shoutcast
Latest
'League of Legends' shoutcaster loves the game, not the fame
Trevor Henry doesn't like to think of himself as "famous." He prefers the term "recognizable," and then only in certain situations -- like at the League of Legends World Championships in Europe this year. Henry, professionally known as Quickshot, is a shoutcaster for League of Legends, which means he's often the face and voice of professional matches as he commentates on live games and analyzes important moves afterward. Literally millions of people know who he is: In 2014, 27 million fans watched the final match of the League World Championships. For perspective, the NBA Finals in 2014 averaged just 15.5 million viewers per game. Quickshot has been in the shoutcasting game for half a decade, first as a hobby and now professionally in a rapidly evolving industry. He knows where professional League of Legends started and sees where it can go -- and he told us all about it.
Radionomy acquires Winamp and Shoutcast to boost its streaming efforts
There were rumors that Winamp would find a rescuer following its shutdown, and today that rescue is official. Online radio platform provider Radionomy has acquired both WinAmp and Shoutcast from AOL (Engadget's owner) for an undisclosed amount. The deal is primarily a play for market share; now that Radionomy owns Shoutcast, it's powering roughly half of all internet radio. The company also plans to improve Winamp, making it "ubiquitous" across multiple platforms that include mobile devices and car infotainment systems. It's doubtful that Winamp will reclaim the prominence it had during its heyday, but the acquisition should at least give it (and Shoutcast) a new lease on life. [Image credit: Theis Kofoed Hjorth, Flickr]
Relive Winamp's glory days with a retro Spotify music app
Winamp may be riding into the sunset today, but that doesn't mean you'll have to go without its classic interface in the future. Ludde is paying tribute to the jukebox software by releasing Spotiamp, a tiny Windows app that streams your Spotify playlists with Winamp's 1990s-era flair. The connection to the AOL-owned player isn't just skin-deep, though -- Spotiamp includes its own Shoutcast server, so you can send tunes to a Sonos speaker or anything else with native Shoutcast support. As long as you have a Spotify Premium subscription, you can take a musical trip down memory lane through the source link.
Druid vs rogue in the latest Hearthstone shoutcast
The latest update over on the Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft website gives us a new shoutcast of Malfurion Stormrage against Valeera Sanguinar. The match is a great opportunity to show off some interesting cards--especially fun is the Alarm-o-bot, which allows you to swap out another random minion during play and has the potential to bring some heavy-hitters to the playing board relatively early in the game. You can also catch a glimpse of the Orgrimmar set board, though no one in this match seemed inclined to play around with their surroundings while waiting on their opponent's turn. The match itself lasts about ten minutes, and has quite a dramatic finish, which I won't spoil here. Definitely worth the watch, and I'm glad to see my WoW class of choice in action at last! As if I needed any more reasons to be impatient for the Hearthstone beta.
Hulu Plus comes to WD TV Live Plus, Live Hub players
Western Digital's line of media players have landed the other most important premium streaming video service for a set-top box, Hulu Plus. Now available on the WD TV Live Plus and WD TV Live Hub, the $7.99 mostly TV-filled service plops down to existing offerings including Netflix, Blockbuster, CinemaNow, YouTube and others. Another new addition is thousands radio stations from SHOUTcast, but that's strictly for the WD TV Live Hub. The Hulu Blog promises more devices to come soon, any ideas of places it has yet to land?
The Lawbringer: The odd future of bill S. 978
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? The machinima and streaming communities built around World of Warcraft are filled with some of the most talented and creative people in gaming, from awesome musicians to dedicated streamcasters. The first time I ever got to experience the WoW beta back in 2004, I was watching someone stream footage of their human warlock messing up mobs in (if I remember correctly) Westfall. Streaming is beneficial to gaming, MMOs, and e-sports because of video games' competitive nature and spectator-oriented design. You've probably heard of Senate bill S.978 already, most likely from many video game blogs and news outlets or YouTube campaigns fighting against the passage of this bill. Bill S.978 aims to institute a "10 strikes" policy, making the unauthorized streaming of content a felony, resulting in potential jail time. The main purpose of the bill is to strengthen the law and punishments available to organizations such as the MPAA and other content conglomerates to stop illegal streaming of millions upon millions of dollars in stolen entertainment. As is the way of things, gamers might be caught in the crossfire. Some of you fine readers sent me a few messages on Twitter asking me to weigh in on the 10 strikes streaming bill and maybe give a basic analysis of the thing, so I shall oblige. Lawbringer this week is all about the odd future of bill S. 978 and what it could mean for MMOs and WoW.
