SPB Software ported its popular subscription-free mobile IPTV viewer, SPB TV, to the Android platform. Similarly to its Windows Mobile and Symbian counterparts, the Android version of the application also features more than hundred live TV channels in more than 20 languages. Moreover, there’s the TV browser with quick channels preview and list of current & upcoming TV shows, full TV guide, ability to set Calendar reminders for TV shows of interest, picture-in-picture mode, transparent on-screen controls, as well as support for hardware button controls…
Want it? SPB TV is waiting for you in the Android Market from where you can grab it for 10 bucks ($9.95). Prior to pushing the trigger, make sure your device runs Android 1.5 aka Cupcake, which is required to run the app.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency launched a mobile TV service for China Telecom’s 3G subscribers in Shanghai. Xinhua will provide China Telecom Shanghai Branch with exclusive news about the Shanghai Expo, analysis reports and various news items; whereas the carrier will provide the infrastructure and accompanying telecommunications services.
For the record, China Telecom had 214 million land-line subscribers, 35 million mobile phone subscribers and 47 million broadband customers at the end of 2008. The company is currently rolling out a CDMA-based (EV-DO) 3G network…
Interactive mobile data solutions provider (whatever that means), weComm, has announced its partnership with Livestation to deliver live TV news across mobile platforms, Android and Blackberry (NSDQ: RIMM) devices included.
Livestation already delivers live TV streaming services on iPhone for such media companies as BBC World News and Al Jazeera. weComm, on its end, will provide its On-Demand Mobile Application Platform to enable Livestation to deliver live broadcasts from Livestation’s global news TV partners to other mobile operating systems — note here that Symbian and Windows Mobile are not mentioned in the press release.
The companies will distribute the service in a number of easy-to-subscribe methods including through the major mobile handset-manufacturers’ application stores…
Rest of the press release includes quotes from the companies’ executives which we won’t repeat here. You can check LiveStation’s and weComm’s websites for more information.
Streaming? iPhone? Is that even possible? Sure is. And Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is going to stream the first ever live concert to the iPhone, for free nonetheless! Tonight, Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 9:00PM PST (that’s West Coast time), Apple will be streaming the Underworld concert to iPhones using Apple’s own HTTP streaming standard. By using variable bitrates to continuously adapt the stream to handle increasing loads, Apple’s new HTTP streaming standard promises to deliver an optimal viewing experience for all iPhone users. The only catch? AT&T (NYSE: T)’s already stressed 3G network.
While Apple would love to have their live stream publicized like Paris Hilton’s bare kitty, they know AT&T’s strained 3G network would have trouble serving data to millions upon millions of iPhones without taking a giant dump. That’s likely the reason Apple has chosen to keep the streaming Underworld concert close to the vest.
So, now that you know about Apple’s plan to stream the Underworld concert for free to the iPhone, you probably want to know what you need to do. Simply point your iPhone to iphone.akamai.com or underworldlive.com.
MobileCrunch has picked up an interesting story from AV Watch – who themselves have spotted a USB tuner that plugs in to your TV, and then streams out 1-Seg (that’s a Japanese TV standard) formatted TV that your iPhone/iPod Touch can pick up via an App running over WiFi. Nice.
The iPhone has been at somewhat of a disadvantage for a time, because unlike a lot of other phones in Japan, it can’t natively pick up a TV signal – Japan is one of the places where Mobile TV has worked (but there are a number of specific reasons for that….), so this little bit of kit solves an issue for people who need their TV fix.
The USB device is called the SEG Clip, and is sold by I-O data (check it here, image from that source also BTW) – it follows a previous device that was more of a standalone unit from Softbank (OTCPK: SFTBF) Mobile – that one was it’s own receiver, transmitted the data by WiFi, but also double as an extra battery if you plugged it in to an iPhone.
Personally I think the addition of the portable battery function is an extremely valid – in fact, I’d even considering buying one to keep my iPhone juiced when I’m out and about! If I had to add TV to that, I wouldn’t be complaining
Streamezzo and Atos Worldline have recently announced a partnership to power an interactive Live TV application for the iPhone. The solution is designed to enable operators and broadcasters to offer iPhone subscribers great mobile TV experience, combining the power of Streamezzo’s technology and of Atos Worldline in-depth experience in the telecom market with large volume hosting capacity.
