We already know Netflix users are begging for easier ways to get streaming video to their TVs--Xbox, PS3, Roku, and Blu-ray players apparently aren't simple enough solutions. Instead, more and more
people watch TV and film on their computers while fuming because they can't
easily get all that content--Hulu, Netflix, Amazon--in one place.
The Myka ION aims to bridge that gap as the first gizmo to stream both Hulu and Boxee to big screens (in addition to running full-fledged PC apps, which let you add other streaming services). But it's not cheap. At $379 (more if you add on a wireless card and a Blu-Ray drive), it's ultimately expandable but inching toward PC pricing. And that got us wondering whether we've been thinking all wrong about the way we stream video.
Here's where the demand for streaming video has thus far pushed people:
Toward traditional home theater gear (TVs, DVD players, video game consoles) that stream video right out-of-the-box. This is great at first. But these devices aren't made to upgrade. And at $5,000 for an HDTV or $400 for a game console, you don't expect to have to scrap it when new services, compression technologies and software render it obsolete. OEMs can build their TVs and game consoles to be upgraded, but they end up adding the cost of a Myka to the retail price.
Toward the iTunes store. Add up the costs of movies and shows, and you're eventually talking about a financial black hole. Plus you still have splurge for an Apple TV, and fire up your computer to queue up shows or buy movies.
The solution is, of all things, Windows 7. It packs what's arguably Microsoft's best innovation of the decade: Windows Media Center, which has gained the ability to stream video and music wirelessly from your home PC to TVs all over your house using little "extender" boxes that are sold separately (the Xbox can also serve as an extender.) Unlike other options--set-top boxes and fancy Blu-ray players--it uses your home computer as the video streaming device, meaning you can add services, browse robustly and even record video like a DVR by patching your cable or satellite TV through your PC. And again, it's all wireless.
Because the extra hardware you need (i.e., the "extender") is just a wireless dummy, you're not sinking money into some soon-to-be-obsolete gizmo, and you're not limiting yourself to just one service (Hulu and Netflix almost never appear side-by-side on streaming devices.) Your Netflix, your Hulu, your TiVo, even your channel guide gets better when it's all replaced by a Windows 7 PC.
Many of us might be reluctant to sink money into Windows 7 hardware, especially thanks to bad Vista experiences or the allure of the Mac. But a Windows 7 notebook, used right there on the couch like a giant remote control, might just be the answer to your streaming video woes.
China has banned the use of physical punishment to cure Internet addicts, according to a report in CIO, a publication of the International Data Group. But was there ever such a thing as Internet addiction in the first place?
According to IDG, the Chinese clinics are frequently used to treat distant, isolated, or academically lazy students. The "boot-camp" style institutions came to the attention of Chinese officials after reports of severe beatings and at least one death. They are also known to use electro-shock therapy and periods of solitary confinement as treatment.
But social isolation may not share a causative correlation with heavy Internet use after all, according to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. According to the Pew study, which surveyed over 2,500 American adults, online activity actually expands a user's social graph.
"Social media activities are associated with several beneficial social activities, including having discussion networks that are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds," the study said. "For instance, frequent Internet users and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race. Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party."
The study also says that about 6% of the country suffers from some kind of social isolation, but that the rate hasn't increased with the proliferation of the Web. Furthermore, the popularity of laptop computers has come to mean that Internet reliance doesn't automatically mean a hermetic lifestyle, either; many Web-lovers report frequenting libraries, cafes, and bars with laptops in hand.
Engineers have discovered a major flaw in a technology that many Web developers use to ensure secure browsing, reportsInfoWorld.
SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer communications, are used in any Web service whose address begins with "https://," and includes giants like PayPal, Gmail, and Chase online banking. The protocol, an instruction-set that computers use when transferring data, allows hackers to intercept communications by posing as a "man in the middle" between a host server and its client. It could be used to hack into everything from email servers to secure online applications, says InfoWorld.
The fix will take time, since each piece of software that uses SSL will need to be hand-tuned to close the loophole. Everything from Web browsers and servers to SQL databases will need patching.
The hole was discovered by PhoneFactor, a mobile phone security company. They had planned to engineer a fix for the problem along with an industry consortium, but were beaten to the punch when an SAP engineer stumbled upon the bug himself. Not aware of the seriousness of the flaw, he posted it on a messageboard, making the hole widely available before security and IT professionals could scramble to patch their code.
InfoWorld says a "number of open source products" are working towards a fix.
A new study comparing streaming video services from Amazon and Netflix found that most people surveyed didn't even know they could stream video in the first place. Wait a minute: Didn't a study we reported on yesterday say that 90% of Netflix users were aware of Watch Instantly?
The Catalyst Group, which executed the study, toldThe New York Times that streaming video wasn't even on the study participants radar: "They were shocked that this is something you can do," said the group's CEO.
