Tons of news today out of Microsoft’s E3 keynote… The two primary themes revolve around enhanced social connectivity and expanded methods of physical interaction (Project Natal motion control, Tony Hawk skateboard controller) being deployed to Xbox 360 consoles over the next few months. In addition to a rebranded and upgraded “Zune” video marketplace with instant … Read more
A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our friends at Last100: Vudu to power telcos’ pay-per-view IPTV offerings Rather than punting the online video store via its own hardware alone, Vudu announced plans to “piggyback” third-party devices, including Internet-connected TVs, DVD players and other kinds of set-top boxes. And the first of those partnerships is … Read more
Leaving comments across the blogosphere… Why Does Photo Sharing Still Suck? Yep, I agree. Still looking for that perfect solution. And still pissed at Kodak for deleting my Galleries when I didn’t make a purchase. PS SmugSmug has a backup solution which uses Amazon’s cloud storage/server farm for an extra fee. They’ll even mail you … Read more
Two years after launching “Unbox” on TiVo (~$250), Amazon (AMZN) has finally rolled out HD video on demand. I’ve been on the road for work, so while my Roku box ($99) has had the high def Amazon service about 10 days, I haven’t yet actually taken a test drive. Early reports from various sources indicate … Read more
For the last year or so I’ve pitched pressured my blogging buddies to work with me on some sort of ensemble video podcast. But we never seemed to find the time, motivation, or skills. And now Randall Bennett, who you may recognize from Engadget and CNET, has independently launched TechVi. I participated in a pre-alpha … Read more
A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our friends at Last100: Chumby bets on Internet-connected TVs Hoping to move beyond being a geek’s boutique gadget to something more mainstream, Chumby is partnering with chip maker Broadcom to make it easy for consumer electronics companies to embed its widget platform into Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and … Read more
With improving sales and increased consumer awareness of network-sourced content, perhaps AppleTV will graduate from “hobby” status later this year. At the very least, Apple’s showing a bit of life around this initiative by distributing a customer survey. AppleInsider breaks down the questionnaire, which covers media type/origination, display devices, and audio output. I hope Apple’s … Read more
A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our friends at Last100: Distribution is King and other takeaways from Netflix Q4 earnings call The downside of our CE partners adding the Amazon Pay-Per-View service is more competition for Netflix but the competition is pretty indirect because of the Pay-Per-View business is in big new releases that … Read more