The future of cameras seem to be heading to is smaller, more portable, more disposable and mirrorless (DSLRs have a mirror). When Nokia’s Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki told 2010 that Cell Phone Cameras Will Replace DSLRs, I could not believe that on time. But it really seems to become more and more to truth in 2014: Nowadays you can take professional level (“good enough photos”) using consumer level cameras and smart phones. Technical quality is good enough for majority. There is going on a rampant replacement of point and shoot cameras of all flavors and varieties with smart phones and their built in cameras. Now the market is being effectively gutted. Gone. Non-existent. Same thing is happening to video as well.
Part of the technical race came to a (maybe temporary) end: “How can I match and exceed the quality of conventional metrics that we used to get from medium format film.” There’s nothing else pressing to solve, technically. Many photographers are fully equipped but uninspired to move forward. We have have set down for “good enough.” The engineering idea is that we’ve hit the sweet spot and to go for a Six Sigma improvement would be costly and unnecessary.
DSLR sales were down in 2013, worldwide, by 18.5% according to CIPA. The total decline in the entire dedicated camera market is closer to 43.5%. The decline will continue. Credit Suisse prediction: “Only those who have a strong brand and are competitive on price will last – and only Canon, Nikon and Sony fullfil that criteria”. Mirrorless cameras are not a big market: According to CIPA is the total sales of mirrorless system cameras in N. America was slightly fewer than 39,000 units. Total.
The challenge will be: How do you bridge that gap between high photo-capture quality and high-quality camera devices and the cloud where every amateur photographer’s images live? The company which has the most innovative post-processing, easy to share photos feature set wins! The future of photography is same as future in pretty much everything: software and connectivity. Camera manufacturers have been slow on those: we are just now seeing cameras with full operating systems like Android The advantages to smart phones are size, constant (annoyingly constant) access, multi-task tool set, and the ability to send your images, electronically, to an audience just about anywhere in the world.
Several smartphone makers have clear strategies to take photography to extremes: 40 megapixel camera is already on the market and several manufacturers are playing with re-focus after shooting options.
Consumer video device trend is that separate classic video cameras have pretty much faded from market. New smart phones have high definition video cameras in them, so for most users there is no need for separate video camera. For special uses there are small “action” video cameras that are so tiny that you can place them almost anywhere and they can take some beating while you perform your extreme sports. If the video quality of those do not suffice, many people use their DSLR to shoot higher quality high definition video. For professional video production there is still some market left for professional and prosumer video cameras.
The world seems to be heading to situation where separate DSLRs and separate video cameras will be more like high fidelity audio, which used to be common selling point in 1970s, 80s and early 90s, but now only some geeks care about audio quality. This will more or less happen to photographs and video.
Connected TV technologies get more widely used and the content earlier viewable only on TV can be now seen on many other screens. Your smartphone is the screen in your pocket. Your computer is the screen on your desk. Your tablet is a screen for the couch. This development is far from ready. Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable.
Video streaming has really become mainstream as Netflix And YouTube Account For Over 50% Of Peak Fixed Network Data In North America. Because of the rise in video services like Netflix and YouTube, peer-to-peer file-sharing has dropped (meaning less piracy of movies and TV series). Netflix remains the biggest pig in the broadband python, representing 31.6% of all downstream Internet traffic in North America during primetime hours in September — well ahead of any other streaming service. In other parts of the world, YouTube is the biggest consumer of bandwidth. In Europe, YouTube represented of 28.7% of downstream traffic.
Post HDTV resolution era seems to be coming to TVs as well in form of 4K / UltraHD. It was introduced in the 2013, and the manufacturers start to push it more in 204 because all LCD makers are looking to move their business models on from cheap mass production to higher-margin, premium offerings. They try to innovate and secure their future viability by selling fewer, but more profitable displays. On this road giant curved TVs is gaining ground: LG announces that it will present the “world’s first ” 105-inch curved ultra-hd-TV in January in Las Vegas at CES. Almost at the same time , however, Samsung also announced the proposal at CES “the world’s first and curved” 105-inch ultra HD television.. TV screens are in fact higher resolution the basic 4k level of ultra hd: Samsung and LG screens resolution is 5120 × 2160 pixels in the image (11 megapixels).
4K resolution ecosystem will get more ready for use. Netflix is testing out 4K video streaming and Netflix’s House of Cards was shot in 4K. Amazon Studios also just recently announced that it will shoot all of its 2014 shows in that format as well.
4K and 4K streaming are definitely coming in 2014 regardless of how many people can actually view it. 4K will still require a lot of work “with the compression and decode capability” to be ready for mainstream use. There are a great many things that need to happen before 4K really becomes a reality or needs to do so.