But the study only used 11 participants, according to its Methodology section, and only five of whom were pre-existing Netflix subscribers. The study filtered for people who had never used a Roku box--the $99 set-top box that streams both Amazon and Netflix directly to a TV--because the Roku box was the medium experimenters used to compare the services. By filtering out anyone who'd ever used a Roku from the already-tiny sample size, they ended up with a disproportionately clueless group of subjects.
Even so, the experiment still produced a useful comparison matrix that shows how the two instant video services stack up. Participants were frustrated at Amazon VOD's poor organization, for example, and couldn't always tell if a movie they liked on Netflix had been added to the correct cue for instant viewing on the Roku box. The Catalyst Group reported--similar to the study we discussed yesterday--that users were deeply frustrated that they needed a $99 box to get streaming movies onto their TV, and that they weren't content with just watching movies on their PC.
It's nice that CEO Eric Schmidt feels Google has a "moral responsibility" to help reinvent the newspaper industry. But how?
Hyper-personalization might be the way, according to the Neiman Journalism Lab at Harvard, which pressed Schmidt for answers during the CEO's visit to Cambridge this week. Last month, Schmidt told Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand that Google saw its relationship with newspapers as vital to democracy. He said:
"Google sees itself as trying to make the world a better place. And our values are that more information is positive--transparency. And the historic role of the press was to provide transparency, from Watergate on and so forth. So we really do have a moral responsibility to help solve this problem."
The Neiman Lab hypothesizes that Google might do so by modifying the way it presents news streams to readers. Several such changes have already taken effect. This summer, Google introduced "Fast Flip"(pictured below) for more fluid online reading; FastCompany.com was one of the first participating publications. Last month Google also added "blog" tags to news sources not affiliated with a large publication, i.e., any blog published on mainstream blogging software like Tumblr or Blogger. Is it a dis? "There is no lack of bloggers and people who publish their opinions and faux editorial writers and people with an opinion. And I think that one of the great things about the Internet is that we can hear them," said Schmidt in a polite dismissal.
Future changes will run even deeper, Schmidt told the Neiman Lab, and will become increasingly customized for mobile devices (he used the Kindle as one example). Again, users will notice subtle differences in the way their content is served:
"... [T]he majority of the reading will presumably be online not offline, just because of the scale of it. It'll be highly personalized, right? So you'll know who the person is. There'll be a lot of integration of media--so video, voice, what have you. It'll be advertising-supported and subscription-supported, so you'll probably have a mixture... So if you start thinking about that, it becomes pretty obvious what the products need to be: more personalized, much deeper, capable of deeper navigation into a subject. Also, show me the differential. Since you know what you told me yesterday, just tell me what changed today. Don't repeat everything."
To keep publishers afloat and producing good content, Schmidt said, Google will have to figure out "stronger advertising products," noting that while print circulation is declining, online readership "has exploded positively." Whether online ad and subscription revenues will ever be able to meet the high watermark set by print remains to be seen. The battle against the Web culture of free, a culture Google helped popularize, will be challenging for publishers even with so much help from Mountain View.
A defunct navigation company called WebMap Technologies is suing 15 different major companies in what might be the most bloated and fatuous IP lawsuit in recent memory. And it just might pay off.
WebMap's principals are claiming that all 15 companies--Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Travelocity, CitySearch, IAC/Interactivecorp, Yellowpages.com, The Washington Post Company, Ticketmaster, Zagat Survey, and City Accommodations Network--all violated a patent they hold that describes a "method and apparatus for collecting and expressing geographically-referenced data," or in human-speak, software code for pinpointing something on a map. WebMap is seeking damages for willful infringement.
According to TechCrunch, WebMap crashed and burned after the tech bubble burst nearly ten years ago. Its former homepage has been supplanted with a GoDaddy parking page.
But its lawsuit hedges an interesting legal bet. Last fall, a Federal Circuit court upheld a decision called In re Bilski that rendered all "business method" patents indefensible--including all patents for software, formulae, and any other non-mechanical technology. Patents like WebMap's "method and apparatus" are clearly included under that rubric. So why bother suing?
Because the Bilski suit is headed to the Supreme Court, and is scheduled to be heard on November 9. Should the court strike down the decision, WebMap's suit could suddenly become a goldmine--assuming, of course, a judge finds the 15 companies in question guilty of infringement. If the Bilski decision is upheld, they'll simply look even more asinine than they already do for suing 15 companies.
Netflix's streaming movie service may be more popular--and perhaps more vulnerable--than anyone has realized.
Two-thirds of Netflix customers have used the service's "Watch Instantly" feature, according to new research by Praxi Group and One Touch Intelligence. Netflix's core business--DVDs by mail--is about as future-forward as blood-letting, and it hasn't stopped average users from embracing the service's more high-tech streaming format, even though it lags behind some competitors' technically by relying on Silverlight instead of Flash. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they watch at least one movie or TV show via Netflix streaming per month, and 20% watch eight or more.
