Hulu

The Sony TV device spotted in an FCC filing last month was briefly unveiled by Sony in a blog post that has since been deleted. Engadget spotted the post for the Sony Bravia Smart Stick before it was pulled.

It’s an MHL dongle that runs both Google TV and Sony’s own BRAVIA apps. The features are just like Google TV boxes Sony has released before, with a remote (that the FCC filings showed is at least similar to the previous ones) that has QWERTY and voice search support. Additionally, its “picture-and-picture” feature lets users see a browser in one window and TV in another … 
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Variety has the scoop:

“We are actively working with Google to bring Hulu Plus to the platform,” Hulu rep Meredith Kendall said. “At Hulu, we’re constantly innovating to provide our users with access to their favorite TV shows anytime, anywhere, on any device.”

What a stark contrast to when GoogleTV was released and Hulu blocked, yes BLOCKED, Google TVs from accessing Hulu content.  Yes, a few years makes a big difference and Hulu has since gotten comfortable on set top boxes, but I think the model where Google puts content owners in control has struck a chord with content distributors. They are 100% in control of what goes on Chromecast.

“Here’s how you put your content on a Chromecast. They are $35 and going to be everywhere. Do what you want” works.

Vimeo, HBO, Redbox, and many others are also jumping on board.
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Google experienced more copyright removal notices for URLs in the last month than it did for all of 2009.

The search engine processed more than 4.3 million URL removal requests in the last 30 days, and it plans to redirect this data as a signal for search rankings. The bevy of infringing Web content spurred Google to take into account valid copyright removal notices for websites to verify its search algorithms yield the highest quality results.

Google elaborated on its Inside Search blog: 

• Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results. This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily—whether it’s a song previewed on NPR’s music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed fromSpotify.

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Hacker “ReActiveDisorder” posted, well, a hack on the XDADevelopers forum recently that allows the Hulu Plus app to work with the Samsung Epic Touch 4G without a root.

“I have a Hulu membership and was angry cause our device wasnt “Compatible”. Talk about a total rip off. So I modded the apk to work with our device. It is 100% Fully functioning. I hope to contribute more later down the road. Maybe an ICS Rom ;-),” explained ReActiveDisorder on the forum.

Directions:
1. Download the Modded APK at http://db.tt/sq1AjQQu 
2. Sideload APK—it installs like other non-market apps.
3. Sign into Hulu Plus (membership required).

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[slideshow]
Hulu Plus is now available on seven Android tablets with a new user interface.

The “Hulu Plus” app is available on Google Play with an improved experience for the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Motorola Xoom, Motorola XYBoard 10.1, Toshiba Thrive, Acer Iconia, and LG G-Slate.

“This is just the beginning of our Android tablet rollout,” announced Hulu on its official blog.

Hulu is a flash-based service with ad-supported on-demand streaming video of television shows, movies, webisodes, and trailers from a variety of content suppliers, including NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, and Nickelodeon. Hulu Plus is the $7.99 monthly subscription variant that officially launched in 2010 and allots subscribers an expanded content library. Like the free version, Hulu’s videos showcase commercials.

Video is available below.

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A new comScore research study revealed that United States viewership in January 2012 suffered a slight decline from December 2012, also proving Google was right to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into getting premium partners for content on YouTube. Last month, 181 million online users in the U.S. consumed nearly 40 billion online videos, which is a drop from 43.5 billion clips watched by 182 million users in December 2011. On average, we watched 22.6 hours of online clips with a 6.1-minute duration for each clip.

The search and Internet giant continues to lead the online video market with 152 million unique viewers. Google-operated websites cumulatively account for a whopping 18.6 billion views. Rival Hulu and VEVO delivered 877 and 717 million views, respectively.. In addition to Google websites, VEVO (51.5 million), Yahoo websites (49.2 million), Viacom Digital (48.1 million) and Facebook (45.1 million) round-up the top five online video destinations in the country.

Be advised that comScore defines a video as any streamed segment of audiovisual content for both progressive downloads and live streams. For long-form, segmented content, such as television episodes with ad pods in the middle, each segment of the content is counted as a distinct video stream…

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I’m just crossing 48 hours with the Kindle Fire and have a few quick observations that I think need to be brought to the surface on this great little device.

1. It isn’t an iPad competitor any more than a Mercedes SUV is a competitor to a Toyota Prius.  A 7-inch tablet is an entirely different use case than a 10-incher.  At $199, it is more likely to take away iPod touch customers rather than iPad customers from Apple.  But mostly, Kindle people will be people who wouldn’t have considered an Apple tablet previously.
2. The Fire isn’t a speed demon.  A few minutes navigating with the Fire is all it takes to realize that there are hiccups.  To me, it feels more sluggish than a Galaxy Tab 7 from last year, especially on CPU intensive stuff.  Amazon has done nice things with the interface and they should be congratulated on their virtual keyboard (it is one of the best I’ve used), but make no mistake, inside of this case is bargain basement components.
3. If you are new to Amazon’s ecosystem, there isn’t a lot of content in there.  Getting some will be expensive.  In my family, my wife has the Prime account and our music in the Amazon Cloud is tied there as well.  That means any audio and video has to be purchased or brought over manually.
4. The Kindle quickly became a Hulu Plus and Netflix player in our house – which the Barnes and Noble Nook can do just as well.  Or any Android tablet.
5. The Silk browser wasn’t impressive.  It is slow, (probably more a processor thing here than a software thing).  I had more success with the Dolphin browser.
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AllThingsD is reporting that along with Amazon, Yahoo, and Dish Network, Google has made a bid for the free video streaming service Hulu. AllThingsD doesn’t provide any details quite yet, but we can imagine Google’s bid is in the range of $1.5 – $2 billion — just like the other three companies are offering. AllThingsD can’t confirm if Google has made a definitive bid, or is just offering a sum of money.

Google chariman Eric Schmidt said at a conference in Europe last month that Google isn’t ready to give up on Google TV. He cites possible Google TV downfall is due to the scarce amount of set-top boxes rather than full television sets.

The acquisition of Hulu would sure be a break through for Google TV. Currently, almost every large television network is blocking streaming to Google TV, making the content lineup almost non-existent. With Hulu and its partners, Google could open up a whole new realm of content to the service.

AllThingsD has indictated that Google has made clear to Hulu that they are ready to offer a large sum of cash for the product, and we know they’re not scared to do it. Hulu isn’t exactly sure what their stance is on selling quite yet, but we’re sure to hear more in the coming weeks.

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For those of you who are big fans of Hulu Plus, you’ll be happy to know that the streaming service has landed on the Vizio 8. Currently, Hulu Plus is available on a total of ten Android phones– making the Vizio 8 the first Android tablet.

As This is my next points out, the Vizio 8 is available for $299 making it a nice cheap option to view Hulu Plus.