If you wanted to know what was on TV, you could always check the guide with your remote. But most of us aren’t just watching the tube live—we’re streaming from several different sources. The new TV Guide app brings all those brain mush factories into one place, so you can see what’s on cable, as well as what’s up on Hulu, HBO Go, Crackle, and more . More »
Online video — helped along by the rise of tablets, better broadband and a flood of content from YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and many others — has seen a huge rise in usage in the last few years; and while PCs remain the most common way to consume it, thanks to consoles like the Xbox, even TV screens are becoming popular for online video consumption.
According to a new study out from NPD surveying 14,000 consumers across 14 countries, some 18% of users are accessing online video on TVs on a daily basis, with some 25% accessing it several times a week, with movies driving much of that growth.
Similarly, it noted that tablets and smartphones are also continuing to see more usage for online video. The fact that overall PCs have a higher penetration than tablets may be the reason why PCs — both laptop and desktop — still prove more popular than tablets and smartphones as a place to watch online video. But as we have seen before, when people do have tablets, some are actually spending more time watching video on them than they are PCs, by as much as 30% more.
China — urban China, that is — is coming out as the most online-video-friendly country at the moment. As you can see in the table below, which measures online video consumption in different countries by device, China’s urban users beat every other country surveyed, across every device. This may be down to simple user behavior, but it’s also, NPD says, because Chinese users can access a lot more video content online than they can from domestic broadcasters and pay-TV providers.
Going back to the bigger picture, the rise in online video watching on TV is not exclusively because people are buying fancier televisions with internet built into them; also playing a role are the consoles that they are attaching to their existing sets. Products like the Xbox or set-top boxes from pay-TV providers that link up with broadband-enabled on-demand services have propelled TV into a strong category for online video, especially in particular markets.
In Mexico, some 30% of users watch online video on TVs. Among urban parts of China the number is nearly 40%. Neither still reaches the number of people watching on PCs — 52% on laptops and 73% on desktop PCs, respectively — but it is getting close.
“Online content is mostly viewed on computers or mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones, but TVs are increasingly becoming devices of choice for consumers, particularly since an increasing numbers of sets have either built-in connectivity or can be connected to the internet via a peripheral device such as a connected Blu-ray player or set top box, among others,” noted NPD DisplaySearch research director Riddhi Patel in a statement.
NPD says films are the most popular online video on TVs, overtaking TV content.
But, lest you think the whole world is getting connected, think again. NPD says that 44% of viewers have “no interest” in content on TVs; a further 30% said they do not own the equipment to watch online video.
And even if they were given the tools to watch online video on TV, only one-third of those without the possibility to do so now say they would want to. Within individual countries, India ranked the highest among those with “no” online video viewing options, at 67%. But it’s not just an emerging market story: Japan was the second-highest market in the no-online-video game, at 42%.
Chinese web titan Tencent and TCL Multimedia have torn the wraps off the Ice Screen, a jointly developed 26-inch smart TV with a 1,366 x 768 display that allows users to browse the web, access videos, music and games through QQ services. Under the hood, the Android-powered television houses a dual-core Cortex A9 1GHz processor, a Mali 400 GPU, 4GB of RAM and support for a memory card of up to 32GB in size. An IR remote and an app for devices sporting version 2.2 or higher of Google’s OS can be used to control the tube, which can sit horizontally or vertically in its stand. On the connectivity front, the panel packs Wi-Fi, a pair of USB ports, HDMI and a 3.5mm headphone jack. You can plunk down ¥1,999 (roughly $315) for an online pre-order before its September 3rd launch. More details await in the press release after the jump.
Continue reading Tencent and TCL unveil Ice Screen: a 26-inch Android-based smart TV
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Tencent and TCL unveil Ice Screen: a 26-inch Android-based smart TV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
In Soviet Russia, you carry the Helicarrier. But that’s all right, because just like the S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying fortress, this small remote-controlled replica made by a Russian RC enthusiast can also float and take to the sky.
The replica was made by RC Design forum member native18, the same guy who made the DeLorean quadrotor. Strangely enough, native18 also pointed out a very similar toy that was shown off at an RC airplane show way last February, except this one is literally an (RC) aircraft carrier:
Here’s native18′s Helicarrier in action:
Brush up on your Russian (or use Google Translate) and head to native18′s thread on RC Design for more details and images. Combine this with this and you have a winner.
