streaming

When Facebook announced that its news feed would turn into a real-time "stream" of updates and media, it became clear that the Twitter-like model of fast-moving information flow was gaining a real foothold in the dot-com world.

Now, file-sharing service Dropio has opted to turn its "drops"--the pages where people can drag and drop any number of multimedia files and then password-protect them--into streams optimized for collaborative work. If you're working in one of them, it updates instantly for all users.

There's also a new feature, much like in Google Docs, Zoho, and … Read more

Media-center start-up Boxee, which aggregates Web video for television set-top boxes, has launched a new version that restores access to video hub Hulu. The NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture had pulled its content from Boxee after content partners took issue with it.

But it's not really the same: Boxee has brought back Hulu by extending its support for RSS feeds, and is pulling the video content in that way.

"Like IE, Firefox, or Google Reader, the RSS reader supports Google Video, Yahoo, YouTube and feeds from many other websites," a post on the Boxee blog by CEO … Read more

The future will be streamed. And streamed some more.

Earlier this week, Facebook unveiled a few notable product revamps: "fan pages" for brands that look and act more like regular member profiles, and a redesigned home page that emphasizes a real-time version of the site's iconic news feed. The keyword here is "streaming," encouraging an even more extensive flow of information with a status update prompt that asks, "What's on your mind?"

Needless to say, "What's on your mind"--which also allows the posting of links, videos, and other … Read more

Brian Cooley and I lose our jobs, but before we do, we answer questions on wireless TV streaming, VirtualBox, and more.

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Alexander in Brazil wanted to know about PC gaming in Boot Camp on a Mac, … Read more

One of the great innovators in Formula 1, Gordon Murray, just announced manufacturing licenses for T.25 City Car and the iStream manufacturing process.

The T-25 is smaller than a Mini Cooper and will come in four styles. Development of the process began more than 15 years ago, and has already won the prestigious 2008 "Idea of the Year" award from Autocar, the world's oldest car magazine.

According to Gordon Murray Design, the manufacturing licenses will dramatically change not only the cars people drive and the way those cars are made, but also how the cars are … Read more

Sony's Blu-ray Disc is arguably overpriced and overhyped, and it probably won't be nearly as successful as DVD, but I came across an interesting tidbit of information over the weekend that may make some change their minds about the success of the high-definition video format.

According to Nielsen VideoScan figures for the week ending February 22, Blu-ray captured 10 percent market share, and sales were up 29.31 percent over the same week last year. DVD captured the remaining 90 percent share, but its revenues were down almost 12 percent, year over year.

Granted, that's just one week's figures, and it doesn't mean much in the broader sense, but if you look at previous weeks, those figures are much the same. In fact, Blu-ray is slowly gaining ground on DVD, and its 10 percent share is actually an impressive figure, given its history.

I usually spend my video-allocated cash on other formats, but there is one place where Blu-ray will always win out for me: rentals. I won't stream films, and I won't rent DVDs. Blu-ray is the only format that I will rent from my local video store or get from Netflix. It's as simple as that.… Read more

PALM DESERT, CALIF.--Why would a church live-stream in HD?

That's a question that BitGravity--which was the first to present Monday morning here at Demo 09--wants to answer.

Of course, churches live-streaming is only the tip of the iceberg for Burlingame, Calif.-based BitGravity. The company is likely to be putting most of its energy into selling its technology--which can put an HD stream (or standard-def, of course) on the Web with a delay of just seconds--to media firms, such as TV networks, that want a way to put their content online inexpensively and efficiently.

"Next month, … Read more

Public Radio Tuner is a free app that gives you fast, live access to high-quality radio programming on hundreds of public radio stations, in your area or from anywhere in the country--even over slower EDGE connections. This excellent, easy-to-use app has added many refinements since its introduction, and you can now browse by state, search for call letters or other descriptors, find local stations using your device's GPS location, and easily create a list of favorites.

Public Radio Tuner isn't a general purpose radio tuner, though--it can only help you listen to public radio stations, primarily with NPR … Read more

Wow. With all the drama and in-fighting among cable companies, TV content creators, and Web video companies this week, you'd think the whole industry was one big junior-high cafeteria. Oh, wait, it kind of is.

First, Hulu--a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp.--pulled its content from TV.com (which is owned by CBS, publisher of CNET News). Then it did the same with Boxee, a company that makes software designed for watching online video on TVs via set-top boxes. The reason for these measures appears to be either mounting pressure from the TV content owners … Read more