Microsoft's home away from Hohm Video

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Microsoft's home away from Hohm
Created: 04/06/2011
Video description: President Obama will host a Facebook town-hall meeting this month, Dish Network plans to buy Blockbuster for $228 million, and Microsoft shifts its focus for Hohm from the home to the car.

Microsoft's home away from Hohm Video Transcript

-It's Wednesday, April 6th. I'm Natali Morris and it's time to get Loaded. Dish Network has announced that it will purchase Blockbuster for $228 million. Blockbuster is, of course, the movie rental company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall. The company has had to close thousands of stores in the last few years after losing market share to Netflix. Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to stop the Net Neutrality Regulations from taking effect. House Republicans argued that the FCC never had the authorization to pass these regulations. Meanwhile, the Federal Appeals Court has ruled that it is too early for companies like Verizon and MetroPCS to sue the SEC to overturn these regulations. President Obama will take to Facebook to hold a town hall meeting on April 20th at 4:45 p.m. Eastern time. The meeting will take place at Facebook's headquarters and will be streamed live on the White House Facebook page. The President will discuss the economy and innovation. You can submit your questions on the even page. Facebook is also vying for the attention of reporters. The company launched a site for journalists to serve as a place to mine for stories or sources. Of course, there are services that already do this such as FlackList or ProfNet. Twitter is considering branded pages like those on Facebook. This would let companies deliver messages to their followers directly, like they pretty much already do, only it would be a bit more official. These promoted accounts could be another way for Twitter to monetize their service. Sprint has a new 3G/4G MiFi Hotspot selling for just $79. That's a lot lower than the $100 that a MiFi unit usually costs. It can give you Wi-Fi on your mobile devices over Sprint's 3G and 4G networks. You do have to sign up for a 2-year service agreement with plans starting at $49.99 per month. Microsoft is changing the focus of its home energy monitoring program. Microsoft Home is a 2-year-old Web application that lets you monitor your home appliance and energy use. Participation has not been very good. So now, the program is going to emphasize management of the Ford Focus electric vehicle and other electric vehicles. So maybe, instead of Microsoft Home, they should call it Microsoft Car. In fact, Microsoft and Toyota have some kind of announcement today. A video press conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. We think it has something to do with automobile technology. That's just a guess. Tune in tomorrow for that news. That's your news for the day. I will see you tomorrow. I'm Natali Morris with CNET and you've just been Loaded.

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