Samsung Poses Threat to Apple’s Unified Ecosystem

From The Online Reporter    

- New Smart TVs to Stream Live TV to Nearby Tablets & Smartphones

- Smart Hub Offers Full Browser, Content Recommendations, Media Search on TV, Internet & Home Network

One of the new Samsung smart TVs, coupled with its Galaxy Tab tablet and a Samsung Android-based smartphone, is the first to offer direct competition to Apple’s iOS-based unified ecosystem for the iPad, iPhone, Apple TV and iPod touch. 

Samsung says its next smart TVs, the D7000 or D8000 models, will come with a second tuner and a transmitter, allowing them to stream another channel of live TV directly to nearby mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. It’s called TwinView and will be like having a mobile TV in the home. The portable devices can be used to browse channels and perform searches via the TV set.

The new Samsung smart TVs have more features than Apple TV, including a browser, the three searches (broadcast, Internet and home network), a recommendation engine and the lack of a separate adapter box. Apple TV has the advantage of working with any HD TV set but the Apple product has fallen far behind similar adapters such as D-Link’s Boxee Box in numbers of Internet services being provided.

The new Samsung smart TVs sound as if they are based on Google TV technology with features such as a full browser and the ability to search broadcast networks, the Internet and the home network for content. Samsung last year promised TV sets based on Google TV, but it made no reference to Google TV in this announcement. It could be that Samsung is using the Android OS and the Chrome browser like the company People of Lava in Sweden claims to have done. It’s unlikely that Samsung has done its own OS and browser.

It’s not known if it will stream only to Samsung devices or to any Android device. Existing Samsung smartphones and tablets will get an upgrade for the TwinView service.

TwinView TV sets and the upgrade are expected in the UK in April. Pricing and US availability have not been announced.

Samsung said that TwinView video can only be streamed to the newer Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Samsung Galaxy S2. It does not work with older Tabs or other smartphones. The 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab uses the honeycomb version of Android and has a 10.1-inch display. It has a dual-core Tegra 2 processor and comes with either 16GB or 32GB of storage. 

The company said at CES that the D8000 and D9000 would come with a Second TV Smart Touch TV remote that could receive a video stream. The Android app for the two smart TV series will perform the same function on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Samsung Galaxy S2. The Android app is expected in March and the Second TV Smart Touch TV remote has been delayed until April.

Samsung also announced new and expanded European content distribution deals with the BBC, France Telecom and LoveFilm. The BBC’s very popular iPlayer is already available on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab.

The sets come with a Smart Hub that allows users to access information sources, channels, recordings, the Web and content. 

The Smart Hub has four offerings:

 - A “Search All” feature allows search for and access to content on not only a TV, but also on the Internet and on any connected storage, PC or mobile device within the home network. Content can include 3D VoD, older TV shows, movies and sports scores.

  - “Your Video” offers content recommendations that are based on a user’s viewing history.

 - A “Web Browser” offers full Web browsing on the TV.

 - “Samsung Apps,” Samsung said, is the world’s first 

HDTV-based application store and offers more apps than anyone else for sports, entertainment, information, games and social networking.

Samsung also said this week it captured 60% of the market for 3D TV sets in 2010. It sold about 2 million of them.

Seok-pil Kim, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics Europe said, “This new era of technology design will enable products that make consumers smarter, happier, and bring us all closer together. In this new era, the TV will once again become the center of our living room, and the dominant piece of technology that connects, enables, empowers, and entertains us all.”

And where, pray tell, is one-time, TV-king Sony with new Internet-connected TV features like TwinView, browsing and search plus new content deals?

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Amazon Launches Streaming Service with Lots of Potential Down the Road

From The Online Reporter   

 

- Price Included with Popular Shipping Service

- Already Comes to Roku, Google TV

- Netflix, Hulu Might Take Notice

Amazon has rolled out a streaming TV and film service for its Amazon Prime members in the US, hoping to take Netflix and Hulu Plus users to the mat. The service comes in at $79, beating both Hulu and Netflix out at their cheapest of $95.88, and includes the other benefit of Amazon Prime: free two-day shipping on all Amazon.com orders.

Amazon said the service is available on Macs, PCs and nearly 200 models of Internet-connected and smart devices. Shortly after the announcement, Roku and Google TV both came out saying they supported the content. It appears that TVs and STBs with an Amazon VoD app pre-installed are getting updates to accommodate the new service, but a full rollout schedule was not announced.

