Even though 56 percent of U.S. households have high-def, more than 80 percent of television viewing is still done in standard definition, according to a report this week by Nielsen.

We at Digits were surprised by this number and wondered why people with HD TVs would watch so much non-HD programming. Nielsen explains that most people with HD TVs also have non-HD televisions in the house, and a full third of programming is viewed on those standard sets. (This is where your Digits blogger differs from these other HD viewers: She has just one television.)

Even on HD sets, though, about 20 percent of programs are viewed through non-HD feeds.

Children’s programming is the least likely to be watched in high-def, Nielsen says. Part of the reason for this could be that the TVs in kids’ rooms are often these secondary, non-HD sets.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

“In the short run, people gotta want these phones. I think they’re going to look pretty good. That’s the most important thing. If we start the popularity chain, and start kind of the buzz around these things, we’ll be able to make some money off of them.”

– Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

With the launch of Windows Phone 7 today, Microsoft is taking another shot at a market even its CEO, Steve Ballmer, concedes it stumbled in. “We were ahead of this game and now we find ourselves No. 5 in the market,” he said during our D8 conference in June. “We missed a whole cycle.”

Badly, too–as this exchange at the company’s 2009 Public Sector CIO Summit painfully illustrates.

Questioner: With platforms like the Google phone and iPhone coming out, it’s really tough to continue to stand behind Windows Mobile when our employees are bringing these consumer devices into our environments,” the questioner explained. And in your presentation you put Windows Mobile right in the center there, but it was a phone that doesn’t work in America and an operating system that you haven’t released. I’m wondering what your commitment is to continuing to get newer versions of the operating system in our hands so that we don’t have to fight this battle on the ground.”

Steve Ballmer: We have a significant release coming this year. Not the full release we wanted to have this year but we have a significant release coming this year with Windows Mobile 6.5….We still don’t get some of the things that people want on the highest-end phones. Those will come on Windows Mobile 7 next year. Certainly I’m not, um–there’s opportunities for us to accelerate our execution in this area, and we’ve done a lot of work to really make sure we have a team that’s going to be able to accelerate. With that said, we did sell more Windows Mobile devices last year than Apple did iPhones–just an important factoid to have. Blackberry was a little bit ahead, and Google was nowhere to be seen, except in Silicon Valley, I’m sure. But we’ll do our best to help you with that challenge.”

But Microsoft’s “best” at that point wasn’t nearly enough.

Intended as a stopgap, Windows Mobile 6.5 ended up being another damning monument to Microsoft’s failure to innovate in mobile and the ugly strategic misstep that made it an afterthought in a market that had already lapped it once and was well on its way to lapping it a second time. Just last week Verizon (VZ) President and COO Lowell McAdam dismissed Microsoft as a player in the mobile market. “We like our relationship with Microsoft,” he told News.com. “But clearly in the U.S. there are three major mobile operating systems: RIM, Google, and Apple….Microsoft is not at the forefront of our mind.”

If Windows Phone 7 doesn’t put it there, Microsoft (MSFT) might as well hand its fast-diminishing portion of the smartphone market to Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG) and RIM (RIMM), because they’ll take it soon enough.

But that’s not likely to happen. Because from what I’ve seen, Windows Phone 7 is as slick an OS as has ever come out of Microsoft–easily enough to keep the company in the mobile game, assuming it hasn’t lost it already.

For one thing, WP7 is not simply a rejiggering of Windows Mobile 6.5, it’s an entirely new OS. For another, its interface is unique enough to differentiate it in an already crowded market. It’s smart, too–perhaps even smart enough to give it a leg up on some rivals. Its hubs and tiles GUI, which aggregates applications and content according to subject and delivers real-time information to the home screen without the need for user involvement, is elegant and intuitive.

Add to this a media experience basically identical to Zune HD, very smart social media management, seamless Xbox live and SharePoint/Office integration and high minimum hardware requirements for OEMs and you’ve got a pretty compelling OS–even if it doesn’t yet support cut-and-paste and true multitasking (the company tells me those are coming). The challenge for Microsoft will be to convince a market that saw Windows Mobile made a laughing stock by iOS, Android and webOS, that Windows Phone 7 isn’t just more of the same.

That shouldn’t be too hard given the nearly half-billion dollars in marketing the company is rumored to be throwing at it (check out one of the first ads below) and the quality of the OS itself.

My colleague Peter Kafka will be covering the New York City launch of Windows Phone 7 later this morning. Join him here at 6:30 am PT/9:30 am ET for live coverage.

The new version of the device, 80 percent smaller than its predecessor, allows users to stream all sorts of media through Airplay–HD video, music and photos. First-run Hollywood titles in HD will rent for $4.99, and some will be available on the same day as the DVD release. Individual TV show episodes will go for 99 cents. Netflix (NFLX) members will gain access to the streaming videos in their queue, and Web entertainment fans can pull in videos from YouTube and photos from Flickr.

The TV show rentals may sound pretty disruptive, but as Peter Kafka noted when the rumors started flying, the venerable tube has withstood challenges before, and so far, at least, Apple (AAPL) has only Disney (DIS) and Fox (FOX) lined up to participate. Still, he noted, with a $99 price and the Apple name, things could get interesting.

The iPod touch–the No. 1 portable gaming machine in the world, Jobs said–is getting the Retina Display and A4 chip of the iPhone 4, along with HD video recording and a front-facing camera with support for FaceTime video chatting. And there’s a new ad tagline for the touch: “All kinds of fun.” The 8GB is available for $229, the 32GB for $299 and the 64GB for $399. Preorders begin today.

