media streaming

News

• Browser firm Opera talks HTML5, successes, and challenges

  Norwegian browser maker Opera took me out to dinner last night, and we talked about what the company has been up to. In a nutshell, Opera - the only browser maker located outside the US - says it's doing well.

• Apple iCloud: 5 burning questions

  Apple is set to unveil a sleeve of cloud services called iCloud. Apple boss Steve Jobs will make the long-awaited announcement June 6 at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

• Netflix grabbing greater share of bandwidth

  Cable killer or not, Netflix takes a big bite out of bandwidth every night in America.

• Music Beta by Google to launch without licenses

  Google's long-awaited cloud-based music player, Music Beta by Google, will launch today at the company's Google I/O conference, according to Billboard. The service will be free for US users lucky enough to get an invite from Google, with priority given to those with the Verizon version of the Motorola Xoom tablet and to attendees of the I/O conference. Unfortunately, Google didn't come to a license agreement with the major music publishers -- much like Amazon failed to get publishers' blessings with the launch of the Amazon Cloud Drive -- so Music Beta is essentially just a massive remote hard drive.

• Google buys PushLife to challenge iTunes

  Google's acquisition of PushLife could make Apple's iTunes look like a digital music dinosaur.

• YouTube Live: The makeover continues

  Another sign that Google is positioning YouTube to compete with broadcast and cable TV, as well as other video-streaming services like Hulu and Netflix: YouTube Live, a new branch of the hugely popular video-sharing service, debuted on Friday.

• 20 events that shaped the Internet, part 1

  Today we all use our smartphones and our broadband-equipped home and work PCs to instantly access information and data on just about any topic via the Internet.

• 20 events that shaped the Internet, part 2

  We take the Internet for granted now, but a lot of developments helped to make it the gargantuan shopping, socializing, commerce-helping, video-sharing behemoth it is today.

• Amazon Cloud drive: It's all about Android domination, baby

  In the virtual game of mobile moneymaking, Amazon has just made a brilliant move.

• Parliament to replace antique routing switchers

  Australian Parliament House is looking for new routing switches to replace ageing technology used for the broadcast distribution of parliamentary proceedings.

• 3D movie streaming receives a boost with new standard

  Movies in 3D could soon stream to PCs and TV sets with the development of a new video file compression standard by researchers in Germany.

• China video site Youku raises $40 million for expansion

  Chinese video-streaming Web site Youku.com has raised US$40 million in new investment as the site, part of a hugely popular genre in China, looks to expand and start turning a profit.

• Akamai's new network aims for iPhone HDTV

  Akamai Technologies is extending its content delivery network to the Apple iPhone as it introduces the Akamai HD Network, a system for streaming high-definition live and on-demand video to a variety of devices.

• Linksys debuts smart home media server

  Linksys has announced the availability of its new-generation home media server, dubbed “Media Hub”, to the local market aimed at simplifying the management and distribution of digital content in homes and small businesses.