Specifically, Topolsky was referring to a Netflix streaming app (Watch Instantly) powered by Silverlight running on Microsoft’s latest mobile OS, along with support for XBox Live gaming.

Both moves clearly demonstrate that Windows Phone 7 series is the Zune phone that many have been wishing for. It’s also evidence of how the company plans to exploit what is arguably its strongest consumer brand – XBox – to give its mobile OS and the third-party hardware that will be running it, fresh impetus. Much needed in the face of so much competition from the likes of iPhone, Android, Palm, BlackBerry and Nokia.

A video of Netflix on Windows Phone 7 is embedded after the jump…

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Netflix prepping PlayStation 3 and Wii support suggests job ad
• New XBox 360 games carry Netflix streaming promotion
• The numbers say it all: why Netflix went exclusive with XBox 360
• Not exclusive to XBox, Netflix HD streaming coming to Roku too
• Too early for a streaming-only Netflix plan?

After rumors circulated in January that US retail giant Wal-Mart was eying the video-on-demand service Vudu, the New York Times is

Vudu started as a feisty silicon valley startup, unfashionably entering the consumer hardware space with its own set-top and accompanying HD video download store. Whilst its offering received good reviews based on the UI, movies were relatively expensive, as was the box itself, and I was always skeptical that consumers in great numbers would pay for hardware just to enter the store. The Vudu box was a one trick pony, providing a store front to the company’s content, or that’s how it felt to me. Competing consumer set-top boxes seemed to offer a lot more.

Eventually, Vudu opened up a little, supporting services other than its own, and lowered the price of its entry level hardware, but that still didn’t seem to be cutting it.

Then, perhaps unsurprisingly, the company announced a change of track. It was no longer about the hardware but Vudu was going to license its platform to CE manufacturers and telcos to utilize in their set-top boxes, Internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players etc. Putting it head-to-head with Netflix, for example, and Internet-TV widget offerings, such as Yahoo’s. And of course, another startup, Boxee.

The Wal-Mart acquisition, while the best (and only?) available outcome for Vudu, seems like an odd one. Wal-Mart sells TVs in droves but now has an interesting conflict of interest. It will be selling Internet-connected TVs that support Vudu – a platform it now owns – alongside sets that run the platforms of others.

There’s also the question of what exactly Wal-Mart have purchased: Vudu didn’t have a huge customer base and has limited distribution, so it’s more about the tech.

And the retail store’s track record with its digital offerings isn’t too good either.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Vudu now offering Disney HD movies for purchase on same ‘day and date’ as Blu-ray
• Vudu now offering 99c rentals
• Finally! Somebody (Vudu) extends movie-rental deadline beyond 24 hours
• Vudu’s latest price cut is a start, here’s what else they need to do
• Vudu slashes price of its set-top movie box

It’s an Internet appliance not a computer

While the tablet computer is nothing new, the iPad is, arguably, a completely new product category, which appears to occupy the middle ground between a smartphone and a laptop. If, of course, such a middle ground exists.

Unlike the raft of Windows Tablet PCs, which Bill Gates once claimed would be the future of personal computing, replacing the desktop and laptop, the iPad doesn’t appear to replace anything. It’s certainly too big to replace a smartphone. And it’s not capable of undertaking many tasks for which a laptop or desktop computer – read: fully-fledged desktop OS/applications and mouse/hardware keyboard – is required. But in many situations – web browsing and consuming content – the iPad is arguably better.

It’s a closed and tightly controlled platform (as I predicted), with Apple acting as gatekeeper in terms of hardware, software, applications and content. Good or bad, as a result the iPad won’t be plagued with many of the usability issues users of a more open and complex platform face (Windows/Mac OS etc.). Unlike desktop OSes, the UI/platform is also designed from the ground up to support touch input.

It’s not a computer in the traditional sense but an Internet appliance. People won’t buy the iPad instead of another computer but because it’s not a computer.

