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Tag: "streaming"

Sonos Controller for iPad Coming Soon!

By | June 24, 2010 | No comment yet
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Ready to control your music system via your iPad? If you are, Sonos has announced that its new Sonos Controller for iPad, will allow you to manage your music collection, playlists, and whatever is playing on any of your Sonos devices. The upcoming app will be released in August according to Sonos.

If you’re not familiar with Sonos Multi-Room Music System, it is a modular set of digital appliances that work with end-user supplied or built-in speakers to form a zoned audio system in which different zones may play the same or different audio.

In other words, the multi-room system creates multi-room audio (hi-fi) that allows you to play the same or different songs across different zones around your house.

Sonos already has an iPhone app that gives you access to your personal collection, including your iTunes playlists, plus many free Internet radio stations and online music services such as Deezer, Last.fm, Napster, Pandora, Rhapsody and SIRIUS. The upcoming iPad app will give you the same features and control over Sonos devices and the music collections that those devices have access to.

Check out pictures and video after the break>>

CBS Testing iPad-Friendly HTML5 Video Streaming

By | June 17, 2010 | 2 comments
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According to MacRumors, CBS is moving forward with its plans to deliver its content to the iPad using standard-based HTML5 mechanisms. As we reported last month, the company is on track to have its full CBS.com line-up available in HTML5 by the start of the fall television season.

CBS is still fine-tuning its HTML5 delivery using episodes of Star Trek Enterprise, as the network’s target is to provide an experience as good as Flash. CBS Interactive (CBSi) Senior Vice President Anthony Soohoo recently stated that “What you see right now is a small, little experiment. We’re currently just testing for the time being. Our goal is over time at some point having content parity. The tools aren’t mature yet – security needs to be there, second thing we need is all the tracking and measurement. If we can’t track, we can’t monetize.”


CBS is playing catch-up with ABC, but chose a different path, as it does not plan to build a dedicated app, and decided to provide a browser-based experience to the iPad users.

Photo courtesy of MacRumors

ABC Doubles Ads in iPad App

By | June 16, 2010 | No comment yet
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If you’re a fan of ABC’s iPad app, you may have recently noticed an increase in the amount of advertising while watching shows on your iPad. Don’t worry, you’re not going crazy! ABC just doubled the amount of advertising it delivers via their ABC iPad app.

Video Nuze, interviewed Albert Cheng, Executive Vice President for  ABC’s Digital Media group, and Cheng informed them that the new ABC policy is to double number of ads delivered per episode for both the iPad app and the ABC.com website.  This will increase the commercial time from the current 2.5  - 3 minutes to almost 6 minutes of advertising per 30 minute show. Cheng notes that he believes ABC’s policy will be adopted by other media companies and will soon become a standard practice for TV delivery in the online industry.

ABC is clearly still in the early phases of finding a business model that makes sense for online delivery of its TV content. The iPad is perhaps the perfect playground to test these new advertising and delivery models.  ABC’s app was an early hit in the App Store with over 400,000 copies downloaded in the first month.  The latest numbers shared by Cheng show that users are still excited about watching TV on their iPads.  The ABC iPad app has now been downloaded over 800,000 times with 4.2 million TV shows started in the past 10 weeks.

[via mocoNews]

Orb Networks Launches Orb Live for iPad

By | June 10, 2010 | 1 comment
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As a media junkie, I’m always looking for ways to manage and connect to my digital media collection while on the go. I have lots of photos, music, videos, recorded TV shows, and other digital content on my multi-media computers. I’ve been using different iPad apps to access my media content – Air Video, GoodReader, LogMeIn Ignition, VNC Viewer just to name a few.

An additional option for you is Orb Networks’ service. This week, Orb Networks, announced the availability of its Orb Live software for the iPad. Orb Live lets you place-shift your personal media such as music, photos and videos, live TV, and Internet TV from your PC to your favorite portable devices. The Orb app, called Orb Live, is available on the App Store for $9.99. Orb also offers a lighter version for free.

Keep in mind that as you continue to increase your media collection, your iPad will still have limited storage. It all depends on how much content you like to consume and carry around. I like to carry around lots of media files. But, it is impossible to have it all with me wherever I go.

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New EyeTV HD Supports HDTV Streaming To The iPad

By | May 25, 2010 | No comment yet
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Elgato just released its new DVR solution, the eyeTV HD, which provides full access to premium cable/satellite TV content on the Mac, and on the iPad. The box allows you to watch, record, edit and enjoy cable and satellite in high-definition, including premium channels, and costs about $200.

EyeTV HD includes a dual-format capture mode that records in iPad and iPhone formats at the same time, allowing users to stream live and recorded TV to an iPhone or an iPad using the optional EyeTV app. The iPad version of the app is about to be released, and will cost $4.99 at the App Store. If you happen to already own the iPhone version of the app, the upgrade will be free, according to Elgato.

ABC’s iPad App a Hit

By | May 10, 2010 | 2 comments
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As many predicted, Apple’s iPad has become a must-have device for video enthusiasts.  The iPad’s high definition screen and small form factor make it convenient to carry around the house, or on the road, and watch great looking TV shows or movies.

