reporting that social networking giant Facebook and internet communications company Skype are planning to announce a “wide-ranging partnership that will include integration of SMS, voice chat and Facebook Connect.” The blog cites “sources close to the situation” and goes on to explain that the partnership will allow users to SMS and call Facebook friends (both video and audio) from Skype. The report states that this functionality will appear in Skype 5.0; which is due...

Last month, Verizon Wireless and Skype announced their exclusive partnership in the U.S., along with their plans to bring Skype’s popular VoIP calling and messaging service to your Verizon cell phone. Now, through the miracle of animation — and the help of a woman with a really high pitched voice — Verizon and Skype are shedding a little light on how Skype integration will work on your phone. The video doesn’t get too in-depth, but we do learn that Skype calls will arrive to your Veriz...

When Verizon Wireless and Skype announced a joint press conference at MWC, VZW users knew what they wanted to hear…and today, they got it. The two companies announced a partnership that will bring Skype calling and messaging to Verizon handsets in the coming months. The benefits to Verizon customers include:The ability to make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe on America’s most reliable wireless network; The ability to call international phone numbers ...