Only Apple could have built it

On one level, the iPad represents very little new from Apple, which is actually the point. It’s no more than a supersized iPod touch or iPhone without the phone. Based on the same OS, multi-touch UI, closed and controlled and dead easy to use app and content store (iTunes), best of class web browser (minus Flash of course), best of class PMP etc.

It builds on so much before it, only Apple could produce the iPad.

Not its individual parts, of course, but the sum of those parts, which are much, much greater. Who else designs the hardware, operating system, software and has a thriving eCommerce platform all completely integrated? And don’t underestimate in-app purchases. Not Google, not Microsoft or any OEM… That’s why Apple’s competitors and the media industry are shitting bricks.

It’s no surprise how much Amazon has invested in its own digital content strategy but right now Apple looks to be better positioned to be the Amazon of digital.

And the iPad is a huge part of this.

It’s not an eBook reader, it’s about convergence

Steve Jobs once said of dedicated eReaders: “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore”? And: “The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t ready anymore.”

Of course, he often dismisses a product category before unveiling Apple’s own take which “fixes” all of those problems.

But on this occasion, I don’t think the iPad represents a U-turn on Jobs’ part.

The iPad is no eReader both technically – no eInk – and conceptually. Sure you can read long form books on this device, just as you can on a smartphone or laptop, and some users will, but it’s not as suited to such a task as a dedicated eBook reader… but it doesn’t need to be to compete with devices like Amazon’s Kindle.

Because for many it will be just good enough.

The iPad is purely about convergence. It combines existing solutions to many existing problems in a single product tied to and built on Apple’s existing technology, design and ecosystem – the very same tech or way of thinking that solved many of those problems in the first place.

The fact that it’s not dedicated to eBook reading is why it will win out over such single function devices. And when Jobs said that people don’t read anymore, I took it as saying that the market for a single purpose eBook device wasn’t large enough for Apple to go after. Not that people don’t read. On the other hand, the market for people who read all sorts of content – long, short – on the web is huge, and the market for people who also like to watch movies, do a little email, view photos from friends, social network etc., is even greater

Apple doesn’t go after niche markets anymore. Not under Jobs’ watch.

Just like the best camera is the one that you have with you (think Nokia and Sony Ericsson’s success with camera phones, which also, err, make calls and do other stuff), the iPad is either fantastic or just good enough for many tasks in a single converged device that it will displace single purpose devices, such as the Kindle, or less well converged ones, such as Netbooks, for many tasks.

I repeat.

The iPad is all about convergence.

It’s not really a mobile device

The iPad isn’t really a mobile device. Not in the sense that the iPhone or any decent smartphone is. It’s not, primarily, for the journey, it’s for when you’ve arrived (to borrow a line from Mad Men). In that sense, I don’t think it competes with a smartphone as much as it seems. If Apple had invented an iPhone that could, upon the press of a button, triple in size, there’d be no need for an iPad.

But the company hasn’t.

Now, depending on what you want to get done once you’ve arrived, the iPad may or may not compete well with a laptop, the device it most closely impinges on.

It reflects as much as defines consumer behaviour

Perhaps the best way to describe what the iPad does best is Couch Computing, even though it’s not a computer in the traditional sense and you don’t have to be sat on the couch.

While over time it will likely influence consumer habits – think in-app purchases of content for newspapers and magazines and apps that nobody has dreamed up yet – as it stands today I think the iPad reflects a change in consumer behaviour whereby people access the Internet while doing other things. Such as checking email, looking up something on Wikipedia, reading news, Facebooking, while watching TV. Or while chatting to friends in the same room or on the phone or listening to music and texting on their mobile.

Teenagers, for example, multi-task all the time, and one ‘task’ is being online. Good or bad, that’s just how it is these days. The iPad fits this model of consumer behaviour.

It’s perfect for ‘casual’ anything online, while you’re doing other things.

Or Couch Computing.

It will sell really well and developers will flock to it

I’ve no doubt the iPad will sell really well. People tend to forget how well the iPod touch has done and the iPad will build on this and surpass it.

