Flingo.tv

As covered by GigaOM, two .tv’s that showed new products are Flingo and Simple.tv.

Flingo, headquartered in San Francisco, launched in late 2008 as a way for sending online video to internet-connected TVs (including sets from LG, Samsung and Vizio). They launched a new product at CES, called SyncApps, which they claim allows users to share easily on Facebook and Twitter, while allowing social content from broadcasters, like polls and updates, to be sent to the user’s TV screen. There have announced a number of really exciting features, including an API that enables developers to create application that use SyncApps to hook into their system. This looks like the next phase of social television and we can’t wait to see where this goes.

Another .tv that emerged from CES is Simple.tv, a set-top device that lets you stream live and recorded TV content to supported mobile devices – including the iPad.  Simple.tv announced availability for Spring 2012 and are taking reservations for their device on their website. Simple.tv also announced a premium subscription package will be available  that will include an enhanced program guide, automatic recording and streaming to a set number of connected devices.

Simple.tv

These are pretty exciting uses of technology for online video – it looks like the future is really here!

We’re also looking forward to exploring great new features that are being implemented in cameras – like Wi-Fi and 3D – that will help take online video up to the next level.

One of the big events of this year’s CES was the International Academy of Web Television Awards. This is an organization that promotes and celebrates online video and the amazing creators behind them. The awards were given out on January 12^th and you can watch the stream of the ceremony here.  We were really excited to see one of our advocates, Brad Powell’s webshow, DadLabs, win Best Educational Web Series – Congratulations Brad!

Once again, the Consumer Electronics Show was an exciting kick-off to the year and we’re looking forward to seeing all of these products in use during 2012!

Twitch.tv website

We’ve written about Twitch.tv before and have followed it’s progress since it’s spin off from Justin.tv in June 2011. Twitch.tv is a site for video gamers to watch, broadcast and chat about their gameplay, a great site to discover new games and personalities to follow.

The site has been growing at an incredible rate – 11% month over month since their launch – and announced in December that Twitch.tv is now engaging more than 12 million unique visitors a month. They also launched an iPhone application, which had over 80,000 downloads in the first month.

Twitch.tv has a premium partner program that includes the Electronic Sports League, Major League Gaming and the IGN Pro League, and is now more than 1000 members strong.

There is an incredible amount of momentum going into 2012 around Twitch.tv and the gaming space – what we see is that this is an incredibly connected and vibrant community that’s passionate about video gaming and online video.

Learn how to create and edit video on .tv

Our new Watch.tv site design has been live for a couple of months now – and we’ve gotten a lot of great, positive feedback on our new look and feel. One of the new sections on the site that we love is HowTo .tv, which is dedicated to educating our users about online video.

In this section you’ll find videos and posts on a number of subjects:

• Steve Garfield‘s video on how to “Plan, Shoot, Edit and Share Web Video“
• A great post on “The Keys to Great Audio“
• An answer to a question we get a lot at Watch.tv, “How to Host Video on the Web“
• And more…

Stay Tuned!

* Disclosure: Rick Griffin and Sandi McKenna are compensated .tv Advocates,  http://cmp.ly/3/LyzHe9 and http://cmp.ly/3/yDVhjL

Some rights reserved by David Machiavello

In case you didn’t notice the lights on your neighbor’s house or Santa appearing in every other commercial on television, the holiday season is upon us.

Families all over the world will be gathering to celebrate together and we thought this would be the perfect time for you and your family to start a video scrapbook.

Think about it. For years you’ve taken photos and kept them as a living memory of the great times you share with family and friends. But, now we’ve all got video capable phones or at least one device in our house that captures video so why not add moving pictures into the mix.

This doesn’t have to involve any huge commitment of time or technology. In fact, it could be as simple as these steps:

1. Sign up for an account on a video hosting site such as YouTube or Vimeo so that you have a location to upload your video files
2. Register a domain name for your family. Something such as YourFamilyName.TV sure would look great we think.
3. Start uploading the videos and inviting other family members to join in the fun. Up to you how openly or private you make things.

Remember, that if a picture tells a thousand stories imagine how much a video does!

Happy holidays from every one on the .tv team and if you already do this or set one up be sure to let us know –  send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Stay tuned!

We’re really excited to be working with C.C. Chapman – C.C. is the author of the book Content Rules (Wiley 2010) and the Founder of Digital Dads among many other projects. He’s a modern day renaissance man who lives every day to inspire others to be their best.

C.C. has been talking about the importance of online video for years, which is why he’s a .tv advocate! Here he is in his own words talking about why he believes in this program:

Our last Advocate that we’re introducing is Melissa Pierce.

