Michael's Insight

Google releases next version of Chome, beta-free for all platforms

Chrome 5 released, browser exits beta for Mac and Linux [ArsTechnica]

It's been available since 2008 on the Windows platform and since last year for the Mac and Linux. This week Google announced that it was taking the Mac and Linux versions of its Chrome browser out of their beta version. Typically, Google releases products for a series of months or even years in beta, allowing time to work out bugs until the "ready to use" version is available.

The latest version of Chrome comes with Adobe Flash preinstalled - that's particularly notable since Apple has decided to forgo Flash support for its mobile platform and has embraced HTML 5 as an open standard for rich web content going forward. Chrome now also comes with support for some HTML 5 features. Even though Google is known for frequently pushing open standards - i.e. Android - and Apple doesn't have a similar reputation, Flash support seems to represent a role reversal in this case.

Current Chrome users will automatically receive the updated version of the browser.

ESPN predicting 3D will be more popular than DVRs

3DTV 2010 Event: Bratches Bullish on ESPN 3D Uptake [Multichannel News]

Even though fully one-third of U.S. households now have at least one DVR, according to the latest Nielsen Television Audience Report, ESPN believes that within the next 10 years, 3D television adoption will eclipse that of the DVR. To be clear, ESPN is betting big on three dimensional TV, launching ESPN 3D this summer with several of the World Cup games to be broadcast in 3D and plans to cover nearly 100 total sporting events in 2010. According to ESPN's executive VP for sales and marketing Sean Bratches at a 3D TV event this week, sports enthusiasts are likely to be early adopters of 3D television, driving 3D adoption to the point that it surpasses DVRs by 2019.

ESPN is already working with advertisers to develop 3D advertisements for the format, and the network has already filmed the first This is SportsCenter promo spot in 3D. ESPN 3D will debut on June 11th with carriage in over 40 million households. Incidentally, that's more homes than ESPN's first HD channel launched with in 2003.

Comcast launches social media platform for TV viewing

Comcast's Tunerfish adds social media check-ins to your TV watching [EngadgetHD]

On Tuesday, Comcast announced a new social media platform aimed at TV watching named Tunerfish. This announcement comes just a couple weeks after Comcast’s social media ambitions were made clear through the company’s acquisition of Plaxo. 

Tunerfish is essentially a Foursquare-style platform in which users are encouraged, through various games and contests, to share their TV watching experiences. It will allow viewers the ability, not only to see what their friends are watching, but to view larger trends of TV viewership.

Although Comcast is the company behind this new endeavor, they have not branded the site with the Comcast or Xfinity logos and appear to be opening the site to TV watchers across the globe. 

Tunerfish has Facebook and Twitter integration with an iPhone app on the horizon. It is currently in closed alpha mode, but beta is set to be launched in the coming weeks.

Time Warner Cable floating new movie distribution model

Hollywood Considering $20-$30 Movie Theater Sidestep [Gizmodo]

When a movie is released in theaters, there is generally about a four month waiting period before that movie is released on DVD. That wait period is usually even longer if you’re hoping to find the movie on demand through Netflix or another service. 

Time Warner Cable has decided to challenge this release schedule and pitch a new idea to the major Hollywood studios. The idea: allow people to pay $20 to $30 to watch movies on demand, in their home theaters, a mere 30 days after the theater release.

This would be a major shift in the way movies are released to consumers, and it would be pretty bad news for several parties, including movie theaters which would now have competition from the home theater and Netflix which is currently forced to wait well beyond the DVD release date.

Hollywood is reportedly considering the Time Warner Cable proposal. In this digital world, where pirates often have copies of movies flowing over the torrents the same weekend as a movie's release, studios must develop new distribution schemes that put movies in the home theater faster. Cable on demand is a natural platform for rapid distribution that millions of Americans already have in their homes without the need to purchase additional hardware.

Speedtest.net opens up broadband speed result averages

Speedtest.net Opens Up Their Data [Broadband Reports]

If you're a regular reader of my blog, chances are you've used Speedtest.net to test your broadband download and upload speeds. The web site allows users to put a speedometer on their broadband connection quickly and easily, and it logs nearly a million individual broadband tests each day from around the globe. Up until now, the results of the site's broadband tests were revealed to individual users, but the composite broadband speed data was not publicly available.

