SlingPlayer coming to the BlackBerry
September 29, 2007
Sling Media has confirmed to Pocket-lint that it is working on a version of its SlingPlayer software for the BlackBerry OS.
“We are working with BlackBerry to develop a software application at the moment”, Stuart Collingwood, VP of Europe for Sling Media told us.
The news means that BlackBerry users across the world will soon be able to stream their television from home to a BlackBerry device anywhere in the world as long as they have an internet connection.
The news comes on the back of the announcement that Sling Media will be supporting six Symbian OS handsets including the N95.
Sling Media, who are quick to recommend people sign up for a flat rate data package or use the on board Wi-Fi where possible say that people who’ve seen the application working are “blown away by the performance”.
No word as yet as to when the software will be available.
Source: pocket-lint
Joost beta 1.0 released! Now with new UI!
September 27, 2007
Guess what just quietly showed up! Yes, the shiny new Joost beta client 1.0 for Mac and Windows:
As you can see below the UI has been updated to a new dark gray transparent theme. This new UI was previously reported here as the “spoon” UI. I am pleased to see that it is now present throughout the most part of the client interface.
Joost now offer a completely re-designed Channel Guide called “Explore”.
By clicking on the categories listed on the left you will be presented a nicely animated list of channels corresponding to your selection. The interface is visually much better than the previous one… but I have yet to figure out how to do basic tasks I had no problem doing before.
For example, I can’t seem to be able to delete channels from “My Channels”… and I have not found how to add new channels to “My Channels” yet. It is almost as if the interface is 75% done and is lacking 25% of it’s functionality.
I also noticed some UI left overs from the previous release… like the “Coming Up” notice shown below. Compare the old black UI look alongside the new gray one:
Or the help screen shown when clicking the “?” in the bottom panel:
But I will take the new UI over the old one any day… even with the current issues.
Go download Joost Beta 1.0 here!
Nice work Joost!
P.S.: Get your beta invitation at: <no more needed> if you need one! Direct from Joost!
Update Oct 1 2007:
Took the invitation link down. Joost is now available to all and no longer requires invitation!
CFL content find a place on Joost
September 27, 2007
The Wildcard Sports Network to broadcast Canadian Football League content from the 2007 season
TORONTO, CANADA and DUBLIN, IRELAND (CFL) — Wildwave, a leading provider of mobile digital entertainment and the Canadian Football League, today announced their plans to carry CFL content on Joost, the world’s first broadcast-quality Internet television service. The CFL action will be featured on Wildcard Sports Network, the new Sports Channel from Wildwave. The CFL will become the first league in the world to be carried in season on Joost.
Joost provides a new way of watching TV that combines the best of full-screen television entertainment with online interactive and community benefits, to bring an unprecedented selection of video content to viewers anytime, anywhere.
“We’re delighted to be launching Wildcard Sports Network with CFL content”, says Stephen McCormack, CEO of Wildwave. “There is a huge pent up demand for Canadian Sports and the CFL in particular, across the World and with the launch of Wildcard Sports Network on Joost, with the CFL as our featured launch partner, we can now provide this compelling League’s most hard-hitting content to a worldwide audience on today’s most advanced Internet TV platform.”
“Partnering with Wildwave and Joost allows us to extend our reach with fans in North America and across the world,” said CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon. “We are excited to work with Joost as we continue to build on our commitment in offering fans content on as many platforms as possible and showcasing the excitement of our players and our game.”
The Wildcard Sports Network will feature hard-hitting and compelling video from the CFL each week and will include Plays of the Week, Game Highlights and the best action from the previous weekend’s games.
“This represents a major step forward for the CFL and for professional sports worldwide, especially as a strong addition to the Leagues mobile, broadband and other ‘non-traditional’ media offerings” says Tony Dillistone, Head of Development, North America for Wildwave “ We intend to promote the CFL very aggressively on the new channel and plan to introduce a range of exciting community loyalty-building and interactive features such as game listings, results widgets and fan-generated content over the coming months.
Joost users can watch the channel in continuous programmed mode or can skip to their favourite programs via the innovative menu system.
Founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, Joost claims to be the first online, global TV distribution platform, bringing together advertisers, content owners and viewers in an interactive, community-driven environment.
About Wildwave
Wildwave develops, distributes and delivers Digital Entertainment content for mobile devices. Wildwave specializes in content that is specifically made for mobile or is par-ticularly suited to the mobile audience. Focused on Mobile Video and Music, Wildwave has an extensive catalogue of content ranging from Hip Hop to Indie Music Videos, Real-tones & Full Track downloads to Independent short film, animation, extreme sports, lifestyle programming and magazine shows (movies, music, gadgets).
Existing clients include: Google, Sony, Joost, Vodafone, Cingular, Chorus, Telus Mo-bility, Nokia. O2, 3
For Mobile Carriers and Device Manufacturers, Wildwave can provide compelling con-tent for an ever-changing and evolving mobile marketplace.
For Content Owners, Wildwave can help develop existing content assets for mobile devices & markets and exploit distribution opportunities in US, Europe and Asia.
