While not nearly as sexy as YouTube on the iPhone, Symbian and Windows Mobile users have reason to celebrate with a new version of the YouTube's mobile application (download and review). The company boasts that it's 90 percent faster than the previous version in terms of how quickly it starts up, pulls up search results, and when a video begins to play. It also detects what connection you're on and will serve up a quality that will stream in the fastest.
YouTube 2.2 plays videos in landscape and portrait modes on the Samsung Omnia.
In the demo video below, both the application and the selected video begin to play around a second after they're launched. That's a whole lot faster than the iPhone, especially the launch time, which should make clicking on YouTube links in e-mails and while browsing a less painful experience. While YouTube for Mobile is available globally, it's only localized for Australia, Ireland, N.Z., UK, and the US. Regardless, Nokia N95 owners should be pleased:
A San Francisco start-up is launching the first mobile video ads for the iPhone on Wednesday.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Ad Infuse is serving up ads from Esurance and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America on several sites, including Health & Fitness Mobile for Men and MondoMedia.com.
I visited the HFM mobile site (hfm2go.com) on my brand-new iPhone and clicked on one of its portable training programs. I waited four or five minutes while the ad downloaded and then a blank, white screen came on, making me wonder what to do next. The ad finally started playing, and I was able to watch the 10- or 12-second anti-drug spot before the training video for working out abs on an exercise ball started playing.
Wow, if that's the experience, I think I'll pass.
The problem was probably a slow connection over AT&T's network, but even Ad Infuse Chief Executive Brian Cowley acknowledged that the mobile Web application market is so nascent that the experience in some ways will be closer to dial-up than broadband.
I know publishers have to monetize their content, but maybe they should wait until the mobile infrastructure can handle it better.
BOSTON--Device and network technology is not holding back mobile video, it's the money makers who can't agree on what to do with it.
At least that was the consensus among several mobile video leaders, including Nokia and MobiTV, at Red Herring East's Wednesday panel on mobile video.
"From a network and device perspective we are ready," said Ray Derenzo, vice president of business development for MobiTV, one of the leading mobile video distributors.
Proprietary nuisances, on the other hand, are an issue.
"It's all about the open platform," said Nokia research director Jamey Hicks, who seemed to be positioning Nokia as the anti-Apple when it comes to third-party applications.
Nokia plans to accommodate Internet service providers and mobile application developers as much as it can, said Hicks.
"We look to see what we need to have in the hardware to anticipate something like YouTube that wasn't on the horizon two years ago...We are trying to get to the PC model so that others can put their apps on it," said Hicks.
Another issue is revenue. Until carriers and content producers come to terms with how mobile video is going to be monetized and make it easier to access, mobile video will continue to stagnate with mainstream users.
A pay-per-use or subscription model has been the way for video distributors to share revenue with carriers and content producers. But television networks, who never envisioned their content on phones, have been slow to figure out how to clear rights and charge for advertising. As advertising is introduced by distributors, consumers won't want to pay for a subscription, and advertising will have to absorb the cost, according to Mark Pascarella, president of Gotuit Media, a mobile advertising deployment company.
"BREW (binary runtime environment for wireless) is open but highly proprietary and highly controlled. My expectation is it's going to get worse before it gets better. The carriers are going to get burnt. And when you get burnt you tend to pull way back, instead of figuring out how to grab it," said Simeon Simeonov of Polaris Venture Partners
"The biggest issue at mobile is not quality of service, but the awareness of consumers to find and purchase product. Not as much as a tech device capability issue, as a confusion within the operators as how video is important," said Derenzo.
Part of the problem around mobile video adoption is that the public thinks mobile video technology is an overnight sensation like YouTube. That perception wrongly causes people to think that the technology is new and experimental and they shy from trying to use it, said Simeonov.
The panel criticized carriers and content producers for not doing enough to dispel this and create more confidence.
"These are not coming out of nowhere, people have been working on this for years," said Simeonov.
Dwight's dangerous, so keep an eye on him.
(Credit: NBC.com)You can soon view Pam and Jim's "will they, won't they" dance on your cell phone as NBC announced Wednesday it will offer full-length mobile versions of its prime-time TV shows on demand. Shows like The Office and Heroes will be streamed to your phone by MobiTV. Prices start at $1.99 each for a 24-hour viewing period.
You won't be able to store the shows on your phone, which is disappointing. Even worse, it's unclear what types of phones can pause shows and resume watching later. I'm guessing you'll need a 3G phone to watch the shows, but that's not confirmed, and neither company has announced what carriers will distribute the shows. No official word on a start date, but the Associated Press has reported possible timing of this spring.
NBC is the first U.S. television studio to offer this kind of service, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Video on mobile phones hasn't exactly set the world on fire, but carriers and studios are always looking for more revenue. Verizon Wireless recently turned on its V Cast Mobile TV network, and it even lets you control your TiVo from your mobile phone. But some think convergence devices aren't up to snuff yet.
Vringo bills itself as a video ringtone service, but don't let that fool you. My theory is that the company uses the term to convince traditional media types--like those at AlwaysOn's conference this week, where I heard about Vringo--that it's a viable business model for mobile marketing. "Ringtone," after all, is an easily-recognized buzzword, and it's pretty well-known that tech-savvy kids are willing to shell out money to pay for ringtones of the hottest Top 40 tracks. (I might not be a kid, but I admit that I did pay for a vintage Super Mario Bros. ringtone.)
In reality, Vringo is a video-sharing platform for cell phones. We've all heard that now that video has conquered the PC and the iPod, it's going to move on to the mobile handset, and Vringo is aiming to capitalize on that. Here's how it works: you, and any friends with whom you want to share clips, download the free Vringo app. Then, you surf Vringo via the Web (on a PC or mobile device) and choose what video clips you'd like to use as the ringtones when you call particular friends. Founder Jonathan Medved suggested it as a potential goldmine for movie and music marketers, demonstrating a Vringo call that used a clip from the movie Wedding Crashers. But you also can upload your own video content and use that, too. Yes, it costs money if the content's licensed--so it'll be free for you to share a Vringo clip of your cat, but not one of Nelly Furtado's latest video. It looks like licensed content will have a one-time download charge, and don't forget the fact that anything like this potentially will incur charges from carriers' data plans as well.
It's not perfect. I think that some Vringo users are going to wish they could quickly share video without actually making a call--it just seems a little bit constrictive. But hey, mobile video sharing is still pretty new. This could really be where things are going.
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