11/20, 2:20pm
YouTube API now only on some devices
YouTube drew controversy with word this week that it has begun limiting the use of its native video API on devices. Reflecting new terms of service, any device that connects to a TV must have a license from YouTube to get fully native video support. The move will ban smaller-scale devices like the Popcorn Hour C-200 from directly accessing YouTube videos, although it will still allow them access using Flash.
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11/18, 1:55pm
Hulu to add EMI artist music vidoes, profiles
Video on demand service Hulu, which offers the majority of its content for free to US viewers, is adding a dedicated music video section to its site on Wednesday. Together with music label EMI, the first artist's videos will be singer Norah Jones, before more artists' work is featured over time. All of Jones' videos will be on the site, as will footage of four concerts and several of her interviews.
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11/12, 1:40pm
Boxee finds hardware maker
Boxee today confirmed talk that it would produce its own hardware. The media center startup now says it has partnered with an unnamed home electronics company to make its own set-top box and that a mockup as well as further details will be shown at an already-planned December 7th event that was to mark the Boxee software entering beta. Most details aren't known, but Boxee stresses that the device will still let users choose from a wide variety of sources rather than a narrow channel.
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11/10, 10:45am
Moxi DVRs get lower prices, new models, functions
ARRIS, the recent owner of Digeo and its Moxi-branded DVRs, announced on Monday it has overhauled the Moxi line and given it new features. This includes adding a three-tuner version of the Moxi HD DVR and introducing a new Moxi multi-room package that includes the new three-tuner Moxi. At the same time, ARRIS has dropped the price of its existing dual-tuner Moxi HD DVR. The new three-tuner Moxi HD DVR lets users record up to three channels at the same time and watch a program already recorded.
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11/05, 1:40pm
Myka ION a home theater PC for the living room
Myka has moved on from producing media hubs by releasing its Myka ION nettop as a full-fledged home theater PC. As the name implies, the PC packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and 2GB of RAM, along with an NVIDIA Ion graphics platform to supply HD (non-Flash) video. It runs on Ubuntu Linux and includes Boxee and XBMC media center software as well as support for standard-definition Adobe Flash and Hulu's online streaming service.
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11/02, 1:10pm
iTunes TV sub would rival traditional TV
Apple could upturn the entire TV market by offering an iTunes TV subscription service, a prominent rumor says today. iTunes head Eddy Cue is believed to be pitching the idea of a $30 monthly plan that would give users much broader access, much like conventional TV. The exact terms aren't specified by the "multiple" MediaMemo tips but wouldn't confine the service to a single device.
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10/30, 7:55am
FiOS Internet, TV users get 720p online
Verizon this morning became the first provider to offer EpixHD streaming video as part of its service. Those who have both a FiOS Internet connection and a FiOS TV subscription with the Epix TV channel can watch an unlimited amount of movies on the web at up to 720p. About 150 titles will be in rotation online, but the service will emphasize major, recent movies from MGM, Lionsgate and Parmaount; it should scale to include about 15,000 titles both old and new.
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10/13, 4:15pm
GlideTV marries AV, computer controls
Catering explicitly to home theater computers, GlideTV today produced an unusual controller known as the Navigator. The bowl-shaped peripheral has a trackpad for mouse pointing but is surrounded by AV controls and a directional pad that ease navigating through common apps. It can steer through Front Row and iTunes on Macs, Windows Media Center, and platform-independent apps like Boxee or SageTV.
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10/13, 12:00am
HP launches TouchSmart 300 and 600
HP early today is making an aggressive push into touchscreen PCs with two key updates to its TouchSmart home all-in-ones. The TouchSmart 300 and 600 add true multi-touch input and have significantly expanded use for the technology: they can not only use pinch-to-zoom, flicks and other gestures in the general operating system thanks to Windows 7 but in several new touch apps for the systems' custom front end. They can now navigate Hulu or Netflix streaming video, stream Pandora or Rhapsody music, or update and follow Twitter feeds all primarily using touch.
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09/24, 12:35pm
Time Warner opts for DOCSIS 3.0
Time Warner today became one of the last major US cable providers to offer some form of DOCSIS 3.0-based Internet service. The initial deployment gives customers 50Mbps downloads and 5Mbps uploads for the same $100 monthly rate as similar offerings from Comcast and others. Early service is so far only available in parts of New York City, including Manhattan below 79th Street, parts of Queens, and Staten Island.
