Feb 14
Feb 12
The Sochi Olympics are in full swing, but Americans looking to watch the games online need a cable account to check out NBC’s coverage. There are ways around it though. Here’s what you’ll need to do.
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Feb 11
Chromecast can now play embedded YouTube videos on your TV–no need to mirror entire browser tabs an
Posted in: Today's ChiliChromecast can now play embedded YouTube videos on your TV—no need to mirror entire browser tabs any longer. Which is neat.
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Feb 09
Getting content delivered to your PC, TV or mobile device via the Internet is no simple matter, but the business ecosystem working behind that can be even more convoluted. While … Continue reading
Feb 09
Amazon has announced that it has signed a new deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution that will see new shows coming to the Amazon Prime Instant video service, primarily from the FX and FXX networks.
The deal includes some programs that are already available on Netflix and elsewhere, as well as an exclusive on one FX show called The Americans. That show is pretty cool and focuses on a seemingly normal husband and wife in America, who are actually Russian spies. The show is set during the Cold War.
Along with the exclusive for the first season of The Americans, the deal also comes with a slew of other non-exclusive shows. The most important of those is Archer, for me anyhow. How I Met Your Mother, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League, and Louie are the other shows in the deal, and they will arrive this March. The Americans is available now, which gives you a couple of weeks to binge watch season one before the new season starts up on FX on February 26.
Feb 06
Pilot season has begun with Amazon and they are asking for help in deciding which of the shows will go on to become a full series. There are ten pilots … Continue reading
Feb 06
This year’s batch of brand new pilots from Amazon Studios just went live, and there are surprising number of stars in the mix. From a drug-laced drama about classical music with Gael Garcia-Bernal to a dysfunctional family comedy with Jeffrey Tambor (wait that sounds familiar), there’s something for everybody.
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Feb 04
Isn’t it a total drag how you can’t stream Amazon Prime videos on Android? And don’t you wish you could get a discount on Prime if you’re not actually watching any of that video? Well, Eric Neuman actually got one. And all he had to do was ask.
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Feb 04
The Super Bowl is one spectacle that would also see its fair share of commercial tie-ins, and in this year’s edition, you could say that from a sporting perspective, it was a disappointment simply because there was no nail biting finish, and the victor was never in doubt at all. From the tech perspective, however, things have definitely looked good. Apparently, an average of 528,000 people did tune in to the stream per minute in comparison to last year’s 508,000 viewer total, which is an improvement – although it is not that much. This increase has done just enough for Fox Sports to announce that Super Bowl XLVIII is the “most-viewed live stream ever for a single sports event in the U.S.”
Super Bowl Achieves New Live Streaming Record original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Feb 04
Apple’s CDN Plans Would Give It Greater Control Over Streaming For Expanded Offerings
Posted in: Today's Chili
Apple is said to be working on a content delivery network (CDN) all its own, according to new information reported last night by the Wall Street Journal. Cupertino wants to build a large network capable of driving more data to its customers, for the purposes of providing improved streaming offerings for its television products.
Apple is making its way down a path that has already been walked by other major Internet content players including Google, Facebook and Netflix, each of which has invested heavily in network infrastructure in order to support the vast amount of media being streamed via their online portals and products.
The WSJ report also notes that building its own CDN will help Apple manage its growing iCloud service usage, as well as hosting and delivering content from the iTunes and App Stores, both streamed and downloaded. Apple has managed to accumulate enough bandwidth from web providers to allow it to move “hundreds of gigabits per second,” however, according to Bill Norton, CSO for the International Internet Exchange, speaking to the WSJ, and that likely means they’re laying the groundwork for much bigger plans beyond existing needs.
The biggest advantage for Apple in building its own CDN might come from improved quality and reliability of services. Apps, movies and music would all potentially download faster if Apple controlled the entire chain, for instance, since it has to spend less time dealing with third-party players outside of its corporate domain, which invariably add delays, miscommunications and possible points of failure into the mix.
WSJ also notes that Apple has been on a bit of a hiring spree when it comes to adding talent specializing in both TV content and CDN tech: Lauren Provo, a Comcast exec came on board in September; Jean-François Mulé, a former VP at a TV research and dev company is another recent hire; the company is also building a roster of CDN specialists, the report suggests.
Netflix’s decision to do the same, which was detailed by GigaOM back in June 2012, was cited as a key factor in the company’s evolution as its streaming volumes increased. It gave Netflix a more direct relationship to the Internet service providers who were the ones tasked with getting their shows to their audience, and Netflix cited YouTube as the archetypical example of how at a certain point of volume, the economic case for doing it yourself becomes overwhelming.
Apple continues to add new content channels to the Apple TV with fair frequency, which adds to its streaming media load, and recent reports suggest that there’s even more coming on the horizon, with a potential SDK for new Apple TV hardware. This WSJ report suggests that’s a very real, very immediate possibility, and offers one more hint that TV may soon be something more akin to a core product line at Apple.
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