The impacts of the purely JavaScript-based system are multiple: for end users, the ability to run native PC apps on any device with an internet connection and to purchase and protect content without digital-rights management (DRM); for content creators, cheaper, faster rendering and the ability to distribute anywhere viewers can type in a URL; and for open web or cloud-computing advocates, a push away from proprietary or legacy plug-ins and an embrace of HTML5. With the presence of William Morris Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel at the launch on Friday, the creators of the ORBX.js technology were also seeking to emphasize its piracy-fighting powers for the movie and TV industries: with video streams or apps watermarked in the cloud, DRM in the browser becomes unnecessary.

OTOY and Mozilla came together recently with the realization of a shared goal: trying to turn the web into the platform for all apps. Mozilla’s effort to implement H.264 in Firefox inspired OTOY to rewrite their own codec to run in JavaScript, said OTOY founder and CEO Jules Urbach at the launch event in San Francisco on Friday, and the partnership has now culminated in an optimized rendering experience that is approaching native app speeds in Firefox. Among the capabilities demonstrated at the launch were a virtualized Windows desktop running in Safari, lag-free gaming in a browser and streaming that can be adaptively encoded based on a user’s bandwidth.

“Web is the medium,” said Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski, who was very upbeat about the possibilities of the new tech for increasing work collaboration and creativity, and reducing delays through real-time rendering. Besides investing in OTOY, Autodesk’s interest is in providing 3D apps to their customers using cloud resources. The implications for agility — both for individuals and for enterprises — are freeing: a low-power home device can drive the centralized, high-power cloud machine, eliminating the need for a high-end workstation or provisioning of hardware assets to employees or contractors. Kowalski’s suggestion, in fact, was that such a move will allows users to downgrade their hardware, because it no longer has to match the needs of the software.

So what is needed for ORBX.js to work? Any HTML5 browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE10 or Opera) will do, but it needs to have WebGL technology to take advantage of the codec’s full decoding speed. Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich predicted that Apple will eventually come around to more fully accept WebGL. When asked if Apple, Google, or big streaming providers can do anything to stop the use of ORBX, Urbach said nothing short of getting rid of the browser would stop the tech from being used.

The central issues with streaming all of your computing are bandwidth and money. Video seemed to stream well on an iPhone over 4G, and with the adaptive streaming and superior compression of ORBX, Urbach projects a 25 percent bandwidth savings for, say, Netflix streaming. For that to happen, Netflix, Amazon and other providers have to adopt ORBX, something that the Mozilla-OTOY partnership is actively working on. They are hoping that their solution will be the one to put the format wars to rest, and allow consumers to collect the highest-definition content possible in a way that is format-agnostic. With respect to pricing, a ballpark figure suggested at the launch was $300 per year for OTOY’s cloud-rendering engine to take over one person’s computing needs. Pricing is still up in the air, but Urbach expects an AMI to launch later this year with the second generation of ORBX that will also include HDR encoding capabilities.

The videos below show streaming video and gaming through a browser using ORBX (via Mozilla).

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The app lets people “watch CBS shows on the best screen available for them,” CBS Interactive president Jim Lanzone said in a statement, “with a host of extra features that give them a richer viewing experience whenever and wherever they tune in.” Those extra features, which will be integrated “by the start of the Fall TV season,” will include “integrated social feeds; live events that allow fans to engage directly with talent; and second-screen experiences synched to the broadcast with additional content for select shows.”

Shows available through the app include NCIS, The Good Wife, Survivor, CSI and How I Met Your Mother, among others. But full episodes of some well-known shows, like The Big Bang Theory and The Mentalist, are missing from the app even though they’re available through CBS’s website. And the app does not provide a way to catch up on past seasons, or even all of a current season: only select episodes are available.

Other networks are also experimenting with offering streaming through their apps. NBC allows streaming of some shows through its iOS app, for example, while Fox only lets users stream full episodes through its “Fox Now” app if they authenticate their subscription to a TV provider.

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For now, HitBliss is available only on the web and on desktops, not on mobile devices — though the company plans to expand to other platforms soon. Among the available content at launch are new movies like Argo, Magic Mike and The Bourne Legacy and new episodes of shows like Real Housewives and The Walking Dead.