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09/22, 8:50am
Netflix CEO talks iPhone, other systems
Netflix should not only branch out to other game consoles but also mobile devices like the iPhone as well, CEO Reed Hastings said later on Monday. Although Microsoft claims an Xbox 360 exclusive for game systems, Hastings expects the streaming version of his video service to eventually arrive on "all" consoles as well as Blu-ray players and TVs. He doesn't have a timetable for when the exclusivity would end.
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09/16, 1:10pm
Hit by withering effect of mail, digital
Rental chain Blockbuster Video will close between 810 and 960 stores by the end of 2010, an SEC filing reveals. While putting a significant number of people out of work, and closing off some markets, the move is expected to add another $50 to $60 million to annual earnings before expenses like taxes and interest. The company has over 7,000 stores worldwide at present, scattered across Asia, Europe, the US and Australia.
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09/08, 10:15am
Netgear Digital Entertainer Live
Netgear is adding to its line of set-top boxes with a low-end device that supports 720p HD but lacks a hard drive and built-in wireless. The Digital Entertainer Live relies mostly on its Ethernet-based online access and has built-in support for YouTube, pay-per-view movies from CinemaNow and live internet TV through VuNow. Resembling one of Netgear's internet routers, the small device has both the 100Mbps network link as well as two USB ports for external storage, one HDMI output for digital and one RCA for analog sources. An optional USB adapter brings 802.11n Wi-Fi for those that want it later.
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08/27, 11:40am
TWC and VZ Trial Online TV
Time Warner Cable and Verizon today simultaneously said today that they will launch trials of Internet TV viewing for their subscribers. Part of the TV Everywhere effort, the plans both let existing cable TV (for Time Warner) or FiOS TV (for Verizon) customers watch shows on the web regardless of whether or not they're at home. As before, many of the shows will go online closer to their original air dates and will sometimes be shows that rarely reach sites and stores like Hulu or iTunes.
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08/25, 5:10pm
Wii to get PlayOn app
Nintendo's Wii will get the ability to play movies on users' Windows PCs thanks to Media Mall's PlayOn app on Wednesday, August 26th. PlayOn has already allowed PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 users to access Netflix Watch, Amazon VOD and Hulu content. The Wii version will also have support for a few other unnamed online video services, though does require an Internet-connected Windows XP or Vista computer as the source.
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07/23, 3:10pm
Disney Paid Video Site
Disney chief Bob Iger late Wednesday explained at the Brainstorm Tech conference that his company is developing a subscription-based online video service. He provided few details, including release dates or monthly rates, but said it would include not only movies and TV shows but also games and extra entertainment. It's unofficially expected by Variety and others to have a partial social network component.
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07/15, 1:25pm
Widget Bazaar now out
Subscribers to Verizon's fiber optic Internet and cable service, FiOS, now have access to the Widget Bazaar, which lets them check out Twitter apps and log onto Facebook right on their TVs. Users won't be able to post Twitter updates or view their friends' pages, as the young version of the app only allows users to get updates on what they're watching and standard community Twitter updates. The Twitter app remains on the screen as a vertical ticker, even when users are watching TV.
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06/29, 4:15pm
Court reject RS-DVR appeal
The US Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by film studios and television networks of a New York court ruling that would allow a new type of digital video recorder service from Cablevision. A report says the justices refused to review a ruling made by a US Court of Appeals in New York that said Cablevision's proposed service would not directly infringe the copyrights of the media companies that produce the recorded movie and TV programs. No reason for the rejection was given.
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06/25, 4:45pm
MvixUSA intros Ultio
MvixUSA on Thursday announced the upcoming release and specs of its 1080p-capable Ultio networked multimedia player. The device is compatible with UPnP-standard networks and can be ordered with a 1TB hard drive. Streaming content from Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and other similar sites is supported, and MvixUSA says the device supports a record amount of video file formats and codecs, including the relatively uncommon RMVB or FLAC.
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06/24, 11:45am
Comcast TW TV Everywhere
Cable providers Comcast and Time Warner today launched a new initiative to help accommodate online video with their traditional TV businesses. Called alternately On Demand Online (by Comcast) and TV Everywhere (by Time Warner), the pact will see both develop a non-exclusive system that grants web-based, streaming access to TV shows and movies for a given network as long as the customer already pays for a subscription with access to that channel or show. An authentication system will verify permission, but customers won't need to use an Internet connection from their TV provider to access those shows.
