30 October, 2009
I was always hoping that the Internet would kill off low-brow TV forever, but no such luck, apparently. During last week’s launch, the “Internet TV” feature in Windows 7 suddenly became something serious for users in the U.S.. Internet TV was already present in pre-release versions of Windows 7, but back then it only had short clips and promos. With the final release, Internet TV includes full episodes of a surprising number of classic and current TV series. With this, Microsoft is entering competition for TV content distribution with Hulu and Apple in a much more direct sense than ever before.
Content
The content is Read on…
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9 August, 2009
Internet enabled TV sales are growing rapidly according to reports from Quixel Research (US data). Meaning TV sets that have inbuilt network connectivity via WiFi or network cable. Of course, this means you could be Twittering from your TV set :) Other features range from the ability to display simple RSS feeds and dedicated services to advanced on-screen Widgets for access to Weather, Stock quotes, Youtube etc. The TV sets usually are able to play video files that sit on a Media Center PC or Home Server in the home network as well.
Rapid increase in sales and revenue
In the second quarter of 2009, the revenue from televisions that have built in Internet capabilities grew 40% to over 1 billion US dollars. In terms of unit sales, shipments Read on…
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6 August, 2008
I’ve had some issues with my Sonos Digital music system in the past - but yesterday night, Sonos made my day :) It’s just one of those moments where you’re about to go to bed and suddenly you see something popping up in your mailbox that puts a smile on your face - and immediately you switch into full nerd-mode because you want to upgrade! right! NOW! Suddenly sleeping doesn’t seem so important anymore. These are happy moments in the life of a music and gadget nerd :)
What’s a Sonos, then?
The Sonos system Is a wireless, multi-room Read on…
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16 June, 2008
Microsoft has announced a strategic partnership with Russian company VimpelCom to deliver their Mediaroom interactive television service to the Russian audience. The IPTV service, Corbina TV, will be operated by Corbina Telecom, a Vimpelcom subsidiary. It will be the first Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV service in Russian. VimpleCom has about 50 million subscribers in greater Russia. Corbina Telecom operates in 25 Russian regions, primarily as a DSL/fibre-optic voice and data provider. According to Dmitry Malov of Corbina Telecom “the Corbina Telecom fibre-optic network reaches almost every apartment building in Moscow and many other Russian cities”.
SteveB in the house
Microsoft has been Read on…
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30 January, 2008
As some of you know, I work at MSN in Belgium, earning my money leading a team of talented people and trying think of where to take the MSN website next.
This week is special, since we have just -silently- launched our new service, MSN Video. This new addition to MSN is really a destination site for watching short licensed video clips. MSN Video serves over 1000 fresh video clips each month, with a focus on news and entertainment.
Our content ranges from clips provided by Read on…
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10 January, 2008
British Telecom and Microsoft announced reaching an agreement that will make on demand TV content and services available on the Xbox 360 gaming console. All customers of BTVision, BT’s internet TV platform will have access to the service. Apparently high-definition video content will be part of the available package. BT’s internet TV service is powered by the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV platform, making this first-of-its-kind device and service offering possible. It will be available to UK customers in the middle of 2008.
So long Bill, and thanks for all the fish
Microsoft invested heavily over the past years to Read on…
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9 January, 2008
The winner of the battle for the next step in DVD seems to be Blu-Ray. Much like the battle between VHS and Betamax in the 80’s, for the past 2 years a war was fought between HD-DVD (supported by Microsoft, NEC and Intel) and Blu-Ray (supported by Sony and Apple). Both high-definition formats wanted to be the next disc containing your HD movies. Obviously, to win this war, the support of the movie studios is crucial - without movies, no disc sales. Disney, Sony, Fox and MGM were Blu-Ray exclusive partners. HD-DVD could count on the support of Warner and Paramount, who released their movies on both formats - but all of that changed Read on…
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27 October, 2007
The people at the BBC understand how to translate a format to different media types. The latest result? Car fanatics can watch their favorite TV show Top Gear on the Playstation 3 - while they are inside the game world of Gran Turismo 5.
Can you beat the Stig?
Apparently not a single day goes by at Top Gear HQ without someone claiming they can get around their Top Gear Test track faster than famous test driver “The Stig”. Next year, on Playstation 3, everyone will be able to Read on…
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28 September, 2007
About eighty percent of U.S. consumers who have downloaded a movie recently say they did not like the experience and did not plan to do it again anytime soon, according to market research firm Parks Associates. This sort of puts the recent acquisition of video downloader Movielink by Blockbuster in a wholly new perspective.
John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates, is happy to elaborate on the findings. “People don’t see a reason to use video downloading services. Sure, it will save them a trip to the video store, but it takes Read on…
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7 September, 2007
Wow this week is busy - presentations in Madrid, Brussels and Hilversum and I’m struggling just a bit to keep up. So far so good though, I had good fun with the Crossmedia MBA today, we had a special “One day MBA” where people could check out snippets of the MBA content. Some nice people in the audience and some very interesting presentations by others. I can still learn a lot.
