EBay's iPad app is now allowing users to browse products from TV shows and movies as the company pushes into the TV commerce space, in which companies have so far failed to hit a homerun, Bloomberg News reported via The Hollywood Reporter.
The new commerce service works with TV guide data that enables the app to show relevant merchandise in eBay’s store. In the first version, users must tell the app which channel they are watching, but the goal is to eventually automatically sync the app with the TV, according to Bloomberg.
That would allow the app to recognize the brand of clothing and props in each scene, such as a jacket worn by a character on AMC’s Mad Men, and let users buy the item on eBay. To make this happen, easy is looking to strike partnerships with cable providers, studios and networks, Yankovich told Bloomberg.
-- Glamour’s iPad Series to Let Viewers Buy Clothes From Gap - Glamour announced in March 2011 that it was launching an original reality series produced exclusively for the iPad called "Glamour Girls" allowing viewers to pause the program and buy clothing worn by the characters, directly from Gap.com.
-- Shop for "Gossip Girls" - The New York Daily News via YPulse in 2007, reported on a new TV show which emphasized the growing trend of TV networks partnering with designers and retailers, for online commerce. Coined "Web Shopping 3.0", TV viewers are able to purchase what the characters wore in a TV series, or even buy the furniture from the sets they are filmed in from merchant websites.
-- Shopisodes enable you to Dress Like Your Favorite TV Character - The E-Commerce Times reported in 2007 on an ever-growing collection of interactive videos called Shopisodes, that allow consumers to shop for items directly from a clip of their favorite show. As the clip is playing, visitors can select and purchase the products that appear in the video.
NBC's iPad app just got a lot more useful with full episodes of popular shows like Community and Parks and Recreation. Both the app and the TV episodes are now free. [via TIME Techland]
The update makes NBC the second broadcast TV network to embrace free, streaming TV shows on the iPad. ABC's iPad app, which also includes free shows, has been available since the iPad launched in April 2010. CBS's TV.com app also has full episodes, but is only formatted for the iPhone.
Social TV app Miso just got a lot smarter. The application, which lets users check in and share what they’re watching on various social networks, will now be able to detect what they’re watching — provided that they are subscribers of DirecTV. GigaOM reports.
The latest version of the Miso app will now automatically recognize the programming that viewers are watching in DirecTV households. Once open, the Miso app will seek out set-top boxes connected to the user’s WiFi network and sync with them, eliminating the need for users to search for the show they’re watching.
Many people surf the Web while they watch television. Soon the websites they visit could adapt in real time themselves to the shows being watched—automatically presenting information relevant to the show, or even tuning their ads in response to what you're watching.MIT Technology Review reports.
A new type of Internet-connected television, due out before the end of the year, has built-in software and hardware that send data about what is on-screen to an Internet server that can identify the content.
Web pages being viewed using the same Internet connection as the TV set can then tap into that information. The system can identify any content onscreen, whatever the source, whether live TV, DVDs or movie files playing from a computer.
Flingo, the San Francisco-based startup that developed the technology, known as Sync Apps, says the new set is already being mass-produced by one of the top five television brands in the U.S. and will retail for less than $500.
Discerning TV viewers take note: Apple just flipped a switch and turned on HD availability for many HBO television shows in the iTunes Store. Customers in the U.S. and Canada can now purchase HD episodes and seasons of many HBO series, including Eastbound & Down, Rome, Entourage (later seasons) and Big Love.
The conference’s original founder, Richard Saul Wurman, is working on a new creation that radically overhauls the formula used by TED--much as TED itself reinvented the standard business conference model when Wurman launched it in 1984. Fast Company reports.
Wurman’s plan is to stage a series of improvisational one-to-one conversations, held in front of a small invitation-only audience and then disseminated via a high-quality app.
Out of 10 companies that pitched the crowd at the Social TV Summit — with just two-minute demos — SnappyTV won the award for the best social TV idea. Lost Remote explains why.
While people love to share their reactions while watching live TV, “what’s missing from that conversation is the video,” explains CEO Mike Folgner.