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06/17, 2:00pm
Bband Inet Fairness Act
US Democratic Congressman Eric Massa on Wednesday introduced the Broadband Internet Fairness Act, a measure to monitor and regulate capped, tiered Internet services. The bill would require any provider switching from a typically unlimited plan to a usage-based system to be scrutinized by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and would ban any service plans that the FTC deems "unreasonable or discriminatory." Providers that ignored any imposed bans would be subject to unspecified punishment.
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06/08, 11:05am
Epix HD Beta
Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount today launched an invitation beta for Epix, a hybrid cable and online movie streaming service meant to supplement rather than replace regular pay-per-view TV. Anyone with a cable package that includes the channel will get access to the studios' movies weeks ahead of their regular DVD releases for "free" but will simultaneously have access to streaming, 720p versions of those same movies for their computers. The approach is ad-free, even online, and automatically scales the bitrate up or down (to as low as 500Kbps) depending on the quality of the connection.
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06/04, 3:20pm
Hulu to charge for content
News Corp.'s new chief digital officer, Jonathan Miller, has claimed that he foresees the future of the company's Hulu service to include paid content, according to DailyFinance. Most of the content likely would remain free, although a portion of the TV shows and movies could only be accessible with a subscription.
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05/29, 11:25am
Hulu desktop app hits
Hulu, jointly operated by NBC, Fox and Disney, has launched a new desktop application meant to simplify streaming the site's video. Mac and Windows versions are available, supporting Front Row and Windows Media Center remotes, respectively; aside from controlling playback the software provides a special tracking display, and a distinct menu for browsing categories and subscriptions. Windows systems require XP, 2GB of RAM and a 1.8GHz Core Duo, while Macs differ by needing a 2GHz Core Duo and at least Mac OS X 10.4.
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05/20, 5:05pm
Hulu coming to the UK?
The free online video-on-demand (VOD) service, Hulu, may be expanding for the first time to a market outside of the US, with a launch in the UK as soon as September, the UK's Telegraph reported on Wednesday. Sources close to the negotiations tell the daily newspaper that Hulu is in talks with the UK's ITV and Channel 4 for content partners, and the service would bring over more than 3,000 hours of American TV content. Content from the BBC is also being negotiated.
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05/13, 2:15pm
VUDU Ad Backed Media
VUDU today signaled a partial change in direction with word that it will start offering ad-supported music and video through its service. Once limited to renting as well as selling movies and TV shows, the company is tapping Brightcove to provide ads for a free Sony music video service. It also plans to expand this to include other services but hasn't set out its plans to date, including whether or not it may extend this to TV and other long-form content.
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05/07, 2:30pm
Hulu Talking International
Hulu today acknowleged that it's in talks to expand its Internet TV streaming service to other countries beyond the US. The NBC/Fox/Disney joint venture's senior VP of content acquisition, Andy Forssell, tells FT that negotiations are underway to bring Hulu to the "top six to eight markets" for TV and that deals have already been struck to bring shows from UK producer Endemol to the US. How soon either would arrive isn't mentioned.
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04/30, 12:10pm
Disney Joins Hulu
Disney this morning said it has obtained an equity stake in Hulu. The deal, which puts three Disney executives on the Hulu board, gives the studio equal influence along with original founders NBC Universal and News Corp. (Fox) in addition to the ability to publish content on the streaming web video service. Most of its initial lineup will center on current and back-catalog TV shows from ABC and Disney, such as Lost and Dancing with the Stars, but should also include "popular library titles" from Walt Disney Studios.
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04/24, 9:55am
Joost Selling Itself
Video site Joost is shopping itself around to cable and satellite TV providers as their possible hub for Internet streaming, sources claim. The company has been struggling to gain share in the face of competiton by Hulu and YouTube and is believed by CNET to be looking to a deal to save itself. While it's not certain how likely this may be, metered Internet advocate Time Warner Cable is unusually seen as one of those interested in buying Joost.
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04/17, 4:20pm
Hulu iPhone app coming
A dedicated Hulu application is in development for the iPhone and iPod touch, claims an industry executive speaking with Silicon Alley Insider. Like the website, the app should let users watch movies and TV shows from studios such as Fox and NBC. Key differences will include the use of a native video format, and a revised interface, omitting the Flash an iPhone is incapable of rendering.
