Boxee just confirmed the live TV dongle we first reported about a week ago: Boxee Box users will be able to watch free live HD TV on the device starting in January, when the USB dongle will go on sale for $49. Read more »
Tired of those interruptions with spinning wheels and progress bars while you’re watching online video? You aren’t alone: Videos without buffering are watched twice as long as videos with unwelcome breaks, and viewers are 54 percent less likely to return if they experience video buffering. Read more »
Grooveshark relaunched its music service with a much bigger emphasis on activity streams and other social features Thursday night, and company representatives told us that they have big plans in store that should help artists to make more money — because streaming alone doesn’t make anyone rich. Read more »
A bad 2-D movie is something you can shrug off, but a bad 3-D movie can make you physically sick, said DreamWorks Animation CTO Ed Leonard at our GigaOM Roadmap conference in San Francisco on Thursday. Still, DreamWorks is very much committed to 3-D. Read more »
Comcast customers will soon find a new UI on their cable box that will look much less like Grandma’s EPG, and more like an iPad app with social recommendations and universal search. But how open will the cable box of the future be for third-party developers? Read more »
Belgian music rights holders want local ISPs to pay 3.4 percent of their subscriber revenue to compensate for music piracy committed by their customers. Those customers, however, could still be sued for file sharing, even after their ISPs paid for it. Read more »
Wii owners, get ready for a dedicated kids’ UI on your Netflix app — provided that you’re one of the few hundred thousand people in Latin America who have subscribed to the local Netflix service. Support for Latin America’s PS3s will follow soon after. Read more »
Spotify is close to launching a dedicated Roku channel, we’ve been told by a source familiar with both companies’ plans. The music subscription service could launch on Roku devices as early as next month. First screen shots of the channel’s UI look promising. Read more »
The Kindle Fire may be optimized for Amazon’s own Prime video subscription service, but there will nonetheless be a Netflix app available on the device. Other apps available on the Kindle Fire include Twitter, Facebook, Rhapsody, Pandora and games from Zynga, EA and Rovio. Read more »
Huge news for Boxee Box owners: Boxee will soon release a major update that will include the capability to watch live, free over-the-air HD TV on the device though a USB dongle. We were able to take a first peek at the unreleased feature. Read more »
Chrome will soon feature an open-source and open-codec implementation of Google Talk and Google+ Hangouts voice and video chat, thanks to the WebRTC framework the company open-sourced earlier this year. This implementation will replace the proprietary plugin that’s currently bundled with Chrome. Read more »
Porn studios have long been on the forefront of technological development, adopting new media distribution models before mainstream content producers even take notice. So what does it mean that porn companies like Vivid and PinkVisual utilize HTML5, and not native apps, to get on Google TV? Read more »
Vevo gets into the real-time collaborative media consumption game with a new feature called Vevo Rooms that allows music fans to program playlists and chat with one another while they’re watching music videos together, Turntable.fm-style. Vevo Rooms is launched in collaboration with Chill. Read more »
Sixty percent of all video views on YouTube come from people whose primary language is not English. The site addresses this global and multilingual audience with a growing number of languages and localizations as well as an increased effort to monetize video views worldwide. Read more »
Close to three percent of online video viewers watch more than 24 hours of online video per week, according to a new survey. And 62 percent of users profess that they are watching more video online than just a year ago, according to a similar study. Read more »
Netflix will launch in the U.K. and Ireland early next year, but where is it going after that? A recent job offer revealed a number of candidates, including countries like Korea, Germany, Russia and France. Now all Netflix needs is profits to make those plans happen. Read more »
Google TV users can now easily access local media within their home network as well as share videos with other users of the device, thanks to a new Plex app for Google TV. The app also offers access to various Internet content, including music from Spotify. Read more »
Google TV is taking a big step with its update to version 2.0 — but what’s in the card for the platform’s future? Could one day a vendor fork the code to establish a separate Android-powered TV platform, much like Amazon did with the Kindle Fire? Read more »
It’s no surprise that Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks doesn’t like Glenn Beck’s politics. However, Uygur also thinks that Beck doesn’t get online video. Uygur recently signed up with YouTube for its new content initiative instead of relying on a pay wall like Beck. Read more »
Remember Justin Kan, the Justin.tv founder who broadcasted much of his life online to kickstart his company? Hans Eriksson from Swedish Justin.tv competitor Bambuser tries to bring back some of that early live streaming spirit with a 24-hour live tour of New York this week. Read more »
