Yes, that could include your video too, if you ever thought of protecting it with any digital rights management (DRM) system or service....
Double Twist Ventures, “DVD Jon” Lech Johansen's company just released an open beta (doesn’t beta mean open to start with?) of DoubleTwist, a desktop application that allows you to copy media to any device. There's a Facebook app too. DoubleTwist can be downloaded at:
Currently only Windows is supported, but a Macintosh version is on the way. Find out more on their Q&A page before shooting your next masterpiece. It’s an eye-opener!
The 5,000-pound National Reconnaissance Office surveillance satellite was pronounced dead just a few hours after it made into orbit, on Dec. 14, 2006. This January, the U.S. military realized that the satellite was beginning its descent down into the atmosphere. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be much cause for concern; objects of this size plummet into the Earth's atmosphere all the time. But this satellite contains a full tank -- over 1,000 pounds' worth -- of the rocket propellant hydrazine. And there's a small but real risk that the tank could rupture, releasing a "toxic gas" over a populated area, causing a risk to human life. So the Navy scheduled its very first "anti-satellite" mission to shoot for February 20, during the hours of a full lunar eclipse.
The folks over at Analytical Graphics and Applied Defense Solutions have put together a simulation for the Pentagon (and the rest of us) of how it's likely to happen -- and where the debris goes afterwards:
What makes this sim special is the injection of real-world physics. Unlike the zippy little animations you get to see on the evening news, every piece of debris in this satellite shoot-down model has been given its own mass, area, speed, velocity and drag.
Not every element of this particular model is hyper-realistic, however. AGI put together the sim based on the Pentagon's assertion that 50 percent of the debris would burn up in the atmosphere during the first two passes. Debris is uniformly distributed (although changes in velocity and direction are more natural).
Still, this is about as realistic a simulation you're going to see -- until that Navy cruiser takes its shot. Good enough for me, if they don't miss. They didn't.
Things do seem to come full circle: Movie distribution has gone from TV to mail to online download back to TV on demand. Capitalizing on this trend, Netflix (see my previous post) and LG are betting, you will want to buy yet another device for your home theater.
"The partnership between Netflix, Los Gatos, Calif., and South Korea's LG represents another gamble by technology companies that video from the Internet, which is commonly downloaded to personal computers, will go mainstream when users can easily access it from TV sets. So far, Internet television products such as Apple Inc.'s Apple TV have largely been unsuccessful, stymied by a poor selection of videos, complexity of use and other shortcomings.”
Here is my question: Will YOU want to buy yet another device for your home theater? I know I don't....
February 18, 2008
The last thing the web needs is another video host site, me thinks.
A better platform and interfaces, however, are another story, according to Michael Hoydich, co-founder of tech startup Unknown Vector.
So, with his partner, Mark Grey, Hoydich has launched a new platform for social networkers now and everybody else later, to view, store, and share streaming video. Dubbed uvLayer, the full-screen media download allows users and their friends to interact with each other's videos across multiple social networks.
"The way people interact with and share videos today is limited and awkward," says Hoydich, who once served as a vice president of sales for Viewpoint Corporation. With Gray, Hoydich later went on to found another tech services firm named IndustryNext, and an interactive marketing agency by the name of Incognito Digital.
UvLayer sources video content from multiple sources so viewers can centralize their videos and play lists without visiting multiple sites. Also, uvLayer users can manipulate collected videos into thumbnail-sized "stacks" atop their personalized media canvas for better viewing and sharing.
Also with uvLayer, you are no longer required an open Web browser to view videos, as the option exists to view a single video or an entire playlist in a small window anchored on top of a viewer's desktop. You can also publish media collections directly to Facebook, with no coding and no typing now; other social media sites, blogs, and regular sites later, probably in 3-6 months.
UvLayer was developed using Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), a new technology that allows developers to create rich internet applications developed in Flash, HTML, and AJAX.
Motionbox is another video-sharing site which had to find a niche. They've re-focused on what they call "trusted family use." Shoot your video, upload it, edit it — then share it privately with family and personal friends.