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04/16, 4:55pm
TWC Freezes Expansion
Time Warner today quickly followed up on its plans to drop Rochester metering with word that it will also drop any near-term plans to expand the trials beyond those areas already testing the service, which limits the included amount of data transfer and charges overage fees for any use beyond an arbitrary limit. It doesn't plan to stop trialing altogether but claims to need time to change plans and discuss the issue with both end-users and others.
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04/10, 9:40am
CrunchPad Apr 2009 Update
An unintentional leak late Thursday has shown a major revision to TechCrunch's CrunchPad touchscreen tablet. Aside from being much thinner than older prototypes, the new version has switched from a VIA Nano processor to an Intel Atom and now has a wider, capacitive 12-inch touchscreen that should be easier to use. It also has a much more efficient software base that uses a custom Linux variant and WebKit-based browser that use just 100MB of space.
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04/10, 8:50am
TWC Cap Increase
Time Warner Cable's expanded trials of metered Internet service will include significantly higher average caps and a pseudo-unlimited option, the company's COO Landel Hobbs said in an online statement. After facing criticism for offering a maximum cap of just 40GB per month in Texas trials with unlimited overage fees, the provider is now boosting its original 5GB-40GB range for Road Runner service to 10GB-60GB and is adding a 100GB tier for $75 per month. It will also limit the overage charges themselves to a maximum of $75 extra per month and, practically, restore unlimited Internet access at a price of $150 per month.
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04/09, 1:00pm
Sony confirms Google talks
Sony has confirmed this week's earlier rumors that it is engaged in talks with YouTube on posting full-length movies on the free video service site, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. If the deal goes through, it would see the first major US studio to do so on a large scale, and the full-length films would be offered for viewing for free, likely supported by ad sales in the stream.
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04/09, 9:05am
Moxi DVR Media Streaming
Digeo on Thursday rolled out an update to its Moxi HD DVR that significantly expands its role as a media hub. The new version adds DLNA support to stream music, photos and videos from nearby PCs and other devices on the local network, such as PlayStation 3s. It also takes advantage of new paid software from PlayOn that will push web video from Hulu, Netflix and other sites from a PC to the Moxi without needing to visit the web.
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04/03, 8:00pm
ATT Retracts Cell TOS
AT&T tonight has quickly backtracked on its controversial new terms of service for cellphones that would ban video on 3G and the rest of its cellular network. In a statement delivered to Electronista, the company claims that the posting was made "in error" and that it has since been removed in favor of an earlier agreement. No mention was made as to whether any of the terms were likely to return in the future.
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03/27, 2:00pm
Disney Hulu Rumor
Multiple sources speaking with paidContent today claim that Disney is in "serious" talks with Hulu to bring TV shows to the web service. The media giant would bring over at least ABC's TV programming, such as Lost, and would potentially involve the Disney Channel and other networks that aren't heavily dependent on cable and satellite TV. In return, Disney would get an equity stake in the primarily NBC- and Fox-run venture.
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03/24, 11:35pm
Boxee takes on Hulu again
The international team of developers working on Boxee are gathered in New York and to celebrate, a new version of the Boxee alpha has been released with additional content. The move also brings another round in Boxee's battle with Hulu. Boxee's new XUL-based browser framework imitates Mozilla's Firefox and makes it harder for Hulu to block access to Boxee users by preventing a simple ban; any block of Boxee's video feed would block Hulu's as well.
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03/12, 10:40am
Hulu adding social network
Online video site Hulu will add several social network-like features on Thursday meant to keep users coming back and thereby bring in more advertisers, according to the Wall Street Journal. To be called Hulu Friends, the addition is said to let users create personal online profiles and share videos with each other, while a Scorecard feature will let them track their activity. Unlike YouTube, though, users still can't their own videos and are limited to the official movies and TV shows published to the Fox- and NBC-run site.
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03/11, 4:05pm
Rogers Hulu-like web video
Canadian cable, telephone, Internet and wireless provider Rogers has proposed a Hulu-like web video system on Tuesday at a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) hearing as an alternative to government-imposed levies on Internet Service Providers to support online Canadian content. Rogers, along with another Canadian ISP, Shaw, expressed strong disapproval to the CRTC's levies. Under Rogers' plan, users wouldn’t need to have service from the company in order to access broadband video content.
