Second Screening
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Zeebox adds Viacom to its list of second-screen partners
We love riffing on TV shows like a latter-day MST3k, which means that companies are desperate to harness our homespun satire to their own ends. Second-screen start-up Zeebox has inked a deal with MTV and Comedy Central owner Viacom, offering exclusive content in exchange for on-screen advertising. That said, we're not sure if the promise of behind-the-scenes clips would be enough to draw us away from just cattily judging the Project Runway contestants on Twitter, where we're less likely to be moderated into oblivion.
NDS' Surfaces turns your wall into a TV, or a TV into a wall... one of those two
Remember the wall that was also a television in Total Recall? That's the inspiration behind Surfaces -- a concept device produced by British cable mavens NDS. Abandoning the idea of a single screen, the company mounted six displays into a wall that offers up TV and internet content when on, and blends into your wallpaper when off. The setup will even control your room's lighting for those particularly emotive X Factor performances and you control the whole thing with your iPad (while tweeting, bitchily about the show). However, before you storm the company's Staines headquarters looking to buy one, there are a few obstacles you should know about. Firstly, this amazing setup cost over $30,000 and secondly, it only really works if you've got plenty of content filmed in 4K -- but don't worry, Peter Jackson's working on it. [Image Credit: Jon Snyder / Wired]
