Online video, online video publishing, streaming media, OVP, OTT, web television, video advertising, marketing, startups, gadgets, social media, videoconferencing, collaboration and related topics are discussed here. Thanks for stopping by the "Klessblog."
A new line of Flip Video cameras was announced today by Cisco, including more affordable versions of the UltraHD ($149.00-199.00) and MinoHD $179.00-229.00) pocket camcorders, with a number a new enhancements that will finally bring the long awaited ability to connect an external microphone to the wildly popular pocket video camera. This will be possible in only the new UltraHD 8GB model, through a new proprietary port called a "FlipPort" located on the bottom of the device, and will connect peripherals that are part of the new "Designed for Flip" accessory program. The microphone is designed by Blue Microphones and called Mikey for FLIP, and won't be available until early next year, and likely to debut at CES.
One the big drawbacks of the Flip has been the inability to capture good quality sound, and many were disappointed with the release earlier in the year of the SlideHD, which didn't include an external microphone input jack. However, Blue's peripheral contains a premium condenser stereo microphone capsule with automatic sensitivity switching for recording any volume level clearly: whispers, interviews, or rock concerts. It also sports a mic-in port which will allow for easy plug-in of additional microphones or microphone level audio sources which is similar to the Beachtek camcorder adapters that allow for plugging in standard XLR cables and connectors, and mounts in between the camera and tripod. The Mikey for FLIP is self-powered and runs on AAA batteries and will list starting at $69.00.
Videos are still recorded as H.264 MP4 files in 16:9 widescreen, HD 720p (1280 x 720), now at 60 frames per seconds (fps) progressive scan. Other new Flip UltraHD features include image stabilization, longer record time and higher bit rate recording (up to 8.8 Mbps) and a number of other optional peripherals, including a include a waterproof case, a Bower wide angle lens, an iGo Portable Pico Projector and a variety of power charging options: Flip Video Ultra™ Battery Pack, iGo Charge Anywhere, Flip Video Power Adapter. All the Flip Video products are available now at TheFlip.com, Amazon.com, and Best Buy and will be sold at Wal-Mart, Target, and Staples in the near future.
According to Jonathan Kaplan, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Consumer Products:
"This is without question the best line of Flip Video cameras we've ever created. The new line combines Flip's signature simplicity and affordability with truly breakthrough video quality, unlimited personalization options, and an array of creative new accessories – all of which add up to more fun, and an even better video experience for our consumers."
From birthday parties, sporting events, conferences, social media mashups to corporate boardrooms, the Flip video camera spawned a new generation of UGC producers. But the important thing to keep in mind is that the Flip, the Kodak Zi8, the Sony Bloggie, the iPhone 4, iPod Touch any of these $200.00 or less video cameras, are just that – $200.00 or less video cameras. You won't get the same quality as you would with professional video and audio equipment. But for most applications the Flip video quality is good enough.
If you're wondering how the new Flip Ultra measures up to the iPod Touch, watch this video for a side-by-side comparison: Flip UltraHD vs. iPod Touch (4th gen).
Today, Livestream launched Livepack, a totally wireless turn-key hardware solution for live mobile HD streaming. Through a partnership with LiveU, makers of hand-held video uplink devices, Livestream offers a unique bundled solution that combines a hardware device with their live streaming platform. This solution addresses the needs of video producers and video professionals who need to broadcast live anytime, from anywhere and on-the-go with video up to HD quality at 700-1000 kbps.
Livepack is a portable device that fits into a backpack and includes six load-balanced 3G/EVDO modems for redundancy over three carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) with data plans are that covered within the price. It allows you to go anywhere with a complete roaming camera setup and aimed to replace the expense of a traditional satellite uplink truck and satellite time.
While live mobile streaming is not new with companies like Qik.com, Flixwagon and Bambuser having been on the market for a few years, according to Livestream CEO Max Haot, mobile phone streaming is not a viable option if you want to live stream an event.
I spoke with Max yesterday and he pointed out that,
"You're not going to stream a two hour event using a mobile phone due to the battery life, the quality of the lens, the zoom, but more importantly also the fact that's it's only one 3G network which is usually unreliable. So the other option that has been available to people needing to do wireless live streaming has been traditional broadcast satellite. This type of equipment is hugely expensive (up to $50,000 a day) and most live streaming events can't afford it. It's usually reserved for television."
Max added that if you're an event organizer and you want to live stream today you either have to make sure you have a wifi connection, laptop, camera or any sort of feed to encode reliably on the Internet using a platform such as theirs. But if you want to do it wirelessly where you don't have a connection available which is the case in most venues, or if you want to be on the move and create a roaming camera feed, there's been no solution out there at the quality you need to live stream something serious like an event. But now with their solution, Livepack is like having a satellite television truck in a backpack.
The technology was originally built by their partner LiveU really aimed to replace the satellite broadcast truck and the prime market was really broadcasters. LiveU has been building this technology for the last few years and have been selling it to NBC and others. So instead of bringing back an event feed from a truck they are bringing back the feed using a LiveU device. Max said that at Livestream they've paid attention to it and started to integrate it more and more over the last six to eight months. They actually announced the first relationship with LiveU at NAB in March and as both they and their joint customers used it more Livestream realized they needed to integrate it deeply into their service.
They way the service works is that Livestream bundles the hardware and service plan in either a monthly or annual rental fee. The Livepack device is easy to use and accepts a direct DV camera feed into the FireWire port. There's a touchscreen to control the box and three hours of battery life included or you can either have external batteries. Once you turn it on all you do is press the start button and it goes directly live into your Livestream channel.
Max explained that their unique offering is possible through three real breakthroughs,
"The first is the fact that it's fully integrated from one vendor including the CDN, the player and all the features of our (the Livestream) platform and the hardware. The second part is that instead of using a laptop at an event you now have a ruggedized piece of equipment with a touchscreen. There's really no moving parts, you can put it in a backpack which is pretty innovative instead of playing with laptops at an event. The third piece is the most important is the technology that we fully integrated with Live U which are six load-balanced 3G/EVDO modems over three carriers which are included, activated and the data plans are covered within the price."
Max noted that with a combination of these modems and the technology it takes the video feed internally from the encoder and splits it over all the available bandwidth on the six modems, sends it directly to their cloud where they recompose the feed and integrate into the Livestream's platform. It's a great application for red carpets, backstage at concerts, sporting events, town hall meetings, ceremonies, transmitting from a moving car, and a variety of enterprise applications. Livepack was recently used for coverage of the MTV Video Music Awards, NY Fashion Week, Harry Potter movie premiere and Pixie Lott Live.
So say goodbye to those expensive satellite uplink costs because wireless live streaming at HD quality just got better.
Livestream Livepack is available in the U.S. for monthly or yearly rental directly from Livestream, and includes the hardware unit, custom designed backpack, dedicated IP address for the Livestream channel, all 3G/EVDO network charges, and 30 hours of streaming uplink time per month. Neither a DV camera nor tripod are included. Month-to-month rental without commitment is $2,500 per month plus the cost of shipping. Yearly rental is $1,500 per month plus the cost of shipping. To order Livepack, email: getlivepack@livestream.com
About Livestream Livestream (formerly Mogulus) provides everything needed to easily webcast live, build an engaged audience and monetize these efforts. Founded in 2007, the company is based in New York and includes Gannett Co. as a minority shareholder and investor. Producers can use Livestream to create live, linear and on-demand Internet television to broadcast anywhere on the Web through a single embeddable player widget. The service comes in two flavors: Free (ad-supported) and Premium (ad-free, white-label, higher-quality). Unique features include the ability to mix multiple live cameras, overlay graphics, and desktop streaming with 3D effects.