According to Amazon, the service offers 5,000 movies and TV shows — there are a little over 2,100 different titles and shows, so the 5,000 number is likely counting TV show episodes as well. Some of the content Amazon will stream includes “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “Doctor Who” and “Farscape.”

Amazon signed up two major studios, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros, to provide older movies from their libraries and 13 independent studios including the BBC, PBS, Magnolia Pictures, IFCNational Geographic. and

Dan Rayburn, an analyst covering Web video for consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, was the first to nail it, predicting the service more than three weeks ago.

“Millions of Amazon Prime members already enjoy the convenience of free two-day shipping,” said Robbie Schwietzer, VP of Amazon Prime. “Adding unlimited instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows at no additional cost is a great way to give members even more value.”

Amazon’s biggest competitors in the space are Netflix and Hulu Plus, and each of the three shine in different ways when looking at the market:

Looking at Amazon and its competition, a lot of the service’s success rests on pushing the shipping offering to users while also figuring out how to acquire new content for its streaming options.

Studios have oft complained of Netflix’ lackluster revenue streams (in their perspective), something which Amazon’s service could easily be accused of as it is cheaper and comes with the shipping side. Amazon does have a slight advantage in that its relationship with studios is more than a decade old, looking back to Amazon’s large DVD days. 

Amazon said it is in talks with all major studios and producers to obtain more content, and was quick to note that it already offers more than 90,000 movies and TV shows for rental or purchase.

Verdict: Mediocre Now, Lots of Potential

MediaPost’s Steve Smith might have put it best: “the one thing Amazon, the world’s leading e-retailer, needs is a better online shopping experience.”

Amazon Prime shows how tough it can be to showcase downloadable content. And, pardon the pun, it’s a prime example of how even a company great at selling physical media must figure out a new and different approach to selling digital media.

On the big screen, Amazon Prime makes it tough for users to look for what they want. Open up a TV show’s page and you’ll get a listing of that show’s seasons, each displaying the DVD case or appropriate image that the user must click on to proceed through. The problem here is that among the wall of DVD cases are mixed in various other related shows, sometimes appearing in the list before less-popular seasons of the TV show you’re looking for.

The layout is similar to Amazon’s existing music and video layout, which has often been a bit cumbersome and difficult to navigate. Putting that on the big screen, and given the limits of some remote controls, navigation gets downright user unfriendly.

The streams we were seeing varied across devices as well. Using a Google TV box, we peaked at 480p though some streams coming from Roku and on the PC appeared to be closer to 720p.

Amazon needs to design a new UI for the feature for it to really catch on. Amazon should look to Hulu Plus for UI tips and to see how frustrating varying content can be to consumers.

Netflix’ Counterpunch 

Hot on Amazon’s announcement, Netflix made it clear it is still the king of the stream.

Netflix announced a new streaming deal with CBS just hours after Amazon took the wraps off its streaming feature. Its new two-year deal gives Netflix episodes from classic CBS shows like “Star Trek,” “Frasier,” “Cheers,” “Twin Peaks” and “The Twilight Zone.” It also gets select episodes from current shows like “Medium” and “Flashpoint.” 

The CBS deal it had covering shows like “NCIS,” “CSI” and “Numbers” has expired and these shows may not make it back to the service.

CBS seems to have continued its snub of Hulu, not extending any similar deal that way. Hulu has scored some recent victories including rights to stream Criterion Collection films — Netflix just lost streaming rights to many in this collection — and it’s making amends with Viacom for “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” Beyond those two deals, however, Hulu has been pretty mum on new content since last summer.

Europe is the Big Play Market

With a somewhat limited offering, especially when taking on Hulu or Netflix, some are finding it hard to take Amazon seriously as a streaming contender, but there’s a big chance this is just the foundation.

Looking at Amazon’s European market can show if the future of this service is all about streaming.

Amazon owns LoveFilm and already has 1.6 million streaming video customers through that company in the UK. Amazon is also said to be looking into purchasing equivalents in the rest of Europe, with a German acquisition leading the rumor mill followed closely by a French purchase.

Amazon launched its shipping service in Germany and the UK in 2007 and in France in 2008 under the name Amazon Premium. These present a great way to get into the market, and extending LoveFilm to its streaming offering associated with the Prime/Premium service would make Amazon a big player in the streaming world.

