MEMS mics are taking over. Almost every mobile device has ditched its old-fashioned electret microphone invented way back in 1962 at Bell Labs. Expect new piezoelectric MEMS microphones, which promise unheard of signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of up to 80 dB (versus 65 dB in the best current capacitive microphones) in 2015. MEMS microphones are growing like gangbusters.
Analysts and veterans of the International CES expect to see plenty of 4K ultra-high-definition televisions, new smartwatch uses, and a large section of the show floor dedicated to robotics. 2015 will be the first year CES gets behind 4K in a big way, as lower price points make the technology more attractive to consumers. Samsung, Sony, Sharp, and Toshiba will be big players in the 4K arena. OEMs must solve the problem of intelligence and connectivity before 4K will really take off. CES attendees may also see 4K TVs optimized for certain tasks, along with a variety of sizes. There will be 10-inch and 14-inch and 17-inch UHD displays.
4K is not enough anymore? 8K – finally come true? Korean giant LG has promised to introduce ehdan 8K TV at CES 2015 exhibition in January. 8K means a total of 33.2 million pixels, or 7680 x 4320 resolution. 4K video material fate is still uncertain, 8K video can not with certainty not available for a long time.
Sound bars will be a big issue at shows. One problem with new TVs — the thinner they are, the harder it is to get sound out.
Open file formats Matroska Video (MKV) and Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) gets more widely used as Windows 10 To Feature Native Support For MKV and FLAC.
Watching shows online is more common now. More people are watching videos on smaller screens. You can use a tablet as personal TV. Phablets and portable televisions have taken off in China, Japan, and Korea, where many people watch videos during long commutes. Tablets now have become so ubiquitous and inexpensive that you can buy them for a specific application. Much of the innovation will be in software, rather than hardware — tuning the tablets to boot up like a television instead of an Android tablet
We’re all spending more time with smartphones and tablets. So much so that the “second screen” may now be the “first screen,” depending on the data you read. It seems inevitable that smartphones and tablets will replace the television in terms of time spent. Many metrics firms, including Nielsen, report on the rapid increase of mobile device usage—especially when it comes to apps. Half of YouTube’s views now come from phones and tablets.
Qualcomm will push this year broadcast LTE. That will be picked up more and more by some vendors in tablets, so they can have broadcast TV signals, but it doesn’t have to be generic LTE.
There will be lots of talking on traditional TV vs new streaming services, especially on who gets which program material and at what price. While it’s possible to create a TV platform that doesn’t deal with live channels, smart TVs and game consoles alike generally try to integrate the content as best they can.
Netflix’s new strategy to take on cable involves becoming best friends with cable to get its app included on set-top boxes of cable, fiber and satellite TV operators. Roughly 90 million U.S. households subscribe to cable or other forms of pay TV, and more than 73 million subscribe to the biggest five operators alone. That’s why Netflix has been working hard to team up with one of these major operators.
Google intends to integrate content best it can. Google Publishes ‘Live Channels For Android TV’ App Into The Play Store. G The “Live Channels for Android TV” app is unsurprisingly incompatible with phones and tablets, maybe because for some reason those markets are intentionally artificially tried to be kept separate.
Virtual reality video is trying to get to spotlight. Samsung’s new Milk VR to round up 360-degree videos for Gear VR article tells that Milk VR will provide the videos for free as Samsung hopes to goose interest in virtual reality. Milk VR service will provide free 360-degree videos to anyone using a Gear VR virtual-reality headset (uses Galaxy Note 4). Samsung wants to jump-start the virtual-reality movement as the company is looking at virtual reality as a potential growth engine at a time when one of its key traditional revenue sources — smartphones — has slowed down. The videos will also serve as a model for future filmmakers or artists looking to take advantage of the virtual-reality medium, as well as build up an ecosystem and viewership for VR content.
Although digital video is increasing in popularity, analog video remains in use in many applications.
1,154 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacklet 47 – Thermal Imaging Projects
http://hackaday.com/2015/05/15/hacklet-47-thermal-imaging-projects/
Thermal imaging is the science of converting the heat signature of objects to an image visible to humans.
Early systems required liquid nitrogen cooling for their bolometer sensors. Recent electronic advances have brought the price of a thermal image system from the stratosphere into the sub $300 range – right about where makers and hackers can jump in. That’s exactly what’s happened with the Flir Lepton module and the Seek Thermal camera.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FPGAs Keep Track of your Ping Pong Game
http://hackaday.com/2015/05/15/fpgas-keep-track-of-your-ping-pong-game/
It’s graduation time, and you know what that means! Another great round of senior design projects doing things that are usually pretty unique. [Bruce Land] sent in a great one from Cornell where the students have been working on a project that uses FPGAs and a few video cameras to keep score of a ping-pong game.
The system works by processing a live NTSC feed of a ping pong game. The ball is painted a particular color to aid in detection, and the FPGAs that process the video can keep track of where the net is, how many times the ball bounces, and if the ball has been hit by a player
Table Tennis Tracker
A real-time automatic table tennis score keeper
http://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece5760/FinalProjects/s2015/ttt/ttt/ttt/index.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
CBS’s Video Streaming Service Now Offers Live TV In Over 60% Of The U.S.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/14/cbss-video-streaming-service-now-offers-live-tv-in-over-60-of-the-u-s/#.b5imzi:CyLL
CBS’s on-demand video streaming service will now offer local, live TV feeds which cover over 60% of the U.S., the company announced this morning. CBS All Access, the network’s over-the-top streaming video service, has long attempted to differentiate itself from competitors like Netflix by making live linear feeds from local CBS stations available to the service’s subscribers.
the advantage of the live TV feeds is that it means viewers don’t necessarily have to wait until the following day to watch their favorite shows or other special events – they can tune in and watch live TV, almost as if they had a cable TV subscription.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
The first Firefox OS smart TVs are now on sale in Europe, launching globally ‘in coming months’
http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/15/the-first-firefox-os-smart-tvs-are-now-on-sale-in-europe-launching-globally-in-coming-months/
More than a year after revealing its plans to build Firefox OS televisions with Panasonic, the first fruits of Mozilla’s tie-up with the electronics giant have gone to market.
Available in Europe only for now, there are six models of the Panasonic Viera smart TVs powered by Mozilla’s Linux-based operating system, depending on your country — the CR850, CR730, CX800, CX750, CX700, and CX680. Prices will of course vary
First unveiled back in 2012, Firefox OS was originally designed as an alternative operating system for smartphones and tablets. It has been slow to gain traction however, with only a handful of devices hitting the market with Firefox OS preinstalled.
