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Brightcove Makes it Easier to Develop Dual-Screen iOS and Apple TV Apps

Brightcove announced today the introduction of App Cloud Core, a free edition of the company's app platform that allows developers to create native iOS apps using HTML5 and JavaScript. In addition, one of the major new features of the API is the ability for developers to easily create dual-screen apps for iOS devices to broadcast content to the Apple TV over AirPlay.
The new solution enables media publishers to develop rich content apps for the iPhone and iPad that simultaneously control content, data and information presented on an HDTV while displaying synchronized content on the iPad or iPhone. The unique dual-screen solution leverages Apple's AirPlay technology, which allows viewers to use applications that simultaneously present content, interactive options and data on both the touch device and an Apple TV.
This ability to broadcast separate content to a user's device and Apple TV is not new (Real Racing 2 HD Demo), but the new APIs provide another easy way for developers to implement these features. Brightcove offers this demo of how it can be used:


There's been a lot of attention to how Apps might work on a television interface. Microsoft recently announced a new technology called SmartGlass which offers a two-way Airplay-like standard that allows mobile devices to act as second screens for content being displayed on TV from an Xbox.

Beyond Apple's own efforts with AirPlay, there has been rumors that Apple might take it a step further with a fully developed Apple TV app model as well as the possibility of a full Apple television set in the near future.


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from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page http://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/26/brightcove-makes-it-easier-to-develop-dua...

Lego and Google Chrome team up, want to cover Australasia in your models and plastic bricks (video)

Lego and Google Chrome teamup, want to cover Australasia in models and plastic bricks

Lego has allied itself with Google's Chrome browser, creating a web app that lets users craft their own houses, creatures and models, and then delicately place them across the whole of Australia and New Zealand. Celebrating 50 years of pre-teen Lego architecture in the Land Down Under, you can grab a plot of land from the source, start throwing some bricks together now and share your creations on the very public map and Google+. According to the Australia's Daily Telegraph, Lego Build hopes to roll out globally through Chrome later this year, but one continent should keep us busy until Google's I/O conference kicks off later this week.

Continue reading Lego and Google Chrome team up, want to cover Australasia in your models and plastic bricks (video)

Lego and Google Chrome team up, want to cover Australasia in your models and plastic bricks (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Telegraph, Sascha Pallenberg (Google+)  |  sourceLego Build  | Email this | Comments

from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/26/lego-and-google-chrome-build-australia/

Twitter to Roll Out Promoted Tweets to 50 More Countries




Twitter is planning to introduce its advertising products to nearly 50 more countries as it seeks additional revenue outside of the U.S., Twitter executives announced at a festival in Cannes, France, Thursday morning.

According to a Twitter spokesperson, Twitter's Promoted ads suite -- which includes Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends and Promoted Accounts -- will roll out in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands later this year. Promoted ads are currently only available to marketers in the U.S., UK and Japan.

Twitter is expected to bring in $259.9 million in ad revenue this year, according to eMarketer. Currently, 90% of ad revenue come from U.S…
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More About: Advertising, Mobile, Promoted Tweets, Twitter

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/06/21/twitter-promoted-tweets-international/?utm_sou...

Alliance seeks to make smart TVs more likeminded

Part of the reason why the smart TV hasn’t caught on as a dominant connected device in the living room is that competing manufacturers have introduced a confusing array of technology platforms.

This has made it challenging for developers to make apps that can run on a large cross-section of these televisions.

But on Wednesday, manufacturers LG Electronics and TP Vision (which makes Philips-branded smart TV sets in a number of territories) announced the formation of the Smart TV Alliance.

The group’s mission: to create a set of open HTML-based standards so that application developers can make apps that run across smart TV brands.

The group says other Japanese manufacturers (Sony? Sharp?) are in the process of joining its alliance.

“The Smart TV Alliance creates a larger playing field which encourages developers to create more and better TV applications at the same time giving manufacturers and consumers the richest source of movies-on-demand, music services, games, social networking and more,” said said Bong-seok Kwon of LG Electronics, president of Smart TV Alliance, in a statement.

