Webware

Boxee, one of the more promising media applications out there today, is announcing the launch of a few new content sources today at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Boxee now has added support for content from Joost and MTV Music. Joost is bringing its usual assortment of video content to the table, while MTV provides a huge amount of music videos. In the United Kingdom, Boxee has also added the BBC's popular iPlayer to its arsenal of content.

In addition, Boxee will be totally opening up its Mac, Linux, and Apple TV alphas to anyone who wants to sign up. The Windows version, however, will not be entering an open alpha, but rather an invite-only alpha while it scales.

Boxee, for those of you who don't know, is a media application that can act as a player for content on your computer or, where it really shines, as a conduit for viewing Web video from a variety of sources. Video sites that currently have a plug-in on Boxee include Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, CNN, Apple Movie Trailers, Revision3, CBS, Comedy Central, and more.

Boxee really does a great job of handling all of these different sources of content and presenting them in an easy-to-navigate way. In addition to these video sources, Boxee also integrates music sites such as CBS' Last.fm and Shoutcast. (Editors' note: CBS publishes CNET News.)

As you can see, there's a lot to be excited about here.

MTV Music rocks Boxee.

(Credit: Boxee)

After its excellent implementation of Netflix instant streaming, people have been begging Microsoft to bring Hulu and other video sites to the Xbox. Boxee is beating Microsoft to the punch, even offering a Netflix implementation that is more full-featured than the Xbox's.

If Boxee can find a way to get its software off of computer monitors and on to more TVs (as it is doing with Apple TV), I think we could be looking at the next big contender in media software.

Joost gets the Boxee treatment.

(Credit: Boxee)

The BBC's iPlayer TV catch-up service is making its way to the Nintendo Wii today. British residents who navigate to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer using Opera's Internet Channel browser will be greeted by the same selection of streaming programs made available for PC users.

The BBC promises to bring a slightly updated version in the coming months that will add additional functionality, the same way Opera did with the specially designed version of its browser made just for the Wii. Best of all, it will be a standalone channel app. The BBC's Anthony Rose hopes this will fit the needs of users who don't want to have to load up the browser and navigate to their iPlayer bookmark, or pay for the Internet application in the first place.

This is the first time the iPlayer has made its living room debut. Previously the only way to get iPlayer programming on your TV set was by hooking up your home PC or laptop to your television. Enterprising iPhone users were also able to take advantage of the streaming on their TV sets, as long as they had the AV cable pack and a universal dock, which costs about £70.00 ($139) combined.

Previous iPlayer coverage:
iPlayer gets iPhone support
BBC's iPlayer getting Mac version in 2008, Web version continues to dominate usage
BBC moving to Adobe Flash, iPlayer on the Web soon
BBC puts shows online

Update: a representative for Hulu tells us: "Currently there is no plan to announce Hulu on the iPhone/iPod. We are focused on a free, streaming, ad-supported service."

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MacRumors.com is reporting a "page 2" news item about Hulu.com rolling out a version of the video service that's been specially designed for users of the iPhone and iPod touch later this week. Presumably having seen what the BBC has done with its iPlayer streaming service, it would only be available over Wi-Fi because of EDGE network limitations. The move would also mark the first major content offering from NBC on an Apple-made product since it jumped ship from iTunes back in August of last year.

To make money off mobile users I could envision Hulu going one of two routes. The first would be to autodetect when people are coming to the mobile site from a compatible phone and change the streams to ones that have advertisements included as part of the video--similar to what's been done with podcasts. The other way would be to break up the content into pieces and add advertisements in between each chunk, which is what Hulu.com currently does for streaming shows via Adobe's Flash player.

If this does come to fruition I could see a lot of people moving away from buying overlapping content seen on iTunes. While the benefit of purchasing on iTunes is that you can watch them away from a connection, Hulu's potential free price and minimal requirement of having a Wi-Fi connection might be enough to keep someone (myself included) from wanting to shell out $2 for a show.

What do you think?

