last100 » Verizon

Verizon bringing Internet TV to its set-top boxes

Steve O'Hear — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:46:47 +0000

Another major player enters the PC to TV space. Verizon is currently beta testing web video on their set-top boxes, reports Zatz Not Funny.

Unsurprisingly, the content looks like it will be mostly user-generated or that which has been created specifically for the web, and therefore won’t compete directly with the telco’s own video-on-demand offering. Initial “marketing partners” to include Veoh, Blip.tv, Break.com, and YouTube.

On the downside, a PC is still required to act as a bridge between Internet content and the TV via Verizon’s DVR set-top box, notes Dave Zatz.

Unlike TiVo which taps directly into YouTube’s H.264 content, Verizon utilizes their Media Manager PC software as an intermediary. Sites are indexed on a regular basis and when a video is selected from the DVR, the PC software automatically transcodes and streams content on the fly.

In addition to pulling in content from supported video aggregation sites, Verizon’s Media Manager software “also facilitates shipping virtually any video podcast to your DVR”. Podcast subscriptions can be added directly to Media Manager in the standard way via the PC’s web browser.

The new features will be offered as part of Verizon’s top tier DVR package, which currently includes PC photo sharing and multi-room DVR playback, and is expected to be offered to customers later this year or early next year.

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Verizon, Rhapsody also team up for VCAST Music with Rhapsody service

Daniel Langendorf — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:35:37 +0000

Not only did Rhapsody launch a DRM-free MP3 music store — see Steve O’Hear’s coverage today — but it also has engaged with Verizon Wireless to offer a new mobile subscription plan called VCAST Music with Rhapsody.

Verizon notes that, for the cost of a single CD, its wireless users can subscribe to VCAST Music with Rhapsody for $15 a month to gain unlimited access to Rhapsody’s five million songs. These songs will carry digital rights management to protect against copyright infringement and illegal file sharing. Users can authorize three PCs and three mobile phones for use with the service.

However, Verizon subscribers also have the option to purchase music over-the-air for $1.99 a track, which includes a “complimentary” DRM-free master copy that users can download from their PCs via a VCAST Music with Rhapsody software program at a later time. This software is not available for the Mac.

VCAST with Rhapsody works on VCAST-compatible phones such as the Motorola W755, the Samsung SCH-u550, Glyde, and Juke, and the LG Decoy and Dare. The service also will be available for the Chocolate 3 when it’s available, probably at the end of July.

“We announced today our music without limits strategy, and Verizon is at the center,” RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser said in a conference call. “By integrating Rhapsody on the PC and mobile, it allows people to get music where they want it and when they want it.”

John Harrobin, senior vice president of digital media for Verizon, was on the conference call with Glaser. He did not offer any insight into the number of people who use VCAST because it is not a subscription service. He did say VCAST has “millions of customers each quarter.”

Rhapsody’s moves, and Verizon’s involvement, is not thought to be a full frontal assault on Apple and it’s market-leading iTunes Store, which also features desktop and OTA downloads. Rather, the executives say, they are embracing the success of Apple services and products and hoping to extend the digital music market.

“The issue isn’t weather Verizon can take down iTunes,” Russ Crupnick, a senior analyst at the NPD Group, told News.com, “but rather can it help grow the market? And I think the answer to that is yes. Verizon is very well positioned for that.”

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Mobile OS wars heat up as Verizon joins LiMo Foundation, a Google-Android rival

Daniel Langendorf — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:37:48 +0000

Here’s an interesting jab at Google and its mobile operating system Android: Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, is joining the LiMo Foundation because it has software and phones available, Google does not.

The LiMo Foundation, representing Linux Mobile, is the lesser known of the mobile operating systems. There’s Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, supplying many makers of smart phones; Symbian, supplier mostly to Nokia; Qualcomm, supplier mostly to Verizon; upstart Google, and Apple. Then there’s Linux Mobile, slowly creeping along by adding devices mostly in Europe and Asia.

The LiMo (Linux Mobile) Foundation is a consortium of companies well vested in the mobile industry: Motorola, Samsung, LG Electronics, Vodaphone, NTT DoCoMo, and many others. Verizon is the first U.S. carrier to join the LiMo initiative, which now has 40 members worldwide.

The idea behind LiMo is to build a standardized, Linux-based mobile platform, which members can customize to meet their needs. For the most part, Linux Mobile is a competitor to Android, which is not yet available on any handsets. Linux Mobile is showing up on phones from Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, and LG.

Kyle Malady, vice president of network for Verizon, said in a conference call today that he expects Verizon to sell both regular devices and smart phones using mobile Linux next year.

“We expect that Linux Mobile will rapidly become our preferred operating system,” Malady said to The Associated Press [via The New York Times] . “As the development community looks at how best to bring new applications to the marketplace, they should check out LiMo and Linux Mobile first.”

Verizon’s move isn’t so much a slap in the face as a poke in the side to Google, which has somewhat of a rocky relationship with Verizon. The two companies were locked in a bidding war for the 700 MHz spectrum recently auction in the U.S.

Once a reserve was met in the auction, an open network clause was triggered, and Google ended its bidding. Verizon was left holding the goods, so to speak. The winner must build a new network open to any device and any application. Verizon has whined publicly that maybe Google didn’t play fair.

Verizon’s involvement with the LiMo Foundation does not preclude it from joining Google’s Open Handset Alliance and supplying Android phones in the future — it most likely will. But Verizon is sending a message that Google’s mobile OS isn’t ready and won’t be until devices start showing up at the end of 2008 and into 2009. Verizon isn’t going to be waiting around, twiddling its thumbs.

Maneuverings like Verizon joining LiMo never register on the consumer mobile radar because, after all, they’ve been buying phones mostly on size and looks for years.

But with the success of the iPhone and BlackBerry products and the coming of the smart information device, mobile operating systems are becoming more important and a hotly contested battleground.

[For more information on LiMo, see GigaOm’s recent coverage.]

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