I didn't go to CES this past year, and my feet probably thank me for that, but I did catch up with all the big news and product announcements through Twitter, Friendfeed, Google Reader and even through old media like television and newpapers.
CES attracts a much wider audience and is produced each year by the CEA is the Consumer Electronics Association, who represent more than 2,500 corporate members involved in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and integration of audio, video, mobile electronics, wireless and landline communications, information technology, home networking, multimedia and accessory products, as well as related services that are sold through consumer channels. Combined, CEA's members account for more than $100 billion in annual sales. For more information, go to CEA's web site at http://www.CE.org/
Needless to say it's a huge event that kicks off every year debuting the latest and greatest consumer electronics, software solutions and product innovations. More than 2,700 global companies, including 300 new exhibitors this year, unveiled an estimated 20,000 new technology products across 1.7 million net square feet of exhibit space. Preliminary estimates suggested attendance to be at more than 110,000, with the final number to be confirmed in about 90 days. At the close of the 2008 CES, CEA estimated 130,000 attendees, and the actual attendance was 141,150.
CES 2009 was also a celebrity-filled event which featured entertainment and sports figures including Tom Hanks, Alex Trebek, Jimmy Fallon, Stevie Wonder, Counting Crows' Adam Duritz, Usher, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Reggie Jackson, Dr. Oz and Ludacris. Scores of tech bloggers were also on hand live blogging the news including Steve Garfield who demoed the new Panasonic HDC-SD100 video camera in this interview with Jimmy Fallon. Read his blog post here.
Probably the biggest story was the the introduction of the Palm Pre, a new smartphone. CNET announced that the device has won the "best of show" for CES 2009. My friend VegasBillsaid the "hot" products for 2009 CES are Palm Pre, 1080p wifi video sharing and Sling Media mobile player for the Apple iPhone.
“The level of excitement on the CES show floor was at an all-time high with ground-breaking technologies such as the Palm Pre, Sony’s flexible OLED display, 3D HDTV, Yahoo!’s TV Widget, LG’s Watch Phone and a 1/3 inch thin energy efficient Plasma HDTV from Panasonic,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences, CEA. “Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer announced Windows 7 Beta at his pre-CES keynote and the download response was so high, it overloaded their systems.” - from CEA: Press Release - 2009 INTERNATIONAL CES ELECTRIFIES AND ELICITS OPTIMISM FOR GLOBAL ECONOMY
Here's some of the other cool products that caught my eye along with links to related new stories:
CES '09: Spotlight on Internet TV, Mobile DTV, 3D - 1/5/2009 - Broadcasting & Cable - While the annual Consumer Electronics Show has become more focused on content than electronics in recent years, understanding the latest ways for delivering video is still the primary reason broadcast and cable executives make the trek to Las Vegas each year. A decade ago, the hot new technology was high-definition TV, and network executives were walking the floor to see the first-generation HDTV sets and talk to set manufacturers about improving digital TV reception. Now, with the digital TV transition wrapping up in February and HDTV programming being watched by almost 25% of U.S. households, HDTV is no longer so novel. Though set manufacturers are sure to exhibit lighter and thinner LCD and plasma HDTV displays at CES this week, the industry is looking for the next big thing in consumer video technology.
Steve Rosenbaum's Blog - Sony's Flip Cam Killer - I thought it might be wierd to do a video blog about the new sony Webbie HD with my flip cam, and the guy at the sony booth looked at my oddly when I took it out. But he was fine with helping me take this pic with my sony dsc T50. The fact is - at $129.00 Sony has built a FlipCam killer. Now, maybe it doesn't work as well, we'll have to wait and see a real world demo to find out. But its out today - for sale - and it will be another reason that more video will be on the web sooner rather than later. The next model, with a reversable screen and more of a mini-cam corder form factor will be 199,00 and on shelfs in march. And - best of all -there's a version that comes in Magnify.net orange!
CES: Does the future of TV lie in gesture-based control? » VentureBeat Gesture recognition is one of the most exciting new technologies at the International Consumer Electronics Showthis week. A variety of companies — inspired by the Nintendo Wii’s gesture control and the iPhone’s multi-touch screen — developing new ways to interact with gadgets. Hand, arm or finger gestures — like waving your arms around in circles to make something happen on the screen — are being used in everything from phones to game consoles.
Internet-Ready TVs Usher Web Into Living Room - WSJ.com - On Monday, Netflix Inc. is expected to announce a deal with Korea's LG Electronics Inc. that will make a Netflix online-video service available on a new line of high-definition TV sets from LG due out this spring. The online service offers 12,000 movie and television titles. Amid other developments pegged to this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo Inc. and Intel Corp. plan to announce support from several major consumer-electronics companies to sell TV sets that come with software, dubbed widgets, that make it easier to call up Web content on TV sets using ordinary remote controls rather than computer keyboards. "You are going to see very broad adoption of this open technology by the best brands in the TV industry -- not just for specialty products but deeply penetrated in their product lines," says Patrick Barry, Yahoo's vice president of connected TV.
Lots Of Buzz Over Broadband Enabled TVs, But Impact Not Felt For Many Years | The Business Of Online Video - As the CES show in Vegas kicks off this week, the buzz and announcements around broadband enabled TVs is starting to heat up. Netflix and LG announced that come later this spring, a new line of broadband enabled LCD and plasma TVs will be capable of streaming content from Netflix without the need for any type of external box. While this is not the first broadband enabled TV that will be capable of streaming content, both Panasonic and Sony already have models, it is the first TV manufacturer deal for Netflix.The CES show also brought announcements from Adobe and Intel who are looking to bring Flash to Intel's Media Processor CE 3100, which Intel hopes will be used to bring web content to digital TVs before mid-2009. In addition, Intel plans to announce with Yahoo! support from TV manufacturers to sell sets that come with widgets that allow you to watch web content on your TV using the TV's remote control.
Intel: Your TV Needs the "Full Internet" - Digits - WSJ.com- Eric Kim, Intel’s chief ambassador to the Consumer Electronics Show and the gadget industry generally, is not quite ready to cheer that TV makers are starting to put networking connections into new sets. Yes, the trend will help consumers get some Internet content to their TVs. But it’s not enough, he says. Kim argues that no one will be happy with TVs that can’t view ALL the content they now get when surfing the Web on their PCs. The content formats they now enjoy mainly target PCs run the x86 chips that provide most of Intel’s revenues. There are ways to transform those formats for other hardware, but there are glitches running some popular sites–and each time a new Web format emerges, it starts on x86 PCs, Intel says
Contentinople - Ryan Lawler - Cisco Goes Content Crazy - Network equipment manufacturer Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) hopes its expertise in building carrier networks will translate to success in consumer and media markets, with a slate of new products and services that will be shown off this week at CES. It's a big move for Cisco, as it gets into the business of home networking devices with the launch of a media hub geared toward home networking for digital media. At the same time, it's also launching Eos, a content-management platform for media and entertainment companies, which is an entirely new market for Cisco.
CES 2009 Omnibus post for Friday- It’s been another harsh day in the CES trenches, and as usual the CrunchGear team has put out a veritable cornucopia of content. Today was particularly notable for interviews: we got Mark Cuban and Bud Mayo,Dr. Dre, and Les Stroud of Survivorman in front of the camera to talk about the future of HD, DRM, and ruggedized camera gear. There were also, of course, a number of hands-ons:
It was an incredibly busy week back to the grind on week one of 2009 but I found time to go to Macworld possibly for the last time. I couldn't make it on Tuesday which seemed like the best day to go and went on Thursday instead. I had heard all the announcements throughout the week and tracked the Tuesday keynote in real-time on Venturebeat's Friendfeed Room. While the 2010 Macworld Expo is already scheduled there's been speculation that it's days are numbered. How can you have a celebration without the guest of honor?