That's changed, with the company behind Speedtest.net announcing that it will publish 30-day rolling averages of broadband speed tests for cities, states and countries around the world at NetIndex.com. Scientists, policy makers and interested users will be able to browse broadband speed averages of both downstream and upstream speeds. Each day a new 30-day average is calculated, allowing observers to determine whether average broadband speeds for a particular area are increasing over time.

One thing that's nice to see is that in Kentucky, eight of the ten fastest cities for downstream and upstream speeds are served by Insight - all hovering around 10 Mbps downstream and between 1 and 2 Mbps upstream.

Twitter shutting down third-party advertising in tweets

Twitter to Ad Competitors: Go Pound Sand [GigaOM]

It wasn’t too long ago that Twitter announced its ad-based business model, encouraging confidence in the social network’s long-term viability. Now Twitter has announcing that this ad-based business model is not open to third-party advertisers, closing down its API to others who were using Twitter to inject ads into user tweets.

Twitter began the process of implementing ads into user’s timelines with the Promoted Tweets platform, but they have now started banning similar ads submitted by third parties. It does appear that the ban only applies to these Timeline ads, and not other ad locations on the site.

This news is particularly troubling to the start-ups who were seeking to take advantage of Twitter-based advertising, such as Ad.ly.

According to the company's COO, Twitter has chosen this course of action because Promoted Tweets preserve the long-term integrity of their social network and the Timelines in particular. Developers who create ads through Promoted Tweets are forced to share half of the collected ad revenue with Twitter.

Will Hulu videos be viewable from Android and Google TV?

Hulu on Android Foreshadows Google TV War [NewTeeVee]

Google's revelation of its new open source television/set-top operating system has opened a new front in the back-and-forth between online streaming site Hulu and web browsers designed specifically to display video content on television and mobile screens. Last week at its developers' conference, Google demonstrated it's television product that's based on its Android mobile operating system. During that demonstration, one Google employee showed how videos on Hulu appear in search results on Google TV.

This week, it's been revealed that mobile devices operating on the latest version of Android can view videos on Hulu, even though Hulu's videos aren't yet licensed for mobile viewing. Last year, Hulu had long running dispute with open-source video browser Boxee over similar issues.

Will Hulu content appear in Google's new television and mobile products or will it be blocked like it was for Boxee? The answer to this question will be up to content owners as much as it will be up to Hulu.

House Privacy Caucus inquires into Google data collection

Uproar Over Google’s Wi-Fi Data Harvest [Multichannel News]

On the global front, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic are questioning Google regarding private data the company admitted to collecting from open wi-fi networks. As readers will recall, Google used its Street View fleet to capture open wi-fi router MAC addresses in addition to over 600 gigabytes of traffic flowing over those networks.  

 Meanwhile, here at home, the reviewers are on both sides of the aisle.  U.S. Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), co-chairmen of the House Privacy Caucus, have recommended that the FCC take a closer look at Google’s activity, though they have not yet asked for a formal investigation. They have proposed a list of detailed questions that they would like Google to answer by June 2. 

When the company announced the fact that it collected traffic from open wi-fi networks, Google indicated that it planned to isolate and delete the network transmissions.

With Congress getting involved, Google is under pretty intense pressure to keep the collected information. Since it is possible this could lead to subpoenas and evidentiary requests. Google has agreed to hold on to the data for now.

Data privacy advocates and ordinary users alike will be following the results of the House Privacy Caucus' inquiry about Google's data collection activities. While other more formal investigations may be in the works, this may be a good first opportunity for policymakers to determine to what extent Google's Street View program went to sweep up user data.

O'Brien fans continue online activism on Hulu

Jay Leno Won The Tonight Show Fight, But The Resistance Movement Carries On At…Hulu [TechCrunch]

Jay Leno is back at his old late night slot on NBC and Conan O'Brien is off to greener pastures touring the country and heading to his own show on cable network TBS. Even though O'Brien's show didn't work out on the broadcast airwaves, his fans still haven't given up the fight on his behalf.

TechCrunch has observed that O'Brien fans have moved from simply promoting via the "I'm With Coco" fan pages on Facebook to Hulu's user-defined program tags. NBC posts the latest 5 episodes of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on the online streaming site. Users are free to tag episodes on Hulu with words and phrases that describe each video. But it turns out O'Brien fans have commandeered tags on the Tonight Show with pro-O'Brien and anti-Leno messages.

Tags are visible whenever Hulu users mouse over a video thumbnail.