PC hardware with 4G capable graphics cards is already available, so decoding the stream is not a problem. The biggest issue is that the market penetration of 4K-capable televisions needs to grow, but to that happen the prices must drop to ranges for the average consumer. Many users have already fast enough fixed broadband connection, but can the networks handle peak usage 4K streaming? According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, it won’t require more than a stable 15 Mbps to stream 4K.
Extreme overkill resolution will also push to tablet and smart phone markets. There are already smart phones with full HD resolution. In high-end smartphones we may be moving into the overkill zone with extreme resolution that is higher than you can see on small screen: some makers have already demonstrated displays with twice the performance of 1080-progressive. Samsung is planned to release devices with 4k or UHD resolutions. As we have seen in many high tech gadget markets earlier it is a very short journey to copycat behavior. And we will see also see smart phones that can shoot 4K video.
For a long time music has been listened mainly with small portable MP3 player and such, which for most users provide “good enough” audio quality. The market had already shifted from separate MP3 players to the same functionality included to other devices (smart phones and tablets), so sales of music players sales have plummeted in year 2013 as much as as one-third. Separate music players mostly only used for listening music during fitness hobby, and growing popularity of fitness hobby is full of players saved the market from total collapse. Uncompressed music player to appreciate the need of a decent storage capacity, so some hifi people buy some high-end separate players, but that’s a small market.
Apple’s iPod continues to lead an ever-shrinking market of portable media players with a staggering 72 percent of the market for standalone music players. Apple has never been afraid of reducing demand for one of its devices by creating demand for another, in this case iPhone. The future of separate music players looks bleak.
Smartphones have taken the music player market. The growing popularity of smart phones and music streaming services will rise in the future to eat even music players sales. If smart watch will become a hit, the music player may be lost in exercisers shopping list.
1,214 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sochi Drones Are Shooting the Olympics, Not Terrorists
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/02/21/0334242/sochi-drones-are-shooting-the-olympics-not-terrorists
“Rachel Feltman reports that drones are being used to film ski and snowboarding events at the Winter Olympics in Sochi”
Sochi drone shooting Olympic TV, not terrorists
http://news.yahoo.com/sochi-drone-shooting-olympic-tv-not-terrorists-152517775.html
That drone you might have spotted hovering and zipping around the Sochi Olympic slopes isn’t searching for terrorists or protesters hiding behind the fir trees.
It’s being used to transmit live video of snowboard and ski jump competitions to a screen near you.
Q: Why use a drone to film Olympic events?
A: “We can go really, really close. And we are really quiet, so nobody is distracted,” said pilot and cameraman Remo Masina, who has used drones to film skiers in Switzerland for commercials.
And it’s cheaper than a camera crew on a helicopter.
Q: Couldn’t a drone crash onto the crowd?
A: It could, but so could a much heavier helicopter.
Masina said chances of drone crashes are close to zero when a drone is handled by an experienced pilot, because the drones are programmed to return to base at the slightest problem
Q: Could hackers divert a drone?
A: It’s possible.
But since the video drones are not armed, there’s a limit to the damage a hacker could do with them.
Q: Are drones legal to fly?
A: Local laws vary widely in terms of who can fly drones, where and for what purpose. Many countries impose restrictions for reasons of security and privacy, and so they won’t interfere with airplanes.
The Future of Sports Photography: Drones
They’re already at the Olympics. Soon, they’ll be at the football stadium.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/the-future-of-sports-photography-drones/283896/
Drones are being used to film ski and snowboarding events at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, as you may have noticed. But the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for sports photography is far from a passing gimmick. In fact, you should expect more and more athletic events to be filmed by drone.
The drones are quieter and cheaper than a manned helicopter (though they can still cost up to $40,000), he told the Associated Press, and they allow the filmmaker to get much closer to his subject.
Drones are also more flexible than cable-suspended camera systems, which are also present at the Winter Olympics.
Drone crashes into crowd during Va. running of the bulls event
http://www.wtop.com/41/3432477/Drone-crashes-into-crowd-during-Va-running-of-the-bulls-event
The Dinwiddie County Sheriff’s Office says several people had very minor injuries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Gets Its TV Box Ready, Again
February 21, 2014, 4:00 AM PST
http://recode.net/2014/02/21/amazon-gets-its-tv-box-ready-again/
Industry sources say Amazon is getting ready to launch a Web TV box that would compete with Apple TV and Roku’s line of products, which make it easy to move video from the Internet onto your TV.
A box is also a logical move for Amazon, which is investing heavily to build up a Web video catalog, and is starting to produce its own shows as well.