The group is making the first version of its software development kit available for free on its site.

Using the television as a primary device to connect the living room to the internet would seem like a no-brainer. But according to a study released Wednesday by the NPD Group, consumers actually seem to prefer other devices like Blu-ray players to perform that task.

According to the NPD report, 80 percent of Blu-ray users who connect their boxes to the internet actually use them to access such things as over-the-top TV programming. Only 69 percent of smart TV users who have connections do the same.

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from GigaOM http://paidcontent.org/2012/06/20/alliance-seeks-to-make-smart-tvs-more-likem...

Netflix gives itself a year to out-bid Sky for UK movies

Netflix may change its model and urge UK’s media and anti-trust regulators to launch a second movie monopoly probe against BSkyB if it cannot wrestle top film rights from the News Corp outfit there by summer 2013.

The Competition Commission in May provisionally ruled that Sky Movies’ exclusive deals for six Hollywood studios’ films do not overly dominate the UK market for first pay-TV subscription window (FPTSW) movie rights.

That conclusion was a reversal of the commission’s earlier decision and was based on the recent and future arrival, since the investigation began, of IPTV movie services from Netflix itself, Lovefilm and Sky’s own upcoming Now TV service.

In its response to the conclusion, published on Wednesday, Netflix, which launched in the UK and Ireland in January, says that conclusion is “dangerous”, arguing:

“Despite the entry of Netflix and Lovefilm’s presence in the UK, Sky continues to hold a near monopsony (sic) on the acquisition of these rights.

“While Netflix intends to continue to compete vigorously against Sky for content, including FSPTW content, it remains the case that none of Sky’s competitors currently have meaningful FSPTW content from the major studios.

“If, in the upcoming year, it becomes apparent that Netflix and other Sky competitors are not able to obtain significant FSPTW rights from the major studios, this may demonstrate that continuing market dominance by Sky has resulted in Netflix having to find other routes to the acquisition of FSPTW content—other routes which avoid head to head competition with Sky for the acquisition of rights which Sky wishes to obtain in order to maintain the market position of Sky Movies.

“Netflix believes it would be irresponsible and dangerous for the CC (Competition Commission to simply conclude at this point that any AEC (adverse effect on competition) arising from the dominance of Sky in the acquisition of FSPTW rights will be offset by new competition emerging for these rights from Netflix and Lovefilm.

“For this reason, Netflix is strongly of the view that the CC should now expressly anticipate a further review in one year’s time. This would allow Ofcom and if necessary, the CC to review whether the emergence of OTT SVOD services in the UK has in fact created strong competition for Sky Movies by recruiting subscribers at the retail level, and, in particular whether this has actually resulted in erosion of Sky’s market power as an acquirer of FSPTW rights.”

The submission, Netflix’s first to the investigation which began in August 2010, is an interesting insight in to how it regards its chances of success in the UK. Effectively, Netflix is giving itself a one-year run at outbidding Sky Movies for first-run rights – if it fails, it will call for regulators’ help.

The “other routes” referred to by Netflix are not clear but could include jointly bidding for shared rights against Sky, sub-licensing from Sky or flipping from subscription to a PPV model, for which rights – like those held by Tesco-owned Blinkbox – are easier to come by.

This is also a more cautious tone than the company previously struck on its entry to the UK, when CEO Reed Hastings told paidContent in January: “We could just bid against them (Sky). We are not dependent on whatever the Competition Commission does.” Netflix has spent heavily on other UK rights and a large marketing campaign but has not disclosed sign-ups so far.

In other responses to the Competition Commission’s revised provisional conclusion, BSkyB, NBC Universal and Paramount are supportive, but the British Film Institute and Consumer Focus expressed concern and NBCU suggested competition could become even greater than the commission has finally concluded…

British Film Institute:

  • “The CC appears to have overturned almost five years worth of analysis with undue haste on the basis of highly speculative market forecasts.”
  • “The reversal of position appears to be based on assumptions about the future growth of very new entrants to the video-on-demand market. Such growth is far from guaranteed.”
  • “VoD services cannot be accessed by people who do not use the internet” … ”As it stands, the impact of these new services (Lovefilm, Netflix and Now TV) is very small.”
  • “We urge the Commission to reconsider its position.”

