The official mobile DivX player, DivX Mobile, has received a major update which adds support for DivX’s video on demand service.
DivX Inc. (the company) makes DivX (the video codec) which allows for high-quality video compression with relatively low file sizes. DivX Inc. have launched a VOD service that allows participants to download movies in DivX format from several partner content suppliers.
The mobile version of the client software - which until now only offered playback of locally-stored content - runs on Symbian S60 and UIQ devices. Version v.90 also includes numerous bug fixes.
The app is available free (alongside a windows program that will let you convert other formats to DivX) although you will need to register with the company to be able to download it.
Anthony, over at the FRESH PLASTIC blog, has spotted that 3 are selling Vuzix Video Glasses on their accessories site.
Vuzix glasses are the kind of gadget that lets you walk the fine line between cool and ridiculous - you might even say they are ‘polarising opinion’. Ho ho. Thank you, I’m here all week. Tip your waitress.
A thin pair of sunglasses with integrated LCD display and headphones, they will let you watch video from any compatible device with only a slight risk that someone will see you and mutter something derisive about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
I tried a pair of these a few months ago on a video iPod and the picture quality is great - the ’screen’ appears to float in front of you and you can just about see around/through it to avoid walking in to things.
What is interesting about this from a Pocket Picks point of view is that, although they will work with any AV-out capable device, 3 are pushing them for use with mobile phones like the N95.
While these definitely make watching films easier, I’m not sure if they will take off in a big way due to the embarrassment factor. Who knows, though? A common complaint about mobile video is the titchy screen, so perhaps train carriages will soon be stuffed with silent, shade-wearing movie fans.
Seminal filmmaker, Spike Lee, is going to partner with Nokia for a movie cut entirely from footage shot on mobile phones by everyday people reports Reuters. Spike Lee is calling the project ‘the democratization of film’.
Helmed by Nokia Productions the project will be comprised of three acts, each of which will be set as an “assignment” announced online. After each act assignment has been set, anyone who wants to participate will have four weeks to get their submission in.
The final pieces will be edited and spliced by Lee who has attained major acclaim for films such as Do the Right Thing in 1990, 4 Little Girls and more recently, The 25th Hour.
The film’s theme will be about the way music tells the story of humanity. Though being able to submit footage for the film is already pretty progressive, the truly democratic element will come from the community participation, where Nokia will choose 25 submissions which people will be able to vote for online. Spike Lee will then build the final film out of the three winning submissions for each act.
The final film will premiere later this year in Los Angeles though we are pretty sure it will turn up on the intertubes pretty soon after that too.
Place shifting - the practice of taking your TV signal from home and using a device to watch it elsewhere in the world - has until recently been a toy for laptop users.
Monsoon Multimedia are trying to change that with their new service which uses Hava place shifting set-top boxes to stream your telly to a mobile device.
At the moment, the service only supports the Nokia 810 internet tablet, but by the end of April there should be software available for Windows Mobile devices, with full Symbian support to follow later in the year.
The basic Hava set-top box can connect to up to three video sources at home - e.g. Cable TV, DVD Player and TV Tuner - and stream their input over the internet. More expensive models add HD input support (it has to downsample the video to standard resolution to stream it first, though) and local WiFi access to cut down on the number of trailing cables.
You might think that the point of buying a Blu-ray film is to watch it on a suitably large, high-definition telly in the comfort of your living room. And, well, it is. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get excited about the prospect of ALSO being able to use Blu-ray’s BD-Live feature to send copies of the movie to your iPhone for on-the-go viewing.
That’s the prospect held out by NetBlender’s new BD Touch technology, which they reckon will enable seamless PS3-to-iPhone transfers, albeit only if developers build that into the functionality of their Blu-ray discs.
It’s a grand idea, and crucially, it’s something the film studios are behind. I went to the Blu-ray Association’s press conference at the CES show in January, and they talked about the potential for BD-Live for this very purpose - format-shifting films in a way that wouldn’t encourage piracy. It’s coming, although how soon is anyone’s guess.
