by Steve O'Hear
June 14th, 2007 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | 
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DivX have announced a partnership with SanDisk which will see the company license its DivX video technology for use in SanDisk’s Sansa line of portable media players. As a result, future Sansa devices will be DivX-certified so that they are guaranteed to support DivX video including content from the company’s Stage6 video website.
SanDisk’s Daniel Schreiber is quoted as saying:
“This partnership aims to allow our customers to take full advantage of innovative video features and content found only through DivX”
While there is plenty of video only available through DivX, much of it is copyright-infringed content (including television episodes and feature films) found on file-sharing networks. As a result, SanDisk’s support for DivX will be popular with users who want the broadest access to content (legitimate or not), and could also give the company’s Sansa line of players a shot in the arm when trying to compete with the iPod, which currently doesn’t feature DivX playback.
Related post: DivX-designed media extender in the works
by Guest Writer
June 14th, 2007 | Posted in Other | View Comments
This a guest post by Sean Ammirati, VP of Business Development at mSpoke.
Explaining to media executives that it’s getting harder to engage an audience’s attention is like explaining rising fuel costs to the aviation industry — it just isn’t necessary. Two themes that are consistently mentioned when reviewing digital lifestyle devices are how they make it easier to multi-task and avoid ads.
However, one medium that is emerging as a great platform to deliver relevant ads to a receptive and engaged audience is video games. Advertisers are taking notice; according to research released in April by eMarketer the worldwide market for in game advertising was estimated to be over $690 million last year and growing at over 20% annually projected to almost $2 billion by 2011.
How Does it Work?
For marketers that want to reach the gaming audience there are two basic approaches:
- In Game Advertising
- Advergames
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by Steve O'Hear
June 13th, 2007 | Posted in Other | View Comments
Though details are vague, the LA Times reports that AT&T is joining forces with Hollywood and the recording industry in a concerted effort to begin more aggressive policing of its network in order to prevent users from sharing pirated content, such as films and music.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 13th, 2007 | Posted in Mobile | View Comments
After years of treating Apple users as second class citizens, Nokia has released a Beta version of Nokia Media Transfer for Mac, which enables its N-series mobile phones to transfer music, photos and other files to and from a Mac.
After installing the software, a new menu bar item appears on your Mac which enables you to add a compatible device (connected via Bluetooth or USB) and open Nokia’s Device Browser, an application that resembles the Mac’s own Finder and allows you to browse and access any files on your phone.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 12th, 2007 | Posted in Net TV | View Comments
If you want a job done properly, do it yourself, right? That appears to be the approach DivX is taking by developing its own reference design for a media streaming box which will also tie into the company’s online video destination, stage6.
Code-named GejBox, the device is designed to deliver online video via your PC onto your living room television, and features WiFi and Ethernet networking as well as Component, S-Video and HDMI video out.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 12th, 2007 | Posted in Mobile | View Comments
We now know that third-party developers wanting to make software for the iPhone will be limited to building browser-based apps (see my post ‘ iPhone’s support for 3rd party apps won’t please everyone‘). And according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, that’s not a bad thing as anybody who knows how to write modern web-standards-based apps can develop for the iPhone. But what he didn’t say is whether that would include support for Flash, the technology that powers many interactive web sites as well as online video found on sites like YouTube.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 11th, 2007 | Posted in Mobile | View Comments
Of my five WWDC predictions posted last week, at least one came true today: Steve Jobs announced a way for third party developers to build applications for the iPhone.
“We have been trying to come up with a solution to expand the capabilities of iPhone by letting developers write great apps for it, and yet keep the iPhone reliable and secure. and we’ve come up with a very sweet solution,” Jobs told the audience gathered at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Taking advantage of the fact that the iPhone runs a version of OSX along with full web browser support, developers can create web-based applications which, Jobs claimed, will be able to look and behave just like the applications built into the iPhone. Additionally, Apple will provide web developers with the hooks necessary to access many of the iPhone’s functions including dialing a call, sending email, and integrating with device’s rich client version of Google Maps. Anybody who can write modern standards-based web apps can develop for the iPhone, stressed Jobs.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 11th, 2007 | Posted in Net TV | Comments Off
We’re pleased to announce that we have thousands of Babelgum invites to give away here on last100. A quick recap: Babelgum (see our review) is a new peer-to-peer online video service founded by Italian billionaire Silvio Scaglia, which, like Joost, aims to combine the “lean-back experience” of television with the interactivity of the web. Last week we reported that the company was now offering a limited number of invites via its website and through current beta testers. Well scrap that, just visit our special Babelgum sign-up page and give the service a whirl (Windows only).
(Note: don’t leave a comment requesting an invite, just visit the sign-up page.)
by Steve O'Hear
June 11th, 2007 | Posted in Net TV | View Comments
With CEO Steve Jobs describing Apple’s set-top-box, AppleTV, as a DVD player for the Internet age, it should come as no surprise that movie rentals could soon find their way onto iTunes, putting the company’s video download service in direct competition with other online movie rental services including Netflix, Movielink, Microsoft’s Xbox Live, and Amazon’s Unbox — along with a plethora of cable and satellite Video-On-Demand offerings.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 11th, 2007 | Posted in Audio, Net TV, Review | View Comments
When Real Networks announced the next version of RealPlayer at last month’s D: All Things Digital Conference, I described it as wanting to be like ‘Tivo’ for the web, in reference to the media player’s new flagship feature: one-click downloading and saving of online video. However, with the application only available to beta testers, it wasn’t untill last week that I actually got my hands on the software (currently Windows-only), courtesy of an invite from NewTeeVee.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 8th, 2007 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | View Comments
Here’s a summary of the week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.
Top digital lifestyle news
This week kicked off with Apple announcing a release date for the iPhone backed by three television commercials. We took an in-depth look at each advert and concluded that the campaign’s strategy is to emphasize the rich user experience and the iPhone’s Internet and multimedia functionality — an area where Apple clearly feels the device trumps its competitors — with a constant theme being that the iPhone just happens to make calls too.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 8th, 2007 | Posted in Comms, Mobile, Net TV, Other | View Comments
Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) kicks off on Monday with a keynote speech from the company’s founder and charismatic CEO, Steve Jobs. As is usual in these matters, the web is full of rumors and pundit-driven premonitions of what might be announced. Not to be outdone, after scouring the Internet and tapping the minds of all of my Apple-connected colleagues (OK, I hassled a few people on IM), here are last100’s five WWDC predictions.
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