ABC’s iPad application has been extremely popular here at PadGadget HQ and it looks like we are not the only ones that love ABC TV.  Disney, ABC’s parent company, announced users have downloaded the app over 400,000 times and they have watched more than 1.5 million TV shows in the first month of the app being available on the market. That’s over 39 million minutes of Internet TV!  With these numbers, it’s no wonder Hulu and CBS are looking to jump on the iPad TV bandwagon.

ABC recently updated their iPad app to add 3G wireless connectivity allowing iPad users to watch TV anyplace at anytime. There was some initial concern among readers that video quality while streaming over 3G vs WiFi would not be as good. Our informal tests showed the two devices produced similar results but WiFi still had the best video quality.

Curious what folks are watching on ABC?  To date, the top five series viewed on the iPad are:

  • Lost
  • Modern Family
  • V
  • Dancing with the Stars
  • Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

CBS Will Bring Their TV Lineup to the iPad

By | May 7, 2010 | No comment yet
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ABC was the first studio to deliver their TV programming to the iPad and it now looks like they’ll soon have company.  The folks at NewTeeVee interviewed Anthony Soohoo, Senior VP and General Manager of CBS Interactive, and he told them that “by the start of the fall season it plans to have all the same video available on the Apple iPad that is available on CBS.com.”

CBS is taking a different route to the iPad than ABC. CBS will not deliver their programming via a dedicated application but will instead offer their TV episodes on a revamped CBS website supporting HTML 5 and H.264 video instead of Adobe’s Flash technology.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, has recently been on a crusade to convince media companies and studios to move their content off of Adobe’s Flash technology and on to open standards such as HTML 5 and H.264.

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Bon Jovi Live on Your iPad

By | April 11, 2010 | No comment yet
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Via Wired News. Tonight (Sunday night), Ustream is starting what they hope become a new series of live concerts. They will be streaming the first live concert delivered to the iPad, and Bon Jovi is the rock star for tonight. Ustream will be streaming the sold out show in Dallas, Texas.

Ustream cofounder John Ham told Wired.com that live music will be a bigger part of the company’s strategy going forward, and that his company is already “the leading live streaming service on mobile products”. Ustream has already streamed live music for bands such as KISS, The Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, Diddy, Carrie Underwood and many others. Tonight’s Bon Jovi show will be the first one for the iPad.

I went to the Bon Jovi concert last night in Dallas. The concert was sensational. The pre-show starts at 8pm ET, with Bon Jovi taking the stage in Dallas via webcast at 9:30pm ET. Fans can watch the first four live songs plus pre-recorded footage of the band performing with Kid Rock in Detroit. You should watch it on your iPad!

Netflix App Quick Review

By | April 4, 2010 | 10 comments
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When the iPad was announced earlier this year I always wondered whether there was going to be something special about it other than the pretty graphics and photos. One of the most amazing things about the iPad is its stunning image quality and the way videos play in this device. One of my biggest surprises for the iPad was the announcement on April 1st about Netflix launching a streaming app for it. I must tell you that it works great! I’m extremely pleased Apple allowed the Netflix app to be approved for the App Store.

Using the Netflix app - Let’s just say you just bought your iPad and wanted to relax and watch your favorite episode of Lost or perhaps a blockbuster movie. If you’re a Netflix member you can do just that with the official Netflix iPad app. All you have to do is download the Netflix app from the App Store and you can instantly watch TV shows and movies directly on your iPad.

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Netflix Is Coming To iPad

By | April 1, 2010 | 10 comments
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As reported by App Advice, Netflix seems to have announced their iPad app availability for April 3rd. To me this is great news, especially for all of us media-intensive people. And if it wasn’t enough, the app will be available for FREE, and you’ll be able to watch TV shows and movie streams from Netflix as part of your unlimited Netflix membership. You’re also given the ability to resume watching  your shows or movies where you left off on your TV or computer.

I’ve been a Netflix subscriber since they came out with their service. Their service has continuously improve every year and their catalog keeps getting bigger. What we’ve heard is that if you aren’t already a Netflix member, you can sign up as one and get a 2-week free trial.

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Sling Player Coming to the iPad

By | March 30, 2010 | 3 comments
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TV junkies rejoice!  One of our readers tipped us off that Sling Media plans to support the iPad in an upcoming release of their Sling Player application.  The app will offer higher resolution streaming options to maximize your viewing experience with the iPad’s large screen.  Sling also plans to support new video codecs other than WMV and is “actively moving towards H.264″ according to Sling’s Mobile Product Marketing Manager, Dave Eyler.  H.264 is a more efficient codec for streaming and is fully supported on the iPad.

When it makes a noticeable difference in quality, we will definitely provide higher resolution streaming.  The iPad is a good example of a device where we are hard at work on this, but unfortunately it won’t be there at the April launch.

You’ll need a newer H.264 ready Slingbox in order to use the Sling Player app once it’s available in the App Store.

(Zatz Not Funny via CrunchGear) Thanks Matthew!

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