Roku rolls out Amazon Video-On-Demand support

by Steve O'Hear

March 3rd, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

No longer limited to Netflix support-only, today Roku announced that its $99 set-top box, following a software update, can now be used to rent and purchase movies and TV shows from Amazon’s Video-On-Demand (VOD) service.

Amazon VOD (US-only) has a library of over 40,000 movie and TV titles, with new releases offered on the same day they are released on DVD, something that Netflix is currently unable to match, instead focusing more on back catalog material offered as part of a fixed monthly subscription that also includes traditional DVD rentals by post. In this sense, the two services both compete and complement each other, depending on how much and what kind of content customers want to consume.

See also: No more downloads, Amazon moves its online video store to the cloud

The Amazon tie-in also takes advantage of the e-tailers’ expertise in ‘cloud’ computing. Since the Roku digital video player is only capable of streaming not downloads, purchases are stored on Amazon’s own servers, making it possible, for example, to begin viewing a movie on the PC and then continue on the TV via a Roku set-top box.

Video demo courtesy of NewTeeVee after the jump… Continue reading »

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How I replaced Apple's MobileMe at half the price

by Steve O'Hear

March 2nd, 2009 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | Comments3 Comments

After years of pledging to do so, I’ve finally dumped Apple’s MobileMe web service in favor of a more cost effective and flexible solution, and one that is better suited to my own particular needs. MobileMe (formally dot Mac) is a great service (when it works) for those whose digital lifestyles almost entirely rely on Apple devices – iPhone, iPods, Macbooks etc. But step out of Apple’s ecosystem and it starts to look far less appealing and very overpriced. After a bit of research, and advice from friends and Twitter followers, moving forward, here’s how I intend to manage email, contact and calendar synchronization across devices, along with automatic backups of other critical data. Continue reading »

Weekly wrapup: Chumby Internet-connected TVs, Vudu HD downloads, Nokia and Skype, Nintendo DSi

by Steve O'Hear

March 1st, 2009 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | Comments1 Comment

Here’s a summary of the last 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

Chumby bets on Internet-connected TVs

Hoping to move beyond being a geek’s favorite boutique gadget to something more mainstream, Chumby is partnering with chip maker Broadcom to make it easy for consumer electronics companies to embed its widget platform into Internet-connected TVs, Blue-ray players and set-top boxes.

Would you bet your HD movie collection on a startup staying in business?

Set-top box movie service Vudu claimed a first today, offering download to-own movies in HD, albeit with a very limited catalog and high prices. Continue reading »

Zatz Not Funny: CBS iPhone app, Hulu on OSX, Netflix streaming, green tech disposal

by Steve O'Hear

February 28th, 2009 | Posted in ZNF | CommentsNo Comments

A periodic roundup of relevant news from our friends at Zatz Not Funny…

CBS launches TV.com iPhone app

Dave Zatz: CBS may have recently lost out on Hulu content, but they’re pressing forward with their re-imagined TV.com initiative. And, yesterday, they introduced a free TV.com iPhone app.

Get your OS X Hulu fix via Plex

Dave Zatz: When one door closes, bust through a window? OS X users still seeking a Hulu fix after the Boxee run-in should download the new version of Plex.

Netflix streaming, the Internet’s changing our brains, and Cable goes online

Mari Silbey: I’ve been virtually absent from ZNF for the last two weeks, and my backlog of posts is growing out of control. So, in an attempt to catch up, here are a few related items I’ve found interesting of late.

Dumping gear the green way

Dave Zatz: If you collect as many gadgets as I do, it’s inevitable a percentage will outlive their usefulness. Which is why LifeHacker’s recent coverage of Best Buy’s expanded recycling program is nicely timed.

Nokia and Skype partnership has carriers in a fit

by Steve O'Hear

February 27th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile | Comments4 Comments

It’s always interesting to see the politics of business play out through leaks in the media, and I suspect that in the case of Nokia and its mobile carrier “partners” we haven’t seen the last of it. The Finnish handset maker’s recent announcement of a tie up with Skype has, predictably, rankled two carriers in the UK, reports Mobile Today.

See also: Nokia announces online music store – takes aim at Apple and mobile carriers

Both Orange and O2 are unhappy that a Skype client will be bundled with Nokia’s upcoming N97 and are threatening to boycott the device and the company’s future Skype-enabled phones, for fear that including the application will further reduce their role to that of being a “dumb pipe”. According to Mobile Today’s source:

“This is another example of them trying to build an ecosystem that is all about Nokia and reduces the operator to a dumb pipe. Some people like 3 may be in a position where it could make sense to accept that. But if you spend upwards of £40m per year building your brand, you don’t want to be just a dumb pipe do you?

Nokia have tried several ways to own the customer over the years and operators have had to say no.”

Owning the customer, of course, is something that Apple has managed to achieve, and which 02 seems to have accepted in return for iPhone exclusivity here in the UK. Nokia, with its aggressive move into providing various web services (music subscriptions, maps, email, IM and social networking) is also trying to have a more direct relationship with the customer, presumably hoping that said services will help lock them into a continuous cycle of Nokia handset upgrades. At the same time, both companies, like any handset maker, need the carriers to stay on side so that they’ll continue to subsidize and market their wares. That seems like a conflict of interest if there ever was one, and I can’t see the issue being resolved any time soon. Continue reading »

Too early for a streaming-only Netflix plan?

by Steve O'Hear

February 26th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

I thought it was a bit of a non-story when Netflix CEO Reed Hastings first mentioned that the company would at some point in the future offer customers a streaming-only subscription – 2010 was mentioned as a possible time frame – as frankly it’s kind of obvious that one day this will be case. The DVD format won’t last for ever, although it’s not going away any time soon, and is gradually being replaced by on-demand Internet delivered video. This week the company’s Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy echoed Reed’s comments, saying that a streaming-only plan will be launched in the “foreseeable future”.

