IntoMobile » Mobile TV

SPB TV now available for Android smartphones

Dusan Belic — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:04:12 +0000

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.

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China Telecom offers video news to its 3G users in Shanghai

Dusan Belic — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:03:56 +0000

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…

[Via: CellularNews]

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Livestation, weComm team-up to deliver live TV on (all?) smartphones

Dusan Belic — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:23:09 +0000

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.

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Apple will stream tonight’s Underworld concert to iPhone for FREE!

Will Park — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 01:56:50 +0000

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.

Don’t know who Underworld is? Check it:

Underworld – Born Slippy Nuxx

[Via: NewTeeVee]

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Japan: USB stick to watch TV on iPhone!

Ben Robinson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:50:00 +0000

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

[Via: MobileCrunch via: AV Watch]

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Streamezzo, Atos Worldline team-up to power mobile TV application on the iPhone

Dusan Belic — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:47:10 +0000

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.”

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EU decides not to implement Mobile TV tax

Ben Robinson — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:58:20 +0000

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….

[Via: Content 2 Mobile]

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More on TheChanner, mobile TV client for Windows Mobile and PCs

Dusan Belic — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:43:09 +0000

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.

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2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black Goes Mobile in a Big Way

James Falconer — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:29:51 +0000

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!

For more info, hit up the USGA’s website.

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MobiTV Soars Past Seven Million Subscribers

Ben Robinson — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:34:06 +0000

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!

[Via: PR Newswire]

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Arima pushes forward TV Handsets by Integrating SMS With Telegent FTA Mobile TV Feature

Ben Robinson — Sat, 23 May 2009 14:09:16 +0000

Telegent Systems and Arima Communications Corp., a leading Taiwanese handset ODM company, have announced that Arima has enhanced its free-to-air TV handset design incorporating Telegent’s mobile TV technology to enable consumers tosend and receive SMS messages while watching live, free broadcast TV.

The SMS-TV feature, which will be commercially available in handset designs this summer, is targeted towards consumers who want to chat with one another while watching their favorite programs as well as those who like to interact with participation TV programs through voting or polling. Additionally, the design enables operators to use free-to-air mobile TV to generate revenue from related phone services.

Could this be the fabled Mobile TV business model making an appearance? Up til’ now, it’s been absent, other than some suggestions that advertising could provide revenues – but the use of integrated messaging whilst watching TV is much stronger. Of course, the idea isn’t new – some adult channels on the normal tellybox have had people texting in for years …!

At any rate, if you want to know more about this feature, click here.

[Via: pr-inside.com]

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Norway decides on T-DMB for Mobile TV

Ben Robinson — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:23:39 +0000

Worldscreen.com is reporting that a joint venture between Norweigan broadcasters NRK, TV2, and Modern Times Group, have launched MiniTV – a new mobile-TV service that uses the T-DMB standard.

T-DMB isn’t something we’ve really seen in Europe much, and has won most of it’s customers in Asia. Interestingly, there are going to be a mixture of Free-to-air channels, and Pay-TV. The license will be valid until 2011, and we can expect stuff like VoD and interactive too! Nice!

[Via: Worldscreen.com]

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Has the current global economic depression killed Mobile TV?

Ben Robinson — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:28:56 +0000

Well, I am kind of wondering whether it might have. As has been the subject of past posts I have written, my feeling is that Mobile (Broadcast) TV was in a very precarious state, even before the recent economic woes came upon us.

Now that all IT companies (Operators, Vendors, Service Providers) are feeling the pinch, as are customers, the last thing they are likely to spend out on is Mobile TV infrastructure for broadcast services. Handsets vendors are also not making many (if any) Mobile TV handsets.

With the likes of 3GPP-ratified LTE just around the corner, you have got to wonder if there if any life left in the the ol’ dog – I am beginning to think that since the less-than-stellar performance of Mobile TV (compared to some other services), Operators in particular are giving it a rest for the moment until 4G comes bounding along with it’s huge speeds (capable of delivering lots of good-quality video).

What do you think? Is Mobile TV dead in it’s current form? Is the future side-loading video from home plus some downloads, or is there an as-yet-unproven delivery system waiting in the wings? Comments welcome!

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Spb Software’s Spb TV for Windows Mobile adds over 40 new channels

Dusan Belic — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:56:22 +0000

Spb Software announced that their mobile TV viewing application for Windows Mobile which we covered before, Spb TV, is now richer for 40 new TV channels, with majority of them being suggested by Spb TV users. As a result, Spb TV now provides access to approximately 100 international mobile TV channels.