Amazon doesn’t have to take on Netflix or Hulu on their home turf — it can go after the markets they want to be in but have yet to find a way into.

Touch and Tease the Future

Amazon needs two things to really kick off this service in a major way: 1) a big expansion of its Disc+ On Demand service; and 2) tablets and other devices. Yes, everyone has a tablet these days, but one of the iPad’s largest advantages over its competition is a single click to get to the iTunes store and a single payment account from which users buy apps, music and video content. Few can take on Apple in terms of iTunes, but Amazon has the resources to do that immediately.

Amazon is one of the Web’s top destinations for DVDs and CDs, but Netflix and Apple are taking their toll on these industries, especially with Apple TV and the iPad integrating the iTunes store and cheap rentals. 

Expanding its service to a tablet and building a new UI for that device — as well as including content sharing across devices — would put an Amazon-branded tablet in a place that no one else can. Amazon doesn’t even have to develop it; it only has to do a massive integration on one tablet — RIM’s PlayBook would likely be a very willing partner since the device is the only one to run the QNX-based OS.

Amazon has a strong following and may be able to hold off these invaders — it counts 65 million total visitors coming to its main site each month, a few million of which are Prime members. Amazon customers are willing to spend money, hands down. Amazon knows that and could use it as some major leverage.

Imagine a deal between Amazon and Roku where Amazon eats the cost of the STB and gives it out to Amazon Prime members. Amazon then presents these users with its streaming service and a selection of 5,000 free titles while also suggesting other titles for users to rent or purchase.

Amazon’s Disc+ On Demand service needs to play a major role in the future of this content. Disc+ On Demand gives the user a digital copy of some physical media they buy. Users can stream digital versions of select DVD and Blu-ray titles once they purchase the disc — streaming is activated once the payment is processed, allowing the user to watch content even sometimes before it is shipped.

Imagine integrating Disc+ On Demand with Prime in terms of teasing multiple seasons of TV shows. Buy season 2 of “The X-Files” or “Doctor Who” and get free shipping with your Prime membership, why shouldn’t Amazon let you stream it and season one? Or why not give users access to the first three episodes of season three, encouraging a purchase of that DVD/Blu-ray pack as well?

If users make these physical purchases, why not extend their content and associated teasers to all of their connected devices?

The content shortfalls for Amazon Prime are likely just an issue with it being a new service, not a permanent problem, leaving only the UI as a major hurdle. Integrating consumer purchases could make this one of the best promotional tools around, and if Amazon uses it to sell more content by giving away snippets here and there, why would it ever concern itself with Netflix or Hulu?

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HP Launches Tablet, Hides Palm’s Name

HP has launched three new WebOS devices, including an iPad-sized tablet, but so far the reaction has been a bit mixed.

The tablet, a 9.7-inch device called the TouchPad, a 3.6-inch touchscreen smartphone called the Pre3, and a smartphone called the Veer were unveiled this week but didn’t receive accolades right off the bat.

For the tablet, we still don’t know price or an availability date beyond "late summer," so the big question at everyone’s fingertips has been: "Will consumers wait for this if the iPad 2 hits the shelves first?"

The name Palm was not said at the launch, so it is likely that the brand is good and dead, with only the WebOS branding as a reminder.

HP also announced that WebOS will be coming to "other connected devices" including printers and possibly PCs this year. All WebOS devices can connect via HP’s Synergy product — which merges data from the cloud.

HP called the TouchPad "the breakthrough WebOS user interface fully realized in the tablet experience."

Specs on the tablet include:

 - Capacitive multi-touch display.

 - Instant-on.

 - Browser with Flash 10.1.

 - "Access to thousands of WebOS applications."

 - WebOS 3.0 with true multitasking.

 - 9.7-inch display (1024 x 768 screen resolution).

 - A dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon CPU.

 - Accelerometer, gyroscope and compass.

 - 16GB to 32GB internal storage.

 - 1.3MP front-facing camera for video calling.

 - 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3G support.

From the demonstration, WebOS looked very fast and responsive, definitely fit for tablets. The TouchPad kind of looked like the iPad while WebOS 3.0 was very reminiscent of Honeycomb, so it is something that at least the techies and current tablet users will be familiar with.

Only time will tell for TouchPad, and since it isn’t arriving until late summer there’s not much besides time.