Typically, video clips show up on the web well after the broadcast, which offers “very little benefit for the content ecosystem,” he says. So SnappyTV allows viewers to “snap” and share short video highlights from TV nearly instantaneously, capitalizing on the immediate social conversation. On Twitter, you share a link. On Facebook, you’ll share an embedded video player of the clip.
According to Cellular News, Australian mobile network, Optus has launched a service that enables its customers to schedule, record and playback free-to-air television from any compatible 3G mobile device or personal computer.
With Optus TV Now, Optus customers can record TV programmes using their mobile phone and then play it back on their mobile or PC at a time that's more convenient to them. The service is available across all 15 free-to-air channels.
According to ReadWriteWeb, a new mobile app platform is set to revolutionize the TV watching experience.
WiO allows customers to immediately get information about the products and services they see advertised on screen, both in TV commercials and within the shows themselves.
Through a mobile app running on customers' phones, marketers can offer a variety of follow-up actions to the TV viewer, including coupons, reminders, contact info and more.
TUAW reports that Skype is finally releasing an official version for the iPad. The company hasn't announced a date for release yet, but the app is expected to be approved soon.
Skype posted this video of their official iPad client to their channel, then took it down. A Razorianfly viewer managed to grab a screen recording, you can view it above - no sound though.
Shazam’s plans on expanding beyond its original music focus to TV show and advertisement tagging. PSFK reports.
Shazam’s approach to these two separate entertainment markets is slightly different. For music, the company built its own database of songs – currently 11 million strong – to enable users of its app to identify tracks playing in the real world, and then buy them or access related content.
For TV, the company is not currently trying to build a comparable database of all shows, choosing instead to work with US television firms on a more cherry-picking basis. The app works in the same way: when a supported show is being watched, the viewer can tag it using Shazam’s app – not to find out what it is, but to access more content related to it.
Related: - IntoNow app recognizes TV shows - What sets IntoNow apart is its ability to automatically recognize shows. Users let the app listen to a show for a few seconds, and, in theory, it will determine the name of the program and the episode. Much like Shazam does for music.
This weekend, subscribers to HBO will be able to watch the seventh episode of Game of Thrones a whole week early.
The seventh episode of the series, entitled “You Win or You Die,” will go live on the network’s HBO Go online platform. In addition to the HBO Go website, subscribers can also tune in through the service’s recently released mobile apps.
The HBO Go apps were teased in a YouTube ad released last week, promising a May 2 launch date. But they appeared a few days early.
HBO is launching its HBO Go mobile app this week for both iPhone and Android offering consumers with an HBO subscription the option of watching 1,400 HBO titles on the go.
Hoping to capitalize on television’s central role in TV chit chat, Yahoo said on Monday that it bought IntoNow, a mobile phone app that lets users tell friends what they are watching and discuss it. Bits reports.
What sets IntoNow apart is its ability to automatically recognize shows. Users let the app listen to a show for a few seconds, and, in theory, it will determine the name of the program and the episode. Much like Shazam does for music.
IntoNow has a vast database of shows over the last five years – the equivalent of 266 years of programming. The app can also detect new programs on 130 channels.
After the app recognizes “Desperate Housewives,” for instance, users can then share that information without having to type it in on their mobile phones. The same goes for news programs like CNN.
Sports entertainment company ESPN has released WatchESPN, a free mobile application for watching live ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com content via iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.
The giant caveat here is that WatchESPN is only accessible to Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Verizon FiOS TV subscribers. Subscribers to Comcast, Cox, Cablevision and other providers are unable to experience to experience live programming. Cable cutters, of course, are also left out of the live sports viewing party.
Since launching its iPad app a couple of weeks ago, Time Warner Cable has been embroiled in a disagreement with cable networks over whether or not it has the rights required to stream cable live channels to the tablet device. Rather than haggle back and forth with those same programmers and negotiate over rights, the cable operator is taking its case to court.
Mobile Interactive Group (MIG), a vendor which makes mobile apps that support engagement with TV shows, has enabled Facebook Credits in its technology platform. MocoNews.net reports.