Those not familiar should know that Spb TV is a subscription-free mobile IPTV viewer, designed for tuning in to publicly available digital TV channels from all over the world. It is available for virtually all Windows Mobile-powered smartphones, whether they have a touchscreen or not, for $14.95. Interested users can get more information from two pages on Spb Software’s website: Spb TV for Windows Mobile Standard and Professional edition.

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Pics and Specs Leak of Next WebOS Handset: Palm Eos

Simon Sage — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:36:27 +0000

Yeah, that blurry picture wasn’t really doing it for me either, but now we’ve got solid specs, names and a nice picture of the follow-up to the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre. To be launched as Eos, and codenamed either “Pixie” or “Castle”, this WebOS handset promises to proudly carry on the tradition of the Treo line. Before anything, here are the specs.

Quadband GSM / HSDPA (including 850 / 1900 frequencies)
4GB storage
10.6mm x 55 mm x 111 mm
100 grams
2.63-inch, 320 x 400 capacitive display
Price: $349 before rebates
Camera: 2 megapixel fixed focus digital camera and flash / video capture
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP and EDR, USB 2.0 via micro USB
Removable 1150 mAh battery (4 hours 3G talk time)
Messaging: SMS, MMS (picture and video only), integrated IM client
Contact sync with AT&T (NYSE: T) Address Book
MediaNet
Cellular Video
Email: POP3, IMAP4, and EAS support
A-GPS
Audio: WAV, MP3, AAC, AAC+ ringtones
Video Playback: MPEG4, H.264, H.263

Personally, I think the name EROS might have been a little sexier, Eos is apparently the Greek goddess of the dawn – pretty awesome too. We had heard awhile back that a WebOS-toting Centro would be coming to the market in the fall, and Engadget’s tipsters are saying EOS will for sure be coming to AT&T, so that should give you a pretty good idea of what to look out for. Still no removable memory though? For shame, Palm. It’s good that they’re following up on the Palm Pre hype with a GSM handset – after all, not everyone would be willing to switch carriers for it. If you’re already with Sprint (NYSE: S), however, I think it’s safe to say the Pre is notably cooler than the Eos, and few existing customers will jump over to AT&T for it.

[via Engadget]

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Nokia sells enterprise Mobile TV business unit

Ben Robinson — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:54:34 +0000

According to the EE Times and Reuters, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has sold it’s enterprise Mobile TV BU (business unit) to Wipro. Apparently the BU had about 40 employees, who were focused on creating both hardware and softtware to enable the mobile device to access the broadcasting network.

Interesting eh? I wonder, if in this small piece of news, we can see the start of the last gasps for Moby TV in the current broadcast mode. Unfortunately it hasn’t really taken off in a big way, with a lack of solid business cases, and huge buildout costs. With 3.75G and 4G networks just round the corner, its quickly becoming possible to push more and more data round the ’standard’ network, rather than worrying about another wireless network that is just for TV.

4G should definitely mean good-quality streaming to mobiles, and even HSPA+ (3.75G in my mind) has some impressive data rates – and I think these are going to edge out the likes of DVB-H and co. Time will tell, however.

[Original story via: EETimes via: Reuters]

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Hulu prepping ‘badass’ streaming video iPhone application!

Will Park — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:00:37 +0000

Hulu has been pushing hard to broadcast their streaming TV broadcast to every corner of the web. So, what’s next? The iPhone, of course! According to the Silicon Alley Insider, Hulu is making a move into the smartphone space with a streaming video iPhone application. The Hulu iPhone application would give iPhone users mobile access to Hulu’s collection of TV shows and movies, presumably free of charge.

News of a Hulu iPhone app destined for AppStore approval should give hope to Slingbox users still waiting for the Slingbox iPhone application. Recent speculation had Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) denying the Slingbox Mobile iPhone app’s entry into the iPhone App Store, but if Hulu’s iPhone application makes it all the way through, there’s still hope for Sling Media’s iPhone player.

Not only will the iPhone Hulu app stream video over both 3G and WiFi connections, an industry-insider claims that the iPhone-based Hulu experience will be as “badass” as the desktop experience. We’re expecting to see the app show up on the iTunes AppStore in a few months, although that timeline can change at Apple’s whim.

