Companies are pushing to reinvent the way viewers discover and share TV programs via new integration with social networking outlets.
“App developers are updating the traditional channel guide to show viewers programs that are uniquely relevant to them based on their social circles,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
TV viewers not only have a virtual water cooler at their disposal for discussing their favorite shows, but now mobile apps help share programs that their friends like based on their preferences.
“We can help people discover what to watch in a fundamentally new way,” says Alex Iskold, chief exec of AdaptiveBlue, maker of social TV app GetGlue. “When you sit down on the couch, you’re wondering, ‘What do I watch?’ These kinds of guides are going to become pretty ubiquitous.”
The apps hope to extend a broader shift for social TV, going beyond the original check-in approach for friends to share information (the article suggests the check-in never achieved a critical mass necessary to launch a viable social community).
“In coming weeks, GetGlue plans to relaunch its app as a social TV guide that will show a scrolling calendar with the shows, movies and sports that users’ might like,” notes WSJ. “It will show whether friends who use the app are watching the same show.”
The GetGlue guide will interact with Facebook’s Connect feature in order to “pull in data from friends, so that the guide becomes fully educated on what people like and watch.”
The companies behind the free apps “are trying to offer complimentary advertising on smartphones and tablets to make money,” explains the article. “For example, if someone is watching a pizza commercial, the app could offer a coupon for the pizza shop on the user’s smart device.”
The article also describes similar social TV apps from companies such as Peel Technologies, Dijit Media and TVGuide.com.
Intel, Cisco and Verizon are investing $3.3 million in R&D at five universities in an effort to improve video delivery over wireless networks.
“The first goal of the Video Aware Wireless Networks (VAWN) program? Find a good way to measure mobile video quality,” reports ReadWriteWeb.
Evaluating subjective video quality in quantitative terms is a challenge, one that involves perceptual issues and technical concerns.
“Because viewers perceive quality differently depending on what they’re watching — sports versus talking heads, for example — quality isn’t about throughput but experience, explained Jeff Foerster, principal engineer and wireless researcher at Intel Labs. That’s why VAWN researchers partnered with psychology departments to better understand how the brain comprehends different kinds of video on various devices,” notes the article.
Video stream algorithms, data compression, caching, network management and data storage are some of the considerations in designing systems that will ideally meet the needs of the most people.
Cooperation between packets of data in a network is also a consideration. “Not all packets need to be treated the same,” says Foerster. “Some packets are more important than others to maximizing perceived video quality.”
To further complicate matters, the video measurements will vary by device. Also, different video formats have different requirements.
Increasing efficiency and quality is a pressing matter, suggests the post: “In 5 years an estimated 90 percent of Net traffic will be video, and 66 percent of mobile traffic will be video. Video traffic is expected to grow 66 times based on the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI), but carriers simply can’t afford to spend 66 times the cost to boost network capacity.”
The project is in year two of its three-year plan and includes research conducted by the University of Texas at Austin, Cornell, University of California San Diego, University of Southern California and Moscow State University.
Even with millions of global viewers, NASA successfully streamed live footage of the Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars, and not once did their servers fail. By contrast, the team’s attempt to upload a clip of the event to YouTube had less luck.
Within minutes of the “NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain” video being posted, it was blocked by Scripps Local News on copyright grounds, highlighting some innate issues with YouTube’s automated copyright monitor, Content ID.
“The good thing about automation is that you don’t have to involve real people to make decisions. The bad thing about automation is that you don’t have to involve real people to make decisions,” said Bob Jacobs, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for communication, who added that these type of claims happen once a month.
Content ID scans the 72 hours of content uploaded each minute on YouTube, looking for videos that violate terms of service and for content that matches copyrighted material.
YouTube also enables copyright owners to submit requests for pirated video to be censored. Unfortunately, the site favors accusers, making it extremely difficult for the accused to reinstate their videos.
“YouTube’s policy requires the alleged violator to submit a signed counter-claim, under penalty of perjury, then awaits a response from the original supposed owner before possibly restoring the video,” Motherboard explains. “YouTube forwards the claim to the supposed copyright owner and waits ten days for a response. ‘If we do not receive such notification, we may reinstate the material,’ says YouTube.”
Jacobs argues there should be consequences for people who make false copyright claims.
Variety writer David S. Cohen says today’s 3D wave is not the same 18-month fad the industry experienced in the 1950s. Even so, he remains skeptical about its future based on filmmakers’ mindsets.
“Release my movie in 3D if you must — but don’t make me change one single thing I’m used to doing” is the attitude of many in the industry, Cohen writes.