I've attended Macworld since the early 90's and this one in particular was the most underwhelming. While I joked and said that it should be renamed "iPhone Accessoryworld, there were a number of news items worth noting which I've collected a small sampling in this weekly review from week one of 2009.
For the first time in a decade, I'm getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote. — Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health …
Steve Jobs announced today that he has been losing weight throughout the past year because of a hormone imbalance that has been robbing his body of proteins. He said sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis and the remedy is a relatively simple treatment. He said his doctors expect it will take until this spring to regain his usual body weight. ” I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery,” he wrote in a letter addressed to the Apple community.
Macworld Best of Show Awards 2009 - Mac Rumors - WebEx for iPhone - free application allows iPhone users to participate in Cisco WebEx virtual meetings - DayliteTouch - allows two-way syncing of appointments, calendars, tasks, notes, and projects - Filemaker Pro 10 - industry-standard database application gains a fresh interface and new scripting tools - HP MediaSmart Server EX485 - PC home server developed for multi-platform households can serve as a Time Machine backup and iTunes server - Things - task-management application for the Mac provides intuitive organization and ability to sync with its iPhone counterpart application - Pulse SmartPen - records audio and links the audio to what you write - Sling Media - Slingbox PRO-HD and Sling.com live TV streaming gain Mac compatibility, and SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone and iPod touch due in March will allow users to watch their cable box and DVR media on the go - iPhoto '09 - addition of Places and Faces features for organization, facial recognition software, and Facebook/Flickr integration - Ecamm BT-1 - wireless webcam communicates via Bluetooth, streams video and audio, and is tripod-mountable
2009 MacWorld Keynote Fails To Meet Reduced Expectations » Webomatica - Technology and Entertainment Digest In the history of MacWorld keynotes, I’ve tried to be conservative when it came to expectations, dialing them back several levels to avoid disappointment. Well, that strategy didn’t work this time. I felt my list of predictions set the bar so low even a Dell executive could have walked over them. Still, Apple struggled to clear it:
1. New Mac Mini: Better processors, graphics card, new form factor. (no) 2. New iMacs: Better processors, graphics card, yada yada. (no) 3. 17 inch MacBook Pro: The non-removeable battery rumor makes sense based on other products, most obviously the MacBook Air. Expect a slide with some stats about how little users actually remove their laptop batteries. That said, I still think it’s a bad idea. (yes) 4. iLife 09: Addition of some online features. (yes) 5. New Apple TV: Apple’s overdue to do something with this product, with added pressure from Netflix and Boxee. There may be some tweaks to the rental window and the addition of new services - Hulu would be a no-brainer. At most ambitious, I could see combining the Mac Mini and Apple TV into one product, but I’ll put that prediction as unlikely. (no) 6. Snow Leopard: More details and demos of this OS with a big emphasis on speed. (no)
While this fake news item has already made the rounds on the web I still thought it was worth sharing. It comes by way of the Onion and follows up on Apple's last keynote presentation and appearance at Macworld Expo taking a humorous jab at their sleek simplicity and devoted fans who will buy anything shiny and new from Apple.
This is another installment of the Weekly Review of online video, social media, gadgets and from December 7-12, 2008. I meant to post this yesterday but my Internet connection went down late in the day.
Despite layoffs at Web video studios and sliding advertising forecasts, the future is not as bleak as it might seem for online networks that produce targeted shows.Last week research firm eMarketer lopped $1.3 billion off its projections for 2008 online ad spending, revising them to $23.6 billion. But the Internet ad business is still growing at about 11% this year, and the online video ad sector will climb 45% next year to $850 million, eMarketer said. Broadcast and cable networks along with premium sites like Hulu will command a large share of that $850 million pie. Smaller players with original content such as Revision3, Next New Networks, For Your Imagination, ManiaTV, 60 Frames and MyDamnChannel will snag a piece, too. Many of these independent Web studios are on pace to turn a profit next year. Two Months After Release, Brightcove Announces Nearly 100 API Partners(Erick Schonfeld/TechCrunch) http://tinyurl.com/6k4bc2
Brightcove Tries to Rule Video World with Vendor “Alliance” Brightcove on Monday formally launches a consortium of video service providers that are compatible with its platform. Some 80 partners in the new “Brightcove Alliance” include ad networks, social networks, social media toolmakers, mobile providers, search engines, analytics services and creative designers
TubeMogul Branches into Flash Player Interaction Metrics & Analytics Illumenix is an in-depth online video metrics and analytics service. They offer a wide range of services including syndication tracking, player tracking and Flash Video Analytics via their StreamLighter service which integrates into Flash video players. StreamLighter tracks viewing habits as well as video interactions and demographics.
TubeMogul is an online video analytics and distribution company. They aggregate viewing information from over 20 sites including Google Video, MetaCafe, YouTube, Blip.TV and more. Find the whole list here. They can also aggregate video viewing information from videos you host on your own site via their InPlay service. When a video is distributed to video sharing sites TubeMogul tracks views, comments, ratings and demographics.
I recently had a chance to sit down and have a one-on-one chat with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. There was lots to talk about, and he answered questions about, among other things, Facebook products, privacy issues, rumors about recent fundraising by the company, and competition with platform developers. Quotations below are based on my notes and roughly accurate
Online journalists now jailed more often than other media If you think it's tough to be a blogger because your Google AdWords revenue has been in the toilet lately, the Committee to Protect Journalists wants to remind you that Internet journalist—including bloggers—can and do suffer much more around the world. According to the group's new report, Internet journalists now make up the largest single group of imprisoned journalists.
NEW YORK NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker on Monday told attendees at the UBS Media Conference that the company is well positioned to weather the recession and thrive when the recovery arrives -- but indicated that its broadcast network must evolve over the long haul.
Currently, 80 percent of the company's profits are derived from its cable operations and film studio. And with double-digit growth expected for cable (USA, Sci-Fi, Bravo, Oxygen, CNBC and others) this year and next, Zucker believes NBCU can ride out the rough economy.
Brightcove, the Cambridge-based video publishing platform innovator, has moved to a leadership position among Web video distributors with the creation of a network of companies using its API's as part of their distribution platforms. This includes, AOL, Yahoo!, Slide, Veoh, Meebo, Metacafe and others. Update: Several companies have announced joining the Brightcove Alliance. These include GlanceGuide, Clearspring, TubeMogul and Azuki
The Consumer Electronics Show kicks off January 7 with a keynote from Microsoft(MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer, taking the spot which in past years had been filled by the now semi-retired Bill Gates. The company always unveils a product or two at the keynote; this year it could very well be a Microsoft branded cell phone.
Trip Chowdhry, of Global Equities Research, today asserts that the company will unveil a new device combining the features of the company’s Zune music player and its Danger Sidekick handhelds, combined with what he describes as “some motion enhancement features” using an accelerometer, like the Apple (AAPL) iPhone.
Strands launches first lifestreaming iPhone app » VentureBeat Strands has become the first “lifestreaming” company to get an app in Apple’s iPhone App Store. Like other aggregator services, including FriendFeed and socialmedian, Strands’ web service (in beta) lets you share your activity on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and many other sites, and see what your friends on Strands are sharing.
Will Microsoft’s CES keynote yield a ZunePhone? » VentureBeat Yes, the rumor is back again. And it will keep coming back until Microsoft eventually releases its own phone (which I think it will and should). The rumor today is that Microsoft could use chief executive Steve Ballmer’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote to unveil a device based on both its Zune portable music device and the Danger-made Sidekick device, Tech Trader Daily reports.