Consumer Focus:

  • “Not convinced that material changes have occurred in the  market which would remedy the lack of competition”
  • “Does not believe that competition between providers of movie services in relation to FSPTW rights has materially changed with the entry of Netflix to the UK market”
  • “Not convinced that the launch of Now TV would remedy the consumer detriment.”

NBC Universal:

  • “The Commission may be too conservative in its assessment that SVOD OTT services of LOVEFiLM and Netflix are unlikely to become close substitutes for bundled packages of traditional pay TV in the foreseeable future.”
  • “The evolving pace of competition between OTT services and traditional pay TV should not be underestimated, particularly given continuing growth in the smart TV sector.”

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from GigaOM http://paidcontent.org/2012/06/20/netflix-gives-itself-a-year-to-out-bid-sky-...

Twitter slowly unfolding its search ambitions

It has been fairly obvious for a few years that the search-driven, URL-centric web would converge with the web of social objects. It is something that is driving Google’s paranoia. It is also something Facebook dreams about. However, the company most likely to capture the opportunity is Twitter, the San Francisco-based company that started life as a micro-messaging company but has now evolved into a new kind of hybrid-media platform.

Twitter has been slowly transforming itself into a post-Google information company. In past few weeks alone it has unveiled expandable tweets, hashtag-based pages and other similar innovations. These embellishments to their core messaging offering show that it is Twitter, and not Facebook, that Google has to worry about.

Twitter’s search ambitions are becoming clearer with the people it is adding to its search team. For instance, it recently hired away John Wang, a well-known engineer in the search business from LinkedIn. In addition, the company added Ruslan Belkin as a Director of Engineering, Search and Relevance. Twitter has also made its search better, or at least faster, as it noted in a blog post. They have added related queries and spelling suggestions to their search.

Offering personalized search with more relevant results, surfacing related images and videos related to the query are somewhat reminiscent of the efforts made by Google on its search offering.

But just like Google’s idea of search was very different from the search offered by web directories such as Lycos and Yahoo, Twitter too has to re-imagine the idea of search.

The answer to that question for Twitter is its “discover” function. Honestly, discover could use a lot of help and improvement. On our touch-centric and voice enabled devices of the future, the idea of search has to be less textual. So Twitter as a company needs to be making it easy for us to surface all the information.

This post was updated at 12:44p.m. to clarify that Twitter recently introduced expandable tweets, not embedded tweets.

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from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2012/06/18/twitter-slowly-unfolding-its-search-ambitions/?u...

How To Filter Your Gmail Like a Pro




Your Gmail inbox is taking over your life. At least, that's probably how it feels sometimes. Waking up to an inbox filled with a few dozen unread messages makes you want to close the browser in defeat.

But don't worry, we're here to help. Filters are some of the most powerful Gmail tools, serving to keep less important email out of your face, and allowing the cream to rise to the top.

To access these tools, look for the gear icon in the top-right corner of your Gmail. In that dropdown, click "Settings," then the "Filters" link at the top of the next page. This page shows you any existing filters, then invites you to "Create a New Filter."

While some of the filters are very straight…
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More About: email, features, gmail, Google, How-To, trending

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/06/22/gmail-filters/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_mediu...

Ask Slashdot: Instead of a Laptop, a Tiny Computer and Projector?

rover42 writes "I travel a lot, usually on a tight budget and often on airlines with tight luggage weight restrictions and high fees for going over, so traveling light is very important to me. So is connecting to the net when traveling, which creates a conflict. I do not trust machines in Internet cafes and my laptop adds significant weight & bulk to my luggage. I could buy a small netbook or a MacBook Air, but is there another choice? There are quite a few tiny computers available, Raspberry Pi and the like. Alone, they don't solve my problem because you need a screen and that is at least as heavy as a laptop. However, there are also quite a few tiny projectors. Would a tiny computer plus a tiny projector do the trick? Which ones? All I need for software is some open source Unix (any *BSD or Linux distro should be fine, or even Minix), a browser and an editor. I don't need large storage or a fast CPU. Has anyone done something like this? Does anyone have a recommendation for either the computer or the projector?"

