Are We Ready To Give Google TV Another Shot?

Something worth watching in the months to come after Google’s headline-grasping purchase of Motorola Mobility involves a previous acquisition that while less hyped, should not be overlooked. In March, Motorola Mobility acquired the Swedish company Dreampark, one of the leading providers of Middleware for any platform–cable, terrestrial or IPTV–in the European market. Now, Dreampark is under Google’s auspices and one has to wonder what effect that could have on Google’s efforts in the world of TV.

Dreampark’s UI is known for delivering an excellent end user experience, and it would seem natural for Google to adopt some of that technology in their quest to better the disappointment that was Google TV. Add Motorola’s own technology to the mix and Google seems primed for another run at our living rooms.

Enter a bold proclamation from Google Chairman Eric Schmidt:

“Virtually all the television manufacturers on their very high end will eventually adopt Google TV…or perhaps one of the competitors that will emerge. We know this space exists. The issue is getting that started, getting the applications built and so forth, and that’s taken quite a while.”

Schmidt then said that this adoption of Google TV would occur within five years.

In order for Schmidt’s prediction to come true, Google has to do a lot of work acquiring the rights they could not acquire the first time around when they were stymied by all four major TV networks. Perhaps having some new technology on their side will help convince those they need to come along. Either way, expect to see a healthy dose of Dreampark UI design with whatever comes next.

Tags: Dreampark, EricSchmidt, Google, GoogleTv, IPTV, Motorola, Motorola Mobility, Television network, UI

2011 Bully Award Finalists

White Bull Summits, ‘Champions of the European Innovation Ecosystem,’ has announced the60 finalists for the 2011 Bully Awards. These finalists represent Europe’s leading privately held technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) companies and will receive special invitations to present at the second annual Pathways to Exit conference October 3 – 5, 2011 in Barcelona, where they will have the opportunity to present to potential partners and deal makers who can help them reach their goals.

Check out the full list of finalists here.

Tags: Barcelona, Bully Awards, Innovation, White Bull

First footage of Whale Trail

The creative minds over at ustwo™, the same responsible for Nursery Rhymes with Story Time, have been busy working on their newest iOS game. From what we can tell, CHIEF WONKA™ and his team have put together a colorful and imaginative game that looks, in the words of one YouTube commenter, “funky fresh.”

Check out the first footage of the new game here.

Tags: games, iOS, IPhone, Whale, YouTube

Voices Carry

Image by mohammadali via Flickr

Forbes.com contributor, Jennifer Hicks decided to take on a mini grapevine experiment on Twitter last week on the somewhat dry, yet volatile vertical of  “ConnectedTV” and she got back a micro-discussion that led to predictions on ConnectedTV by four strangers around the world – @razzmuzzen @inshot @mediadventurer @CreamHQ @jperrachon @msmobileconverg. We thought it was neat.

Read the full post on Forbes here.

Tags: Connected TV, Dantes Soma, Forbes, Gossip, inshot, Jennifer Hicks, Josh Mortensen, Online Communities, Social Networking

Guest blogger Maisa Dabus serves up Malmo & Media Evolution

Maisa Dabus, @maydbs

I say “Sweden”, you say..? Yeah, I thought so… Let me stop you right there!

Forget all about the obvious keywords popping up in your mind about this country as you knew: a lot has been happening in Sweden and you might have been missing out!

Many will have this overnight feeling, but the truth is, Sweden has been catching up, in this almost sneaky way for some time, and a city called Malmö (third biggest city in Sweden) is no longer only known as the 30-minute-ride-train to Copenhagen city.

Malmö has a bubble that is about to pop, exploding with creativity, young and fresh talent shaped as entrepreneurs, who are eager to create, deliver and change, at least a little thing or two, in an attempt to make the world better.

I’ve been spending some time at MINC – which I dare to call the hottest spot in Malmö for entrepreneurship – and to meet the cool, creative, making-it-happen kind of folks – and it’s not surprising to find so many interesting projects taking off.

I had the pleasure to hang out with the Media Evolution team this week for a couple of days. Media Evolution is in its seventh year and focuses on the future of media and discovery of new business opportunities. The Conference (formerly known as Moving Images) attracts people from film, games, web, publishing, learning, tech and music.  The organizers have been preparing Media Evolution The Conference coming up on August 24 and 25th and I’m nothing but impressed with the quality of the event in every single detail: from the speakers choice to the website design. I briefly interviewed Martin Thörnkvist, in between tasks, great music and crappy coffee, about the so waited event:

Maisa: You’ve been organizing Media Evolution The Conference from scratch. Carefully selecting the best speakers, location and the details together with the Media Evolution team. What can people attending expect?

Martin Thörnkvist

Martin Thörnkvist: It’s gonna be two days with 40 speakers divided in three tracks. The speakers come from all over the world to share ideas from their technological, behavioral and entrepreneurial experiences. It’s also important to not forget that we there will be 600 participants that will discuss the future of games, TV, music, communication and other forms of media.

Maisa: This year, the conference will offer three tracks: Who’s Next?, Man & Machine and Creation. How will these topics be approached and presented to the attendees?

Martin Thörnkvist: They will all be introduced by a keynote speaker (Moeed Ahmad (Al Jazeera), Amber Case (Geoloqi) and Bill Drummond (The KLF etc)), then there will be four 45 minute sessions led by a curator that has invited two more speakers to dig deeper into the specific subject. Also, for the for the participants that feel like they already know quite much about the topics in the sessions and we will arrange round table discussions that dig even deeper into the subjects.

Maisa: As I understand, for the first time, The Conference will be completely held in English. Why this change?

Martin Thörnkvist: Two reasons. (1) we feel that there’s a lot of Swedish companies and people with great ideas who we wanted to build a platform for; and (2) we felt that our conference, after seven years, was better than many we visited in Europe or in the US and wanted to enable internationals to come join us.