For those of you who watch movies instantly on your PC or Mac, you may have noticed our player is much easier to install and use now with Silverlight. The good news is fewer problems for you. The bad news is that we are now overstaffed with technical specialists in our Customer Service (CS) group.
Blockbuster’s Big Gulp of Technology - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com Most people don’t understand how much technology is behind the Slurpee machines and jars of beef jerky at 7-Eleven stores, James Keyes said to me last week. So they miss the technological revolution at Blockbuster as well. Mr. Keyes was appointed chief executive of Blockbuster last year after serving in the same role at the convenience store chain from 2000 to 2005.
Tubemogul Real-Time Viewership Analytics & Syndication Options for Brightcove Today, TubeMogul announced a partnership with Brightcove whereby Brightcove’s customers will benefit from new analytics and syndication capabilities provided by TubMogul. Brightcove customers will now be able to activate TubeMogul’s InPlay analytics plugin which tracks viewership analytics in real time to provide insight into audience engagement metrics like attention span. In addition, Brightcove customers will now have access to TubeMogul’s powerful video syndication and distribution tools to automatically distribute videos to TubeMoguls video sharing partners which include Youtube, Yahoo, Revver, Metacafe, and many others.
Cisco Launches Network Based Media Processing Platform For Video | The Business Of Online Video Today, Cisco announced a new media media processing platform that provides media conversion, real-time post production, editing, formatting, and network distribution capabilities for formatting video and rich media on any device. The first product now offered for this new platform is dubbed the Cisco Media Experience Engine (MXE) 3000. A rack-mount device that delivers real-time post production and processing capabilities such as watermarking, voice and video editing, text and image overlays and noise reduction for creating customized broadcast quality video experiences.
The MXE supports file-to-file transcoding only, not real-time streaming, and supports H.264, QuickTime, MPEG1, MPEG2, AVI, Windows Media, VC-1 and H.264 as input formats and spits out video for MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, AC-3 Audio, Layer II Audio, Windows Media Proxy, MPEG1 and MPEG 2 amongst others.
Netflix HD streaming comes to TiVo - Engadget HD Man, if we aren't careful, Netflix is going to turn into a behemoth right before our very eyes. The company once known for taking physical discs right to your mailbox is now getting all sorts of attention for its workings in the online delivery space, and if you thought hooking up with Microsoft was hot stuff, have a listen at this. Starting today, Series 3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL owners can access thousands of Netflix movies on their set-top-box, and better still, these same owners can access a growing library of high-def titles. Of course, this new functionality comes at no additional cost, though you will need a Netflix account to take advantage. So Netflix, what's next? Infiltrating DirecTV / DISH Network boxes? Seeping inside of our actual TV sets? Breathing new life into the Atari Jaguar? Full release is after the break.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! MOVIES AND TV EPISODES FROM NETFLIX DIRECTLY TO THE TV THROUGH TIVO DVRs AVAILABLE TODAY
Just in Time for the Holidays, Offering Brings Budget Conscious Entertainment to Consumers
ALVISO, Calif. - December 8, 2008 - After announcing a groundbreaking partnership in October with Netflix Inc., TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that subscribers to both Netflix and TiVo® Series3, TiVo HD, or TiVo HD XL can now access thousands of movies and TV episodes instantly streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs.
For more information on how to have movies instantly streamed from Netflix via your TiVo DVR visit www.tivo.com/netflix.
TiVo Netflix hands-on - Engadget TiVo was nice enough to hit us with the Netflix-enabling Fall Service Update a little early, and the going's been pretty good -- this is probably our favorite Netflix streaming implementation yet. Although it's not as flashy of an experience as the Xbox 360's Netflix implementation, it's faster to start streaming, and to our eyes it looks a lot better -- the 360's output is really dark, while the TiVo looks bright and crisp. On top of that, we've never been able to get our 360 to hit more than two bars when playing HD-capable content, while the TiVo instantly spooled up and started streaming full-quality 720p video -- and it can drop back to SD during network slowdowns and then pop up to HD again, while the 360 is stuck at whatever res it started the movie at. We still wish Netflix's streaming selection was anywhere close to what a typical cable company has on demand, but that'll come with time -- for right now we're definitely impressed.
Tech Companies Pursue 3D Technology Paul Debevec, of the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, demonstrates new 3D teleconferencing technology that creates a hologram effect. (Dec. 8)
The Way We'll Watch - WSJ.com Coming soon: DVDs that let you chat with friends watching the same movie. Kiosks that burn movies while you wait. Super-crisp movies in theaters. And more.
Get ready for a lot more ways to catch a movie. Coming soon: kiosks that can burn a copy of a movie while you wait, from a library of thousands of titles. The industry is also working on ways to easily send movies from gadget to gadget -- so you might download a movie on your iPhone and stream it onto your TV.
Down the road, expect new ways to easily store digital movies online, so you can access them from any computer, anytime. We might also get theaters filled with dozens of speakers for super-sharp sound, as well as much more lifelike animated characters.
"The ability to bring some of that spark that people get from [online] social interaction to the TV and DVD is important to the future of those technologies," says Jonathan Handel, an entertainment-technology lawyer at TroyGould in Los Angeles."The ability to bring some of that spark that people get from [online] social interaction to the TV and DVD is important to the future of those technologies," says Jonathan Handel, an entertainment-technology lawyer at TroyGould in Los Angeles.
Social DVDs: gimmicks or progress? - TECH.BLORGE.com The wonderful thing about technology today is that it changes quickly and fluidly, faster than even the savviest early adopters can keep up with. But alongside the positive changes come many advancements that are simply money-making gimmicks, which lose support almost as quickly as they gain it. DVDs which allow viewers to communicate real-time with fellow viewers as they watch the same film might fall into the latter category.
Good technological progress: digital video discs like Blu-Rays which provide high-definition audio and video content along with additional film supplements. Arguably worthless progress: Blu-Rays with social chatting functionality.
FriendFeed has a large international audience; according to them, nearly one third of their users already use the service in languages other than English. The six languages chosen are the most popular among them, but FriendFeed plans to add support for more languages in the future.
FriendFeed follows the footsteps of many other sites who’ve recently added support for languages other than English, such as Facebook, Hi5 and MySpace.
AppleInsider | Rumor: Apple's iTunes going DRM-free starting Tuesday Apple is believed to be on the verge of an end-of-year push that would start by finally offering unprotected iTunes Store music from all major labels and would switch a special post-holiday campaign giving away music and videos to Europeans. A report from last week brought to AppleInsider's attention by French technology site ElectronLibre asserts that it's now "clear" Apple will spark new interest in its music store by removing DRM from tracks published by Sony, Universal and Warner on December 9th.
Today, video platform Brightcove announced an expansive list of new affiliate service providers. Among them: TubeMogul InPlay, which can now be activated within minutes for any Brightcove user. The plugin tracks rich statistics like audience engagement, geographic region, viewer attention span and site performance — all in real-time.
“A man’s got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job.” — John Wayne
Picture your favorite western and you have the idea—blogging is like the adventurous times of the Wild West. If you are a seasoned blogger then you probably already know some of these rules and face them on a daily basis. If you are a beginning blogger, here are some rules to live by in this era of transformation as we cowboys and cowgirls step out onto the range.