With Firefox OS on TVs, Mozilla’s big sales pitch centers around its “openness” through the use of HTML5 and web app support. This is designed to make it easier for developers to port existing web applications and services over to Firefox OS, and the likes of YouTube and Netflix already provide apps for the operating system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Pandora should pay 2.5% of revenue to BMI instead of 1.75%, court rules
Ruling in Royalty Case Gives BMI a Victory Against Pandora
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/business/media/ruling-in-royalty-case-gives-bmi-a-victory-against-pandora.html?_r=0
Last week, Pandora Media won two battles in its long-running war against the music industry, but on Thursday, it lost one — this time over how much it should pay the licensing agency BMI in royalties.
BMI sued in 2013 to raise the rate that Pandora, an Internet radio service, pays to play the millions of songs in the BMI catalog. Pandora’s rate was set at 1.75 percent of its revenue; BMI asked the court to raise that to 2.5 percent, and Pandora argued for a rate as low as 1.7 percent.
On Thursday, Judge Louis L. Stanton of United States District Court in Manhattan ruled for BMI, setting the rate at 2.5 percent.
BMI — Broadcast Music Inc., a 76-year-old clearinghouse for songwriting rights — filed the suit after it was unable to set a rate through negotiations with Pandora, a process dictated by longstanding federal regulation.
While the ruling is a victory for the music industry, which has fought bitterly against Pandora over royalty issues, the ultimate outcome in the case is unclear.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg Business:
Netflix in talks with Jack Ma-backed Chinese media company Wasu, others, as it tries to enter the country’s $5.9B online video market
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-15/netflix-said-in-talks-to-enter-china-with-jack-ma-backed-wasu
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Multispectral Imaging For A UAV
http://hackaday.com/2015/05/16/hackaday-prize-entry-multispectral-imaging-for-a-uav/
At least part of the modern agricultural revolution that is now keeping a few billion people from starving to death can be attributed to remote sensing of fields and crops. Images from Landsat and other earth imaging satellites have been used by farmers and anyone interested in agriculture policy for forty years now, and these strange, false-color pictures are an invaluable resource for keeping the world’s population fed.
For his Hackaday Prize entry (and his university thesis), [David] is working on attaching the same kinds of multispectral imaging payloads found on Earth sensing satellites to a UAV.
A low cost multispectral imaging payload for a UAV
https://hackaday.io/project/4390-a-low-cost-multispectral-imaging-payload-for-a-uav
A single camera, multiple filter multispectral imaging system – with no moving parts – that can be flown on a small UAV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Record Labels Sue ‘New’ Grooveshark, Seize Domains
http://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-sue-new-grooveshark-seize-domains-150515/
A few days after music streaming service Grooveshark shut down and settled with the major record labels, the site was ‘resurrected’ by unknown people. While the reincarnation bears more resemblance to a traditional MP3 search engine than Grooveshark, the labels are determined to bring it down.
Tomi Engdahl says:
John Paul Titlow / Fast Company:
Inside InnerTube, Google’s three year old project to overhaul YouTube’s internal development platform, recommendation engine, and search
— TO TAKE ON HBO AND NETFLIX, YOUTUBE HAD TO REWIRE ITSELF — The war over our eyeballs is heating up, and that’s mostly a good thing for people who like to look at screens.
To Take On HBO And Netflix, YouTube Had To Rewire Itself
http://www.fastcompany.com/3044995/to-take-on-hbo-and-netflix-youtube-had-to-rewire-itself
To become a “destination” and keep mobile viewers hooked, YouTube realized it had to fix itself, from its development platform to its AI.
The war over our eyeballs is heating up, and that’s mostly a good thing for people who like to look at screens. Just as Meerkat, Periscope, and Snapchat elbow each other in a battle over appointment viewing, and digitally native companies like Netflix and Hulu duke it out over the future of TV and movies, an old-school competitor shows up and throws down a shiny new gauntlet: Last month, HBO Now launched just in time for cord-cutters to catch the debut of the new season of Game of Thrones. There’s never before been such an abundance of quality, readily accessible television fighting for our attention.
“We have very little leverage to try to make the experience better for users.”
YouTube, however, has found itself in this new golden age of video with a serious handicap: While its overall viewership was growing, most of that growth was happening across the web at large, outside of its own site and apps. That made it harder to capture eyes and ad dollars, and to appeal to cherished mobile users. When Susan Wojcicki became CEO last year, she would continue efforts to transform the way it served ads and engaged with its creators, pouring money into certain channels and promoting them heavily
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vintage Lens On A Modern Camera
http://hackaday.com/2015/05/18/vintage-lens-on-modern-camera/
Sometimes you get plain lucky in multiple ways, enabling you to complete a hack that would otherwise have seemed improbable. [Mario Nagano] managed to attach a vintage 1950’s lens to a modern mirrorless camera (translated from Portuguese).
He’d read about a few other similar hacks, but they all involved a lot of complicated adapters which was beyond his skills. Removing the lens from the vintage camera was straightforward.
The vintage lens has a 31.5mm mounting thread while his Olympus DSLR body had a standard 42mm thread. Fabricating a custom adapter from scratch would have cost him a lot in terms of time and money. That’s when he got lucky again. He had recently purchased a Fotodiox Spotmatic camera body cap.
The lens has a 105mm focal length, so the final assembly must ensure that this distance is maintained. And he got lucky once again.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Liat Clark / Wired.co.uk:
Study: shutdown of Kino.to, Germany’s biggest video streaming site, had little effect on piracy in 2011
Shutting down huge pirate sites has no ‘positive effect’
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-05/15/european-piracy-study
In 2011, police officers across Germany, Spain, France and the Netherlands swept into the homes and data centres of a group running one of the largest illegal streaming sites in Europe, kino.to. For those authorities, it was a massive coup in the battle against online piracy — a costly one in terms of resources but nevertheless a great PR move.
Four years on, however, and a European Commission Joint Research Centre report has put something of a dampener on that political triumph. Published online this week, the report has concluded that shutting down the site not only made only very little (and short-lived) difference to the amount of pirated content being consumed, it in fact led to some healthy competition in the online piracy world. It provides evidence of the oft reported “Hydra” effect, where pirates simply move to multiple, smaller resources to get content, rather than sticking with one service.
