Every day hundreds of millions of videos are viewed on YouTube and hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded. Upon launch of the TiVo-YouTube service, TiVo users will be able to search, browse and watch these videos directly on their television sets through their broadband connected TiVo DVRs. The combination of having the YouTube experience with the convenience and familiarity of TiVo’s intuitive user interface will provide TiVo subscribers with the ability to discover and enjoy the most shared and most discussed web videos in the world on their televisions. Importantly, users will be able to log into their YouTube accounts directly from their TiVo boxes and access their favorite YouTube channels and playlists.

“We’re delighted to be working with the world’s leading online video community so that TiVo subscribers can access YouTube’s popular content on the TV via the TiVo DVR,” said Tara Maitra, Vice President and GM of Content Services at TiVo Inc. “Being able to make available YouTube videos to the TiVo subscriber base using one device, one remote and one user interface is another major step in our commitment to combine all of your television and web video viewing options in one easy to use service.”

The announcement from TiVo coincides with Google’s announcement on YouTube that they are opening up their APIs to allow better integration of YouTube services on devices like an Apple TV or TiVo DVR. Developers will be able to integrate stuff like uploading videos and video responses to YouTube, edit video descriptions and customize the player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software.

The number of possible new applications is endless. Electronic Arts has enabled gamers to capture videos of fantastical user-generated creatures from their upcoming game, Spore, and publish these directly into YouTube. The University of California, Berkeley is bringing free educational content to the world, enhancing their open source lecture capture and delivery system to publish videos automatically into YouTube. Animoto enables its users to create personalized, professional-quality music videos from their own photos and upload them directly to YouTube. Tivo is providing its users a rich and highly participative YouTube viewing experience on the television.

Maybe WebTV was too advanced for its time, as it seems more and more services that are thought of as “web” or “internet” only are coming to home theater and entertainment type gadgets. Only time will tell if these services will entice users that are otherwise not familiar with the YouTube’s of the world.

[via YouTube and TiVo]

Check out this iPhone parody commercial with director David Lynch. He seems, well, a little pissed off. I guess he can’t appreciate the cinematic experience that watching a movie on a 3-inch screen brings. Curious as to where the clip came from. Seems like some sort of real interview. He references watching movies on your ‘telephone’, though not specifically an iPhone of Touch. Pretty funny though. I guess I won’t tell him I’m watching Blue Velvet right now, and yes, it’s on my iPhone, curmudgeon. Brief NSFW language fyi.

Uniting superior sound quality with sleek design for convenient on-the-go listening

January 2008 — Bang & Olufsen, the Danish manufacturer of high end audio and video products, presents the new BeoSound 6 mp3 player at the 2008 CES in Las Vegas. BeoSound 6 achieved an Innovations Honoree award this year in the Personal Electronics category.

Constructed of robust, durable, materials, BeoSound 6 delivers quality craftsmanship, clear CD sound quality due to its high performance on signal-to-noise playback, and up to 40 hours of battery life, making it the standout option among other mp3 players on the market. BeoSound 6 allows user-friendly simple operation and navigation of music files and comes complete with an exclusive leather carrying case and travel charger as well as the highly acclaimed A8 Earphones.

Sound that is true to the source

Bang & Olufsen is world renowned for acoustical excellence, thus a strong emphasis on sound performance has been put into the development of BeoSound 6. It is based on a technical platform by Samsung and the design, user interaction, and acoustic engineering — such as the high performance on signal-to-noise – has been implemented by Bang & Olufsen. The annoying background noise common with many digital music players is nearly eliminated in BeoSound 6. The sound is reproduced as neutrally and naturally as possible, so the musical detail remains pure, as if one is listening to the original source.
The bass boost function in BeoSound 6 has been optimized to suit the A8 Earphones. The dynamic full-tone earphones are mounted on a telescopic bar and constructed according to the open loudspeaker principle, which allows a non-intrusive amount of surrounding noise to be heard at lower volume levels. Therefore, one is never entirely cut off from the outside world when using the A8 Earphones, to better ensure safety.

A match for every ear

Sound quality is affected by the placement of earphones in one’s ear, which is why the A8 Earphones are equipped with small foam rubber covers. This provides more comfort and also compensates for any sound leakage that might occur in situations where the user’s ear is significantly bigger than the ear bud.

Constructed of lightweight, resilient rubber and aluminium, the A8 Earphones weigh less than one ounce each, and offer an elegant mechanical design that ensures a precise adjustment to each individual ear. The A8 Earphones have a secure fit that won’t fall off easily and are sleek enough to be worn together with glasses, making them perfect for active use on the move.

Easy to organize

Bang & Olufsen has developed a simple and free software solution, BeoPlayer, which accesses and organizes all music files on one’s PC, and conveniently transfers them to BeoSound 6. BeoPlayer can instantly download MP3 and WMA music files and convert AAC files, and also includes clip art of CD covers. With the capacity to hold 1,000 songs, the music possibilities are endless with BeoSound 6.
Simple and elegant design
BeoSound 6 features a sleek, minimalist design with its stainless steel frame surrounding the sides and black scratch-resistant LCD display. The soft-touch lacquered back surface allows BeoSound 6 to rest easy in the hand while operating the keypad placed underneath the front display. The rectangular touchpad is used for menu navigation and the surrounding rubber keypad for playback functions.

When switched on, BeoSound 6 presents an overview of five user scenarios, all accessible with the touch of a button. The five scenarios make it possible to start immediate playback of the tracks downloaded to the music player, or sort the personal music collection by artist, album, genre and play list. While playing music, the user can choose to display the cover art of the specific album alone or with music tags.
BeoSound 6 features an extended battery life, allowing up to 40 hours of playback – almost twice the market standard. The navigation bar indicates when the battery needs charging with a color change.
BeoSound 6 will be available in all Bang & Olufsen showroom locations throughout North America by late Fall 2007. MSRP $600.00 USD

Specifications
Designer Steffen Schmelling
Dimensions (H x W x D) 3.6 x 1.7 x 0.5 in (90.7 x 42.7 x 12.2 mm)
Weight 2.3 oz (65 g)
Finish Polished stainless steel/soft-touch lacquered plastic
Memory 4 GB
Display 1.81 Inch TFT LCD 128 x 160 pixels
Supported audio formats MP3, WMA, OGG
Operating system PC Windows XP SP2
MAC iTunes: BeoSound 6 plug-in needed
Interface USB 1.1. (USB 2.0 high speed support)
Mass Storage Mode
Battery Built-in, rechargeable, approx. 40 hours playing time
Mains voltage 100 – 240 V AC
Connections Earphones, USB and mains adaptor via 18 pin connector
Included accessories Bang & Olufsen A8 Earphones, USB-cable, travel charger and leather carrying case

Now on to Apple. It’s rumored Apple will make an official announcement at January’s Macworld that they have partnered with Fox to bring users online video rental downloads through iTunes. The deal is also said to include new physical DVDs from Fox that will include a pre-ripped format for transfer right into iTunes. Apple has been reluctant to venture into the rental model with music, but video is a different animal all together. Until now, Apple has been unable to convince many of the major movie studios to offer their content for download. There may be a similiar deal in the works with Steve Job’s bed buddy Disney.

Netflix added had a similar download rental component to their mail order rentals some time ago, but needless to say no support for iPods and iTunes integration.

So perhaps another big step for Apple taking the bull by the horns in a market with no clear leader, no clear technology and an unclear customer base. It would seem to be a good move for Apple to leverage the massive iPod / iTunes culture and take another stab at the home entertainment market they failed to capture with the first generation of Apple TV. But of course that’s like to evolve in January as well. Stay tuned.