The holiday promotions seem to start earlier every year. We’re a couple of weeks from Black Friday, but that’s not stopping online stores. BestBuy.com is doing a “Shop Early, Save Big” sale. 2 Days Only, Friday-Saturday. Ready to start your holiday shopping?
It looks like Sling Media is still at it with new versions of SlingPlayer, this time it is SlingPlayer for Facebook. They’ve posted a short demo video of the product, still in development – to Facebook of course. The video is presented by Vicky Shum, Sling Media’s Head of Product Management, Retail Products. I worked with Vicky when I was at Sling since I was Beta Program Manager for all of the SlingPlayer Mobile products, and she was in charge of those products at the time. She was one of the people I missed working with the most when Sling gave me the boot. She’s an awesome, fun person and great to work with. As long as she’s still at Sling I have some faith they’ll do something good.
Speaking of the product, this is a SlingPlayer implemented as a Facebook App and it takes advantage of that by integrating social features. You can comment on the video you’re watching and post those comments to your Wall. Note, this is notClip+Sling Part Deux, you can’t actually post video to your Wall. Though Vicky does say “In future releases we’ll be adding more social and sharing features” during the video. Maybe they will find a way to share video clips, but since Clip+Sling seemingly died mainly due to rights issues I’m not holding my breath.
Back when Clip+Sling was in development they did develop several ways for SlingPlayer to tell what the content was by analyzing the stream. Of course it would be trivial to do on a SlingLoaded device as it knows what the content is already. Perhaps they could resurrect that tech and use it to identify the content, and then link to existing, legitimate copies online – network websites, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, iTunes, etc. That could make business sense too – use referral links to services and Sling could take a cut of the action.
It looks like Vicky was using Safari on a Mac for the demo. The existing web-based SlingPlayer only supports Safari and Firefox on Mac and IE and Firefox on Windows, and requires a proprietary plug-in. This new player, like the iOS, Android, and Windows Phone mobile clients, only works with the Slingbox SOLO and PRO-HD, as they’re the only models to encode to H.264. That’s encouraging, as H.264 support is common and Facebook is already full of such video. So I’m thinking this is a lighter weight app, perhaps Flash, and it will have broader browser support – like Chrome. That alone would be a major advancement. If so I hope they update the standalone web-based player as well – they can keep the old plug-in version around for those who need compatibility with older model Slingboxes.
If you search on ‘SlingPlayer’ on Facebook right now you’ll get a link to SlingPlayer for Facebook on apps.facebook.com, but the page errors when I try to go there. I suspect access is locked down to only beta testers and that’s what happens if your account is not authorized to access it. But it is something to keep an eye on.
While it is nice to see this is in the works, I really hope they get some of their other SlingPlayer products out first. They showed off SlingPlayer for Google TV back in January at CES, and it entered beta in June, yet we still haven’t seen it. They have SlingPlayer for Android phones and tablets already. The version shown at CES was a Flash-based web page, maybe the delay is because they decided to do it as an app for Google TV 2.0. That might be for the best since Adobe just decided to drop the Flash plugin for TV devices – like Google TV. Either way, let’s have it already!
And then in June they showed off a similar SlingPlayer for Boxee. But that hasn’t released yet either. I think it is really cool that they’re doing these SlingPlayer clients – as I’ve said before, I argued for this approach instead of doing the SlingCatcher when I worked there. But it is just a tease if they don’t release. I’d hope they do other versions as well – Roku, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Blu-ray Java, etc. Get SlingPlayer on as many devices as you can and it’ll create demand for the Slingboxes, which is where they make their money.
So bring out SlingPlayer for Facebook – but let’s get those two versions first, we’ve been waiting. Please!
Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny pulled the video from Facebook and posted it to YouTube. Sling Media has posted an official version to YouTube:
The Droid RAZR launches on Verizon today, 11/11/11, at 11:11. Yes, cute marketing. The RAZR is the world’s thinnest smartphone, just 7.1mm thick! (Which is cheating a bit, the camera puts a little bulge in one end.) The overall dimensions are 130.7mmx68.9mmx7.1mm (5.14″x2.71″x0.28″) and it weighs only 127 grams (4.48 ounces). It has a 4.3″ Super AMOLED Advanced qHD screen (960×540), an OMAP 4430 1.2GHz dual-core processor, an 8MP rear camera which captures 1080p video, a 1.3MP front camera which captures 720p video, 1GB RAM, 16GB of on board storage, ships with a 16GB microSD card (expandable to 32GB), 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE+EDR, it has a microUSB port and a microHDMI port, supports DLNA, and, of course, Verizon’s market leading 4G LTE network. It is running Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with the new & improved MotoBlur – but Motorola has already said it will get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich soon.
Basically this is a totally kick-ass Android smartphone. I’m personally debating if I want to get one or wait for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and it isn’t an easy choice. My fiancee almost ordered a RAZR earlier tonight to replace her OG Droid – but didn’t pull the trigger. Which might have been a good thing.
But Amazon is doing something a little crazy. This is a brand new phone, easily the top end phone for Verizon’s 4G LTE network and one of the best smartphones on the market. Full off contract pricing is an insane $799.99! Normal two-year contract pricing, as I said, is $299.99. But, in honor of 11/11/11, Amazon is offering it to new customers for only $111.11 with 2-year contract! That’s $188.88 off Verizon’s price for a phone launching today. Existing Verizon customers who are up for renewal can get it for $249.99. And if you want it without a contract you can have it for only $749.99 – ouch.
If you’ve been thinking of switching to Verizon, this is an incredible deal. You can get the top end Android smartphone for the cost of an entry level model. Don’t pass this up!
The latest television teaser is also pretty slick. Like past Droid commercials, it is more like the trailer for the latest action flick.
TiVo will be releasing their FY3Q11 financial results on November 22nd at 14:00 PT. There will be a conference call and webcast for those who want to listen in. The webcast will be available for playback through 11/29/11.
Two pieces of good news for ANZ TiVo users looking for more capacity. Until now Australia and New Zealand TiVo users have had to make due with 160GB & 320GB models. Well, Hybrid Television Services (ANZ) Pty Limited, the licensee of TiVo products in Australia and New Zealand, has announced a new 1TB model available exclusively through Harvey Norman, Domayne and Joyce Mayne stores. This limited edition model is branded as the TiVo XL and it provides customers up to 350 hours of SD or 150 hours of HD recordings. Priced at AUD$699 it is currently available at select stores, and should be in all stores on November 12th, but only while supplies last.
But what if you’re an ANZ TiVo user already and you don’t want to have to buy a new box? Well, there have been do-it-yourself drive upgrades for a while, just as in the US. But that’s more than many users feel comfortable with – pulling the drive, copying the software to the new drive, etc. Well, now there is an easier way. Long time TiVo upgrade vendor WeaKnees.com today announced that they’re now selling drop-in replacement drive upgrade kits up to 2TB in capacity. The 320GB drive is $199.99, 500GB $249.99, 1TB $299.99, and 2TB $399.99 – all prices in US dollars. They also sell replacement remotes and network adapters for ANZ units.
So there you go, two ways ANZ users can record more.