That means shows like Sky1’s Got To Dance, a MIG customer, could start taking paid votes via Facebook soon.
Right now, users of Got To Dance‘s iPhone app can buy bundles of 12 votes in £0.59, ($0.95) in-app iTunes Store payments. But Facebook is huge with the core audience of such talent shows.
“We expect to make some significant announcements for prime time shows in the coming months,” said MIG’s commercial director Rob Weisz in the announcement.
Time Warner Cable Inc. added 17 new cable TV channels to its controversial live TV iPad app on Friday, and said it plans to add seven more, including three channels owned by its former parent company, Time Warner Inc. The WSJ reports.
The news came one day after Time Warner Cable removed a dozen channels in a concession to other major programmers who had disputed the cable company's right to distribute their content on Apple's iPad.
The app, which marked the first effort by a cable company to make live programming available on the iPad to its subscribers, has sparked a fight in the TV industry over content rights as media companies are struggling to adjust their business models to the rise of online video, mobile media and other digital technologies.
Just two weeks on the App Store and Time Warner Cable is once again scaling back the number of channels available on its live TV application for the iPad. News.com reports.
Bowing to legal pressure from News Corp, Viacom, and Discovery, Time Warner Cable has removed 11 channels from the application, cutting away at the 32 it had offered before.
Justin.tv, one of the best-known startups offering live-streaming video services, launched a mobile video application called Socialcam two weeks ago that moved the company in a new direction. The app available for iPhone and Android seems to be attracting users — it has been downloaded more than 150,000 times.
With a few clicks, you’re able to record, tag, and share videos as well as browse, like, and comment on your friends' videos.
Like its Android sibling, it can handle both regular TV duties as well as the search and navigation features specific to a Google TV box or set. It builds in Google's voice search, even for traditional TV, and has both a directional pad and a trackpad-like mode to give it better control.
Apple iPad owners who subscribe to Time Warner cable now have an app that will let them watch live TV directly on their tablets, reports CNet .
Launched today, the free TWCable TV app streams the live cable TV feed to the iPad via a Wi-Fi connection, meaning people can catch their favorite shows from any room in the house.
Droid TV for Android provides free access to hundreds of episodes from more than 50 popular network shows includingg 30 Rock, Community, and The Tonight Show. PCWorld reports.
Droid TV doesn't stream video; rather, you select the episodes you want to watch, and the app then downloads them and saves them on your SD card. The advantage of this approach is that once you have downloaded the episode, you can play it even when you don't have a network connection.
Justin.tv, the live video service, today launched an application called Socialcam to help users share video taken on their iPhone and Android devices. Liz Gannes reports for D | All Things Digial.
The service uses Justin.tv?s mobile live-streaming infrastructure, so videos are uploaded as much as possible while users are still taking them. If users don?t have Internet access, the video will upload when it can and then send a push notification. But there?s nothing live about Socialcam.
The intent, instead, is to encourage mobile video-sharing the way apps like Instagram encourage photo-sharing.
Early iPhone app Shazam was unmistakably cool. Hold a phone up while a song was playing in the background and Shazam could name that tune.
Now, according to USA Today, there's a clever and free iPhone app called IntoNow that works similar magic with television.
Tap a green button, and four to 12 seconds later IntoNow can figure out from the audio what you're watching. IntoNow can tell whether the show is live. It serves up a brief descriptor of the episode.
Like the music-tagging apps, the new IntoNow app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch uses an algorithm to pattern-match a TV show's audio output--its sound--to the right show.
Unlike SoundHound and Shazam, chances are that viewers aren't looking for help identifying the name of the show or title of the episode.
Instead, IntoNow hopes that couch potatoes will use the information to get social, sharing their TV picks on Facebook and Twitter and talking about the shows.
Google Inc. on Monday unveiled several new partnerships with media and Web companies, including NBC Universal Inc. and Amazon Inc., to provide content for Google TV, a service designed to expand the Internet giant's franchise into the living room. The Wall Street Journal reports.
Google also said Amazon Video on Demand will give Google TV viewers instant access to more than 75,000 movies and TV shows for a fee. The video-streaming service Netflix Inc. will also be available.
