Mari Silbey

Mari’s tech career started when she became the default “IT guy” in her first job out of college. Since leaving help-desk duties to the experts, she’s focused on trends in technology as a consultant, writer, reporter, analyst and at-home gadget tinkerer. Her current paid gig is with the non-profit organization US Ignite where she focuses on how networks and digital technologies impact smart cities. All posts on ZNF represent her own opinions and not those of US Ignite. Mari is a sucker for anything in the digital media space and covers interesting happenings in cable, telecom, and whatever else she feels like. Find her on Twitter at @msilbey.

How Verizon Really Can Take TV Everywhere

FiOS streaming live TV tablet

Slowly but surely we’re getting more access to TV on our PCs, iPads, and smartphones. But a comment on Dave’s post about the IMG 1.9 release reminded me that for some folks, the fact that FiOS TV service doesn’t let you move content around easily today is still a deal-breaker.

Until Verizon has a way for me to get TV off their box and onto my PC/ pad/ phone- the same way that Tivo does, I will continue to be a Tivo customer.

What most folks don’t know is that Verizon has done an astounding amount of work on its infrastructure in order to enable services that make content more flexible and accessible on different devices. We learned in January that the telecom had overhauled its hybrid QAM/IP system, making it possible to switch over to all-IP broadcasting for live television in addition to VOD and widget services. More recently, however, the company announced its new Verizon Digital Media Services platform, which both transcodes and formats TV for different devices, and handles session management so you can start watching a show in one place, and finish up somewhere else. (See Light Reading’s stellar coverage here and here)

Verizon claims that VDMS is a one-of-a-kind digital delivery utility, and it’s aiming to sell the technology as a service to cable companies for their TV Everywhere services. I have serious doubts about the potential success of that plan, but for Verizon’s own purposes, VDMS appears to give the company everything it needs to take FiOS TV to the next level. You know how the new WatchESPN service lets you watch live ESPN broadcasts on the go? I’m betting Verizon will offer more linear content the same way in the near future to FiOS TV users, along with the option to transition viewing sessions of VOD and recorded content to various gadgets for mobile viewing. This could be a good year to be a FiOS subscriber.

UMI, Flip, and Ojo – Where Video Was a No-Go

Cisco has announced it’s closing down the Flip business and folding the UMI video conferencing product into its Business TelePresence line. The news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that WorldGate, maker of the ill-fated Ojo video phone, has finally shut its doors for good. Bye bye, badly-managed video products. Hello, smartphone and … Read more

Atari’s Greatest Hits for the iPad Not So Great

Atari is perhaps one of the most nostalgic brands out of the 1970s and 80s, but just because something was good thirty years ago doesn’t mean it holds up well in the present. In a fit of enthusiasm, I purchased the entire Atari’s Greatest Hits game pack for the iPad this week and set about … Read more

Hulu Keeping Programmers Happy. How About Consumers?

Hulu posted some pretty awesome revenue numbers last night, including projections that the company will make close to half a billion dollars in 2011 and drive 300 million dollars in revenue to its content partners. However, all of that success comes with a price. Like every other over-the-top video provider, Hulu has had to limit … Read more

Apple 1, Mirror Worlds 0

In a reversal of last year’s jury verdict, a federal judge in Texas concluded that Apple did not infringe on patents owned by Mirror Worlds, a company founded by computer science professor and luminary David Gelernter. At issue were patents relating to the Spotlight, Time Machine, and Cover Flow features in the Mac OS. Originally, jurors … Read more

Hands On: Sony HD Radio in the Car

Until recently, the stereo in my car was so old it still had a tape deck in it, but I’ve finally upgraded the audio system with a new HD radio, the Sony CDX-GT700HD Xplod. And after about a week, my initial evaluation is a big thumbs up. I love the new spectrum of stations available. It’s not Internet radio, but it is a whole lot more content than I was getting before. For example, as an NPR fanatic, I’ve long rued the Saturday morning drives with only cooking and gardening shows available on my public radio station. Now I can switch to HD2 and catch up on Studio 360 for pop culture and arts news.

For actual Internet content, I can also connect my phone or Slacker music player through the Sony radio’s line-in jack, or USB port. This is the biggest reason I jumped on an upgrade. I’m tired of having the car be the only place I can’t access the music and podcasts I want. And since I won’t be getting a new, tricked-out vehicle any time soon, an after-market solution was definitely the way to go.

Other benefits of the new system include scrolling metadata, a huge number of channel pre-sets, and the ability to tag songs for later look-up on iTunes. (Tagging only works if you have an iPod.) I also love the hidden CD dock, which opens like a secret compartment, but is still dead simple to access. I’m not a sound geek, but Amazon reviewers also praise the radio’s sound quality and flexible EQ system.

Fun with the New Squeezebox Remote Android App

What happens when you install the new Logitech Squeezebox Remote app from the Android Marketplace and proceed to play around with the interface from a remote location? You scare the pants off anybody who’s still at home and wondering why the little radio box is suddenly playing music all by itself*. That’s what happened this afternoon when I decided to test out the new Android app despite not being anywhere near my Squeezebox. The app loaded beautifully, and apparently it had no trouble communicating with my player. Here’s the text message I received from home shortly afterward: “Your squeezebox just came on by itself. #afraidtogodownstairs”

I can’t speak to the in-home experience yet, as I’m still on the road, but the Squeezebox Remote interface on my phone is a joy. The Home screen gives me access to a full menu of Internet radio stations, apps, my music library, search, and Squeezebox settings. Through my apps I can get directly to Slacker (my preferred Internet radio service), and instantly into my saved stations and songs. The songs don’t play on my phone – the app’s not designed for that – but they do apparently play without problem from the Squeezebox.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t see the purpose of using a secondary phone remote to control one of my devices, but this one has an interface that not only beats my existing remote, but beats the interface on the Squeezebox display itself. After all, my beloved Squeezebox Classic is from 2006, which means it doesn’t have the visual bells and whistles present on some of the newer products in the Squeezebox line. And that brings me to another point. The new Logitech app works on a piece of hardware I’ve had for more than four years. Given how rapidly smartphone companies give up on supporting their handsets with new upgrades, I find myself continually amazed to see this little Internet-radio-streamer-that-could still getting feature updates. Kudos to the product team for that one.

iPad March Madness Starts Tonight!

If you’re not going to be in front of a TV tonight for the start of the NCAA college basketball tournament, never fear, the (free) iPad app is here. The iPad launch last year just missed the March Madness season, which means this is the first time you can stream live games to the tablet screen. And given how many games take place during the tournament, having a portable television by your side is a major plus. I’ll be home tonight when the tourney kicks off, but given all the work that needs to be done around my house, I probably won’t be tied to the living-room TV. The iPad, however, will travel around with me.

Of course, if you don’t have an iPad, there are plenty of places to catch the college games, but the iPad implementation is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, given the screen size and portability of the iPad, the tablet truly starts to feel like a portable TV – much more so than the old black-and-white carry-around I had as a kid that could barely pull down an OTA signal.

Second, from an industry perspective, the start of March Madness makes an interesting new test of how well the web can deliver on live video events. If I recall right, there hasn’t been a major live TV event since the iPad launched. The presidential inauguration and the Olympic games were all pre-iPad. What will demand be like on the beautiful, traveling iPad screen? And what kind of reviews will we give to the new UI, the Apple HTTP Live Streaming protocol, and our network connections?