Maisa: Which professionals and from which industries would you consider to make the best out of attending this conference?

Martin Thörnkvist: Most of the participants at the conference are either executives or creatives at media companies. They’re representing all kinds of media industries, everything from games and TV to web agencies and mobile.

Maisa: And last but not least, why Malmö? What is it about Malmö that is getting people curious enough to travel from all over Sweden and Europe?

Martin Thörnkvist: The city is big enough to be home of a great music and art scene and small enough to have a start up scene where you bump into people by accident who are always willing to spare an idea or share experiences. It makes people want to found media companies here. There is a lot of them for a city this size: http://www.mediaevolution.se/en/members

Ready to enjoy all the fun? It’s not too late to register, here!

See you there!

About Media Evolution The Conference – Malmö, Sweden (24-25 August)

For the seventh year we invite you to come to Malmö, Sweden, to explore the future of media and discover new business opportunities. The Conference (formerly known as Moving Images) attracts people from film, games, web, publishing, learning, tech and music.

During two days we will discuss who our future audiences are, the technology we communicate with, and how we create and consume media. These matters will be treated under the headlines: Who’s Next?, Man & Machine and Creation.

The list of speakers include Moeed Ahmad (Al Jazeera) Bill Drummond (The KLF etc), Amber Case (Geoloqi), Naveen Selvadurai (Foursquare), Yancey Strickler (Kickstarter), Björn Jeffery (Bonnier), Luke Williams (NYU / frog design) and Måns Adler (Bambuser).

The Conference puts you right in the flow of the present media evolution and points an inspiring finger into the future.

Register today -> http://mediaevolution.se/theconference/

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Our guest blogger is a social media and blogger who hails from Brazil, but finds happiness in Sweden. Maisa Dabus and you can follow Maisa on Twitter @maydbs

Tags: Al Jazeera, Amber Case, Bill Drummond, Geoloqi, Maisa Dabus, Malmö, mans adler, Martin Thornkist, Media Evolution, Naveen Selvadurai, Sweden

Who Are We Talking To?

New beta on the block, WhoIsLive aims to make every webpage a “real-life” social experience by allowing you to see who else is looking at the website you are currently on. You then get to chat with them, whoever they may be. I find this idea equal parts thrilling and anxiety-inducing. Can’t we just surf alone?

Call me agoraphobic, but isn’t one of the nice things about the Internet not having to talk to strangers? Now, I like social media as much as the next guy (a statement that only holds because I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the next guy is likely to be a social media guru of some sort), but I am concerned that socializing is becoming the focus of our Internet experience rather than a sidebar. Reading an article should be about the article, not about the other strangers staring at the article elsewhere in the world.

Ironically, WhoIsLive is literally a sidebar, but it represents our increasing obsession with sharing. Actually, it goes beyond sharing. WhoIsLive represents our obsession with creating communities, even (or especially) amongst strangers. This is an understandably human and probably an anodyne predilection, but it raises some questions. Chief among them, who are we talking to?

There is a reason that chat rooms are not as popular as they once were. Mainly, it’s because we have better ways of talking to people online, be they more civil, less anonymous, better organized or more exclusive. Unfortunately, I get more than a whiff of “chat room” when I explore WhoIsLive. I’m not sure what is gained other than immediate, unfiltered conversation, which was the chat room’s main draw, and with that comes a lot of noise. Imagine looking at the front page of The Huffington Post with every other viewer voicing their opinions in your sidebar. Would you rather that or tweet your savviest friend for his or her opinion?

Between the noise and the over-socialization, WhoIsLive seems like it will be more distracting than it is helpful. Ultimately, I think WhoIsLive will find its audience and do well. I suspect that audience will be comprised of those with dilettantish tendencies and Internet sociologists, but there will be an audience none the less. I also suspect I won’t be anywhere to be found.

- Jason Oberholtzer

Tags: Chat, Chatroom, Chats and Forums, Huffington Post, Internet, Middle East, social media, Web page, Web-Based, Webcam, WhoIsLive

BBC App, Where’s the News in That?

This weekend I eagerly downloaded the new, international iPlayer app from the BBC. In the back of mind, I was wondering if this would be the first real challenge to my cable subscription.

I live in Holland, where, albeit an hour out, I can watch BBC1 and BBC2 via cable. I can listen to all BBC radio stations over the Internet and even watch the one minute news updates and video via their website. All good stuff, however, the iPlayer led me to believe I would have it all in one place, all in my control. No such luck.

As the surprise wore off, the reality dawned that there is absolutely no news on the BBC international iPlayer. I looked and looked again, thinking it must be there someone, but it wasn’t. But it makes no sense not to stream the BBC News channel! Not only would it get me using the app more but it would bring the experience more in line with my expectations.

Working with operators in the chaos of going OTT, I appreciate the complexity surrounding programming rights and creating services for multiple platforms, devices and markets, and I think the BEEB have done a fantastic job with the iPlayer UX. Their catalogue is impressive and the price point reasonable, however, I remain baffled as to why there is no news.

Boasting record profits (The company’s 2010/2011 annual review shows a double-digit rise in headline profit – up 10.3% to US$255 million), the company is bound to reap rewards from taking such classics such as Absolutely Fabulous, or top properties like Top Gear and Doctor Who (with more than 11.8 million fans on Facebook) online, and I for one will be watching to see where they go with their multi-screen strategy. However, something is still missing, so I will be watching, and waiting for news.

- Vanessa Vigar

You can follow Vanessa on Twitter @Vigarv

Tags: Absolutely Fabulous, BBC, BBC iPlayer, BEEB, Doctor Who, Facebook, Holland, iPlayer, iPlayer UX, OTT, Top Gear