Sources tell me Amazon’s box will be powered by Google’s Android operating system
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google+ for Android now lets you shake to add snow to your photos
http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/12/5204592/google-plus-android-lets-you-shake-to-add-snow-to-photos
5
inShare
Google+ recently introduced a special Auto Awesome effect that adds animated snowflakes to any of your photos that prominently feature snow. Today Google is making it easier to use the effect with any photo you choose.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
FFmpeg VP9 Decoder Claims To Be The World’s Fastest
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTYxMjM
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here are some audio/video picks from article:
Sochi Olympics: 6 Technologies That Caught Our Eye
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1321098&
Capturing the athletes in competition has come a long way as well, going from massive man-maneuvered analog cameras to HSSM (High Speed Slow Motion) and HD cameras that can be controlled remotely. According to the Olympic Broadcasting Services, there are more than 450 cameras covering the games, with 24 of those HSSM, along with a number of “specialty cams” that take unique shots (some are strapped to flying drones).
HSSM FastCam SA-Z cameras
The Olympic athletes are no stranger to the helmet cam, which has been featured extensively on this year’s skiing and snowboarding events in Sochi. Those competitors can usually be found wearing GoPro’s cameras
HERO3 Black Edition
The camera uses a WiFi remote control to beam images and video directly to mobile devices for social sharing and storage
Tomi Engdahl says:
Feb. 21, 2014, 10:40 a.m.
The world’s shortest cooking show is evidence that you can do interesting work in 15 seconds on Instagram
http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/02/the-worlds-shortest-cooking-show-is-evidence-that-you-can-do-interesting-work-in-15-seconds-on-instagram/
In 15 seconds or less, Bart shows how to cook a complete seafood dish
Tomi Engdahl says:
Official: British music punter still loves plastic
Half of revenue still comes from CDs and videos – BPI
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/19/official_british_music_punter_still_loves_physical_things/
The UK recorded music industry grew 1.9 per cent last year according to the BPI, despite falls in revenue from sales of CDs and music videos. Amazingly, CD revenue fell only 6.4 per cent in 2013 year on year – and still forms the backbone of the industry. A full £365.4m out of the total of £716.8m comes from CDs and videos. Digital recording revenue first overtook physical in 2012.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Amazon’s Next Conquest Will Be Your Television
http://www.wired.com/business/2014/02/forget-books-amazon-really-wants-rule-television/
Amazon started as an online bookseller, and it transformed the entire publishing industry. Now, Jeff Bezos and company are assembling the pieces they need to do much the same thing with a far bigger medium: television.
For months, rumors flew about Amazon building an internet TV device similar to Apple TV or Roku–a box that lets you shuttle movies, TV shows, music, and other stuff across the internet to your television. Now, sources are telling Recode that Amazon will unveil its box next month.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Right Way to Attach Your Camera Strap and Avoid Disaster
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2014/02/proper-camera-strap-technique/
The best cameras have huge sensors, and cameras with huge sensors are larger and heavier than most. They also cost upwards of a thousand dollars. In fact, the total cost of the thing hanging around your neck can easily approach the five-figure range if you’re using a really nice lens.
That entire situation places a whole lot of stress on your bank account and your camera’s neck strap.
you should still check your strap
Tomi Engdahl says:
A look behind the curtain: how Netflix redesigned and rebuilt its television experience
http://gigaom.com/2014/02/24/a-look-behind-the-curtain-how-netflix-redesigned-and-rebuilt-its-television-experience/
Netflix makes one of the most-used apps for smart TVs and connected devices. Here’s an inside look at the work that went into the app’s most recent relaunch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Accenture and KPN Show Google Glass Proof of Concept at MWC
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/News/Online-Video-News/Accenture-and-KPN-Show-Google-Glass-Proof-of-Concept-at-MWC-95051.aspx
Watch second screen content without looking away from the TV, or watch recorded shows even when away from home.
First, Google Glass works as a voice-operated remote, letting viewers change the channel and fast-forward or rewind. Next, the solution lets viewers see second-screen contextual information without looking away from the main screen. Finally, Google Glass can stream video stored in a cloud DVR, letting viewers watch even when away from their TV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disney’s Cloud Movie Service Is Just Like the Other Cloud Movie Service, Except It’s From Disney
http://recode.net/2014/02/25/disneys-cloud-movie-service-is-just-like-the-other-cloud-movie-service-except-its-from-disney/
For the last few years, a consortium of most of the big Hollywood studios and most of the big consumer tech companies has been promoting a Web-based “locker” system, which sounds like a good idea: You buy a movie once — either on a disc or via a digital store — and you get the ability to watch it on any device you want, whenever you want.
But by its backers’ own admission, that plan — dubbed “UltraViolet” — hasn’t worked, for a bunch of reasons. One of them is that two really big players — Disney and Apple — haven’t been part of the system.
