Social TV has a new player that's worth watching. Last month, Vobile launched TVSync, an open platform that introduces new broadcast and cable TV streaming options. TVSync could finally do what predecessors dreamed of doing: mesh social media, streamed entertainment and curated content across multiple screens.Big money is at stake. The...
By now, many people considering a new smartphone know that the new maps service in Apple's iPhone 5 - and iOS 6 - is more likely to get them lost than maps in competing phones. Rather than continue offering Google Maps, Apple opted for an inferior homegrown service, believing customers...
The future of Microsoft’s Xbox appears to be moving briskly toward interactive TV, based on a high-profile hire of CBS Entertainment’s former television chief and the launch of two interactive TV “programs” that tap into Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral. This week, Microsoft hired Nancy Tellem, the former CBS exec, to run...
No longer content to just help you confirm that, yes, the song you're hearing is the new Justin Bieber single, Shazam is branching out. The music identification and discovery app is expanding its social TV capabilities and solidifying its role in the second-screen space. Unlike many new-media initiatives, it might...
Well, so much for that. Once upon a time, 2012 was supposed to be the year that Apple made its big splash in television, as foretold by Steve Jobs' declaration that he had "finally cracked it." While the company may have nailed down a stellar user interface and product design,...
It's that time of year again. The Apple rumor mill is working overtime as customers await iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 in the fall, with a 7-inch iPad and long-anticipated HDTV set on the horizon. One purported iOS 6 feature could propel Apple into wearable computing in a very...
Even as cable/satellite TV carriers like Comcast and DirecTV squabble over dollars and cents with broadcast and cable networks like NBC and Viacom, the very structure of their decades-old business model is under attack from new Internet technologies and services, as well as new government regulations. At stake is the...
GetGlue is set to push out a major update of its social TV app later this summer. The new version, GetGlue HD, aims to take the second-screen experience up a notch by layering video clips and advanced discovery tools on top of the app's legacy check-ins and social chatter. The result...
No longer a DVD-by-mail movie rental service, Netflix has evolved into something much bigger. Viewers are turning to Netflix to watch TV, according to new data from Nielsen, and the service is poised to become a powerhouse production studio.Nineteen percent of users say they primarily watch television shows on Netflix. That...
Here is a Call for Papers for a new conference in Central Europe, Poland called SmartDevCon. The conference is entirely dedicated to smart devices with the ultimate goal of having a mix of communities including both open and closed platforms. The conference SmartDevCon is oriented at...
Snatch up all the set-top boxes, smart HDTVs and second screen apps you want. The future of television will still, at its core, be about one thing: content.All of the stakeholders realize this, from legacy players such as networks and cable operators to new entrants including streaming services and search...
As the tablet and smartphone markets grow, so too does the tendency for people to use these devices while watching TV. The trend has given rise to a crop of second screen apps that enable users to supplement the TV-watching experience with content from the Web and social media chatter....
When people talk about the future of TV and entertainment, brands like Samsung, Apple, Comcast and Boxee tend to come to mind. Apple-watchers in particular expect that company to turn its longtime hobby into a game-changer by releasing their own HDTV set later this year. Whatever happens, the living room...
Here on ReadWriteWeb, we've been taking a close look at some of the best "second screen" apps designed to supplement the TV-watching process. Last week, we reviewed i.TV, which is an excellent way to find information related to a given show. Which is the best app for enhancing the social...
Since jumpstarting the tablet market two years ago, the iPad has found its way into a few distinct niches in our lives. Since its first generation, the device (and those like it) have been used heavily for content consumption: reading, watching video and, to a lesser extent, streaming music.Tablets have...
Shazam is one of the most popular smartphone apps of all time. Most people know it as that clever app that "listens" to a song and identifies the name of it. Today Shazam released the fifth major version of its iPhone app. But what's more interesting is Shazam's increasing focus...
If you think the Internet has changed your day-to-day life, just wait. That massive, glorious network of information that we now connect to from laptops and handheld devices is getting weaved ever more thoroughly into our lives.At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, connected cars and TV sets were all the...
When I first unboxed the new 1080p Apple TV and plugged it in, I wasn't blown away. Having used a Boxee Box for the last 16 months, I've come to expect flexibility and a broad selection of content sources from my streaming set-top boxes. In fact, after several minutes of...
Everything was ready to go, but of course Osama bin Laden had to go and ruin it. The night before the debut episode of The Stream on Al Jazeera English, the al Qaeda leader was killed by U.S. Navy SEALS, forcing the producers of the news program to rethink the...
Normally, this kind of thing doesn't happen so early in the game. When legacy content companies try to sue a Web startup into oblivion, it's usually a few years after it launches, after some perceptible - or at least alleged - damage has been done. The music industry took out...
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