While Hulu's terms of service likely prohibit the O'Brien/Leno tags, it's clear that O'Brien's fans are still a force to be reckoned with online, and I'm sure TBS is hoping that translates into a large viewership for O'Brien's cable debut later this year.

Best Buy planning online streaming movie service

Best Buy hedges bets, preps movie download service [ArsTechnica]

Retailer Best Buy recently purchased the CinemaNow name to use for its brand new movie download service, and it plans to enter the very crowded online streaming video market. This service will round out Best Buy’s media distribution, which currently includes digital music downloads through Napster and DSL and VoIP services through Speakeasy.

It's slightly different from Best Buy’s original plans, which involved building its own video download system through the use of CinemaNow technology. This was the route that Blockbuster took when it implemented CinemaNow to build its own service. 

Instead, Best Buy will simply use the CinemaNow name and website in order to make online movies available to its customers. Customers will be able stream by going through the CinemaNow website, or possibly through a Blu-ray player from LG, with whom Best Buy is also partnering, or Insignia, Best Buy’s house electronics brand.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this development is that with CinemaNow, Best Buy will have access to new releases immediately after the DVDs go on sale. This could give Best Buy an upper hand over competitors like Netflix.

Apple iPad users report high satisfaction

iPad owners like screen, dislike lack of Flash [CNET News]

With over 1 million iPads already in users' hands, research firm ChangeWave Research has surveyed 3,174 iPad owners to determine their level of satisfaction with the device. As it turns out, ChangeWave found that nearly 3 in 4 users reported that they were very satisfied with their iPad, with another 17 percent indicating that they were somewhat satisfied. The device's screen size and quality topped the list of features enjoyed by users, with 21 percent reporting that it is the iPad's best feature. 

But the lack of Adobe Flash - a key component for rich web content and most streaming online video - turns up as the biggest overall dislike among iPad users. Eleven percent say that's the iPad's top weakness and I agree.  Problems with Internet connectivity and issues keeping the touch screen clean follow the lack of Flash comprising the top three complaints.

With only a few weeks of sales under its belt, the iPad already is showing real promise as an e-book reader. ChangeWave found that the iPad now represents 16 percent of all e-readers, surpassing Sony's e-reader and the Barnes and Noble Nook.  In my view, the ability to render newspaper-like and magazine-like pages makes it a great reader.  Reading books looks at least as good as on a Kindle with the much-talked-about concern about the backlighting format turning out to be a non-issue for me. But the iPad is a little heavier and larger, making it slightly less comfortable to hold.

Google announces its television interface

As expected, Google confirmed the rumors on Thursday morning at its developers conference. Google TV will be a reality.

Given the ad-based nature of Google’s business, it’s not surprising to see this development. Google even admitted that the ad targets were very attractive for a TV product considering the 4 billion TV users worldwide, which is more than double the number for either computers or mobile users. 

The product itself is an open source platform, powered by Android, which runs Chrome as its browser and incorporates Adobe Flash. As reported, Google has partnered with Sony for the creation of compatible TV’s and Blu-ray players, Logitech for the production of a companion set-top box, and Intel for use of the Atom processor in the Google TV equipped televisions and set-top. Google TV set-tops and televisions will have built-in wi-fi connectivity.

Google plans for the product to allow users to search for online video content and integrate with existing paid streaming services like Amazon On Demand and Netflix, similar to Boxee's set-top interface. Developers can create third party applications that will run on the platform. A specialized application for Google's Android mobile operating system allows users to control the television interface with a mobile phone. And of course, as a Google property, YouTube will have a significant presence in Google TV.

Will Google TV catch on?  They have plenty of competition but with many mobile hardware manufactures giving Android a try, due to the lack of a license fee, Google is banking on television manufacturers to make a similar decision when it comes to integrating Internet content with an interface on the screen.

Your browser may be browsing more than just cookies

How your Web browser rats you out online [Ars Technica]

Even if you diligently clear your cookies and Flash supercookies, and even if you use privacy-superior browsers like Browzar, information about your web usage is making its way to your browser.

When you view a website on your browser various bits of data (including user-agent strings, HTTP ACCEPT headers, screen resolution, plugins, and even a user’s zipcode) create a cookies-like fingerprint despite protections you might have taken.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a study on this issue. Over 83% of the roughly 470,000 browsers that were included in the study were found to have an “instantaneously unique fingerprint,” despite the fact that privacy conscious users were over-represented in the study. 