(1) Are you feeling like the Lone Ranger? (2) What Do You Need In Your Saddlebags? (3) Know Your Brand Or The Cattle Rustlers May Use Theirs (4) Stake Your Claim And Avoid Outlaws (5) The Gold Rush: “There’s Gold In Them Thar Hills!” (6) Keep the Code
Joost, the video social entertainment platform, announced new content partnerships for 2009(MarketWatch, Wallstreet Journal) including a deal with digital media studio For Your Imagination. Joost will begin to carry episodes from the green living video network, The Green House, parenting videos from DadLabs and comedy programming from Axis of Comedy. Joost's innovative video sharing and socializing platform will be an effective distribution platform for building audiences for the For Your Imagination video network brands. For Your Imagination plans to distirbute forthcoming video networks, GEQ and Glampede, into the Joost community of professionally produced video.
The corporate seismograph measuring activity coming out of NBCU lately has shot off the charts. NBCU's tectonic moves have included: the "mini-merger" of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, together with the ouster of Katherine Pope, UMS's president and others; ongoing job cuts as part of its previously-stated plan to reduce its workforce by 3% or 500 positions, a move that itself was part of a larger $500M expense reduction program; and the planned shift of Jay Leno to the 10pm slot, the first-time ever a "stripped" program has moved to prime-time. And one can bet the changes are far from over.
Fighting IP Extremism with Online Video – The Lawrence Lessig Interview We caught up with Professor Lawrence Lessig, founder of Stanford Law school’s Center for Internet and Society, and the opening Keynote Speaker the Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2008 conference for “Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy”. We asked Professor Lessing if he believes there is significant IP extremism (i.e., legal restrictions) with online video content for both amateur and commercial use, and what video-specific solutions does he see in his proposal of a “hybrid economy” – protecting freedoms for video amateurs while producing incentives for video professionals.
The integration of Move Networks technology with iStreamPlanet's video management system will allow Web publishers to easily set up live video events and manage on-demand video assets that incorporate Move's adaptive streaming technology.
Netflix Inc. subscribers now have yet another way to stream videos into their living room, with the video rental company's streaming service now available on TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) digital video recorders (DVRs).
The availability of Netflix streaming follows news from October in which the companies announced the partnership, and will extend Netflix's streaming reach even further into subscriber living rooms.
The partnership will allow subscribers of both services to view 12,000 video titles that Netflix streams through its "Watch Instantly" service on TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HDXL DVRs.
NEW YORK -- If you're a brand advertiser who doesn't know how social media is affecting your company's message, have no fear -- there are plenty of professionals in the measurement industry who haven't quite figured it out yet, either.
That was the message was sent by executives from Nielsen Online and TNS Cymfony on a panel that was all about social media measurement.
Speaking at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Leadership Forum earlier this week, Nielsen vice president of media analytics Jon Gibs said that there is "such a proliferation of social media types that creating one form of media measurement for all social media is incredibly tricky."
Jimmy Fallon: Jimmy Fallon May Be the First Geek's Talk Show Host In the second daily video for his upcoming show, Jimmy Fallon name drops services like Flickr and says he's going to have a laptop at his desk so he can Skype people. I believe him. I've always liked the guy, so I know from his past standup material that he actually knows what he's talking about when it comes to things we take for granted. IM, Skype and Twitter (I'm SURE he's going to have some Twitter action) should all pop up once in a while as parts of his sketches, which makes him likely to be the first network nerd talk show host. Don't let me down, Jimmy. Do that Fallon name proud.
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Debuts on NBC.com | Online Video Watch Jimmy Fallon premiered his late night show last night on NBC.com at 12:30 AM. The first episode / vlog ran a minute and a half in which Fallon introduced The Roots as their band. (Video) Netflix Streaming Battlemodo: TiVo vs. Xbox 360 Now that Netflix's Watch Instantly is on both TiVo and Microsoft's Xbox 360, the natural question for you, Señor and Señorita tech enthusiast, is which one of these two should YOU use to watch Netflix on. The answer, surprisingly, is whichever one you want
Next time you’re home on a Friday night, searching for a movie to watch, Stuart Skorman wants you to visit Clerk Dogs, his new movie recommendation Web site.The site, officially introduced Tuesday, uses a novel approach in Silicon Valley: the recommendations have been created not by computers but by humans, in this case video store clerks. In that sense, Clerk Dogs does for movies what the Internet radio site Pandora does for music.
No End in Sight for Critical Viacom-YouTube DMCA case « NewTeeVee When Viacom sued YouTube in March 2007, it was clear the case would be hugely important. Not only was Viacom seeking damages in excess of $1 billion from Google’s newly acquired video portal, but a ruling on the lawsuit stood to change the particular reading of copyright laws on which every single user-generated site hinges: that is, hosts are not responsible for their users’ activity as long as they comply quickly with takedown requests from copyright holders Dark Knight Blu-ray scratches surface of BD-Live potential
Hulu Continues Ascent, Ranks #6 in Online Video Market Share
RESTON, VA, December 9, 2008 – comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released October 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, reporting that U.S. Internet users viewed 13.5 billion online videos during the month, representing an increase of 45 percent versus year ago
omScore is out with their latest U.S. online video report today. Back in May comScore listed Hulu for the first top in the top 10 with 88 million videos viewed. Today Hulu has moved up in comScore's online video report for October to sixth position with 235 million videos viewed. Pretty amazing growth for a service some called crap before Hulu actually launched.
Other notable facts from the report:
YouTube passed the 100 million U.S. visitor mark for the month of October
ESPN listed in tenth position for views - I wonder how many of those views come from their auto-launcher on the espn.com home page (hate that feature)
All of Google's video sites pushed out more than 5.3 billion video views for October
comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today released October 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, reporting that U.S. Internet users viewed 13.5 billion online videos during the month, representing an increase of 45 percent versus year ago.
Hulu Moves Up to #6 in Rankings
Google Sites Draws 100 Million Video Viewers in October
Other notable findings from October 2008 include:
77 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
The average online video viewer watched 274 minutes of video.
More than 80 percent of the 18-34 year olds watched online video, higher than any other age segment. The average 18-34 year old online video viewer watched 4.8 hours of video during the month, also ranking above all other age segments.
99.5 million viewers watched 5.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (53.2 videos per viewer).
51.2 million viewers watched 520 million videos on MySpace.com (8.0 videos per viewer).
The duration of the average online video was 3.0 minutes.
The duration of the average online video viewed at Hulu was 11.6 minutes, higher than any other video property in the top ten.
In many respects, Forrester’s take is very similar to what Gartner outlined in October. The message: Prepare your IT budget for Armageddon, but unless your company suddenly decides to stop sending out invoices and running its business you’ll need some technology spending.
Who Are You and What do you do? My name is Kathryn Velvel Jones and I am currently the Vice President of Branded and Sponsored Entertainment at For Your Imagination, a leading online media studio which develops, markets and distributes high-quality original InternetTV andweb video series.
I receive a lot of e-mail about how to become a YouTube Partner (where individuals can share in the advertising revenue that appears aside their videos). Some of you WillVideoForFood tribe members (Reubnick) have expressed frustration about how some are “chosen” and others aren’t (I’ve also edited this post thanks to your comments). The photos of me are for two reasons: Color a long, gray post. And because I like seeing photos of me when there was once a sun.
Will Video for Food » Personalized Video Recommendations Daisy Whitney provides a “New Media Minute” (TVWeek) that excites me about a day when I watch a video, and I’m offered a “viewers who liked x also liked y.” It works on Amazon.com to increase purchases by existing customers, and it can enhance the video-viewing experience. This functionality is available to those who customize their YouTube homepage, and could be something that helps Strike.tv (with its diverse portfolio of shows) move audiences from one show to a related one. These kinds of user-experience services will make online-video average sessions longer, and more satisfying.
