Future of TV
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By Neil Hughes Apple has shown interest in building a new, simplified remote control that would automatically control a variety of devices while reducing setup and frustration for the user. The concept was revealed this week in a new patent application discovered by AppleInsider . Entitled "Apparatus and Method to Facilitate Universal Remote Control," it describes a touchscreen-based controller that would reduce the confusing clutter found on current universal remotes. The filing notes that current remotes have a large number of buttons and switches to control the functions of a device, and while those buttons are necessary to control all of the functions, the average user typically only uses a handful of the buttons.
Apple's universal remote concept hints at future television set
It began with a concept video. Commissioned by film industry giant Technicolor and created in 2010 by Ziba , it depicted a day in the life of two people, living in a fictional future where the tools to manage our many screens of content made sense. "It was a visioneering piece," says Ryan Coulter, creative director at Ziba.
Ziba Jumps Into Race For A Great Web TV Interface, With M-Go | Co.Design
Tech
It’s great to watch Mashable , ReadWriteWeb and more proclaim that social TV has been one of 2011′s top trends. That’s why we focused Lost Remote exclusively on social TV nearly a year ago. Now that we’re heading into 2012, we believe that social TV is much greater than a trend: it’s nothing short of a revolution in the TV industry. We’ve mapped out 12 of our predictions for next year based on emerging behavior we’re seeing in the social TV space.
12 predictions for social TV in 2012
In a wide-ranging interview, Daniel Danker, the BBC's General Manager, Programmes and On Demand, tells VOD Professional about how the BBC technology teams operate internally, what their best practices are and how the iPlayer has developed for televisions, tablets, computers and mobiles. KANJI : Hi Daniel. So what's your typical day like at the BBC?
Being Daniel Danker
Behind the Scenes
Summary Remember the giant, interactive touch screen that detective John Anderton used to fight pre-crime in the movie, Minority Report? Remember how crazy and far-fetched that concept seemed at the time? And that was only 2002! Fast forward to present-day, and you will find the new Mill Touch at the center at our Mill New York office.Anthony Rose, who rose to prominence by re-launching the BBC iPlayer and went on to become the chief technology officer of YouView, is now betting on a new startup to bring social recommendation to television. He has re-emerged as the co-founder and chief technology officer of tBone TV, and he has attracted some of the software team from YouView to work with him. He left YouView, the joint venture between the BBC and other broadcasters and broadband service providers, after just eight months in December 2010. An Accenture consultant replaced him as head of technical delivery, as it became increasingly apparent that the launch of the YouView platform was behind schedule.
tBone TV coming to connected television
Steve Clayton and Flora Goldthwaite give us an exclusive tour of The Microsoft Home . The Microsoft Home, located on the Redmond campus in the Executive Briefing Center, is an envisioning of the family home in the very near future where connected experiences and devices take their next logical steps and beyond. First opened in 1994, The Microsoft Home is maintained by a group of researchers under Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Craig Mundie, and is updated regularly .
Microsoft Campus Tours - The Microsoft Home | Microsoft Campus Tours | Channel 9
Kinect
Yahoo buys social TV startup IntoNow
Yahoo Inc. on Monday announced that it has acquired IntoNow, a startup company whose technology can let users almost instantly recognize TV content and share favorite programs with their friends. IntoNow has built a technology platform that can automatically identify live television content and any previously aired U.S.- based television programming in the past five years. It also offers an application for iPhone and other devices running Apple's iOS operating system, which can help users connect and engage with their friends around the shows they love. With the application, users can find out what their friends are watching and engage in discussion through their favorite social networks, or discover what shows they have in common with others and which of them are on air right now.
It's not just ADD-addled teenagers stabbing at their smartphones while "watching" TV anymore -- it's all of us. (What does refreshing my Twitter feed do to improve my experience of watching 30 Rock ? Don't ask.)
GOAB iPad App Brings TV Watching Into the Internet Age | Co.Design
Last week, the BBC Trust gingerly announced provisional approval of the BBC’s Project Canvas . The aim of Project Canvas is to define a set of standards for set-top boxes that will allow integration of web and TV. Although, it isn’t clear exactly what the standards will consist of and what Project Canvas’ vision of IPTV really is. Set-top box manufacturers such as Thomson , Humax and Cisco are involved and have committed to share intellectual property relating to Canvas with the rest of their industry. Content providers such as ITV, Channel 4 and 5 are enrolled within the organisational structure of Canvas itself, as are broadband providers such as BT, TalkTalk and Carphone Warehouse.
Apps for telly
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Broadcast Yourself
UX
guidelines
second screen
After years of false-starts and not-quite-there implementations, it appears that the connected TV revolution is upon us. Finally, consumers will have access to affordable technology that will let them access web content and content from their Macs or PCs from the comfort of the couch, without expensive HTPC setups or complicated software. The battle for the living room is finally here. Three of the big contenders in this space are the new Apple TV , the upcoming Boxee Box , and the recently updated Roku XDS . All three units work without a hard drive and stream content in HD from the web to your TV.
Connected TV: The New Battle for Your Living Room [INFOGRAPHIC]
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Breaking out of the box
ReadWriteWeb reports that Into Now, a California-based startup, has created a video and audio recognition technology called SoundPrint which can recognize which specific episode of a TV series you are watching, compared to services like Miso and Tunerfish which allow you to check-in to a series rather than to a more drilled-down episode level. I'm not certain there is a whole lot of value add in a service like this, but the simplicity of the service seems interesting: just one click of a button on your iPad or iPod and it indexes 140 million minutes of content to locate which specific episode of a series you are watching, with hardly any typing required. And yes, you can share that piece of information with your Facebook and Twitter friends. This is what I thought was the most interesting part of the article: By relying on the audio to identify content, it makes the technology device agnostic and puts the content at the center of the interaction.Twitter and The Apprentice – some quick observations
Posted by Roo - 12/10/10 at 12:10:19 pm I wrote last year about the ‘data flood’ that confronts you if you try to watch what everyone on Twitter is saying about the Apprentice. Well, it’s back, and more talked about than ever.Aleks Krotoski : [NPOX10] The Cult of Me: a primer for broadcasters
This is the text of my keynote from the NPOX10 Festival , held in September 2010 in Hilversum, Holland Hello and thank you for inviting me to open this exciting two-day event. I am speaking to you as a woman who wears several hats, including the two that I’m going to focus on today: I am a social psychologist with a particular interest in how information, attitudes and behaviours spread around the Web, and I am a broadcaster and journalist with an interest in the intersection between digital – or ‘interactive’ – media and traditional – or ‘passive’ – media.vaguely relevant