If you haven’t yet seen what Hulu has to offer, may we suggest hitting up Hulu’s website? If the iPhone app is even a fraction as amazing as the Hulu website, we’re in for one awesome iPhone application!

[Via: SiliconAlleyInsider]

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Vodafone Portugal releases live TV iPhone app, too

Dusan Belic — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:14:18 +0000

Few days ago we talked about Orange France’s new iPhone app/service, designed to allows users to enjoy watching TV while on-the-go, and now we’ve heard Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) Portugal has a similar/same offering for its users.

Developed by WIT Software, the application called “Vodafone Mobile TV” is available as a free download for every iPhone ownin’ Vodafone Portugal customer and just like Orange’s solution, provides users with a selection of channels to choose from. Among the cool features of the app, we highlight the so called Fast Channel Switching, which allows users to zap TV channels in an easy, “similar to the real-life TV” way.

We’re not sure how much Voda charges for the data transferred and whether there are some new, mobile TV specific plans created for the offering. We do, however, know that WIT Software is looking for other carrier partners for their application/service, meaning we could see this being rolled out in other markets in the near future. We’ll keep watching…

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Orange France launches “TV from Orange” iPhone application, service

Dusan Belic — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:48:28 +0000

Orange has recently launched a new mobile TV offering for its iPhone owning subscribers in France. The deal includes a native iPhone app called “TV from Orange,” which allows interested users to access to around 60 TV channels such as French national, TNT and thematic channels. The carrier is saying the streaming will work even on the first gen iPhones, although we’re kinda sceptical EDGE can handle all that data.

As for the pricing, the “TV option” service is available starting from 6 EUR per month, or on a pay-as-you-go basis: by volume (1 EUR cent/10Kb), or per session (50 EUR cents/20 minutes).

The same release also talks about the new “Origami Star plans for the iPhone,” that start from 42 EUR per month and include unlimited Internet access, unlimited Visual Voicemail, unlimited WiFi in mainland France across the 30,000 Orange Wi-Fi access hotspots, unlimited access to more than 20 TV channels, unlimited SMS across all mainland operators from 8pm to 8am and at weekends, unlimited calls across all operators from 8pm to 8am and at weekends (3h plan or higher)…

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

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Envivio further optimises Mobile TV quality

Ben Robinson — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 10:19:48 +0000

Envivio have announced their new Elite Compression™ enhancement for their award-winning 4Caster C4 and M2 mobile TV encoders – basically another opmtimisation tuning the media playback on popular mobile devices. It gets deployed at the operator headend, and works within standards, so no changes to the subscriber handsets. Elite Compression will debut at the CTIA Wireless show, which IntoMobile is attending, by the way!

Elite Compression bridges the performance gap that currently exists in the mobile streaming market by targeting the many mass market mobile devices which use their central processor to decode media content. While H.263 and MPEG-4 Simple Profile compression are well matched to the capabilities of older or entry level mobile devices, they underutilize the performance of modern mid-range handsets using processors such as the ARM11. This prevents subscribers from enjoying the full media playback capability of their new devices. Conversely the more complex H.264 Baseline Profile is suitable only for premium handsets with dedicated video decoding hardware as it overloads even the newest mid-range devices resulting in low frame rate video and an unacceptable user experience.

Elite Compression fills the significant void between those extremes by enabling mainstream mid-range devices, which comprise the majority of handsets in use, to deliver their optimum video and audio playback experience. Elite Compression is based on the H.264 standard, making it compatible with the standard media players provided by companies such as PV, NXP and RealNetworks that are already installed on millions of handsets.

The addition of Elite Compression takes place entirely at the headend, making it easy for operators to deploy. Its effect, however, is far-reaching and offers dramatic improvements in mobile TV performance across the broadest spectrum of mobile devices. Typical competing encoding solutions rely on single vendor, proprietary technologies which force operators to update every individual handset to maintain compatibility. In contrast, Envivio Elite Compression is based on the H.264 open standard. As a result it does not require special handset players or any handset upgrades at all to enhance the performance on today’s most popular and widely used phones. The net result is an instant improvement in the quality of experience for an operator’s existing subscriber base.

Encoding is key part of the mobile content delivery process – if it isn’t up to scratch, you can kiss your user experience goodbye. With Envivio’s long-standing experience in this area, Operators who deploy this I think should have some pretty satisfied customers!

You can check out Envivio’s site here.
[Via: streamingmedia.com]

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