Congratulations to my friends at Wine Library for being selected as one of the Best Video Podcasts on iTunes in 2008. Congrats to Gary, Chris, Erik, Matt, and the entire WLTV team.
Only a few days after the launch of its new task manager, Gmail has introduced a new feature allowing users to send free SMS messages through its integrated Chat. To activate the feature, visit the Gmail Labs pageand scroll down until you see the appropriate listing (you may also want to activate a few of the other nifty features while you’re at it).
From a MarketWatch story today about CBS CEO Les Moonves:
The executive also said that in 10 years, CBS may no longer have traditional affiliated TV stations, but could offer its feed straight to cable and satellite operators. For now, however, the network has contracts with local stations that are binding for several years.
This shift is inevitable for all the networks, if you ask me, but it’s interesting that Moonves said it in public. So the writing is on the wall: in the next few years, local TV stations must aggressively expand beyond straightforward local-TV-style news to create new multiplatform content businesses that set them apart from their competitors. This content must be produced at a significantly lower cost and enable advertising that helps connect an audience to local businesses in new meaningful ways. Or else.
Netflix Awards $50,000 for Progress in Contest - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com On Wednesday, Netflix awarded a group of computer scientists $50,000 for their entry, which upgraded Cinematch’s suggestion abilities by more than 9 percent. Since 2006, the company has promised a hefty $1 million jackpot to anyone who improves Cinematch’s prediction power by 10 percent. More than 35,000 programmers, computer whizzes and hackers across the globe are vying for the top prize, which Netflix plans to offer until someone cracks the code. Until then, the company is doling out annual consolation prizes of $50,000 to whoever comes closest.
Ever heard of GOSHone? Neither had I, nor anyone else for that matter (his My Space profile has only under 200 friends at the moment). But this mysterious nerd-core rapper has accomplished something that can only be described as "pretty cool." The self-described "mad scientist with computers, gadgets, and musical equipment" filmed his first music video entirely on a jailbroken iPhone.
Research firm eMarketer now says ad spending on social networks will grow 10.2% to reach $1.3 billion in 2009. In a previous estimate, eMarketer's Excel spreadsheet spit out $1.8 billion.
The numbers are largely arbitrary, but they do reflect the reality of lowered expectations for News Corp's (NWS) MySpace and Facebook. From eMarketer's post:
In its previous prediction, eMarketer said MySpace would bring in $755 million in US ad spending in 2008, but that estimate has now dropped 22.5% to $585 million.
At Facebook, US advertisers will spend an estimated $210 million in 2008, which is 20.8% lower than the earlier forecast of $265 million.
The medium will still grow, but there are many obstacles to overcome.
Consumers are using social networking sites more than ever, but advertising spending has not kept pace. Despite new social network ad formats launched in 2008, eMarketer has revised its projections for US social network ad spending. It now estimates advertisers will spend $1.2 billion on social networks this year, down from the previous projection of $1.4 billion made in May.
Spending will reach an estimated $1.3 billion in 2009, down from the previous projection of $1.8 billion. The recession and slower-than-expected revenue growth at MySpace are two of the reasons for the lowered forecast.
“Marketers should not write off social networks completely,” said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “In a difficult economy it is usually easier to market to an existing customer than to acquire a new one. With a relatively small investment, companies can use social networks to cultivate relationships with customers who have already raised their hand and expressed interest in their brand or product.”
In 2008 and 2009, the recession will affect all forms of online ad spending, but experimental formats such as those available on social networks, which cannot always demonstrate a proven return on investment, will be hit particularly hard.
eMarketer has also revised its forecast for MySpace and Facebook. In its previous prediction, eMarketer said MySpace would bring in $755 million in US ad spending in 2008, but that estimate has now dropped 22.5% to $585 million.
At Facebook, US advertisers will spend an estimated $210 million in 2008, which is 20.8% lower than the earlier forecast of $265 million.
Although the outlook for ad spending is challenging, there are still many benefits to using social networks and they remain a viable marketing venue. Monitoring social network discussions about a brand or product and interacting with consumers in a community are still valuable—and probably essential—activities.
Google To Take Chrome Out Of Beta Google vice president Marissa Mayer announced Google Chrome is coming out of beta in an interview with Michael Arrington at Le Web 08. The Google’s open source browser has a number of eager customers, including OEMs who can’t offer the browser until it is in full release. Chrome’s Windows client has been in beta since its roll out 3 months ago, and with the new move will likely spur bundling with Google Toolbar and Google Apps.
The report titled “Mobile Adult: Subscriptions, Downloads, Video Chat & Text-Based Services 2008-2013 (Fifth Edition)” found that although such services were utilised by a comparatively small number of users, the high spend levels in many markets are expected to push the value of the adult video chat market past the $1 billion mark by 2011.
AOL's Bebo social network is getting a new focus today. In addition to its own native social network features, the site is getting a "social inbox" that aggregates the activities of its users' friends, no matter which social networks they use.
Le Web is organized by Loïc and Geraldine Le Meur, with 1,500 people signed up to hear a range of Internet players, many of whom are from the U.S., tomorrow and Wednesday. YouTube HD on a Big TV (via Netgear) « NewTeeVee Netgear threw a press event last night to show off some of the products it will be debuting at CES next month. Among them was its new set-top box, the EVA 9000 Digital Entertainer Elite, which, to my pleasant surprise, can stream HD YouTube videos to an actual HD TV.
How does it look? Awesome. Take a look for yourself. (The demo of YouTube kicks in around the 1:50 mark)
Building A Strong Online Identity: Robin Good Video - Robin Good's Latest News In this short video tutorial, Robin Good explains how to build a strong online identity. Is it all about a fancy name or writing good content? No. What really matters is your passion and desire to share your knowledge and explore. And don't be afraid to get your hands dirty, it's part of the game.
Want to know how to build a strong online identity while increasing your credibility and reputation online?
How to Create a Successful YouTube Show | Chris Pirillo For the many of us who want to get our “tech show” up-and-running (and attract subscribers), it can be a difficult and stressful road. With my own experience (yes, I am still learning), I want to offer my top 5 tips for those who want to become popular on the YouTube front. For Many Akamai and On2 Investors, Emotions Clouding Their Judgement | The Business Of Online Video For shareholders in any company, these days are trying times. I don't have to tell you that all stocks are down and the market has taken a beating. That being said, even when the market was doing better, I still got more hate mail from Akamai and On2 shareholders than any others, most of which are for emotional reasons as opposed to rational arguments.
