Recently a war has broken out in Europe about who will power online video for media owners. The two main players tussling it out are both from the US: Ooyala and Brightcove.
Last month Ooyala, a provider of video platform applications and services, and the UK’s Telegraph Media Group signed an agreement for Ooyala to power online video on the publisher’s websites and co-develop new technologies.
Today Ooyala is partnering with Middle East based social media platform developer H2O New Media, giving it distribution rights to Ooyala’s video platform, Backlot. It wil be used to stream video content from the growing Middle East television and media sector.
But (also today) Brightcove is fighting back. → Read More
I’m a bit of a movie fanatic. As such, back in the day one of my favorite websites was Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX). On it, you bought and sold both movies (moviestocks) and movie stars (starbonds) based on how you thought they would do with upcoming releases. Of course, all of this was done with virtual cash (H bucks), making it a fun game. But in April, the game turns real. As in, real money.
On April 20, HSX will become a real-money commodity exchange, according to The Hollywood Reporter. As such, they’ve had to file with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for approval, which they did in November, and are now in the final phase of approval, apparently. Yes, this is actually happening. And yes, this will essentially make HSX a real-world betting site. → Read More
In theory there would be a huge advantage to having a bookstore that was not locked to one device. Historically the music industry was caught on the hop when Apple launched the iPod. Because it could play non-DRM MP3s the iPod was the perfect companion to the Napsters/Kazaas of this world. That was a business for Apple, but not for the music industry, which later found itself locked into the the Apple store. Eventually online stores started offering DRM-free MP3s for sale, but the slow-to react music industry has not recovered since.
The same is true of books. Why lock down books to one device? But of course Amazon is trying to do exactly this with the Kindle. So it makes sense then to disrupt this again, with a service which syncs across platforms and devices. Step forward Kobo Books.
Kobo is a cloud-based book store, previously only available in the US but now launching in the UK. → Read More
Finding quality video content on the web is hard. There’s too much porn, or too many lolcats derivatives, and not enough crazy music videos involving LEGOs. Following John’s Posterous is one good way to find serendipitous content you might enjoy, but there’s only one John, and he does occasionally sleep. If only someone would make an app to crowdsource my web viewing, so that only the best of the best floats up to my screen. Oh, look! Redux does exactly that. And today they’re announcing their new Boxee app, to bring all that great content to your television, so you can passively enjoy all that the web has to offer without all that tedious typing and clicking! → Read More
Slowly, but surely, Internet Explorer 6, long the bane of many a web developer, is dying. And you’re invited to its funeral.
A Denver, CO-based design company, Aten Design Group, has built a site to mark the occasion. At IE6funeral.com you can RSVP as to whether you will be able to attend the funeral service or not. It’s at the company’s headquarters in Denver, but those who aren’t able to attend in person are being asked to send flowers. For those who can attend, “Funeral attire is encouraged.” → Read More
[UK] Vouchercloud, a new iPhone app, hopes to make paper discount vouchers a thing of the past. The free app enables users to find the best offers local to them and have the associated ‘digital voucher’ delivered to and redeemable from their phone – off-line in brick ‘n’ mortar outlets as well as online via a traditional discount code.
Along with location (using GPS), vouchers can be browsed by category, such as restaurants, casual dining, shopping, entertainment or days out and so on, and ranked by distance.
Perhaps controversially, while the app is free with 100’s of vouchers that are also fee to use, Vouchercloud is offering a small selection of high-value premium offers, which users actually have to pay for. That’s right, you’re expected to purchase select vouchers that will in turn save you money – this is how Vouchercloud plans to get paid too. → Read More
HTC seemed pretty confident that the HTC Desire and HTC Legend weren’t US-bound when we talked to them at Mobile World Congress. But hey, things change — right? Boy Genius Report has just received word that the two handsets are bound for this side of the ocean, along with details on which carriers might be nabbing them. → Read More
This strange app is a touchscreen interface that connects people, places, and things using “clouds” of items and people. It basically makes Venn diagrams of your contacts and allows you to share and explore content and messages.
This looks way too weird for the average user but clearly someone out there may want to move Sven and Nikola to a timeline and figure out which emails came from each person and which emails overlap.
The text input system is actually quite cool, however, because it predicts the words you’re about to type. Pop over to 4 minutes in to see how that system works.
