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GIPS Wants iPhone to Video Conference More Often
GIPS, a San Francisco-based company that licenses intellectual property including codecs for audio and video, says it’s come up with a technology that would allow third-party developers to embed video chat in their iPhone-related applications. The new technology is called VideoEngine (VEI) Mobile.
The VideoEngine utilizes H.263 (video codec), GIPS wideband/HD voice (iPCM-Wb) and G711 (audio codec) to provide functionality that would allow real-time video chat or multipoint video conferencing. GIPS is using the H.263 codec because it (and in turn the developers who use VEI) doesn’t have to pay royalties.
Hulu’s Plans for the iPad, the Mobile Internet
From the moment Apple announced its new iPad mobile device, people have been wondering when (and if) Hulu is going to make a specialized application for this new device. But Hulu has so far tended towards public generalities and general inaction when it comes to developing for anything but the PC.
Earlier this week, and a day ahead of the iPad launch, I interviewed Hulu CEO Jason Kilar at the DLD Conference in Munich, spending a big portion of our conversation on the mobile web. Of course, Jason, who graduated from the Jeff Bezos School of Management, and like his former boss plays his cards close to the vest, didn’t reveal anything specific.
However, his comments indicated that the company is very seriously thinking about the mobile web, including creating specialist applications for different platforms. Continue reading at GigaOM.
Networks & Their Fear & Loathing of Hulu
Hulu, the online video joint venture of NBC, Fox and Disney that’s funded by Providence Equity Partners, seems to be having familial issues. No, it’s not YouTube or TV Everywhere giving the second-most popular online video service in the U.S. headaches. Instead, internal bickering is causing problems, MediaWeek reports. This is not the first time Hulu’s parents have undermined the service. But it comes as a surprise — traditional media companies have a long history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Read more of this story
Blake Krikorian Invests in Clicker, Joins Board
Blake Krikorian, who left left Sling Media earlier this year, the place-shifting startup that he sold to Echostar for $380 million in September 2007, is going to join the board of directors of Clicker.com, a Los Angeles-based online-video content discovery company started by Jim Lanzone, the former CEO of Ask.com. Krikorian is also going to make an undisclosed amount of money in the company; a news announcement is likely to be made later this week.
Clicker is backed by veteran venture capitalists Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital and Geoff Yang of Redpoint Ventures, who have invested $8 million in the company. Clicker is going to be unveiling its service to the world at our NewTeeVee Live conference, which will be held on Nov. 12 in San Francisco. (To buy tickets for the conference, click here. ) Liz covered the company in The Best Guides to Watching TV Online. Continue reading at GigaOM.
IPL Cricket’s Online Video Fails To Deliver
Yesterday, I wrote about Indian Premier League’s Twenty20 Cricket tournament. The big news was that the Indian professional cricket league championship (now in its second year) would be using Microsoft’s Silverlight multimedia technology. Given the wild popularity of this ultra short-form of the sport, it was a good comeback for Microsoft, which was unceremoniously dropped by MLB.com in favor of incumbent, Adobe Flash. Well, as luck would have it, the Microsoft-IPL partnership got off to a disastrous start. Continue reading on GigaOM
Watch the Cricket IPL Tourney Online Via Silverlight
After Microsoft’s Silverlight multimedia technology was unceremoniously dropped by Major League Baseball’s MLB.com in favor of Adobe Flash, Microsoft is coming back with a different sport involving a ball and a bat. Silverlight will power online streaming of the Indian Premier League Championships, an ultra short-form cricket tourney that debuted last year, to much fanfare. This year’s tournament is being held in South Africa.
This new form of cricket game is called Twenty20 and involves two clubs consisting of 11 players competing against each other. The pitching side gets to throw 20 overs (six pitches constitute an over). As a result, a typical game lasts about two-and-a-half hours. The new series, which pays cricket players hundreds of thousands of dollars for a month’s worth of work, combines colorful uniforms, cheerleaders and jock jams for a TV-friendly showing.