Level 3 To Cut 450 Jobs, CDN Group Still Growing: Should Do $45-50 Million | The Business Of Online Video Level 3 announced today that it would be laying off 450 employees in North America or about 8% of their total workforce. While that's not good news for the company as a whole, the company has confirmed that the CDN group is not being affected and none of the cuts are coming from the content delivery markets group. While I expect a lot of the 115 open jobs listed on Level 3's website to disappear, Level 3 is currently looking to fill various positions in the CDN group. In particular, they have three sales engineer positions they are looking to hire for right away in SF/San Jose, LA/Tustin and NY. If interested, contact Brian Gero at Level 3. Dr. Horrible DVD: Yes, It’s Worth Your Money « NewTeeVee Let’s face it — by now, the hardcore fans of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog have watched the series more than once on Hulu, downloaded and memorized the soundtrack thanks to iTunes, and maybe even bought themselves a Captain Hammer t-shirt. Of course, that won’t stop them from buying a copy of the DVD — but what do they get for this latest show of devotion? And what about the less-fanatical, who enjoyed the series but aren’t sure about dropping $10 on something they’ve already seen for free? In short: In these tough economic times, is the Dr. Horrible DVD worth your money
Google To Take Chrome Out Of Beta Commericals For Facebook's Favorite New Widgets PlayStation Home launching globally tomorrow, December 11th - Engadget We knew it was coming this month, now we have the day: tomorrow. Yup, PlayStation Home will launch globally on December 11th. The 3D virtual on-line community is like Second Life, only with the risk of rootkit. Hot. All kidding aside, the new service gives PS3 owners a customizable place to chat (voice or text) and play games with other PlayStation Home users through personalized avatars. Just like real life except without acne and all your social shortcomings. Home will be available to download and "experience basic features" for free -- some services (like creating a "club") will require cash though, so be prepared. HOME Sweet HOME | Sony Insider Embed Whole Seasons of Hulu Shows with SplashCast - ReadWriteWeb In today's world of DVRs and online video distribution, "prime-time television" is rapidly becoming a meaningless term. Every minute of the day is prime-time for someone. And that makes services that provide easy access to that prime-time content incredibly popular. Like Hulu, for example. But there's still the matter of getting people to the content or the content to those people. SplashCast - the service that creates full-fledged channels of embeddable entertainment content - may have the answer: "social TV players" that enable users to embed dynamically updated channels of Hulu content within their social network profiles. SplashCast Partners With Hulu on Video Channels | CenterNetworks SplashCast and Hulu have announced a new partnership today that will bring shows from Hulu into SplashCast widget video players. Basically what the partnership does is allow a person to embed a "channel" into their Facebook and MySpace profiles along with blogs which will continue to import the latest episodes and content. This keeps the content more current than an individual Hulu embed. Hulu Delivers Primetime Online Video to Social Networks For the first time and for free, social network users will be able to embed and watch entire seasons of popular shows on their MySpace.com and Facebook pages using SplashCast’s “social TV player” technology. As more TV viewers continue to find their favorite shows online, Hulu, an online video service that offers hit TV shows, movies and clips at Hulu.com and other online destination sites for free, anytime in the U.S., is teaming with content syndication service SplashCast® to distribute primetime television on MySpace.com and Facebook.
Getting Your Video On The Web Adding video to your website is pretty commonplace these days with the likes of YouTube and othe video sharing sites. Newer software editing tools have made this very easy and yes... fun. I'm going to show you the basic steps required to make it happen.
You will need a few things to get started, a computer with internet access, video edtiting software and a video recorder of some type,
Beet.TV: Best Business Video Sites: Forbes, CNET, WWD and The Deal Advertising Age's B2B Media Business has just published the winners of the industry's best business video sites. We were pleased to read that that The Deal has won the Regular Program, Small B2B category. We are mighty proud because Beet provides production services for The Deal and has produced many of the segments in the series.
Contentinople - Ryan Lawler - News Bits: Bebo's New One-Stop Social Shop Remember when AOL was the one place you went to for all your emailing, instant messaging, chat rooming, and all-around social communicating online? So does AOL LLC -- which is probably why the company is positioning its social networking property, Bebo, as the hub for all your social networking needs.
According to All Things Digital, AOL relaunched Bebo today with a slew of new features, including a "social inbox" that will afford users a comprehensive view of all their social communications, including email, instant messaging, and multiple social feeds.
Search-Usability Panel’s Recommendations for Video SEO ReelSEO’s Contributing Reporter Erika Blackwell continues her coverage of the Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2008 conference, and asks the Usability and SEO Panel – What usability tip do they recommend to clients when it comes to featuring video on their website?
Learning to say “No!” | Education IT | ZDNet.com I’m not good at saying no. I like to give people what they need and support them in whatever way I can. This particular philosophy works fine when you’re volunteering at a bake sale, but not as well when it’s budgeting time.
Microsoft’s Live Labs has just released Thumbtack, a web clipping service that allows users to compile links, media, and text snippets into online storage bins for future reference. Users can also share their Thumbtack collections with their peers, allowing them to collaborate by adding new clips and notations.
NFL Launches "Game Rewind", Every Game On-Demand In HD With No Commercials | The Business Of Online Video Today, the NFL launched a new video on-demand service called Game Rewind that lets you watch every NFL game in HD quality, with no commercials. The service, which costs $19.99 for the season or $4.99 for a week pass, also provides DVR functionality and lets you watch up to four games at once. While it is not known exactly how quickly games are made available after they end, for now the NFL is saying within 24 hours, but it is expected times will be much shorter.
In a move towards its goal of expanding the amount of live college sports it streams for free online, CBS Sports has added a dozen live college basketball games to its schedule as an extension of its deal with the Southeastern Conference (SEC). CBS Sports will stream 11 SEC games, beginning with the Indiana vs. Kentucky match on December 15 and ending with the SEC Championship game, which is scheduled for March 15. The network will use Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s Windows Media as the streaming format, relying on the same technology that it employed for last year's online NCAA "March Madness On Demand" coverage. The company is using Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), which also participated in the most recent March Madness project, for its content delivery services.
A relatively silent shot was fired the first week of December which, though it was not at first heard around the world, will eventually change the way all media are distributed. Sound provocative enough? I‘m talking about Joost rolling out its iPhone application. This changes everything.
Report: Microsoft Denies "Zune Phone" CES Launch Rumor | Digital Media Wire After much speculation about whether Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) will be introducing a "Zune Phone" -- or device that mixes its Zune digital media player with Danger's Sidekick phone -- at the Consumer Electronics Show next month, Zune Group Manager Brian Seitz told Kotaku there will be "no Zune phone at CES."
As part of this year's Top 10 Products series, we offer below the Top 10 RSS and Syndication Products of 2008. These are the feed tools we and the people we know use day in and day out - we love them, we hate them, we wouldn't want to work without them.
Making videos for YouTube — for three years a pastime for millions of Web surfers — is now a way to make a living.
Christopher Capozziello for The New YorkTimes
Michael Buckley quit his day job in September. He says his online show is “silly,” but it helped pay off credit-card debt.
One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become “partners” and added advertising to their videos, the most successful users are earning six-figure incomes from the Web site. For some, like Michael Buckley, the self-taught host of a celebrity chatter show, filming funny videos is now a full-time job.
Mr. Buckley quit his day job in September after his online profits had greatly surpassed his salary as an administrative assistant for a music promotion company. His thrice-a-week online show “is silly,” he said, but it has helped him escape his credit-card debt.
California YouTube star Cory Williams, who is also known as Mr. Safety, reported to the New York Times that he is earning more than $200,000 annually by creating videos on YouTube (he said $17-$20K per month, so I took an average times 12)... I feel so weird writing this post, because both of these guys are, like, BFFs. Well- they’d probably say acquaintances. But now instead of calling Cory “crazy,” I have to call him “eccentric” (which means crazy and rich). Buckley, however, hasn’t let the money go to his head. Occasionally he berates his minimim-wage assistant, Mason, but that’s fair. He’s under a lot of pressure.
DVD rental service Netflix (NFLX) will blow away its Q4 subscriber growth forecast, CFO Barry McCarthy said today at an investor conference. That's more good news for Netflix investors: Earlier this week, McCarthy boasted that the company was having a "remarkably strong" quarter despite the U.S. economic collapse.
Google Chrome 1.0 Released "We've heard a lot of feedback about product bugs and feature requests and have worked hard to prioritize work on them. We're excited to announce that with today's fifteenth release we are taking off the "beta" label," explains a post from Google Chrome Help Announcement blog. Ironically, the post doesn't look very well in Chrome.