So here’s another, separate, Web-based locker system — based purely on Disney movies, and endorsed by Apple. It’s hard to see how this one will do much better.
Disney Goes Where No Other Studio Has Gone: An iTunes Movie Storage Deal
http://www.thewrap.com/disney-iTunes-cloud-storage-Ultraviolet/
The studio will offer a new cloud-based storage service called Disney Movies Anywhere; it launches with 400 titles including Oscar nominated “Frozen”
Disney Movies Anywhere will enable users to stream or download Disney movies they buy through iTunes on any Apple device and any laptop, provided you sign up for the service.
Hollywood has embraced cloud-based movie storage services to encourage ownership and help make up for lost DVD sales; the services are designed to make it easy to access movie libraries anywhere.
Disney has been selling discs with redeemable digital codes since 2008. Anyone with one of those DVDs can now redeem the code to access a digital copy of that movie.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Quietly Begins Pushing Its Photo Backup Software To Google+ Users
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/google-quietly-begins-pushing-its-photo-backup-software-to-google-users/
Google has begun pushing its “Auto Backup” photo archival software to Mac and Windows users via the company’s social networking platform, Google+. The promotion is new, we’ve confirmed, though the software itself was first launched back in December.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The HDMI Forum has released the HDMI 2.0 specification and test process which enables 6Gbps lane transfer to Display devices, nearly doubling the previous maximum. This is far from a banner specification as the industry is moving quickly to deliver the highest resolution displays at 4kx2k.
Source:
http://link.pentonelec.com/YesConnect/HtmlMessagePreview?a=zC3kneuPo35anYGrL86ebY
Tomi Engdahl says:
REVEALED: MPAA’s latest anti-piracy move accidentally, completely screws Hollywood studios
http://pando.com/2014/02/25/revenge-of-the-nerds-how-tech-geeks-found-a-secret-weapon-in-their-fight-against-big-hollywood/
Pando has learned that visual effects industry workers plan a mass demonstration against the major studios’ ongoing efforts to offshore post production work. That offshoring has led to the slow collapse of the American FX industry at the very moment digital effects have become a central ingredient in entertainment products.
The fight between the studios and the tech wizards who actually make movies possible is not new.
An upcoming documentary on the offshoring situation in Hollywood puts the number of firms lost at a whopping 21, including some of the industry’s highest profile companies.
The Visual Effects Society summed it up by saying “the amazing irony is that while 47 of the top 50 films of all time are visual effects driven and billions of dollars of profits are generated yearly, the actual people who create the work are becoming an endangered species in California.” Variety boiled it down to a simple headline: “Foreign Incentives Help Crush Once-Booming F/X Biz in U.S.”
With its own grounding in digital commerce, Silicon Valley has an obvious interest in how digital goods are classified. Underscoring that, Google has weighed in on the same obscure 3-D printing case, perhaps in an effort to legitimize its own current or future offshoring practices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Life After Pi,’ doc on fall of visual effects house, to debut
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-on-location-20140218,0,7566544.story#axzz2uIilXo5d
Pioneering visual effects house Rhythm & Hues stunned Hollywood last year when it filed for bankruptcy protection and laid off more than 250 employees.
The announcement came as the Los Angeles company was enjoying its crowning achievement: the Ang Lee film “Life of Pi,” whose dazzling digital effects would land Rhythm & Hues its third Academy Award just a few weeks later.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ABC Will Live-Stream Oscars to Web, Mobile Apps for First Time — But There’s a Catch
http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/abc-will-live-stream-oscars-to-web-mobile-apps-for-first-time-but-theres-a-catch-1201122223/
Alphabet net to offer kudocast through Watch ABC apps and website, accessible only through certain pay-TV partners
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s only the threat of piracy that keeps the online music and TV industries honest
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/willardfoxton2/100012585/its-only-the-threat-of-piracy-that-keeps-the-online-music-and-tv-industries-honest/
Streaming is rapidly becoming the way most of us consume music, film and television. Much of the best stuff is only available there, as anyone emerging from a House of Cards binge will tell you. In the UK, streaming accounts for as much as 40 per cent of online traffic, and Netflix alone can be as much as one third of all internet use in the USA on any given evening.
Tum have spent quite a bit of time in meetings with streaming decision makers
“They [the labels] see us as growing the market; not by taking business from other players, but by making free illegal services like Grooveshark and Pirate Bay less appealing.”
As well as illegal users, Bloom goes after an untapped market – the huge middle ground of people like my mum, who only wants 12 Bing Crosby tracks a year, or people like my little sister, who only wants the same One Direction track on constant repeat.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s How The Comcast & Netflix Deal Is Structured, With Data & Numbers
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/02/heres-comcast-netflix-deal-structured-numbers.html
There’s been a lot of speculation involving the business and technical details surrounding the recent deal between Comcast and Netflix and plenty of wrong numbers and information being used.
