Daily Bitekletas

Smart Communications and Dream TV are in a rat race to make Mobile TV part of every Filipinos love for mobile phones. Mobile TV is different from an earlier TV streaming services by both Smart and Globe Telecom when they were just introducing 3G to Philippine market. Mobile TV does not ride on the same spectrum used in GSM/GPRS for phone calls and text messaging.

Smart is already doing a test broadcast of it’s mobile TV service starting in key cities in Metro Manila and recently rolled out transmitters in key cities like Cebu, Cagayan De Oro, Dumaguete, Davao and Boracay, Aklan.

Mobile TV signals are delivered using DVB-H (standards for digital television) technology. One needs to have a DVB-H compatible handsets which are already available in the market a few months back (Nokia,Samsung, and Sony Ericsson). Mobile TV works just like a regular cable television with default features such as addressable box (which is the handset itself).

Dream TV is aiming to launch their Mobile TV months earlier than the target date of Smart. Dream TV also uses DVB-H for signal or content delivery to mobile phones. An Inquirer.net article provides information on pricing which includes service fee of PhP 300.00 for twelve channels (eight free and 4 pay-per-view). Dream TV, a brand of Philippine Multimedia Systems Incorporated (PMSI) which also owns Dream Satellite TV is I think a very welcome addition to the growing market of mobile content providers. This move of Dream TV will mostly benefit those who are interested in the service by providing competitive price and NOT allowing monopoly in pricing scheme by by either of the two biggest wireless carriers in the Philippines.

Sources:

• Smart demos TV on mobile phones
• Smart expands mobile TV infra in Visayas, Mindanao

Authors@Google Present: Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak talks about his career at Apple as well as his life and new book “iWoz” at Google.

Stephan Gary “Woz” Wozniak (born August 11, 1950 in San Jose, California) is an American computer engineer and the co-founder of Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.), with Steve Jobs. His inventions and machines are credited with contributing greatly to the personal computer revolution of the 1970s. Wozniak created the Apple I and Apple II computers in the mid-1970s. The Apple II gained a sizable amount of popularity, eventually becoming one of the best selling personal computers of the 1970s and early 1980s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wozniak]

I can’t stand watching this spoof video about a fictitious Microsoft oPhone without laughing. “They’ve done it! They’ve really done it! They’ve reinvented the wheel!”. Talke about “circular display”. What a terribe design for a phone. Thankfully it’s a joke!

Joost just got another boost when it announced their latest deal with Warner Bros. Yes! Warner Bros is offering exclusive content online with Joost with it’s WBTV: SCI-FI FIX and WBTV: Before They Were Mega Stars channels.

Both WBTV channels will launch on Joost this month. WBTV: SCI-FI FIX will feature popular shows like Adventures of Briscoe County, Aquaman, Babylon 5, Crusade, Human Target, Invasion, Max Headroom, My Favorite Martian, Prey, Time Trax and V.

The WBTV: Before They Were Mega Stars channel will include shows from the past that feature some of today’s biggest stars of the big screen. Before they were famous, celebrities like Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Samuel L. Jackson, Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson made guest appearances on shows like Growing Pains, Kung Fu, Sisters and Spenser: For Hire. Viewers will be able to find these guest appearances and more exclusively on Joost.

Joost has a growing list of partners which includes CNN, Sony, NHL and now Warner Bros. Is Joost going to be the Internet TV monopoly of the future? We are going to find that out soon.

I would really love to see Joost offering alternative bit rate for low-bandwidth viewers like myself. I love Joost but I can’t make it to not go into “choppy mode” on my 384kps connection at home or even at a higher bandwidth connection at the office. I would really really appreciate if they can make this happen.

So I was able to download the executable installer a bit quicker than expected. I installed the Joost client on my Windows XP Home powered laptop without a hitch, though the firewall software prompted me to confirm the connection being initiated by the client program to joost.com’s servers. The authentication is done via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) so it’s fairly secure.

The Joost client prompted me to login or create a name and so I happily clicked the ‘create a name’. I was excited! I was prompted with a form requiring me to enter the e-mail I used during the “beta testing sign-up” process. Everything went well for me and I was taken to the Joost Suggest’s “Welcome To Joost” video after the signup/login process.

Here are some of the screenshots:

Channel Catalog Home - beautifully laid out for your viewing pleasure

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I signed up as a beta tester for Joost (formerly called Venice Project) late last year but was not accepted due to a long list of applications. Today, I got a message from Joost letting me know that a downloadable software is now available at their website. The message reads:

Hello XXXX,

A while ago, you showed interest in trying out Joost and signed-up
as a beta tester, but haven’t confirmed your email address yet.

The good news is that you can download Joost right now by
clicking on the following link:

https://www.joost.com/download/__deleted_parameter.html

As you may know, we’re working on a project that will
revolutionise the way you’re watching TV - bringing you the best
of TV and the best of Internet.

If you’ve got any questions or want to share your thoughts, feel
free to check-out our forum www.joost.com/support and send us
your comments.

We hope you will enjoy our beta test program and thanks in
advance for helping us put on the finishing touches to Joost.

Enjoy and see you on Joost!

The Joost team

If you don’t download and register Joost within 14 days we will
delete your information and will not contact you again.

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