In reality, the piracy market recovered quickly to pre-kino.to levels following the emergence of 22 new streaming platforms, demonstrating the whack-a-mole effect of combatting piracy with shutdowns is as prevalent as ever — new services will just keep in coming.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daisuke Wakabayashi / Wall Street Journal:
After nearly a decade of research, Apple shelved plans over a year ago for the TV set that Carl Icahn expects it to release in 2016 — Behind Apple’s Move to Shelve TV Plans — Apple had dropped its TV plans, but investor Carl Icahn sees the firm entering the market next year
Behind Apple’s Move to Shelve TV Plans
Apple had dropped its TV plans, but investor Carl Icahn sees the firm entering the market next year
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/behind-apples-move-to-shelve-tv-plans-1431992617-lMyQjAxMTE1MjE0ODQxNzgxWj
Investor Carl Icahn said he expects Apple Inc. to introduce an ultra-high-definition television in 2016. But after nearly a decade of research, Apple quietly shelved plans to make such a set more than a year ago, according to people familiar with the matter.
Apple had searched for breakthrough features to justify building an Apple-branded television set, those people said. In addition to an ultra-high-definition display, Apple considered adding sensor-equipped cameras so viewers could make video calls through the set, they said.
Ultimately, though, Apple executives didn’t consider any of those features compelling enough to enter the highly competitive television market, led by Samsung Electronics Co. Apple typically likes to enter a new product area with innovative technology and easier-to-use software.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple readies “TVKit” SDK for Apple TV, and Apple Watch updates like “Find my Watch”, irregular heart beat notifications, third-party watch face “complications” — Apple readies first significant Apple Watch updates, ‘TVKit’ SDK for Apple TV
Apple readies first significant Apple Watch updates, ’TVKit’ SDK for Apple TV
http://9to5mac.com/2015/05/18/apple-readies-first-significant-apple-watch-updates-tvkit-sdk-for-apple-tv/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spotify Is Turning Starbucks Baristas Into Coffee Shop DJs
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/starbucks-spotify/
Three months ago, Starbucks killed the CD. The company announced in February that it would stop selling physical albums at its registers, a move that surely struck fear into the acoustic-guitar-covered hearts of indie artists everywhere. But no one should have been surprised: Starbucks has always been at the forefront of tech, surprisingly so for a gigantic multinational coffee shop.
Today, Starbucks is announcing its move into the future of music, bringing its tunes up to par with its fancy Clover brewing machines and app-based payment game. To do so, Starbucks is partnering with Spotify in a big way. The two announced only the beginnings of what they call “a next-generation music ecosystem,” and promised many more details soon. On the surface, though, it appears that they want to work together to make music more interactive and discoverable.
Starting this fall, Spotify will become the default music source in all 7,000 company-owned Starbucks stores in the US (with the UK and Canada to follow). All employees will be given a Spotify Premium subscription, normally $10 a month, which they’ll use to help set the music that gets played in stores. “We’re really making the barista the D.J. here,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google researchers create amazing timelapses from public photos
http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/18/timelapse-from-public-domain-photos/
There are a zillion digital photos in the public domain and scientists have just figured out something very cool to do with them. A team from Google and the University of Washington have developed a fully automated way to create time-lapse videos of popular tourists landmarks using images from Flickr, Picasa and other sites. Here’s how it works: first, the researchers sorted some 86 million photos by geographic location, looking for widely snapped landmarks. Next, the photos were ordered by date and warped so that all had a matching viewpoint. Lastly, each photo was color-corrected to have a similar appearance, resulting in uniform time-lapse videos
The videos aren’t just breathtaking, but also illuminating.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Machine vision system on a single chip
CSEM in Neuchâtel researchers have joined for the first time in the same housing optics, processor, and a wireless transmitter. The result is a 16.5 x compact machine vision circuit 16.5 millimeters, which is three millimeters thick.
The secret VIP circuit (Vision-In-Package) has been re-thought-optics. Circuit camera is three times smaller than any previous optical sensors and cameras used in existing vehicles eight times lower. The camera is suitable for children under cubic inch of space.
CSEM’s innovation is not only extremely compact also inexpensive to manufacture. When such a machine vision circuit is in a single housing, these intelligent machine vision sensors can easily be placed to new destinations.
CSEM will tell you that the VIP circuit will be commercialized by the end of this year.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2840:konenaon-jarjestelma-yhdella-sirulla&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Chips Could Bring Deep Learning Algorithms To Your Smartphone
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/05/17/1224229/new-chips-could-bring-deep-learning-algorithms-to-your-smartphone
At the Embedded Vision Summit, a company called Synopsys, showed off a new image-processor core tailored for deep learning. It is expected to be added to chips that power smartphones, cameras, and cars. Synopsys showed a demo in which the new design recognized speed-limit signs in footage from a car. The company also presented results from using the chip to run a deep-learning network trained to recognize faces.
Silicon Chips That See Are Going to Make Your Smartphone Brilliant
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/537446/silicon-chips-that-see-are-going-to-make-your-smartphone-brilliant/
Many gadgets will be able to understand images and video thanks to chips designed to run powerful artificial-intelligence algorithms.
Many of the devices around us may soon acquire powerful new abilities to understand images and video, thanks to hardware designed for the machine-learning technique called deep learning.
Companies like Google have made breakthroughs in image and face recognition through deep learning, using giant data sets and powerful computers (see “10 Breakthrough Technologies 2013: Deep Learning”). Now two leading chip companies and the Chinese search giant Baidu say hardware is coming that will bring the technique to phones, cars, and more.
Chip manufacturers don’t typically disclose their new features in advance. But at a conference on computer vision Tuesday, Synopsys, a company that licenses software and intellectual property to the biggest names in chip making, showed off a new image-processor core tailored for deep learning. It is expected to be added to chips that power smartphones, cameras, and cars. The core would occupy about one square millimeter of space on a chip made with one of the most commonly used manufacturing technologies.
Pierre Paulin, a director of R&D at Synopsys, told MIT Technology Review that the new processor design will be made available to his company’s customers this summer. Many have expressed strong interest in getting hold of hardware to help deploy deep learning, he said.
Synopsys showed a demo in which the new design recognized speed-limit signs in footage from a car.
The new core could add a degree of visual intelligence to many kinds of devices, from phones to cheap security cameras. It wouldn’t allow devices to recognize tens of thousands of objects on their own, but Paulin said they might be able to recognize dozens.