About the Canadian Football League
Building on a strong past toward a stronger future, the Canadian Football League (CFL) celebrates the best of Canada’s game with fans across the nation. The 95th Grey Cup will be played in Toronto, ON, on November 25, 2007.
Source: http://www.cfl.ca/
Microsoft going after YouTube, Apple and Joost
September 27, 2007
If Internet-based video is the wave of the future, many of us are already drenched with options including such as YouTube, Joost and Apple’s iTunes. But today, Microsoft is making a play to have its own video download service added to the mix.
During his keynote speech at the DigitalLife show here in New York, Microsoft executive Joe Belfiore will pitch Microsoft’s new, free streaming video service, called Internet TV.
Going into beta on Sept. 28, Microsoft’s Internet TV service will enable users to stream content from MSN Video. It will also offer more than 100 hours of additional, ad-supported content, including television shows like “Arrested Development,” full-length music concerts, movie trailers, news from MSNBC and sports from FOX Sports.
YuMe, a broadband video advertising network, is handling the ad delivery for Microsoft.
Microsoft Internet TV is designed for both the TV and PC screen, the company said in a statement. The service’s video is optimized for broadband, and will be compatible with Microsoft and third-party “media extenders” devices for Windows Media Center.
These devices — a new crop of which Belfiore will highlight during the show — wirelessly connect a TV with a PC, delivering TV, PVR, movies, pictures, music and online services to any television set in a home. The products support connections to PCs running Windows Media Center in Windows Vista and generally, Windows XP Media Center Edition.
Media extenders to date include the Xbox 360 console as well as third-party products by a number of networking and storage companies. At the show, Microsoft is expected to showcase new media extenders from Cisco’s Linksys unit, D-Link, and Hewlett-Packard, which all unveiled their products today.
Belfiore said in a statement that the devices are “designed to deliver the ultimate entertainment experience to every TV set in your home.”
Microsoft has long been supportive of efforts to extend Internet-based multimedia throughout the home. The company’s chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates last publicly touted extender devices in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
It’s also a hot category for other major players in the PC space. Apple Inc. announced its own $299 PC-to-TV device, Apple TV, only a few months before.
Apple’s offering is designed to let consumers play their movie and TV downloads on the living room TV, and is compatible with the company’s iTunes download service. In May, Apple partnered with Google’s YouTube video streaming service to provide additional, specially formatted content for the device.
When Apple launched Apple TV last year, Phil Leigh, analyst with Inside Digital Media, said at the time that such products answered a consumer desire to not just download Internet video, but to watch in on their televisions.
Today, however, Leigh described the Microsoft effort as, “an incremental step in the right direction, I don’t see it as much more than that.”
Yet a number of Microsoft partners are still banking that consumers’ desire remains for watching streaming video on their TVs.
Linksys today announced two Media Center Extender products — one with a DVD player, and one without — for estimated street prices of $349.99 and $299.99, respectively.
From D-Link comes the DSM-750 MediaLounge HD Media Center Extender, which supports HD video resolutions of up to 1080i and Windows Media Video (WMV), DivX, and XVid formats. It includes a USB 2.0 port for access to music, photos and videos on removable Flash drives or external hard drives. It’s estimated price is also $349.99.
The HP MediaSmart LCD HDTV — a television with built-in Media Center Extender capability and 802.11n wireless — will be available in Best Buy stores for an as-of-yet undetermined price.
Source: InternetNews
MLB.COM TEAMS UP WITH JOOST
September 27, 2007
Baseball fans can watch MLB postseason games and highlights on-demand via Joost
NEW YORK – Sept. 27, 2007 – Joost™ announced an exclusive partnership with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, today. The agreement grants Joost the rights to make on-demand game broadcasts and highlight clips from the 2007 MLB postseason, including the World Series, and Daily Rewind, an MLB.com produced daily highlight program, available on its streaming video distribution platform to a global viewing audience.
“The baseball postseason, concluding with the World Series, truly embodies the greatest aspects of the game and engages an international audience,” said Kenny Gersh, senior vice president, business development, MLB Advanced Media. “Our partnership with Joost allows us to continue to reach baseball’s increasingly growing global fan base by providing them with free on-demand broadcasts of every game from the most dramatic and emotionally-charged month on the baseball calendar.”
The Daily Rewind program, a 30-minute program that features highlights from all the championship action on and off the field, will be streamed on Joost domestically and internationally, outside of Japan, on a daily basis. In addition, within 24 hours of their initial airing, Joost will begin streaming games on-demand from the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series around the world, outside of the U.S. and Japan. All games and shows will be available on Joost for one month.
Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, executive vice president of content strategy and acquisition for Joost, said, “Baseball brings friends and families together, and we have a unique opportunity to connect fans around the world on Joost while they watch these games and highlights on their time, on demand, online. This is a great partnership between Joost and MLBAM that will delight our users.”
Founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, Joost combines the best of TV and the best of the Internet by offering viewers a full-screen audiovisual experience enhanced with the choice, control and flexibility of Web 2.0. Joost is the first online, global TV distribution platform, bringing together advertisers, content owners and viewers in an interactive, community-driven environment.
For more information or to sign up for Joost, please visit www.joost.com.
