CEO Schmidt: Google TV service to start this fall

Google CEO Eric Schmidt told journalists at the IFA trade show in Berlin that the company planned to roll out its Google TV platform-which melds traditional television viewing with full Internet functionality-this fall in the United States and expand it worldwide during 2011. Schmidt said Google would seek to work with content providers but was unlikely to produce content of its own.

Sony’s Google TV-powered television makes a splash at IFA in Berlin

Sony-which is partnering with Goolge and Logitech on the development of Google TV–says it will roll out a 46-inch, Goolge TV-powered connected television in the U.S. this fall, and is demonstrating a set running on the Android OS at the IFA show in Berlin. Sony says the first set to hit the U.S. market will be a 46 inch HDTV, with a 1.2 GHz Intel Atom CE4100. Google’s brand name, and the strength of its partners, could help it step into the space aggressively

App helps iPhone users transfer large HD video files

It sometimes can take an eternity to send large HD video files from an iPhone, but a new iPhone app, aptly called TransferBigFiles, allows users to send the files in the background using WiFi or 3G for up to 10 minutes-no need to connect to a computer. The free app also will pick up where the transfer left off if you drop your signal. The company says it’s the first app of its kind on the market for iPhone. “With all of the excitement around the iPhone’s new HD video capabilities, we want to make sure users have the best possible experience when sharing those videos and photos with others,” said Hamid Shojaee, CEO of TransferBigFiles.com

Apple introduces revamped Apple TV device

Apple unveiled its newest iteration of Apple TV yesterday, introducing a $99 device that’s roughly the size of a wallet and bears little internal resemblance to its predecessor. The set-top box-not, by the way, called iTV as rumored-is designed to stream video content from Apple’s iTunes store, eliminating the need for storage or syncing and is capable of 720p output. Jobs said the new Apple TV would be available in about four weeks. The device is powered by the A4 processor, the same Apple-produced chip that is in the iPad, and a big upgrade from previous model that relied on the Intel Pentium M processor. Although Apple didn’t say if Apple TV is running on iOS or OS X, it did say the Apple TV initially won’t have apps to run, so it’s essentially a moot point.

Akamai Confirms They Are Delivering Apple’s Live Stream

I’ve just spoke to someone at Akamai who has confirmed that they are delivering today’s live stream of Steve Jobs’s keynote. While there was a lot of talk about Apple delivering this event from their new data center in North Carolina, that’s not happening, not yet at least. Apple will be bringing a lot of their content delivery in-house , but that won’t happen overnight

A Look Back: Lessons learned from TV Everywhere a year after deployment

By Marty Roberts For nearly a year now, thePlatform has been supporting some of the largest TV Everywhere initiatives to date. In that time, we’ve encountered some surprising–as well as anticipated–challenges while helping our customers architect TV Everywhere. The following is a glimpse at some of the most interesting lessons learned so far in working with programmers and service providers to bring their TV Everywhere initiatives to market. Authentication and authorization really do provide a seamless user experience One of the biggest misconceptions about TV Everywhere is that the log-in process is prohibitively complicated for subscribers to cable, telco, or other TV service providers.

Apple, Amazon and Sony join race for VOD prize

Repeat after me: Change is good, change is good… You might as well get comfortable with it, because after today there’s very little about the over-the-top delivery space that isn’t going to get some major tweaking.

Report: Apple’s streaming video from press event a test of $1B data center

Apple is providing live streaming of today’s press event regarding its (rumored) revamping of Apple TV into iTV, a new twist to the iTunes store and updated iPods. It’s the first time is quite awhile that Apple has live streamed any of its events, and it’s set to start at 1 p.m. ET at www.apple.com. Not too surprisingly, the event will only be available on Apple devices, Macs running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad. A Cult of Mac report said the streaming will be the first major test of Apple’s new data center in North Carolina, a $1 billion facility that’s among the largest ever built.

Rumor: Sony planning new movie and music rival to iTunes

Sony showed off Qriocity, a service that would allow users to download movies at CES early this year, but made no promises about when it might launch, although there were rumors it would hit the market in February. Well, now Sony is rumored to be announcing a new music and video download service that would be available across all of the company’s connected devices, starting with the PlayStation game console. Launch date? Sometime next year, reports the Financial Times . The announcement is expected at the IFA tech show in Berlin sometime today (likely before Apple splashes its latest news this afternoon).

Amazon.com joins race for VOD market dominance

Add Amazon.com to the growing list of digital retailers looking to increase their share of the video-on-demand market. The company has been shopping a subscription version of its existing Web-based on-demand rental service–which already is built into a plethora of connected TVs, Blu-ray players and other devices–to studio executives with the goal of having it in place before the holiday season. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that the e-retailer has had talks with General Electric, which owns NBC Universal, Time Warner Inc, and media conglomerate Viacom. The plan Amazon is offering would include TV episodes and movies, and apparently is centered on older content, which is seen as less erosive to studios’ revenue. Amazon is far from alone in hoping to expand more deeply into the living room

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