GigaOM » Geekout

Apple TV: 250,000 Sold In Six Weeks

Ryan Lawler — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:15:45 +0000

Apple didn’t announce the number of Apple TVs sold as part of its earnings release, but Steve Jobs was on the company’s investor call today and gave the first official numbers for how many of the brand new set-top box have seen purchased. So far, the sales are pretty good: Jobs reported that the company has sold more than 250,000 Apple TVs since the company first made the product available in early September.

Apple first announced the new Apple TV broadband set-top box on September 1, pricing it at $99 and announcing a new business model for streaming rentals of TV episodes and movie files. With the new streaming model, Apple rents TV episodes from Fox and ABC for 99 cents, compared to the $1.99 price for standard definition episode downloads and HD downloads for $2.99.

To put that into perspective: Roku reported at the beginning of this year that it had sold 500,000 of its set-top devices after about a year-and-a-half on the market, and hopes to have sold more than a million of its box by the end of the year. So Apple is tracking well ahead of other, similar devices already in the market.

That said, Apple TV is still very much a hobby when compared to the other products it makes. Apple sold 4.2 million iPads and 3.9 million Macs in the third quarter, as well as 9 million iPods and 14 million iPhones. While those products were available all quarter, compared to just the last several weeks like the Apple TV, it’s clear that it could be some time before Apple’s video set-top box becomes a significant portion of Apple’s business.

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Your Next Class Project: A Boxee or FiOS App?

Janko Roettgers — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:00:11 +0000

Kids, stay in school! At least if you’re at NYU’s IPT program, that is, because its students can actually get credits for developing apps for Boxee, as NYU’s Shawn Van Every told the audience of the TV of Tomorrow Show in San Francisco today. The school partnered with Boxee last fall to develop a number of apps that ended up being showcased at the startup’s Boxee Beta unveiling in Brooklyn. Shawn Van Every was joined on the panel by a number of small and big industry players to talk about newteevee innovation happening on campus.

Verizon FiOS TV Director of Interactive Video Services Maitreyi Krishnaswamy reported that the company has been reaching out to academic institutions as well. “We would love to be the incubator for these innovative applications,” she said, explaining that Verizon started the beta version of its FiOS developer program in October. It has since launched 25 apps on FiOS. “That is big in the cable industry,” Krishnaswamy said. Boxee co-founder Idan Cohen was quick to chime in and report that there are now over 300 apps available on his own company’s platform. “Everyone has a Facebook and Twitter app,” he said. “That’s not interesting.”

Two of the apps mentioned by Van Every are Qurious.tv, which provides contextual information gathered from Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube based on the metadata of a video served by Boxee, and Trendlines.info, which compiles a video playlist based on trending topics on Twitter, Google, NYTimes.com and CNN.com. A big reason to go with Boxee was its openness, according to Van Every, who compared the low barrier of entry to the development of web apps. Usually, app developers would “face some uphill battles” when they tried to develop applications for TV, he said.

Krishnaswamy responded by saying that Verizon gradually wanted to open up its platform as well. The company currently has 20 partners developing widgets for FiOS, and it’s providing these partners with APIs as well as a FiOS TV interactive media guide emulator for PCs. It plans to open up its developer community in June, offering easier access to its FiOS SDK. However, there’s always going to be some level of consideration before apps get deployed.

Verizon also offers different levels of access for its APIs to different types of developers. There is going to be a basic tier for free and ad-supported apps without the need for rich metadata, an advanced level for content partners that want to develop apps that are closer related to FiOS programming and an academic level. Verizon will give content partners access to a wider range of APIs and metadata in exchange for revenue share agreements based on advertising, one-off charges or subscriptions. Academic institutions, on the other hand, will have access to the whole set of APIs for free, according to Krishnaswamy.

Related GigaOm Pro Content: With TV Apps, Over-the-Top Video Gets New Backers (subsxcription required)

Get Ready for the iPad to Change the Way You Watch Video

Ryan Lawler — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:00:39 +0000

Apple has always been in the innovation business, and the iPad is no exception. And the iPad, like the iPod before it, could fundamentally change the way we consume media — in this case, video.

The iPad might not be the first mass market portable media device to offer the ability to watch digital video on the fly, but it will probably be the most important one. Apple has been selling online video for viewing on the iPod and the iPhone for years. But those devices had some serious limitations — notably their screen size. With just a 3.5-inch screen, the iPhone was never an ideal video device, though it was “good enough” for watching video on the go. But with a 9.7-inch screen, the iPad is basically a portable TV screen, ideal for consuming video anytime, anywhere.

This is arguably why Apple is pushing content partners to lower the cost of their movies and TV shows, according to reports. It’s betting that the launch of the new device will drive more demand for those files, and that a price decrease will only accelerate that demand, making up for any revenue losses due to halving the price by an increase in volume. By integrating iTunes into the device, Apple is betting that consumers will finally have a platform with which to embrace online video.