From a technical level, Netflix has their own servers that are sitting inside third-party colocation facilities in multiple locations. To connect Netflix’s servers to ISPs, Netflix buys transit from multiple providers, which then connect their networks to the ISPs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix engineers experiment with bump-based video sharing and sleep tracking
http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/27/netflix-hack-day-2014-projects/
Netflix uses its internal Hack Day competitions to encourage new thinking around its streaming video service, and its latest event has produced a few clever experiments that we wouldn’t mind seeing in finished apps. One of them, Netflix Beam, uses Apple’s Bluetooth-based iBeacon technology to share Netflix videos between iOS devices just by bumping them together. Another effort uses a Fitbit to check if you fall asleep mid-movie; if you do, you can resume from the point where you nodded off.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Curved, See-Through Speaker Sounds Wonderfully Clear
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2014/02/clio-bluetooth-speaker/
The Clear View Clio looks more like a modernist picture frame than a Bluetooth speaker. That’s because instead of relying on traditional cones (and their requisite enclosures), it uses a curved sheet of clear, automotive-grade acrylic to produce sound. Like traditional speakers, that sound is produced via vibration, but in the Clio those vibrations are controlled by two actuators in the unit’s base. The acrylic sheet is capable of delivering mids and highs, while a tiny subwoofer in the unit’s base takes care of the low end. And because the glass itself functions as a transducer, sound comes from both sides of the speaker.
The result is a nearly invisible speaker with discrete left and right channels that can deliver 360 degrees of sound. That lack of visibility is already piquing the interest of designers — and not necessarily the ones in the home audio realm. Some car manufacturers have already approached the company about creating ultra-thin speakers for doors and Clear View also has an understandable interest in TV displays.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Win For Fair Use After Record Label, Copyright Lawyer Settle
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/02/27/283554774/a-win-for-fair-use-after-a-record-label-picked-wrong-guy-to-sue
An Australian record label that threatened to sue one of the world’s most famous copyright attorneys for infringement has reached a settlement with him.
The settlement includes an admission that Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law School professor, had the right to use a song by the band Phoenix.
Liberation Music says it will also pay Lessig for the harm it caused. The amount is confidential under the terms of the agreement
Liberation Music agreed to adopt new policies around issuing takedown notices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Warner Bros. working on a Minecraft movie
Lego Movie producer reportedly attached for live action film.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/02/warner-bros-working-on-a-minecraft-movie/
After registering over 100 million users across a myriad of platforms and regions, Mojang’s hit open-world survival title Minecraft is set to become a feature film franchise at major studio Warner Bros.
“Someone is trying leak the fact that we’re working with Warner Brothers on a potential Minecraft Movie,” Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson tweeted this evening. “I wanted to be the leak!”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s TV Hobby Is Now a Billion-Dollar Business
http://recode.net/2014/02/28/apples-tv-hobby-is-now-a-billion-dollar-business/
Apple has yet to introduce its “real” version of Apple TV, whatever that actually is.
But the $99 box it is selling is doing pretty well: Tim Cook just told Apple shareholders that the company generated more than $1 billion in Apple TV sales in 2013 — which implies sales of more than 10 million units.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Oscar-Nominated Movies You Can Stream Right Now
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/03/streaming-oscar-movies/
The Oscars may celebrate some of a single year’s best movie-making, but they’re also to blame for the fact that there’s not a whole lot of stuff in theaters that anyone actually wants to see in the two months leading up to the Academy Awards, also known as Hollywood’s “dump months.”
With a majority of the American movie-viewing public now regularly watching away from theaters — a 2013 study found 51 percent of U.S. consumers stream TV and movies at home — the studios’ release strategies are changing. We no longer have to wait five-plus months to see a flick after its theatrical run.
Here are 10 nominated movies you can sneak in before Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Looking for Oscars torrents? This is why you may end up empty-handed
http://gigaom.com/2014/03/02/looking-for-oscars-torrents-this-is-why-you-may-end-up-empty-handed/
This year, less than half of the screeners Hollywood professionals receive to help them vote on the year’s best movies were illegally uploaded — but what’s the cause?
In the context of awards season, a “screener” is a physical or digital copy of an awards-eligible film which is sent to members of a voting body “for [their] consideration.”
As you might predict from a situation where high-quality versions of high-profile films are suddenly available en masse, piracy is a major concern. But here’s the twist — over the past four years, screener piracy has actually decreased.
Screeners contain warnings, right at the very beginning of the DVD, that they are for guild-members-eyes-only, and that if they’re leaked, there will be consequences.
