August 21st, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | 
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ESPN and Major League Baseball Advanced Media announced today that they have extended their new-media rights deal, allowing ESPN to stream live games on the Internet and add baseball content onto a number of platforms and devices.
But that news didn’t catch my eye. Buried deep was a little tidbit about ESPN also developing interactive television programming around baseball content.
Ding! Ding! Ding! What the heck does that mean?
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August 20th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | 1 Comment
Yahoo and Intel today announced they are working together to bring dynamic Web content to your television set through the use of widgets. It’s an interesting idea.
As many pundits have noted, companies large and small have attempted to bring Web content to the TV for years. All the efforts have failed for a variety of reasons: navigation issues, trying to replicate an entire Web page on the TV during programming, the introduction of the browser, keyboard, and mouse in the living room, and so on.
Yahoo thinks it may have the answer with the Widget Channel, which will allow developers to create small mini-programs (or widgets) that will be displayed on the bottom of a TV screen. These widgets offer on-screen access to everything from your pictures on Flickr, to interactions with friends on Twitter or Facebook, real-time sports scores, weather updates, stock prices, online movie rentals, and so on.
Not a bad idea.
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August 19th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | 1 Comment
There were many skeptics, myself included, when Hulu first launched in March. But since then, the online video site owned by Fox and NBC has continued to impress and gain viewers.
According to new stats from Nielsen [via paidContent], Hulu now ranks No. 8 among the Top 10 online video sites, generating more than 105 million streams to more than 3.2 million unique viewers during July.
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August 18th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Net TV | 1 Comment
There’s an old adage in basketball that says you can’t be afraid to mix it up with the big boys under the basket. Clearly, the NBA is ready for a showdown with cable operators and regional sports networks.
In a first for any major U.S. sports league, the NBA wants to stream live games on the Internet in local markets. Yes, you read that right: local markets.
The NBA is hoping to secure deals with the league’s 30 teams and cable operators to broadcast local games live on the Web in time for the 2008-2009 season, which will be starting soon [via Sports Business Journal].
“We hope to have a model in place this season,” NBA general counsel Bill Koenig said. “We believe that if we can draw more people to the interactive features, it will help bring in new [fans] and keep [fans] for a longer period of time.”
Currently no major U.S. sports leagues streams live local games. Major League Baseball offers a streaming package for out-of-market games, and the National Football League will be streaming games broadcast by NBC this season.
Streaming live games, especially ones targeted at a local market, is one of the most volatile issues leagues face as teams are trying to broaden their reach and broadcasters want to protect the rights to some of their most expensive programming.
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August 15th, 2008 | Posted in Other | 3 Comments
As a voracious reader I am happy to see the success of the Kindle, Amazon’s electronic book reader. But no matter how many devices Amazon or others sell, the whole eBook reader thing is fundamentally flawed.
Let’s be honest. Electronic reading devices mostly suck. The platforms or ecosystems eBook readers are built on — from content purchase and management to DRM — are awful.
So when I read that Mark Mahaney of CitiGroup says that Amazon is expected to sell about 380,000 Kindles in 2008, I applaud. I desperately want eBooks and eBook readers to be as successful as the iPod — and that’s millions of units sold, not just a few hundred thousand.
But eBook readers will never be as successful as the iPod. Not the way that the publishing industry works today. Not the way eBooks are designed and manufactured.
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August 13th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | 8 Comments
It’s been almost a year since I wrote “The Gphone is coming; how Google could rewrite the rules.” And during this time I’ve wanted to give Google the benefit of the doubt for choosing its Android strategy over developing the phone itself.
But I can’t. It’s the wrong strategy.
Whether the Google phone comes out in September, or later this year, or sometime in early 2009, it really doesn’t matter. All this bickering over supposed hardware delays, software issues, and hurt developer feelings has me wondering how Google would have fared if it had taken a different path and developed the Gphone on its own.
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August 11th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | 10 Comments
I’ve had the money in my wallet since July 11, but I refuse to spend it on iPhone 3G. And this really, really surprises me.
As the second generation iPhone went on sale, I wrote down several concerns — or predications, depending on how you look at it — and waited a month for everything iPhone 3G to shake out. I wanted to use hindsight to tell me whether I made the right or wrong decision not to upgrade from the original iPhone.
So far, I have no regrets. And here’s why.
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August 7th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | No Comments
I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Developing a phone — even if it is just an operating system — is not something you do overnight with a bunch of cajoled software developers.
Just a week after High Tech Computer (HTC) said it was on schedule to deliver Android-powered cell phones by the 4Q of 2008, another report surfaces Thursday that says HTC is “having structural problems to incorporate Google’s demand feature set” and “demanding a guaranteed minimum revenue surety from Google,” according to Barron’s Tech Trader Daily.
Barron’s picked up a research note from Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research saying his “contacts” contend that HTC’s Android handset — the so-called Google phone — will be delayed until the first quarter of 2009.
Additionally, Chowdhry’s “contacts” tell him that another problem Google is having is attracting software developers to the platform. They’re too busy writing code for Windows Mobile, Nokia (Symbian), Research in Motion (BlackBerry), and Apple’s iPhone.
That’s no surprise. These guys actually have phones, real working phones, to develop for and test.
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August 6th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | 1 Comment
There is no shortage of media streamers for your living room, with AppleTV, Vudu, and the relatively new Netflix set-top box by Roku being some of the more popular. Iomega, already a player in this space, enters again with a novel product.
Unlike its ScreenPlay HD, which comes with a 500 GB drive, Iomega’s ScreenPlay TV Link includes no storage. It just allows users to attach ScreenPlay TV to a standard or high definition TV, then add storage from flash drives, external hard drives, or one of Iomega’s storage products via USB to play high quality movies, music, and photos anywhere in the house.
What makes the ScreenPlay TV Link intriguing is its size: The little box is 3.26 inches wide by 3.07 inches deep by .78 inches tall and comes with a credit card-sized remote. It can be slipped into a pocket or thrown into a bag for use at a friend’s house. Unlike other media streamers, ScreenPlay TV can be easily moved from the living room to the bedroom.
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August 5th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | No Comments
Pornography has always been a technology trendsetter — it stood on the VHS side of the videotape wars, was an innovator in streaming video content over the Internet, and was responsible for early breakthroughs for using credit cards as payment for Web transactions.
But no matter pornography’s contribution to technology, it’s mostly been relegated to the back room, out of sight, and rarely seen mingling with traditional, less “blue” content on mainstream devices.
That’s changing as Vudu, the set-top box that connects to a television and enables you to download and watch video content using a broadband connection, has signed a partnership deal with AVN Media Network.
Vudu owners can download content from a new AVN channel — the first stand-along content channel on Vudu. The AVN Channel will feature standard and high-definition content from well-known adult video studios such as Wicked, Vivid, and Hustler.
Standard definition movies can be rented for $6.99 and purchased for $19.99. High definition content costs $8.99 to rent, $29.99 to buy.
Adult video content has been included alongside mainstream content on hotel-room set-top boxes and on cable or satellite TV pay-per-view channels. There’s even a dedicated set-top box for the adult industry from FyreTV.
But the Vudu-AVN partnership has the potential to bring into the home, on the same device the family watches the latest Hollywood movies, a stunning amount of adult content in maybe too much detail.
Good thing there’s a slew of parental controls. You wouldn’t want little Johnny stumbling upon “Red Hot Chili Sex” and think it’s a movie about the Red Hot Chili Peppers.