According to a new report from Netpop Research, 76% of all U.S. broadband users actively contribute to social media sites in one form or another, and 29% contribute regularly to social networking sites. Among these social networkers, Facebook is quickly catching up to MySpace, though iMeem,LastFM, Digg, and LiveJournal are also very popular with college students. The report also compares the online habits of these social networkers with those broadband subscribers who choose not to contribute to social media sites and finds a number of very interesting differences.
"Koobface" is the name of the Trojan worm that's been making its way through the social networking site Facebook lately, but to the site's users, it's been simply known as "the Facebook virus." That name will soon become a misnomer, though, because the worm is now spreading outside of Facebook's walls to attack other social networks like Bebo, MySpace, Friendster,MyYearbook, and Blackplane
“The persona is that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is.” ~ Carl Jung (CW 9i, par 221) What does it all add up to? All this social media activity with our interactions and our presence across multiple platforms (or stages as I like to think of them), to what end? Allow me to throw some ideas together that I’ve been playing with. First let’s draw out some nuggets from Chris Brogan’s eBook (referenced yesterday) Personal Branding for the Business Professional. (I know, Brogan and Jung in the same post: yikes! but bear with me…)
I have been wanting to find out more about social media and recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Wayne Sutton for a discussion about blogs, social networks, on-line video, and the broad array of online gidgets and gadgets that go with it.
CBS (CBS) finally found redunancies between CBS Interactive and $1.8 billion acquisition CNET and will today announce it's merging the CBSNews.com and CNET newsrooms.
Paidcontent says there will be layoffs, but doesn't have a number.
That's why, as part of the Family Online Safety Institute conference in Washington, D.C., YouTube parent company Google has unveiled an "Abuse and Safety" resource guide. According to a post on the official Google blog, the new section of YouTube's help center features "straightforward safety tips and multimedia resources from experts and prominent safety organizations" regarding topics like cyberbulling, privacy, spam, and sexual exploitation
The web is not TV; we’ve been repeating that for a while. It can be like TV, but it can be more robust, more interactive. Its shows areshorter, and sometimes longer; they can be less commercial than TV, and they can be more. The web is a distinctive medium with unprecedented power whose capacity should be pushed and explored by innovators…and it is.
The New York Times, despite the recent financial woes facing most print publications, is the utmost of online innovators. Its long history and celebrated brand, its simplistic style and its air of elegance, have proved fodder for some of the most interesting, inventive projects I’ve seen on an off the web.
In 2009, personal branding will be a commonly used vocabulary word. It will also become the cure for the economic poison that is plaguing our world. As of right now, there are three times more job seekers than available jobs! By mid next year, there will be over 3 million layoffs and growing. The fewer jobs there are, the more competition there is for those jobs. This forces people to work much harder to claim these few openings.
Online Video Viewing Shifts From PC to TV Screen, Viewers Will Number Nearly One Billion by 2013 - TVover.net While today’s consumer is most likely to watch online video on the PC screen, over time more and more consumers will watch over-the-top video delivered to the living room, according a new study from ABI Research. This continued trend towards TV-viewed online video will help drive overall adoption, as the number of online video viewers grows from 563 million at the end of 2008 to 941 million by 2013.
Will It Blend (for 50 bucks)? The ‘budget myth’ about a popular viral video campaign One of the myths with viral video marketing perpetuated by both search marketing pundits and mainstream media is an example they give about a wildly successful viral video campaign, claiming it was done with only chump change, so anyone else with just their own creative strategy can do it, too – right? That ”budget myth” is Blendtec’s popular WillitBlend video campaign, which prompted one panelist at the Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2008 Conference to claim that “the cost to produce it was only $50!” Here’s the story on what the costs actually were, and how the budget myth got spread.
Are the days of Web site Hulu's phenomenal growth over? Traffic at Hulu.com fell more than 10% in November.
Peter Kafka: ComScore says that traffic to the joint venture between News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox and GE’s (GE) NBC fell 10.8 percent from October to November, dropping from 5.3 million unique visitors to 4.8 million. ComScore (SCOR) says U.S. traffic at Google’s (GOOG) YouTube also dropped that month, but by a much smaller margin–0.006 percent. And since YouTube is a global property, those numbers are less telling. Hulu, meanwhile, is a U.S.-only site (much to the dismay of blog commenters).
According to the latest Comscore report about the online video market, U.S. Internet users watched close to 13.5 billion videos online in October, which represents an increase of 45 percent compared to last year. Google'sYouTube alone served almost 5.4 billion videos to 99.5 million viewers.
t's a technique long used by cable programmers, including MTV: keep videos in rotation in an ongoing, 24-hour telecast. The cable programmers knew that new viewers tune in at different times and are likely to find programming by chance. The same concept should be applied to web videos, says Max Haot, co-founder and CEO of Mogulus. He says online video producers should consider using a system to place clips into an ongoing, continuous, linear presentation, a format he has coined "Micro Linear Channels."
Web TV platform Joost launched its Facebook Connect integration this morning, allowing users to log into Joost using their Facebook account. Once in, users can see all of their Facebook friends that are on Joost, interact with them, find out what they are watching and watch with them, as well as receive Joost notifications through the social networking site.
Skype 4.0 Beta 3 for Windows - Skype Blogs We’ve spent the last few months analysing your feedback in detail, and I’d like to thank all of you who have contacted us directly as well as the hundreds of discussions on blogs and Twitter, all of which have helped us shape this third Beta version.
The march of technology and the shrinking economy are beginning to take a toll on the traditional means of television news-gathering: the TV news crew.
Under a new agreement reached this week with its labor unions, WUSA, Channel 9, will become the first station in Washington to replace its crews with one-person "multimedia journalists" who will shoot and edit news stories single-handedly
•Insiginia NS-LCD42HD-09 1080p LCD$800 (Note: We actually tested the 52-inch version because Best Buy didn't have the 42-inch model, but they assured that the guts are the same, so we assume that the results would be the same) •Toshiba Regza 42RV535 1080p LCD $875-$930 •Vizio VO42LF 1080p LCD $830 MSRP-$880 •Vizio VP423 720p Plasma $830 MSRP •Westinghouse VK-40F580D 1080p LCD$850-$899
IT Broadcast and Digital Cinema: Katzenberg Pitches 3D to Wall St. DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg and his top lieutenants touted 3-D as a tonic for Hollywood during a three-hour pitch to Wall Street analysts Thursday. Headlines were few, but attendees got a revealing tour of the company's balance sheet as well as an early look at scenes from March release Monsters vs. Aliens.
A new line of Flip Video cameras was announced today by Cisco, including more affordable versions of the UltraHD ($149.00-199.00) and MinoHD $179.00-229.00) pocket camcorders, with a number a new enhancements that will finally bring the long awaited ability to connect an external microphone to the wildly popular pocket video camera. This will be possible in only the new UltraHD 8GB model, through a new proprietary port called a "FlipPort" located on the bottom of the device, and will connect peripherals that are part of the new "Designed for Flip" accessory program. The microphone is designed by Blue Microphones and called Mikey for FLIP, and won't be available until early next year, and likely to debut at CES.
One the big drawbacks of the Flip has been the inability to capture good quality sound, and many were disappointed with the release earlier in the year of the SlideHD, which didn't include an external microphone input jack. However, Blue's peripheral contains a premium condenser stereo microphone capsule with automatic sensitivity switching for recording any volume level clearly: whispers, interviews, or rock concerts. It also sports a mic-in port which will allow for easy plug-in of additional microphones or microphone level audio sources which is similar to the Beachtek camcorder adapters that allow for plugging in standard XLR cables and connectors, and mounts in between the camera and tripod. The Mikey for FLIP is self-powered and runs on AAA batteries and will list starting at $69.00.
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