The pricing also plays into 3D’s future. “I think the 3D upcharge is proving both a blessing and a curse,” he notes. “We’re getting movies with enough 3D to collect the upcharge, but not enough to deliver the premium experience the audience is paying for.”
3D has developed a bad reputation, which Cohen attributes to the “cynical content creation on the one hand and poor projection on the other,” both of which reflect a philosophy of collecting the upcharge with minimal effort.
“But if filmmakers don’t embrace 3D and make it a plus in their storytelling, and if exhibs won’t do the extra work and spend the extra money to show 3D beautifully, eventually auds might decide that aside from the work of a few people who have publicly promoted the format, Hollywood’s 3D is just a cynical cash-grab. And the sad part is, they might be right,” Cohen concludes.
Since Facebook has been striving to monetize its mobile efforts, the social giant took some heat earlier this year when big retailers such as Gamestop, Nordstrom and JC Penney shut down their Facebook stores.
Working with Ecwid, the second largest store-building application on Facebook, VentureBeat finds that Facebook store commerce is in fact working, but mostly for small- to medium-sized businesses.
“We started pulling data from the over 40,000 Ecwid accounts globally that have active stores on both a website and on Facebook,” the post explains. “For the second quarter of this year, we found that 22.1 percent of those orders came from the Facebook store. That’s up from 17.3 percent in Q1. These are impressive figures, especially when you consider they’ve grown from 15 percent in 2011 when we first started tracking this.”
Smaller businesses seem to have a better understanding of how social networks work, according to the analysis. These companies can convey a more personal tone in social conversations, be more flexible to incorporate new store-building technologies and build up their community — rather than just “product hawking.”
“[Small- to medium- businesses] more effectively integrate their stores into the flow of the conversation,” the post adds. “Dropping a store into a social news stream has to be done carefully. The purpose of social networks is to connect people, so an ill-timed sales offer can be a turnoff.”
The bigger companies could learn a thing or two from the smaller businesses. “Since the rules of this game are still being written, it’s important to pay attention to who’s figuring it out first,” suggests VentureBeat.
“A source close to Google tells us that the company has put a stop to all acquisitions related to Google+, at least until the end of this year,” reports TechCrunch.
“This source also tells us that Google is wary of both growing the Google+ team right now and providing the product with any additional resources until January,” adds the post.
However, the traditional Google+ Hawaii offsite meeting is reportedly still on the schedule. It is also worth noting that Google+ has already made significant acquisitions this year including the $100 million Meebo purchase.
Google also acquired automatic friends sorter Katango and social media analytics service SocialGrapple last year.
“The Google+ project itself is not on hold but, if this rumor is indeed correct and Google is cutting back on expanding the team’s resources, this could be an indication that Google+ isn’t doing quite as well as the company’s glowing public comments would indicate,” suggests TechCrunch.
San Francisco area eBay users can now register for the beta release of the company’s new same-day shipping service called eBay Now.
“An iOS app, eBay Now’s beta will let SF residents get $5 same-day shipping on products from local stores,” reports TechCrunch.
To start, the service is restricted to purchases over $25. Early partners include Macy’s, Toys R Us, Target and Best Buy.
“Startups like TaskRabbit and Uber have given consumers a taste of instant gratification, and now it seems eBay wants to deliver the same satisfaction,” notes the post. “We are witnessing the rise of convenience tech.”
The move could provide some competition for Amazon, which recently announced it is planning new warehouses in major cities in order to provide same-day shipping to certain regions.
“If I’m in a big city surrounded by brick-and-mortar stores and want something immediately, why wait days by going with ecommerce unless there’s a super-speedy shipping option?” asks the author. “Yes, so you never have to leave your cave. But eBay Now could turn your briefest impulse into products at your door just hours later.”
Removing the built-in entertainment systems common on airplanes today could save some airlines around 14 gallons of jet fuel per hour by taking tons off the plane’s weight. And on those long flights, this change can equate to hundreds of dollars saved per flight.
On average, in-flight entertainment systems weigh in around 13 pounds per seat. Offering iPads instead could drastically cut down this weight and even reduce costs of replacing or maintaining IFE systems.
“In addition, airlines have to provide tablets only to actual passengers who didn’t already bring their own, and some passengers might not want to watch movies and so would decline the device. Empty seats don’t get them, either, saving even more weight and expense,” notes ReadWriteWeb. “In classic airline fashion, they’ll likely yield management analysis to precisely calculate how many tablets they’ll need for each flight.”
Those opposed to the change claim tablets take up space on trays and are inconvenient for lie-flat seats. However, new IFE platforms could let passengers “connect their own devices to the on-board entertainment or connect their tablet’s content to the seat-back screen,” the post states.
