Archive for the ‘flo’ Category

Mobile TV Tries to Break Into Prime Time

On Super Bowl Sunday, about 116 million viewers watched commercials touting Budweiser, Doritos and Coke — as well as spots promoting Flo TV, a service that promises to let you watch TV wherever you are.

It was a high-profile promotion for mobile TV, which despite years of innovation has failed to catch on outside of a few niches.

A mobile TV service from Qualcomm, Flo offers channels such as ESPN, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central for a monthly fee. You can watch Flo on your cellphone, in your car or on a dedicated device known as a personal television.

“Flo is a prepackaged entertainment experience,” says Alice Kim, senior vice president of strategy & corporate development for Flo TV. “It’s about portability,  it [is] about live video and it is complementary to your home experience.”

Mobile TV, which bring television news and shows to handheld devices, could be the next big thing for consumers who want to watch a game while on the subway, or catch up on their favorite TV show while waiting at the DMV. For instance, with Flo TV, you can get Jon Stewart on The Daily Show or live NBA games with a few clicks. The 3-inch screen is small, but it’s more convenient than a netbook.

But it’s a difficult sell. U.S. consumers so far have failed to jump on the mobile TV idea, even though it’s been around for years. Just about 1 percent of mobile users in the U.S. watch mobile TV. And even there, Flo faces some stiff competition. Rivals MobiTV and Sling Media also offer TV content to go. Last month, AT&T allowed iPhone users to access live and streaming TV on the Sling player over 3G. Meanwhile, a coalition of local broadcasters has formed a group called theOpen Mobile Video Coalition that attempts to bring free TV content to mobile devices.

“The idea is to be an alternative to the DVR,” says Ross Rubin, an analyst with research firm The NPD Group. “Prime time can be when you say it is or you can always tune in to live programming.”

Flo TV is alluring to some — especially when you have restless kids on your hands. Just ask Tyren Patterson, a Michigan-based Flo TV user who has been paying $25 a month for the service since 2006 on his LG Voyager. “When we go out and run errands or shopping and the kids get to start to antsy it’s good to be able to turn on Nickelodeon,” he says.

Patterson, a Verizon Wireless customer, has been a subscriber to Verizon’s V Cast service, which is powered by Flo TV.

“I use it everyday,” he says. “When you turn it on and start flipping the channels and see basketball games there’s the wow factor. The cost doesn’t matter then.”

Customers like Patterson may be few today (Qualcomm won’t disclose how many Flo TV users there are currently) but there are 200 million cellphone users who could become potential users, says the company. Flo rival MobiTV claims to have more than 7 million subscribers.

Where Flo TV says it hopes to distinguish itself is by offering the kind of shows and channels that most consumers would really want to watch, by offering high-quality video, and by time-shifting so you can watch shows when it’s convenient to you.

Flo — which stands for Forward Link Only — takes standard video signals and re-formats them for the mobile platform. Flo’s network operations center transcodes and compresses broadcast content into a single package that is sent to transmitters using satellite, microwave or optical fiber. The transmitters then send it to receiving devices over the 700-MHz spectrum.

“Flo TV’s network is explicitly designed for this and does a very good job of it,” says Rubin.

And because it’s a push technology with one-way data transmission, from the tower to the device, it doesn’t overload the network. Video through Flo TV is smooth and doesn’t stutter, says Kim. But to run Flo TV, devices need to have a special chip made by Qualcomm.

To popularize Flo TV, Qualcomm hopes to bring down the price of the service and offer it on a variety of devices. A personal TV that runs Flo costs $200 today, down from $250 just months before, Kim says. Meanwhile, AT&T has reduced subscription fees for the device to $10 a month from $15 earlier.

And on the road map are new devices such as a personal DVD player from Audiovox that will come with Flo TV, and a shot at the iPhone and iPod Touch market through a collaboration with battery and accessories maker Mophie.

“We are not trying to make a choice for the consumer, we are trying to give them choices,” says Kim.