Developers are going to love the iPad, both in terms of how it stimulates their imagination but also that they can make real money on the device. The majority of the iPhone’s 140,000 apps will already run on the iPad, albeit compromised, and it won’t be long before lots of the killer apps are rewritten for the iPad. New apps that are only possible or suddenly make sense on a bigger screen will, of course, also be written.

The same way as the iPhone created the perfect storm for paid-for apps, the iPad isn’t cheap and nor will its customers be.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Intel and Nokia combine forces to battle Google Chrome, Android and Apple’s iPad
• Zatz Not Funny: Android set-top box, 3 iPad questions, Google headed to DISH
• 3’s CEO talks iPad, the mobile network’s ‘perception problem’, Spotify, and more
• Poll: How should Apple spend its $15 billion cash reserve?
• CBS scores big with March Madness on Demand

Internet TV and Connected TVs were big topics at last year CES. This year we are seeing content-filled products coming to fruition, and deals being made to make watching Internet TV on the big screen a comfortable reality.  At CES this year the Internet set top boxes (STBs) evolved. But with the innovation comes fear. Cable companies fear of the complete disruption of their business model, and their concerns are warranted given the latest developments.

At the center of everyone’s attention is the Boxxee Box, allowing users to find and watch online content directly from the TV. Boxee TV content includes CNN, CBS, and a myriad of Internet TV channels. Its remote features a full QWERTY keyboard on one side and a navigation pane on the other, to ease surfing and browsing on the TV.

Then there’s the Sling Box 700U. You connect it via USB to an HD TV set top box and you’ll see HD content via the web, regardless of where you are around the world. More on this subject can be found here.

Last year Yahoo launched Connected TV. Essentially it allows users of a compatible TV set to access Internet widgets to do things such as check twitter, access the weather forecast or check traffic updates. This year, Yahoo took it one step further, giving access to developers to create their own TV widgets, aiming to proliferate the Connected TV Widgets on all living room devices. Most notable is Samsung’s “Internet@TV” technology, used on new TV models such as Samsung’s LED 9000. Internet@TV is Samsung’s new proprietary content portal, where users can choose from free Yahoo widget applications (eg. Netflix, Pandora and Vudu) or paid for premium apps (eg. Tetris). These new connected televisions are Wi-Fi enabled and claim to hold up to 100 applications, essentially bypassing a third party to provide widget content to customers.

Then you have Roku XR. Also a set top box, Roku started off as a device able to play Netflix movies on your TV. Over time they have accumulated a wide array of channels, including Major League Baseball and Amazon on Demand. Roku is striking content deals as we speak, and they are expected to have 100 channels by end of the year. My personal favorite, the PopBox, is available in March for $129 and a Wi-Fi enabled version for $149.

In addition, Vudu is an on-demand movie service which has so far signed deals with TV manufacturers including Sanyo, Toshiba, Samsung, Sharp and others. Similar to the Yahoo applications, this year Vudu has introduced VuduApps, including Picassa, Pandora, Twitter, New York Times, Associated Press and Flickr. The Vudu-enabled devices will also stream shows such as “True Blood” and “Dexter” with Vudu’s HDX video format.

Announcements by DivX and Rovi also suggest a continuous push towards connected televisions, beyond mere widgets, and with full user interfaces and streaming video program guides.

VOIP TV creeps closer to the living room too. LG and Panasonic showcased an embedded Skype application, which allows you to make calls straight from your TV set.

After three full days immersed in the Vegas technological showdown, our minds are buzzing with slick new products, from netbooks to new generation 3D TVs to the much-hyped “Tablet” and a few quirky (even if sometimes useless) gadgets. The convergence of technology is finally becoming a sophisticated reality; from TVs that can make calls to netbooks that read novels, to game consoles that play unlimited video content, and cars that twitter. The battle of who comes up with the best “all-in-one” package seems to be the race of the decade, and CES kicked it all off with a bang!

