Second screen social network ConnecTV has officially launched nationwide with backing from leading U.S. broadcast companies.
“The platform synchronizes social engagement, complementary content and program promotions with television programming from any source, in any market across national cable networks, regional sports networks and local stations affiliated with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW and MyNetworkTV,” explains the press release.
Among its features, ConnecTV puts high priority on social media, allowing users to easily connect with friends on Facebook and Twitter while watching television.
“ConnecTV says the app also syncs with content from Apple TV, Boxee, Hulu, Netflix and Roku from the past seven days,” reports Engadget.
The ConnecTV app is currently free for PC browsers and the iPad. According to the company, iPhone and Android smartphone and tablet versions will be available within 45 days.
“Local engagement is at the heart of all social media, from Twitter to Facebook to Groupon,” says ConnecTV co-founder Ian Aaron. “ConnecTV is the only social TV network with a true investment in the local viewing experience and an unparalleled strategic partnership with the leading media companies in America.”
On Wednesday, Twitter announced Expanded Tweets, which will allows users to “check out content directly from certain partners, without having to leave its website,” explains TechCrunch.
News partners such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TIME and others will allow users to see more content directly within a tweet, rather than being redirected to a website.
“When you expand a news-based Tweet, for example, Twitter’s Expanded Tweets will provide a preview of the headline and introduction, as well as the Twitter accounts of the publisher and writer,” notes the post. “They can then click through to read the article, follow news accounts, reply or retweet within the Twitter page itself.”
Additionally, Expanded Tweets will enable viewing of images and video. The post cites WWE, BuzzFeed, and TMZ as partners that will feature images — and BET, Lifetime, and Dailymotion as video partners.
At last week’s E3, the highlight of the show was the first public showing of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4, the game development platform that will power the industry’s next generation.
The previous version, Unreal 3, has been used by a variety of developers in more than 150 games since 2006 including “Borderlands,” “Mass Effect” and “Gears of War.”
Unreal 4 will not only be used for game development, but for film storyboarding, architectural visualization and medical/real world simulations.
“There is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of our engine team and our studio to drag this industry into the next generation,” says Cliff Bleszinski, Epic’s design director. “It is up to Epic, and [founder] Tim Sweeney in particular, to motivate Sony and Microsoft not to phone in what these next consoles are going to be. It needs to be a quantum leap. They need to damn near render ‘Avatar’ in real time, because I want it and gamers want it — even if they don’t know they want it.”
In the past, a single floating ember could slow a scene down. Unreal 4 can portray millions of particles when given sufficient hardware. Moreover, it can display photo-realistic lens flare, bokeh distortion, lava flow, environmental destruction, fire, and detail in landscapes. (See samples in the Wired article.)
Kismet 2, Epic’s new visual scripting tool, allows non-programmers to create and script game elements. And unlike current engines, Unreal 4 allows one to see changes instantly. The engine is filled with a variety of tools that will shorten production schedules and costs.
Mobli — an emerging platform for recording and uploading short form videos online — has announced a partnership with the Tropfest Film Festival to launch the TropfestMicro channel, which will feature “micro” films with a maximum length of 70 seconds.
“The bubble has burst for camera and video apps, motivating photo-sharing apps like Hipstimatic into rethinking their strategies,” reports Digital Trends. “Mobli, an underdog competitor to SocialCam and Viddy, is looking to establish itself as the YouTube of short-form social video by partnering with Tropfest for the Tropfest Micro Film Festival.”
Mobli’s financial backers include Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio. Tropfest is an international traveling short film festival which will make its U.S. debut this year with support from ambassadors including Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.
TropfestMicro — which Mobli refers to as a “film festival in your pocket” — will be Mobli’s first channel. “It will showcase submissions for Tropfest’s first Micro Film Festival, headed by Tobey Maguire,” notes the post.
“We’re all storytellers — and with a visual platform like Mobli, we’re not just being given access to watch films at a festival, but to be active participants, no matter who we are or where we are in the world,” Maguire said.
Mobli’s early adopters come from opposite ends of the spectrum. “At one end are the celebrity ambassadors who have made Mobli their video app of choice,” explains Digital Trends. “At the other end of the spectrum is its core target demographic, the unknown filmmakers that Mobli hopes will usher in the next generation of Web stars.”
Paramount Pictures and Microsoft launched an app this week that enables Xbox Live Gold members to stream movies through their gaming console.
The app acts as a “go between” according to CNET, as it requires users to purchase or rent movies through Paramount’s website before it can be streamed to the Xbox 360. Users must also have Paramount and UltraViolet accounts in order to stream the content.
Earlier this year, Paramount began offering digital movies from its website via UltraViolet. The new joint app will provide a simple means of getting those movies onto TV sets.
