TV over the web

Within a year I think I will be watching TV on my TV through the internet not the sky plus box that I do at the moment. I'm really happy with the TV that I get through my G1 phone but the size of the screen and all that goes with it does limit what you can do with it. It's not like you can sit around your phone with your wife and watch transformers is it.

I've been looking at this for a while with interest but the main limitation with every service I've found is the need for flash. My G1 doesn't support flash yet so I can still only watch inernet TV through my laptop which isn't the most comfortable experience. I just want to kick back and not have the sound of the fan in the background.

My initial research turned up some interesting results:

Online TV

• Sport
• http://www.australianopentv.com/page/Home/0,,12594,00.html
  
• http://www.omnisport.tv/page/LiveSchedule : Didn't have the australian open
  
• general
• Zattoo (www.zattoo.com)
  
• Suymmary of common options : http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/iptv.html
• media extenders
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linksys-DMA2200-Dual-Band-Wireless-N-Extender/dp/B000YL5NAC/ref=pe_15511_14687331_as_txt_6/

I'm a tennis fan. The tennis specific stuff I found with a few comments added is:

Watch sport at http://www.getsport.tv/

also buy slingbox and media streamer to view it on gphone or moxi digital or aubox(android set top box only in japan)

http://www.webbrowsertv.com/

• http://watchtennisonline.net/: tried and it's windows media player and £21 a year
• http://www.watchlivetennis.org/: site doesn't explain the system requirements. emailed to check
• http://www.sopcast.com/ recommended by http://www.ehow.com/how_2117447_watch-tennis-online.html
• http://www.bet365.com/home/?lng=1: click on live streaming at the top. Suggested by http://www.tennisguru.net/watch-tennis-online/. Not surewhat tennis is actually available. Has free registration. Uses flash.
• http://www.ustream.tv/channel/watch-tennis-online-tv1-live-for-free: uses flash

All this is research from the last few months. Just today I came across a post on free internet tv which gave a link to VEOH and another post lnking to http://tv.blinkx.com/. The first thing that's obvious is the need to fill out lots of ad based promotions before you watch. That's annoying. I expect ads to be included but would prefer them to be like google ads and around, or even intersprsed with, the content. NOt something I actually have to fill out. I just couldn't be bothered. Also because I feel this is circumventing copyright rather than paying for licensed content I wonder what else these sites are doing. It's not far from this to find a virus or other unwanted application downloaded to your machine so I'm a bit wary about these sites.

Anyway. This area is quickly evolving. I don't think it will be long before the model becomes clearer and clean simple ways of providing tv over the web will be provided. I'm impressed how much is possible right now. I get the impression that it's about a year or two away before I can genuinely watch most tv I want to watch through a web browser linked to my tv. 

Lets see if we can find that answer sooner. 

Android keyboard video and mouse (KVM)

It occurred to me a little while back as it has to many people that with an external jeyboard, video and mouse you could essentially turn your android, or other smart phone, into a portable computer with a 500mhz or so processor. When the faster 1ghz processors come along it really would be a useful bit of kit.

All you need is a way to connect these peripherals. I've looked into usb based devices but heard comments that bluetooth is the way to go. Neither route it supported in Android at this point and it's really a quest to see which would be implemented first.

The advantage with usb is that the handset could power the device. I carry a spare battery(only £7 each so why not) so I'm not as scared of battery drain as others, problem is the amount of wires needed. Bluetooth (BT) sounds great but the one headset I purchased didn't work with the phone I bought it for so I'm not experienced with bluetooth and scared about battery drain and compatibility issues. I also don't know how well BT handles multiple devices. My guess, given the G1's limited hardware, is not as well as we'd like. However bluetooth might be the one to watch for the future.

There seem to be some hacky tips to pair android with bluetooth keyboard/mouse

edit 20100112
Looked a bit further into this. Specifically at the ability to get the video from my mobile phone onto a larger screen.

Obvious answers are to get some kind of video out. Might look into that either in my next phone or a usb to video out adaptor.

