Dish subscribers will soon be able to watch live satellite TV on their mobile devices at no extra cost.
Dish Network Corp. is planning to offer the feature on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry devices in September and on phones using Google Inc.’s Android system in October.
Subscribers will need special hardware. One option is Sling Media Inc.’s SlingBox, which retails for $180 to $300. Dish subscribers also can pay $200 to $400 to upgrade to Dish’s high-definition digital video recorder with SlingBox features; they’ll need to pay $10 a month for multiple DVR service, but they’ll get recording capabilities with it. Sling is owned by EchoStar Corp., whose chairman is Dish CEO Charles Ergen.
Viewers using Dish’s new app can switch channels remotely. But if someone at home is watching one channel, the person using a mobile device elsewhere has to watch the same thing, unless the DVR being used has a second tuner. SlingBox also can access programs recorded on your DVR, but the box itself can’t record.
The offering from Dish is the latest in the race for video supremacy among subscription TV providers. With most TV viewing households already signed up for a cable, satellite TV or video service from a phone company, companies have to step up promotions to lure subscribers. These include free HD for life from Dish and DirecTV Inc., and a two-year rate guarantee from Comcast Corp. on its HD TV, Internet and phone plan.
Vonnage app calls Facebook friends
Vonage has a new application for the iPhone and Android phones that provides free calls between Facebook users.
The application is another step in the industrywide move away from today’s phone system and toward Internet calling.
Vonage Mobile for Facebook is available as a free download for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android phone users. They sign in with their Facebook username and see a list of Facebook friends who also have the app. Tapping a name places a call to the friend.
“Essentially, we’ve given Facebook a voice,” said Marc Lefar, the CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp.
The calling works over cellular broadband, so-called 3G, and over Wi-Fi. It doesn’t use calling minutes, but will use up data, which could be a concern for subscribers to AT&T’s new limited data plans for smart phones.
Games kill more time than e-mail
For the first time, games have overtaken e-mail as Americans’ No. 2 online time killer, according to new research from Nielsen Co.
But not surprisingly, blogs and social networks — Facebook, mostly — are still what we spend the biggest chunk of our online time scouring.
Of the nearly 24 hours of time Americans on average spent online during the month of June, 23 percent was on social networks and blogs, Nielsen found. That is up from 16 percent in the same month a year earlier.
By far the most visited social network was Facebook, which commanded 85 percent of the time spent on social networks.
Games accounted for more than 10 percent, up from 9 percent last year. E-mail counts for just 8 percent of time, down from nearly 12 percent last June. That could reflect contacting friends through Facebook or phone text messages.
Associated Press
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