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03/09, 2:45pm
Hulu blocks Boxee RSS
TV streaming service Hulu is once again attempting to block access from the Boxee media browsing client, the latter company claims. After Boxee was initially forced to remove a dedicated Hulu component, the company developed a workaround in the form of an RSS reader that tapped into publicly-accessible feeds. Even this access is now being blocked, despite continued Hulu RSS compatibility with ordinary web browsers.
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03/06, 10:25am
Boxee video RSS update
Boxee, the developer of its namesake media player front-end, has released a new alpha version of the app with a built-in RSS reader. The software is installed onto Mac and Ubuntu Linux systems as well as Apple TVs, and provides more elaborate support for downloaded media as well as direct web streaming of shows on ABC and CBS. The Boxee RSS reader is optimized for video, and can feed clips from YouTube, Yahoo and several other sources.
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02/20, 2:50pm
Comcast TWC Online TV
Two US cable providers are looking to put their TV programming online in a bid to preserve their business, sources have reportedly told the Wall Street Journal. Comcast and Time Warner Cable are believed to have been in ongoing talks with content providers, such as NBC and Viacom, for a deal that would let subscribers to cable TV packages stream "much" of their available shows online on the web. The selection would be "well beyond" what free online services like Hulu offer.
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02/18, 11:05pm
Hulu pulls content
Hulu has pulled all of its streaming videos from Boxee and CBS Interactive's TV.com. Boxee's blog expressed disappointment with the situation, especially considering the 100,000 Hulu streams it generated just last week. The problems reportedly began a few weeks ago when Hulu's content partners began asking for the service to be removed from Boxee. Despite Boxee's pleads to keep the streaming videos, the company will remove the content on Friday.
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02/13, 2:55pm
Netflix through Front Row
A Google Code project, Understudy, now allows Hulu and Netflix streaming video to be played through Apple's Front Row software. Users can subscribe to multiple feeds and select individual videos to watch. The provided feeds for each service can be used, while the program also can automatically discover the user's profile or the feeds can be copied from the clipboard. To view the content, Understudy is accessible from within Front Row and the services and streams are available in the Manage Feeds section.
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02/11, 8:15pm
Miro media player update
The Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) has released an update to its media player, Miro 2.0. A fresh widget-based interface has been added, with an option to play any video in an external window. The developers claim that the update is faster, more responsive and uses less system memory than the previous version. Users can add streaming sites such as Hulu to the sidebar, along with download sites including Archive.org and legaltorrents.com. Playlists, list views and audio support have also been improved.
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02/04, 11:20am
TWC Data Caps Spread
Time Warner during a financial results call today revealed that its experiment in metered data use on its cable Internet service should expand to new areas in 2009. Without entering into specifics, the company's cable chief Glenn Britt says that more cities will be subject to the program, which charges users for usage at fixed intervals up to a 40GB cap. It's unknown whether the feature represents a larger trial or a formal rollout.
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01/19, 8:45am
CrunchPad Tablet
News site TechCrunch today revealed that it's much closer to launching a promised low-cost, touchscreen Internet tablet. Referred to now as the CrunchPad, the device has a 12-inch, 1024x768 touch display but includes netbook-grade components to keep the price and size down: the nearly button-free device will use a VIA Nano processor, 1GB of memory and a 4GB flash drive that are just enough to hold an interface that boots directly to a custom WebKit-based browser in Ubuntu Linux.
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01/05, 7:40am
Adobe Flash for CE 3100
Intel and Adobe today said they have struck a deal to optimize Flash for the CE 3100, Intel's system-on-a-chip design for TV set-top devices. The processor's combination of graphics and processing is deemed fast enough to run both a full desktop-level version of Flash as well as the traditionally cellphone-oriented Flash Lite and is meant to bring the animation and interface technology to networked media hubs, Blu-ray players and TVs themselves that previously would have had to go without the format.
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12/29, 3:05pm
Hulu to host music videos?
A new video-sharing website may be in the works, as the four major music labels -- Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony BMG -- are in preliminary talks for creating their own web portal, according to a weekend Financial Times report. Early last week, news came of the four labels planning to band together to create a site devoted to music videos and related content. More recently word has leaked of the three options the labels are considering, due to unhappiness with the ad revenue derived from the Google-owned YouTube. Under consideration is a premium service on YouTube, a totally new site, or a partnership with Hulu, the film and TV site jointly owned by News Corp. and NBC Universal.
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