Kodak's new little black media player.
(Credit: Kodak)I'm not sure whether I should call the new Theatre HD Player Kodak's answer to Apple TV, but that's the best analogy I can come up with on short notice. Whether it is or not, Kodak is doing its best to get into your living room with a little Wi-Fi-enabled black box that connects to your HDTV, displays images and other multimedia content, and links directly to Kodak Gallery, the company's online photo-sharing service, and Flickr. Due to roll out in September, the Theatre HD Player will retail for $299.99 and continue to add features through firmware upgrades after it's launched.
Kodak calls the Theatre HD Player, "An interactive device displaying personal content--pictures, video, podcasts, music--and Web-based content on a HDTV, while wirelessly connecting to a household's private Wi-Fi network." In a nod to the Nintendo Wii's popularity, Kodak includes gyroscopic remote, and you navigate the onscreen menus much like you would with the Wiimote. Like Apple, Kodak has an alliance with YouTube for video content. RadioTime is onboard for streaming audio.
The Theatre HD Player's connectivity options.
(Credit: Kodak)In its press release, Kodak notes that the "Theatre HD Player lets consumers relive their favorite, and even forgotten, memories in customized slide shows, incorporating their personal music and video collections, Internet Radio, plus online video- and photo-sharing sites. Consumers can also edit and upload images and videos to popular online content sharing sites on their HDTV from the comfort of their living room." It's able to display high-resolution still images in a 16:9 aspect ratio and 720p video through it's HDMI and component video connections.
I got a look at the unit last night at an event for the product's unveiling (along with a few other Kodak products) and thought it had some nice features and an elegant menu system. There's some promise here. However, the Theatre HD Player is going to pose a marketing challenge for Kodak. Company reps seemed to shrug off the fact that the little black box's price tag approaches that of the Playstation 3, which not only has built-in memory card slots (and a hard drive), a good photo viewing application, and the ability to play back music and video files from your computer, but there's that built-in Blu-ray player--and oh, it plays games and has a Web browser. In my humble opinion, this device needs to cost less than $200 and probably closer to $150 to be viable. Of course, I keep telling Apple TV reps the same thing about their device, but that hasn't seemed to have had much of an impact.
Anybody interested in buying this thing? And, at what price? Or would you rather go for Apple TV or a PS3 for that matter?
Adobe Media Player (AMP) is like an RSS reader for video. Some videos can only be seen after advertising.
(Credit: Adobe)Clarification: Adobe TV is one of many channels available from the Adobe catalog.
Adobe Systems on Wednesday plans to release Adobe Media Player (AMP), a free download for playing Flash-based Web videos on Macs or PCs. (Get it from Download.com for Windows or Mac.)
Written with Adobe's AIR, AMP is a hybrid online/offline application that lets people subscribe to different video Webcasts. Adobe has signed on some initial partners including CBS, PBS, MTV Networks, Universal Music Group, CondeNet, and Scripps Networks. (See my colleague Rafe Needleman's review of AMP on Webware.)
The videos are either streamed from the content producer's Web site or they can be downloaded. Adobe will host a catalog on its site where people can find videos, including one on Adobe-related content called Adobe TV. Because it's written with AIR, people can be offline or online when they watch.
Initially, many of the videos available will have advertising attached to them. Using Adobe's digital rights management server, content producers are able to put controls on their media.
Later, Adobe intends to enhance the client software so that different business models can be used, such as paying to download a video or renting videos, said Ashley Still, a senior product manager at Adobe.
There are already a number of existing media players, like iTunes. But Adobe thinks that having its own player will be strategic for a number of reasons, Still said.
PBS is one of the content partners to use the Adobe Media Player.
(Credit: Adobe)Adobe is trying to garner more revenue from online services; the company will be sharing revenue from advertising with content producers.
The player complements Adobe's multimedia content-creation multimedia products and Adobe wants to make sure there is a high-quality way to deliver that video to consumers, Still said.
"This is the first time Adobe is participating directly in the playback of Internet video content," she said.
With the 1.0 version, the player will only display Flash content, but Adobe could add support for other formats, Still said.
