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TalkTalk TV will go multiscreen next year with new streaming app
Sky, Virgin Media and BT all offer their customers ways to watch TV beyond the living room. TalkTalk has an app for its rental and purchase store -- formerly Blinkbox, you might recall -- but otherwise it's fallen behind the pack somewhat. The company is changing that sometime in the first few months of next year, though, when it'll launch new apps that take TalkTalk TV truly multiscreen for the first time.
Netflix and YouTube's DIAL promises to be open alternative to AirPlay
It's already clear that most of us prefer watching Netflix on TV rather than on our PCs or tablets, but it appears the subscription video pioneer isn't content with just direct streaming. As we learned at CES 2013, Netflix is currently in cahoots with YouTube to build out a multiscreen initiative called DIAL (which stands for "discovery and launch") that could provide real competition for Apple's AirPlay. It works in essentially the same way -- DIAL lets you play streaming video on compatible TVs without having to launch the app first -- but there are a few key differences. Unlike AirPlay, DIAL lets you launch apps, even web apps, on the TV -- if it's a Smart TV, you'll even be redirected to download an appropriate app from its app store. However, it can't send URLs to the TV and mirror displays like AirPlay can, supposedly to avoid protocol conflicts as it builds its network of partnerships. And that's where DIAL's growing momentum comes in. According to GigaOm, DIAL is an open protocol, which gives it massive dev and OEM appeal. All Google TV boxes already have it, while Sony, Samsung and LG are reportedly very interested. The latter two have already incorporated it in some 2012 TVs, with more coming in the future. More important is the support from app devs and content providers -- BBC, Hulu, Pandora and Flingo have already signed up to take part in the effort, with Chrome purportedly working on DIAL compatibility for browser-to-TV page-flinging. On the whole, it's a promising path for not just Netflix and YouTube, which have previously only released relatively limited remote control applications, but the second screen movement in general.
Switched On: E3, Screen Two
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. More Info Switched On: When gadgets talk in their sleep PSP gets its own homebrew online gaming network, outweighs Sony's own efforts (video) Microsoft's SmartGlass gets official Particularly since the rise of laptops and their ability to be used in the living room near a TV, consumers have been engaged with multiple screens simultaneously. In those early days, many of which occurred before the consumer-friendly Web, people were even more likely to tend to tasks unrelated to what was on the tube (which, back then, actually was a tube). As standards such as WiFi, DLNA and automatic content recognition develop, though, the use of second screens have the potential to form tighter links with what's happening on TV. At the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo, the three major home console companies all showed off their approach to bringing home video games and other content further beyond a single display.
LG Display snatches 'world's thinnest bezel' title from Samsung with new 37-inch LCD
They say two things about war: that it never changes and that nobody ever wins. Tell that to thin bezel fans, however, and they'll point you in the direction of the LG-Samsung tussle for the title of world's thinnest bezel separation. Samsung snatched the glory last month with its 55-inch Digital Information Display, but today LG is upping the ante with a nearly nonexistent frame around its new 37-inch LCD panel. There's 2.5mm of bezel on the bottom and right side of the screen, and 1.5mm on the top and left sides, resulting in a microscopic 4mm (0.16 inches) of separation. The panel's designed for outdoor advertising, can be stacked infinitely, and will get its debut demonstration at the FPD International 2010 show in Japan later this month.
Samsung unveils new 55-inch LCD with ultraslim bezel, invites DIY video walls
Remember the world's thinnest bezel separation touted by Sharp just this past June? Forget about it. Samsung has bested its Japanese competitor with the unveiling of a new 55-inch Digital Information Display panel that features bezels of 3.8mm on the top and left edges and 1.9mm on the bottom and right, leading to a positively svelte 5.7mm distance between the content of neighboring displays. That good stuff is augmented with Full HD resolution and a blinding 700 nits of brightness. There'll also be a 46-inch model that offers a 7.6mm separation (hint: that's still pretty damn thin), though we've yet to learn on when and where aspiring home cinema nuts might be able to obtain either screen.
TouchKit: modular multitouch development kit primed for DIYers
NOR_/D's TouchKit is a modular multitouch development kit that aims to "make multitouch readily available in an open source fashion." If that sounds awfully familiar, you're probably thinking of its sister project Cubit, both of which are hoping to get multitouch into the mainstream as quickly as humanly possible. The kit itself is composed of hardware and software aspects, and of course, source files are provided for poking, prodding and researching. Interested? It'll be $1,580 shipped with a "fully assembled, frameless 70- x 50-centimeter multitouch screen, a calibrated infra-red camera, and the full base software pack."[Via Gizmag]
DirecTV's PGA Championship package almost makes up for Tiger not playing
Not headed out to Oakland Hills August 7? Even if you were, it's hard to imagine you'd get a better look at the action than DirecTV has lined up for the 90th PGA Championship on channel 701 through 709. As seen previously during the Masters Tournament, there'll be a PGA Interactive Mix channel, showing images of the four HD channels covering the tournament: One either from TNT or CBS, along with three unique feeds focusing on specific groups, holes or player background and stat information. Pretty much the only thing this interactive coverage won't do is take a few strokes off our score (some things are beyond help or altered scorecards, we've tried) but along with coverage on PGA.com it should make watching the Tiger-less PGA Championship a less painful event.