The new iPod nano is 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter than its predecessors, thanks to the elimination of all those bulky controls and the addition of a little multitouch screen. A colorful selection will go for $149 for 8GB, $179 for 16GB.

As to the iPod shuffle, Jobs said customers missed the controls on the current buttonless model, so the new version is getting a click wheel. Price is $49 for the 2GB gadget.

Weighing in at just over a pound, the Cius “offers HD video streaming and real-time video, multi-party conferencing, email, messaging, browsing, and the ability to produce, edit and share content stored locally or centrally in the cloud,” according to a Cisco (CSCO) news release (in full below). The pitch to IT departments is that the tablet offers a lower-cost alternative to laptops and desktops for mobile workers. No details yet on price or carrier arrangements.

By the way, Cius is pronounced “see-us” (and for heaven’s sake, don’t transpose the vowels when you’re typing; a cuis is a guinea pig-like rodent).

Cisco Simplifies Mobile Collaboration with First-of-its-kind HD Video-Capable Business Tablet

New Android-based Computing Device Uses Cisco Collaboration Architecture and Virtual Desktop Integration to Deliver Mobile Computing, Collaboration and Communication Services

LAS VEGAS – June 29, 2010 – Cisco today unveiled Cisco Cius , a first-of-its-kind mobile collaboration business tablet that delivers virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access to the full range of Cisco collaboration and communication applications, including HD video.

Cisco Cius is an ultra-portable device weighing just 1.15lbs (0.52kg) that extends the productivity benefits of Cisco collaboration applications to a highly secure mobile platform. In addition to full telepresence interoperability, Cisco Cius offers HD video streaming and real-time video, multi-party conferencing, email, messaging, browsing, and the ability to produce, edit and share content stored locally or centrally in the cloud.

Based on the Android operating system, Cisco Cius is an open platform for communication and collaboration whose form factor and applications are designed to more securely connect employees on-the-go with the right people in real-time, and to provide those workers with the ability to access and share the content they need from any place on the network.

Cisco Cius offers IT professionals new options when it comes to equipping mobile workers with computing devices. Through virtual desktop integration, Cisco Cius offers flexible computing options with cloud-based services, providing dramatically lower capital costs and cost-per-user for desktop maintenance.

Businesses can also tap into the growing Android developer community that is building business-class productivity applications with appropriate IT controls. The combination of applications and flexible computing options provides a compelling alternative to today’s PC-on-every-desktop paradigm.

ANNOUNCEMENT HIGHLIGHTS

Product Features

* The Cisco Cius is a lightweight portable business computing tablet offered with an optional HD audio station equipped with a telephone handset speakerphone, HD DisplayPort and USB ports.
* The Cisco Cius tablet features a front-mounted 720p HD camera which refreshes at up to 30 frames per second; a seven inch, high-resolution widescreen super VGA touch-target display for real-time and streamed video, and single-button TelePresence interoperability that can be utilized either when the tablet is docked, or being used remotely via Wi-Fi.
* The tablet has a 5-megapixel rear facing camera that can transmit streaming VGA quality video and capture still images, and dual noise-cancelling microphones for audio conferencing.
* Cisco Cius features an eloquent contacts-driven user experience, designed to enables users to quickly reach their important contacts.
* An on-board accelerometer readily orients applications for viewing in portrait or landscape modes as the user rotates the device to their preferred viewing orientation
* Cisco Cius supports 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi for enterprise campus mobility and 3G cellular services when off-campus. 4G services will be available at a later date. Bluetooth and Micro-USB means users can work untethered and share data with a PC.
* A detachable and serviceable battery offers eight hours life under normal usage.

“People are loving iPad as it becomes a part of their daily lives,” CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. “We’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more people around the world, including those in nine more countries next month.”

The current pace of iPad sales means Apple (AAPL) appears on track to blow the doors off most analyst estimates. Earlier this year, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi predicted sales would hit five million units in the first year, while Morgan Stanley (MS) analyst Katy Huberty was looking for more than six million. More recently, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky bullishly predicted sales of eight million, which at this point seem entirely realistic.

The official release below.

Apple Sells Three Million iPads in 80 Days

CUPERTINO, California–June 22, 2010–Apple® today announced that it sold its three millionth iPad™ yesterday, just 80 days after its introduction in the US. iPad is a revolutionary and magical product that allows users to connect with their apps, content and the Internet in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.

“People are loving iPad as it becomes a part of their daily lives,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more people around the world, including those in nine more countries next month.”

Developers have created over 11,000 exciting new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch™ user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. iPad will run almost all of the more than 225,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®.

Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds–thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook–and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.

[Image credit: Gizmodo commenter modestmouse]

“Yesterday, Steve Jobs unveiled, at his WWDC keynote, new iPhone 4 hardware and software,” said Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. “While this was widely anticipated, we believe the rich features, refinement, and higher build quality are worth noting and difficult to comprehend without seeing and using the new iPhone first-hand. We believe the combination of a new form factor and software will likely serve as a powerful catalyst for iPhone 4 sales, as we have seen in the past with several AAPL products including the MacBook Pro, iMac, and iPod nano, to name a few.”

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster felt much the same way. “While the announced features of the iPhone 4 were as expected, the reality is this phone is significantly more advanced than the next best alternative,” Munster wrote in a note to clients. “We see the iPhone 4 as the most meaningful revision since the iPhone 3G two years ago. As such, we believe more existing iPhone users will be inclined to upgrade to the iPhone 4 than we saw with the iPhone 3GS.”

Munster notes as well that gee-whiz features like iPhone 4’s FaceTime video calling app, its HD video camera and iMovie video editing software are together creating an integrated experience that typically requires multiple devices. “The bottom line is the iPhone is taking unit and dollar share from other device categories,” he writes.