There’s also a demand that the DVDs should be destroyed once viewed — nobody I spoke with said they had ever destroyed a physical screener.
No one was certain as to what the exact punishment for leaking a screener would be, but their worries included being blacklisted by the leaked film’s studio and getting into serious trouble with their guilds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Oscar-Nominated Movies You Can Stream Right Now
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/03/streaming-oscar-movies/
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenNI To Close
http://www.i-programmer.info/news/194-kinect/7004-openni-to-close-.html
The OpenNI website, home to a widely used framework for 3D sensing, will be shutdown in April. Fortunately the code will continue to be available via GitHub.
When, in November 2013, Apple bought PrimeSense for $350 million
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter sags beneath weight of Oscar selfie
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/03/twitter_sags_beneath_weight_of_selfie/
HOLLYWOOD AND CYBERSPACE: The entertainment industry has once again celebrated the world of entertainment, with the annual Academy Awards going even more viral than usual thanks to a selfie of several prominent entertainers that set new records for social sharing.
Whatever the actual device used to capture the “selfie”, Twitter reports it is now the most-shared Tweet of all time.
So popular has the Tweet proved, Twitter itself sagged beneath its weight, causing intermittent appearances of its reclusive fail whale (wearing a stunning layer of blubber) during the awards ceremony.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reg reader rattles tin for GoPro camera ‘Stubilizer’
Stuart Smith wraps prototyping, hits Kickstarter
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/03/stubilizer_kickstarter/
“Stubilizer” – a range of stabilising platforms for GoPro cameras which has just launched on Kickstarter.
The Stubilizer was conceived as as a way to grab “good in-flight video while flying my paramotor and paraglider with helmet-mounted cameras”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny camera gives you a photographic memory by snapping pics of your life every 30 seconds
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Computer_Systems/Modules/Tiny_camera_gives_you_a_photographic_memory_by_snapping_pics_of_your_life_every_30_seconds.aspx
The Narrative Clip is a wearable camera that clips onto your clothes and snaps pictures every 30 seconds.
The 5-megapixel camera works with Android and iOS devices to create a searchable and shareable photographic memory.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Research reveals 3D browser SurroundWeb that displays content across multiple surfaces in a room
http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/03/03/microsoft-research-reveals-3d-browser-surroundweb-displays-content-across-multiple-surfaces-room/#!yhvV2
Microsoft has a small obsession with innovating in the living room, so it should come as no surprise that its research arm continues to plough forward with a 3D browser. Called SurroundWeb, the prototype allows Web pages to display content across multiple surfaces in a room.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Recessed TV boxes eliminate cable clutter near flat-screens
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/02/legrand-recessed-tv-boxes.html?cmpid=EnlCIMMarch32014
Tomi Engdahl says:
Retrotechtacular: Lighting the Way for Talkie Pictures with Optical Sound Recording
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/04/retrotechtacular-lighting-the-way-for-talkie-pictures-with-optical-sound-recording/
Three types of soundtracks are described and wonderfully demonstrated at the end of the film.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Are We Being Adaptive to Buffering?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1321290&piddl_msgid=292513#msg_292513
My friend started by saying that we share the Internet medium, and that the number of people using it at any particular time is dynamic. This means that the streaming experience can vary considerably throughout a day, during a month, or across a year. This led to my next questions: How does this affect things like Internet protocol television and connected TVs? What kind of a user experience can they guarantee? And does all this require a different Internet infrastructure?
Apparently, traditional techniques like download-and-play and progressive download are congestion ignorant. By comparison, newer techniques can sense congestion on the network, and they are adaptive with respect to available bandwidth.
HTTP adaptive streaming is one emerging solution.
The system creates multiple files of different resolutions from the original content. Each file is targeted for different devices and connection speeds. The overall viewing experience is enriched by picking the stream that is best for playback at a given bandwidth. All this works on top of the HTTP infrastructure
The adaptive streaming concept is based on providing chunks of video 2-10 seconds long called segments. These segments are available up front from the server in different resolutions. All segments are captured with their HTTP URL in a manifest file and presented in advance to the player. Looking at the network load, the player picks the correct stream/segment with the appropriate resolution and downloads it for playback. This means that, at any point in time, the device has 2-10 seconds of content.
Major players have their own versions of adaptive streaming, such as Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming, and Adobe’s HTTP Dynamic Streaming.
The Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) is trying to standardize the best-practices of these three streaming technologies under the MPEG-DASH (dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP) brand. A unified standard requiring only one set of files capable of playing on all compatible devices would be a boon to all content publishers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Deceptively Simple Speaker That Always Knows What to Play
http://www.wired.com/design/2014/03/ingenious-speaker-acts-dj/
Don’t call Cone a speaker. It’s a “thinking music player.”