Assia (@flypapertv) is a passionate multi-media executive, specializing in digital content, strategy and multi-platform marketing. After launching “Ministry of Sound TV”, her desire to create and build exciting and revenue generating creative products lead her to launch Flypaper.tv, where she seeks out and secures strategic opportunities for product development and revenue generation for her multi-media clients. More recently Flypaper.tv has been specializing within the music arena – as a music marketing and management firm, focusing on strategic partnerships and license/record deals.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Wrapup: Motorola DEXT/CLIQ review, 5 mobile trends for the next decade, Internet-connected TVs at CES, and more
• Yahoo’s Widget Channel debuts on new Samsung Internet-connected TVs
• More details on the Boxee Box – geeks and early adopters need only apply
• Deja vu: Internet ‘widgets’ coming to the TV in 2009
• Project Canvas to give Internet TV a big push or why the market doesn’t always know best

We knew it was coming

D-Link made lots of geeks and early adopters happy today by introducing the revolutionary Boxee Box by D-Link, winner of the CES Best of Innovations award in the Home Entertainment category.

The Boxee Box by D-Link reinterprets what TV should be. The Boxee Box delivers movies, TV shows, music, and photos from a user’s computer, home network, and the Internet to their HDTV with no PC needed. Additionally, Boxee’s core social features make it easy for friends to discover new content from each other through social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Note the “geeks” and “early adpoters” reference, perhaps admission that the set-top box is a niche device and isn’t expected to sell in the bucket load. Instead, it could still be that Boxee’s living room future lies not in consumer facing set-top boxes – the Boxee Box itself or competitor offerings such as those from Roku or the newly announced Popbox – but in licensing its software to existing cable and telco companies B2B style. Or perhaps bypassing the set-top box altogether and building Boxee into Internet-connected TVs, although again that’s a direct consumer play and faces similar challenges as a consumer facing set-top.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Wrapup: Motorola DEXT/CLIQ review, 5 mobile trends for the next decade, Internet-connected TVs at CES, and more
• Boxee set-top box on its way – let the connected living room battle begin
• Boxee grows up with official Major League Baseball streaming partnership
• Boxee announces ‘app dev challenge’ (get coding, people)
• Hulu blocks Boxee, could Firefox, IE and Safari be next?

Both TV manufacturers will be offering sets with Skype software and support for all the stand features that we’ve come to love – voicemail, land-line and mobile calls via Skype-in and Skype-out, free Skype-to-Skype calls, video calling etc. On the hardware front, users will need to purchase and plug in one of the soon-to-be-available 720p web cams that will feature “microphones specifically designed to pick up sound at couch distance”, reports Gizmodo. Now that does sounds cool, although I’m not sure why they can’t come built-in.

Skype is one of those rare web applications that’s mainstream and useful enough that it bridges the generation gap, used by young grandchildren and grandparents alike, therefore getting it into the living room makes a lot of sense. And with “HD support” and decent sound, it’s amazing to think how far consumer video conferencing has come, resembling the multi-thousand dollar set-ups that were until now limited to the corporate world.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Wrapup: Motorola DEXT/CLIQ review, 5 mobile trends for the next decade, Internet-connected TVs at CES, and more
• Skype outage makes for a quiet working day
• Poll: Can Skype replace your landline?
• Through its own mobile client, Skype is now available on about 50 cellphones
• iPhone app is no big deal but Skype’s ubiquity is

Project Canvas, a Joint Venture involving the BBC and competing broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Five, along with ISPs BT and TalkTalk, aims to produce a set of standards for delivering video over IP on set-top boxes and, eventually, Internet-connected TVs, along with other Internet content — think widgets. It was predictably opposed by the two main incumbents, Rupert Murdoch’s Sky and Virgin Media, both of which dominate the existing pay-TV market in the UK.

Presuming consumer electronics companies build out hardware that supports the new standard (they will) set-top boxes should begin to appear later next year featuring a unified program guide and delivery mechanism for all of the Project Canvas partner’s own on-demand catch up services. In other words, one box that features content from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and so on.

However, the real potential of Project Canvas to shake up and accelerate the advent of Internet television is that a Software Development Kit (SDK) will also be provided so that third-parties can build a range of add-on services. This could be more online video or other Internet content, such as various widgets for Twitter, Facebook, weather etc. and stuff that nobody has even thought of yet.