See Also:

• Review: AT&T Mobile TV — Media Flows Like Greased Lightning
  
• Mobile TV, Video Market Will Be $15 Billion Worth of Huge
  
• Web/Mobile Video Will Overtake TV By 2013: Research Group
  
• Americans Don’t Care About Mobile TV

FLO TV Personal Television hands-on (video)

After a few years of marketing FLO TV through Verizon and AT&T, Qualcomm has struck out on its own to sell a standalone FLO TV, this here FLO TV Personal Television. It seems like a bit of an odd choice in the current media consumption climate, and the price is certainly steep at $250, along with the $9+ monthly subscription fee, but Qualcomm naturally has its reasons. Basically, if people want a second screen to watch FLO TV on, or already have a non-FLO phone that they’re happy with, this gives them the option, and then there’s the all-important family car ride where you might hand this device to your kid, but wouldn’t be so likely to toss them your own phone. Unfortunately, the lack of a hefty carrier subsidy means the $250 pricetag doesn’t seem too in line with the quality of this device — particularly the screen, which pales in comparison to those found on the similarly priced Zune and iPod touch (at least on the prototype device we played with). The touchscreen interface is pretty simple and reasonably quick, though touch detection isn’t exactly first-tier, but basically this whole device is as straightforward and no-frills as it looks. Check out a quick hands-on video after the break.

Continue reading FLO TV Personal Television hands-on (video)

FLO TV Personal Television hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Imagio Review: HTC Is Microsoft’s Best Critic [Review]

For Windows Mobile 6.5, the OS is only (and thankfully) half the story. Microsoft left plenty up to the carriers and handset manufacturers, and with the Imagio, Verizon and HTC have at least created something interesting.

The Gadget

Verizon’s HTC Imagio is a touchscreen Windows Mobile 6.5 handset, or “Windows Phone,” with a healthy, if expected, spec set, iiiiinnncluding!: a 3.6-inch WVGA screen, Wi-Fi, GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and microSD storage expansion (but sadly, no included card). It’s also the first smartphone with V CAST Mobile TV, which is a Flo TV-based live streaming TV service that looks and feels a bit like digital cable, phone-ified. Accordingly, it has an adorable kickstand.

The Price

$200 on contract with Verizon, after a $100 rebate

The Hardware

HTC is the Taco Bell of the handset world—they’ve only got a few ingredients that they put into their long menu of products, but the results are consistently pretty good, if not spectacular. Of the bulging ranks of 528MHz-Qualcomm-based touchscreen handsets, this is one of my favorite permutations. For its size, the Imagio is respectably thin—about as thick as an iPhone, but with a noticeably larger screen—and pleasantly rounded in the rear, with a subdued two-tone backplate accented with a shiny camera bezel and a chrome kickstand.

The front of the device is framed by a perforated grille, which looks and feels pleasantly knobbly, giving the handset a little friction, and a secure feeling in your hand. The bottom row of buttons—call, V CAST, Windows Start Menu, back and end call—are placed a little low to be comfortable to press, but anyone who’s used to HTC handset designs won’t have any trouble getting around this piece.

Performance is adequate, but since this is the same Qualcomm processor we’ve been complaining about for months now, and the 256MB of RAM isn’t overly generous, it’s nothing better than what we’ve already seen in the likes of the HTC Touch Pro2. HTC’s done plenty of work to make TouchFLO run nice’n’smooth, sure, but it really wouldn’t hurt to not just make a handset with speedier hardware, but to actually release it in the US.

The Software

I was pretty hard on Windows Mobile 6.5 in my review, but guess what? HTC likes it even less. TouchFLO 3D reaches deeper into the operating system than ever before, to the point that during casual use you can’t even tell you’re using a Windows Mobile phone.

The Titanium homescreen? Replaced. The new, larger contextual menus? How about prettier HTC versions instead? Mobile Internet Explorer 6? Replaced with Opera Mobile. Virtually every other piece of software that HTC had time to revamp or cover up? Out of sight, out of mind. And for one final kick in the nuts, the new Start Menu, which Microsoft even went so far as to require 6.5 phones to have a dedicated button for? Replaced with a slightly better HTC variant. That, right there, is a better review of Windows Mobile 6.5 than anyone could ever write.

V CAST TV

Based on Flo TV, which probably doesn’t mean much to most people, V CAST is a categorically impressive technology. The best way to describe it is that it’s like having a digital cable box, complete with live broadcasts of familiar basic cable stations (Comedy Central, CNN, the like), and a familiar program guide interface. Video quality is fair, but definitely watchable, and the experience of flipping through live channels is pretty novel.