That might lead to novel kinds of camera or photo apps. Paulin said the technology could also enhance car, traffic, and surveillance cameras. For example, a home security camera could start sending data over the Internet only when a human entered the frame. “You can do fancier things like detecting if someone has fallen on the subway,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Real Time Video Anonymizer
http://hackaday.com/2015/05/19/real-time-video-anonymizer/
It’s final project time for [Bruce Land]’s courses, and a project by [Ferian Chen] and [Sean Ogden] solved the privacy concerns of a webcam in a kitchen. It’s a real-time video anonymizer, that can also be used to livestream ransom demands if you’re so inclined.
Real time video anonymizer
by Feiran Chen and Sean Ogden
http://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece5760/FinalProjects/s2015/spo38_%20fc254/witprocam-gh-pages/witprocam-gh-pages/index.html
Our project solves the problem of privacy concern with live-streaming by automatically detecting the faces on the screen and blurring them out in real time. The automated nature and speed are what set our approach apart from the standard workflow of post-processing videos to blur out contents.
At a high level, our video pixelating algorithm is to flag portions of the screen that are skin, and then overlay low-resolution pixels to cover those areas.
The skin detection algorithm is very simple
The overall goal for audio processing is to be able to disguise the identity of the speaker by distorting his/her pitch while retaining its short-time spectral characteristics and thus preserving the clarity of the speech content of the audio samples
The entire project is implemented entirely in hardware, there is no CPU and no software.
Our video is streamed to the FPGA from an NTSC camera, where the frame buffer is stored in SDRAM in YCbCr format. Our algorithm and the VGA controller work in 10-bit RGB color format so we first convert to RGB. The RGB video data are then sent to classification and averaging modules to get a 40×30 buffer of binary values identifying whether each downsampled pixel is skin or not. We take the switches as input to the pixel classification module in order to tune the threshold value. The threshold is a 16-bit number which can be entered by encoding the binary number on with the lower 16 switches.
Conclusions
The video pixelator design works very well, and exceeded our expectations. Once tuned properly for lighting conditions, the blur effect is surprisingly accurate and robust.
While it is fast enough, our audio processing pipeline didn’t quite live up to our expectations based on our matlab model of the phase vocoder.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg Business:
Sources: Google to unveil new photo service, independent of Google+, at I/O later this month
Google Is Close to Unveiling New Web Photo Service
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-19/google-said-to-be-close-to-unveiling-new-web-photo-service
Google Inc. is set to reveal an online picture sharing and storage service that will no longer be part of the Google+ social network, people familiar with the plans said.
The new photo tool, which will let users post images to Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., will probably be unveiled at Google’s annual software developers conference in San Francisco later this month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finnish cloud-TV company to British ownership
Finnish mobile and cloud-TV technology to produce Booxmedia entire stock was sold abroad.
The buyer is British Amino Technologies.
DNA will continue Booxmedia customer.
The amino is described as a leading IP and hybrid-TV operator, with customers in 85 countries. Booxmedia will continue to operate as an independent company, and the buyer plans to increase its R & D activities in Finland.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-05-20/Suomalainen-pilvi-tv-firma-brittiomistukseen-3222014.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Virtual reality pr0n on the Rift? ‘Why not?’ says Oculus founder
Virtual muck not struck from smut bucket content glut to Luckey’s luck
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/20/vr_pornography_on_the_rift_oculus_founder_says_sure_why_not/
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has said the company will allow pornography on its VR buckets, as Oculus is committed to creating an open platform.
Speaking at Silicon Valley’s Virtual Reality Conference in San Jose, 22-year old Oculus founder Palmer Luckey was asked whether his company would be blocking adult content on its headsets.
“The Rift is an open platform. We don’t control what software can run on it,” replied Luckey. “And that’s a big deal.”
Variety reports that “Luckey’s remarks stood out, as most of his fellow panelists tried to dodge controversial questions around topics like adult entertainment, as well as motion sickness and other side effects of using virtual reality headsets.”
The open platform for the Rift is likely to allow integration between the smut bucket and such toys for cyberlovers’ enjoyment, for which it seems there has been some demand since the 1980s.
The Rift headset – which will ship to customers in 2016
Tomi Engdahl says:
Xbox Wire:
Xbox One over-the-air TV tuner now available in the US and Canada for $59.99
http://news.xbox.com/2015/05/xbox-one-tv-tuner-general-availability
Tomi Engdahl says:
PUI Speaker Enclosures – Another Geek Moment
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/digikey/pui-speaker-enclosures-another-geek-moment/
This video, presented by PUI and Digi-Key, introduces a new series of high quality, hassle free loudspeaker enclosures. The enclosure provides exceptional sound quality and durability which are designed to maximize SPL of the loudspeaker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
YouTube live streams now support HTML5 playback and 60fps video
http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/21/youtube-live-streams-now-support-html5-playback-and-60fps-video/
YouTube today announced it is enabling HTML5 playback for live streams. At the same time, live streams can now be viewed at 60 frames per second (fps).
A few puzzle pieces had to come together to make this possible. On October 29, YouTube quietly turned on 60fps support for videos uploaded on that date and later. While clips uploaded before that date remain at 30fps, new videos shot at 60fps suddenly started playing back at their proper framerate.
The 60fps option requires using YouTube’s HTML5 player. I
YouTube says 60fps live streaming is “an early preview” that only works on HTML5-compatible browsers (if you’re on the latest version of Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari, or Opera, you should be fine). We asked, and this is no coincidence. “60fps live streams are indeed only supported in the HTML5 player,” a YouTube spokesperson told VentureBeat. “With live streaming in general, we’re focusing on the HTML5 player, as we think it provides the best experience.”
YouTube now automatically transcodes live streams into 720p60 and 1080p60. If that sounds like too much for your device, don’t worry. YouTube also plans to make live streams available in 30fps on devices where high frame rate viewing is not yet available.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DLNA Solution Transcode Connector
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/socionext/dlna-solution-transcode-connector/
The technology is designed to allow users to watch TV shows and movies when and where they want without worrying about running out of storage on mobile devices. The transcode connector moves contents from DLNA-certified recorders to its storage, instead of moving them to mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, and enables playback of those contents on mobile devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Sources: Samsung’s media unit, responsible for Milk Music, Milk Video, and Milk VR, lays off up to 15% of staff
Samsung’s Content Unit Hit by Layoffs, Exec Departure (Exclusive)
http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/samsungs-content-unit-hit-by-layoffs-exec-departure-exclusive-1201502609/
Samsung’s Media Solutions Center America, which is responsible for the company’s Milk Music and Milk Video services, has been hit by layoffs and a key exec departure over the last couple of weeks, Variety has learned. These events have occurred as Samsung executives take a closer look at many of its business units, which could spell trouble for the company’s content plans going forward.
