Video-sharing startup (and stars of Bloomberg’s TechStars reality show) Shelby.tv is about to launch a pretty nifty feature called “Touch Play.” The new addition, a gesture-based remote control that works via Apple’s AirPlay, will be shown off at next week’s CES, with its launch planned for the week following.
For those unfamiliar, Shelby.tv launched in October with a service that automatically pulls in all the videos your friends share on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr into a curated video channel with videos you can watch, favorite and then re-share.
Says Shelby.tv founder Reece Pacheco, with Touch Play, it’s about using the right screen for the right thing. And the TV was made for watching videos! You’ll be able to control the videos on your TV via the Shelby.tv mobile app.
The new gestures are built into Shelby.tv’s iOS applications, but will only work on the latest hardware: the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2.
Touch Play is a bit more complex than Apple’s Remote app, it seems. There are a number of gestures included, like a one finger tap for the video’s context, a one finger swipe up for a like, a swipe down for a “watch later,” a swipe left or right to move back or forward in a video by 10 seconds, a two finger up or down to change “channels” (e.g. your favorites queue, your “watch later” queue, etc.), a pinch to return to the guide, an expand to expand the sharing controls, and a double tap to play and pause videos. Whew!
The list seems long, but like all iOS gestures, it’s easier to get the hang of them by doing, not reading some “how to” guide.
Since you still have to wait a couple of weeks to demo this for yourself (boo), you can check out the video below as a preview:
Pacheco says Shelby.tv has an Android tablet app in the works too, but won’t comment on the timing. They also have a “good guess” as to how the rumored Apple TV set will work, and are moving to support it, but won’t talk about that either (also, boo…or maybe, yay?)
You can grab a copy of Shelby.tv for iOS here on iTunes.
More info is available via Shelby.tv’s blog.
Shelby.tv is the most amazing way to discover and enjoy web video.
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