Questions aside about whether or not the BBC, a single broadcaster, is excercising too much control over future Internet TV ’standards’, this might be one of those rare occasions in technology where things aren’t best left to the market.

The UK is definitely playing catchup in the consumer Internet-connect set-top box and TV market. We don’t really have a TiVo, Roku, Vudu etc. in the UK, many of which publish their own SDK for third-parties, and even in the US where they do, the plethora of different standards isn’t helping the prolification of content. Not all boxes support all content. Obviously, part of that is licensing but the further down the long tail you go, a major factor will be the cost of supporting multiple set-top box standards. And everybody is trying to own that standard, not least major players like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google.

If Project Canvas does take off, then one standard will provail and this should lead to a much wider range of content finding its way into the Internet-connected living room. On that note, I should add that Love Film, the UK’s equivalent to Netflix, has already declared its interest in supporting Project Canvas.

Now that would be cool.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Wrapup: Motorola DEXT/CLIQ review, 5 mobile trends for the next decade, Internet-connected TVs at CES, and more
• After on-off relationship, Netflix streaming comes to TiVo
• Pirate Bay’s YouTube competitor lives on (The Video Bay)
• It’s alive! TechCrunch’s Internet tablet still has a pulse
• Symbian Foundation crowdsourcing UI design

With the advent of mobile phones incorporating better video recording capabilities, Flip’s best bet may well be to emphasis not only the ease of which you can shoot video with its hardware but also that it’s easy to share said  content on the web and various other places – TVs and mobile phones themselves.

Yes there’s an app for that too, Flip’s iPhone app.

But back to FlipShareTV. To be honest, it seems a little convoluted, requiring a Windows PC or Mac to still do the heavy lifting. One end plugs into the computer and then wirelessy streams to the FlipShareTV set-top box plugged into the TV. That doesn’t sound quite as easy as it should be. Fine for techies but stretching it a little for the type of people for whom the Flip camcorders are so great for in the first place. Perhaps a better option would be to bypass the PC altogether – once content has been uploaded to Flip’s video sharing site – and have the set-top box connect directly to the Internet itself to pull down content to the TV screen.

Otherwise, I think the solution that I discovered when I had a Flip MinoHD on loan (see review) is much simpler. Shoot video and then plug the camera directly into a PlayStation 3 or WD Media Player and bingo. Home videos on your telly.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Wrapup: Write for last100, HTC Tattoo review, Sony Ericsson Satio #fail, MiFi hands-on, Flip and Boxee set-top boxes, and more
• Movie goes straight to download
• Motorola launches movie store for cellphones, but will anybody bite?
• Sony delays Home a second time; it’s now a year behind schedule
• TV industry using piracy as a measure of success

Of most interest is that unlike the current browser-based offering for Apple’s iconic smartphone it appears that the new app will support both streaming and downloads. This was thought to be near-impossible given the iPhone’s lack of support for any ’standard’ form of copy-protection, a necessary evil given the way the Beeb licenses third-party content, and will bring it in-line with existing versions of iPlayer for Symbian and Windows Mobile.

As it stands, when asked to recommend a smartphone I usually try to ascertain if iPlayer support is a priority. If it is, and downloads are in particular (better battery life, off-line playback), I’ll more often than not point them towards a Nokia.

Soon that may no longer be the case.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• No native iPhone BBC iPlayer app – yet (blame PowerPoint)
• BBC iPlayer stats: 12.5 GBs per second, 14 different versions, iPhone usage peaks at midnight, and more
• Look mum, no DRM: BBC launches iPlayer on iPhone and iPod touch
• BBC iPlayer lands on PlayStation 3 – could Hulu be next?
• BBC iPlayer for iPod Touch, iPhone within weeks

Roku’s $100 set-top box (U.S.-only) just got even more compelling. The company has launched its own app store of sorts – called the ‘Channel Store’ – that brings a growing number of third-party content sources to the device including Pandora (music streaming) Facebook photos, Flickr (photo sharing), along with FrameChannel, Mediafly’s podcast directory, Revision3 and more. Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny has a few screen grabs and a nifty walk-through video (embedded above). The new content ‘widgets’ join existing partnerships with Netflix, Amazon VOD, and MLB.TV.

