Tag: iPhone

Sling TV: A Big Step Forward for OTT

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Not to be confused with the Sling Box, Sling TV is a new over-the-top television service from Dish Network that allows consumers to stream a limited number of cable channels without a cable subscription.

Hundreds of thousands of people have already preregistered for Sling TV since it was announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, Sling TV is offering a handful of networks, led by ESPN, for $20 a month. Other networks on the service include Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, CNN, TNT, TBS, Disney Channel and ABC Family.

Sling TV is aimed at “cord-nevers” who want to stream nets including ESPN and Food Network for $20 a month. With its launch, the service is also rolling out a series of apps for mobile phones, tablets, and streaming devices that hook into a subscriber’s TV.

For those who want more choices, particularly for children’s content or news, Sling TV offers bonus packs of channels for $5 a month in those categories. It also hopes to have an expanded tier of sports channels at the same price, which it says is coming soon.

The introduction of Sling TV is the beginning of the TV businesses reaction to the popularity of streaming services, led by Netflix. The number of pay-TV subscribers has been slowly shrinking and there is concern that the availability of more streaming services will accelerate the decline.

Sling TV isn’t all about streaming live TV, the service will have videos from Maker Studios in addition to live TV channels from traditional TV networks. Finally, Sling TV will also offer up a selection of video-on-demand movies and TV shows that users can purchase.

To get users watching the service, Sling TV has introduced mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets. It will also have apps for Amazon Fire TV, the Amazon Fire TV Stick, and the Roku 3, to allow viewers to stream live cable networks directly to their TVs.

Sling TV still isn’t my dream OTT service. It makes you buy a limited bundle of preset live channels, but does not include the broadcast networks or options to add additional channels.

The good news is that Sling TV, unlike traditional cable TV bundles, has no contracts and no upfront installation costs. Subscribers can cancel at any time, and the company is offering a one-week free trial for those who’d like to try it out before committing to it.

New study shows Moms prefer iPads over iPhone

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A new report from mobile-analytics firm Flurry.com, The Who, What, and When of iPad and iPhone Usage, reveals that moms and home-design enthusiasts, are using iPads more than iPhones.

Meanwhile, health and fitness, music lovers, and video enthusiasts are all over the iPhone.

The heaviest period of use for the iPad during the day is from 6 pm to 11 pm; iPhone app usage also peaks during these hours.

1/3 of all Americans now own a Smartphone

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The latest numbers from comScore’s MobiLens service, covering the US smartphone market over a three-month period ending in May 2012:

Nearly 100 million Americans own a smartphone.

Google’s Android owned 50.9% (up 0.8% from February 2012) of the US smartphone market. Apple’s iOS-operated iPhone came in second with 31.9% (+1.7%), followed by RIM at 11.4% (-2%), Microsoft at 4% (+0.1%), and Symbian at 1.1% (-0.4%).

In May, 51.1% of US mobile subscribers used a downloaded app; 49.8% used a mobile browser; and 36.7% accessed a social networking site or blog.

Apple leads tablet and smartphone web usage

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Smartphones and tablets are now responsible for slightly more than 20% of web traffic in the US and Canada, according to new findings from online ad network Chitika. Specifically, smartphones account for 14.6% of web traffic and tablets take up 5.6%.

Looking further into the tablet category, the report finds that the iPad has a dominant share of web traffic among tablet devices (95%). The report also finds that Apples share of web traffic in the smartphone category is 72%.

Microsoft still has a sizeable lead when it comes to desktop computers, as Windows accounts for more than 85% of web traffic (the Mac is responsible for 13%).