Displaying items by tag: Video

For nearly two years, since the launch of Windows Media Center XP 2005, Microsoft has tried unsuccessfully to convince consumers that they should stick their PCs in the living room. The unveiling of Apple's coming iTV product yesterday was the final stab in the heart to Bill Gates' vision of doing for consumers what he did for businesses.

According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, consumers with a 5 Mbps broadband connection will be able to download iTunes movies in 30 minutes and start watching after 1 minute. Unfortunately for most US (and Australian) internet users, 5 Mbps is a pipe dream. A quick check of the Verizon site will reveal that somewhere between 768 kbps and 3 Mbps is what's on offer, depending on what you want to pay.

Mac users can now make free video calls to other Skype users, Windows or Mac with the latest, beta, version of the Skype softphone for Mac OS.

Forget your new iPods, forget even the elegant new iTunes movie downloads service, for my money the big announcement of the day has to be Apple's iTV device. For US$299, Apple has come up with something that has been sorely needed for some time a seamless link from the home computer to the TV set.

According to IDC's latest Digital Home research, "Australia Digital Home Consumer Usage Survey 2006: Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto!", IDC finds the position of the PC as a digital entertainment platform is strengthening.

UK based Vividas Group, a provider of video streaming technology,  has launched the Vividas Sniffer: automatic bandwidth detection software that is able to select the optimum mode for Internet delivered video content.