ABC’s Free Television Experiment Begins

Today’s the day… ABC launched their two month trial (5/1 – 6/30) offering free web rebroadcasts of current, prime time television series. Unlike most streaming content, you do not need Windows as ABC is broadcasting via cross-platform Flash. Of course free is just another word for advertising, but it competes well with $1.99 iTunes downloads. Assuming all goes well, ABC is planning on tweaking the model and relaunching with the fall television season.

Check it out here!

Do I need to watch all of the advertisements?

The advertisements are placed at various points during the show. You cannot advance the show beyond that point until you have watched the ad for at least 30 seconds. You may see a maximum of four advertisements per show.

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Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… ReplayTV settles patent dispute, licenses audio technology. (Press Release) Consumer Electronics Association calls on industry to educate consumers. (CEA) Media center software SageTV adds place-shifting. (SageTV) Well-designed customer experiences are good for business; TiVo is one example. (Business Week) Blu-ray prototype stores 200 GB. (jkOnTheRun) VDC mobile television service reviewed. (Brighthand)

Sony LocationFree TV Coming To Macs and Mobiles

Looks like Sling will be getting some more competition… Sony plans to expand it’s LocationFree TV streaming to include Macs and Windows Mobile devices. Extreme Tech says: Sony Corp. said Tuesday that it licensed its Location-Free technology to Kaga Electronics, which will port the technology to the Mac OS X platform. “Location Free” allows content … Read more

Altec Lansing XM Speaker Cradle Released

Altec Lansing just informed me that they’ve released the XM3120 speaker system, supporting both the RoadyXT and Xpress receivers. Retail price is about $100. It looks pretty cute, and devices like these push me to upgrade my Roady2 (which I connect to computer speakers at work via the home kit). It’s somewhat ironic that to … Read more

SlingPlayer Mobile Released, For Real

The SlingPlayer Mobile for portable Windows devices, which has been in public beta for a month, is officially released today. If you were savvy enough to buy and register a Slingbox by 4/26, the software is free… otherwise it’s going to cost you $29.99. It looks like they’re still working out the kinks on non-touchscreen … Read more

PC Mag Reviews Peerflix

PC Magazine spent some using Peerflix, the online DVD exchange, and settled on a 3.5/5 review. Peerflix allows you to unload discs you no longer want in exchange for Peerbux (quantity based on the relative value of a movie) which are then used to purchase other DVDs. Since there are no subscription fees, Peerflix hopes … Read more

Samsung Helix Is TiVo For Radio

The reviews are trickling in… Today, Personal Tech Pipeline describe their hand’s on time with the Samsung Helix. They focus on the unit’s ability to record audio programming and come away impressed. The recording and storage abilities don’t interest me nearly as much as having live satellite radio in such a compact (and attractive) form. … Read more