Music players are losing out in popularity to phones that pull double-duty, according to a market research report released Monday.
More than 500 million music phones were shipped worldwide in 2007, which puts that category of device 300 million units ahead of regular old portable music players, according to the report released Monday by MultiMedia Intelligence. The company is forecasting that by 2011, of the 941 million handsets that will ship worldwide, more than half will be music phones. (The report defines a music phone as a handset that plays music files, and has a memory card slot.)
The Walkman-branded W980 phone from Sony Ericsson is a phone but looks like a music player. Phones that play music are quickly outpacing standalone portable music players.
(Credit: Sony Ericsson)As the developed world begins to be saturated with cell phones, handset manufacturers and wireless operators are forced to look elsewhere to keep their profits up. For leading handset maker Nokia, its secret to staying on top of the competition is its growing business in emerging markets, like China, India, the Middle East, and Africa, according to my CNET News.com colleague Maggie Reardon.
The operators of wireless networks also need ways to increase revenue. So, though not everyone has a need for a data plan if they don't want e-mail on their phone, music is something almost everyone can relate to. Right now the most promising driver of profits on cell phones is music-playing capability.
"Music has been the first 'killer app' for the operators to drive the consumption of premium content on the handset," said Frank Dickson, chief research officer for MultiMedia Intelligence. To that end, MMI predicts the mobile music market will be worth $6 billion by the end of this year. "With such significant revenue and customer demand at stake, the operators' and handset providers' concerted efforts (will) use music as a central part of their handset strategies," the report says.
Update 1:55 p.m. PDT: As several commenters have pointed out below, buying a music phone doesn't necessarily mean it's used for playing music. (Case in point: my own Verizon enV has a 2GB microSD slot, and I've never transferred MP3 files to it. But that's mostly because my iPod earbuds don't work with the enV and I refuse to buy a separate set.) Music-playing ability was formerly a feature reserved for high-end phones, but as the technology gets cheaper, that means that those features will start to filter down to more inexpensive phones, which have always been the majority of the market.
The man notorious for cracking the DVD code, and Apple's FairPlay DRM, is looking to make a legitimate business out of his expertise.
Beginning Tuesday, the first product from his company, DoubleTwist Ventures, will enter open beta. Called DoubleTwist, it's a free desktop client that essentially allows any kind of music, photo, or video file to be shared between a long list of portable media players, and through Web-based social networks.
Instead of iTunes songs or videos taken with a Nokia N95 remaining locked on the phone, DoubleTwist software allows for dragging, dropping, and syncing of different media formats no matter the device.
The idea, according to DoubleTwist founder and CEO Monique Farantzos, is that media files should be more like e-mail. It shouldn't matter what service you create the file in, or on what type of hardware, it all should work together seamlessly, she says.
Farantzos recruited DVD Jon, or Jon Lech Johansen, and the two have been working with about 10 others for the past eight months on the DoubleTwist software. Johansen says DoubleTwist allows him to bring the success he's found to a wider audience.
"It's one opportunity to write something for your Web site for use by a couple thousand geeks," he said in an interview. But with DoubleTwist, the idea is to hide all the complexity of making easy transfers of files from the user so that even non-techie types will understand. "The goal is to make something your parents can use," he said.
It works like this: When a device is plugged into a PC (Windows XP and Vista only right now, Mac OS X coming soon), DoubleTwist launches and recognizes all the media files on the device. Any file can be selected, dragged, and dropped into DoubleTwist to be synched up to a separate device, or shared with other users you've "friended" who also use DoubleTwist.
(Credit:
DoubleTwist)
By adding Facebook compatibility (with OpenSocial platforms next on their list), DoubleTwist users can share media through the social network. A Facebook application called TwistMe will allow users to drag and drop media content into a box on a fellow user's Facebook profile. The friend will then see the shared files show up in his DoubleTwist desktop client.
Social-network compatibility is key to enable real sharing of media between users, Farantzos said. "It closes the loop between the Web, devices, and the desktop."