Everyone Dreams of a Digital Download Service — Even Best Buy
Since 2005, when Apple re-invented the music business by offering music downloads, much of the industry followed suit. Most attempts, if not all of them, failed. When it comes to mobile apps and digital movie downloads, history is repeating itself. But unlike music, there are no clear winners yet, though Netflix, Amazon and Apple are all vying for the top spot. Today, Variety reports, electronics retail chain Best Buy will join the pack with plans to launch its own digital download service.
Best Buy is said to be talking with companies such as CinemaNow to help run this service. My advice to them is to buy an existing player and get to the market fast — otherwise they’re likely to lose out to Netflix, which is currently the best-positioned to succeed with digital downloading. They’ve got lots of players from which to choose — Vudu and Jaman are the first to come to mind. And Best Buy does have a habit of buying distressed assets, most notably Napster, which it acquired in a move to get into the digital music download business.
Best Buy, like Blockbuster and other companies that have profited handsomely from the sale of DVDs, face a difficult future. Sales of the shiny discs have started to lose steam and the new Blu-ray ecosystem has been hampered by the global recession. But most importantly, consumer habits are starting to shift to consuming video online.
Grid Networks Merges With Global Media Services
Grid Networks, a Seattle-based peer-to-peer content delivery technology startup that’s raised more than $10 million in funding from Comcast Interactive Capital, Cisco Systems and Panorama Capital has merged with Global Media Services (GMS), a New York-based digital media services company that counts nearly 100 large content producers such as MTV Networks, SpeedTV and Fox Sports among its clients. Rumors of a pending sale of Grid Networks emerged late last month.
“Grid’s technology will help us deliver HD content, especially to non-PC devices such a game consoles,” said Charles Picasso, former COO of Digital Island, who’s going to be running the new company, in a statement. “The challenge for content owners is to get video content to three screens and non-PC devices.” Grid’s core technology now works on X-Box, Sony PS3 and Windows-powered computers.
GMS does everything from providing content management tools to streaming video over the Internet, pushing almost a petabyte of data every month on behalf of its clients. The company was founded in 2003 by Jennifer Sultan and Adam Cohen, a 15-year digital media veteran who will serve as chief media officer of the combined firm.
Disclosure: Grid Networks is funded by Panorama Capital partner Allan Leinwand, who is a guest columnist for GigaOM.
Cablevision Says No To Analog TV
Cablevision, the Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable operator, says it will only sell digital video services and say “sayonara” to analog television, so to speak. Existing analog cable customers will get analog simulcasts on television sets connected directly to Cablevision’s receivers. More than 91 percent of Cablevision’s 3.1 million television customers today receive digital service, and approximately 5 percent of the company’s cable television customers today receive analog expanded basic service. With the looming switch away from analog television over the airwaves, it looks like the bell is tolling for analog TV. Get ready for a future in which news anchors will be able to show their blemishes even more!
Cisco Eyeing Flip Maker, Pure Digital
Cisco Systems, long known for routers and switches, is trying to increase its footprint by expanding into consumer markets. And it is doing so by acquiring a lot of companies. In the past, it snapped up Linksys and KISS, and now there are rumors that the company could buy Pure Digital, the company behind the hot-selling Flip video cameras, according to TechCrunch.
The report pegs the acquisition price at $500 million for the San Francisco-based startup that has raised about $68 million over its 7-year lifespan. The deal is almost done, a Silicon Valley insider told us. We are looking for more confirmations and additional details about the rumored transaction. As with most M&A deals, it isn’t over till ink dries on the paper.
In January this year, Cisco CEO John Chambers said that the San Jose, Calif.-based company was ready to start buying again. At the time, Chambers said that a good acquisition for Cisco would be company that has 100 people and a product consumers are lining up to buy. The company recently raised $4 billion from the debt market, which points to smaller, more focused acquisitions that might need cash. Pure Digital would certainly fit that description.
In November, Deloitte ranked Pure Digital fifth on its list of fastest-growing companies in North America. Earlier that same month, Pure released an HD version of its popular portable video camera (see it in action here).
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