The free service, launched last year, lets you upload 100 megabytes per video, and store 300 megabytes. In last November they launched “Motionbox Premium,” their subscription service at $29.99 that includes unlimited storage and “TV-quality” downloads for watching on various devices. It also launched Motionbooks, video flipbooks you can make with your personal videos. An interesting twist!
The premium service will eventually cost $34.99 a year. At least that's the plan. We'll see if it sticks ... my hunch is they will have to settle for $19.99.
Site announcement: You're watching the digital lifestyle....
Mogulus from New York seems to be, for now, focused on live video production tools. These enable you to “storyboard,” which can produce more TV-like content as you drop recorded videos into the feed at cue and overlay graphics such as logos or titles. Sweet!
This too, if it works...
If it doesn't - NOT GOOD Blogger! - here is the link:
Features you can use now:
1. Start your own live broadcast using content from around the web or your own webcam 2. Assemble a dream team of producers (don’t skip due diligence!) 3. Watch 26 channels simultaneously on the Mogulus Grid, out of thousands 4. Chat with other viewers 5. Embed your channel on your blog, site, Myspace or Facebook profile 6. Embed a whole video wall, i.e. the Mogulus Grid, on your site
My opinion after a VERY “quick and dirty” testing: Clean user interface design and presentation make moving around the site and work spaces easy. Nice editing features, marred by slooow load times sometimes during production. The collaboration tools are excellent. Creates a real live, 24/7 channel - however, it takes lot of steps just to start a channel. (No, I didn’t count the steps.) Easy access to your, and up to 25 other channels/videos, through the Mogulus Grid. Load times, on the other hand can be a bear....
NetTVworld's device is designed let individuals and organizations more easily broadcast their own TV programs via the Internet. That spiffy black box in the picture below digitizes and packetizes video streams and then sends them over the Internet.
Net TV World touts NetTelecaster as a revolutionary "plug and play transmitter" for Internet television:
"Simply plug in your video signal and it is broadcast to millions over the internet. It's just that simple and easy. You don't need a network of servers or huge bandwidth thanks to our breakthrough ServerShare technology."
As of now, it can only broadcast 10 streams at once, but by leveraging peer-to-peer networks, a single box could send out 20,000 simultaneous streams. The company claims to have hit this number in lab tests. It can probably do more, its president says.
Although the box can potentially deliver 20,000 simultaneous streams, in reality it only broadcasts one single show at a time. Nevertheless, its $5,000 price tag is FAR LESS than conventional broadcasting equipment. Technically, you could rig up a standard server to do the same thing, but this takes the configuration and complexity out of the equation.
Automakers such as Ford or Honda, for instance, will be able to broadcast programs, videos and reviews to their nationwide network of dealers. Private ad networks, similar to what Focus Media has accomplished in China, also seem to be a good fit. Colleges are looking at the device to set up networks to broadcast games for their alumni. ESPN, after all, doesn't show the Drake versus Oberlin game every year.
Netflix lifted limits on streaming its movies for most subscribers, in order to head off expected competition from Apple. Rumors proved true of an Apple movie-download service that was announced by Steve Jobs at Mac Expo.
As you know, Netflix has imposed limits on how long its subscribers could watch streamed movies.Those of us paying $16.99/month could stream up to 17 hours per month. The limits ended on Monday Jan. 14 for most subscribers, except for those paying $4.99 for two DVD rentals a month, said to be a small minority.
So here it is - NetFlix's "Watch Now" demo video:
The company has 6,000 movies available for streaming, compared to 90,000 that you can get delivered in the mail.
Cybercast credit: YouTube. I'm surprised they put it up here!!!
Do you want to watch the shows, videos, what-have-you on your computer on a TV set, without investing in another layer of software or hardware like Apple TV or Microsoft's Media Center? You can, if your files are in MPEG-4 and DivX formats, with TakeTV,a nifty combination an USB flash drive and video player. It’s from Sandisk, a solid state memory (think USB drives, iPod and iPhone media storage,PC memory modules) supplier. You get, straight out of the box, a small gizmo that contains:
- A PC to TV video converter/player - Remote control - TV cradle - Power adapter
All you do is plug it into a USB port on your computer, copy files onto it, take it with you to any TV set, connect the cradle, plug it in, and hit the Play button. It's like the video iPod for the "rest of us!"