Found the mtube II mid and archos 5 tablets. The prices are coming down but you've still got to pay for the screen, battery, processor, hard drive etc so you really just want a tablet anyway. If it had a bunch of other uses like gaming, particularly web gaming. Still though I'm wondering why bother since I already have a laptop. Why pay for all this extra juice and power when I have a phone capable of dealing with that. I really just need a bigger screen for it.

Celloiviewer is a tv that supports wifi. At 32" and 26" it's a little too big to fit in my pocket and I expect it's pretty expensive.

More interesting are media glasses
Lumus have a range and so do myvu. In terms of prices myvu crystal original all in one package is $199.95. Kind of affordable. It also just needs a video out. It's designed for the iphone so atleast this means it's meant for a phone.It'll also work with anything with a video out so it'll work anywhere. Potentially I can hook it up to my PS3. that sounds like a cool idea.

Android tips

I love android. there are loads of tip sheets already out there but I want one that fits me so I've got my reference in one place.

Copy and paste: As well as using Menu key + C and menu key + V for coipy and paste I've just discovered you can copy using the highlighting feature. this works in the gmal app anyway. have used similar in other apps too. Press shift key and touch anywhere on the screen to begin highlighting. Drag the highlight to the end of the selection and stop touching. Your selection is now copied to the clipboard

Sometimes I get the bus to work. I wish I could find a way to make it a little cheaper if I used it more and more flexible so I could easily chop and change buses.

I only use it 2-3 times a week so not much. You can get things a little cheaper by paying in advance and getting a free card but then you've got to use it a lot.

It occurs to me that the bus companies are missing a trick. Why can't I buy a card that logs the trips I use. Then they could run promotions where I get my next ride free if. Take 4 trips in a week. Or a take two trips get the third half price. You get the idea.

We see these offers in business all the time so they must work. We see lots of initiatives to encourage sales but I've never seen one on the buses.

Must be a different mindset in the people that run them I suppose. Shame. I think this wouldn't be that hard to implement in this day and age and would encourage use of public transport.

Flash without Flash for a timeline of artifical life

I just had to blog this. I think flash is really useful but it's propietary and inaccessible on so many levels. So I love efforts to achieve flash like effects without using flash. I just just visited livingmatter.org and saw their timeline feature. Wow. Worked in chrome and firefox for me. Gets me excited about where the web is headed.

it's also about artificial life and computer simulation which are two important topics to me. So i couldn't help but promote the link love.

I didn't realise at first but it's actually an embeddable widget. Now I'm even more impressed cos I can embed it below.

Living Matter on Dipity.

Why I love to teach everyone what I know

I just realised why I love to teach everyone what I know and give away all my secrets.

When people consider who is the greatest in any sport. Rod laver or roger federer in tennis for example. It's a common phrase to say that you can only beat what's in front of you.

Since each sport has improved immeasurably over the years it's hard to know how players from past eras would fair these days.

My hunch though is that they would still be the best in the world because they'd find a way to compete.

That's why I want to pass on everything I know because I want to raise the standards in the areas I compete in. What's the point in holding knowledge when you could share it and achieve so much more. By letting go of your achievements you have incentive to reinvent yourself again. Others get in front of you and you get to learn from them. You thenhave the fun of catching up and over taking them.

Only when you show you can keep up with any contender in this way can you truly be considered the best. Because you always found a way to be the best.

What I like most is that you never stop improving. That's got to be good for everyone. Surely

Useful browser plugins

Just going to list the browser plugins I find really useful. Just as a reference really and to spread the lurve. Since Firefox is the main browser that accepts plugins it's going to be weighted to that side for now. Come on Chrome hurry up and support plugins and extensions.

I've just come across a suite of of extensions collectively known as exploitme. They've been recommend so I'm just installing them now. They're focus on checking site security, which as a site developer I could do with tools to help this. they were recommended by someone who came back from a php security course. Let's see how they work out.

I run a lot of the other standard web devvy extensions such as web developer toolbar and firebug but I don't have time to list them all in depth. The basic list is:

• FEBE and CLEO
• Web developer toolbar
• exploitme (suite)
• Firebug
• Fireftp
• All in one sidebar
• Page speed
• xmarks