About Joost
Joost provides a new way of watching TV that combines the best of full-screen television entertainment with the interactive and community benefits of the Internet to bring broadcast-quality video to viewers anytime, anywhere. Based on a state-of-the-art, secure, peer-to-peer streaming technology, Joost can be accessed with a broadband Internet connection and offers video content to viewers for free. Joost features more than 250 channels with programming across all genres, including: cartoons and animation; entertainment and film; sports; comedy; lifestyle and documentaries; and sci-fi. Channels and programs available on Joost vary by geographic region, based on copyright ownership.
About MLBAM
Established in June 2000 following a unanimous vote by the 30 Major League Baseball club owners to centralize all of baseball’s Internet operations, MLB Advanced Media LP (MLBAM) is the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball. MLBAM manages the official league site, www.MLB.com, and each of the 30 individual Club sites to create the most comprehensive Major League Baseball resource on the Internet. MLB.com offers fans the most complete baseball information on the Web, including up-to-date statistics, game summaries, extensive historical information, and exclusive features about Major League Baseball events and programs, including on-line ticket sales, baseball merchandise, authenticated memorabilia and collectibles, fantasy games, live and archived radio broadcasts of every game, live and archived video Webcasts of entire games, pitch-by-pitch enactment of games, and hosted post-game video highlight shows. MLB.com offers more live events on the Internet than any other Web site in the world.
Source: Joost
HP LCD HDTV to do full Microsoft Media Center without extra hardware
September 27, 2007
Just in case Linksys and D-Link’s introductions weren’t enough to satisfy, Microsoft is now announcing yet another partner in its refreshed Extenders for Windows Media Center effort. Beginning in “early 2008,” owners of HP’s current 42- and 47-inch MediaSmart LCD HDTVs will be able to utilize all of the features of the Media Center Extender platform sans any additional hardware. According to Microsoft, users will simply download a software update for their set, after which they’ll be able to kick back and enjoy a little Windows Media Center Internet TV while basking in the glory that is added functionality.
Source: engadget
Joost win Wall Street Journal’s Technology Innovation Award for 2007
September 26, 2007
Joost won in the WSJ Media/Broadcasting category and received a Bronze award in the overall category:
The Bronze went to Joost NV, Luxembourg, for a free service that delivers TV programming over the Internet. Unlike YouTube and other video sites, Joost offers full-length and full-screen programs. Founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström also developed the Skype Internet phone service and Kazaa file-sharing service. Like Kazaa, Joost uses peer-to-peer technology for faster, more reliable downloads. But unlike Kazaa, which faced charges that it encouraged piracy, Joost is signing deals with big media companies.
Meet the other Joost
September 25, 2007
Tonight, while reading news about Joost, I stumbled on a peculiar URL linked to a debug log of Joost. So far so good I thought. Let grab it and see what it is about.
To my surprise the .jar file contained files dated Oct 5 2006… Odd… Since The Venice Project was named Joost only on Jan 2007. OK, so maybe the name was picked slightly before…
Looking at th version info in the jar file I picked the name of the author… Does he work for Joost? A quick google search and I find myself looking at an interesting forum post trail!
Wow, this can’t be the Joost I know! So what is it?
Apparently this is a project residing on sourceforge.net called joost.sourceforge.net. The project was registered on 2002-06-07 09:24! The project description goes like this: “Joost is a Java implementation of the Streaming Transformation for XML (STX) language (see http://stx.sourceforge.net/)”
So there you go, Joost actually exist since 2002… but not the Joost P2P IPTV you know.
And if you want to read about the 2002 Joost developer reaction when asked for a 2007 Joost invite have a look at this funny thread.
Is Nokia partnering with Joost?
September 25, 2007
Based on a new Nokia Nseries invitation page hosted on Joost web site it appear as if Nokia is becoming a Joost partner. It is unclear what sort of partnership is being put in place at this time. It might just be related to some advertisement deals between Joost and Nokia. Or is Joost coming to a Nokia Nseries near you?
I will contact Joost to get more information.
Update:
Got more information from the nice Joost PR team that this is only related to Nokia advertisement for the European market… so no Joost on the Nseries. Would have been cool none the less.
somagirls.tv distributing content on Joost
September 25, 2007
Soma Management LLC, a digital media and entertainment company that produces lifestyle channels for young women around beauty, fashion, health, travel, luxury, entertainment, teens and kids, announces the launch of the SomaGirls.TV Network.
SomaGirls.TV mission is to provide advertisers with premium exclusive content and next generation advertising models as convergence and multi-platform opportunities achieve critical mass.
Network will enable advertisers to reach the millennial woman (females 12 to 24 years old) through Broadband, Mobile, IPTV, VOD and Virtual Worlds. The platform partners of SomaGirls.TV include Veoh, YouTube, Amazon, GoSuperModel, Whyville.net, Blinkx, Vuze, SheKnows, Divx, IndPlay, Bittorent, Joost, Revver, GoFish, Reeltime and BT Vision, Zapak.tv, Netvibes. The B2B syndication partners consist of Synacor, Roo Media, ClipSyndicate, Brightcove, Voxant.
Source: yahoo