Users are served a “playlist” of ads that are delivered to them based on information that they include in a profile. When they watch the ads, they earn virtual cash that can eventually be redeemed for content. Users can specify how much information they’re willing to make available to advertisers; the more information they share, the faster they earn.

Other companies have dabbled with virtual currency in exchange for video. Yidio, for instance, gives users points for completing various tasks, and the points can then be redeemed for Amazon Video on Demand credits. HitBliss is different, however, in that both earning and viewing are done through the same platform.

As HitBliss users watch ads — which they can do at any time, not just right before they want to watch a movie or TV show — cash accumulates in their accounts, and they can redeem it when they wish. HitBliss charges $3.99 for a new movie rental, $1.99 for an older movie rental and $1.99 per TV episode. (Movie rentals last 24 hours, while users will own the TV episodes.) In general, about 8 to 10 minutes of ad viewing (roughly four ads) can be redeemed for one new movie.

The system includes a lot of checks to make sure that users are actually watching ads. “Advertisers are only paying when users are paying attention,” HitBliss cofounder and CMO Sharon Peyer told me. If a user plays an ad and then navigates away or mutes the sound, the ad pauses. An “attention assurance meter” — with a patent pending — occasionally requires users to click it to ensure that they’re paying attention; if they are not, “it gets very angry,” Peyer said, referring to a smily-face icon that turns to a frown the longer it is ignored, before ultimately resetting the ad and requiring the user to watch it again. Over time, users earn “trust points” that decrease the frequency of prompts to make sure they’re paying attention.

Peyer said the platform’s store will eventually expand to include other types of digital content, like apps and virtual goods. HitBliss is based in Lexington, Mass., and is backed by Andy Marcuvitz’s Alpond Capital. Peyer and her husband, CEO Andrew Prihodko, founded the company in mid-2008 after selling a video- and picture-sharing site called Pixamo.

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In addition, Netflix announced it will make new DreamWorks movies available for streaming, “beginning with the studio’s 2013 film line-up.”

“Netflix boasts one of the largest and fastest-growing audiences in kids television. They pioneered a new model for TV dramas with House of Cards, and now together, we’re doing the same thing with kids’ programming,” DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said in a statement.

Turbo is an animated film about a snail who competes in the Indy 500. Netflix’ series will focus on Turbo’s subsequent adventures. The show’s first season includes 26 episodes, each 22 minutes long. A Netflix spokeswoman wouldn’t say whether the entire season will be released at once, as it was with House of Cards.

Amazon is also pushing into original children’s programming for Prime Instant Video, and recently announced its first five pilots.

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Users of other services should watch the show while they can. Netflix only has Season 1, which a source familiar with the deal says it will lose on July 1, while Hulu Plus has Seasons 1 and 2.

A press release lays out the timing:

Beginning June 18, 2013, Prime Instant Video will be the exclusive subscription service for streaming the all-new Season 3 of Downton Abbey, and later this year, no digital subscription service other than Prime Instant Video will offer any seasons of Downton Abbey. Prime Instant Video will continue to be the exclusive subscription home through Season 4 and, if produced, Season 5 of Downton Abbey.

It’s easy to see why Amazon wants this deal. Downton Abbey is ”the most popular TV series with Prime Instant Video customers, ever,” the company said.

Fans should still be able to watch new episodes on PBS.org and will continue to be able to buy individual episodes and seasons from iTunes and Amazon.

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The kids’ pilots, along with the six comedy pilots, will be posted on Amazon Instant Video, Prime Instant Video, Lovefilm UK and Lovefilm Germany, where customers can watch them for free and help determine which go into production.

It’s all part of Amazon’s initiative to remove the middleman from streaming TV. The shows’ creators get $10,000 when their show is optioned and $55,000 if it’s chosen for production, as well as a share of licensing fees and other royalties. Amazon says it’s now optioned a total of 25 projects, and it’s looking for more children’s and comedy shows.

Here are the first five children’s pilots:

Creative Galaxy

Creative Galaxy is an animated interactive art adventure series, designed to inspire kids’ creative thinking through crafts, story, music and dance. The series was created by Angela Santomero, creator of Super Why!, the Emmy-nominated literacy series, Blue’s Clues and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

Oz Adventures

In this innovative problem solving series, Dot, Dorothy’s daughter, goes off to Oz everyday with the children of the beloved characters from L. Frank Baum’s classic book, The Wizard of Oz. In each episode, the yellow brick road leads Dot to a new magical location where she solves problems alongside her Oz friends.