[via Buzzfeed]
Logos are usually boring and quite bad, but they’re things we’re forced to look at every single day, so let’s care about them. In particular, let’s care about Microsoft’s—which just got its first makeover since 1987. More »
What good is a notebook that dies two hours after it’s unplugged from the wall? Not much. We’ve created a list of the clamshells that ran the distance on the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi). Each machine lasts (at least) to the 7-hour marker, but some systems use larger, sold-separately batteries to stay active up to 20 hours. See for your yourself below. More »
Remember that time Microsoft teased what most sane humans thought were new logos? That was right around two years ago, but the branding you see above is no mistake — that’s the new Microsoft logo, landing just months after Windows 8’s new flag and merely weeks before the aforesaid operating system takes the planet by storm. Astoundingly, it has been a full quarter-century since Microsoft gave itself a new logo, and while we’re sure pundits will jump all over it just because “dealing with change is hard,” there’s no doubt that the outfit’s new face is bold in its simplicity. Care to learn more? There’s a happy-go-lucky video waiting just after the break.
Microsoft reveals new logo after 25 years, proves that it’s (still) okay to be square originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nokia is expected to pull back the curtains on its new slew of Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia phones on September 5, but the Finnish phone company has been agonizingly vague about what it intends to show off. That said, some new intel may have just shed new light on Nokia’s hardware plans.
According to The Verge’s sources, Nokia plans to reveal a duo of new Lumia phones — nicknamed “Arrow” and “Phi” respectively — the latter of which is apparently poised to take over the flagship crown of the Lumia line when it launches.
Rumors of the Phi have been winging their way around the geekier parts of the web for a few weeks now, and the supposed spec sheet certainly looks like a treat. Notorious Russian gadgeteer Eldar Murtazin purported that the slimmed-down Phi will sport a hefty 4.7-inch AMOLED display and a (gasp!) microSD card slot, while others pointed to the inclusion of an LTE radio, a dual-core Qualcomm chipset, and Nokia’s handsome polycarbonate body.
The Verge’s Tom Warren reports that AT&T is going to throw much of its weight behind the Phi (much like the carrier did with the Lumia 900), but the extent of that marketing push remains to be seen.
The Arrow, on the other hand, is something of an unknown quantity. The existence of a new Lumia device with a 4 or 4.3-inch screen have been thrown around a lot lately, and Warren notes that the mid-range device will hit both AT&T and T-Mobile in due course. If true, the move seems to echo Nokia’s plan for the original unveiling of the Lumia line at Nokia World last year, in which the top-tier Lumia 800 was officially revealed alongside the mid-range Lumia 710 — you’ve got to love the symmetry.
Oh, and in case you were curious, those (awfully lame) monikers are just temporary, and will probably get swapped out in favor of a blander model number soon enough. Lumia 1001, anyone?
Just like Instagram, Tumblr has lost its API privileges to scrape your Twitter followers so that it can suggest people you should follow on its own site. Maybe this matters because it signals a larger trend, but if that trend is just pruning away parasitic little features like this one, should we even care? I’m not sure I do. [TheNextWeb] More »
There are so many tablets running around these days, that it can get quite hard to keep track of them – especially when you are referring to those which run off the Android operating system. Well boys and girls, here is some bit of news for you – the Archos Gen10 XS tablet is the latest device to arrive from Archos’ stables, and it is their flagship model which is said to deliver extremely fast web browsing capability, coming in an extra slim design, not to mention sporting a unique magnetic Coverboard for protection (smells like the iPad cover, no?), docking and easy typing.
As the main event of the Gen10 XS tablet line, the Archos 101 XS will come in a generous 10.1” form factor, but despite the seemingly large screen size, do not be perturbed – it will tip the scales at a mere 21 ounces, while measuring 0.31 of an inch thin, making this one of the first few ultra slim Android-powered tablets to hit the market sometime in the middle of September onwards, with a couple more tablets to arrive from Archos later this year – namely, the Archos 97 XS and Archos 80 XS.
Let us take a closer look at the self-proclaimed innovative Coverboard, where it is touted to be a “unique magnetic keyboard conceived for each tablet model that will offer protection, a kickstand, docking and easy typing”. Good to know the Coverboard comes as a standard accessory with each tablet purchase. Not only that, the whole Gen10 XS line is Google certified, running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich while giving users full access to Google Play. Fret not, there is an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update coming your way in the fourth quarter of the year.
The presence of a chiclet-style QWERTY keyboard makes it a snap to type, and other hardware specifications include a 1.5GHz smart multi-core processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory, a microSD memory card slot, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, Google Maps with Street View and Navigation, Google Drive with 5GB of free cloud storage, and a slew of accessories to get you started. Any takers for this $399.99 tablet when it arrives later this year?
[ Archos Gen10 XS tablet copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
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