Media Solutions Center America saw dozens of staffers laid off earlier this month, according to multiple sources. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but one source estimated that as much as 15% of the staff may have been affected. I’ve been told that MSCA employed around 250 people total before the cuts went into effect.
These layoffs come just a few weeks after Kevin Swint, Samsung’s VP of content and services, left the unit, according to sources.
Milk Video has been part of a new approach toward mobile media within Samsung that began with the launch of Milk Music in March 2014. Previously, Samsung was trying to directly compete with download stores like iTunes and Google Play to generate additional revenue through media sales. But its own Media Hub apps never caught on with consumers. Samsung eventually decided to get out of the content store business altogether, shuttering digital storefronts for music, video and ebooks last summer.
Instead, the company aimed to build free and ad-supported services that wouldn’t necessarily make a lot of money on their own, but help Samsung products stand out in an increasingly crowded market — something that the company desperately needed as sales of its flagship phones fell well below expectations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside the labs where Netflix is trying to make televisions suck less
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/21/8635587/inside-the-netflix-tv-testing-labs
Where the company is trying to shape the future of its service, and the next TV you buy
Getting Netflix’s seal of approval is not a simple affair. The sets need to pass certain benchmarks, many of which are based on speed. For instance, Netflix’s app needs to start up within a certain amount of time, as do its videos once you hit the play button on your remote. Netflix is also counting how long it takes when you come back to its app after doing something else on your TV. Does it take too long to get back to your show after jumping out to watch sports or catch the local news? Better try harder next year.
While those are examples of software, Netflix is also judging TV makers on their hardware. Its program requires TVs to turn on instantly, and it rewards sets that come with remotes with a dedicated Netflix button. Netflix considers these things necessary additions to help bring TV watching in line with what modern viewers have become accustomed to on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
“A lot of this was inspired by innovation that was naturally happening in the phone and tablet space,”
“When I turn my phone on, I never really turned it on because it was never off — it just comes right back where I left off, in the app I’m on. TVs, meanwhile, when you turn them off and turn them on again, there’s some time to reboot, they lose all context, and the network has to come up.”
“They weren’t purpose built for internet TV,”
In each case, the newer set handily beats the old one on things like turning on, locking onto a Wi-Fi signal, keeping users from digging to find the Netflix app, and eventually starting up a show.
The exercise is painful to watch: the older sets lag and struggle by comparison.
Much of the improvement has centered around a real sea change in the software TV makers are using. New in this year’s TV sets are things like Mozilla with its Firefox OS, and LG’s WebOS. There’s also Samsung with Tizen (which really only this year became ready for the world), and Sony embracing Google’s Android TV platform.
Netflix’s recommendation could carry a lot of weight with hardware and software makers. It commands a paying army of ravenous viewers 62 million strong worldwide, and which is set to grow as Netflix expands into new territories like Japan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spin DIY Photography Turntable System
http://hackaday.com/2015/05/24/spin-diy-photography-turntable-system/
A motorised turntable is very handy when taking product pictures, or creating animated GIF’s or walk around views. [Tiffany Tseng] built Spin, a DIY photography turntable system for capturing how DIY Projects come together over time. It is designed to help people share their projects in an engaging way through creating GIF’s and videos which will be easy to post on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.
http://spin.media.mit.edu/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:
How Spotify plans to apply to video what it’s learned with music
Spotify’s Tricky Pivot: Getting Passive Audio Listeners to Actively Watch Video
http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2015/05/21/spotifys-tricky-pivot-getting-passive-audio-listeners-to-actively-watch-video/
Spotify on Wednesday unveiled its ambitions to expand from music streaming into video and podcasts. At a splashy press event in New York, the company announced a slew of partnerships with big-name media players like ESPN, NBC, Conde Nast, and comedy Central.
The theory, it appears, is that video content and podcasts can be grafted onto Spotify’s existing business, capitalizing on the relationship the company has built with users and fitting seamlessly into how they use the service.
“There’s obviously certain parts of content that don’t do very well just being audio,” he said, adding that instead of simply launching a video platform Spotify is “taking the heritage and who we are and kind of expanding upon that.’”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The science behind Netflix’s first major redesign in four years
How Netflix is using a mountain of data to get you to watch more stuff
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/22/8642359/the-science-behind-the-new-netflix-design
Back in March, a developer named Renan Cakirerk wrote a small piece of code that made a big impact on Netflix. Cheekily named “god mode,” it addressed one of the most annoying aspects of trying to use Netflix in your browser: scrolling through the company’s ever-growing list of movies. Once enabled, it would simply give you one, big list. Instead of sitting there, holding your mouse in anticipation, you could simply find the title you wanted and get on with watching.
“It’s the difference between what people say they want, and what they actually want,” says Todd Yellin, Netflix’s VP of product innovation. “Consumers say they want to see every title in a catalog, but who the heck has the time to go through every title?”
At first blush, the new design doesn’t seem markedly different.
Yellin says that while Netflix is paying attention to what people ask for in these surveys and feedback requests, it ultimately spends far more of its energy watching what they’re doing on the service. “Most of our personalization right now is based on what they actually watch, and not what they say they like,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turns Out There Are a Lot of Academics Studying Photo Filters
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/instagram-filters/
If you’re like most people on Instagram, you’ll scroll through all 22 filters, carefully consider the nuances of Inkwell vs. Lo-Fi vs. Hudson, and then settle on one of the filters you always use. Oh sure, there are so many filters, but you always go back to your favorites “just because.”
Turns out it isn’t “just because.” There are some specific reasons you rely upon your old faithfuls, and a growing body of science examining how and why people choose filters and how those choices influence others’ reactions to the photo. According to a study out of Yahoo Labs, researchers looked at 7.6 million Flickr photos (many of which originated on Instagram and were uploaded to Flickr) and found “filtered photos are 21 percent more likely to be viewed and 45 percent more likely to be commented on.”