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THIS WEEK IN CONTENT DEALS

From The Online Reporter   

Membase, CouchOne	Large data management system Membase inked a deal with NoSQL Firm CouchOne to merge and form CouchBase
Hulu, Viacom	Online video service Hulu signed a deal with Viacom to bring episodes of "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show" back to Hulu along with other Viacom programming.
YouTube, RightsFlow	YouTube partnered with music licensing and royalty services provider RightsFlow to assist with music rights management and processing.
EMI, Beatport	Record label EMI inked a deal with online electronic music store Beatport allowing visitors to the site to purchase dance and electronic songs from EMI’s catalog.
Cricket Communications, Music Reports	Mobile company Cricket Communications partnered with music rights administration company Music Reports to utilize its music publishing data matching, royalty reporting and licensing services for Cricket’s Muve Music.

THIS WEEK IN FINANCE DEALS

SpeakerText	Online video transcription service provider SpeakerText received $600,000 in new financing from individual investors including Mitch Kapor.
HTC, Saffron Digital	Mobile device maker HTC invested an undisclosed amount of funding in mobile media delivery company Saffron Digital.
Rdio, Mangrove Capital Partners, Skype, Atomico	Cloud-based music streaming platform Rdio secured $17.5 million in a new round of funding from Mangrove Capital Partners, Skype and Atomico.
Qualcomm, CAA, Creative Mobile Labs	Qualcomm and Creative Artists Agency (CAA) both invested an undisclosed amount of new financing in Creative Mobile Labs.
Softbank, Syncast Corporation	Japan’s Softbank purchased a 35% stake in China-based Synacast Corporation, the operator of online TV platform PPTV, in an undisclosed deal.
Cisco, Inlet Technologies	Cisco acquired video processing technology provider Inlet Technologies in a $95 million deal.
Vidyo, Sevin Rosen Funds, Four Rivers Group, Menlo Ventures, Rho Capital Ventures, Star Ventures	Video conferencing company Vidyo secured $11.5 million in new financing from investors Sevin Rosen Funds, Four Rivers Group, Menlo Ventures, Rho Capital Ventures and Star Ventures.
MEraki, Northgate Capital, DAG Ventures	Wireless network provider Meraki landed $15 million in Round C of funding with participation from Northgate Capital and DAG Ventures.

Motorola Xoom Issues May Keep Users at Bay

From The Online Reporter  

Motorola’s Xoom Android 3.0 tablet will reportedly cost $799, which may make users reconsider purchasing another device. Forcing users to buy a data plan to access Wi-Fi, which has been proposed, may solidify those plans for another tablet.

Consumers are up in arms over the sticker price that Verizon Wireless and Best Buy have allegedly given to the Motorola Xoom tablet, and few can blame them. Both Android Central and Engadget have reported the price, citing evidence from the companies involved.

It has also been confirmed that customers must purchase a 3G data plan to enable Wi-Fi on the Xoom. There are also no announced plans of a Wi-Fi only Xoom tablet. The fine print in the leaked Best Buy flyer for the Xoom reads, "To activate Wi-Fi functionality on this device, a minimum of one month data subscription is required."

Verizon’s data plans for the Xoom range from $20 per month for 1GB of data to $80 per month for only 10GB. Couple this with Verizon’s plans to throttle bandwidth and users could end up paying nearly $1800 for a tablet and data, both of which may be hampered. 

For Apple’s iPad, Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi-plus-3G models are available with costs ranging from $499 to $829. Even the Samsung Galaxy Tab sells for $599 and $649 from Verizon Wireless and AT&T, respectively.

"This is very aggressive pricing in the face of consumers’ clear willingness to treat Apple products as the ‘gold standard’ and worthy of a premium, with competing products representing some kind of compromise, which is typically reflected in pricing," Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin told eWeek.

Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said people who wanted a tablet were willing to pay $260, down from the $500 on average a consumer was willing to pay in June 2010.

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HP Launches Tablet, Hides Palm’s Name

From The Online Reporter   

 

HP has launched three new WebOS devices, including an iPad-sized tablet, but so far the reaction has been a bit mixed.

The tablet, a 9.7-inch device called the TouchPad, a 3.6-inch touchscreen smartphone called the Pre3, and a smartphone called the Veer were unveiled this week but didn’t receive accolades right off the bat.

For the tablet, we still don’t know price or an availability date beyond "late summer," so the big question at everyone’s fingertips has been: "Will consumers wait for this if the iPad 2 hits the shelves first?"