However, while Netflix certainly has the distribution for a streaming-only service – Windows, Mac, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and Microsoft’s XBox 360 games console – I’d argue that it doesn’t yet have a large enough streaming content library alone to pull in many additional subscribers. Continue reading »

Video: Could the Nintendo DSi become the second mainstream WiFi tablet?

by Steve O'Hear

February 24th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile | Comments1 Comment

Following Apple’s iPod touch, could Nintendo’s revamped handheld games console – the DSi – become the second “mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform”? That’s a claim that the company’s first attempt – the DS Lite – could have made if it wasn’t for the crippling speed of its otherwise innovative dual screen web browser.

On Nintendo’s original device, web pages simply render far too slowly, and as I noted at the time, the company didn’t even bother to offer the Opera web browser on-board the console itself. Instead, the software came stored on a separate memory card so that you have to keep swapping it out when you want to actually play a game, and then change cards again every time you want to browse the web. Both these issues, however, have been addressed in the updated DSi model, as the following video demonstrates… Continue reading »

Would you bet your HD movie collection on a startup staying in business?

by Steve O'Hear

February 24th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | Comments1 Comment

Set-top box movie service Vudu claimed a first today, offering download to-own movies in HD, albeit with a very limited catalog and high prices.

Previously, the company (like its competitors, which include Apple and Microsoft) offered HD content for rental only, but now customers can choose to pay between $13.99 and $23.99 to actually own the movies they download, which can be either stored on their Vudu hard drives or on the company’s own servers through its Vudu Vault ‘backup’ service. The only studios to be on board so far, however, are independents FirstLook, Kino and Magnolia Pictures, who together will begin by offering just 50 titles (compared to the 1,400 HD movies that Vudu makes available for rental), including “War, Inc.”, “Transsiberian” and “Man on Wire”. Moving forward, each participating studio has agreed to license new releases for sale in HD through Vudu on the same day and date as their DVD release.

See also: Vudu’s latest price cut is a start, here’s what else they need to do

Limited content aside, Vudu’s pricing remains too high, a problem not specific to the service but one that the company has failed to address nonetheless. As Streaming Media’s Dan Rayburn writes, it’s probably not Vudu’s fault, as the pricing will have been dictated by the studios themselves. Either way, as far as consumers are concerned, downloads of any sort – even in HD – shouldn’t cost the same or more than the DVD equivalent. And the issue is further compounded when you factor in that Vudu’s use of a proprietary video format (however high quality) and its copy-protection scheme means that content can’t be moved to other devices and is completely reliant on the company staying in business, which in the nascent market of video downloads is far from guaranteed.

Chumby bets on Internet-connected TVs

by Steve O'Hear

February 23rd, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Hoping to move beyond being a geek’s favorite boutique gadget to something more mainstream, Chumby is partnering with chip maker Broadcom to make it easy for consumer electronics companies to embed its widget platform into Internet-connected TVs, Blue-ray players and set-top boxes.

Chumby’s content, which is currently available on the company’s own Internet-connected device – a cross between an alarm clock radio and digital picture frame – consists of “over 1,000 widgets in 30 different categories” such as news, entertainment, music, and sports. Content partners include CBS, MTV Networks, The New York Times, Pandora, The Weather Channel Interactive, and AOL’s SHOUTcast and Scripps Networks. Chumby can also access “thousands of Internet radio stations and podcasts”, along with a user’s own content and that shared by friends within their Chumby social network.

See also: Chumby gets $12.5M… here’s why it’s taking off

Of course, Chumby’s platform isn’t the only TV widget offering, with Yahoo’s Widget Channel making a big splash at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Internet-connected TVs and accompanying widgets were also the talk of CES in 2008 – back then Sharp, Samsung, Panasonic and Google made related announcements, although not much seems to have materialized since then, suggesting that the market for Internet widgets on the telly is far from proven. In that sense, Chumby isn’t too late to the game.

Video demo of Chumby’s widget platform running on a TV after the jump… Continue reading »

Why you may never see Spotify on iPhone

by Steve O'Hear

February 23rd, 2009 | Posted in Audio, Mobile | Comments1 Comment

The video demo of the upcoming version of Spotify for iPhone (and iPod touch) that was yanked from YouTube has reappeared via Tech Digest. The mobile version of the streaming music service looks as polished as Mike Butcher over at TechCrunch UK first reported, although now that I’ve had a few hours to ponder its existence, I can see a number of reasons why Apple may never allow Spotfy into the iPhone App Store. Spotify isn’t the only music streaming app for iPhone (and therefore iTunes competitor) but it differs in two crucial ways:

  • Unlike Last.fm or Pandora, specific tracks and whole albums can be streamed on-demand, as apposed to having to be content with the choices or recommendations of the app itself – with no limits aside from the size of Spotify’s music catalog.
  • According to reports, Spotify on iPhone is able to cache tracks referenced in the playlists it creates so that the service can still be used outside wireless coverage. This solves one of the major drawbacks of streaming-only offerings and makes Spotify a much more direct iTunes competitor. Interestingly, Slacker offers similar functionality in its Blackberry mobile app but stripped off-line plackback from the company’s iPhone version.

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