Hulu vs. The World
Posted by Adam McNamara | Filed under Tech
An alternate name for this post is “TV 2.0 Won’t Be As Broken, But It’ll Be Expensive”
In a recent episode of Diggnation, Kevin and Alex (of internet fame, and for you old schoolers like me, TechTV) sat talking about the Hulu vs. Boxee fiasco. For those of you who don’t know, Hulu is a television streaming service owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners, while Boxee is a social media application for home theatre PCs.
The pair couldn’t seem to figure out why Hulu was attempting to prevent streaming of their content inside of the Boxee application. At first they attributed it to advertising, but concluded that all ads were still intact in the embedded videos so it couldn’t be the issue.
I contend that Hulu is trying to delay streaming TV’s transition to the livingroom. Hulu’s member companies are doing everything in their power to provide a service that provides a “minimum viable service” to discourage piracy, but that doesn’t replace the traditional cable/satellite provider. The first move in this ridiculous game of cat and mouse was Hulu’s HTML encryption. This measure is easily circumvented by embedding a browser engine like Webkit into an application like , but clearly makes the case that Hulu is designed to be viewed in a browser, on a computer.
By allowing companies like Boxee and Plex to stream tv shows on HTPCs, Hulu makes it far too easy to replace traditional television services with a free, on-demand solution. In their opinion, Hulu should not yet be in the livingroom, but rather on office and school computers across the country.
Hulu is providing an interim solution while ISPs move toward metered bandwith connections. When the industry stabilizes and media streaming is built into the next generation of television sets, Hulu will begin charging for content. At the same time the increase in bandwith caused by streaming television allows ISPs (traditionally the same companies who managed television services) to recoup any lost cable revenue through increased bandwith bills. Everyone wins but the consumer who will still pay far too much for internet and television services.
TV 2.0 will share old media restrictions and costs, just arrive in a different “tube”.
Tags: boxee, hulu, plex, streaming, television
How-To: Enable iPhone 3.0 Tethering on Rogers and Fido!
Posted by Adam McNamara | Filed under Mac and iPhone
Myself ( @adammcnamara ) and my partner in crime Scott ( @CapnCapacitor ) have managed to get Bluetooth and USB tethering working on the iPhone on both Rogers and Fido. This is a Canadian first!
Follow the simple instructions below to enable it on the iPhone OS 3.0:
- Download (removed, out of date).
- Obviously, make sure you have 3.0 installed.
- If you’ve upgraded to iPhone 3.0 GM, browse tohttp://www.phonetweaks.com/rogers_com.mobileconfig on your iPhone. This will load the mobile config for Rogers. bypassing iTunes. If you’re on fido, change the link accordingly.
- Reboot (NOT RESPRING) the phone. You can now tether over USB or BlueTooth.
- To activate tethering, go to “Settings->General->Network->Internet Tethering”. The first time you do so it may say “Contact Rogers to enable this feature”, but a few second later it should allow you to enable it. If not, restart the phone again.
The tethering screen will give you instructions on how to connect to the network. If you’re using USB and you don’t have the iPhone 3.0 SDK, then install iPhoneSystemComponents.pkg. This will make the iPhone appear as a network device in System Preferences.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?z2nombnzzzm
If you have any questions or feedback or just want to let us know we’re awesome, shoot us a message.
DISCLAIMER
Please check with your provider that tethering is indeed included in your plan. I believe the Rogers fine print now says that tethering is only free for dataplans with 1GB of data or more.
Tags: Canada, Fido, iPhone, Rogers, tether, tethering
Rogers’ iPhone Pricing Proves Need for Deregulation
Posted by Adam McNamara | Filed under Business, Law & Politics, Tech
I’m not usually a proponent of less government regulation in the telecommunications industry. Case in point, network neutrality. I feel its the Canada Government’s responsibility to enact legislation that would prevent practices such as traffic shaping and tiered services, and ensure all Canadians continue to have freedom of access to information.
There is one place where the Canadian Government needs to take a more hands off approach in telecommunications regulation. The Government needs to allow foreign telecommunications companies to operate within Canada. Our wireless infrastructure was bought and paid for with Canadian taxpayer’s dollars. Provisions in the Telecommunications Act require that any mobile phone carrier in Canada be majority-owned by Canadian interests. This provision was introduced to prohibit the sell-off of Canadian mobile infrastructure to foreign interests.
(As a side note, the “System Access Fee” you pay every month is in no way Government related. Consider it part of your plan costs, because it is administered and spent by the carrier.)
It is clear that this provision in the Telecommunications Act is not working as intended. Rogers and Bell have created a wireless oligopoly (just as they have in phone, internet, and television as well). Canadians are paying higher prices for poorer service than nearly anywhere in the developed world. For more information on that, see one of my previous posts.
Never has this been more evident that in the iPhone pricing from Rogers, announced yesterday. In summary of the cheapest plan:
$60.00 – Price plan
$00.50 – 911 Access fee
$06.95 – System Access fee
$15.00 – Caller ID
—————–
$82.45 – Sub Total
—————–
$10.73 – Taxes
—————–
$93.18 – Grand Total
$93.18 for the least expensive monthly plan (with $15.00 for caller id). Other Rogers plans can be found here. To give you an idea of how bad these really are in comparison to other carriers. Rogers does not offer an unlimited data plan, while with AT&T you can add unlimited data to a phone plan for $30.
To remedy this problem, the CRTC needs to update the Telecommunications Act to allow for increased competition in the Canadian telecommunications market. The provision that all telecommunications operators must me majority-owned Canadian companies should be ammended to something like “There must be at least two majority-owned Canadian companies in the market before foreign owned interests can begin operating.” This provides a disadvantage to foreign interests who would be “late to the party”, but there is money to be had from increased competition.
While some say that signing an onlin petition is the internet equivalent of writing a letter to Santa Claus, I’d still encorage you to do it.