Melissa Pierce – MelissaPierce.tv is a born filmmaker who just released her documentary Life in Perpetual Beta. Melissa is based in Chicago and always has her hands active in the creative landscape. She most recently took part in the Jones Soda RV to SXSW and is also an active photographer.

Melissa believes that the best kind of storytelling is done through online video – here she is in her own words talking about being a .tv advocate:

What topics would you like to see our Advocates cover? Send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Stay tuned!

* Disclosure: C.C. (http://cmp.ly/3/vakqdV) and Melissa (http://CMP.LY/3/1x3XoV)  are compensated members of the .tv Advocate Program

In this video, Brad talks about being a .tv advocate:

We’d love to hear what topics you’d like to see covered by our advocates – send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Stay tuned!

* Disclosure: Brad is a compensated member of the .tv Advocate Program, http://CMP.LY/3/IohLtU

Rick and Sandi’s firm belief is that a road trip is the perfect therapy for a midlife crisis. They are all about encouraging people to live their dreams (at least the good ones). Whether it’s something as extreme as skydiving or as simple as meeting Twitter friends in real life, the Midlife Road Trip crew are committed to making the most of midlife in a fun and entertaining way.

See what Rick  and Sandi have to say about being .tv advocates*:

We’d love to hear what topics you’d like to see Rick and Sandi talk about – send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Stay tuned!

* Disclosure: Rick Griffin and Sandi McKenna are compensated .tv Advocates,  http://cmp.ly/3/LyzHe9 and http://cmp.ly/3/yDVhjL

Some of our favorite moments:

• C.C. Chapman: “Seeing the constant stream of people swinging into the booth and asking what .TV was all about. The living room set instantly welcomed everyone in and they came in droves which was great to see.”
• Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff : “The great Anji Bee interview!”
• Melissa Pierce: “People stopping by to watch the live interviews – on the bigscreen TV instead of the studio itself… what does that say about our LOVE of video?”
• Rick Griffin: “Getting to interview the Vacation Gals, JD Andrews and iGrandma.tv”
• Sandi McKenna: ”Our educational segment with JD Andrews. As an Emmy award winner his knowledge of video production was such added value to viewers.”

And there’s a lot more – my favorite moments was having so many people visiting our booth and wanting to know more about .tv, & the folks who already use .tv stopping by to inquire about interviews & becoming advocates (Also -the booth looking so amazing that someone wanted to rent it to film an episode of their own show!).

We’re busy editing all the amazing video we took and will bring the best of BlogWorld to our YouTube channel and Facebook page later this month, so stay tuned.

Did you go to BlogWorld or watch our Watch,tv Studio livestream? Send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel. We can’t wait to hear what your favorite BlogWorld moment is.

And – don’t forget to vote for your favorite “Make a .tv Commercial” entry!

In this video, Phil talks about being a .tv advocate* and a couple things he’s working on right now.

We’d love to hear what topics you’d like to see Phil talk about – send us a tweet or comment here, on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Stay tuned!

* Disclosure: Phil is a compensated member of the .tv Advocate Program,  http://CMP.LY/3/HPynQH

So it took time (and a lot of healthy debate!) to whittle down all of these entries to a final Ten.

Check out our “Make a .tv Commercial” Contest Top Ten Finalists!

We did our part – Now it’s YOUR turn!

Starting today through November 13^th – go to the Facebook.com/WatchDotTV page and vote for your favorite commercial. You can vote once a day until Sunday- one vote per video per valid Facebook account (we’ll be checking!).

Voting will end November 13^th at 11:59:59 EST and we’ll announce our Grand, First and Second Prize winners on or about December 1, 2011.

We love all of these amazing videos and know how hard it’ll be to pick the final winners – so take some time to view all of these fantastic entries and vote today! Help pick our $10,000 winner!

Make a .tv Commerical Contest starts on September 13, 2011 at 12:00:00 AM ET and ends on October 23, 2011 at 11:59:59 PM ET.  Open only to legal residents of the 50 US/DC (excluding Puerto Rico), 18 years or older at the time of entry. Grand Prize is a $10,000 check payable to the winner.  First Prize is a Canon 7D Camera with 28mm – 135 mm lens valued at $2,200.00. Second Prize is a Panasonic GH2 Camera with 14mm – 140mm lens valued at $1,500.00.   Click on Official Rules for details on entry instructions, and restrictions. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: VeriSign, Inc, 21345 Ridgetop Circle, Dulles, VA  20166. Subject to full Official Rules.

© 2011 VeriSign, Inc.  All rights are reserved.