Posts Tagged ‘comcast’
TV app Tunerfish checks in to Android
The team behind , earlier this year, just announced that it’s releasing an application for Android smartphones.
Like a number of other applications, Tunerfish takes the “check in” idea (popularized by location services like Foursquare) into the TV world. Users can tell their friends what they’re watching, see what’s trending among other users, and earn rewards. Tunerfish has already launched an iPhone application and a website. In the company says the biggest demand from users was a downloadable Android app — until now, Android users had to check-in through the website.
This idea has attracted a lot of interest from companies big and small, with and . I asked Tunerfish general manager John McCrea (who, like other members of the Tunerfish team, came to Comcast through ) about how he sees the competitive landscape, and he responded:
It wasn’t too surprising that a lot of startups would enter this space, but just how many has been a surprise. We’re pretty excited about our prospects in the best-of-both-worlds scenario. We remain a small and independent team, making great product in a very agile way, but we’re also part of Comcast, which should allow us to do some really exciting things in 2011 and beyond.
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Comcast’s Tunerfish social TV app gets a new face
Comcast got into the social TV game in June with called . Today, the company announced a bunch of upgrades that general manager John McCrea said should lead to more sign-ups and growth.
Tunerfish was developed by team members from in 2008 — McCrea was Plaxo’s vice president of marketing, and Tunerfish product director Nida Zada was Plaxo’s director of user experience. Through the Tunerfish website and the iPhone application, users can share what they’re watching on television, see what’s trending among their friends or the general userbase, and earn rewards.
When I asked about Tunerfish’s numbers, McCrea didn’t give a specific user count, noting that it’s still a new product, but he revealed that the number of “shares” increased 500 percent between July and October. And its users are loyal — 10 percent of them return to the website or iPhone app seven days out of seven.
One of the big changes revealed today is a new look. Tunerfish ditched the boring text-only logo and worked with the marketing firm to design a cute fish mascot, which you can see in various guises above. And the website has been redesigned with what the company says is a cleaner look. That look is also reflected in an updated version of the Tunerfish iPhone app that just went live.
Lastly, McCrea said his team responded to the biggest request from users — it’s now possible to sign-up for Tunerfish using a traditional email address and password, rather than requiring users to log in via Facebook or Twitter.
“This really surprised us, but almost all of our low ratings in the app store were around that issue,” McCrea said.
Comcast isn’t the only company interested in this area. For example, a Google Ventures-funded application called .
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FCC Broadband Plan Promises High-Speed Internet For 100 Million More Americans By 2015
The FCC's plan involves the expansion of both home broadband capacity, but also pays special attention to ensuring that hospitals, libraries, and schools, where most Americans currently use broadband Internet services, get upgraded as well. Ultimately, the FCC hopes to provide 50 megabits per second of upload speed, and 100 megabits of download speed, to another third of the US population over the next decade. Additionally, the FCC wants 500 megahertz of wireless spectrum, currently operated by TV stations, rededicated to servicing mobile devices.
Estimates place the cost of the plan at between $15.5 and $25 billion, but FCC claims that the majority of that money will come from altering the Universal Service Fund, a program to subsidize rural phone service paid for by telecomm companies, from paying for telephones to paying for broadband. Additional funds will come from the auction of wireless spectrum for mobile device use. And if that doesn't cover the bill, the FCC has plans to ask Congress for a one-time, $9 billion boost.
The FCC, the telecommunications industry, and Congress all agree that the expansion of broadband is key to ensuring that America remains competitive in the world. The integration of TV and the Internet, the digitizing of medical records, and an increased use of cloud computing all threaten to tax America's currently limited broadband infrastructure. Despite having more broadband users than anywhere else in the world, the US only ranks 19th in percentage use, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, behind economic competitors like South Korea, Germany, and Great Britain.
Starting at the end of the month, Congress will begin holding hearings on the plan. However, with a lawsuit between the FCC and Comcast over the FCC's ability to regulate the Internet still undecided, the climate change bill poised to distract the Commerce Committee members tasked with FCC oversight, and an election in November that could reverse party control in Congress, it may be some time before the FCC can begin implementing the plan in full.
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