by Steve O'Hear
June 24th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV, Other | 
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This isn’t a last100 give-away — we haven’t even got our hands on a review unit yet — but our friend Dan Rayburn over at Streaming Media is parting company with the new Netflix set-top box from Roku.
Also see: Roku delivers first Netflix set-top box
To be in with a chance to win it, all you have to do is leave one comment on Dan’s original post with a working e-mail address. He’ll pick a random winner this Thursday and ship it out at no cost. (Sorry, U.S. residents only). The unit comes with all of the original materials, box, remote and cables, but since it only works with Netflix’s service, you’ll either need to be a Netflix customer, or need to be willing to setup a Netflix account.
As an aside, Anthony Wood, the Founder and CEO of Roku will be one of the keynote speakers at the Streaming Media West show in September in San Jose.
by Daniel Langendorf
June 11th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile, Net TV, Other | View Comments
There are only a couple of more shopping days left until Father’s Day, that once-a-year event when wives and kids all across the U.S. buy Dad ties, aftershave, and other things he — let’s be honest here — will never use.
So to make shopping easier this year, we’ve assembled a few digital lifestyle ideas for your husband or Dad. Most of these are more expensive than Aqua Velva aftershave but, since we’re being honest here, these are what Dad might buy for himself, including a remote control beer cooler.
The obvious
The most sought-after Father’s Day gift on the planet will be the new 3G iPhone from Apple, which isn’t available until July 11. Until then, a hand-written IOU redeemable for the iPhone will do. Thankfully, the price is coming way down: $199 for the 8 GB model, $299 for the 16 GB phone. And since it now supports the enterprise with Microsoft Exchange syncing and other business-place features, the grumpy IT guys at Dad’s office will be happy.
Alternatives: none. Sure, we could argue for a Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry, or HTC smart phone, but why bother? Until Google’s Android phones are available — long after this Father’s Day is over — the iPhone will head Dad’s wish list.
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by Daniel Langendorf
May 30th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | View Comments
Another day, another set-top box.
This one comes courtesy of Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, who told those at the Stanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York that the company planned to market equipment to its subscribers to make it easier for them to watch Internet video on their televisions.
Naturally, Britt offered few details, other than to say:
“Right now it’s pretty hard to get Internet stuff on your TV,” Britt said [via Reuters]. “We’re actually going to have equipment we make available to subscribers. It’s actually going to be a new wireless cable modem that will allow you to network everything in your house.”
Naturally, Britt didn’t elaborate or say when the set-top box would be available to subscribers.
“Within a relatively short time . . . it’s going to be very easy to get Internet TV on your big screen TV.”
OK. So Time Warner is throwing its hat into the ring with the likes of Apple and the AppleTV, TiVo, Netflix/Roku, Vudu, Microsoft, Sony, the cable companies, and seemingly hundreds more. As long as we’re watching the vendor sports between these players, we might as well throw Time Warner’s set-top box scheme into the mix.
Catching Up
After the break, a few stories of interest from the just-concluding week.
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by Daniel Langendorf
May 28th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | View Comments
The details, unfortunately, are scant. This is what we know:
Amazon, the world’s largest Internet retailer, will be launching an online streaming video service in the next several weeks, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said a little too matter-of-factly at the D: All Things Digital conference. (Reuters)
One detail: The streaming service will start immediately for viewers, unlike Amazon’s Unbox product, in which users are required wait a period of time as content downloads.
Another semi-detail: The streaming service will operate a-la-carte, but we don’t know what this means exactly. Can viewers stream movies on a pay-per-view basis, presumably at the industry standard $3.99 per rental? Or will this service operate ala Netflix, where people pay a monthly subscription fee (like $15) for a certain number of movies?
We’re sure additional details will be forthcoming in the coming days, or weeks.
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by Steve O'Hear
May 20th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments Off
When Netflix teased us last month with news that it had secured three more set-top box partners in addition to LG, we speculated as to who they might be. “It’s our bet that we’ll see Netflix compatibility added to a number of media streamers, such as those produced by D-Link and Linksys”, we proclaimed with confidence.
Close but no cigar.
Today Netflix announced that Roku, best known for its line of networked audio players, has become the first company to offer a dedicated set-top box designed to bring Netflix’s ‘Watch Now’ Internet TV service to the television.
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by Steve O'Hear
April 22nd, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | View Comments
Netflix’s ambitious Internet TV plans are forging ahead, with three new set-top box partners to integrate the company’s ‘Watch Now’ video streaming service into their products by the end of year. The company has previously announced a partnership with Korean manufacturer LG Electronics to stream movies, TV shows, and other content to LG high-definition televisions or set-top boxes by the second half of 2008.
During the company’s Q1 earnings conference call, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told analysts:
“We have LG plus three additional partners actively working on integrating our technology into their products… Three of the four partners are major companies, which each sell millions of devices per year and will enable the Netflix functionality in some of those devices likely in the fourth quarter of this year. The fourth partner is a small company, which will likely launch sooner than Q4.”
So who might these three additional hardware partners be?
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by Daniel Langendorf
April 21st, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments Off
Word that Sony may be again launching a movie and TV download service was met today with interest and a bit of much-deserved scoffing.
It’s not like Sony hasn’t tried this before. Remember Movielink? Thought so. (It was sold to Blockbuster, by the way.) Remember Sony Connect? It shut down in March.
Heck, since the monumental success of the Walkman ages ago — in an analog world far, far away — Sony has pretty much failed at every digital offering, minus the early PlayStations and some home theater equipment. The whole digital music thing passed Sony by as Apple took over the Walkman mantle with the iPod, iTunes, and the rest of its digital lifestyle ecosystem.
The Los Angeles Times today reported that Sony is again in talks with Hollywood muckety-mucks regarding a download service that would beam movies and television shows from the Internet to the PlayStation 3.
But because said muckety-mucks are hush-hush over the negotiations, not much else is known — no pricing or if the movies and TV shows are for rent or purchase. One tantalizing tidbit, however, is being floated about.
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by Daniel Langendorf
April 15th, 2008 | Posted in Audio, Other, Social | Comments Off
It’s hard to fault Peter Gabriel’s logic: We are overwhelmed by the amount of information and choice we have on the Web. But is his solution — a recommendation engine called The Filter — really the answer?
Of course Gabriel, the genius behind the British rock band Genesis and the solo artist who gave us such tunes as “Solsbury Hill,” “Exposure,” and “Games Without Frontiers,” thinks so as he and England’s Eden Ventures have invested $8 million in The Filter. They believe people are overwhelmed by the Web and can’t find good content because it’s buried out of sight.
“When you drown people in an ocean of information, you’ve got to give them navigation tools,” Gabriel told News.com. “I know that there is better stuff out there than what I generally am exposed to . . . So if I have a sort of intelligent ally working with me 24 hours a day, I think I have a much better chance of getting stuff that will entertain, excite, and inspire me.”
The Filter, originally launched as a music recommendation service about a year ago in Europe, re-launched today in private beta as a more complete solution. It will be available to the public sometime in May.
But there’s something about The Filter that bugs me. What separates The Filter from any of the other algorithm-based recommendation engines out there, whether a human is a part of the process or not — Amazon, iTunes, lastFM, Netflix, Imeem, Digg, Pandora, and many more?
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