That, anyway, is how Duncan Lamb, co-founder of Aether, explains his company’s new offering, a conical music-machine that learns your tastes and seamlessly streams the songs you want to hear. It’s a fairly radical reinvention of a familiar gadget–a speaker that relieves you of the responsibility of DJing every song at every step of the way. But it’s also an example of how the internet of things is quickly maturing, proving that clever algorithms and beefy processing power can be combined to make products simpler to use, rather than more complex.
The secret sauce that lets Aether achieve that simplicity is machine learning. Each time you spin its dial, Cone learns something about you. By taking note of what you skip past and what you listen to, it slowly puts together a profile of your music listening habits.
Today’s streaming services, he continues, are “designed by people who love music for people who love music.” It’s tempting to think that’s everyone, but in the real world, it’s evident that it’s not.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: DirecTV in talks with Disney on deal for Internet rights
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/us-directv-disney-idUSBREA242GU20140306
DirecTV is in talks with Walt Disney Co to license the rights to offer Disney’s broadcast and cable channels as part of an Internet-based product, DirecTV said on Wednesday
The deal would mirror a first-of-its kind agreement that Disney and satellite rival Dish Network Corp announced earlier this week.
DirecTV Chief Executive Mike White has previously said the company is working on an “over-the-top” video package to suit niche audiences
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s largest photo service just made its pictures free to use
Getty Images is betting its business on embeddable photos
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/5/5475202/getty-images-made-its-pictures-free-to-use
If you go to the Getty Images website, you’ll see millions of images, all watermarked.
If you want Getty to take off the watermark, you’ll have to pay for it.
Starting now, that’s going to change. Getty Images is dropping the watermark for the bulk of its collection, in exchange for an open-embed program that will let users drop in any image they want, as long as the service gets to append a footer at the bottom of the picture with a credit and link to the licensing page. For a small-scale WordPress blog with no photo budget, this looks an awful lot like free stock imagery.
It’s a real risk for the company, since it’s easy to screenshot the new versions if you want to snag an unlicensed version. But according to Craig Peters, a business development exec at Getty Images, that ship sailed long ago. “Look, if you want to get a Getty image today, you can find it without a watermark very simply,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Roku flashes $50 HDMI TV web dongle at anyone sick of Google’s stick
Chromecast rival Streaming Stick even has a remote – gasp!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/05/roku_streaming_stick_hdmi/
Gadget maker Roku is touting a Streaming Stick video-playing dongle that plugs directly into HDMI televisions.
Designed to function solely as an internet streaming TV device
Tomi Engdahl says:
Getty Images makes 35 million images free in fight against copyright infringement
http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/03/getty-images-makes-35-million-images-free-in-fight-against-copyright-infringement/
Getty Images has single-handedly redefined the entire photography market with the launch of a new embedding feature that will make more than 35 million images freely available to anyone for non-commercial usage.
In essence, anyone will be able to visit Getty Images’ library of content, select an image and copy an embed HTML code to use that image on their own websites. Getty Images will serve the image in a embedded player – very much like YouTube currently does with its videos – which will include the full copyright information and a link back to the image’s dedicated licensing page on the Getty Images website.
More than 35 million images from Getty Images’ news, sports, entertainment and stock collections, as well as its archives, will be available for embedding from 06 March.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TV channel moved from broadcasting to Internet only in UK:
BBC One to get £30m from Three closure
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-26464007
BBC One drama is to receive a £30m boost from the closure of BBC Three as a TV channel, director general Tony Hall has announced.
He confirmed BBC Three would be moved to the iPlayer in autumn 2015, with its budget slashed from £85m to £25m.
Lord Hall said moving the channel online was “the right thing to do” and also “financially necessary”.
BBC Three branding will remain on its offerings on the iPlayer
Danny Cohen, the BBC’s director of television, said in an ideal world, “we would not be making this move for a few more years”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple building support for driving 4K displays at ‘Retina’ resolution, 60Hz output from 2013 MacBook Pros
http://9to5mac.com/2014/03/06/apple-building-support-for-driving-4k-displays-at-retina-resolution-60hz-output-from-2013-macbook-pros/
With 10.9.3, Mac users can now natively set their 4K monitors to run the Mac operating system at a pixel-doubled “Retina” resolution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s True: Some People Just Don’t Like Music
http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/03/06/200223/its-true-some-people-just-dont-like-music
“Researchers have found that between 1 and 3% of people don’t like music of any kind. These people aren’t tone deaf or incapable of grasping the emotional meaning of a song—their brains simply didn’t find listening to music rewarding.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM to Drive Tablet & Set-Top SoC Convergence
ARM-led Linaro plans on a new Digital Home Group
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1321297&
The battle over the digital TV market among semiconductor companies is undergoing a quiet but major transformation, as key players reshuffle and target devices multiply.
