streams

Slacker revamps logo, apps, and Web site

SAN FRANCISCO--At an invite-only press event in San Francisco, popular streaming music service Slacker Radio last night unveiled a completely revamped brand. The company's name remains, but Slacker's look and feel have been significantly simplified.

Of course, with the rebrand, Slacker's Web site and product designs have been updated with cleaner, more modern looks as well. Gone are the dark tones, textures, and gradients that crowded Slacker's interfaces in the past. Now, Slacker's multiplatform face is made up of brighter colors, clean lines, and lots of white space, which bring it more in line with … Read more

White House debuts 'enhanced' streaming for SOTU speech

The White House is debuting a new way to watch President Obama's State of the Union speech tonight -- it has created an "online-only enhanced" live stream that lets viewers both watch in real time and see different policy charts, stats, and data.

Obama mentioned the live stream on his Twitter page:

Watch Obama's #SOTU address with enhanced graphics, charts, and useful stats on his plan to keep us moving forward: OFA.BO/eJ9Z7k

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 12, 2013

This "enhanced" live stream seems to be geared toward people who don't have … Read more

HBO Go subscribers can stream over AirPlay

HBO will now allow HBO Go subscribers to stream programing from their Apple mobile devices to their TVs over AirPlay.

Eric Kessler, HBO's chief operating officer, announced the news at an All Things D conference today, saying that HBO is adding the feature as part of an update to its iOS app today, according to All Things D.

AirPlay is a wireless technology that lets users stream content from one Apple device to another.

Kessler also said that the company plans to get HBO programming on Apple TV eventually. It's already available on other devices, including the Xbox … Read more

Easily stream radio and podcasts with UberTalk

Perhaps the recent theatrical release of "The Hobbit" will make the following statement sound less dated, but I doubt it. Either way, I'm going to say it: UberTalk is the one audio streaming app (or site) to rule them all. By audio streaming, I mean live radio shows and podcasts. And by all, I mean a great many.

UberTalk lets you listen to 20,000 AM/FM radio shows and podcasts, according to the developer, Michael Robertson of MP3.com fame. Although the selection is large, UberTalk limits radio to terrestrial stations; sorry Stern fans.

On UberTalk.com, … Read more

DreamWorks CEO Katzenberg sees big profit in small screens

Consumers will eventually pay less for entertainment streamed to smaller devices, with studios and distributors basing prices on the size of the destination device, movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg predicted today.

A tiered pricing market, in which people paid less to see a movie on a cell phone than a theater, would result in greater consumption in developing markets where people depend more on their mobile devices for entertainment, the DreamWorks Animation SKG chief executive said today at the Founders Forum conference on digital media in Los Angeles.

"People will pay by the square inch," Katzenberg said, according to … Read more

Bigger boxes: Redbox Instant app coming to Xbox 360

It's a meeting of the boxes to make a more awesome living room. Larry Hryb, aka Xbox Live's Major Nelson, revealed today that Redbox Instant by Verizon is on its way to the Xbox 360.

Current Redbox Instant beta users get first crack at mainlining more movies into their TVs via the game console. Hryb says an access code for the Xbox app will be e-mailed to those folks in the next few days. It's still possible to request entry into the beta on the Redbox Instant site.… Read more

Get help choosing a movie on Netflix with a Chrome extension

Would you like to know what lazy looks like? It looks like me and my wife on a Friday night, worn out from a long week, lying on our respective couches in front of the TV after getting the kids in bed and cleaning up the kitchen, too tired to browse Netflix for something to watch. We are terrible at managing our queue, and many nights we don't fire up a movie on Netflix because of the browsing and agreeing process it requires. The following Chrome extension may not help you reach an accord with your significant other during … Read more

Add Pandora controls to your Chrome toolbar

Pandora's Web-based client keeps a tab open in your Chrome window. Unfortunately, if you're one of those people who has a lot of tabs open, you may accidentally close the Pandora tab in the middle of a great song. You could easily re-open the tab, but you probably won't continue hearing the same track.

With the SoundControl extension you can control Pandora from the Chrome toolbar, and even hide the actual Pandora tab from your window. Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Head to the SoundControl extension page in the Google Chrome Web … Read more

Amazon scores exclusive rights to stream 'Downton Abbey'

Sorry, Netflix and Hulu. Starting in June, Amazon Prime will be the only place to stream the latest episodes of popular TV series "Downton Abbey."

The online retail giant announced today that it secured a licensing agreement to exclusively stream season 3 of the award-winning series that airs on PBS in the U.S., starting on June 18. The agreement also covers season 4 and, if it's produced, season 5.

"The series is consistently in our top most watched TV shows each week, making it the most popular TV series with Prime Instant Video customers, ever,&… Read more

Aperion Aris speaker is not yet a stream come true

At its announcement in May 2012, the Aperion Aris was billed as the world's first wireless speaker for Windows. While there are dozens of Apple AirPlay speakers, and even an Android speaker or two, why has no one thought to make a Windows one? Apart from sounding unfashionable, play with the Aperion Aris for 5 minutes and you'll find out why.

The problems with the Aperion aren't exactly the fault of the speaker, as Windows' Play To feature is fairly unreliable, but it does make us pine for the Apple AirPlay option that's due for the … Read more