Google may be unveiling open source television operating system this week

Proof That Google TV Will Make Its Debut Tomorrow [Tech Crunch]

You’ve probably seen the rumors about Google’s web-based TV project. Reports have been floating around that Google will soon be launching a new TV platform called “Smart TV” in connection with Sony, Intel, and Logitech. The platform is expected to be based on Google's nascent Android open-source operating system.

The technology site, TechCrunch, is claiming that it has proof that this is much more than mere Internet rumor. Google apparently set up a press site for it's developer conference to address the issue and provide some screenshots of the eventual product. The URL of the screenshots Google provided ended with “day-1-announcements.”

Well, the clever team at TechCrunch decided to tweak the URL on the screenshots Google provided, and uncovered some new information.  Under a URL ending with “day-2-announcements,” TechCrunch found a site that simply said, “Insert Android press release / TV press release”

If this is all true and it means what TechCrunch thinks it mean, this press release will come at some point on “day-2,” which would be Thursday, May 20.

Profiling 25 excellent home theater designs

Electronic House sifts through, selects 25 greatest DIY home theaters [EngadgetHD]

Looking for some ideas for a do-it-yourself home theater? Engadget points to a slide show by Electronic House of 25 home theater enthusiasts that built their dream media rooms - from expansive to attic. The slide show features pictures of home theater set ups that are likely to offer inspiration to others looking to assemble their own theater.

Each featured home theater is linked to an article that describes the inspiration for the particular design, the specs of the equipment, how the homeowner built the room and installed the equipment and how much the setup cost. My favorite is the garage that was converted into an elegant HD screening room. Voters on the site picked a pirate themed theater as their overall favorite.

If you're thinking about investing in a space for your home theater, there are plenty of ideas to think about from these 25 outstanding projects.

Rogue satellite threatens neighboring satellites

MSOs Downplay Rogue Bird Trouble [Light Reading]

It's called Galaxy 15, and you may be hearing about it's problems in recent news reports. Galaxy 15 is a satellite owned by the world's largest provider of fixed satellite services, Intelsat, and it's gone rogue. The satellite normally occupies a specific location in orbit around the Earth, but recently engineers lost control of this one after a solar storm stuck it and forced it out of position toward another communications satellite.

You may be asking yourself, "What does Galaxy 15 has to do with me?"

The satellite that Galaxy 15 is drifting toward is the SES World Skies' AMC-11 satellite, which is responsible for the delivery of a significant amount of programming to cable networks. That programming includes MTV Networks, Discovery Communications, Comcast Networks, In Demand, Scripps Networks, and A&E Television Networks. The possibility exists that if Galaxy 15 drifts too close to AMC-11 programming distributed through AMC-11 could be disrupted due to interference from Galaxy 15.

Such interference could disrupt the programming cable customers count on - not just for Insight, but for all cable providers.  

There are a lot of very smart people working to figure out a solution to this potential problem. Solutions range from trying to stop Galaxy 15 from creating interference by shutting it down to moving AMC-11 to a different location in space. Some of the networks have backup satellites while others are hoping for the best.  Needless to say, we are following this situation closely and focused on avoiding any disruptions of programming.

Intel working on new wireless standard to connect televisions to other devices

Will Content on a Smartphone Someday Power Your Television Set? [GigaOM]

Looking for a way to wirelessly connect your television to your computer, or a mobile device? Intel is working on a new protocol that promises to make connecting other devices to a television seamless and wireless. Called Wireless Display technology or WiDi, the protocol allows devices to connect to a television via point-to-point wi-fi. The first generation of the technology will use an Intel device that connects via a cable to a viewer's television. The device functions like a wireless bridge, connecting devices - like a computer with a media center - to allow content from those devices to be streamed to the television.

GigaOm predicts that the technology won't supplant the WiGig alliance that is working on super-fast home wireless technologies, but could be a means of connecting mobile devices to a television. Because the WiDi protocol only works with a few newer Intel processors, however, the chip maker will need to either broaden WiDi's compatibility or figure out how to get its chips into more and smaller mobile devices.

Regulatory agencies at home and abroad to investigate Google data collection

Google set for probes on data harvesting [Financial Times]

After Google announced late last week that it was backtracking on claims that it had not collected wi-fi traffic from open networks using its Street View fleet, it appears that regulatory agencies in several European countries as well as the U.S. plan to launch investigations of the data collection. Google initially told privacy officials in Germany, in response to questions about its network monitoring activity, that it was merely collecting the locations and MAC addresses of unsecured wireless routers. Google indicated on Friday that it subsequently discovered the data collection was more intrusive, and the company collected network packets from the wireless routers that totaled over 600 GB of data.