Indeed, it was hard to watch Apple’s (AAPL) demo of the device’s HD video camera working in concert with iMovie Monday and not think that it’s going to eat the Flip Video camcorder and Kodak’s (EK) Zi8 alive as soon as it arrives at market. And things don’t look much better for Google’s (GOOG) Android “superphones,” though obviously, there’s a much bigger battle to be fought there. Certainly, the company and its hardware partners have some serious work to do in the months ahead. (Yes, the EVO’s a great start. But its battery issues are troubling, as even HTC CEO Peter Chou conceded at D8 last week.)

Said RBC analyst Mike Abramsky, “Recent competitive Android smartphone launches by Android-powered phones have raised competitive intensity; however, to us, iMovie for iPhone (demonstrated at WWDC) may be illustrative of Apple’s advantage in vertical integration (software/ hardware). We expect Apple to launch other ‘Super Apps’ on iOS that advantage the platform (multimedia, geo-positioning, touch interface, etc). Bing introduction on iOS may portend a further shift away from reliance upon Google for mobile search….The ‘repositioning’ of Apple’s iPhone OS–to iOS–at WWDC accelerates Apple’s (re)assault to lead personal computing, as the industry evolves to mobile.”

Steve Burke is about to take on a very big job: Combining GE’s (GE) NBC Universal with Comcast’s programming assets to create a television colossus. Good thing he has spent a lifetime in TV preparing for it.

But even without those responsibilities, Burke has plenty on his plate. As COO of the country’s biggest cable company, he helps steer Comcast (CMCSA) through tricky waters: Net neutrality, feisty file-sharers, sleeping tech guys, etc.

In certain circles–perhaps one you’re in sitting right now–the central question Burke and Comcast have to answer is: How are you going to survive the attempts of Google/Apple/everyone on the Web to turn you into an irrelevant dumb-pipe provider?

But the flip side of this question is just as valid: How can anyone really dislodge the company that controls the pipe that makes TV?

Liveblog

Kara starts off with the basics: Why do you want to buy NBC?

Burke: We’ve always believed that content and distribution go better together. We’ve had distribution, we’ve been trying to get content for a while. Tried to get Disney (DIS), came close to buying Universal when Vivendi owned the whole thing.

8:16 am: Kara–but lots of companies have tried marrying content and distribution. That doesn’t always work.

8:16 am: Burke–It has for News Corp. (NWS). But in our case, we already have the ability to put up 70,000 hours of content for video on demand. But we don’t have all the content we’d like. We don’t have day-and-date movies. We’d like all prime-time programming on VOD, etc. The thing that slows that down is the natural negotiations that you have to go through when you don’t own the content.

8:18 am: Kara–You’re also worried about becoming a dumb pipe, without control, right?

8:18 am: Burke: I like to think of it as opportunities. Look at DreamWorks (DWA)–they are worried about declining DVD sales, and they’d like to be able to do electronic sell-through. We’re in a position to help craft that evolution.

8:19 am: Kara–Are you sure consumers really want to watch this stuff on TVs, as opposed to iPads, etc?

8:20 am: Burke–We’re all for choice, anytime, anywhere. We believe consumers want that, too, and “it’s frustratingly slow” to get that to happen. “But I think that’s the world we’re all crashing into,” and “you can’t stop it anyway.”

8:21 am: What’s going with Hulu, which you’re going to own a piece of?

8:21 am: Burke–Whether it’s Hulu or Fancast, which we own all of, “people want their shows on the Internet. And they’re going to get their shows on the Internet.” Not sure if it’s going to be ad-supported or a paid model. “I know–I’ve read”–that Hulu is going to try a paid model.

8:22 am: We also support the TV-everywhere concept (spearheaded by Time Warner–get what you want on the Web, as long as you pay for a cable subscription).

8:23 am: Kara–you’re going to be running NBC, right?

8:23 am: When the deal closes, Jeff Zucker will run the entity. But he’ll report to me.

8:24 am: By the way, content and distribution don’t naturally work together. You have to make them work together. You have to do things that sometimes aren’t immediately advantageous for both sides.

8:24 am: Kara–Let’s talk about your individual businesses, as well as Steve Jobs’s expressed lack of interest in getting into TV. So cable is most important to you, right?

8:25 am: Burke–Cable provides the majority of NBCU’s cash flow. They’re the best part of the media landscape right now. Majority of cash at most entertainment companies comes from cable right now, and even more so at NBCU. But we also think there’s upside with Universal studio and NBC broadcast.

8:26 am: Okay, but give me an honest assessment of broadcast. What did you think of the Conan deal? Did they call you?

8:27 am: Burke–as the deal closes, it’s not our company. We can’t manage anything. To a degree, we’re watching things in the same way you are. There’s clearly a separation that exists. Because of regulators [natch].

8:27 am: Anyway, broadcast TV has been challenged for some time. But right now it looks to be on the upswing. Ads are coming back. retrans consent, where broadcasters will get money from cable operators, is coming. But broadly, if you look at TV, including cable, the overall television business is making as much money as ever.

8:29 am: Kara–do you still need broadcast networks anymore, anyway?

8:29 am: Burke–for big events, you can’t get a bigger audience. And that’s very attractive. We’re not naive. We know the business is “very challenged.” But in the next few years, there can be a real upside. We can invest in the business. If you’re in the network TV business, you have to spend the money to be competitive: on pilots, on encouraging creative people to work, etc. Note that NBC spent a lot more on pilots for this fall than they did a year ago. “If you’re in it, you have to be in it to invest and win. You can’t cut your way to success in broadcast TV.” [Which was Zucker's strategy last year. So what does that mean?]