Porn stars are coming to Boxee, thanks to a new app from FyreTV. The X-rated VOD content provider is embracing Boxee and other over-the-top video platforms after previous efforts to rent a dedicated streaming device for adult videos to end users failed to take off. Read more »
Plex, the media center solution of choice for many home theater PC fans, just received a massive update this weekend that makes it easier to access your and your friends’ media collection on your Android or iOS handset. The app is now also available for Windows. Read more »
Don’t worry, John Locke fans, Lost won’t disappear from Netflix, and other ABC content will remain on the service as well. Netflix and Disney re-upped their licensing agreement, which keeps current shows on the service and adds a bunch of new content as well. Read more »
All the reports about YouTube heavily investing into original content are true: The site will be launching a number of curated and scheduled channels with contributions from stars like Madonna, Rainn Wilson, Shaq, Tony Hawk and others. Some shows will be long-form, and some even live. Read more »
Google has updated its Google TV platform with a new UI, a bunch of interesting apps and access to the Android Market. The update is rolling out this Sunday, but we already have a first look at the next version of Google TV right here. Read more »
Google TV is getting a big revamp with a new version launching this weekend that will include access to the Android Market as well as various UI improvements. But for Google, this is just the beginning of a marathon with a clear route mapped out. Read more »
How do you convince people that the future of music is all about access, and not ownership? LimeWire thought it had a solution to this problem with its never-launched Grapevine music subscription service. What did Grapevine have to offer? Take a look for yourself. Read more »
Gone are the days in which traditional cable TV had a larger audience than online video makers: YouTube’s top five channels rival the daily viewership of their cable counterparts. That may explain why YouTube now causes 20 percent of all peak mobile downstream traffic. Read more »
Want to add Airplay-like functionality to your Android phone or tablet? Then take a look at Skifta, which just went out of beta, and utilizes DLNA to share media in your home. It’s part of Qualcomm’s strategy to make the connected home more appealing to consumers. Read more »
The good thing about being a parent is that it’s okay to be an old fart. Your kids will keep up with tech, and they’re already exploring it in fundamentally different ways. Observe them closely, and you’ll learn quite a bit about the future of technology. Read more »
Not scared enough by Netflix’s stock tanking 34 percent this morning? Then how about watching an episode of Spooky Stories featuring Shrek and his donkey sidekick? The show is part of some DreamWorks titles that have made their way to Netlix long before many expected. Read more »
Hollywood’s UltraViolet cloud locker service is finding some new friends in unlikely places: A German blogger reported that he was able to access the site with a coupon code he bought on eBay. The big problem: Codes trade for far less than studios would like. Read more »
BitTorrent Inc. is starting to stream a live DJ set out of its office every Friday afternoon to stress-test its new live streaming platform. BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen and his team have been developing the live streaming platform for close to three years. Read more »
What do consumers think about UltraViolet, Hollywood’s new attempt to preserve its physical disc business, curtail piracy and sell content without Apple’s help through a digital file locker? Judging from numerous reviews on Amazon.com, it looks like quite a few of them are pretty upset. Read more »
Happy birthday to us: It’s been a year since we published the very first episode of Cord Cutters. In that time, we’ve not only released 35 additional episodes but also learned a whole lot about the future of TV, and the people who reinvent it. Read more »
Google’s new Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android will natively play WebM video streams and MKV files. However, don’t expect your Android handset to support all those files you downloaded from The Pirate Bay any time soon; the new codec support largely targets developers. Read more »
How can Vdio possibly compete with Netflix and its 25 million subscribers? That’s a question we heard a lot when we broke the story about the new video service backed by Skype’s co-founder Janus Friis yesterday. The answer may have to do with timing and location. Read more »
YouTube is starting another round of its Next Creators programs, and this time, it’s inviting people from eight countries to join in from home: The site will teach producers for three months via Google+ Hangouts how to make better fitness and cooking videos. Read more »
Vdio just confirmed the story we broke earlier today: The new video startup was founded by Skype cofounder Janus Friis, and the team includes veterans from Skype and Joost. Vdio hasn’t publicly launched yet, but it’s already taking swipes at Netflix and Lovefilm. Read more »
First there was Rdio, now there is Vdio: The Skype founders have stealthily been working on a new video service that seems to be gunning straight for Netflix. Vdio hasn’t publicly launched yet, but we uncovered many details about the company and the people behind it. Read more »
