by Steve O'Hear
June 4th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | 
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BBC iPlayer on the Creative Zen X-Fi
Yesterday, I was out tech shopping with a friend and a simple brief. Purchase a 4-8 GB flash-based MP3 player, and one that wasn’t an iPod. What we came away with was the Creative Zen X-Fi, which isn’t the newest of players but has its fair share of iPod-trumping features nonetheless. Top of the list is the ability to ’side load’ content downloaded from the BBC’s TV catch-up service, iPlayer. That’s because the Zen supports Windows Media DRM, needed because of the way the BBC licenses content for download so that it will only be playable seven days after broadcast. (Obviously, you’ll need to be a Windows user in the first place, which is far from ideal.) The advantage of downloading rather than streaming iPlayer, of course, is that you don’t need to be connected to the Internet while viewing the content.
A couple of other features that I really like about the Zen X-Fi is the external speaker for communal viewing, the SD card slot so that the storage capability can be expanded, and that music, pictures and videos can be drag ‘n’ dropped both ways – to and from a PC via USB – while in mass storage mode. Take that iPod/iTunes.
by Steve O'Hear
June 4th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | View Comments
Disney HD content for purchase on Vudu
Vudu (U.S.-only) is to offer new Disney HD releases for purchase through its set-top box movie service on the same “day and date” as their competing DVD/Blu-ray release. It’s the first time that Disney has broadly licensed its content in HD for sale through an online video service, beyond one-off offerings or ‘rental-only’, says Vudu. Alongside new releases, 60 library films are also being added to Vudu’s ‘for purchase’ HD catalog. Disney chose to work with Vudu, says the company, “in large part because of the [picture] quality” offered by the service.
Interestingly, Steve Jobs, the guy who runs Apple, is also Disney’s majority shareholder after the motion picture company bought animation studio Pixar a few years back. Therefore, I wonder how long it will be before iTunes secures the same access to Disney’s HD library as Vudu, if it hasn’t already.
by Steve O'Hear
June 2nd, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | View Comments
YouTube XL
It’s not the first time that YouTube has rolled out a version of the video sharing site designed specifically for viewing on a television but the application’s been given a polish and a new name to boot.
Now called ‘YouTube XL‘ the new version of the site features a ‘ten foot’ User Interface designed for viewing on a TV or large screen monitor, which despite running in a web browser, TechCrunch describes as having the look and feel of a ‘native application’. Like the previous version of YouTube optimized for the living room, XL is supported on both the PlayStation 3 and Wii games consoles, though the video quality is compromised on the Wii due to its limited processor and support for an older version of Flash video.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 2nd, 2009 | Posted in Mobile, Social | Comments Off
Hutchison-owned INQ, makers of the Skype phone and INQ1 – dubbed the Facebook phone – is said to be targeting Twitter next, according to a Reuters report. That’s hardly surprising considering the rise in popularity of the ‘micro-blogging’ site and the large amount of media attention the service has garnered here in the UK, one of the primary markets for the INQ1 via mobile network “3″, which is also a subsidiary of Hutchison.
“This can really help open up and drive Twitter use on mobile when usage becomes part of your data package like on the PC”, Frank Meehan chief executive of INQ tells the news service. One again the proposition to carriers is that a low cost ‘Twitter phone’ would help to drive data usage and retention amongst mass consumers not just those who can afford a traditional ’smart phone’.
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by Steve O'Hear
June 1st, 2009 | Posted in Mobile | View Comments
Netbook or Smartbook?
On the day that Intel secured the right from Psion to legally use the trademarked term Netbook, rival chip designer Qualcomm is pushing a “new” category of mobile device, which the company is calling a Smartbook. As a marketing term, like the Netbook before it, the Smartbook definitely has legs. It’s new, catchy and yet derivative enough of existing product categories so as not to scare off consumers. But beyond marketing, what exactly separates a Smartbook from a Netbook and other ultra-mobile laptops before it?
Here’s Qualcomm’s own definition:
Smartbooks are a new class of devices running mobile operating systems that bridge the functional divide between smartphones and laptops, delivering the best aspects of a smartphone experience on a larger-display form factor. Constantly connected via 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS , smartbooks are ultra-portable, personalizable, easy-to-use and last all day on a single battery charge.
In other words a Smartbook is similar to a Netbook, except it runs a mobile operating system rather than a conventional desktop OS, such as Windows or one of the various desktop flavors of Linux.
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