The name Palm was not said at the launch, so it is likely that the brand is good and dead, with only the WebOS branding as a reminder.

HP also announced that WebOS will be coming to "other connected devices" including printers and possibly PCs this year. All WebOS devices can connect via HP’s Synergy product — which merges data from the cloud.

HP called the TouchPad "the breakthrough WebOS user interface fully realized in the tablet experience."

Specs on the tablet include:

 - Capacitive multi-touch display.

 - Instant-on.

 - Browser with Flash 10.1.

 - "Access to thousands of WebOS applications."

 - WebOS 3.0 with true multitasking.

 - 9.7-inch display (1024 x 768 screen resolution).

 - A dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon CPU.

 - Accelerometer, gyroscope and compass.

 - 16GB to 32GB internal storage.

 - 1.3MP front-facing camera for video calling.

 - 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3G support.

From the demonstration, WebOS looked very fast and responsive, definitely fit for tablets. The TouchPad kind of looked like the iPad while WebOS 3.0 was very reminiscent of Honeycomb, so it is something that at least the techies and current tablet users will be familiar with.

Only time will tell for TouchPad, and since it isn’t arriving until late summer there’s not much besides time.

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Nokia Is Burning

From The Online Reporter   

 - A Badly Needed Shakeup May Be in Short Order

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has compared his company’s current situation to being on a "burning platform" in the North Sea, leaving shareholders to wonder if Elop will fiddle while Nokia burns.

Nokia is faced with a series of very important changes that it must act quickly upon to avoid perishing in Elop’s flames. The internal note, verified by us at The Online Reporter, Engadget, IDG News and others, pulls no punches when it comes to the state of Nokia.

Elop wrote in his letter: "While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.

"The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable."

Nokia is stuck at a point where it must figure out how to quickly catch up with its competition while also finding new ways to innovate above them. Saddled with older platforms and weaker handset models, Elop has said that Nokia needs to reshape its entire approach to the smartphone and the mobile space.

"Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyze or join an ecosystem," he writes. "This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we’ve lost market share, we’ve lost mind share and we’ve lost time."

Elop outlines some major issues that Nokia must address quickly:

 - Symbian has been "non-competitive" in North America and the company has had hard times making any inroads there.

 - Symbian is slowly fading and becoming a harder platform to push because it cannot keep up with consumer demands.

 - Nokia has struggled to rapidly develop new products with the latest hardware, a trend Elop said means the company "will get further and further behind."

 - MeeGo has stumbled from the word "go" and Elop said "at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market."

 - The mentality of approaching price ranges on a device-by-device basis hasn’t worked, and Nokia needs to address this with an ecosystem approach.

In the past few months, calls have come in from a variety of analysts for Nokia to drop MeeGo, Symbian, or both, in favor of Android or Windows Phone 7 (WP7), which are not the best choices and not something Nokia would be fond of doing.

As Nokia joins Microsoft’s WP7 because of its brand recognition, Microsoft has created a solid platform that can compete with the likes of Android and iOS, but as Steve Ballmer said, the company is having a hard time of getting anyone major to really bite. 

One factor is that WP7 isn’t the priority for any vendor or developer at the moment, with the big names like Samsung, LG and HTC focusing mainly on Android.

Carolina Milanesi, research VP at Gartner, said that a Nokia-Microsoft partnership makes more sense than one with Google. While Google might be happy to offer better hardware at lower prices, there isn’t a big services foothold to be gained. Picking Android would also mean Nokia is still years behind its competitors in terms of devices, UIs and customer experience. The UI is a big worry since most are developing their own Android UIs to differentiate themselves, and one big reason Symbian struggled was because of its UI design.

The one issue that will come out with a possible Microsoft pairing is that the Windows overlord likes to have tight control over its OS. Elop puts Nokia in a good place to negotiate with Microsoft and the adoption of its services like Bing could help the two bridge the gap. Speaking of Bing, it is one of the existing connections between the two: Nokia’s Navteq service provides maps for Bing.

The one thing that may end up working out for Nokia was the timing of this ‘leaked’ memo. It hit the week before the Mobile World Congress and just a few days before Nokia was set to announce its new strategy on February 11. With the announcement Friday and Nokia’s press conference on Sunday, there’s a lot of focus on Nokia in the media, something that hasn’t been too commonplace lately.

Elop ended his memo on a positive note, saying "When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future."