I did a 1 hour presentation myself, trying to give a Read on…
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23 August, 2007
At Ogilvy summercamp, a nice and informal event with interesting speakers, we had a great presentation by Jeroen de Backer from Telenet. I have published some details on this earlier, but have decided to pull back this article for now untill such time as where all the facts can be checked. I will re-publish in due time.
Sorry for any inconveniece!
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22 August, 2007
Adobe, the software company behind the Flash video player, has announced that the latest version of Flash will support HD (high-definition) video in the the H.264 video format. This means that Web video will be able to have television quality. Soon everyone will be able to watch high definition video content playing in webpages. Mind you, you will only start to actually see better video quality when video makers start to encode their videos with H.264.
Even if Flash isn’t the first video player to integrate H.264, it’s currently the most important. About 98% of desktop computers contain Flash. Because of this, sites like YouTube currently use Read on…
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6 August, 2007
Sony plans to release a digital TV tuner which will turn the PS3 games console into a digital tuner and video recorder. The news was revealed in a New Zealand newspaper. Next year a free DVB-T digital television service will launch in New Zealand, which would mean that the PS3 could be the only device needed to watch and record digital television, together with a satellite dish or aerial. This could pose a real threat to cable TV. It is unclear if the device will be able to record in HD.
Top spot
In the meanwhile the head of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment Read on…
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10 July, 2007
Microsoft has announced extension of warranty for the Xbox360 from one-year to three-years. The announcement comes in response to an unusually high number of Xbox 360 failures. This means a massive extra cost being taken by Microsoft of about 1.15 billion dollars, to right the wrongs of the shipped Xboxes. Wow. But OK, Microsoft shows it takes the Xbox360 and its’ customers seriously.
What’s wrong?
The reported problems are usually described as the “red ring of death”, as shown on the image accompanying this article, a red ring on the front of the console around the power button. Once the red ring is there the Xbox stops responding. This problem is caused by overheating of the Xbox360 and is usually permanent, meaning that the unit will have to be sent back to be repaired. According to Xbox hardware fan sites Microsoft is fixing these problems by placing an additional heatsink near system’s GPU. A cooler GPU should help solve these problems, so the bitter pill might just be the cure…
A meaningful number
Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, said the number of Read on…
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24 June, 2007
Digital tv is not as popular as it may seem to be in Holland. While KPN and UPC are publishing one ecstatic press release after another about the rapid growth of their digital TV user base, over 50% of these Dutch digital viewers still watches the analog cable signal. This is the outcome of research by TNS-Nipo about TV viewer preferences.
Isn’t Digital TV great?
The marketing stories about digital TV should be Read on…
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23 June, 2007
Since a couple of days the YouTube software update for the Apple TV is available. Installing this update is pretty easy, you can do it right from the menu. After accepting the download it installs and reboots automagically. You now have the option to select YouTube, and you’re all set to start playing YouTube clips on your TV.
What does it look like?
I’ll tell you if it’s fun in a bit, but let me set the stage here. You get the option to go to YouTube Read on…
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28 March, 2007
Ten tijde van het nieuws over de iPhone was de introductie van de (eerder al aangekondigde) Apple TV wat ondergesneeuwd geraakt, maar nu is ie er dan toch. Een Apple TV is geen TV scherm, maar een soort Mac Mini met een hdmi-uitgang en wifi. Een mooi apparaatje, zoals we gewend zijn van Apple is de presentatie perfect verzorgd van de verpakking tot de hardware zelf. De losse boekjes zijn netjes weggemoffeld in een soort parelmoer plastic zakje, en de nodige snoeren ontbreken geheel, dus dat is ook lekker opgeruimd.
Moet je zo’n ding hebben?
OK, er is niets innovatiefs aan een Mac Mini met wat AV aansluitingen en iTunes. Ik heb geen Read on…
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26 March, 2007
Mocht het je nog niet opgevallen zijn, de Playstation 3 is dan eindelijk geland in Europa. In Belgie was dat vrij gemakkelijk te missen, de enige plek waar ik persoonlijk bereikt ben met deze boodschap was in de Carrefour, waar een maand lang een stem het publiek in de supermarkt opriep om het apparaat tijdig te reserveren. Weinig marketinginspanningen van Sony verder, kennelijk.
Hij is OK.
Maar zaterdag nam ik hem dan toch mee, en de eerste kennismaking valt me Read on…
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5 February, 2007
In Amerika kun je met de Xbox360 inmiddels een behoorlijk aantal films en TV series downloaden en direct op TV bekijken. Je kunt betalen voor gehuurde films in de video-on-demand service met Microsoft Points (direct aan te schaffen via de Xbox360 met je creditcard). De films kunnen direct afgespeeld worden nadat het downloaden is begonnen. De Xbox360 kan HDTV films en series afspelen.
Content
Als launch titels waren onder andere beschikbaar de TV shows CSI (in drie smaken), Star Trek Enterprise, South Park, Pimp My Ride, Punk’d, en SpongeBob SquarePants. Bij het filmaanbod moet je denken aan titels als Star Trek VII: Generations, Patriot Games, The Sum of All Fears, The Untouchables, Poseidon, The Shining, en V for Vendetta.
Hieronder de top 10 best verkochte films en TV series Read on…
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