Perhaps the most interesting finding is that despite Netflix's integration push--the service appears on Microsoft's Xbox, the Roku and Vudu set-top boxes, various Blu-ray players, the Sony PS3, and soon the Wii--over 60% of streaming movie watching is still done on a computer. Only 13% of respondents said they connect that computer to a TV. And it's not because they want to--it's because TV-connected streaming is still too complicated.
While the researchers take these and other numbers to be a sign of Netflix's success, there's more to be said about the gaping hole for competition that the service has left open. In interviews, survey respondents complained that the Watch Instantly catalog is vastly inferior to the DVD catalog, despite the fact that Watch Instantly is a much more desirable service. They also said they were still more attached to their cable/satellite TV service than they were to Netflix, leaving room for TV providers to step in with a competing streaming service and edge Netflix out of homes.
Services like Epix could be poised to do just that. Epix is a cable channel with a streaming online companion service that looks to subsume both TV and computer-based movie-watching into one subscription. If Epix or similar competitors find an audience, Netflix could find itself vulnerable to services that are more aggressive about beefing up their streaming libraries with new and popular titles. The company could also suffer if a competitor figures out a less expensive way of providing streaming movies direct to a television. Though right now NFLX leads the pack in TV connectivity, it wouldn't be hard for a service like Hulu to unseat them with a simpler, cheaper set-top box or big OEM TV deal.
Still, Netflix has an absolutely massive user base and plenty of cash, while startups like Hulu and Epix are still in their incipience. Once Netflix decides to start emphasizing its streaming service, it can take the money it saves on postage and pump it into licensing fees for more and better streaming content. It may simply be waiting for Netflix-connected TVs and consoles to proliferate before it plunges into a Watch Instantly revamp and blows its fledgling competition out of the water.
Man pans bookstore on Yelp. Bookstore owner tracks him down, writes harassing emails, and tries to break into his house. Man responds by calling police--and Yelping about the entire experience.
In what can only be described as a paradigm of Internet justice, a California Yelp user named "Sean C." was able to follow up his initial negative review of a San Fransisco bookstore with this gem:
The user created a Flickr set of screenshots containing threatening message that the bookstore owner had sent. Only once he produced the screenshots did a Yelp administrator offer to help Sean C. stop the harassment, according to Gawker.
As Gawker notes, the store owner's swings between plaintive hurt ("I have no money to pay for help") and outright fury ("Do you not have a girlfriend... I can see why") are perhaps unique to that unique brand of Internet passive aggression that allows for brutal, anonymous honesty.
The bookstore owner was arrested and placed in psychiatric holding, and has been served with a restraining order, according to Sean C.
Dozens of to-do apps and voice recorders have allowed the iPhone to serve as a safety net for all the things that slip through our brains, forgotten. But can an iPhone app really help you remember?
The creators of a new iPhone "adaptive learning" app, Smart.fm, says it can. The learning app figures out how you will best remember various pieces of information. According to the company that makes the app, it almost doesn't matter what you're trying to learn, whether it's foreign language vocab or chess moves; Smart.fm acts as a virtual flash-card system based on any list of items you enter, and quizzes you with multiple-choice answers when you're ready.
The app's secret sauce is a series of algorithms that determines how and when to present the user with information. MIT's Technology Review explains: "For example, a completely new word and its translation are shown frequently, and a user is asked relatively easy questions about them, designed to jog the memory. But once the user has demonstrated the ability to recall that word and its meaning, this information will appear less often."
Of course, no app is complete without some "social" integration, and Smart.fm doesn't disappoint. The app lets users share their lists--Russian verbs, plant-types, chemical compounds--and is working on a database of learning-lists with the daringly named databasing site Freebase.
The app, which was first released in Japan, is free and available now.
In October, we reported that Skype's founders were suing eBay--which acquired the VOIP service in 2005--over a snippet of code that, they say, wasn't part of the Skype acquisition. The suit gained notoriety for its astronomical damages claim of $75 million per day. Water-cooler talk held that the founders sought to disrupt a $1.9 billion deal that would unload Skype to a group of investors--but it wasn't apparent why they'd want such a disruption until this week.
After several weeks of litigation, it appears the parties might be ready to settle, reportsThe New York Times. The new deal is much more amenable to the founders. The structure of the group that is buying Skype will change, the Times says, allowing for the founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, to take a significant chunk of the business back. Details of the deal haven't been disclosed, but the Times says the duo will also gain at least one seat on Skype's board.
In hindsight, the suit the pair filed earlier this month appears to have been a stall tactic. Zennstrom and Friis were apparently buying time while they cobbled together a competing offer to buy back Skype from eBay.
Dozens of to-do apps and voice recorders have allowed the iPhone to serve as a safety net for all the things that slip through our brains, forgotten. But can an iPhone app really help you remember?
