streaming

When Slacker Radio first introduced its streaming Internet radio app for the BlackBerry, it only worked on standard BlackBerrys running version 4.3 and above. Starting Wednesday, the free app gets touchy-feely with a brand new version for the BlackBerry's touch-screen Storm.

Slacker Radio for the Storm brings with it everything we loved on the Curve and Bold, including its best feature ever, caching a song to play offline later. It also throws in some touch-screen specials, like support for landscape mode.

The app still serves U.S. customers only on the BlackBerry and iPhone.

To get it, go … Read more

A premium movie channel backed by a trio of studios is expected to debut as an on-demand Web site months before its traditional TV launch.

The consortium of MGM, Paramount Pictures, and Lions Gate announced Tuesday at the NATPE television conference in Las Vegas that the channel will be called Epix (pronounced like the plural of epic) and feature more than 15,000 movies from the three studios. The new channel is expected to launch as a subscription-only Web site in May that will stream its content on the Internet--five months before its planned TV launch in October.

The new … Read more

Slacker Radio for iPhone 1.0 (and iPod Touch) may be late to the party of streaming-music apps for the iPhone, but that's no reason to overlook it.

The excellent, free app offers up a sleek, dark display and a lot of visual goodness, from large album art to visual icons for your favorite and custom stations.

Sure, we've got a few complaints, too, but if you're deciding whether to add another music app into the mix, this First Look video may help you decide.

Netflix reported Monday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 45 percent on the strength of lower marketing costs and the growth of its Internet streaming service.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings credited the company's "Watch Instantly" streaming feature with fueling subscriber growth.

"It's very clear that streaming is energizing our growth," Hastings told analysts during a conference call.

For the quarter ended December 31, the company reported that it earned $22.7 million, or 38 cents a share, compared with $15.7 million, or 23 cents a share a year ago. Revenue at the Los Gatos, … Read more

Boxee is expanding its content and potential audience.

The free software that streams Web content directly to the TV has added ABC to its arsenal of content providers. Boxee already offers access to Hulu, Joost, YouTube, Netflix, and CBS (parent company of CNET publisher CBS Interactive).

The software is publicly available to Mac, Linux, and Apple TV users. Windows users can join too, but they have to ask for an invite, as that version is now a private alpha release.

Boxee says 200,000 Mac, Linux, and Apple TV users signed up as of early January.

Boxee was approached by several hardware makers at CES earlier this month about embedding the Web content streaming software directly into a dedicated set-top box, the company said Thursday on its official blog. And it's actually considering it.

The blog post was written by CEO Avner Ronen to solicit feedback from users as to whether this is an attractive option and how much they'd be willing to pay for it. (If you want to chime in, head over to blogg.boxee.tv.)

Boxee is software that works on any Mac/Linux/Windows computer and can stream content online (… Read more

We've all heard it by now. Live streams of Barack Obama's presidential inauguration broke records for the Web, with about 7.7 million streams flowing concurrently at its peak. Which, of course, makes us wonder: what will set a new record?

With broadband penetration, not to mention Web usage in general, still growing, it's conceivable that some event of historic importance will surpass the inauguration in due time. Chances are, it'll be some prescheduled event that people know to tune into, rather than a sudden occurrence--but you never know.

We picked a few possibilities: World Cup … Read more

President Barack Obama's inauguration didn't set all-time Internet traffic records but did mark the most simultaneous streaming-video viewers in the Web's history, according to content delivery network Akamai Technologies.

About 7.7 million video streams, primarily live, were being viewed at peak time Tuesday, which was at about 12:15 p.m. EST, Akamai said. Part of the reason, the company rationalizes, is that the inauguration ceremony happened when most Americans were at the office, and hence more likely to be watching via a computer screen rather than a television.

"In addition to the historic nature … Read more

First announced last week, live video streaming service UStream.tv's iPhone app is finally out and free for downloading. It lets you view live and pre-recorded UStream content from the comfort of your phone. I was using it to watch some of the inauguration coverage earlier this morning, however for most it will simply be a way to get at pre-recorded content from their device.

The app lets you both search and browse through UStream content, and will begin playing shows almost immediately. Included is live user chat, which is displayed below or to the side of the video, … Read more