U.K. residents with iPhones can do a little rejoicing after yesterday. Amid the wave of announcements surrounding the release of the SDK, the BBC quietly launched iPhone and iPod Touch support for its iPlayer TV service. We've blogged about this being a feature after footage of the iPlayer working on the iPhone was shown off in a promotional video made more than 10 months ago, but the videos on the streaming service use Adobe's Flash, which is not a part of the iPhone's built-in software.

Unlike the software iteration of the iPlayer, shows can't be downloaded, but users have access to a limited selection of streaming content that's been formatted to work on the handset. Instead of featuring the beautiful Coverflow-approach seen in the video, the service uses a system similar to what's been seen on Apple.com and Break.com, with little blue play buttons to indicate the videos that can be played on the portable device when connected to a Wi-Fi connection.

The BBC has been a little late to the game with putting television content online for its viewers; however, in comparison to content providers in the U.S., it's the first to make its content readily viewable on the mobile device without any special subscriptions through the carriers. In the U.S., Verizon is currently one of the only major players in providing recently released television shows (in their entirety) over the air to its subscribers through its VCast Mobile TV service. Sprint and AT&T will also have initiatives to bring TV and movie content to phones over the air.

It's worth noting the service only works to residents of the U.K., who pay for the programming with their tax dollars. No mention of whether a paid version of the service for residents outside of the region is on the way. See more on the BBC's iPlayer blog.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If there are lessons to be learned about the need for big companies to create platform-agnostic services, the BBC's iPlayer project may be one of the most shining examples.

Since the launch of the iPlayer, the BBC has been under fire not only from its viewers, but also members of the British Parliament. Parliament members have come down on the broadcasting corporation for its lack of support for open standards, and soaring costs in the development of the Windows-only software whose cost is estimated to be close to £6 million pounds (nearly $11 million dollars).

We've blogged about the service before, although haven't been able to test it because of the application's use of geo-IP tracking to (rightfully) limit viewing to the tax-paying UK citizens who fund it. Many users say the clunky interface and tough DRM make the software anything but user friendly.

The iPlayer software continues to be a Windows-only application, which has led to the controversy of those paying citizens using Mac or Linux who were unable to use the program to catch up on BBC programming without the need for a television. The iPlayer software uses Windows Media Player-based DRM that requires users to have the latest versions of Windows XP or Vista, leaving Mac and Linux users out of the picture.

UK residents can access a variety of BBC programming on the Web via streaming. Windows users can also download the programs to watch while offline.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

In mid-December, the BBC responded by releasing a streaming version of the player that runs in Web browsers using Adobe Flash. Already the service has been a runaway success. According to a blog post earlier today from the BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, 90 percent of the users of the streaming service are running Windows, while 9 percent are using mac, and 0.8 percent are using Linux. Despite the 9-to-1 user ratio, Thompson again confirmed that the BBC was still working on a Mac version, scheduled to be released by the end of the year. He also said the initial rush to make the service available had led to the single-platform offerings.

Based on the early success of TV on demand service Hulu.com in the states, and the recent roll out of Apple's timed-DRM, it's worth wondering if a standalone software version of the service is even worth the headache. The trade off of course is that the software users can "stack" episodes of their favorite shows and watch them without having to be tethered to the internet (except to connect to servers for the DRM). Time will tell.

Reviews of BBC's iPlayer program have been mixed. The service offers U.K. residents access to television programming through a downloadable player that can queue up shows, and grab entire seasons at a time. Most of the criticism has been toward its staunch DRM and lack of Mac and Linux compatibility, which will be changing shortly. Yesterday, the BBC announced it's chosen to move to Adobe's Flash platform to deliver its video content on the iPlayer, taking the service from Windows-only to a Web-based platform.

Windows XP users will still be able to use the iPlayer software to download the shows ahead of time, but my guess is that those wanting one less thing to clutter up their desktops will make the move to a browser bookmark instead.

The news comes in tandem with another partnership announced yesterday with broadband service The Cloud, which operates 7,500 Wi-Fi hot spots in the U.K. The company will be giving users of BBC's various Web services free Wi-Fi at all their locations. Users won't be able to surf any old site for free without signing up for the company's pay-as-you go and unlimited plans, but they'll be able to watch iPlayer programming and peruse BBC.co.uk freely.