In 2007, Justin Kan, a San Francisco developer, decided he would start documenting every moment of his life and stream it to a Web site for anyone to watch. Bits reports.
Those who were interested could see Mr. Kan wandering around, going to board meetings, eating lunch and engaging in other mundane, and sometimes unpleasant, activities. After a few months of the experiment, he turned the project into Justin.tv, a Web site that makes it possible to stream yourself to viewers over the Web.
Now Justin.tv is trying to encourage its users to begin streaming more content from their mobile phones. And to enable this, the company announced on Thursday the release of a free downloadable application for the iPhone.
Google TV is to support the company’s Android Market application store early next year, the company announced this week, reports Wireless Duniya.
Google TV will be switched on in the US in the next few weeks, followed by a worldwide rollout from 2011, and the company wants to integrate its application store into the offering.
Soon we will be bringing tens of thousands of the same applications you can get on your mobile phone to your TV,” revealed Google TV product marketing manager Brittany Bohnet. “We are going to be launching support for Android Market in early 2011. TV, the full Web, tens of thousands of applications. Google TV gives you access to more entertainment than any other living room device you have ever experienced.”
Four and a half months after an Apple license change led Adobe Systems to scrap a project to bring Flash-derived applications to the iPhone, Apple has reversed the ban, according to CNet.com.
Apple undid license restrictions for software developed for iOS devices on Thursday, saying it was taking developer feedback to heart. "We are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code," Apple said in a statement.
In the space of a few days, several prominent media companies introduced iPhone and/or iPad apps to extend their TV content to mobile devices. AT&T U-Verse, an entirely IPTV-based TV service, released an app that enables its U-verse TV subscribers to download and view content on the iPhone. Satellite TV provider Dish Network now makes it possible for subscribers to view live TV on iPhone, BlackBerry and Android smart phones via free apps.
Miso, available as an iPhone app, has just launched an app for Android. It lets users check-in when they watch their favorite programs, be they live or on-demand. Androinica reports.
Users make comments/status updates when watching a new program and have the option to announce to their friends, allowing them to encourage others to watch the same program.
Miso also can provide tips on what to watch by seeing what your friends have just checked into and what’s trending among other Miso users. Maybe you haven’t heard of a show called Leverage, but maybe you’ll check it out if it’s the 4th-most-popular show at a given moment. Throw in comments and chats about shows, Miso becomes a discovery tool.
An interesting read from Mashable on the check in concept, popularized by Foursquare, connected to media and entertainment, as opposed to location.
Philo, Miso and GetGlue all have mobile and web applications explicitly designed to support and enhance that very natural entertainment-driven social behavior. They’re all using the checkin model so that app users can check-in to content, though each has its own slightly unique approach.
Philo is hyper-focused on live television. Viewers use the iPhone app or web to check-in to the live content they’re watching. Philo pulls TV listings directly from cable providers, so viewers can even see the content that’s trending locally and pinpoint where to watch it. App users earn show-specific awards based on their behaviors and work their way up a Hollywood-style ladder to earn “Director” and “Executive Producer” “credits” for shows.
Miso is also about creating a social television watching experience. The alpha service currently has iPhone, iPad and web apps that support TV show or movie checkins. It bills itself as “Foursquare for TV” and has its own game mechanics and badges that are designed to hook viewers with the promise of unlocking additional content.
GetGlue’s iPhone app extends beyond just television content and supports checkins for books, wines, topics, celebrities and video games. Rewards come in the form of stickers earned from app activity.
Alongside Apple's iPhone 4 introduction, the company also previewed an iMovie app designed specifically for the handset. The new device allows users to record video in 720p resolution at 30 frames per second. Recordings can then be edited in iMovie and exported via e-mail, SMS or YouTube. Macnn reports.
The mobile app will offer many of the same basic features as its desktop counterpart, enabling video to be trimmed or paired with a soundtrack imported from iTunes. Users can add geolocation information, themes, titles or transitions. Videos can also be improved with images inserted using the Ken Burns pan effect.
