Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Voxy is more than Rosetta Stone meets The New York Times--it also provides location-based lessons about your immediate surroundings, and provides access to tutors via video chats. "Language learning is like learning how to cook or how to surf," says Voxy founder Paul Gollash. It’s not something that is best learned in a classroom.

Microsoft is letting you try its latest operating system before you buy. Here are the business features not to miss.

Yesterday Coinstar, the parent company of Redbox, the 35,400-kiosk-strong movie-rental service, announced a joint venture with Verizon to provide a subscription-based streaming video service, thus positioning the companies in direct competition with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. Coinstar also announced that it would acquire NCR's entertainment business , which includes its former rival Blockbuster Express, adding more than 9,000 kiosks to Redbox's roster around the country. Now new details about the combined companies' plans have emerged.

The Coinstar subsidiary announces plans to partner with Verizon to compete with streaming video giants Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Coinstar subsidiary Redbox today announced a new partnership with Verizon for the launch of a streaming video service.

As the Netflix CEO launched in the UK and Ireland, he said last year's pricing backlash put the focus back on consumers. How does it feel to go from Wall Street darling to the object of scorn? "It felt bad, that's what you would expect," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told paidContent as he launched the company in the UK and Ireland

If 2012's CES gadget fest has a theme already it's "thin, thinner, thinnest." But in the endless quest for skinny devices, what gets left out?

The movie industry has been consistently wrong in its claims that new platforms and channels would be the end of its business. Now it can't innovate, leading to SOPA. This year the movie industry made $30 billion (1/3 in the U.S

The results are in--and they arent pretty. Here are eight cautionary tales from some of the worlds biggest brands. Recently I gave a group of my MBA students at New York University’s Stern Graduate School of Business in New York this assignment: Identify the most questionable new products of the year and analyze what made them so ill conceived.

The results are in--and they arent pretty.

Applause! Applause! Some cheered when Reed Hasting announced his decision to split up Netflix's DVD and streaming businesses .

The final vote is in! The committee has worked its way through an amazingly large group of entrees and come up with the Top (Bottom?) 10.

Recently the world of digital entertainment was rocked by a disrupter known for taking the stage wearing almost exclusively black shirts and jeans. This guy is obsessed with details about how his product should look, sound, and feel to consumers, no matter how or where they consume it. He micromanages pricing and insists on making sure every aspect of how people buy his stuff is as frictionless a process as possible.

The founder of FamiliesGo!, a travel website, describes the ins and outs of choosing the right affiliate marketing partners. I've been exploring affiliate programs this week, to compare the Amazon and Eversave programs I've been using with other affiliate programs from Google, LivingSocial, and other "daily deal" providers

The video search technology, which cost Microsoft a reported $70 million, will be integrated into XBox.

How Elf on the Shelf createdand convinced CBS to aira "special" commercial for its product. Elf on the Shelf , Christa Pitts's Marietta, Georgia-based company, is one of the fastest-growing private corporations in the United States.