This is a wise move on the part of the BBC. The iPlayer project was originally created as a response to piracy of video content. However, the closed and limited system hindered some users from getting their hands on content easily, which is one of the many reasons people choose to pirate content in the first place. Similar efforts by content providers in the United States have proven successful, although piracy remains rampant. Initiatives like YouTube's antipiracy protection program (announced yesterday) are trying to keep that content off the Web, but technologies like Bittorrent and other P2P platforms continue to improve speed and safety for users who want to swap files with one another.

BBC will launch the new and improved iPlayer service "by the end of the year." It will remain limited to U.K. residents, even in its online form.

The British not only have superior television (in general) but now they can watch it online too.

The BBC launched a new on-demand service called iPlayer on Friday that lets people download from the Internet shows like "EastEnders" and "Planet Earth" that they may have missed on the telly that week. The shows represent as much as 70 percent of the BBC programming, about 400 hours of programs, according to Reuters.

Unfortunately, the free service is only available to people in Britain and on computers running Microsoft XP.

You would think that with a name like "iPlayer" the service would work with Apple products! Apparently, the "I" stands for "interactive," The Wall Street Journal discovered.

Mac and Linux users are already protesting. More than 10,000 people have signed a petition urging the BBC to allow non-Windows machines to use the service.

Once viewed, the downloaded shows are automatically deleted after 30 days and technology prevents people from making copies of them.

Read more about iPlayer on Crave UK and Webware.

The BBC's iPlayer will be making it's official, public beta debut July 27 to U.K. residents who are legal TV license holders--a yearly taxation system that pays for TV ownership and usage. The small desktop software client allows users to download and view episodes or entire series of BBC television programming on their PCs.

Lucky U.K. residents will soon get to enjoy the iPlayer on their PCs, and then Macs as well.

(Credit: BBC.co.uk)

In addition to launching the Windows client, the BBC will also be rolling out integration of the iPlayer to the BBC's U.K. site, and later to YouTube. The team behind it is also working on versions of the iPlayer client for Macs and Windows Vista.

The BBC is in talks with Virgin Media to create a set-top box equivalent, akin to a DVR with on-demand capabilities for watching archived programming. It will also be adding the option to subscribe to a series, and to watch shows right away without having to wait for them to finish downloading.

Also, as a tidbit, from this promo video that was uploaded to Vimeo two months ago, it looks like there's also Web interfaces in the works for Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPhone. File it in the rumor bin for now.

Ever wonder what the English cathedral on the Isle of Ely looks like but don't have time for a trip to East Anglia? The British Broadcasting Corp. and Microsoft are trying to take you there virtually in a more vivid way than just a bunch of snapshots on a Web site.

The BBC is using Microsoft's Photosynth software to provide 3D tours of famous buildings.

(Credit: Microsoft)

The BBC is using Microsoft's Photosynth 3D imaging software to provide views of prominent British buildings in conjunction with a new TV show, How We Built Britain.

Photosynth constructs three-dimensional structures by stitching together multiple two-dimensional images, and users can fly around a virtual world and examine details. The BBC Photosynth incarnation works over the Web as an ActiveX control, but it requires high-powered graphics hardware. (I couldn't immediately get it to work with either Internet Explorer 6.0 or Firefox 2.0, though both are allegedly supported--maybe I'll try the manual installation.)

"By clicking and dragging their mouse, visitors to the site can explore each building, zooming in to see the smallest decorative detail, or zooming out and panning 360 degrees to place the building in a wider context," Microsoft said of the technology.

The Photosynth images will be updated with new photos submitted by the public, Microsoft said. The BBC is using photo-sharing site Flickr for image uploads.

Sites that can be viewed are Ely Cathedral, Burghley House, the Royal Crescent, Bath, the Scottish Parliament buildings and the Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

Microsoft Live Labs architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas demonstrated Photosynth on video at the TED conference in March.