DVD sales tumbled this year as the weak economy and competition from the Internet soured consumers on buying new discs. What's a movie studio to do? Look to the iPhone to goose sales. USA Today reports.
NBC Universal and 20th Century Fox have launched interactive apps that tap into DVD or Blu-ray discs to augment viewing. The apps provide information about the film and stars and connect you with friends to chat about the movie while you watch.
Fox's FoxPop uses the microphone on your iPhone, or your laptop, to "hear" the audio signal from the movie you're watching, then responds with pop-ups about the movie. It also intersects with Facebook and Twitter for movie chats.
Universal's Pocket Blu is just for the iPhone. It turns the device into a remote control for the movie if you watch on a Blu-ray player (it doesn't work with traditional DVDs or computers) and plays trailers for upcoming movies.
France based video sharing site Dailymotion has released a couple of iPhone apps (one free, one for a fee) - that work with 12 million of its videos.
With the Dailymotion app you can:
- easily search and find videos
- discover new featured videos every day (short films, music videos, trailers, animation, etc.)
- check out the latest viral hits
- surf 15 themed channels (News & Politics, Fun, Music, Film & TV, Sports…)
- access your Dailymotion account
Also, with your iPhone 3Gs, you can record and upload videos directly to your Dailymotion account.
Harry Potter Spells is a magic game that lets players cast spells at their opponents by using their phones as wands. With more than 100,000 apps on the iPhone, it’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the crowd. One way to do so is to launch an app with a familiar brand name. But only the highest-quality branded apps are standing out these days.
The game has 14 spells for wizards-in training. Players can conjure their magic alone or duel each other by casting spells from one device. See the trailer here.
On the heels of a similar announcement by Fox, Universal has announced two new iPhone and social network applications that will be featured on upcoming Blu-ray releases. Blue-Ray.com reports.
Pocket Blu, which is available as a free download on iTunes, gives viewers access to a remote control, keyboard, Video Timeline, and exclusive Mobile-To-Go content right on their iPhone.
Using the viewer's iPhone and WiFi network, the app connects to any networked Blu-ray Disc player to deliver exclusive bonus content. Similar to other Blu-ray iPhone apps, they can also be used on an iPod Touch.
Social Blu, the second application announced today, allows users to integrate Twitter and Facebook into their Blu-ray experience. Viewer's will be able to update their profile status, rate movies, and send messages to friends all through their Blu-ray Disc players.
The first title to use Pocket Blu will be the upcoming Blu-ray release of 'Bruno', which is currently scheduled to hit store shelves on November 17th.
Sky has launched its mobile television app for UK viewers, allowing them to stream live sport and news channels to their iPhone. PC Pro reports.
The Sky Mobile TV app offers access to Sky Sports channels, ESPN and Sky News over a Wi-Fi connection. The application is free to download, though it will require a £6 ($9) per month subscription.
Predictably, no link to the app in iTunes from Switzerland.
iPhone users can now watch live programs on the move through an online TV streaming service, reports The Daily Mail.
For the last year TVCatchup.com has allowed UK-based computer users to watch over 30 Freeview channels over the internet.
Now to mark its first anniversary the founders have created a Beta application for iPhone users.
iPhone and iPod Touch users simply log on to the TVCatchup website with their device to watch their channel of choice.
There are currently 11 channels available for testing purposes, including the five main channels, BBC Three and the Channel 4 spin-offs such as E4 and Film4.
The streams are optimised to work on both 3G and WiFi, although WiFi is more stable.
The new commerce service works with TV guide data that enables the app to show relevant merchandise in eBay’s store. In the first version, users must tell the app which channel they are watching, but the goal is to eventually automatically sync the app with the TV, according to 
Social TV app 
Many people surf the Web while they watch television. Soon the websites they visit could adapt in real time themselves to the shows being watched—automatically presenting information relevant to the show, or even tuning their ads in response to what you're watching.
Out of 10 companies that pitched the crowd at the Social TV Summit — with just two-minute demos — 
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Apple iPad owners who subscribe to Time Warner cable now have an app that will let them watch live TV directly on their tablets, reports 
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