8:31 am: Burke moves on to the Universal movie studio. It can move the existing library to different platforms, help it migrate from DVD to electronic sell-through, etc.

8:32 am: Will Burke have to do a lot of cost-cutting? When we bought AT&T (T), we did. But in this case, it’s not about costs. There’s very little overlap. It’s more of a case of trying to put everything together.

8:33 am: Kara: So will you sell anything off after the deal goes through?

Burke: No. We want the cable systems, but the other stuff has value, too. And all of the parts can work together.

8:34 am: Kara–How do you look at competitors like Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG). What do you think of Google TV?

8:34 am: Our real competitors are the satellite companies and telcos. Right now. The real challenge is delivering all that data. You need infrastructure–pipe–for that. That’s how you deliver tonnage. And it’s going to be that way for a long time. The Web can deliver video, but not the same tonnage, in the same way. There are a lot of companies that want to get to the TV set. And I think all of them can be complementary. But people who subscribe to us want ESPN, CNBC, etc.

8:36 am: Kara–But why do need bundles and tiers, anyway?

8:36 am: Burke: The programmers we work with want full distribution. And you pay $50, $60, and you get 200 channels. And the ecosystem works very well for the programmers, and it works well for us.

8:36 am: Kara–and for customers?

8:37 am: Burke–TV in the U.S. is better than anywhere in the world. It’s natural to say you only want to pay for two channels. And we could technically do that, and we could offer a less expensive bundle. But I think the business model has evolved to be what it is right now, and it’s been successful for both sides of the equation.

8:37 am: But again, people are picking and choosing what they want on the Web. And some of them seem to be turning off cable as well. Aren’t you worried about that?

8:38 am: Burke: We worry all the time. But the fact of the matter is, it’s counterintuitive. I have five kids. And they all consume media different ways. But quarter after quarter, year after year, cable subs go up. It has never gone down. There’s no evidence that people are giving up their cable. If people want ESPN or CNBC, they’re going to subscribe. In the future, you’ll have more stuff on more devices. But at the end of the day, it’s in the programmers’ interest to get affiliate fees for their stuff.

8:40 am: Kara–But don’t you think people want a la carte?

8:40 am: Burke–I’d like to buy the first section of the Wall Street Journal, and not the rest of the paper [followed by Kara fumbling with some math].

8:40 am: In any case, you’ve got much more choice now than you had 10 years ago. It’ll be the same thing in the next 10 years.

8:41 am: Kara–which devices are important to you beyond TV?

8:41 am: Burke–The iPad, of course. We just showed off that new iPad app/TV controller that will replace the crummy search and navigation that exists on the set-top box now.

8:43 am: Kara–Is 3-D coming to the home?

8:43 am: Burke–Yep. This won’t be like HD sets, where they started off very expensive and came down relatively slowly. We’ll get a point pretty quickly where if you’re buying a nice TV set, it will have 3-D. Now there are a lot of places where 3-D doesn’t enhance the experience. And they need to figure it out. For instance, you don’t 3-D when you have overhead shots at at a football game. So we need to figure out what percent of stuff you watch will have 3-D. But it’s coming.

8:44 am: Kara–Jobs talked about collapsing windows, but windows don’t really seem to ever collapse.

8:45 am: Burke–Right. They are narrowing, but only slightly. You want to have windows, but make sure they have a purpose. For instance, I think the best place to have a movie for the general public is the movie theater. I think that’s going to be the same for a long time.

8:46 am: Kara–But what if you don’t want to go the theater?

8:46 am: Burke–I don’t know. I think there’s a real benefit to having it in theaters opening weekend. But 90 days out, I’m not sure. It probably doesn’t have to be windowed for 90 days; you should be able to get it on VOD, etc.

8:47 am: Kara–One more time: What’s the most important device, either real or overhyped?

8:47 am: Burke–The iPad. I bring it everywhere I go. It’s so elegant. And so early in its life cycle. But I’m looking forward to other tablets, too. The big picture is that all this stuff will enhance the value of great content. That’s the bet we made with NBC, that it can get to more people, over more devices, and get more valuable that way. People are always worried about technology draining value from media, but each new wave of technology has been additive.

Q&A:

Q: Do you think your pipe business will become separate from rest of your business and become commoditized?

Burke: For starters, we’re already separating programming from video (which includes TV, high-speed, etc.

Q: What about the theory that big mergers, like the ones you’re doing, are products of hubris more than business savvy?

Burke: I know that theory. We’ve done a lot of deals. “Every single time we’ve done a deal, Wall Street has said, ‘Why are you doing that?’” But we have a view that content and distribution work together if properly managed. And that a company that gets bigger can do cool things with technology, if you do it right. “But we’re totally aware that there are a lot of people saying–’Why don’t you stay where you are?’ We think we’re getting a fairly priced deal for NBCU.”

Q: Do you think there will be a market for set-top boxes that consumers buy on their own, with features they want?

Burke: Complicated question. Each MSO is a conglomeration of different technologies. We’d love it if people bought their own set-top boxes. We’d save a ton of money. But the different technologies involved make that difficult.

Q: What’s your mobile strategy?

Burke: We’ve invested in Clearwire. We’re rolling out WiMax. We’re big believers in Wi-Fi. The iPad makes you want Wi-Fi meshing in cities, and we’re working on that. But the traditional cellphone business, as a fourth product to complement TV, landline and Web, doesn’t make sense for us.

Q: You guys have been good about chasing after malware, botnets, etc. What can you do to get others to emulate you?