“Eventually, with the increase of broadband availability on flights, airlines may not even bother to provide proprietary content at all: passengers will bring their own, or surf online to find their own entertainment,” the article continues. “And as tablet penetration continues to increase, more and more passengers will likely tote their own tablets onto the plane.”
Customers will ultimately have the last say as they choose with their wallets, ReadWriteWeb suggests.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is getting an update in light of the expanding social media scene, extensive ad networks and new tracking technology.
The rules apply to third party advertising networks and developers of apps or plug-ins when dealing with a child-oriented website or service. If a site and/or service directly targets children under 13 as their main audience, it is required to treat all visitors as underaged. The rules do not, however, affect information collection required for maintaining a network or offering a service.
The new rules allow sites/services to “age-screen all visitors in order to provide COPPA’s protections only to users under age 13,” the FTC states.
According to the FTC, “an operator of a child-directed site or service that chooses to integrate the services of others that collect personal information from its visitors should itself be considered a covered ‘operator’ under the Rule.”
The update also expands the meaning of personal information to include geolocation data and “‘persistent identifiers’ that recognize a user over a period of time which are used for purposes other than ‘support for internal operations,'” according to the FTC.
“This rule is aimed squarely at tracking cookies that are capable of not only delivering advertising within a site but can also be used to track people across sites to deliver targeted information,” notes SafeKids.com.
Despite good intentions, the COPPA revision still has some setbacks like its potential impact on small businesses. Also, “…it discourages companies from offering services to people under 13 or even allowing pre-teens to use services that could benefit them,” SafeKids.com writes. “Because COPPA doesn’t apply to people 13 and over, there are a lot of great services aimed at teens and adults but since kids do want to use many of these services, they wind up lying about their age, often with parental consent or involvement.”
Despite the cries against an Internet crackdown, the MPAA says it is not trying to control the Web in its case against Richard O’Dwyer.
UK resident O’Dwyer could be extradited to the United States for copyright infringement regarding his site TVShack.net, which provided links to possibly illegal content. O’Dwyer may not have violated UK laws and he is in the process of appealing the decision.
According to a supposed leaked MPAA memo: “Being 24, posing for newspaper photo shoots in a cartoon sweatshirt, and having your mother and Jimmy Wales speak for you, does not mean you are incapable for [sic] breaking the law.”
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales sees O’Dwyer’s prosecution as an affront to Internet freedom. He has initiated a petition that has since gotten a quarter million signatures.
The MPAA is trying to curb these concerns. “This case isn’t about Internet freedom,” the association states. “It’s about a man profiting from theft. However, we do welcome a larger discussion about how best to protect intellectual property online while ensuring an Internet that works for everyone.”
“Stopping online piracy is like playing the world’s largest game of Whac-A-Mole,” suggests The New York Times. “Hit one, countless others appear. Quickly. And the mallet is heavy and slow.”
The article cites workarounds to several attempts of copyright protection to illustrate how battling piracy is often futile.
For example, when YouTube launched Content ID for movie studios and TV networks to legitimately upload copyrighted clips, YouTube users placed the videos inside a still photo of a cat that fooled the Content ID algorithm.
When authorities blocked access to BitTorrent site Pirate Bay earlier this year, whacking one big mole led to hundreds of smaller ones.
“In retaliation, the Pirate Bay wrapped up the code that runs its entire Web site, and offered it as a free downloadable file for anyone to copy and install on their own servers,” explains NYT. “People began setting up hundreds of new versions of the site, and the piracy continues unabated.”
Ernesto Van Der Sar, editor of Torrent Freak, says piracy will not go away and recommends that rather than attempting to combat it, companies should be experimenting with new content distribution models.
“There’s a clearly established relationship between the legal availability of material online and copyright infringement; it’s an inverse relationship,” says Holmes Wilson, co-director of Fight for the Future, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing piracy laws from disrupting the Internet. “The most downloaded television shows on the Pirate Bay are the ones that are not legally available online.”
“If every TV show was offered at a fair price to everyone in the world, there would definitely be much less copyright infringement,” he adds. “But because of the monopoly power of the cable companies and content creators, they might actually make less money.”
Square has already gained popularity and success with its small credit card reader that plugs into smartphone audio jacks. The company wants to take the service one step further: remove the device altogether and enable payments without even digging out your wallet or phone.
Pay With Square keeps users credit card information to enable charges online. While it may be “unsettling” for first time users who don’t know whether to trust the app, the company hopes it will improve the payment experience and even help customer service.