Of course, everybody is jumping on the app store or “I want to be a platform game” and it’s a smart move for Roku to do so too. But they are far from the first set-top box to ‘open up’ and go down the app store route. Vudu already has its Rich Internet Application (RIA) Platform, which enables third-parties to extend the device’s content offerings, and Boxee, while not officially on a set-top box yet (coming soon), also has its own Internet TV-oriented app store.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Zatz Not Funny: FlipShare TV, Netflix on PS3, Roku, Slacker
• Roku set-top box adds Major League Baseball streaming (MLB.TV)
• Zatz Not Funny: Pandora on Blackberry, iPhone OS 3.0, Roku, iPod Shuffle
• Wrapup: Write for last100, HTC Tattoo review, Sony Ericsson Satio #fail, MiFi hands-on, Flip and Boxee set-top boxes, and more
• Nokia announces ‘Ovi’ mobile app store – is that a Facebook app I see?

Founder and CEO Avner Ronen writes on the official Boxee blog: “I am very happy to announce we have signed our first partnership with a CE company. At this point we can not say more about the partner or the specs of the device, but we can tell you we are working closely with them to make sure we deliver a great Boxee experience on it.”

More details on the box itself will be revealed at an upcoming Boxee Beta Unveiling event in Brooklyn, NY on Dec 7th.

Of course we already knew that the company was working hard to get its software onto an array of hardware, from set-top boxes, Internet TVs, Blu-ray players, and game consoles etc. In other words, Boxee wants to remain device agnostic and, eventually, be everywhere. Or as Ronen writes: “Our goal is to be on every Connected device in the living room.”

Aah.

The battle for the connected living room you say.

That’s the same fight that Netflix, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Sony and a long list of others are participating in. Boxee may have a great user experience and a smart third-party app strategy, but to win that battle they’ll need their fair share of luck.

Or to be acquired but one of the bigger players.

Just sayin’

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Boxee grows up with official Major League Baseball streaming partnership
• More details on the Boxee Box – geeks and early adopters need only apply
• Hulu blocks Boxee, could Firefox, IE and Safari be next?
• Boxee releases remote control iPhone app
• Boxee announces ‘app dev challenge’ (get coding, people)

Voddler, the Spotify-for-movies, partners with Paramount and Disney

Voddler is beginning to garner quite a lot of buzz in Europe, having been widely described as the “Spotify for movies”. It’s also been called the Hulu of Europe. The Internet TV service offers add-supported streaming of movies and TV shows as well as premium paid-for content through its own desktop client and is currently only available in a closed beta in the company’s home country of Sweden. However, following content deals with Paramount and Disney, Voddler is beginning to open up and has plans to expand into other European countries. On being compared to Spotify and Hulu, I comment:

… a more apt and less flattering comparison might be the largely defunct Joost or another European video startup, Babelgum. Both services have struggled to secure enough compelling mainstream content and, in hindsight, forcing users to download a desktop app would seem to have been a mistake. A big one.

BlinkBox goes all arty, signs deal with British Film Institute

I’ll admit, BlinkBox wasn’t an online video site I was overly familiar with even though it’s a UK offering.

The film and TV aggregator has signed a content partnership with the British Film Institute (BFI) — bringing the total number of British TV and film titles on offer to over five hundred and the total number of “premium” titles available on the service to just under six thousand.

The service already has licensing deals with a number of studios including Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Aardman Animations. Discovery Networks and FremantleMedia.

If you’re in the UK, I suggest you check out BlinkBox as there’s actually quite a lot of good quality free content available, along with plenty of paid-for offerings.

---
Related Articles at last100:

• Disclosure
• Skype coming to Sony’s PSP?
• No PlayStation 3 video store in the UK until sometime next year
• Sony and Sky to deliver video-on-demand to PSP
• Music streaming service Spotify demos Android app, off-line syncing included!