Burke: The Internet business is crucial for us. It’s a growth driver. So we have to provide really reliable, really fast Internet service. And we believe in open internet. But you have to deal with congestion and protect copyrights and prevent malware and spam, and we invest a lot in that. It’s a very tricky balancing act, to make sure that the highway is really fast, but also controlled.

Q: I run Hillcrest, and Hulu blocked my service. Will you do something different when you own NBC?

Burke: “It’s not time for me to answer that question.”

Kara: “Really?”

Burke: “Really.”

Q: Your customers hate you. What are doing about that?

Burke: We’re working on customer service, spending a lot of money on it. If you don’t take care of your customers, they’re going to go somewhere else. The physical networks are getting more sophisticated. But we want to improve them.

Q: Apologies, missed the question here.

Burke is explaining that TV software platform is “balkanized” compared with the Web, where it’s much easier to get stuff to work together.

A note about our coverage: This liveblog is not an official transcript of the conversation that occurred onstage. Rather, it is a compilation of quotes, paraphrased statements and ad-lib observations written and posted to the Web as quickly as possible. It is not intended as a transcript and should not be interpreted as one.

Tonight, Cisco unveiled the latest version in its popular and innovative Flip digital videocamera line, the SlideHD.

The new device, which can record up to four hours of high-definition video and store up to 12 hours of content, has a dramatic slide-up touchscreen and a slide navigation bar.

These make the new Flip much bulkier than the last version, the Mino, recalling the earlier Ultra line.

Presumably, the reason for the new look is to offer a product that consumers can use for instant playback and to hold more video.

Cisco (CSCO) said the SlideHD will cost about $280.

Here’s a video BoomTown did introducing my many old Flips to the new one:

And here’s the official press release:

CISCO LAUNCHES THE ALL-NEW FLIP SLIDEHD

The world’s first shoot and show camcorder features unique new design with full widescreen playback and more hours of video

April 13, 2010–San Francisco, CA–Cisco today announced the newest member of its groundbreaking Flip Video™ line, the Flip SlideHD™. It’s an all-new Flip, with an all-new form factor, designed to make it even more fun to capture, watch and share HD videos anytime, anywhere. With Flip SlideHD, active consumers and families can record up to four hours of HD video, or store up to 12 hours of content, and then view it instantly with a stunning slide-up full widescreen.

“Since its launch less than three years ago, Flip Video has changed the way the world captures and shares video,” said Jonathan Kaplan, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Consumer Products. “Now Flip is once again re-inventing the video market with the amazing new Flip SlideHD, which raises the bar for making video easy and fun to capture, share and show.”

With SlideHD, anyone can capture an exciting event and then relive the moment with immediate playback as friends gather around. In addition, with up to 12 hours of on-board storage, SlideHD makes it easy for people to bring their videos and photos with them as they travel or meet up with friends or family. It’s like having your own portable life book for spontaneous viewing anywhere. SlideHD’s 3-inch widescreen playback makes it ideal for many occasions such as entertaining the kids with their own personal video show or fine-tuning a tennis serve.

The Flip SlideHD is the first Flip Video camera that lets consumers shoot up to four hours of HD video or store up to 12 hours of videos, photos, and content from Flip channels. SlideHD is also the first Flip to enable real-time video sharing on a stunning 3- inch widescreen with a unique slide-up design. SlideHD’s simple touch screen and innovative slide strip make it easy and fun to quickly navigate through your library to locate a video or photo.

Following the success of Flip’s popular and stylish Mino line, SlideHD lets users choose from thousands of designs from artists, leading design firms, celebrities, and iconic brands, or they can easily upload their own image to create a one-of-a-kind camcorder.

The new Flip SlideHD joins the popular Flip Video family which includes the Flip Ultra™ and Flip Mino™ lines. Like all Flip models, the SlideHD is pre-loaded with the proprietary FlipShare™ software that allows consumers to easily organize, create and share their videos. Using a PC or Mac, Flip video content can be instantly uploaded and ready for one-click sharing in a multitude of ways both privately and publicly. From social media sites–Facebook™, MySpace™ and YouTube™–to email, mobile devices, Flip Channels, and the TV; FlipShare is the easiest solution for consumers to share their videos.

Since the debut of the Flip Video family of video cameras in 2007, more than four million have been sold and millions of videos have been shared using FlipShare software.

Flip SlideHD Product Specifications:
• Color: White/Silver and Personalized
• Recording Time: Up to four hours
• Storage Time: Up to 12 Hours
• Memory: 16GB
• Screen: 3-inch wide transflective touch screen
• Video Resolution: High Definition; 1280×720 (30fps)
• Video Format: H.264, MP4
• Battery: Internal Li-ion rechargeable
• Battery Life: up to two hours
• TV Output: HDMI Widescreen
• Zoom: 2x digital
• Audio: Stereo speakers, headset jack

Price and Availability

SlideHD is immediately available for an MSRP of $279.99 at major retailers, online retailers and at the Flip store, www.theflip.com/store.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100412/ciscos-slidehd-debuts-a-video-encounter-of-the-flip-kind/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20100408/golf-now-with-three-dimensional-azaleas/ http://allthingsd.com/20100408/golf-now-with-three-dimensional-azaleas/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 07:00:10 +0000 John Paul Newport http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=23667 This year’s Masters tournament will be the first golf event to broadcast live in high-definition 3D. Few people have three-dimension televisions yet, so to some extent this year’s broadcasts will be like the proverbial tree falling in the forest that nobody hears. But reporters got a preview of the technology Wednesday afternoon during ESPN’s 3D broadcast of the par-three contest, and it was a thrill.