The future is coming, and Nokia better be ready.

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Rovi, Myriad Bring Android Apps and Content to Almost Any Device

From The Online Reporter  

 - Android Support on Non-Android Mobiles

 - Feature Phones Up First

 - Android Content Beamed Across the Whole Living Room

Android has shaped the current smartphone and apps market through its open development, and like all leaders, has imitators coming out of the woodwork. However the latest copycat combined with the latest support service could change the whole landscape of what it means to be an Android device.

Through Android, Google was able to drive a massive amount of developer effort to its platform, but it appears all that work can be harnessed by Google’s rivals. At CES, RIM said its PlayBook tablet could run any Android app, and now we’ve heard how. The QNX system that is the basis for the PlayBook’s OS can run Dalvik, the same virtual machine as Android, allowing apps to work across its platform as well.

Myriad, a mobile java company, is taking this idea to the next level, announcing "Alien Dalvik" that allows Android apps to run on a wide range of non-Google handsets, and possibly tablets too. 

Its Dalvik implementations will open the Android experience to a cornucopia of feature phones, as well as some smartphones, but feature phones will be the main focus because they are key to Myriad’s Java apps business. 

These feature phones will create "new revenue opportunities for mobile operators, OEMs and app store owners," said Myriad.

The industry has been searching for a true ‘write once, install everywhere’ platform and this new iteration of Dalvik seems to be a key to that future.

Feature Phone Functionality

Myriad said that running Android apps on third-party operating systems will not compromise their performance and that they will run without any hiccups.

"From a user perspective, Alien Dalvik is completely transparent," said the company. Users will perceive them to be of the same quality as native apps. It appears as if some apps will be able to run completely unmodified, "allowing application store owners to quickly kick start Android application store services by simply repackaging Android Package (APK) files."

"The proliferation of Android has been staggering, but there is still room for growth. By extending Android to other platforms, we are opening up the market even further, creating new audiences and revenue opportunities," said CEO Simon Wilkinson.

Rovi Makes This Damn Important

Myriad’s announcement didn’t mention Rovi, and we doubt that it is looking to the digital home entertainment company for anything right now, but that’s exactly where everyone’s sights should be.

Around the time of Myriad’s announcement, Rovi announced plans to enable users to stream content from Android apps and devices to connected TVs, STBs and other smart devices.

Rovi said its Connected Platform technologies will be available pre-ported on Android, enabling users to share and stream entertainment content from their Android devices to a range of connected devices throughout the home. 

According to Rovi’s announcement, "Music, photo and video files stored on Android devices powered by Rovi Connected Platform will be capable of sharing media over the consumer’s home network for streamed playback on connected entertainment products such as digital TVs, set-top boxes, digital video recorders, Windows 7 PCs and network-attached storage (NAS) devices."

The platform will also let consumers access, manage and stream content to and from their connected devices and Android mobiles. 

Rovi executive VP of product management and marketing, Corey Ferengul said, "Consumers want easy-to-use media experiences and at the same time are growing the number of devices they use to enjoy entertainment. Sharing among devices is complicated and must be simplified to meet market demand. Pre-porting Connected Platform on the Android platform is a significant step in bridging this gap in the Android ecosystem, enabling device manufacturers to easily integrate robust, standards-based, connected-device capabilities into their mobile offerings."

The Rovi Connected Platform is pre-ported to Android version 2.1 and includes a reference user interface to enable CE manufacturers to customize their offerings. The solution is scheduled to be available for licensing later this quarter, and developers we contacted said it would not be a major issue for feature phones and smartphones running Myriad’s Alien Dalvik. The only issue they foresaw was attaining a license, but didn’t think this would be an issue because of who would be initially using Myriad’s offering.

Consider extending Android functionality to feature phones, and Rovi has a huge market that just got even bigger. Toss in its ownership of Sonic Solutions, very popular in Europe and Asia, and it gets even more interesting. 

These markets are key for this expansion because Myriad has said it will initially bring its Alien Dalvik to MeeGo devices.

To MeeGo We Go

The first commercial target for the new virtual machine will be MeeGo, and other platforms will follow. 

Accompanying its release, Myriad showed a demo video of Alien Dalvik running Android applications on an N900, which received the proper compatibility updates in the PR 1.3 release of Maemo 5.

As Nokia struggles to define a future for itself and its mobile platform, Alien Dalvik offers a way for Nokia to secure more apps without having to change to a new OS or release new handset models.