DoubleTwist also recognizes and imports all iTunes playlists and will read instantly which ones are protected by digital rights management technology. The software automatically plays the song files in the background (sans volume) and re-records them as MP3 files so they can be transferred to any device. Note: DoubleTwist only does this for songs you own or are authorized to play in iTunes.
Farantzos says they're not picking on any one particular brand of DRM, especially since the entire industry, led by Amazon, is leaning toward a DRM-free policy.
"Digital media is dominated by two players, Windows Media and iTunes, and they each have their own agenda...we see ourselves as the Switzerland of digital media. We are format and device agnostic."
I'm starting to wonder if anything about Linux is going to be easy. But I remain undaunted in my efforts to use Ubuntu 7.10, or Gutsy Gibbon, to accomplish the same computing tasks for which I use Windows. Now that I've got Flash and QuickTime working in Ubuntu, I feel like I'm nearly there.
I say "nearly" because I'm still running into some glitches, this week relating to getting the full suite of updates available for Gutsy installed. The update failure is a minor inconvenience compared to the crashes I experienced last week whenever I tried to run a Flash or QuickTime video.
After poking around the Linux forums, I found out that Ubuntu installs a la carte: only the truly free supporting software is included in the default installation, which excludes proprietary media players such as Adobe's Flash and Apple's QuickTime. To get these restricted formats to play, you have to install a set of files called ubuntu-restricted-extras.
Once I got them loaded, I checked the Synaptic Package Manager and found their listing. I still had to find, download, and install the Flash Player for Linux. I'm not going to complain about the multiple steps required, though. Compared to Windows' kitchen sink approach to software installation and updating, I'm coming to appreciate Ubuntu's download-as-needed philosophy.
To get Flash, QuickTime, and other proprietary media players to work in Ubuntu, you have to install a set of files manually.
After I reopened Firefox, the Flash and QuickTime files that previously sent Ubuntu into a tailspin ran without a hitch. Even though the process took me about three hours of searching, downloading, installing, downloading some more, and installing some more, I'm becoming familiar with the operating system.
Using Ubuntu's Terminal applet for system maintenance is similar to the old DOS days of living on the command line. You won't save much time initially when you switch from Windows to Ubuntu, but once you get used to the Linux style of computing, I bet you'll spend more time working and less time futzing with your "tools".
That's not to say everything's peachy for me on Linux Street: right now, the update notification icon keeps telling me that there's an update available, but when I run the Update Manager, the file xserver-xorg-core won't download. It's a minor annoyance, I know, but when I close the error dialog box, the updater keeps prompting me to download the update. I have no idea how important the file is--or whether I really need it. All I know is that I can't get it.
Ubuntu's Update Manager can't download a file the Notification alert recommends that you install.
Apart from this minor annoyance, I'm pretty happy about the progress I've made as a Linux neophyte. I'm a long way from wiping Windows off the drives of my other PCs, but it's a heck of a start.
Tomorrow: Five super Office add-ons.
If you often link to music files from your personal Web page or blog, and have some control over the code on that page, Yahoo's got an interesting tool for you. With a few lines of very simple Javascript code, you can add small "play" buttons that link to specific songs. When users click those buttons, the Yahoo Media Player launches, letting visitors play the song without leaving your page. There was a previous iteration of the Player, but it worked only on Yahoo Music and linked only to music files from Yahoo's own site.
How does it work? Judge for yourself--these are two songs from old bands on which I played bass (so I have at least a plausible claim to partial copyright). I simply followed the instructions here and here (to insert album covers). Click on the small arrows (after the page break) and they'll play right within the Yahoo Media Player at the bottom left of the page. (Worked for me on Firefox on Windows XP, your mileage may vary!)
Click the 'Read More' button below to listen to the tracks.
... Read moreIf you haven't heard of Zingspot.com yet, you soon might.
It was recently registered by none other than Dell, which also applied for a trademark on the name. (Thanks to the Trademork blog for pointing to it.)
