Let's Talk Tech
iPhone Launch days are a lot of fun! I spent that morning at the AT&T store in Pasadena California to give the reporters at ABC 7 a tour of all the new features on the iPhone 6S! Nothing quite like being camera ready at 5am, to go live on the air with a phone I’ve only used for about twenty minutes!
Major thanks to my pals at Casey & Sayre PR for helping me track down this video clip!
The “Tech as Fashion” wars are heating up. Now that Apple has finally released all their details on the Apple Watch, and started advertising it on TV, now other companies are cutting TV ads to compete. Why Google would have waited for Apple to start broadcasting ads I’ll never understand, when Android Wear had a solid head start in the market, but I digress…
Anywho, now that the two companies are duking it out on TV, who do you think has the better ad? Apple went with their classic “Simple and show some functionality” approach, while Google played into the more recent feel good slate of ads, like their Animal Friends, with some colorful dance moves. One team’s ad is all about focus, the other all about diversity.
Which company did the better job introducing the world to their smartwatch? Drop us a comment below!
Google:
Apple:
It’s really fun to see circular fandom between actors and showrunners.
Jesse L Martin is self producing a short film, and fundraising on Kickstarter. Joss Whedon apparently pledged “an outstanding amount” to the project. To thank him, Martin grabbed Flash co-stars Rick Cosnett and Carlos Valdes for a little a capella rendition of the Firefly theme. Take a listen.
We also know that Grant Gustin who plays Barry Allen on the show can carry a tune, so maybe a musical episode might be in our future?
It’s officially run its course. The NBC owned channel, originally aimed at tech and gaming fans, will pull the plug the end of this month.
I was a huge fan of TechTV, and followed the transition to G4 with shows like The Screen Savers which became Attack of the Show, and X-Play.
The channel ran into issues while trying to re-brand itself away from the “Geek” badging. Running syndicated content like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Lost, and courting buy outs from Esquire and professional wrestling organizations. In many ways the channel had already died due to the lack of original content.
For us fans of tech and gaming commentary, TV was just never as hospitable as the internet. Now Youtube and Twitch have replaced traditional broadcasting. Still there’s that little itch of nostalgia over what might have been, especially now with geek and tech gear going mainstream. A sentiment near perfectly summed up in the series finale gag in the last episode of AotS (about 2:54 into the embedded clip below).
So long G4. It’s been real.
“LA? That’s actually worse than hotdog mouth…”
One of the most requested features asked of Chromecast was the ability to broadcast our phone or tablet’s screen on our TV. Looks like that’ll be finally coming our way!
Announced on the Chrome Blog today, there will be a new menu setting in the Chromecast app allowing you to broadcast what’s on your screen. Through other apps we could send videos, photos, and music, but now we’ll be able to cast a game or even just a home screen if we want to show off on a larger TV screen.
The 1.7 update of the Chromecast app will be rolling out soon supporting popular handsets from LG, HTC, Samsung and more. Nexus devices will of course be able to jump in on the fun too. Full PR below.
Continue reading “Mirror your Android Screen on Your TV Through Chromecast”
They do move quickly over at Big Red don’t they.
After an appellate court ruled that the FCC didn’t have the authority to enforce net neutrality on data networks, Verizon is announcing plans to buy Intel Media. Intel Media is the wing of Intel working on next generation cloud, TV, and multimedia services. Following their recent acquisition of Edgecast content delivery networks and upLynk’s video encoding technology, it seems pretty clear that Verizon is aggressively working towards expanding their offerings in IPTV, cloud, and streaming services.
Now they also have a pass from the judicial system allowing them to legally prioritize their own services while degrading their competitor’s services. The free market works.
Full Intel PR below.
Continue reading “After defeating Net Neutrality, Verizon buys Intel Media Cloud TV services”
It’s always a bit of a bummer when an app or service is a platform exclusive. I mean I get it why so many services are developed for iOS first, but that waiting for an app on Android can be killer. Whelp, if you’re a U-Verse subscriber, but you’re using an Android phone or tablet, looks like AT&T is finally showing you some love.
Not only will you have the ability to control your DVR and browse on demand content, you’ll be able to watch live TV on more than 20 channels anywhere you have a data connection. Plus, more channels will be added in the future. Not a bad little value add, and now us droids can play too.
So AT&T… With all the cool Lumia gear you guys sell… When might we see a U-Verse app for Windows Phone? That Lumia 1520 has a pretty sweet screen…
(via AT&T)
Pretty much what we’ve all been asking for since the dawn of cable television.
While some Canadian providers are already offering some version of a la carte, the ability to subscribe to just the channels you want, it looks like the Canadian government will require cable and satellite providers to offer individual channels to customers. Said Industry Minister James Moore:
“We don’t think it’s right for Canadians to have to pay for bundled television channels that they don’t watch. We want to unbundle television channels and allow Canadians to pick and pay the specific television channels that they want.”
As someone who recently had to shop through my local cable company’s plans and options, the way we currently pay for TV can be incredibly frustrating. Following the realization that I only watch a handful of channels, the tier of cable I have to buy to get the channels I want means I end up overbuying hundreds of channels I’m never going to watch.
However, you lucky Canucks will hopefully get to skirt that soon. Know that I’ll be jealous.
(via Reuters)