“Last month, Amazon Prime service made a deal with Paramount for access to its movies. And just a week later, Amazon Instant Video partnered with Xbox introducing another app that lets subscribers play movies from Amazon’s Instant Video service,” notes the post. “This comes as Xbox 360 already has apps for HBO Go, Comcast, Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and ESPN.”
A new study from PricewaterhouseCoopers projects that movie ticket sales will experience a 20 percent increase over a five-year period ending in 2016.
However, the study also anticipates that continuing revenue decreases in the home entertainment sector will impact the North American film business.
According to the Los Angeles Times, PwC “predicts an acceleration over the next five years of trends with which Hollywood has recently been grappling. Those include growing digital revenue that can’t keep pace with falling DVD sales and rentals, and faster growth of movie-related revenue in Latin America and Asia than in the rest of the world.”
The study expects an average annual increase in box office of 3.7 percent, while the home video market will likely see a drop from $22 billion in revenue last year to $21.1 billion in 2016.
“Revenue from discs is expected to plunge from $15.8 billion last year to $10.2 billion in 2016, and a 77 percent jump in digital sales and rentals over the same span won’t be enough to make up the difference,” notes the article.
Blu-ray disc growth has not been as robust as originally anticipated, and in terms of the digital economy consumer interest is trending toward rentals rather than purchases. “Consumers are indicating they like the rental model, and the [profit] margins are very different under that scenario,” said Matt Lieberman, director of entertainment media and communications practice for PwC.
Netgear is “supercharging” its NeoTV 200 device that originally arrived late last year by adding Intel’s WiDi technology, “enabling you to wirelessly span your laptop’s display onto the biggest screen in your house,” reports Engadget.
According to the company’s press release, the NeoTV Pro is the world’s first streaming player to use Intel’s WiDi tech.
The player offers Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu, YouTube and Pandora, and is controllable with a remote or through a smartphone app. It enables users to instantly stream full 1080p and surround sound to their TVs.
“The hardware remains otherwise unchanged, packing the same 300Mbps Wi-Fi, Ethernet, optical out and HDMI,” explains the post.
The NeoTV Pro streaming player (NTV200S) is currently available for $69.99.
Yahoo and CNBC have partnered to jointly create and distribute business oriented content across networks. Yahoo Finance and CNBC will co-brand original content on both Yahoo Finance and CNBC.com.
“Partnering with CNBC will allow Yahoo Finance to expand its offerings instantly and enhance its position as the most viewed and utilized finance site in the world,” explains Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn.
“With CNBC taking a central role on the biggest business news site in the world, we now have the ability to provide real-time news, analysis and information to a larger audience and offer unmatched advertising solutions for marketers looking for access across multiple platforms,” adds CNBC CEO Mark Hoffman.
Financial details of the multi-year deal have not been revealed.
“Together, the companies aim to reach an unduplicated online audience of more than 40 million U.S. viewers each month,” reports CNET.
On June 28, Verizon will release its new Share Everything plans which allow families to share minutes, messages, and data as a unit. Minutes and messages are unlimited, whereas families pick from tiers of data packages ranging from 1GB to 10GB.
The 1GB plan costs $50 and the 2GB plan is $60. From there the plans increase to 10GB in 2GB intervals. Each interval brings a price increase of $10.
Families will be required to pay activation fees: $40 for smartphones; $30 for basic phones; $20 for jetpacks, USBs, notebooks and netbooks; and $10 for tablets.
The plans support up to ten devices on one network and offer a free mobile hotspot feature.
“They feel a bit expensive, but the truth is these plans work out rather well with completely unlimited voice and texts for what will likely be lots of teenagers. Any parent knows this can be a life saver,” reports TechCrunch. “The bill goes up quickly, but that’s sometimes the price you pay for unlimited phone usage, big buckets of data and a free mobile hotspot feature.”
The Justice Department is examining whether cable companies are hampering competition from online video providers. Specifically, it is looking into Comcast’s data caps which limit the amount of data subscribers can download.
Comcast has set caps which impact how users view online video from services such as Netflix and Hulu. Moreover, it has favored its own Xfinity online video service by excluding its use from the caps.
This may violate a provision not to “unreasonably discriminate” against competitors agreed to in Comcast’s acquisition of NBCUniversal. Comcast has said Xfinity is treated differently because it uses a private network instead of the public Internet.
The investigation is additionally looking into whether requiring a cable subscription to view online video may be considered anticompetitive.
“The Justice Department also is investigating the contracts that programmers sign in order to be distributed on cable systems,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Some contracts include so-called most-favored nation clauses, which make programmers give the biggest cable companies the best price they are offering anywhere, among other conditions. The Justice Department is questioning whether there are legitimate business reasons for such terms or whether they are intended to stop programmers from experimenting with other forms of online distribution.”