According to the Financial Times, the German commissioner for data protection has already called for an investigation of Google's activities and the British Information Commissioner's office has alleged that Google's data collection broke that country's data protection act. The Financial Times also indicated that an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was also likely.

For it's part, Google has indicated that it plans to destroy the network data collected by its Street View fleet. Users with broadband connected to wireless routers can protect their network data by using a secure encryption protocol like WPA or WPA-2.

Amazon storing Kindle users' highlighted passages

Is Amazon peeking over Kindle users' shoulders? [MSNBC]

What is notorious about the following quote from Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers?"

...three things--autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward--are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying."

It has nothing to do with the social science Gladwell wrote about in his best-selling book focused on why certain people succeed.  It's about Amazon and fact that the text is the most highlighted passage on Kindles.  

And Amazon knows it.

Early on in the e-book movement, e-reader manufacturers realized they needed to include highlighting and note-taking features into their devices. Most, if not all, eReaders now allow readers to make these notes, just as if they were reading a paperback with a pen or highlighter in hand.   

Amazon, in an attempt to add more features to its Kindle e-reader, has gone a step further. Now if you highlight a passage on your Kindle while reading an eBook, that passage is collected by Amazon. The collected passages are used to create lists of the most popular passages (currently this passage from “Outliers”) or the most highlighted eBooks (currently Dan Brown’s “Lost Symbol”, with the Bible second). When you buy an e-book from Amazon, you can now look at passages that other readers have highlighted.

This is an interesting feature, but some have voiced their distaste for such intrusion by Amazon. Of course, Amazon is not interested in any individual's highlights, just the aggregation of the number of highlights.  But reading is a very personal activity, and many readers aren’t excited about Amazon having access to the notes they make while reading. 

This “Popular Highlights” feature was incorporated into the newest version of Kindle software without much of an announcement and is turned on by default. The feature can be turned off, but doing so may prevent readers from backing up their highlights for their own personal use.

Google admits to wi-fi network snooping

Google: Oops, we spied on your Wi-Fi [CNET News]

Search giant Google has again found itself in some hot water over its use of Street View vehicles to monitor wi-fi networks. Previously, the company had admitted that it collected the location information and router MAC addresses of open wi-fi networks using the vehicles that take pictures for Google's Street View product. But, Google claimed that the network monitoring did not capture network packets from the open wi-fi, and it used the data solely to improve the quality of its location detecting services.

Well... as it turns out, those claims weren't exactly true. Late on Friday, Google admitted that it had, in fact, collected over 600 gigabytes of open wi-fi network traffic using Street View vehicles. Google now says that the data collection was accidental, never made it onto any of its search products, and will be promptly deleted.

While an open wi-fi network leaves a user's broadband connection susceptible to exploits designed to steal data, who would have guessed that Google would be collecting that network traffic. This example of data spying will probably have no long term impact on those who were snooped on but other, more unscrupulous people could be doing the same thing for much more sinister reasons.  Users should be relentless about implementing security protocols like WPA or WPA-2 to protect their wi-fi routers from this type of intrusion.  

Yet another file sharing platform facing closure

Legal experts: LimeWire likely doomed [CNET News]

Yet another file-sharing platform is probably headed for obscurity after a federal judge ruled that it committed copyright infringement. This time the application is Lime Wire, one of the first popular file-sharing platforms. This week U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood granted a summary judgment motion filed by the recording industry's trade association against Lime Wire for copyright infringement, inducing copyright infringement and unfair competition. According to CNET, Lime Wire will likely either shut down voluntarily or the recording industry will seek an injunction that shuts down Lime Wire.

While this decision will likely only eliminate one avenue of file-sharing and copyrighted content piracy, it does put other file-sharing platforms on notice. Judge Wood found evidence that Lime Wire was aware that it's software was a conduit for significant sharing of pirated content, and other platforms in a similar position could ultimately find themselves in the same legal peril where Lime Wire currently is.