From the press release:
Streamezzo and Atos Worldline Mobile TV solution couples the most unique and intuitive Mobile TV application, with the additional features provided by the iPhone platform in terms of user experience and navigation. The ready-to-deploy service offers all the functionality of Mobile TV such as access to Live TV through the embedded video player, channel grid and interactive Electronic Program Guide (EPG) in the most intuitive way. The service can be easily and quickly customized to the specific requirements of both mobile operators and broadcasters in terms of customizing the look-and-feel, and including additional services such as fast channel switching, video-on-demand catalogue and personal video recording including live catch-up TV functionality.
The solution is developed and operated by Atos Worldine, using Streamezzo’s Rich Media technology. The same application can completely be re-used for other mobile platforms including Android, BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), Java, Linux, Symbian and Windows Mobile. Thanks to this cross-platform technology, mobile operators and broadcasters can extend their reach in terms of subscribers and accelerate their return on investment.
Both parties seem satisfied with the arrangement, and Streamezzo’s CEO Olivier Avaro said: “Mobile Operators and Broadcasters are looking for a fast and effective way to deliver interactive Mobile TV to the iPhone. Thanks to Streamezzo’s technology, they can now offer a complete and competitive Mobile TV service to their customers in less than six weeks.”
Content to Mobile is reporting that the EU has dropped plans to introduce a tax on handsets that are capable of receiving video.
Apparently moves were afoot last year to add a 14% tax on devices that included a TV receiver. However, pressure from the big handset vendors seems to have quelled this move.
That’s got to be a good move, surely – Mobile TV really hasn’t been the wildfire success that it was hoped to be, and I think this tax could potentially have been the death knell – Mobile TV has now earned a short reprieve, in my opinion – lets see what it can do in the next 18 months….
Folks from TheChanner, the company that presented its offering during Mobile 2.0 Europe in Barcelona, have contacted me again, basically asking me for some additional attention on IntoMobile. As I liked the two TheChanner ladies I met at the event, here’s another article about their service/application.
As I said it before, they are offering an Spb TV-like application for Windows Mobile and PCs. They manually pick channels, and at the moment there are around 300 channels to choose from, covering various subjects like news, music, weather, sports and entertainment. Users can browse all these channels by category, country and/or language.
Social element is also there, allowing users to create their own list of favorite channels, as well as discuss and share them [channels] with their buddies.
Rest of the features include user friendly remote control, landscape viewing, high-quality streaming video, support for both 3G and WiFi connections…
And that’s about all I could say about TheChanner. Trying the application is the best way to experience it, hence here are two download links: Windows Mobile application and Windows PC version.
With the 2009 U.S. Open starting this week at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York, golfers around the world will no doubt want to keep on top of the leaderboards while away from the television. Thankfully, the U.S. Open has 2 mobile options for us to explore.
The first option is the U.S. Open 2009 iPhone App. This one features:
live ‘marquee’ group coverage on Thursday and Friday (ESPN)
live coverage of the 17th hole on Saturday and Sunday (NBC)
detailed course and player information
live leaderboard
up-to-the-minute news
Go ahead and grab the U.S. Open 2009 iPhone App right here (iTunes link). The app is free, so download and enjoy.
The second option is a mobile site compatible with most current mobile browsers. Should work just fine on most of today’s handsets. To check it out hit up m.usopen.com from your mobile device for news, leaderboards and more.
It’s going to be a great week out at Bethpage Black. Tough course, great fans, amazing competition. Can Tiger pull out another with at Bethpage? Can’t wait to see!
More than seven million subscribers are now tuned in to MobiTV, the industry leader in mobile content and services delivery.
MobiTV today announced the latest milestone for its live mobile television and video-on-demand service, now streaming billions of minutes a year to the largest subscriber base in the industry. Available on more than 350 handsets across 20 carrier networks, including Sprint (NYSE: S), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Alltel in the U.S., MobiTV has pioneered a new market for wireless entertainment services since its launch in November, 2003.
Wow! Check those stats out – and here’s the interesting/killer thing – this isn’t broadcast Mobile TV we are talking about, its mostly streaming in unicast mode across 2G and 3G networks – well, well, what does that tell us about broadcast Mobile TV – could it be the final nail in the coffin? I’m a fan of these stat-attacks, as from time to time, the simplest of figures can give a dramatic view on the industry. Oh, and of course, well done MobiTV!
China’s official Xinhua News Agency launched a mobile TV service for China Telecom’s 3G subscribers in Shanghai. Xinhua will provide China Telecom Shanghai Branch with exclusive news about the Shanghai Expo, analysis reports and various news items; whereas the carrier will provide the infrastructure and accompanying telecommunications services.
Folks from 
More than seven million subscribers are now tuned in to MobiTV, the industry leader in mobile content and services delivery.