And why wouldn’t they? There’s already a huge number of consumers that use their laptops for “bedroom viewing,” tuning to Hulu, YouTube, and other sites before turning off the lights and going to bed. Commuters have turned to watching video on their iPods or iPhones instead of reading a book. And now, Apple has presented those users with a devices that bridges the divide between those two use cases. A device that is big enough to comfortably watch a full-length TV show or movie, but not so bulky as lugging around a laptop. Apple has, in short, created a whole new market opportunity by introducing a device that solves a problem most didn’t even think existed: how to make it easy for users to watch video on the go.

The iPad will cause ripples in multiple industries — including news, book publishing and gaming — but at the end of the day, I’m betting that what the iPad will be used for more than anything is watching video. Like the iPod, it’s only a matter of time before the iPad becomes the defining product with which to consume that type of media.

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Sling Player Mobile 2.0 for WinMo Gets Finger Friendly

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:08 +0000

As a long-time Slingbox owner, it’s good to see the mobile software still progressing. While I’m wishing for an Android version of the client, Windows Mobile users keep marching forward — today the company released SlingPlayer Mobile v.2.0 for WinMo 6 touchscreen device owners. And unlike the iPhone version, this software supports either Wi-Fi or 3G streaming of television content from home to your handset. Continue reading on jkOnTheRun.

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Break Media Bets Big on Social Games

Ryan Lawler — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:15:22 +0000

Break Media is betting big on social gaming, announcing today that it has launched a game production house in China and will soon introduce what it hopes will be the first of many new social games. In addition to the male-oriented Break.com, the company runs a half dozen or so web sites focused on subjects like race car driving and mixed martial arts. By adding games on those sites, Break hopes to drive deeper engagement and grow revenues through additional advertising and the sale of virtual goods.

The first social game that Break plans to release, MMA FightPicker, will be featured on its mixed martial arts site, CagePotato.com. The game, which combines social gaming and fantasy sports elements, enabling players to join pools and make predictions on upcoming MMA matches, will also be available on Facebook and other social networking sites. It’s set to be released Feb. 1.

Break’s new social gaming studio, located in Shanghai, is being managed by Alex Lien, former COO of game development company Winking Entertainment. According to Break CEO Keith Richman, the studio was first opened in October with about a dozen employees, but it plans to expand that number to more than 30. As a result, Break expects it to quickly ramp up production and push out about half a dozen new games by the end of this year.

The move comes as part of Break’s effort to diversify its business, spending more money on user-generated content acquisitions, as well as producing its own original and branded content. Last January it launched an in-house production organization called Creative Lab, and later acquired HBOlab to bolster its production capabilities. Over the past year, Richman says Break has grown substantially, to 110 employees from 70, and that such growth is set to continue into the new year.

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YouTube Stumbles Into the Era of HTML5

Janko Roettgers — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:00:57 +0000

YouTube announced the launch of an HTML5 video test on its blog last evening, but had some trouble delivering on its promise. The test only went live hours after the blog post, leaving many users wondering what all the fuzz was about.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that the current test is limited to subset of YouTube’s videos as well as new versions of Safari and Chrome. Firefox users won’t be able to play any videos with the new, Flash-free HTML5 video player because their browser doesn’t support Google’s video format of choice, H.264. The decision to go with a proprietary rather than an open video codec immediately enraged the very open source user base that has been advocating for YouTube to drop Adobe Flash.

Chrome and Safari as well as IE users that have installed Google’s ChromeFrame can go to YouTube’s TestTube page and opt into the HTML5 test, after which they’ll be able to watch many videos on the site completely without Flash. Videos with ads are still playing as Flash streams by default, and some other videos also don’t seem to be available as part of the test yet. I browsed the PBS Newshour archive and found the results to be inconsistent. Some clips played in Flash while others were available in HTML5.

Playback in HTML5 generally worked smoothly, but a few features are still amiss: Annotations and subtitles aren’t available, and videos can’t be played back in full-screen mode. Also missing is an option to switch between various video resolutions. However, a quick glance at the page source code revealed that this is apparently in the works, with the player’s JavaScript code in the case of one Newshour clip referencing the three video formats “medium” “hd720″ and “hd1080.” The same video was available in four different resolutions (360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p) when watched with Flash.

Also interesting: The HTML5 player itself is referenced as “new yt.player.VideoPlayer.” One could speculate that this could be a sign for YouTube’s determination to roll out wider support for HTML5 and in fact one day treat HTML5 as the new standard to play videos. YouTube’s announcement wasn’t quite as committed, but certainly optimistic about the format’s future, closing with the words: “We are very excited about HTML5 as an open standard and want to be part of moving HTML5 forward on the web.”

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Vid-Biz: Boxee, Sling, NAB

Ryan Lawler — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:30:48 +0000

Boxee Box Remote Has a QWERTY Keyboard; the company says for people to get the most out of the box the remote was going to need to do more than just point and click. (Boxee blog) Meanwhile, Engadget goes ‘hands on’ with the Boxee Box. (Engadget)

Sling Unleashes a Placeshifting Quartet; the Sling Monitor 150, Sling Receiver 300, Slingbox 700u and Sling Touch Control remote are all new, but they won’t be available for sale direct to consumers. (Zatz Not Funny!)