You have to wear special 3D glasses, of course, and the dedicated technophile might find minor issues to quibble about. Some of the graphics had odd shadows. Quick camera pans blurred fractionally. But it took me only about 30 seconds to begin coveting a 3D television for my home.

The images were razor sharp, thanks to the HD part of the equation, and the 3D effect was continual. In other words, it wasn’t just that the crowd in the foreground appeared to be on a different plane from the players on the tee, but that the woman at the ropes appeared to be in a different space than the man standing right behind her, and that golfer A seemed to be in a different dimension than golfer B.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100408/golf-now-with-three-dimensional-azaleas/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100324/new-tivo-mixes-tv-and-internet-but-falls-short/ http://allthingsd.com/20100324/new-tivo-mixes-tv-and-internet-but-falls-short/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:06:48 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1222 TiVo is the most famous third-party set-top box for your TV. The company popularized the idea of digital video recording and, in recent years, also has added to its devices the ability to deliver some Internet video content to the TV screen.

But TiVo is being squeezed. Cable and satellite companies now offer boxes with DVR capabilities. And other tech companies are rolling out competing set-top boxes to get Internet video to televisions.

TiVo (TIVO) is responding with a new model, the TiVo Premiere, that aims to seamlessly blend programming from conventional TV and the Internet. It is slimmer, has a slicker user interface and holds more recorded programming than earlier models—45 hours of high-definition programs, up from 20 hours in the prior model, the TiVo HD. A more expensive version of the Premiere, the XL, has the same new software and holds 150 hours of HD shows.

I have been testing the new Premiere, and it worked as advertised, with conventional cable programming and with the available Internet sources TiVo (TIVO) supports. But, in my tests, it showed some flaws and, in my view, it doesn’t go nearly far enough in tapping the Internet.

Like prior TiVos, I’d rate the Premiere as better than the standard cable-company-supplied boxes I’ve seen. But, if you already own a recent-model TiVo, I don’t believe the Premiere justifies an upgrade, unless you need the greater built-in storage.

The TiVo Premiere goes on sale Sunday at Best Buy (BBY) stores for $300, plus a monthly fee of $13, or an annual or lifetime payment plan ranging from $129 for a year of service to $399 for the life of the device. The Premiere XL costs $500, plus the same fees. Both will be available Monday at tivo.com.

TiVo calls the Premiere “the One Box,” because it better integrates regular TV and Internet content. However, it actually has no additional Internet services compared with recent TiVo models. It allows you to get movies, TV shows and videos from YouTube, Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Blockbuster (BBI), which are available on competing set-top boxes. It also includes a number of online music and photo services.

The company says a couple of added Internet services will be available later this year. These include the Pandora streaming music service and a widget system displaying things like news, stock prices and Twitter updates. However, the widgets won’t allow you to interact with Twitter and won’t be viewable while you’re watching TV or Internet video.

The biggest changes in the new Premiere involve the user interface. The TiVo Central screens, where you find and manage recorded shows and other content, are now presented in high definition and wide screen. This allows more menus on a single screen. The screen containing your recorded shows is now called My Shows instead of Now Playing.

You also can now watch TV in a small window while you’re on the menu screens, and there is a 30-second skip button on the remote.

The new TiVo Premiere

Also, a new Browse function lets you look for programming without typing search terms, by scrolling through colorful icons that include “collections” of related content, such as Oscar or Emmy winners.

Both Search and Browse now integrate regular TV shows with Internet content. If you start typing letters into the search box, TiVo will respond not only with TV shows that match, but with movies and TV shows that you can download from Web sources. You can also easily find YouTube clips related to a favorite show.

A new Discovery Bar of icons appears across the top of the Tivo Central screens. It’s filled with icons of TV shows and available Web content TiVo thinks you might like.

But there are some big downsides to the Premiere. You can’t watch videos on popular sites like Hulu (owed in part by News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal and its Web sites), CBS.com, blogs or news Web sites. This may be partly due to media-company restrictions, not TiVo’s shortcomings, but it means the Premiere omits vast sources of Internet video.

The new HD interface was slower than the old standard one in my tests, with frequent delays, even in scrolling through a list of recorded shows. TiVo says this is a bug being fixed.

In addition, I found the Discovery Bar a distraction, cluttering the menu screens, with no way to turn it off unless you revert to the old interface (a buried option.) This is partly because TiVo hopes to sell ads on the bar.

Finally, the new HD interface isn’t available when watching live TV. You have to constantly bounce between the new and old software designs.

All in all, TiVo Premiere looks incomplete. It seems more like a platform for a future set of offerings TiVo hopes one day to have, rather than a way to deliver new content right now.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free of charge, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100324/new-tivo-mixes-tv-and-internet-but-falls-short/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100324/sprints-evo-4g-wow/ http://allthingsd.com/20100324/sprints-evo-4g-wow/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:05:20 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=37237 Sprint may finally have the “hero” device it has been lacking: The EVO 4G, a feature-packed handset that will be the first to run on the company’s 4G WiMax network.

Designed by HTC, EVO runs Google’s (GOOG) Android 2.1 operating system and boasts some killer features: A 4.3-inch touchscreen display, a 1GHz Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon processor, an eight-megapixel camera on the back, a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front (presumably for video chat), support for HD video capture, an FM radio and, of course, 3G/4G capability, which should theoretically support download speeds of more than 10 Mbps, assuming access to WiMax.

A superb feature set–on paper, anyway. Certainly, Sprint’s (S) leadership is convinced they’ve got a game-changer in the EVO: “This is going to be an iconic handset without question,” Sprint’s David Owens told Reuters.

