Streaming

Muziic claims to offer users an enormous library of free music and videos within one simple program. While this is partially true, the program is actually just a glorified YouTube player, though a very nice one.

The program's layout is incredibly easy to understand and navigate, with a professional design and intuitive command icons. When you first open Muziic, you encounter a fancy interface that works a lot like YouTube. You can search for music--or any topic, for that matter--and watch the rundown of results on a small screen. This, its most important element, was unfortunately its weakest and … Read more

In October, Elgato's original EyeTV for iPhone (iTunes link) allowed streaming video over a 3G network connection via a backdoor, which broke the iPhone OS SDK rules and Apple yanked EyeTV from the App Store. A later version of EyeTV removed the backdoor, and the world assumed that 3G network streaming in EyeTV was gone forever.

However, yesterday Elgato proved the assumption premature by releasing EyeTV 3.3 for Mac OS X and a new Elgato Web site.

To use the new video-streaming features of EyeTV, you must update the software to version 3.3. Mobile Safari on your … Read more

Susan Boyle's first appearance on "Britain's Got Talent" tallied the most worldwide views on YouTube for 2009, the video site said Wednesday.

The video of the once-unknown singer captured more than 120 million views.

Her video was followed "David After Dentist" (37 million views), "JK Wedding Entrance Dance" (33 million views), "New Moon Movie Trailer" (31 million views), and "Evian Roller Babies" (27 million views).

YouTube also looked specifically at which music videos tallied the most views for the year.

Pitbull's "I Know You Want Me&… Read more

About 81 percent of Web users leave an online video page if they encounter mid-stream rebuffering, a new study from video analytics firm TubeMogul has found.

Rebuffering has become a major issue for most Web users. And even though TubeMogul found that just 7 percent of streaming video is slow-loading, it said Web video still can't quite match TV-quality viewing.

"The technology just isn't there yet to have a TV-like experience," David Burch, marketing director at TubeMogul, said in a statement. "And if it's an advertiser hosting video on a branded site or distributing … Read more

Yet another wireless technology has been finalized by its backers, this one promising even faster speeds than current Wi-Fi specs.

The new WiGig standard has been finalized by the Wireless Gigabit Alliance, a group comprised of such heavy hitters as Intel, Dell, NEC, Toshiba, and Microsoft. WiGig promises speeds as fast as 7 gigabits per second, about ten times quicker than Wireless N (802.11n).

But don't get ready to throw out your existing Wi-Fi network. WiGig will only work over short distances, for instance, within a single room. So it's not designed to replace 802.11, but … Read more

The race is over. Ustream Live Broadcaster is the first app that can stream live video from the iPhone to the Internet. It's free, and it works. Will society ever be the same?

History may well record that Knocking Live, which debuted with some fanfare last week, was the iPhone's first video-streaming app. But only other iPhone users can watch the feeds; Ustream lets the world tune in.

Indeed, in case you're unfamiliar with the service, Ustream allows anyone with a Webcam to broadcast live video to a private or public audience. In this case, the iPhone … Read more

Boxee unveiled its first dedicated hardware product this evening at a media event in Brooklyn. The so-called "Boxee Box" will be a tiny set-top box produced by D-Link. It's scheduled to be released in the second quarter of 2010, and will cost about $200.

Details of the Boxee Box came at the end of a long presentation that also featured a walk-through of the beta version of the company's Windows and Mac software that lets users access a variety of Web-based media content through a single easy-to-use interface. (See Rafe Needleman's detailed hands-on preview of the Boxee Beta.) … Read more

For a while, some believed that the Web and social networks would limit the amount of time people spend consuming video content. But Nielsen's latest A2/M2 Three Screen Report has found that people are actually consuming content on more platforms, thanks to digital video recorders and the Web.

According to the report, which looks at content viewing on television, the Web, and several other platforms, online-video viewing was up a whopping 34.9 percent in the third quarter. DVR use was up 21.1 percent, the study found. Surprisingly, 99 percent of video content that's watched in … Read more

Update 1:32 p.m. PST to include some of the reasons sources say Apple is interested in Lala.

Apple is close to acquiring digital-music service Lala, according to two sources with knowledge of the discussions.

Talks are very advanced, the sources said Friday. One said that the sides have already agreed on terms and have only to sign a final agreement. (Update 6:21 p.m. PST: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are reporting that Apple and Lala have struck a deal.)

Steve Dowling, Apple's spokesman, said the company doesn't comment on rumors and … Read more