This study is but a drop in a fairly shallow pool: Despite mobile photography’s massive popularity, it’s been largely ignored by academics. “There is little work—scholarly or otherwise—around filters, their use, and their effect on photo-sharing communities,” the Yahoo Labs study explains. That’s due in part to photos being harder than text to analyze
The Yahoo Study focused specifically on filters, and found people like higher contrast and corrected exposure, and find a warmer temperature more appealing than a cooler one. “Serious hobbyists” use filters only to correct a problem—say, correct the exposure. “More casual photographers” are more likely to manipulate their images with filters or adjustments that make them appear more “artificial,” according to the study.
“real camera vs smartphone camera.” That’s no longer the case. The iPhone rules all.
“The iPhone has been the most popular camera for years now,”
The proliferation of the iPhone and smartphones in general has lead to photography of all kinds becoming a creative outlet for millions. “It’s been the dream since the Kodak Brownie.”
No matter what you shoot or where you post it, you will be heartened to hear filter snobbery is dying. Pro shooters who once sneered at Instagram obsessives and their love of Rise, Mayfair, and X-Pro II aren’t quite as judgmental as they used to be (or, perhaps, as we only thought they were). These days, everyone uses filters.
“One of the surprising things to me was the pro set was talking fondly about the filters,”
“When we interviewed people for this study, we found that the photographers, regardless of skill level, enjoyed the process of selecting a filter,”
This explains why people painstakingly scroll through them all before invariably choosing a favorite. Even if someone could engineer the perfect filter, people wouldn’t want to lose out on seeing their photos transformed by all those filters.
the most popular Instagram filters. They are, in descending order of popularity, no filter, Amaro, X-Pro II, Valencia, and Rise. Seeing “no filter” is a bit of a shock
Tomi Engdahl says:
Save All Your Photos—Especially the ‘Bad’ Ones
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/dont-delete-photos/
One particularly low evening, I sat on the couch reading my departed friend’s blog.
This time I just scanned for images. I sat there frozen. My wet face locked into the glow-cone of my laptop, captivated by an unexpected solace: candid photos.
The posed pictures didn’t do it for me; they felt like someone else, effigies at best. But in the side shots and reflections, the thumbnail in a screencapped FaceTime chat, I felt like I was really seeing her. It was as if those frames contained a forever-spark of her life.
“A posed image can never be the same as when someone’s guard is down.”
So said Costa Sakellariou, a photography professor at Binghamton University
Costa would have us use manual film cameras for street photography. We’d set our aperture to a daylight-friendly f/16, prefocus at 3 feet, then go downtown to ambush pedestrians. “A candid photograph captures the intersections of life,” he’d say.
I take photos of things I want to remember. These unpublished images are every flavor of bad: blurry, poorly framed, unflattering, uninteresting. But they are an honest record of my life—because that camera in my pocket is with me and paying attention almost all the time.
So after that awful/wonderful evening, I made a pact with myself: I don’t delete photos anymore. I got the largest-capacity iPhone, upgraded my Dropbox account, and uploaded every pic I could find.
I use the Carousel app to organize them—it batches images by date and captures location.
my real, lowercase-t timeline
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix is thinking about getting rid of star ratings
http://uk.businessinsider.com/netflix-is-thinking-about-getting-rid-of-star-ratings-2015-5?r=US
Netflix is thinking about offing one of the oldest and most ubiquitous features associated with movies and TV shows: star ratings.
The company has been testing user preferences for years now, trying to understand what brings a user to actually press the “play” button. And the company tells us that one of the its biggest findings is that unbalanced effect star ratings have.
While a user will often add a highly rated program to their queue, that does not mean they will actually watch it.
This leads Netflix researchers to think that the one to four star ranking system may be a huge red herring.
With this, Netflix tells us it will be “moving away from star ratings.”
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/netflix-is-thinking-about-getting-rid-of-star-ratings-2015-5?r=US#ixzz3b9NMQy5y
Tomi Engdahl says:
The first in Finland: Netflix and Elisa Entertainment co-operation
Netflix and Elisa will initiate cooperation. Content of the popular web-TV service is now live Elisa Viihde (entertainment) service.
Elisa Viihde is the first Finnish entertainment service that allows Netflix to watch in your Gmail. Netflix has signed similar cooperation agreements with various partners, also including Germany and France.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-05-25/Ensimm%C3%A4isen%C3%A4-Suomessa-Netflix-ja-Elisa-Viihde-yhteisty%C3%B6h%C3%B6n-3321007.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Exclusive Early Look At The New Google Photos App
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/05/24/an-exclusive-early-look-at-the-new-google-photos-app/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Threat Intelligence Sharing Valued, But Many Not Doing it: Survey
http://www.securityweek.com/threat-intelligence-sharing-valued-many-not-doing-it-survey
Tomi Engdahl says:
Covert Remote Protest Transmitters
http://hackaday.com/2015/05/25/covert-remote-protest-transmitters/
As a piece of protest art, “Covert Remote Protest Transmitters” ticks all the boxes. An outdoor covert projector that displayed anti-globalization messages at a G20 summit is protest. To disguise it inside a surveillance camera body housing — sticking it to the man from inside one of his own tools — is art. And a nice hack.
http://michaelcandy.com/SELECTED-WORKS/CRPT
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 10′s new music app looks like Microsoft’s version of Spotify
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/25/8656121/windows-10-music-app-looks-like-spotify
Microsoft has been previewing some updates to its music and video apps for Windows 10 recently, but it looks like bigger changes are on the way. The software giant has revealed a new look and feel for what appears to be an upcoming release of the music app for Windows 10. A screenshot posted on Microsoft’s support site shows a dark themed app that looks very similar to Spotify.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Context is the New Genre”
Why it’s all about the Why
https://medium.com/soundwave-stories/context-is-the-new-genre-b5df54ca0b5
“Music is moving away from genres — People don’t search for Hip Hop or Country anymore, but rather they search around activities or a particular experience.” — Daniel Ek
The existing solutions to the sequencing problem either rely on (1) throwing too many options at listeners providing a vast database of music trying to cover all genres and context situations (2) matching song algorithms to try and blend similar songs together or (3) celebrity type curated playlists by ‘music experts’ who try to influence a listener’s choice. None of these methods put the user first. In a world of unlimited content with on demand access, these generic solutions fall short.
Since the inception of digital music, it’s been easy enough to work out the Who, What, How, Where and When.
The Why has only recently become available thanks to a number of technological advancements, primarily in the field of mobile sensors.
41 of the top 100 playlists on Spotify are context based! Only 17 of the top 100 are genre based.