Amazon is expanding its Prime Instant Video service to include MGM titles. The licensing agreement will see “hundreds of classic movies and TV shows added to its Prime Instant Video catalog throughout 2012,” reports The Next Web.
The Prime Instant Video service is available to customers who pay for Amazon’s Prime two-day shipping service. The service allows users to watch streaming content on the Kindle Fire, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and more.
“Amazon is really beginning to ramp up its media offering, having inked a deal with Paramount last month,” explains TNW. “Throw into the equation its Amazon Studios division, which seeks to develop fresh content based on user submissions (such as ‘Zombies vs. Gladiators’), the Internet giant is really beginning to cement itself in the VOD space and is a genuine rival to services such as Netflix.”
The post also notes that Google signed a deal with MGM earlier in the year, “which saw more than 600 titles added to YouTube and Google Play.”
Amazon has released its free Cloud Player app for Apple devices. This will allow iPhone and iPod touch users to access music stored in the Cloud Drive.
“This time, it’s a dedicated app, although it may mean re-purposing the music library you’ve already built up from Apple’s own collection,” notes Engadget. “You can’t buy tracks from within the app just yet, but at least your iTunes-bought AAC tracks are transferable.”
Users receive 5GB of free storage and can purchase plans for unlimited storage space.
“Customers using the Amazon Cloud Player App can stream, download, and manage their music in the cloud, eliminating the need to download files before playing them,” according to the Amazon press release. “With this new app, customers have full access to their Cloud Player music libraries and also can seamlessly add playlists that are currently on their iPhone or iPod touch.”
During Monday’s keynote at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, the company announced that nine automakers will soon integrate its Siri virtual assistant into their vehicles.
“How Siri will be implemented — and in what way it would possibly override the existing voice control functionality on existing vehicles — weren’t disclosed, and considering everything that Apple announced, it’s no surprise that the consumer electronics manufacturer didn’t have time to delve into the details,” reports Wired.
The automakers include Audi, BMW, Chrysler, General Motors, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover and Toyota. Earlier this year, Mercedes announced Siri will be integrated into its A-Class models, scheduled to launch in Europe later this year.
“It’s also odd that Ford — a leader of in-car technology — wasn’t listed among the participating automakers, although it’s possibly that integrating with Sync by Microsoft may be a sticking point,” the post adds. “Also notable in its absence is Hyundai and KIA, the latter of which also has a deal with Microsoft to supply the underlying architecture of its UVO infotainment system”
After much speculation regarding its relationship with Google Maps, Apple launched its own Maps product on Monday during the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
“We all knew it was going to happen, but Apple just launched its own, stunning, Maps product, with ‘Flyover’ or Apple’s incredible new 3D maps display which quite honestly makes Google Maps look antiquated,” reports TechCrunch.
Along with the 3D display, Apple’s Maps will feature Siri integration offering turn-by-turn directions and a focus on local search.
The company “has taken in 100 million local businesses so far, in addition to partnering up with Yelp to provide the listings,” notes TechCrunch.
“The company is also building a Waze-like traffic service, so users can see where slow traffic is and see accidents — Apple will use using anonymous crowd-sourced real time data from iOS users to keep this up to date,” according to the post.
The Maps will be vector-based, meaning that users will be able to rotate views, look from different angles and zoom.
Google’s stock was down $8 after the announcement.
Noticeably absent this week from Apple’s WWDC was an announcement regarding its long-rumored television offering. However, Peter Kafka suggests that an outline for Apple’s TV plans are emerging in plain sight.
“It’s possible that Tim Cook really will come out with a big, shiny, integrated TV set,” writes Kafka for AllThingsD. “But regardless, he appears to be building the ‘real’ Apple TV right in front of us. The key here is to focus not on the hardware but on the software, the content, and the way users will get to access all of that stuff.”
Since March, Apple TV users have been able to access the Netflix service through their iTunes accounts. This integration may serve as a template for future deals to provide additional content.
This week in San Francisco, Apple unveiled AirPlay mirroring via the Mountain Lion OS that allows users to send content from a Mac directly to the TV using the Apple TV box, what Kafka describes as “another important piece of the puzzle.”
Although not yet promoted as such, AirPlay mirroring may open new possibilities for sending whatever is on your Safari browser (from multiple devices) directly to your TV, potentially leading to “a new breed of dual-screen Apple TV + AirPlay apps.”
“It’s already happening: From MLB, which allows you to use your iPad as a second screen for HD baseball game broadcasts, to games that render on the TV while using your phone or tablet as a controller, to many of Apple’s own native apps like iPhoto and Keynote which present rich interactive interfaces on the iPad while rendering media onto the TV,” says Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire.
Second screen social network ConnecTV has officially launched nationwide with backing from leading U.S. broadcast companies.