(via Engadget Mobile)
If you are a Blackberry user and haven’t heard of eVeek already, it’s a fantastic online resource for Blackberrys, featuring all sorts of services, downloads and other goodies to make your favorite addiction all the more impossible to give up. Probably worth a bookmark then.
The latest on offer from the site is an intriguing sounding video service. Announced as open to the public last week, eVeek’s video platform is a lot like YouTube in that users can upload videos into a free for all pool where they can be watched, rated and discussed. The difference is that registered users (registration will be free) will be able to download the videos too.
At the moment the service is confined to the PC where it’s BETA is being carried out, but as soon as all the kinks are ironed out (which you can help with by doing some bug spotting in the BETA build) the service will be quickly optimized for the Blackberry in terms of speed, size and what have you.
Sounds like it could be a winner, though according to eVeek’s own admission, first impressions of the PC based BETA might not seem favorable. But give it a chance, help out with the gremlins by firing a missive off to eVeek if you spot any and in sixth months time, seamlessly streamed video could be a reality for Blackberry users.
(Via The Boy Genius Report)
Mobile video continues to be big news. With the Viewty’s support for DivX movies, the Nokia N96’s TV streaming and multi-format playback and the ubiquitous multimedia behemoth that is the iPhone, the only thing missing is something to watch.
No less a being than Robert Redford descended on the Mobile World Congress to talk about his solution - short films in bite-sized mobile chunks.
Redford’s nonprofit Sundance Institute is working with mobile operators to bring video ‘content’ to the small(est) screen in a bid to create new outlets for filmaking talent. “There are new forms of storytelling coming,” said Redford “I don’t think we’ve explored all the possibilities yet. The only thing you know will keep going is change. If you can’t ride with it as a wave, you’re out.”
Blue Velvet star Isabella Rossellini was also on hand to promote a series of mobile-targeted short films about ‘insect sex’ entitled Green Porno.
As Nelson from The Simpsons put it after seeing Naked Lunch - “I can find at least two things wrong with that title.”
Californian developers SkyFire are running a private beta of a new mobile web browser that they claim will offer a ‘desktop’ browsing experience with full AJAX and Flash support.
Details are sketchy at the moment - the private beta is US-only and even there SkyFire are being pretty tight-fisted with the invites - but the browser seems to work a little like Opera Mobile, using a proxy server to compress and optimise pages to better suit a small screen and slow connection.
SkyFire currently works only on selected Windows Mobile devices, but full Windows Mobile and Symbian support is promised.
As soon as Pocket Picks can get it’s eager mitts on a copy we will give you a full review but until then, check out this demo video:
The spate of YouTube players for Symbian and Windows Mobile as well as the new official Java client may leave owners of older, less capable mobiles feeling a bit left out.
ByWiFi.com is a mobile web service that will convert YouTube and MetaCafe videos into the widely-used 3GP format. 3GP is playable by most 3G phones, and is optimised for download size and speed.
You can either browse to the site directly using your phone’s browser (it’s text-only, so it shouldn’t tax even the stingiest data tariffs) and download directly to your phone, or use a desktop PC or Mac and copy the files manually.
There may be some teething troubles - I wasn’t able to get any converted files to retain their soundtrack - but this is still a useful trick to get bigger video clips onto your handset. Even smartphone owners can take advantage of the faster download speed, providing they don’t mind the drop in picture quality.
Talk about late to the party. Trundling along some months after the release of emTube, YouTube Pocket and YTPLayer to name but three, YouTube have released a beta of the official mobile YouTube client.
YouTube for Mobile is a Java app that should in theory run on any half-decent handset. Despite this, YouTube claims it is only suitable for use with the Nokia N73, N95, E65, 6110 and 6120 and the SonyEricsson k800 and w880 phones. There is no indication that it is using any special features of these phone, so it’s a bit disappointing that YouTube are blocking downloads from non-blessed handsets (and from my perfectly legit N73, for some reason)
The app is decent enough, and will let you log in to the site using your usual id and leave comments, etc. but compared to something like emTube it does feel a little clunky.
Still, it’s early days and it’s good to see YouTube embracing mobile video, albeit a couple of weeks behind everyone else.
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