And those who have gotten some early hands-on time with the device seem to agree. Engadget calls it “breathtaking.” Gizmodo was equally impressed: “[the] Evo 4G is the best Android phone out there. It may even be the best phone, period.”

Of course, these are simply first impressions. And it’s important to remember that while EVO specs out quite nicely, one of its biggest selling points, 4G support, involves a network that isn’t yet widely available.

In any event, the EVO seems to be a nice piece of hardware, one that’s likely to raise the table stakes in the mobile market. The smartphone goes on sale sometime this summer for an as yet undisclosed price.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100324/sprints-evo-4g-wow/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100305/ipad-goes-on-sale-april-3-pre-orders-begin-march-12/ http://allthingsd.com/20100305/ipad-goes-on-sale-april-3-pre-orders-begin-march-12/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:29:52 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=36177 So much for those rumored iPad delays and production bottlenecks. Apple said this morning that its new tablet device will arrive at market on Saturday, April 3, with pre-orders beginning March 12.

Initially, only Wi-Fi models will be available, with their 3G counterparts to follow later in the month. Late April will also see the device going on sale in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.

Given the time between the launch date of the Wi-Fi-only and 3G versions, will any early adopter be patient enough to wait for the latter?

Below, the press release announcing the iPad’s on-sale and shipping dates (Caution, Press release: May contain unnecessary superlatives, profound lack of objectivity).

iPad Available in US on April 3

Pre-Order on March 12

CUPERTINO, Calif., March 5/ — Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Starting at just $499, iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds-thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook-and delivers battery life of up to 10 hours.*

iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface makes surfing the web an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. You can read and send email on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard or import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. iPad makes it easy to watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD, or flip through the pages of an ebook you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.

The App Store on iPad lets you wirelessly browse, buy and download new apps from the world’s largest app store. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the more than 150,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. Developers are already creating exciting new apps designed for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.

The new iBooks app for iPad includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile product. The iBookstore will feature books from the New York Times Best Seller list from both major and independent publishers, including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.

The iTunes® Store gives iPad users access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 films including over 2,500 in stunning high definition. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.

Pricing & Availability

iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. International pricing will be announced in April. iPad will ship in additional countries later this year.

The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US on April 3, with additional countries added later this year.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100305/ipad-goes-on-sale-april-3-pre-orders-begin-march-12/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100303/how-to-watch-video-wirelessly-on-your-tv-set/ http://allthingsd.com/20100303/how-to-watch-video-wirelessly-on-your-tv-set/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:03:34 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1202 An increasing number of people are watching video, including TV shows and movies, on their computers, instead of via traditional TV sets.

Many young people don’t even bother with a cable or satellite subscription and just use their PCs or Macs to get their video fix.

But computer screens are small, so some folks hook the computer up to the TV for their viewing sessions. The problem with this is that it can be complicated for the technically challenged. And it can involve long cables stretching across the floor, or leaving a computer you might want for other tasks permanently connected to the TV. So companies have been working on ways to beam Internet video wirelessly from your computer to your TV.

I’ve been testing two of these wireless PC-to-TV solutions. Both require a secondary device that remains connected to the TV to receive the wireless signal from the computer.

One product is a new system from Intel (INTC), several major laptop makers and the networking equipment company Netgear (NTGR). It’s called Intel Wireless Display, or Wi-Di for short. The other is a software product called PlayOn, from a company called MediaMall. It beams video to your TV through popular game consoles such as Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360, Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. Both of these products only work on Windows computers.

In my tests, both systems mostly worked as advertised, but each had some downsides. The Intel system works with any video from any site you can play on the computer, but the video disappears from the TV if you are playing it in full-screen mode and get the impulse to use the computer for any other purpose while it is playing. And it only works on a handful of new, specially equipped PCs.

The PlayOn system will work on an existing computer, and it keeps showing a video even if you choose to use the PC for some other task. But it can’t beam just any old video to the TV, only those from services PlayOn has enabled. For instance, you can watch TV shows and movies from Hulu (partly owned by News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal and its Web sites) but not from your favorite random Web site.

Intel’s new Wi-Di system is so far only available on three specific laptop models, one each from Toshiba, Sony and Dell (DELL), that range from $900 to $1,050. And these laptops are so far only available from Best Buy (BBY). It also requires a small $100 adapter called Push2TV from Netgear, which comes free with these laptops.

Wi-Di requires computers equipped with Intel’s brand new 2010 Core processors, Intel’s graphics chips and Intel’s wireless chips. Netgear and Intel say the feature will be available on other PC models later in the year.

I tested Wi-Di with the $900 Toshiba E205, a capable laptop with a 14-inch screen. Setup was a breeze. I just plugged the Netgear box into my TV and pushed a special Wi-Di button on the Toshiba. I typed in a code number the first time I used it, and I was in business.

Instantly, anything showing on the Toshiba’s screen was wirelessly replicated on the TV screen, even though I was eight feet away.

I tested the system with YouTube, Hulu and many other Web sites with no hitches or glitches. I also played videos stored on the PC’s hard disk.

Video mostly played smoothly over Wi-Di, though the quality on the TV was a bit degraded from that on the laptop screen, and HD videos didn’t look nearly as good as normal HD TV broadcasts. Also, the system isn’t satisfying unless you are streaming a video that can be viewed in full-screen mode on the PC.

I tested PlayOn with a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop and a PlayStation 3. After hooking up the PS3, I installed the $40 PlayOn software, which runs in the background. I then navigated to the Video section of the Sony’s menu, found PlayOn listed and used the Sony’s remote control to select from supported services, which include YouTube, Hulu, Netflix (NFLX), CBS.com (CBS), Amazon (AMZN) Video on Demand, CNN.com,and ESPN.com.