Tomi Engdahl says:
780 Series Video Generators/Analyzers for HDMI
NEW! Test 4K Ultra HD HDMI 2.0 sources and sinks
up to 300MHz at 50/60Hz
http://www.quantumdata.com/products/780.asp
780C Multi-Interface Interoperability Tester
for Video and Audio
NEW! Test HDMI, HDBaseT and 3G-SDI sources and displays all in the same test instrument.
http://www.quantumdata.com/products/780C.asp
Tomi Engdahl says:
Charter Comms to wed Time Warner Cable in monster merger
Proposes $78.7 BEELLION cash’n’shares deal
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/26/charter_communications_time_warner_to_merge/
Charter Communications has confirmed plans to merge with Time Warner Cable in a cash and shares deal worth $78.7bn.
Charter Communications’ chief Tom Rutledge said in a canned statement:
Representatives of each of these companies have invented some of the most revolutionary communications products ever created; innovations like video on demand, VoIP phone service, remote storage DVR, cable TV through an app, downloadable security, and the first backward-compatible, cloud-based user interface.
That spirit of innovation will live on, and it will create real benefits and great long-term value for the customers, shareholders and employees of all three companies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Lily a Drone? Or Is It a Camera?
http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/robotics/aerial-robots/is-lily-a-drone-or-is-it-a-camera
Antoine Balaresque and Henry Bradlow are worried. They have developed an autonomous flying video camera for use in filming action sports on land and water, capturing scenery while hiking and sightseeing, and covering family events (so everyone gets in the picture). They think they’ve made it simple enough that a parent could just toss it in the air and forget about it while coaxing a child to take her first steps. They have enough seed money ($1 million in investment) to get the prototype they’ve been developing for the past year into production. The technology is coming along nicely; they’ve been able to hire the experts in computer vision, controls, and industrial design that they need, and they’re on track to ship in February 2016.
So what’s the problem? The problem is that their product looks an awful lot like a drone—and they don’t want to be a drone company, they want to be a camera company.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CHDK – Unleash power of your Canon PowerShot camera
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK
What is CHDK?
Canon Hack Development Kit
Temporary – No permanent changes are made to the camera.
Experimental – No warranty. Read about the risks in the FAQ
Free – free to use and modify, released under the GPL.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Slashdot: Will Technology Disrupt the Song?
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/15/05/27/0256205/ask-slashdot-will-technology-disrupt-the-song
The music industry has gone through dramatic changes over the past thirty years. Virtually everything is different except the structure of the songs we listen to. Distribution methods have long influenced songwriting habits, from records to CDs to radio airplay. So will streaming services, through their business models, incentivize a change to song form itself? Many pop music sensations are already manufactured carefully by the studios,
Everything in the Music Industry Has Changed Except the Song Itself
https://medium.com/cuepoint/everything-in-the-music-industry-has-changed-except-the-song-itself-452b9a01c869
Is it time for a disruptor to change what songs look and sound like?
But, in watching the industry dissemble and recombine, I’m reminded of how much the delivering technology has also been at play.
Song length was affected by the amount a wax roll could hold
Song intros were a certain length so DJs could give call-out letters, traffic and weather
Song length has been a determining factor in radio airplay (too long = no play)
The LP limited the amount of material that could be released; the CD expanded it, in some cases beyond what an artist had to say. (One of my students pointed to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Stadium Arcadium as a release that suffered from having too much available space to fill.)
From a fidelity standpoint, the MP3 was a huge step down, but it was a function of the pipes that could get the music to the listener. Larger pipes mean things like Tidal are possible, but only after the technology has been figured out. Whether or not the service takes root, song quality is affected (depending on what you’re listening on, of course).
There are many more examples of technology influencing song form, of course. But it’s crazy to witness the hangover from previous technologies that now are being declared dead. For instance, if the CD is dead/dying rapidly, why are people still making 10-song buckets of three-minute songs? Well some aren’t, that’s true, but the rethinking has not yet taken hold in a full-fledged way. Most of my students are making five-song EPs, which is also a holdover.
Truth is, songs have a financial incentive to change what they look and sound like.
For instance, Spotify, the clear leader in the streaming space, pays after 30 seconds, so an honest question is:
A) Why write beyond that? And…
B) Are you, in fact, screwing yourself six times over for writing a three-minute song (:30 x 6 = 3:00 song)?
A “song disruptor” would just cut everything back to :32 or so, and see huge positive results in his/her own streaming royalty statements. Labels would love it for the same reason (more money).
Taking this into account, are streaming services, through their business model, incentivizing a change in song form?
Clever people are playing with these ideas already, of course, and we’ll all see if it remains a stunt or becomes the new normal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DTS announces DTS:X – sparks object-based audio war with Dolby
New multi-channel sound technology loves the speakers you already have
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/16/breking_fad_dts_x_object_based_audio/
Breaking Fad In a move that could have far-reaching implications for home audio, multi-channel goliath DTS has announced an object-based sound system to rival Dolby Atmos (and the largely ignored Auro-3D). Dubbed DTS:X, the technology is somewhat different in that there’s no prescribed number of audio channels or speaker configuration to accommodate, and it offers content makers some cool new functionality.
DTS:X doesn’t just turn individual elements (a gunshot or explosion, for example), into an individual element, it can also treat the entire dialogue track as a single object, if the content creator wants to. Consequently, with DTS:X you could boost the dialogue level of a movie to suit specific listening conditions. This is apparently a much asked-for feature by users of surround systems.
The move away from a predefined speaker deployment will be a relief for many.
The DTS:X renderer will simply remap a soundtrack to whatever layout is in use, within a hemispherical layout. If you’ve just installed a Dolby Atmos home cinema system, then happy days. Your DTS:X hardware will adapt to it. If your layout is a little less symmetrical, or indeed is a standard five or seven channel horizontal home cinema configuration, then it’ll accommodate that as well.
Metadata in the DTS:X bitstream will point sonic objects to whatever loudspeaker configuration the render’s been told you have.
DTS:X is built atop MDA (Multi Dimensional Audio), an open platform for object-based audio that DTS has made available to content makers license fee-free. Not uncoincidentally, MDA plays nice with DTS:X. It’s an ecosystem. Creatives like that sort of thing.
Significantly, there will be both theatrical and in-home iterations of DTS:X.
DTS will partner with GDC Technology, maker of digital cinema servers, pro-audio system provider QSC, and USL, manufacturer of motion picture audio equipment and sound processors, to engineer its big-screen return.
