veoh
Latest
Verizon gives FiOS TV some app store, social media flavor
Confirming the theory that one day soon everything will have an app store of some kind, Verizon has launched its Widget Bazaar for FiOS TV, dedicated to bringing new interactive experiences to FiOS TV subscribers, starting with Facebook, Twitter, and ESPN Fantasy Football. Don't expect to tap out 140 character missives via remote for now, at launch viewers can only view tweets, not post them or log in to their own accounts, although updating Facebook status and personalized ESPN Fantasy Football info is available. Verizon has promised to publish its SDK to enable "open development" (limited to a select group of developers of course) which should bring many free & for-pay apps to join the current (free) offerings by year-end. Also made official is the addition of searching and viewing video from blip.tv, Dailymotion and Veoh, plus the long awaited ability to stream personal videos from a connected PC, available free of charge to Home Media DVR customers. No word yet on what codecs the updated Home Media Manager software will support for transcoding to MPEG-2 and streaming to the set-top box so keep those MKVs holstered for now and check a few screens of the apps in action in our gallery or a quick video walkthrough embedded after the break. Update: Verizon let us know it will support FLV, WMV, MPEG-1, AVI, MPG, PM4/M4V, 3GP/3G2
FiOS TV expansions: May 16, 2009
This has been an odd week for Verizon FiOS TV news, with 69,000 subs finding out they will be Frontier customers within the next year (for what it's worth, the promise is there will be no changes, at least for a year.) Still, there's at least one bit of expansion to balance things out, with six new HD channels including Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV, ES.TV, MyDestination.TV, Cars.TV and Pets.TV. The future is also bright, with word that streaming internet video is coming to FiOS TV boxes with Dailymotion, Veoh Networks and Blip.TV signed on for the service launching sometime in the second quarter. It will require a PC running Media Manager software PlayOn-style to transcode the clips, but FiOS viewers can browse with their standard remotes, plus Twitter and Facebook access is still on the way. Read - Verizon FiOS TV Customers Get Six New HD Channels From Entertainment Studios Read - Verizon to Divest Wireline Businesses in 14 States; Significant Benefits to Verizon Shareholders Read - Next On FiOS: Web Videos On Your Flat-Panel TV
Web2 Delight
We've looked at applications like Photonic, a Flickr client which removes the web from "web 2.0" (the web navigation, anyway) and offers a smooth desktop experience for browsing photos. It seemed likely that we'd see a similar application which would bring a blitzkrieg of media from similar sites to your desktop. Hey, look at that, we were right: Web2 Delight is here to help you while away the hours trolling YouTube, Veoh, blip.tv and your favorite photo sites for something worth all of the time you invested looking. Web2 Delight makes it simple to search and save content, with saved searches, multiple and scheduled downloads, export capability and slideshow functionality. You can browse photos as thumbnails, lists or combination views. There's even a Cover Flow view, which I think should be put to good use making Flickr flip books. The software, of course, allows you to stream video previews before opting to download that horrifically long clip which you'll subject in-laws and co-workers to later ... watching their face intently to make them feel uncomfortable if they don't laugh, of course. And now it's on your iPod and you can share it with perfect strangers. It's a great interface, though, and makes browsing these sites very smooth. I obviously have issues with some of the more tedious bits of content which I've personally been subjected to, but that's not the fault of this software. Web2 Delight is every bit as brilliant (or mundane) as the media you dig up with it, which I suppose means that the ultimate responsibility lies with you. Of course, f you're already losing an hour or more a day to sites like YouTube and Veoh, well, this might just get you back enough time to mow the lawn. And -- after downloading the demo and uncovering all that extra time -- you can spend the twenty bucks you won't be paying the kid next door on registering the software ($19.95). Oh, and to be fair, we do find our share of gold on Flickr.
Veoh: like YouTube on HD steroids
We haven't downloaded the beta yet, but it sounds like Veoh is a self-publishing video service, similar to YouTube, and Veoh claims that their client supports high-definition videos. We're not exactly sure we want to see your home movies and personal workout videos in HD, but we're all for any way to get high-def content via broadband. The latest free version of the Veoh Network offers over 37,000 videos for viewing our downloading; DRM not included. The service is stated to work with Front Row (and Windows Media Center), so get those new Mac minis fired up.