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from Slashdot http://ask.slashdot.org/story/12/06/17/1821258/ask-slashdot-instead-of-a-lapt...

LinkedIn-powered Hookflash iPad app wants to replace your business phone

The traditional business phone line may be dying a slow death but Canadian start-up Hookflash is looking to speed up its demise. The Calgary-based company is launching an iPad app  by the same name Thursday that integrates LinkedIn’s directory, giving business users a free over-the-top alternative for voice, HD video and messaging. It’s the first communications app to build upon LinkedIn’s social graph and demonstrates some of the latent potential in the network of 160 million people.

Hookflash users will sign-in with a LinkedIn account and will be able to communicate with other LinkedIn users in their contact list, which is populated from their LinkedIn directory. Users will be able to see the profile of who they’re talking to and will see their latest updates from their activity feed, so there’s helpful context for each call. If a recipient is not available to receive a call or message, they will get a push notification that takes them into the app.

The iPad app will be joined soon by an iPhone app and then a version for Android later this year. The service will also get calendaring, scheduling and other productivity tools as it evolves. Multi-party video calling is also on tap later this year, though the service is not meant to take on WebEx and other conferencing systems.

Co-founder Erik Lagerway told me that the goal is to become a next generation business phone, replacing traditional handsets from Cisco or Polycom. That should put Hookflash in competition with Skype and other enterprise VoIP services. He said the integration of LinkedIn is a smart way to utilize the network and appeal to business users, who increasingly turn to LinkedIn as their tool for staying in touch with business associates.

“Most of the people I communicate with from a business perspective are all on LinkedIn; it’s my business Rolodex,” said Lagerway. “We want to make sure we use that directory in a way that’s absolutely seamless.”

IT managers might not embrace Hookflash out of the gate, admits Lagerway, but he said that as bring-your-own-device policies becomes the standard, it opens up opportunities for services like Hookflash in corporate settings. He said business users also long for more communications choices, which are not as plentiful as consumer services.

Hookflash was supposed to hit the market earlier this spring, but got held up as the company completed the P2P technology underlying the app. Hookflash has developed its own P2P protocol called Open Peer that will enable additional services, such as file sharing. Hookflash is opening up the spec to other developers who will be able to build services off the same technology. Open Peer, for example, could be dropped into customer relationship management or other enterprise applications, enabling simple communications and other uses.

Hookflash, which debuted at the DEMO conference last fall, has raised a little more than $2 million to date and is close to finishing up a $3 million round. The company is hoping to make money through a freemium model, with added premium features layered over the free service in the future. There’s also an opportunity to license its P2P technology to carriers and other communications companies, said Lagerway.

I think Hookflash is an intriguing service, making LinkedIn potentially more powerful for business users. My LinkedIn directory is often an afterthought, but it’s still a big network of people that I continue to add to.  I might be tempted to utilize it more now with Hookflash. Airtime showed how a consumer video application can ride atop Facebook’s graph. But I think Hookflash could have more of an impact because there aren’t other communications services that are building on top of LinkedIn. I don’t think it’s ready to kill the traditional business phone overnight, but this could really be helpful for certain kinds of use cases in which business colleagues want to reach out to each other quickly and casually.

I think it would make sense for LinkedIn to eventually try to incorporate Hookflash into its own mobile apps and website, making it even more of a daily destination and utility for users. An acquisition by LinkedIn might be a logical next step if the technology proves durable. That might be the future for Hookflash though Lagerway said the company is looking at integrating with other social networks in the future.

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from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2012/06/21/linkedin-powered-hookflash-ipad-app-wants-to-rep...

The State of VC in Boston: A Q&A with C.A. Webb

Pictured: Pure Awesomeness

This Saturday, General Assembly is holding an all-day event on how to raise capital, featuring a number of interesting panels. One of those is a panel on the future of venture capital that will be moderated by C.A. Webb, executive director of the New England Venture Capital Association.