As interesting as the underlying technology is, there are a few serious problems. Watching TV is neat and all, but on a mobile device, video on demand would be infinitely more useful. And at $12 or $15 a month, I don’t think people will be satisfied with the somewhat anemic channel selection (full listings here).

Moreover, I don’t really understand how Verizon expects people to use this. You can’t use it on a plane or a subway, so what, trains? During your lunch break at work? There center part in the Venn diagram of times where you might want to watch video content but don’t have a computer or TV and times when you can realistically use V CAST is small, as far as I can tell. But if live, basic-cable-esque TV on your phone is something you can see yourself using, this implementation is actually pretty good.

The (Mild) Tragedy

This has been the story for a few years now, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change with Windows Mobile 6.5: Handset manufacturers will continue to make the OS bearable to use, and carrier will occasionally grant handsets interesting—if not always useful—services to keep customers’ attention. That’s exactly what the Imagio does, bonding pleasant hardware design with a heroic salvaging of the phone’s interface. At $200 after rebate, it’s not a best value by a long shot, but in Verizon’s sickly smartphone line, it’s not a horrible choice.

I would’ve liked to end this review on that happy note, but while I was writing it Verizon sabotaged my plan, those scoundrels: Two Android phones will be announced for the network “within weeks,” which means that unless you’re bound to Windows Mobile either by software, your employer, or, er, extreme loyalty, you’d be best advised to wait a little while. [Verizon]

It’s got an appealing design, large screen and minimal branding

Kickstand! Ha!

HTC’s done a hell of a job sprucing up Windows Mobile, as always

V CAST TV is technologically interesting, but it’s expensive and I’m not really sure how people will use it

Windows Mobile 6.5, y’all

Specs could use a bump; namely the aging 528MHz processor and included storage

$200 isn’t a great bargain, and Verizon’ got some Android handsets coming down the pike.

AT&T touts Opera-powered full web browsing with new phones from Samsung and Pantech

AT&T wants you to know that you don’t need a smartphone just to get a rich, full web experience from your handset — theoretically, anyway — with the introduction of four new models from longtime partners Samsung and Pantech alongside a new featurephone browser. First up from Samsung comes the Flight (pictured left), billed as a “next-generation messaging device” on account of its full QWERTY portrait slide paired with a full touchscreen up top; it’ll be available next month for $99.99 on contract after rebate — that is, if you didn’t buy it on Craigslist already. That silvery slate in the middle that’s more likely to be catching your eye is the Mythic, rocking TouchWiz on a 3.3-inch display along with AT&T Mobile TV, making it a fitting successor to the Eternity and big brother to the Solstice; like the Flight, it swings onto retail next month, but you’ll be paying a stiffer $199.99 on contract after $50 rebate.

Turning our attention to the Pantech side of the table, we’ve got the Reveal (pictured right) that lets you have it both ways with a numeric keypad up top twined with a QWERTY slider underneath. It’s 3G-capable, AT&T Navigator-equipped, and available for your enjoyment on October 18 in red and blue. Finally, the Impact (not pictured) has an OLED touchscreen up front, but when the texting gets hot and heavy, the phone opens up to reveal a second display along with a QWERTY keyboard. It’ll be available in pink and blue, though neither pricing nor availability are being announced just yet.

Gluing everything together is AT&T’s new mobile browser, described as “a rich hybrid experience that gives you a HTML experience similar to your PC browser at home” that “works really well on a feature phone.” Additionally, users visiting att.net from their PCs will be able to send bookmarks to their phones’ mobile portals — kind of a neat trick, especially when you’re trying to minimize the number of URLs you have to mash out on an on-screen keyboard. Of course, featurephone browsers have a reputation for generally sucking, so considering that AT&T bills its new line of devices as “full web browsing phones,” it’ll be interesting to see how close they actually come to delivering on the claim; it’s said the phones use “advanced data compression from Opera Software,” which we’re thinking is very likely some variation of Opera Turbo — not a bad start.

Filed under: Cellphones

AT&T touts Opera-powered full web browsing with new phones from Samsung and Pantech originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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