First, the players doggedly chasing the DTV and set-top market are no longer traditional TV chip vendors. Instead, mobile (i.e., tablet) SoC vendors have emerged to take the lead.
Second, ARM, accordingly, is putting significant effort into the ecosystem of DTV SoCs, once a domain dominated by MIPS (now acquired by Imagination Technologies).
Third, key players in the DTV field are now Chinese. Western contenders like Intel, Trident, and Zoran abandoned the DTV SoC market a few years ago.
A case in point is Allwinner Technology, a fabless chip company in Zhuahi, China, that specializes in ARM-based apps processors for smartphones and tablets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Free Getty Images No Threat To Photo Market Says Shutterstock CEO
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2014/03/07/free-getty-images-no-threat-to-photo-market-says-shutterstock-ceo/
Getty Images is giving away 35 million photos for free. Some are saying the move, aimed to combat pic piracy, will upend the entire stock photo market. Shutterstock CEO Jon Oringer isn’t worried. Why not? The free images come with two thick strings attached–they can’t be used for making money and Getty can run its own ads on the pictures.
As Oringer notes, the fat part of the $11 billion image market is made up companies in the business of selling– large corporations, advertising agencies and marketers. Under the new plan, they all must still pony-up for pictures.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Popcorn Time: Open Source Torrent Streaming Netflix For Pirates
http://torrentfreak.com/open-source-torrent-streaming-a-netflix-for-pirates-140308/
Popcorn Time, a cross-platform and BitTorrent-powered movie streaming app, may very well be Hollywood’s worst nightmare. The software can be best described as a Netflix for pirates, allowing users to stream the latest blockbusters at no cost. TF talks to one of the developers to find out how the app came about.
Sebastian explains that Popcorn Time uses node-webkit and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It’s basically a browser that users HTML, CSS and JavaScript to serve the movie streams.
“The technology behind the app is very simple. We consume a group of APIs, one for the torrents, another for the movie info, and another for the poster. We also have an API for the subtitles. Everything is automated, we don’t host anything, but take existing information and put it together,” Sebastian says
The torrent files all come from YTS (formerly YIFY), which has an API Popcorn Time taps into. The application can search this database and allows users to stream the torrent on demand. When finished the app will continue to share for a while after the download is finished, to avoid leeching.
Tomi Engdahl says:
On Instagram, a Bazaar Where You Least Expect It
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/on-instagram-a-bazaar-where-you-least-expect-it/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook, is my favorite place to skim through pictures of friends.
Something else I’ve grown to love about the website is much less expected: It’s a wonderful place to shop.
Instagram isn’t designed to be an e-commerce site, and that’s part of its appeal to me.
Beverly Hames, an owner of the shop, said she began posting items on Instagram as an experiment a year and a half ago. Now, sales deriving from those postings make up 20 to 40 percent of the store’s daily revenue, she said, and they come from all over the country and occasionally from overseas.
“At first, it was just my friends buying things,” she said. “But then, people who weren’t my friends started commenting and calling.”
“I’m sure this bubble will burst somehow,” she said. “Either it will get oversaturated by other companies selling on Instagram or they will start charging.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Half of Broadcast TV Viewers Are 54 and Older—Yikes
More like … greys’ anatomy. Right?
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/half-of-broadcast-tv-viewers-are-54-and-older-yikes/284256/
In the last 20 years, the median age of Americans has increased from 34 to 37. The median age of broadcast TV viewers has increased from 41 to 54. Not a three-year jump, but a 13-year jump.
And therein lies the existential challenge for CBS, NBC, FOX, and ABC: How do you persuade advertisers to spend more on an audience that’s so obviously graying faster than an already-graying country? You sell them on the purchasing power of senior citizens, I guess.
In the 1993-94 broadcast season, Home Improvement was the most-watched show, with a median viewer of 34, Commercial Appeal reports. Today, it’s NCIS, with a median viewer who is 61.
The bigger picture is that the TV industry is still a monster, and all this advertising isn’t going away overnight
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vevo teases overhauled apps and a mobile SDK letting third parties offer its videos
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/03/09/vevo-teases-apps-sdk/#!zap9h
At an event in Austin, Texas during SXSW today, music video service Vevo revealed plans to offer a mobile SDK that will allow third-party app developers to incorporate its content.
The SDK will allow developers to query the Vevo database of video metadata and serve up relevant videos. The videos will be monetized with advertising, although the prominence of the ads will vary from partner to partner.
While the SDK will initially be available on a partnership basis, Vevo plans to eventually make it open to any developer once early partners have helped iron out any initial bugs.