DTS:X installation and certification for some 350 screens throughout Asia begins in May. Carmike Cinemas, one of the largest exhibitors in the US, has already announced a DTS:X upgrade for theatres this summer. At present there’s no word of any commercial DTS:X installations for Europe or the UK.
Home hardware is going to be more widely accessible. AV receiver makers can hardly believe their luck.
Denon and Marantz will offer firmware upgrades for their AVR-X7200W and AV8802 models this summer
As with Atmos, DTS:X is backwards compatible with previous codecs. The DTS:X soundtrack comprises the DTS Core element, plus DTS-HD MA and DTS:X residuals, the latter containing all object metadata. Stereo, 5.1 or 7.1 content can be remapped using a proprietary Neural:X spatial reformatting engine. This is basically an update of established Neo:X and Neural Surround modes now commonplace on home cinema kit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Edge To Support Dolby Audio
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/05/27/1748210/microsoft-edge-to-support-dolby-audio
Microsoft has revealed that its new Edge web browser will come with support for Dolby Audio in order to offer high-class audio when visiting websites. “It allows websites to match the compelling visuals of H.264 video with equally compelling multi-channel audio.”
Microsoft Edge Browser to Support Dolby Audio
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Edge-Browser-to-Support-Dolby-Audio-482409.shtml
Microsoft Edge is Redmond’s new browser for Windows 10 that will be offered alongside Internet Explorer at first but that could eventually replace it completely, so it’s no surprise that the company is working so hard to make it better.
“It allows websites to match the compelling visuals of H.264 video with equally compelling multi-channel audio. It works well with AVC/H.264 video and also with our previously announced HLS and MPEG DASH Type 1 streaming features, which both support integrated playback of an HLS or DASH manifest,” Microsoft explains in a blog post today.
Windows 10 also comes with Dolby Digital Plus codec support, so the overall sound experience in the new operating system should be greatly improved with both speakers and headphones. The sound will be louder and clearer, the company promises, and this should be valid not only for PCs but also for portable devices such as mobile phones.
Announcing Dolby Audio for high performance audio in Microsoft Edge
http://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/05/26/announcing-dolby-audio-for-high-performance-audio-in-microsoft-edge/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix Bandwidth Usage Climbs to Nearly 37% of Internet Traffic at Peak Hours — Subscription-video leader accounts for more usage than YouTube, Amazon and Hulu combined, according to Sandvine — Netflix, which already eats up the fattest chunk of downstream bandwidth, is taking an even bigger bite …
Netflix Bandwidth Usage Climbs to Nearly 37% of Internet Traffic at Peak Hours
http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/netflix-bandwidth-usage-internet-traffic-1201507187/
Subscription-video leader accounts for more usage than YouTube, Amazon and Hulu combined in North America during primetime, according to Sandvine
Indeed, Netflix boosted its share of downstream bandwidth usage in primetime hours over the last six months, when it was at 34.5%, according to Sandvine, a Canadian bandwidth-management systems vendor. Netflix video continues to consume more bandwidth than YouTube, Amazon and Hulu combined at peak periods, according to the report.
Meanwhile, BitTorrent usage continues to decline as a percentage of total fixed-access bandwidth, and now accounts for only 6.3% of total traffic in North America — down from 31% in 2008. However, overall bandwidth usage has grown over that time, so that doesn’t necessarily mean torrent activity in absolute terms has dropped.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
GoPro working on six camera, spherical array for VR content to be available second half of 2015, and a quadcopter drone available second half of 2016
GoPro Working On A VR Camera Array And Quadcopter Drone
http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/27/gopro-working-on-6-camera-spherical-array-for-vr-content-available-this-year/
Today, GoPro announced that it was working on an array that combines six GoPro Hero cameras for spherical shots all at once. CEO Nick Woodman says that when Facebook bought Oculus, the ‘gauntlet was dropped’ and GoPro started work on a spherical setup that could generate content for virtual reality and augmented reality systems.
Woodman also said that the company has software in ‘alpha’ right now inside the company that allows users to auto-sync their GoPro cameras to the cloud so they can access their footage. This is still in the ‘early stages,’ Woodman said, but this would theoretically allow people to view and edit without ever “having to touch an SD card or touch a USB cord.
The company is also working on a quadcopter drone for aerial photography using GoPro cameras.
VR Ambitions
The array will be available in the second half of 2015. “This is really going to be most appealing for production companies and prosumers,” said Woodman. He added that ‘normal’ people would definitely end up buying it but the first version would be for pros. GoPro envisions this mount capturing video for VR and AR systems such as Oculus, HoloLens, Cardboard and YouTube 360 videos.
Woodman quoted the price of the current 6-camera unit as ‘DSLR-class’, so in the $1,500-$2,000 range perhaps.
GoPro quickly embraced virtual reality content likely in a bid to secure its spot in the market as it did with action videos. Last month the company announced the acquisition of Kolor, which builds software for virtual reality and the processing of spherical video.
GoPro has become inextricably intertwined with the rise of extreme sports, but its rugged cameras are used for a variety of things outside of skydiving and motocross.
These days, GoPro, which sparked the entire ‘action camera’ economy, is beset on all sides by less expensive imitations like Xiaomi’s ‘Yi Camera’ — and a recent Apple action camera patent filing caused its stock to drop $13 in a single day (it’s currently hovering around $50).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anil Sabharwal / The Official Google Blog:
Google Photos launching today on Android, iOS, and web with unlimited storage to help you organize and share photos and videos for free —
Picture this: A fresh approach to Photos
http://googleblog.blogspot.fi/2015/05/picture-this-fresh-approach-to-photos.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
GoPro made a crazy 16-camera rig for Google Jump
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/28/8673367/google-io-2015-gopro-3d-vr-cameras-360-degree/in/8430828
GoPro may have announced a quadcopter and a purpose-built rig for filming VR yesterday, but the action camera giant apparently wasn’t done. Now, GoPro announced that it has built a completely separate rig with Google. It’s a 360-degree, 16-camera array, and it’s the first one specially made for filming 3D VR content for Google’s new “Jump” VR ecosystem.
GoPro’s new camera array slots right into that ecosystem, and will let people easily create VR content for everything from YouTube to Google Cardboard. Basically, GoPro and Google want VR filmmakers all the hassle of hacking together DIY rigs made of duct tape and 3D-printed parts.