NAB Says the Retrans Process Works; association praises the retransmission-consent agreements between Fox and Time Warner Cable, as well as between Fisher Communications and Bright House Networks. (Multichannel News)

Fox’s Digital Publishing Group Sold To VantagePoint; News Corp has offloaded the group that develops and manages content management and digital publishing systems for Fox local affiliate TV station websites. (paidContent)

BT Launches Hybrid Set-Top Box for BT Vision; the new set-top box for BT’s Microsoft Mediaroom-powered service will connect to existing TV antennas and also connects to BT broadband lines in order to provide access to on-demand and interactive content and services. (InteractiveTV Today)

Marseille Networks Touts Faster, Cheaper Way to Make Chips; the company says it has designed chips using a new kind of virtual prototyping tool that can cut the costs of chip development dramatically. (VentureBeat)

ReelSurfer Offers a White Label Solution for Video Search; the startup processes long-form video and turns it into short, relevant segments that are easy to watch and search through. (TechCrunch)

Tremor Unveils New Video Ad Formats; the company introduced six new ad formats, each designed to move advertisers away from pre-roll and toward greater engagement with consumers, either by letting the audience choose which ads they want to watch or by delivering a greater variety of ads. (ClickZ)

Blockbuster Starts Converting Stores to Outlets; some of its lesser-performing stores are being converted to outlet-type operations that offer only sell-through DVDs and consumer electronics for sale, but no movie rentals. (Video Business)

Dailymotion Announces Broadband TV Advertising Formats; the newly launched ad formats bring the rich, interactive experience of Web advertising to Internet connected TVs. (IPTVwatch)

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YouTube HD on a Big TV (via Netgear)

Chris Albrecht — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:45:45 +0000

Netgear threw a press event last night to show off some of the products it will be debuting at CES next month. Among them was its new set-top box, the EVA 9000 Digital Entertainer Elite, which, to my pleasant surprise, can stream HD YouTube videos to an actual HD TV.

How does it look? Awesome. Take a look for yourself. (The demo of YouTube kicks in around the 1:50 mark)

Watching YouTube HD on a big screen, you get a glimpse at YouTube’s future: premium content from networks and studios delivered straight to your TV sans any cable provider. And it makes you realize why the company reversed its position on pre-rolls as they will look just like commercials on a big screen and probably be more tolerated since people will be in their living rooms.

Beyond YouTube, the Netgear box can manage your BitTorrents as well as other video content on your network, and streams other web video like podcasts and such. It currently doesn’t stream Netflix content, but the Netgear rep didn’t rule that out as a possibility. The Digital Entertainer Elite will ship in the first quarter of next year and will be priced at $399. By Netgear’s own admission, the Digital Entertainer Elite is more for the tech-savvy, early adopter, not your average Roku user.

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Sling Introduces New Box, Symbian Support

Om Malik — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:00:34 +0000

The Sling Media team is on a bit of a high this week. A few days after being acquired by Echostar (DISH), the Foster City, CA-based company is introducing a new product called the Slingbox SOLO. The sleek and very attractive device connects to a set-top box and streams video in either standard digital or high definition. It costs $179.99.

Sling Media also announced a new version of its SlingPlayer Mobile software for S60 software on Symbian OS platform that Nokia N-series and E-series phones. The new software costs $29.95, but will be free for N95 customers. If you remember, Sling CEO Blake Krikorian had showed up with a 3G Nokia N95 phone with this special software installed on our The GigaOM Show. Here is our beta review.

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Apple TV Now Playing YouTube: Hands-On Video

Jonathan — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:13:37 +0000

By guest columnist Jonathan Greene.

title=”Photo Sharing”> src=”http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1242/575774268_1f15aca7c8_o.jpg”
width=”389″ height=”219″ alt=”AppleTV with YouTube” />

I just updated my href=”http://www.apple.com/appletv”>AppleTV with the latest
software to get access to YouTube
and I have to say that the H.264 quality is excellent! We all know
what the majority of YouTube video looks like, but this is something
well beyond what you normally see and bodes very well for the iPhone
when it’s released next week.

Once you connect and login, you can see your favorites and rate or
report video. You can’t however see your own videos or those of your
friends / subscriptions which seems like an oversight to me. I would
expect to see that in a future update since that’s a large part of the
community aspect within YouTube.

I shot some video of the process which should give you some insight
into the update process as well as the quality of the experience.
It’s not the most exciting of videos, but here you go:

width=”480″ height=”302″ id=”viddler”> value=”http://www.viddler.com/player/4acc8d52/” /> name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always” /> src=”http://www.viddler.com/player/4acc8d52/” width=”480″ height=”302″
type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowScriptAccess=”always”
name=”viddler” >

Jonathan Greene is a long-time contributor to GigaOM network. He is an entrepreneurial marketer focused on bringing the benefits of ROI-driven direct response techniques to the digital arena.

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