3Screens

Here's a Second Look at AT&T's Video Share Service

In principle, a good idea:  use your cell phone to broadcast live video to a friend, colleague, parent, child, etc.  In reality, you both need to have compatible phones, be in a 3G area and pony up another $10 per month for up to 60 minutes of use.

AT&T's Video Share , is basically a one-way video live streaming service that lets you share the moment during a mobile-to-mobile phone call.

Here is a fair and balanced video review. If you have an application where you are using VideoShare, send it along to: alan at weinkrantz dot com.

And Now...a Blog Just for Your Third Screen

I just discovered Michal Lev-Ram's Third Screen blog, dedicated to the wireless economy.

She also pens the Third Screen column for CNNMoney.com

Worth Reading....

Camping Out in NYC, LA or SFO To Line Up for An iPhone? Let Gridskipper Show You The Way

And now from Gridskipper, the Ultimate iPhone campout guide for New York,  for LA and San Francisco....

I can't find anything for San Antonio, but I do recommend the Chipotle Grill which is walking distance from the AT&T store at the Quarry.

CrunchGear Has 1st iPhone Display

It's now becoming a race in the blogosphere to see who has the coolest and most up to date coverage on iPhone mania.

Here's CrunchGear's coverage on the first iPhone Display.

Your Coolest 3rd Screen: iPhone Guided Tour...

The hype goes into full scale ramp up....get the iPhone Guided Tour here.  About 20 minutes.

Check back Sunday for a preview of next  week's iPhone week at 3Screens

Cringley Talks About the Importance of Safari For Windows for Apple / AT&T. I Think Safari For Windows Could be More Important to AT&T Than iPhone. Here's Why.

Robert X Cringley has a very good post theorizing the rationale for Apple developing a Windows-based version of Safari.

Hightlights of the post are:

"Here is the complex package of goods Apple is trying to sell to AT&T: There's the iPhone, of course, but there is also the Apple TV as a potential set-top box. Three hundred dollars for a set-top box? You have to be crazy! Not so crazy. Compared to not spending the kind of money Verizon is spending on fiber, Apple TVs are cheap even if AT&T gives them away. Remember that $400 rebate you used to be able to get on a new PC by signing up for two years of MSN? That didn't appear to make sense, either, yet it ran for years.

For Apple TV to be successful as an IPTV set-top box, Apple has to convince us that we really want to download our video, NOT stream it. Not incidentally, this is also the key to iTunes' long-term success. Downloading makes much more efficient use of network resources, works fine on a copper wiring plant, and fits our emerging TiVoesque world view. Steve will tell us that we are busy dynamic people who really ought to plan our viewing. And enough of us will believe him to make AT&T's copper video service a credible success"

Cingley points out that this move isn't about taking down Microsoft, it isn't about making Macintosh computers the dominant computing platform, it IS about performing a massive cashectomy on AT&T  After all, AT&T works closely with Microsoft's IPTV group and uses Microsoft technology for their middleware.

But Wait - There's More to the Story

I think Cringley is right- but did not tell the other half of the story. 

AT&T working with Apple can now leverage Apple's initial run at the disruption of how music is sold - via iTunes and now repeat history with the video content providers and producers in Hollywood.

To me, Safari for Windows could be even more strategic  than having the exclusive on iPhone for five years.

TV Broadcast Service for Mobile Phones

Lost Remote reports on Verizon's new offering a broadcast TV service for mobile phones featuring live access to eight 24-hour channels.  Known as VCast Mobile TV it's delivered over a separate wireless network operated by Qualcomm.

Hopefully, my provider- AT&T / Cingular will offer it by year end.

Apple's "Hello" Commercial on The Academy Awards

So last night, we were watching the Academy Awards (way to go Martin- finally!) on U-verse.

Apple had a great TV commerical introducing the iPhone which which will have service from AT&T Cingular.

Worth Watching....

Check Out Vringo- The World's First Video Ringstone Sharing Community

Ok....so you know what a ringtone is.  Serial entreprenuer, and buddy, Jon Medved is now launching his company, Vringo, which  combines the immediacy of voice with the richness of video in a ringtone.

Vringo, is fun new way for mobile users to communicate with family and friends - via video ringtones (or Vringos). Vringo lets you share short video clips each time they make a phone call. The service is available now to private beta users, by invitation only and should be available to the general public by the end of March.

"Instead of the tired audio ringtone, we want you to experience the fun of video ringtones" CEO Jon Medved said. "When you call your buddy they see your Vringo and you see theirs. Vringo creates a deeper form of communication as our users share viral videos with each call they make."

Vringo is addressing a huge market for mobile personalization. Market research has estimated the worldwide ringtone market at $5 billion and still growing. 

But don't think of Vringo as being limited to just your cell phone. 

Where I see this application in the 3Screens environment, Vringo will be not only be a  platform for mobile personalization, but Vringo will play be able to appear on your mobile, AIM, Xbox, or your caller ID pop up on your U-verse IPTV service.

Vringo will offer the service directly to consumers and together with mobile carriers like AT&T. Content will include both licensed material from TV, movies, and music videos as well as user generated clips. Vringo just launched it service simultaneously at the AlwaysOn Media and Demo conferences and is Vringo is now opening its private Beta program and hopes to invite the general public into the community soon.

If you're into ringtones, you need to expand your horizons and think videotones, or Vringos.

So What Do Apple and Cingular / AT&T Bring to the Table by Joing Forces to Sell iPhone?

I wanted to wait a while to make this post, because I wanted to see what some of the major media and bloggers had to say about the recent Apple iPhone announcement and their decision to go with Cingular as their distribution partner.

Here is my take:  Apple has become a driving force in bringing online video and movies to the iPod.  And AT&T, through its u-Verse offering is about to be likewise.

Sitting in my home in San Antonio, I can watch moview and pay AT&T a rental fee. 

Now take Apple + AT&T and hit a movie studio for exclusives or possilbe earlier releases that the cable companies, and you have a very compelling and disruptive force in the movie business: a re-made telephone company and computer company who have re-branded and reinvented themselves as a possible major distribution channel for....Hollywood.

That's my take. 

Comments?