Zingspot is likely related to Zing Systems, a company that Dell acquired in August. Zingspot.com is described in the document filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as "an online consumer portal for digital entertainment content acquisition and distribution." Being a hardware maker, it would make more sense to expect Dell to make a device rather than a service. Especially since the PC maker officially pulled out of the portable media player market in August 2006, at the time citing a need to focus more on PCs, TVs, and printers for consumers.
Dell had little to say when it acquired the tiny, Mountain View, Calif., company that makes streaming audio software. But almost four months later and with CES fast approaching, it's interesting to look at what Dell might be doing.
The company has had a tough year, but it seems to be turning things around. (We'll know better tomorrow when Dell is due to report third-quarter earnings.) In an effort to show that it's hip and relevant, the Texas PC maker has definitely been ratcheting up the emphasis on design--see the XPS M1330 and M1530 notebooks, and XPS One desktop--and on online communities with its IdeaStorm and Direct2Dell blogs.
An online portal for entertainment seems to fit in there somewhere. But does it make sense to build another iTunes Store or Rhapsody, or a Zune store for that matter? Negotiating all those content relationships is a headache very few people want. And after all, Dell is a hardware company before anything else. Dell, by the way, declined to comment on any of its future plans for Zing or Zingspot.com.
But Zing makes a pretty nifty technology, one that SanDisk licensed for use in its Sansa Connect. It's software for real-time audio streaming--meaning you can get music wirelessly from an online source and from other portable devices. SanDisk, however, uses Yahoo's music service as its content source. So, either Dell will create its own portal or will partner with an already established online store if it does end up making a device that utilizes this software.
It's also worth noting that Zing is a pretty snappy-sounding brand name, and could lend that fresh, relevant tone to whatever they're cooking up down in Round Rock. Will we see a Zing brand on a forthcoming media player from Dell, or on a whole new family of devices? Stay tuned.
Artist Catalina Estrada's laser-etched creation on a new red Zune
(Credit: Microsoft)Like most news about Microsoft's oddly-named media player, it was leaked well in advance. But now it's official: consumers buying the new Zune devices, which are set to be released on Tuesday, will be able to customize them with laser-engraved text and select artwork.
Now that explains the tag line "you make it you."
Called "Zune Originals," the new Zunes will feature a selection of artwork by 18 artists and design studios: Colletivo Studios, Catalina Estrada, Laurent Fetis, Sam Flores, Klaus Haapaniemi, Pierre Marie, Kenzo Minami, Parskid, Mike Perry, Phunk Studios, Chisato Shinya, Skwak, Iosefatu Sua, Tado, Nobumasa Takahashi, Ramiro Torres, Darvin Vida, and Steve Wilson. 27 total designs will be offered.
In addition, creative Zune buyers can add up to three lines of text (or five lines in place of a design), or a selection of 20 "tattoos" that are independent of the "Artist Series." This will all be offered free of charge.
The Zunes, as previously announced, are going to be available in 4GB ($149.99), 8GB ($199.99), and 80GB ($249.99) versions.
Existing Zune owners will receive a free upgrade to the player's new firmware, which includes revamped search functions and a drag-and-drop organization interface.
(Credit:
Mad4MobilePhones)
There have been plenty of Zune 2.0 rumors recently--flash memory, a "watermelon" version this summer, and what-have-you. Now here's another one to add to the pile; Engadget recently pointed us to a "Zune phone" interface patent application unearthed by Mad4MobilePhones. It appears to be a sort of "tiled" setup for for "improved user interface for mobile devices such as smartphones" and "personal digital assistants." Looks like a fancy Bingo card to me.
Engadget pointed out that some of the icons appear to point to weather, music, and the like. There's also a TV icon with rabbit ears (umm, online video?), a globe (mobile Web?), a shopping cart, and...a dog? From the looks of it, it definitely seems like a Microsoft answer to the iPhone.
Concrete Zune phone rumors started flying around a few months ago. And keep in mind that Microsoft has filed other applications involving wireless communication over a 4G WiMax network. Hmmm...
Anybody else think that Microsoft plants rumor fodder in an attempt to deflect from the recent onslaught of Apple rumors? Sneaky, sneaky Steve Ballmer!
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