Sony Dash update brings Shoutcast, app shortcuts and the true meaning of life
Got yourself a Sony Dash, did you? If so, right about now would be a beautiful time to unplug it and plug it back in, as that'll trigger a minty fresh update to download and apply. This newfangled software build will not only add Shoutcast as an available internet radio station, but it also brings app shortcuts and a hastened add / delete app process. It ain't much, but it ain't costly, either. Let us know in comments how it all works out for you, cool? [Thanks, Dave]
Stylish Sony Walkman docks sport WiFi radio, ludicrous sheen
Thermos audio wasn't the only idea Sony Japan introduced this week; there's also the company's glossy new speaker docks, the NAS-V5 and NAS-V7M, whose intense reflection make us remember that time mom told us never to stare at the sun. Unfortunately, NAS doesn't stand for Network Attached Storage here, but the ¥50,000 (about $535) NAS-V7M does have 16GB of internal memory onto which you can rip audio CDs with a single touch, and both it and the ¥40,000 ($428) NAS-V5 have internal WiFi that'll have your Japanese counterparts pumping internet radio jingles from Shoutcast, vTuner, your PC and anything else with a compatible wireless audio stream when they hit Akihabara on June 26. They both feature 32-bit DSPs for what we can only guess will be crisp, clean audio quality, have all the standard AM-FM radio features you've come to expect, and include an AUX jack and a powered USB port. Oh, and lest we forget amidst all the bedside table aural goodness -- they're also Walkman docks. Hear a deep, soothing Japanese voice explain why you need one, after the break. %Gallery-90120%
Arena Shoutcasting contest opens
So maybe you don't have the kind of name recall as Leeroy Jenkins, and maybe you don't have the street cred of GotFrag TV's Kintt or the British accent of ESL's Joe and Zalmah -- but if you think you can commentate with the best of them, Blizzard's got the right contest for you. Blizzard is looking for the best people to do play-by-plays on Arena matches (dubbed Shoutcasting), so if you think you've got the chops, head over to the contest page and see what it's all about.If you think you're the Dick Vitale of eSports (that's an interesting thought), go ahead and download the stock Arena tournament video on the contest page and dub over the best color commentary you can muster. The best entry will win a Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC Monitor as well as the code for a cool BlizzCon 2008 Polar Bear mount. Runners up will receive BlizzCon shirts and the mount. Contest ends on April 17, so get a-shoutin', just be sure to read the rules first.
Tune into iPhone radio apps
Streaming radio apps for the iPhone/iPod touch are exploding in 2009. TUAW favorite Pandora was updated to 2.0 a couple of weeks ago, but it's hardly the only game in town. Back at Macworld, Chris Pirillo showed me StarPlayr for the iPhone, which lets Sirius and XM Radio subscribers access stations via the iPhone. The app isn't available right now, but it'll hopefully be in the App Store soon. Chris demoed the app extensively on his own site and having seen it in person, it is really impressive. Even with the crappy 3G signal we had on our trip to Cupertino, the stations streamed in at nice quality and there was an option to buy a track or album directly from iTunes. XM and Sirius both offer some great stations for talk radio and sports fans, and to me, that's where these types of streaming apps really shine. Pandora and Last.fm aren't the only streaming radio services around, AOL's SHOUTcast Radio [iTunes link] app debuted in the App Store a few weeks ago and it'll stream your favorite SHOUTcast stations in up to 128k streams (go to Settings on your iPhone, select SHOUTcast and select "allow high-bit streams"), favorite radio stations, search for artists (though the currently-playing artists is a bit delayed) and peruse the extensive SHOUTcast index. More below...
Sony mylo 2 firmware version 1.100 adds WMV and SHOUTcast support
Sony's do-everything-except-for-make-calls mylo has been updated to firmware version 1.100, and is now available at Sony's support site as a 61MB download. Because you ran out of things to do with your mylo about, say, ten minutes after unboxing it, rejoice -- the update adds WMV file support, SHOUTcast widget support (the widget is a separate download), a "Game" item on the HOME menu for easier access to all those games you downloaded to the COM-2 unit, and, of course, improved "system stability".[Via Pocketables]
Player vs Radio: the volume is fading
DJ Krelo is one of the owners of Player vs Radio, and she handles both the administrative end and personnel support. Even though NCsoft's CoX Meet & Greet was fairly high-energy, she was kind enough to take some time out of her event coverage to give us an interview about PvR, its history, and what it's looking forward to in the future.PvR is a cross-MMO station -- meaning that they don't limit themselves to the City of Heroes and City of Villains properties, but broadcast within a wide range of MMO titles such as Vanguard, World of Warcraft, and Second Life -- and their music rotation is based on player requests. DJ Krelo herself is focused on Gothic, Industrial, Trance, Techno, and Synth-Pop, but every DJ has their own range of music they play. DJ Krelo has been broadcasting for almost two years -- starting with a former station, and moving to PvR after they opened a little over a year ago -- while PvR itself has been broadcasting continuously since they started, save for a brief hiatus during the RIAA royalties debacle.
SHOUTcast recorder for iPhone
If you're into Nullsoft's freeware digital audio streaming, you can now grab your 'casts from your iPhone--that is if you don't mind working at the command line. iPhone Hacker-meister Core has ported StreamRipper to the iPhone. With it, you can grab shoutcasts from the command line and save them as mp3 files. (You can use my playaudio utility to play them back.) Download your copy from his webpage, where you can also find out more about using the software.
DivX GejBox redubbed Connected, spotted in the wild
Well, would you take a look at this. That interestingly titled GejBox that we peeked last month has seemingly been redubbed DivX Connected, received a slight facelift, and best of all, has been caught in the wild. According to DivX, "Connected is a digital home platform and interoperability standard for networked media devices, PCs and, online services," and it can supposedly access Stage6, Google Video, and ShoutCast internet radio when not playing back media on any of your networked machines. The boxes are apparently being doled out on a very limited basis and are still marked as beta hardware, but judging by the photos, it features an Ethernet port, built-in WiFi, a USB connector, and a remote to keep you firmly situated on the sofa. You know the drill, check out a few more pics after the jump.[Thanks, Dave T.]
