kyte

Artist-specific Kyte apps coming to iPhone

Interscope Geffen A&M, a division of Universal Music Group, announced Monday that it has released iPhone and iPod Touch applications centered on some of the label's most prominent artists, including The All American Rejects, Soulja Boy, The Pussycat Dolls, Lady Gaga, and Keri Hilson. The applications are built off a new iPhone framework from mobile developer, Kyte.

Each artist-specific app will feature video content produced by the individual singer, along with custom branding, an RSS reader that will be updated with artist news, and a built-in chat feature that allows users to talk to each other and … Read more

UMG expands Web video profile with Kyte alliance

Universal Music Group continues to bolster its Internet profile via digital video.

The largest of the four biggest recording companies is expected to announce on Friday an agreement with Kyte, the video-streaming start-up. Under the terms of the deal, Kyte is to provide the mobile and online platform for the label's artists, including 50 Cent, All American Rejects, Lil Wayne, and Lady Gaga. Financial terms of the deal aren't being released.

Universal Music and Kyte have also agreed to develop new mobile entertainment applications. The question with a deal like this is why any of the labels need … Read more

Kyte gets Google AdSense, fresh new mobile sites

On Monday night video-broadcasting platform Kyte is launching several new ways to make money with its service. Included are two new ad servers from AdTech Helios IQ and Lightningcast, as well as a new option to pick up Google AdSense (for video) which includes pre-roll, graphic display ads, and endcap text ads. These join Kyte's internal ad manager, and help fill out any ad inventory depending on how popular your shows are.

It's worth noting all of this is still only for pre-recorded content, and as such can't be used for monetizing live streaming shows. I'm … Read more

Kyte videostreamer leaves beta, enters business

Videostreaming service Kyte on Tuesday announced that its Mobile Producer app is officially out of beta and now available on many Symbian Series 60 phones, not just the Nokia N95.

There are a few live streaming services on the Web, but Kyte is taking a different business approach than consumer-focused products like uStream. The focus for the company is to sell its services to professional content producers, such as its existing users like The Pussycat Dolls, 50 Cent, The Huffington Post, and Spin Magazine.

Given the cost of bandwidth and the potentially large market for professional live content, I believe … Read more

Video broadcasting service BlogTV goes mobile

Today, Israel-based video blogging service BlogTV is releasing a new version of its service for mobile users. We checked out the desktop version back in June and came away impressed. Today's release brings mobile viewing to the equation, letting anyone with a compatible phone watch shows live using their phone's Web browser.

Users who visit m.blogtv.com on their phones get a small array of thumbnails for live shows, along with matching text links and descriptions. Opening the links launches the phone's media player and gets the show streaming. Also included in the stream are user … Read more

Live from your pocket: It's Flixwagon

I'll be a bit honest here. If I see another live video broadcasting tool for Nokia phones my head is going to explode. These things are all over the place, but admittedly far from useless. There's always a need to record something, and if you can do it from your phone without having to carry around a bunch of memory cards, you're coming out a winner.

Flixwagon, which quietly launched its private alpha site this morning, has been kicking around a small community of developers and testers for the past few months. Like Kyte, Qik, and Comvu, the aim is to broadcast live video from your phone, and interact with the people who are watching your stream. No computer required.

The tiny (and we mean tiny) broadcasting application can be downloaded to most recent model Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones, and broadcasts over either a Wi-Fi connection, or a speedy 3G signal from your carrier. In testing over AT&T's 3G network, I found the quality to be about in line with the stuff you would find on YouTube, which is a serious compliment considering it was streaming live from a pocket sized device and didn't need to go through any processing on my end. Admittedly our test device was a Nokia N95 which retails in excess of $500, and has the best built-in camera of most other Nokia models (or any cell phone for that matter). Your mileage may vary.

I personally prefer Qik's phone software just a smidgen (it lets you pick what camera you want to use, and pause the video), but the performance was a little better on Flixwagon. The killer application for any of these services is involvement, both for a live audience, and for users watching other user streams right on their phone. It's that second step that I think Kyte has taken the lead, and others like Qik and Flixwagon need to catch up with.

Flixwagon is in private alpha. If you're interested in giving the service a try, you can sign up here. I've embedded an Israeli, swingset version of Burning Man after the break. You can also check out my perilous journey to get coffee earlier this morning (my apologies in advance for the shoddy camera work).

