Comcast Tests Combo Set top Box For Cable TV and Internet.

#Comcast wants #GoogleTVs and #AppleTVs and #Roku Off The Living Room http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Comcast is testing a set top box, that does a smattering of Internet Videos in addition to traditional streams of cable TV. It does offer Internet videos and some social networks but not web browsing.
Comcast customers in Augusta, Georgia are searching though both the mediums and watching TV using the new experimental set-top box and service codenamed "Spectrum" and "Xcalibur,".

"We are testing many technological approaches to understand how best to meet consumer interests, and this small trial is one of those experiments," a Comcast spokeswoman told WSJ in an emailed statement.

As a customer planing to use Comcast Triple Play, I am happy to have the capability to watch internet content (am I?) while on the couch or bedroom, I doubt, Comcast to give me all the internet Videos to me on a platter. It is not in their best interest.
Other traditional TV service providers like DirecTV and new Digital TV services like. Verizon Communications are on the go as well to provide Internet to the TV. Verizon's Fios TV service offers apps for YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. AT&T Inc.'s U-verse has TV apps for sports, yellow-pages and other functions, and is testing some for social media. DirecTV is offering Internet-connected digital-video recorders that can record television shows and provide other services such as accessing Flickr and more.
I hope they will have Google Fiber in Berkeley soon, like they are doing in Stanford University right now. I will be able to get all my TV, News and everything else from that pipe, hopefully without much choke.
WSJ via Gizmodo

It Is The Beatles!

It Is The #Beatles! http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The Beatles are now on the iTunes. After various law suites going back decades, now the two companies have come together so Apple could also add Beatles fans to the iTunes. Well I was wrong to have thought of Apple TV vs Google TV yesterday.
In any case we got enough records and CD's of Beatles already.

Set Top Boxes Inside Your TV and Bluray Players?

End of set top Boxes?

Plex -LG Deal will put Set Top Boxes Inside TVs http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Plex, a friend of Open Source Project XBMC has inked a deal with LG Electronics to bring Plex's  media platform inside LGs HDTVs and Bluray players.
These will be real challenge to Apple TV and Boxee Box (another friend of XBMC project) if the team execute the deal properly.
Plex has done its ground work already and already works with multitude of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, BBC’s iPlayer. The project also supports almost every codec and format you can throw at it. So in the future, users of LG products will be able to say good bye to the set top boxes or Atom PCs VESA mounted on the back of the TV, like my Lenovo Atom 230.
From the press release, it looks like we will be able to see these LG HDTVs and Blu-ray players at CES 2011. LG is already up beat about the project and it would be nice if other manufacturers take the head, 'cos only LG product I have is a small NAS server, supporting my home development projects.

“After considering many alternative solutions, LG Electronics chose to utilize Plex’s media server platform technology as a part of its next generation NetCast™ enabled home entertainment products because of the breadth of available applications and content and the ease of developing new services, Plex’s capabilities offer our customers’ additional methods of displaying their content on LG’s next generation TVs and that is exciting to us.” said Hojun Nam, Director of LCD TV R&D at LG Electronics

Of course Plex too must be happy to have the Asian Electronic giant behind it;

“Plex was developed to provide a simple solution for navigating an increasingly complex digital media landscape. As our access to a greater variety of high-quality content continues to grow and we create more of our own content, it is clear that we need a new way to enjoy and provide a consistent experience across the expanding universe of disparate content sources,Plex enables LG to more easily offer a wide variety of content sources to consumers using the NetCast™ services.” said Cayce Ullman, CEO and co-founder, Plex.

Plex Press Release
XBMC Project

Apple TV 2.4, Free Remote Control With iPhone App Released

Apple TV 2.4
Apple has released an upgrade to it's Apple TV Product and a new iPhone app to control the Apple TV. Since I saw the item on the Apple Support discussion forum, Apple has not listed the change log for the upgrade. Eventually when it does, it will be on this knowledge base.
Supposed to be documentation update from the same forum above;

Remote app directional control
Control your Apple TV with simple finger gestures via the Remote app. This feature requires Remote 1.3 running on an iPhone or iPod touch with iPhone OS 3.0.

Flickr Search
Search Flickr photo tags to find recently updated photos of interest. Save searches to quickly find new photos or use as a screen saver for Apple TV.

New view options
View movies By Genre, By Movie, or Unwatched. View TV Shows and Podcasts By Date, By Show, or Unwatched.

Updated transport and chapter modes
During video playback, click right or left to fast forward or rewind. Additional clicks increase the speed. Click down to show chapter markers.

I am using it to controll my Mac Mini.

Tags: Apple TV, iPhone Remote Control App, Apple TV 2.4

New iPhone To Support HD Video? iPhone HD

iPhone HD
According to a post on Apple is consolidating it's Composite and Component AV cable in Simply Apple AV Cable, allowing connecting to HDtv and SDtv displays using the same cable, as the new cable will support both components and composite connection.
The phonenews is suggesting that the next generation of iPhone and iPod touch will have advanced HD display capacity on both the devices. Apple is likely to offer at least one version of the iPhone and one version of iPod touch with higher resolution screen, to attract users and would be users of Zune HD, HTC Touch HD and HTC Touch Pro2.
Current iPhones and iPods has 480i and 480p and the up coming devices are said to have 720p and 1080i like most video devices.
Perhaps this is Apple's new take on consumer video after lack luster response to it's Apple TV. Perhaps next Apple TV will be a entertainment hub to Apple's consumer video ambitions.
Phonenews.

Tags: new iPhone, iPod, Apple, Apple TV, iPhone HD, Apple AV Cable