browser

SnapTV--an Oslo-based company that bills itself as providing customized, turnkey IPTV, VOD, PVR and OTT systems for small and medium-sized ISP's, residential and commercial buildings and the hospitality and healthcare spaces--contacted [itvt] Tuesday to let us know that it plans to launch a turnkey, browser-based user interface at IBC which it claims will bring IPTV services to market in record time.

Munich-based augmented reality specialist, metaio, announced Tuesday that its flagship junaio mobile AR browser--which is now available for the Android OS as well as for the iPhone--can now not only display informational overlays that have previously been associated with nearby points of interest, such as shops, restaurants and train stations, and that are triggered via GPS, but can actually identify objects and dynamically "glue" specific, real-time, dynamic, social and 3D information onto those objects.

Hillcrest Labs, a company best known for its Freespace in-air pointing and motion-control technology and its Loop pointer (see, for example, the article published on itvt.com, November 11th), is today unveiling the latest version of Kylo, the free Web browser for TV that it launched in March (see the article published on itvt.com, March 23rd). Designed for what Hillcrest says are the "millions of households" that connect their PC's or Macs to the TV (and thus competing in the emerging OTT market against Boxee, among others), the browser is designed for a "10-foot" viewing experience.

Hillcrest Labs, a company best known for its Freespace in-air pointing and motion control technology and its Loop pointer (see, for example, the article published on itvt.com, November 11th), on Monday launched a free Web browser targeted at consumers who connect their PC's or Macs to the TV. Dubbed Kylo and competing in the emerging OTT market against Boxee, among others, the browser is designed to provide a "10-foot"/"lean-back" surfing/viewing experience.

London, UK-based interactive TV company, Miniweb (note: last September, the company--which is best known for offering an interactive TV alternative to the red button on the Sky satellite-TV platform--announced that it had raised $32 million in venture funding--see [itvt] Issue 8.06 Part 1; the company will be demo'ing its technology in its booth--IP512--at the IBC show in Amsterdam later this week), said Wednesday that it has signed a collaboration agreement with Access Systems Europe covering technology integration and joint business development for hybrid TV deployments.

UK-based digital TV client software provider, ANT, announced last week the launch of a new version of its ANT Galio platform for the recently launched HbbTV standard. Dubbed ANT Galio HbbTV Platform, the software is billed by the company as a "complete go-to-market" solution providing full support for Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) services.

In this recorded episode of [itvt]'s talk radio show, "The TV of
Tomorrow Show with Tracy Swedlow," Richard Baker, EVP of sales
and marketing at UK-based interactive TV software provider, ANT
(note: Baker, who joined the company earlier this year, was previously
general manager of technology products and services for the EMEA
region at RealNetworks), discusses the company's new multiplatform
application development strategy, its experimental Twitter ITV application,
its new proof-of-concept EPG application which displays up to 45 channels