Author Archive

Vudu now offering 99c rentals

by Steve O'Hear

August 13th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

As if porn wasn’t enough to differentiate itself from competitors, this time Vudu (see our early review) has cheapened its set-top box movie service in the right way by offering heavily discounted rentals through its newly launched “99 for 99” movie channel.

As the name suggests, 99 movies will be on offer priced at just 99 cents per rental. Titles will be “personally” chosen by Vudu’s “in-house movie expert” Steven Horn, and will include both recent releases and “classics”, with selections rotated each week.

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Exclusive first look: Livestation on Mac (screenshots)

by Steve O'Hear

August 11th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments4 Comments

We promissed you a first look at the upcoming Mac version of Livestation, so here it is.

A quick recap: Livestation is a desktop app developed by UK startup Skinkers which utilizes peer-to-peer technology to deliverer live TV to a user’s PC (currently Windows-only). Content-wise, Livestation focuses on 24 hour news stations such as Al Jazeera, BBC World News, Bloomberg Television and EuroNews. The software has been developed by UK startup Skinkers.

The new Mac version, which is very much a pre-release, is ahead of the version for Windows on a number of features including:

A visual carousel to choose channels

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The real surprise of the App Store isn't number of downloads or revenue

by Steve O'Hear

August 11th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments10 Comments

That the iPhone’s App Store has delivered 60 million downloads and generated an average of $1 million a day in revenue since its launch a month ago isn’t all that surprising.

To begin with, the App Store couldn’t be any easier to use. All apps available to purchase and download either from the familiar iTunes Store or from the device itself. Next, factor in Apple’s marketing machine, the quantity and quality of apps available from Day One – many of which are free – combined with the fact that the typical iPhone owner has cash to spare and an early adopter mentality geared towards trying out new things, and you have a surefire hit on your hands.

Instead, the real surprise is that the carriers – AT&T in the U.S. and 02 in the UK – agreed to Apple launching the App Store in the first place. Or more specifically, that Apple could offer the App Store in the manner in which they have done.

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Weekly wrapup, 4-8 August 2008

by Steve O'Hear

August 9th, 2008 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | CommentsNo 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.

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Internet TV news

Livestation coming to Mac next month

We just got word that a Mac version of the Internet TV service Livestation could be released to the public as early as next month. For those that don’t know, Livestation is a desktop app built on Microsoft’s Silverlight front-end that utilizes peer-to-peer technology to deliverer live TV to a user’s PC (currently Windows-only).

ScreenPlay TV Link is super-small bridge between your media content and television

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.

YouTube gets dedicated Olympic channel, but it won’t be available in the U.S.

The 2008 Olympic Games will be broadcast online to more than 70 countries on a dedicated YouTube channel, but the United States is not included.

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Smartphone parade – one size doesn't fit all

by Steve O'Hear

August 8th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments2 Comments

(Left to right: Palm Treo 650, HTC Touch Diamond, Nokia E61, Nokia E71, Samsung Tocco)

We at last100 love the iPhone as much as the next person. Yet I remain convinced that for all of Apple’s innovation – especially on the mobile browsing front and major improvements in usability – the iPhone in its current incarnation will have significant but limited appeal. There’s only one iPhone, and in the smartphone market, one size doesn’t fit all.

Case in point: I love a QWERTY thumboard. Although the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is the best of its kind, it isn’t a real keyboard. And in the words of Duncan Bannatyne from the TV program Dragon’s Den, for that reason, and that reason alone. I’m out.

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Livestation coming to Mac next month

by Steve O'Hear

August 8th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

We just got word that a Mac version of the Internet TV service Livestation could be released to the public as early as next month. For those that don’t know, Livestation is a desktop app built on Microsoft’s Silverlight front-end that utilizes peer-to-peer technology to deliverer live TV to a user’s PC (currently Windows-only). The software has been developed by UK startup, Skinkers, and is in-part based on additional technology licensed from Microsoft Research (who got a small amount of equity in return).