Time Warner Cable takes DOCSIS 3.0 to 290 Mbps

Time Warner Cable Demonstrates 290 Mbps Cable [Broadband Reports]

Internet speeds ranging as high as a dizzying 300 Mbps had previously only been achieved in laboratory settings. However, at The Cable Show 2010, Time Warner Cable demonstrated Internet speeds of 290 Mbps downstream with 90 Mbps upstream. That's taking DOCSIS 3.0 speeds to a whole new level. These super high speeds were reached through a demo TWC set up using an Arris cable modem and termination system (it also used Motorola modems) connected to the Time Warner Cable headend at the Cable Show in Los Angeles. 

This display provided a strong response to a recent claim by Alcatel Lucent of DSL speeds reaching up to 300 Mbps. The demonstration by Time Warner Cable showed Internet speeds traveling up to 22 miles from the headend, while the DSL touted by Alcatel is something that could only go 10 feet in the lab.  Hmmm.

Challenges to IP service delivery discussed at the Cable Show

Tech Challenges Abound in the New World of IP Service Delivery [The Cable Show Blog]

A large focus of the Cable Show has been on the movement toward IP service delivery. Many believe that IP is the future of the cable industry, but there are very important technical details that create challenges for the transition. 

IP based cable service would result in much more efficient delivery of a wide range of content for cable providers. Content would be transmitted by being broken down into bits and transferred over the Internet.

The problem with the conversion into bits is that there doesn’t appear to be a simple way to effectively identify which bits represent which content. Some of these issues were brought up in my recent post recounting some of Mark Cuban’s thoughts on the TV-over-Internet movement. It would be great if we could enjoy the speed and efficiency of IP-based services, but the trick is to offer these services in a way that doesn’t result in the viewer have to scour the Internet for them.  That's why the current video platform provided by cable operators is so effective -- it manages the video product in a way that it was designed to be consumed -- efficient and well organized.  IP video over the internet is a bit like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.  It will take some work to make it fit, but once it does, it offers a great advancement in TV viewing options which cable operators will be perfectly positioned to deliver.

Proposals to address these issues are being are being discussed here at the Cable Show.  A couple examples of proposed resolutions are metadata cell encoding to help identify the bits and the creation of a central database of the IP-based content.

More work to be done for full HD 3D over cable

3DTV Work Left To Be Done [Multichannel News]

As expected, there has been plenty of talk about 3DTV here at the Cable Show.  Much time has been devoted to evaluating the strength of the movement and figuring out the easiest transition of current cable services into 3D-ready services. 

The good news is that most normal HD set-tops are already equipped to view basic, frame-compatible 3D programming. Problems arise when trying to deliver full resolution 3D. According to CableLabs VP David Broberg, it’ll be at about two years until there are set top boxes that are fully equipped to deliver 1080i HD in full 3D. Even reaching current full resolution 3D would require new hardware for the majority of viewers. Other issues/problems discussed have been the use of closed captioning and the ability of viewers to switch between 3D and 2D.

In addition, there has been quite a bit of talk about how many hours will actually be spent by customers viewing the 3D content. The question basically comes down to whether there is enough interest in 3D for distributors to prioritize the effort to upgrade the equipment and deliver the hardware now or wait for more programming to become available.

Comcast wants its streaming product on the iPad

Comcast to Revamp Its TV Everywhere Service [NewTeeVee]

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts wowed the audience today at the Cable Show when he showed an impressive demonstration of his company's Xfinity navigation app being developed for Apple's iPad.  Using OCAP, aka EBIF, aka Tru2Way, consumers will be able to download the app and set it up to control the set top boxes in their home.  Sorting, filtering and other interactive features will improve the navigation of the huge video offerings of today's modern cable system.  

The speed that Comcast developed the app is part of the story, helping to validate the industry's strategy of how to open up the set top box to third party applications.  

Meanwhile, NewTeeVee reported that Roberts also announced a revamp of the Fancast Xfinity.  The difficulty that Comcast customers had with Xfinity was the authentication process to ensure that only Comcast subscribers were permitted to view the online content. The original version, which itself was only released six months ago, required the user to download a specific module and work through several steps to install it on their computer, which resulted in much customer frustration. The new version seeks to streamline this process and make accessing this content easier for Comcast subscribers.

The first version of Fancast Xfinity was only available on PCs, but the new version should be available on other electronic devices with a large focus being placed on the iPad (which of course raised questions about whether or not Flash will be used). Roberts specifically mentioned that he wanted Fancast Xfinity to be available on Apple’s newest device.

There are likely to be a few changes before this announcement becomes a reality, but the new version is planned to be rolled out in the next 90 days while the navigation functionality is targeted for release in three to six months.