Netflix unveils Web-to-TV device

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Netflix, the DVD-by-mail rental service, on Tuesday took another step toward delivering films straight from the Web to TV sets through a new device, boosting its stock as much as 10.9 percent.

The $99.99 (50 pound) device lets Netflix subscribers “stream” movies and television episodes to their TVs with no extra charges or viewing restrictions, the company and its partner, Roku, said in a statement.

Forrester analyst James McQuivey called the move a salvo in the “coming war over the territory known as the consumer living room.”

“While it’s too early to call winners and losers — this battle should rage through all of 2009 and into 2010 — it’s clear that training millions of consumers to prefer you sooner rather than later is the best strategy,” he said.

Apple nears iPhone deals for Japan, Korea, says report

May 20, 2008 (Computerworld) Apple Inc. is close to signing iPhone deals with a pair of major Asian mobile carriers, according to reports out of Korea late last week.

NTT DoCoMo Inc. — Japan’s leading mobile service provider — and Korea Telecom Freetel were linked to Apple in a story by the Telecoms Korea News Service on Friday (subscription required), said Fortune.com today.

DoCoMo had reportedly talked with Apple about signing up as an iPhone seller as long ago as December 2007, when analysts, including Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray & Co., bet that the rumors were on target. “We would say Japan is 90% likely [to have the iPhone] by the end of 2008,” Munster said at the time.

U.N.’s Ban heads for Asia on Myanmar aid mission

* U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon flies to region

* Myanmar grants WFP permission to use helicopters

* Doubts in Yangon about how much policy has changed

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON, May 21 (Reuters) – U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon headed to southeast Asia on Wednesday on a mission to secure more help for cyclone victims in Myanmar, whose military rulers have finally granted an aid agency the use of helicopters to deliver supplies.

Before leaving New York, Ban said he hoped to meet reclusive junta supremo Than Shwe, who emerged from his bunker-like new capital 250 miles (390 km) north of Yangon to see the destruction for himself and meet victims — two weeks after the disaster.

Diplomats say his rare appearances in public in the recent days could be a sign of the top brass realising the enormity of the destruction of Cyclone Nargis, one of the worst to hit Asia with nearly 134,000 people dead or missing.

Quebecers urged to be more open toward immigrants

Quebecers will be urged to be more open in accommodating minorities, according to a leaked report.

The report, which stems from a commission set up to examine reasonable accommodation, is expected to be released later this week by co-chairs Gerard Bouchard and Charles Taylor.

In several chapters of the final draft obtained by The Montreal Gazette, the commissioners argue that the “discontent of a large part of the population” over accommodation demands by Muslims, Jews and other religious minorities appears to be the “result of partial information and false perceptions.”