“When you open a tab on Pay With Square at a store, café, restaurant or food cart, the merchant sees your name and face appear on Register. When you check out, you give your name, so the merchant knows on whose tab to put your order. When the payment goes through, your phone buzzes, and the merchant says you’re all set,” ReadWriteWeb explains.
The “Auto-Open Tab When Near” option will open and close your tab based on location so you don’t even have to use your phone at all.
“Likewise, on the merchant’s side, Register keeps track of when customers are nearby and ready to pay. Since it shows their names and faces and keeps track of their visits, the merchant has a powerful customer service advantage: ‘Hi, Anna. How are you? Would you like the usual?'” the article says.
“Higher technology made payments more complicated,” suggests the post. “As our economies gained complexity, so did our media of exchange. But now we’re over the hump, and mobile networking can make things simpler again.”
As mobile usage increases, non-profits like the Wi-Fi Alliance continue to work with manufacturers, creating standards to make the wireless experience seamless and faster for all users.
One example is the new 802.11ac wireless standard, which enables high-speed connectivity, backup and sync for wireless devices.
“802.11ac significantly increases available Wi-Fi bandwidth, improving wireless performance for reliable high-definition (HD) video streaming, alleviating nuisances such as slow loading times and videos pausing in the middle of a scene,” Forbes explains. “802.11ac also allows consumers to transmit multiple HD videos simultaneously without losing the connection.”
NFC is also going to be important to digital households, allowing “two devices to securely communicate wirelessly without the hassle of passwords,” the article states.
Besides enabling mobile devices to connect to Wi-Fi automatically when close, near field communication also “simplifies the pairing of Bluetooth devices such as remote controls, 3D glasses and an array of mobile and audio streaming products,” reports Forbes.
The article also details the new technology, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miramast, which, “uses a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection to deliver audio and video content from one device to another without cables or a connection to an existing network,” so users can easily stream mobile content onto their big screen TVs.
“In the coming years,” Forbes concludes, “the latest and greatest consumer devices will only be as good as the wireless technologies they’re built on and the standards that they support.”
Top pay TV providers are facing fierce competition from evolving Internet services. In addition, the companies are dealing with harsh realities of a weak U.S. economy as well as battles with program makers, all contributing to over 400,000 American homes canceling their pay TV service since January.
While the second quarter is generally weak for the business — with college students moving out and people changing houses before summer — top providers are reporting some noteworthy drops in subscriptions.
DirecTV had 52,000 homes cancel their services, Time Warner Cable saw 169,000 customers cord-cut, Comcast lost 176,000 subscriptions, and Dish Network saw 10,000 customers leave. For Dish and Comcast, the rate of losses were actually less than previous quarters, but the losses were a first ever for DirecTV.
The declining numbers are “ominous” for pay TV services, suggest Reuters. Competing with new services has led pay TV distributors to try new measures.
“The maturity of the nearly fifty-year-old cable TV market has raised the stakes leading to more bitter and prolonged battles between distributors and their program maker partners,” notes Reuters. “These disputes now typically end up with customers losing some of their favorite programming for days on end and adds to customer weariness with pay TV.”
“The idea of cord-cutting has gathered steam as several major technology companies [Google, Intel, Amazon and others] have held talks with program makers about putting together TV packages that will be delivered via the Internet,” the article states.
But some don’t think cord-cutting is the primary issue. “We actually think a bigger issue in the market is that there is a group of customers that are in really serious financial shape, they have been out of work for a long time,” said TWC CEO Glenn Britt.
Free-to-play gaming provides consumers with more choice and possibly even more content as developers update to attract more people or bring previous users back.
“The concept of paying a regular, flat fee for access to game time has had a good run since apparently getting its start in the mid-’80s, and the business model will no doubt continue to limp along for a while in some corners of the industry,” writes Ars Technica. “But it seems obvious now that offering online games for free, and monetizing players once they’re hooked, has fully replaced this outdated business model.”
Already, game makers are seeing a switch in consumer behavior. “‘Lord of the Rings Online’ saw its monthly revenue double after it stopped requiring subscriptions in 2010. ‘DC Universe Online’ saw a seven-fold revenue increase when it did the same late last year. Even the venerable ‘Team Fortress 2’ started bringing in 12 times as much money when it switched to a primarily hat-based business model,” notes the article.
While this trend hasn’t held out for all games — like “World of Warcraft,” which continues to benefit from monthly subscriptions — Ars Technica criticizes the model’s non-negotiable rates compared with the more a la carte approach of level-limited free-to-play options that offer microtransactions.
“It’s that kind of inflexibility that has proven to be the online gaming subscription model’s ultimate downfall,” suggests the article.