Practical Technology

According to the DVD and online video rental king Netflix’s last quarterly report, Netflix now has more subscribers than Comcast, the largest cable U.S. TV operator. 7% of all U.S. citizens now subscribe to Netflix. That’s great for Netflix but what about the Internet, on which it increasingly relies for its video transport? Back in [...]

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When Cisco CEO John Chambers said that the company had lost its way and that he was going to re-target the company, he wasn’t kidding. Today, April 12th, Cisco has shut down its popular Flip video camera business and is integrating its umi consumer videoconferencing and Eos media solutions into its business video offerings. While [...]

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I’ve been a baseball fan since 1969 when the “Miracle” Mets bounced my Chicago Cubs from the National League championship. Living in the backwoods of West Virginia, I never saw my Cubs play in person or on TV. Instead, I listened to my beloved Cubs at night on my radio, which was tuned in to [...]

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First, Google opened up its VP8 video codec. Then, Google removed built-in support for the MPEG-LA patent encumbered H.264 video codec from its Chrome Web-browser in favor of VP8. After that it was only a matter of time before the MPEG-LA patent consortium came gunning for Google VP8. As a MPEG-LA representative told ZDNet’s Ed [...]

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I’ve been watching TV over the Internet since its very early days. Today, I own, and use, an Apple TV, a network capable Sony BDP-S570 Blu-ray Disc Player, and a Roku KDS. I also subscribe to Hulu Plus and Netflix. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I know, like and [...]

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