PlayOn also allows third-party plug-ins to add other Web video sources, such as NBC.com, but the company admits that the plug-in process can be clunky.

Video quality was about the same on PlayOn as on Wi-Di, and most programs played smoothly. With PlayOn, you don’t see the actual Web site, and you’re limited to the navigation system and options of the game console you’re using. So, I had to tediously find shows on the Sony by trolling through long lists.

PlayOn failed to display videos and photos stored on my PC, though to be fair the company lists this as a beta feature. And it displayed brief error messages frequently, even when it proceeded to play my chosen video properly.

PlayOn costs $40, and can be downloaded from www.playon.tv. You also must own or buy a game console, or one of a smattering of less- well-known TV adapters that the system supports.

Watching Internet video is a better experience with no wires to get in the way. But it can cost a lot, and needs some work.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100303/how-to-watch-video-wirelessly-on-your-tv-set/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100218/cbs-well-cut-itunes-prices-for-some-shows/ http://allthingsd.com/20100218/cbs-well-cut-itunes-prices-for-some-shows/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:49:43 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=16459 Steve Jobs’s effort to cut prices on TV shows sold on iTunes has found at least partial backing from CBS. CEO Les Moonves says the broadcaster will mark down the price on some of its shows from $1.99 to 99 cents.

“There are certain shows that will be sold on Apple for 99 cents,” Moonves said today, adding, however, that details have not been worked out.

It’s possible that Moonves doesn’t plan to make any significant concessions on pricing–CBS, like other networks, already offers some older shows, or new shows it wants to promote, at discount prices. But the context of Moonves’s comments, which came during the company’s earnings call today, indicated that he is planning on changing his pricing structure on more than a one-off basis.

UPDATE: That metaphorical throat-clearing you might be hearing right now is the sound of people who are familiar with Moonves’s thinking. Said people are telling me that while CBS is open to talks with Apple, etc., the company has no imminent plans to change pricing and that Moonves didn’t really mean to imply that anything is afoot. But since said people won’t go on the record, we have to go with what Moonves actually said.

Any kind of price cut would represent a partial victory for Jobs and Apple (AAPL) content boss Eddy Cue, who have been trying to convince the networks to lower their prices. The Financial Times first reported on those efforts last month.

Video sales haven’t been robust at iTunes and aren’t a significant revenue source for the networks. But since the networks are still worried about cannibalizing existing revenue sources like syndication fees and DVD sales, they’ve been reluctant to chop prices further.

GE’s (GE) NBC Universal ended up yanking its shows off of iTunes in 2008 because it wanted the ability to raise prices, and it got at least some of what it wanted: Since that imbroglio, networks have been able to sell their HD shows for $2.99 a piece.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100218/cbs-well-cut-itunes-prices-for-some-shows/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100208/how-to-cram-most-of-the-web-into-one-super-bowl-ad-and-not-sell-tvs/ http://allthingsd.com/20100208/how-to-cram-most-of-the-web-into-one-super-bowl-ad-and-not-sell-tvs/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:05 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=16050 Yep, Google did indeed take out its first Super Bowl ad last night–a tweaked version of the “Search Stories” clip it has been showing on the Web for several months.

But Google also got a second promotion during last night’s game, though I’m guessing it didn’t pay for this one. An ad promoting Internet-connected TVs from Vizio featured a battery of viral video stars made famous via Google’s YouTube–without ever mentioning Google (GOOG) or YouTube by name.

The spot does give formal, if very fast, shoutouts to Web services like Facebook, Pandora, Twitter, Vudu, Yahoo (YHOO) and Yahoo’s Flickr. Oh. And Beyoncé.

Swing and a miss, in my humble amateur advertising critic’s opinion.

For one thing, anyone who’s going to recognize the likes of Tay Zonday and the Numma Numma guy knows that the whole “cramming all of YouTube’s stars into one bit” bit has been done by lots of people before, most notably South Park. Everyone else will just wonder who the fat kid and the skinny dude are.

The other problem with this ad is one common to many efforts to sell Internet-connected TVs: It doesn’t explain the most compelling use for these things.

Because you may not want to watch YouTube on your big screen (or to use Twitter or call up Pandora, etc.). But you may very well want to watch streaming movies and TV shows from services like Netflix (NFLX) and Vudu.

You’d have to squint very hard to see that the Vizio spot was showing a clip from “The Hangover,” though. And chances are that almost no one who saw the ad has heard of Vudu (hence its sale talks).

So there’d be no way for anyone to know that Internet-connected TVs make this stuff really easy. Too bad. If you see this stuff demoed in person, it’s really compelling–it gets close to the “500 channels” pitch we used to hear about in the early 90s, in the best possible way.

At some point in the next few years, there will be no need to pitch this, because the majority of new TVs sold will be Internet-connected. In the same way HD is now more or less standard on new sets.

But for now, this stuff is still a novelty. A good way to change this might be with an effective ad.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100208/how-to-cram-most-of-the-web-into-one-super-bowl-ad-and-not-sell-tvs/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100205/tivo-new-hd-box-coming/ http://allthingsd.com/20100205/tivo-new-hd-box-coming/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:00:19 +0000 Eric Savitz http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=20953 Is TiVo (TIVO) about to roll out a new HD DVR?

Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible pointed out in a short research note today that TiVo’s $250 HD DVR–the primary SKU for its stand-alone business–is out of stock on both TiVo.com and BestBuy.com (BBY).

That could reflect strong holiday sales, he says. But he thinks it is “a likely harbinger that a new product launch in on the way.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100205/tivo-new-hd-box-coming/feed/ 0