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Mobile browser more important than operating system

by Steve O'Hear

August 6th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

In light of the move towards cloud computing, the Web browser is fast becoming the most important application on any mobile platform, whether it be the Nokia-led Symbian OS, Apple’s iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, LiMo or any other. An argument I made recently in relation to Android and fears that native third-party applications running on different versions of the Google-developed OS could face compatibility problems.

See also: Android, it’s the browser stupid

Today GigaOm summarizes the thoughts of Bob Morris, head of mobile marketing for ARM Holdings, the company that designs “cores” for chips that power mobile devices. Morris goes one step further by arguing that the importance of the browser now supersedes the operating system itself. Browsers are the new application framework, he says, and as a result ARM is researching how to optimize their cores for specific Web browsers not just the various operating systems.

“Morris believes the increasing number of services accessed through a web site such as Facebook or Gmail are what chip vendors and device makers needs to pay attention to”, writes GigaOm’s Stacey Higginbotham. As a result, ARM recently inked a partnership with Mozilla and other vendors to build a Linux-based mobile computing device designed for Web browsing.

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Report: iTunes still leading music store in the U.S.

by Steve O'Hear

August 6th, 2008 | Posted in Audio | CommentsNo Comments

Apple’s iTunes remains number one in the U.S. amongst all music retailers according to the latest NPD MusicWatch figures. Based on purchases of CDs and a-la-carte digital music downloads from January through to June of this year, the league table is as follows:

  1. iTunes
  2. Wal-Mart (Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads)
  3. Best Buy (Best Buy, Bestbuy.com, Best Buy Digital Music Store)
  4. Amazon (Amazon.com, AmazonMP3.com)
  5. Target (Target and Target.com)

NPD says the results reflect “the ongoing consumer shift from physical CDs to digital music”, which has helped iTunes to consolidate the lead it established earlier this year.

See also: Review: Amazon MP3 offers compelling, promising alternative to iTunes

Most notably, Amazon has moved from fifth place to fourth, which NPD attributes to stronger CD sales online compared to competing brick-and-mortar stores, along with the launch of the company’s own music download store, AmazonMP3, last year. As a result, we shouldn’t be surprised to see Amazon overtake Best Buy in the not too distant future.

Review: HTC Touch Diamond

by Steve O'Hear

August 4th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments11 Comments

It’s hard not to look at HTC’s new flagship smartphone, the Touch Diamond, through iPhone-tinted glasses. Featuring a touch screen interface that’s been designed, on the surface at least, to be operated using a finger rather than a stylus, like Cupertino’s own crown jewel, the Touch Diamond is marketed as a device that makes accessing the Web on the go just as easy as making a phone call. It’s also HTC’s latest attempt to put a consumer face on the business oriented Windows Mobile operating system. No mean feat in itself.

Read on to find out if the HTC Touch Diamond truly sparkles or if it’s just an expensive piece of “bling” (Ed. enough puns already).

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Weekly wrapup, 28 July – 1 August 2008

by Steve O'Hear

August 2nd, 2008 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | CommentsNo 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.

Enter your email address:

Internet TV news

LG’s Netflix streaming Blu-ray player announced. What, no Wi-Fi?

Available this fall, the LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player, in addition to being able to play high definition Blu-ray discs and upscale standard DVDs, will give Netflix subscribers the option of streaming any of the 12,000 movies and TV episodes available on Watch Now to their TVs at no additional cost.

See also: In a smart move Netflix rules out pay-per-view video service

Study: For first time, a significant number of people watch prime-time shows online, not on TV

According to a survey released today by Integrated Media Measurement Inc., more than 20 percent of people studied watch some amount of prime-time, episodic programming online. Within that group of online viewers, 50 percent are watching programs as they become available and are starting to use the computer as a substitute for a television. The other 50 percent use the Web to watch programming they’ve missed or to re-watch episodes they have already seen.

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