Webb is as looped into Boston’s venture community as one can get, and so we asked her to give us a preview of her thoughts on the venture industry, as well as to explain the role of the NEVCA and how she views the Boston ecosystem. If you want to hear more, or what panelists Dustin Dolginow of Atlas, Matthew Witheiler of Flybridge, David Cappillo of Goodwin Procter and Wan Li Zhu of Fairhaven Capital have to say, you can register for the event here.

With the release of the Kauffman Report a while back, rumors of the demise or at least dire state of the VC industry are back in fashion. Do you buy it?

Every industry has its inflection points and venture capital is experiencing a big one right now. Venture is too meaningful a source of capital and driver of scalable innovation for it to die. Talk to entrepreneurs who started their careers in Europe or South America where this kind of capital is nearly impossible to access and you quickly understand what a powerful and positive force venture capital can be. So, no, I don’t buy the demise of venture capital.

Venture Capital is, was, and always will be a cyclical business. The truth is there are a finite number of businesses well suited to the venture financing model, which as you know is all about funding a bunch of businesses with the potential to deliver an outsized return, and sticking around until one of them does. In good times investors see those returns, capital in excess of that which can be invested well flows in, valuations expand, and returns drop. Then capital flows out, leaving the strongest firms in a stronger position. Startup valuations decline in the face of limited capital, returns improve, etc. There’s no doubt we’re in a bit of a downturn after a big capital inflow, but the system works over the long run, and the businesses that depend on that system are essential to the local, national, and even global economy.

Boston as a startup hub and Boston VC in particular can get a bad rap as being stodgy, old school and not collaborative enough. How has your experience been working with the city’s VC’s? Is there collaboration? Are things changing? Where the stereotypes never true?

Since starting this role in January, more than a few people have said something along the lines of, “You must have your hands full dealing with so many big egos.” I have to tell you, I think I have the best job in Boston. The VCs I work with are enormously talented, intelligent and thoughtful. I think we have fantastic talent in our VC community and I also think there’s a lot of room for the community to come together and have a stronger presence here.

I’ve been involved with companies that have raised money from Boston VCs and benefited tremendously from those relationships. I think there’s a huge home court advantage to investing locally and getting day-to-day, on-the-ground insight from both the investor and entrepreneur perspective. We have many local firms (Atlas, Battery, Bessemer, Charles River, Flybridge, Highland, Matrix, Northbridge to name a few) doing a lot of deals in town. And these are also the VCs you’re more likely to bump into at the CIC or Voltage because they’re focused on connecting with entrepreneurs in Boston.

Explain the role of the New England Venture Capital Association and what you hope it can accomplish in the ecosystem.

NEVCA is a platform for local venture capital firms to advance their common interests. We’re a collective voice for the venture community, focused on making sure Boston remains the best place in the world to start and grow a new company. We represent nearly 100 venture firms investing in everything from consumer tech to SaaS to hardware to robotics to biotech. We are here to listen hard to the needs of this entrepreneurial eco-system and fill in gaps and invest in great efforts that keep this place thriving.

I’m interested in working with our VCs to shine the light on amazing companies we’re backing and taking more of those stories to the national stage. And also on moving the needle on student talent retention here in Massachusetts. We want every student in the Commonwealth to understand what a thriving startup community we have here.

You’re the New England Venture Capital Association, but we all are hearing a lot about New York these days. Do we need to start thinking of New York and Boston as two hubs in the same greater region? Or is New England the right unit to develop our innovation economy?

It’s always hard to generalize across a whole region, but I think the two venture markets are different. New York is a hub of media, finance, and consumer marketing, so the startups there tend to be of those worlds. Boston is a global leader in enabling sciences across biotech, enterprise IT, materials, big data, mobile…we seem to be generally better at those things. That said there are great biotech companies forming in New York, and great consumer companies getting funded in New England (Zipcar, Wayfair, and Gazelle being recent examples).

In general, I think a little too much is made of the regional rivalry. Capital doesn’t root for the Giants or the Pats. It just wants to win.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/06/20/the-state-of-vc-in-boston-a-qa-with-c-a-webb/