Myriad CTO Benoit Schilling is a former Nokia CTO and architect of its Qt multi-platform developer framework — which Alien Dalvik relies on. Schilling was also one of the vocal proponents of Nokia and Microsoft creating an alliance to better leverage Windows Phone 7 and MeeGo via a developer kit and toolset that cross both platforms.

The software will be demonstrated on a Nokia N900 at the upcoming Mobile World Congress. 

Just One Thing

There’s just one thing that might upend the whole shebang: a lawsuit against Google from Java owner Oracle.

Google adopted Dalvik for Android, creating some space between its OS and the rest of the Java world. Now, there is a lawsuit covering Android and Dalvik brought by Oracle, claiming that Google infringes on Sun patents and copyrights.

Myriad in turn sued Oracle, saying that it was being overcharged for the use of Java. Google is almost certainly in on this action, as Myriad’s legal counsel Scott Weingaertner is also representing Google in its Oracle battles.

Oh what a tangled Web we weave...

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Virgin Media Launches News 30Mb Service

The UK’s Virgin Media launched a new 30Mb broadband service this week, looking to use it to replace the existing 20Mb service. Virgin said its customers can expect to “receive speeds close to the stated headline 30Mb speed” and that its service won’t be subject to “the 'speed lottery’ that plagues broadband delivered over telephone wires.” The new “XL” service will cost £18.50 per month, down from the previous price of £20, if the consumer also uses a Virgin Media home phone service.

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IntoNow Discovers, Shares What You’re Watching

From The Online Reporter  

 One of the things we were most impressed by at CES, in terms of potential, was the ability of a Gracenote app to determine what a user was watching on TV in a matter of seconds, though at the time Gracenote said it was developing the app to sell to others not directly to consumers which seemed like it might be missing out on a significant market.

Testing out how big that market is will be IntoNow, which is basically a Shazam or SoundHound for TV. IntoNow is both a new startup and an iPhone app that launched this week and is able to recognize what show is currently being played on a TV set.

Using an algorithm to pattern-match a TV show’s audio, the app can match shows to their proper show title, episode title and season.

Instead of coming at this from the Shazam angle of discovering the content a user didn’t know the name of, IntoNow is aiming itself to be a service that shares information about the show in question and lets the user share that they are watching it. Currently, it allows couch spuds to share information across Facebook and Twitter.

Users set up an account and then hold their device near a TV. Pressing a green button will fill the screen with a colorful graph akin to those that demonstrate sound levels, and within 10 seconds the program is identified.

From there, users can:

 - See basic show and cast information.

 - Share their activity and thoughts via Twitter or Facebook.

 - Post information on their IntoNow account.

 - Look for the content on sale via iTunes.

 - Check for the content’s availability on Netflix through their existing account.

 - See related information provided by IMDb.

IntoNow said it sees itself as the link between friend and TV interactions. This connection includes friends on social networks and on IntoNow itself, which gives users a profile that aggregates their activity on the service. Users can also comment here similar to a Facebook wall.

Initial test shows the service identifying a lot of new primetime content. It recognized roughly 90% of what we tested from Hulu Plus and broadcast TV. When playing older content from Netflix, the service stumbled a bit more and was identifying around 70% of the content tested.

Behind the Scenes

The technology, called SoundPrint, monitors 130 channels of live TV, creating sound fingerprints of each shows episode. This is what is the app compares future audio against. As the service adds in new episode indexes, the time to identify content will increase. It is unclear whether or not the service will be able to immediately identify content that is premiering on TV when a user attempts to identify it.

And while this technology is initially being targeted to users, it’ll likely end up behind the scenes. While the company confirmed plans for an Android and WebOS app down the line, it has plans for an open API to allow third-party developers to integrate the service into their own apps.

Like Gracenote’s content ID systems, IntoNow will begin targeting STBs, Blu-ray players and smart TVs with its SoundPrint technology. The likely next step after that is more along the lines of a Yahoo play, extending it to identifying advertisements and shopping content, increasing engagement and hopefully opening wallets.

One thing about these services is that, for the time being, they’ll require both on-screen support and support of additional devices to reach all of their potential customers. Direct television access will secure users that don’t want any extra steps to get the full engagement in their content, while peripheral device support will allow the services to target multiple users in the same household at different points during the shows or commercials in question.

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