SplashCast gets a little more social, bird-like

SplashCast is launching a handful of updates to its player this morning. The biggest is inline chat, which was essentially the next step after last month's inclusion of inline text, voice, and video commenting. Although this new feature isn't rolling out to everyone right away--the company is beginning with the branded artist channels launched a few months back. To jump into a chat, there's a simple "join chat" button on the bottom-left-hand side of the player. Clicking it takes you right in to an IRC-style simple chat.

Also new is a feature called FanCast which is kind of like Kyte.TV in that you can give your users an e-mail address to send photos and videos, and they'll go up in an ad-hoc playlist made available to all. If you're the channel owner, you can also moderate that content, keeping some amount of editorial control over what your viewers are adding to the conversation.

SplashCast is also adding integration to Twitter. The service gets its very own icon, which, when clicked, lets you log in to your Twitter account and post a brief note along with a link to the show as a status update. If you're already using another service like TwitThis (review), this might not be so important, but unlike sharing the whole player, you can drill down and share any piece of media therein.

I've embedded an example player after the break. To view it, click the read more button below.

SplashCast launching ultrasocial video player tomorrow

Video hosting and mashup solution SplashCast is launching an upgrade to their video player tomorrow morning. The most noticeable change is a new YouTube-ish playlist of video thumbnails in the bottom 20 percent of the viewer, which can be pulled up and dismissed at the user's discretion. Previously, users were limited to a channel-view text list (which is still available), but my bet is that users will feel at home with this newer navigation.

The real killer application, however, is the inline commenting system which gives users three ways to leave their feedback: a video clip (from a Webcam or hard drive), text, and voice. All three remain in the same section, and there's no user registration required to leave your two cents. Recording and playing video in the player is really simple, and looks pretty good.

There are a few other mentionable tweaks, including a pause button, an inline "e-mail this" tool to share show segments or entire programs with friends, and a full screen button that remains no matter what type of program you're viewing (not just videos and photos). There's also a new "follow me" button which lets you know when the program's creator publishes new shows. It's a little bit like the channel-creator subscriptions with YouTube.

SplashCast is planning to introduce a mobile upload feature to its platform within a month, so users will be able to drop photos and video clips into their channels from a mobile phone--a lot like Kyte.tv (review). There will also be more celebrity channels, and the potential for Twitter integration and live user chat, similar to Pikspot's player.… Read more

Sneak peak at Mogulus: new live blogging platform

I got to take a sneak peak at a new video broadcasting service that opened its doors to a select few this morning. Mogulus is a live video broadcasting service the likes of uStream.tv, but with a twist: Multiple people can work on live video feeds at the same time. Each user can create their own branded channel, and fill it up with video content either from their hard drives or pulled in from YouTube. Each contributor can also command the broadcast using their Web cam, complete with customizable over-the-shoulder graphic overlays and a scrolling CNN-style news ticker. The result is a live blogging experience that's visually stimulating to the viewer, and completely customizable for the amateur content producer.

Mogulus is giving its producers two ways to share content--either embedding the live feed, or linking to their own custom URL. All public channels go into a listing for live feeds a la Kyte.tv, so casual users looking to tune into things that are live or interesting will be able to browse through and find something they like.

Managing broadcasts in Mogulus is handled completely inside of a Flash-based application. Content is clumped together in small management units called "storyboards," which can be inserted into any broadcast almost like video playlists. Producers queue up content, mix and match the order of video clips, and can break in at any time to broadcast live from their Web cam. Power users have a lot to play with, as it actually feels like a professional video-editing app with a ton of options for tweaking and fine-tuning.

Mogulus plans to roll out its service with two models, one free and one paid. The free version requires inserting a short advertisement for every 10 minutes of broadcasting, while the pro version lets producers go ad-free in exchange for paying a fee for every gigabyte of bandwidth transferred. My hunch is that many casual users will be OK with the advertisement model, with what Mogulus is tentatively planning to keep at around 10 seconds per ad.

More on Mogulus as it leaves private beta. Until then you can sign up and check out an explanatory video here. More screenshots of the interface after the jump.

CNET Live: Kyte CEO Daniel Graf [VIDEO UPDATE]

Daniel Graf, the CEO of Kyte ( review) gave the best pitch at last week's New Tech Meetup in San Francisco. And he came in to CNET's studio to tell us more. Tune in to his live appearance on CNET TV's new weekly online broadcast, today at 1:00 PM Pacific / 4:00 PM Eastern.

Update: In case you missed last week's show we've got the video embedded below. To skip straight to the Kyte segment, drag the player progress arrow to 23:15. For more on Kyte, check out our hands-on.