Teeny Tiny Dogs

Produced by The Jim Henson Company (Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train) and created by Howard Baker (Rugrats), Teeny Tiny Dogs follows Butch, Butterfly, Dinky and Polly as they help one another navigate the big world despite their teeny, tiny, small size. This series promotes happiness through friendship, learning, growing and developing a strong sense of self as seen through the eyes of canine friends.

Tumbleaf

Tumbleaf was created by Drew Hodges and Bix Pix Studios, an award-winning stop motion studio. The series, aimed at preschoolers, is set in a whimsical land where a small blue fox named Fig plays each day and discovers adventure, friendship and love around every bend in the path. Children will be enriched by narratives that promote play through exploration and cognitive reasoning.

The Untitled J.J. Johnson Project

The Untitled J.J. Johnson Project revolves around Anne, a young scientist, who creates three robot helpers to assist her scientific experiments in the back of her dad’s junkyard. This science-based series from creator J.J. Johnson (Dino Dan, This is Emily Yeung) aims to introduce kids to science and technology in a fun, new way.

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AT&T revealed it is exploring a universal mobile phone number, which can be detached from the phone and stuck in any device or app. On the connected home front, Ma Bell announced it was expanding its Digital Life home security and automation service beyond its initial two trial markets. In the U-Verse group, AT&T is also launching a new subscription video-on-demand service, which allows customers to stream movies and TV shows to their smartphones, tablets and PC browsers.

Let’s take them one at a time:

• The big news at AT&T’s Developer Summit was a new API which gives third party programmers and device makers access to AT&T’s most important customer asset: the phone number. By tapping into the API, developers can start tying IP voice, messaging and social networking platforms directly to AT&T phone numbers and extend a single number to multiple devices and applications. The API platform, which was developed over Voxeo Labs’ Tropo platform and rides over AT&T’s Ericsson-built IP Multimedia subsystem (IMS) services framework, is still just in beta, but it could wind up being one of AT&T’s most sought after APIs. If there is one login or network identifier that every mobile user has it’s a phone number.
• AT&T’s Digital Life connected home service will be available in eight markets in March and will roll out to more than 50 markets in 2013. The service is currently available in Dallas and Atlanta, but AT&T didn’t reveal the identity of the six new cities. AT&T has big ambitions for its smart home unit cementing together disparate connectivity areas ranging from climate control to the pet monitoring. To that end, Ma Bell and Cisco Systems announced a new home control panel, which connects those apps and their supporting hardware to the network.
• The new VOD service will be called Screen Pack, and it’s likely AT&T’s answer to Netflix and other on-demand streaming services. AT&T is charging $5 a month for the service, offering up unlimited streaming of “more than a thousand” movies on demand from the set-top box, a browser or from U-Verse smartphone and tablet apps.

CES is just getting started, so we may hear plenty more from AT&T as the week progresses, but don’t count on this year’s event as being a big phone-centric event. FierceWireless polled several analysts and insiders before the event, arriving at the conclusion that the mobile carriers and device vendors would focus more on the “mobile experience” rather than the mobile device. Given AT&T’s news today, Fierce appears to be on the mark.

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The San Francisco-based FORA.tv already provides pay-per-view and free access to over 10,000 videos from such events. Video of the full 2012 New Yorker festival, for example, is $99.95 or $9.95 per session, and video of the 2012 Washington Ideas Forum is $44.95 or $2.95 per session. But the company says many members requested a subscription model.

With Front Row, subscribers can pay $99.99 per year or $9.99 per month to gain access to all the videos 60 days after they’re posted on FORA.tv. Other perks for members include audio and video downloads of certain free videos, no pre-roll ads and a 20 percent discount on content that’s less than 60 days old.

FORA.tv CEO Blaise Zeraga says the majority of pay-per-view videos are purchased a week before the event and in the two weeks after it. Front Row will be a good way for publishers to generate revenue from older content “by capitalizing on long-tail interest,” he says.

Netflix is also experimenting with conference video and recently added dozens of TED Talks to its streaming offerings.

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