Tag Archives | Internet TV
Roku Developer Contest Winners Announced
I helped to judge a cool contest for developers of channels for Roku’s Internet TV box–and Roku has announced the winners. (I judged the screensaver category, which was won by a nifty one which displays your Picasa Web Albums photos.)
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Boxee Gets Vudu–on the Box, PCs, and Macs
The next chapter in the great Internet TV Box wars of 2010 will come next month, when D-Link ships the $199.99 Boxee Box, the long-awaited gadget which will compete with Apple TV, Google TV devices such as Logitech’s Revue, and Roku. Despite the fact that it’s almost here, it hasn’t been completely revealed–neither D-Link nor the Boxee folks have told all about the content services that’ll be available on it.
But here’s one piece of news: Vudu, the neat movie rental and purchase service which started out on its own hardware but has more recently shifted its strategy to being a streaming service available on devices such as Blu-Ray players and HDTVs, will also be on Boxee. And it won’t just be on Boxee’s box: You’ll be able to get Vudu content via Boxee’s software for PCs and Macs as well.
Like Amazon’s Video on Demand, Vudu will let you buy a movie or TV show once, then stream it to any computer or other gizmo you own that supports the Vudu service, giving you a video collection in the sky. As always, its specialty is content presented in as high-quality a form as possible: On the Boxee Box, it’ll is available in 1080p high definition with Dolby Digital+ sound. Sadly, though, only standard-definition content will be available on PCs and Macs, although Vudu’s best SD looks better than some “HD” I’ve seen.
Given that Google TV is so disappointing in its initial form, I’m more curious than ever about the Boxee Box. No word yet about other services it may have lined up–Netflix Watch Instantly and/or Hulu Plus would complement Vudu nicely.
(Full disclosure: My fiancée is employed by Vudu’s public relations agency.)
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Roku Everywhere?
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Netgear’s release of a Roku TV box under its own brand, the first example of Roku being available on a device it didn’t sell itself. Now it’s official that Roku is looking to line up additional companies to build its software into their boxes.
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Logitech Revue Reviewed: Google TV Isn’t Ready for Prime Time
Logitech’s Revue, the first standalone box to run Google TV, has gotten its share of criticism for its $299.99 price. Which is perfectly understandable–that’s three times the cost of Apple TV and five times what the cheapest Roku costs.
But when I attended Logitech’s Revue launch event earlier this month and saw everything the box could do, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t overpriced. It’s designed to play all Web video, not just a subset; it lets you find programs on cable or satellite; it has a full built-in Web browser; it streams your own video and audio; it comes with a real keyboard. In short, it does most of the things you’d get if you connected an even pricier PC to your HDTV.
Most of the Revue’s functionality is made possible by Google TV, which melds Web-based services with Android-based software. Google’s wildly ambitious goal is to make Googling for TV as simple as Googling for Web pages. But when I tried a Revue loaned to me by Logitech, I discovered that the box’s problem is polish, not price. Google TV is profoundly rough around the edges.
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Comcast’s Xfinity TV Gets Better
Comcast has a Web-based TV service (using its superfluous Xfinity brand) that’s not all that fantastic–but it is the start of an intriguing idea, and it does have some exclusive content for cable subscribers. It just updated it with a new version that sounds more appealing (for one thing, you can now watch on any Internet connection, not just your Comcast one).
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Fox (Briefly) Blocks Hulu From Cablevision Customers
Boy, nothing puts in in more of an “a pox on both their houses” mood than when cable operators and content owners drag innocent consumers into their squabbles over money.
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Roku Hits Retail, Thanks to Netgear
I once asked an executive from Roku whether the company planned to sell its little Internet TV boxes–available from Roku itself as well as Amazon.com–through retailers. The answer? Not really, since the device’s low pricetag didn’t leave much room for markup. But times change: A Roku box is now available at Best Buy, RadioShack, and Fry’s. This one’s not a Roku product, though: Networking-product maker is selling the Netgear Roku Player NTV250, which it says will for for under $90. It looks like a doppelganger of Roku’s own XD model, and gets all the content (Netflix Watch Instantly, Amazon Video on Demand, Major League Baseball, much more) that’s available on Roku’s own gizmos. Sounds like a smart move as Roku girds up to do battle with Apple, Google, and other much larger companies that are intruding on its territory.
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MobiTV Wants to Put TV Everywhere
How many TV and movie services do I use? I’ve lost track. Depending on what I’m watching and which device I’m using, I might get my content from Comcast, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, or one of a bunch of other services. I’m not complaining. But what I’d really like is to be able to turn on any gadget I own that can display video and watch everything that’s available anywhere.
Enter an upcoming TV-distribution platform created by MobiTV. The company is best known for its eponymous apps for watching TV on phones (available for the iPhone and many other handsets), but its real big business is providing private-labeled services for large companies–for instance, it powers Sprint’s Sprint TV. And it’s readying a service it plans to sell to cable-TV providers that will let consumers get one TV service that follows them from device to device. It gave me a demo of a rough draft of the technology last week at the CTIA Enterprise and Applications show in San Francisco.
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Logitech Revue: A Swiss-Army Approach to Internet TV
After I attended Cisco’s unveiling of its ūmi telepresence system this morning, I hopped in a cab and went to Logitech’s launch event for Revue, its Google TV box. It made for a fascinating comparison.
Cisco’s product, like Apple TV and Roku, is about doing one thing. All there devices compete with Revue, because it does many things:
- Like Roku and Apple TV, it’s a way to watch movies and listen to music;
- It supports not only services Google has partnered with, such as Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand, but just about any video on the Web;
- It attempts to meld Internet video, live broadcast video, and DVR video into one seamless entertainment extravaganza;
- It integrates with Dish Network boxes at a deeper level–it can control them and search recorded videos;
- It lets you browse Web sorts of all sorts using the built-in Chrome browser;
- It uses Logitech’s Harmony technology to let you control all your living-room gizmos;
- It offers iOS and Android apps that let you use your smartphone as a remote control;
- If you spend $150 for an optional Webcam, it provides ūmi-like HD videoconferencing (although at 720p rather than Cisco’s 1080p);
- It’ll let you download and install Android apps (but not until early 2011, when Google makes its TV Android Market available).
Whew. (I’m probably forgetting a capability or two.) Revue costs $299.99, which is 3X the price of Apple TV and 5X the cost of the cheapest Roku, but it does so many things that I think the price isn’t nutty–if it turns out that the many things it does are things people want to do on their TVs. (That’s not a given: In many ways, Revue is a modern take on the idea Microsoft tried to popularize as WebTV a decade and a half ago, and which has fizzled in one form or another ever since. I’m still unclear whether there’s a critical mass of real consumers who want to use the Web on their TVs.)