Video after the jump. → Read More
The Grace Allegro Wi-Fi internet radio costs $170 and supports streaming of over 16,000 radio stations, Pandora, Sirius, Live365, and MP3tunes. It can run for around eight hours on six AA batteries and the device can detect whether standard batteries or rechargeable NiMH batteries have been inserted and then recharge as needed. → Read More
Since we’ve spent two posts covering Street Fighter IV, a game that will presumably be terrible to play on the iPhone, I thought it was only fair to give a bit more love to a game that should be awesome on the iPhone. Actually, two games: Final Fantasy I and II. We knew they were coming (see trailers/screenshots here) – but now we know when they’re coming. And it’s surprisingly soon! → Read More
For web publishing startups like Scribd and DocStoc, premium content is the viable business model to monetize their platforms. For example. Scribd has signed a number of deals with publishers to sell online books to users on the site. Today, DocStoc is officially opening up its premium content channel, called the DocStore, addressing a lightly different sector, with a focus on selling professional documents to businesses and individuals.
DocStoc’s CEO and founder Jason Nazar says the one of the platform’s fastest growing user base segments are small business owners looking for free and paid documents for entrepreneurs, startups and professionals. Documents range from legal documents to real estate contracts to analysis to forms for business models. The DocStore also features documents in a variety of formats, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files. The marketplace has been open to select partners since last summer (including TechCrunch), but today will mark its public debut. → Read More
Tokyo-based crazy USB gadget maker Thanko has done it again. The company today announced [JP] not one but two “Hot Lunch Bags”, special cases that are supposed to warm up lunch boxes you brought to the office from home via USB. Thanko offered a first version of the “Hot Lunch Bag” back in winter 2008. → Read More
Being eco-friendly should definitely be high on the priorities list for electronics manufacturers and service providers, so I’m pretty happy to see that Sprint is doing its part to make our planet a nicer place for future generations. Just in case you’re the apathetic type when it comes to the three Rs (recycle, reuse, reduce!), Sprint has put some incentives into place for you. → Read More
We may give AT&T a bit of grief for the fact that their network essentially curled up into a ball and cried for two years after the launch of the first iPhone, but they’ve been dumping a ton of change into improving things over the last 8 months — and it looks like its helped. A lot. → Read More
The title says it all, ladies and gentlemen. Walmart plans to buy VUDU. The deal is expected to close in a few weeks. Full press release inside. → Read More
ViewSonic’s 13.3-inch ViewBook Pro (VNB131) promises up to 8-hour battery life with the standard 6-cell battery but you can also swap out the built-in optical drive with an included 3-cell battery slice for an extra four hours of juice. That’s a nice touch for anyone who’s on the go a lot but still needs to be able to work with disc-based media from time to time. → Read More
Now that Twitter did away with its monolithic Suggested User List, everyone can fight for followers on a more equal footing. Tweetmeme wants to help you gain followers with a new Follow Button you can place on your blog or Website. It looks very much like Tweetmeme’s ReTweet button, which is on 100,000 sites and registering 7 billion monthly impressions across the web, except it says “Follow” instead of “Retweet.” When you click on the Follow button, a window pops open that lets you sign into Twitter and follow the account tied to the button (usually the person or publication of the site the button is on). → Read More
It’s beginning to look like Expensive Speed Day here at CrunchGear, what with the USB 3.0 products and now this solid state drive from SanDisk. The G3 SSD is a solid-state drive available in 60GB and 120GB capacities for around $230 and $400, respectively. → Read More
In an age when standard USB 2.0 cables can be purchased for next to nothing, the $40 price tag on Belkin’s 4-foot USB 3.0 cable ought to be enough to keep most of us out of the early adopter demographic for a while. → Read More
Last year, Apple’s iPhone nearly doubled its worldwide market share of smartphone sales to 14.4 percent, up 6.2 points from the year before, according to the latest market share figures put out by Gartner. The iPhone still trails behind Nokia’s Symbian-powered smartphones (No. 1), which saw their share decline 5.5 points to 46.9 percent, and RIM Blackberries (No. 2), which gained 3.3 points to end the year with a 19.9 percent share.
Remember, these are worldwide estimates. In the U.S., both Blackberry and Apple are much larger than Symbian. And when it comes to mobile Web traffic, Apple and Android dominate with 81 percent share. According to Gartner, Android phone sales jumped 3.4 points (to 3.9 percent), but Android is still smaller than WIndows Mobile or Linux. Those mobile OSes, however, saw their market share drop 3.1 and 2.9 percent, respectively. Palm’s WebOS barely made a mark with 0.7 percent share. → Read More
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