Confirming the theory that one day soon everything will have an app store of some kind, Verizon has launched its Widget Bazaar for
FiOS TV, dedicated to bringing new
interactive experiences to FiOS TV subscribers, starting with Facebook, Twitter, and ESPN Fantasy Football. Don't expect to tap out 140 character missives via remote for now, at launch viewers can only view tweets, not post them or log in to their own accounts, although updating Facebook status and personalized ESPN Fantasy Football info is available. Verizon has promised to publish its SDK to enable "open development" (limited to a select group of developers of course) which should bring many free & for-pay apps to join the current (free) offerings by year-end. Also made official is the addition of
searching and viewing video from blip.tv, Dailymotion and Veoh, plus the
long awaited ability to stream personal videos from a connected PC, available free of charge to Home Media DVR customers.
No word yet on what codecs the updated Home Media Manager software will support for transcoding to MPEG-2 and streaming to the set-top box so keep those MKVs holstered for now and check a few screens of the apps in action in our gallery or a quick video walkthrough embedded after the break.
Update: Verizon let us know it will support FLV, WMV, MPEG-1, AVI, MPG, PM4/M4V, 3GP/3G2
posted Jul 15th 2009 at 9:09AM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mike @ Jul 15th 2009 10:23AM
Not seeing it on my HD DVR. Do you need a Home Media HD DVR? Please Verizon!!! We need a 16x9 HD Guide!!!!
Money Mike @ Jul 15th 2009 5:39PM
I have it... well part of it. I went to Widgets to get the Facebook thing and found it to be a little more annoying than I wanted, but I stuck through it. First of all, they don't separate widgets for each one. They have this weird, red box that takes you to a second screen with Sudoku, Twitter, Facebook, and ESPN Fantasy Football. I played a game of Sudoku, but I don't have or do Twitter and don't use ESPN for my FF, so the only one I was somewhat interested was Facebook.
Apparently, you need to have your parental controls setup to use Facebook, but since I live in a house with adult roommates, I never wanted to bother with that. It said I didn't have a choice, so I did. Afterward, when I went back in to do Facebook, it asked me for my pin. I entered it and the box proceeded to shut itself off and go through a full reset (aargh). Once it rebooted, it did work the second time, but I can't really picture myself using it that often. It seems like a novelty to me.
As far as the streaming video, it looks like I can't do any of it because I don't have or want Home Media Manager. Besides the extra money, the main reason I don't want it is because I have two HD DVRs in the house (one in the LR and one in my BR) and I doubt the system would be smart enough to know that, since one of the main features is to view your DVR recordings on other STBs in the house. Unless it magically pulled from both STBs, how would it know which STB to pull from?
All in all, this news isn't that great for me, but I love the fact that they're still innovating and trying to make a better experience. I don't think anyone else tries half as hard as Verizon does with FIOS.
By the way, I knew that codec support wouldn't have included MKV. That would have just been way too cool.
Money Mike @ Jul 15th 2009 5:40PM
Oh, and yes - I would absolutely love a 16x9 guide. I just don't see why they haven't done it yet.
stevedee4 @ Jul 15th 2009 11:09AM
I don't have it either in the Boston area.
Geoff W @ Jul 15th 2009 4:10PM
@ Mike and Stevedee4
New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Texas are the first markets it is getting released in
solodragon @ Jul 15th 2009 4:56PM
Maryland here...not seeing it. Should it be just under Widgets or what?
solodragon @ Jul 15th 2009 6:57PM
Nevermind. Found it. Twitter app is pretty cool, but I hate how it shrinks the picture rather than being superimposed over the picture in a transparency.
cypherx @ Jul 15th 2009 5:29PM
Verizon Fios, clearly the market leader in multi service video distribution.
No one can come close in terms of features, channel lineup, internet speeds and reliability.
Their biggest acheelies heel is that they cover less than 2% of the US. I want fios badly, but it's not in my area. Big mistake Verizon. You should build it in all of your territories instead of cherry picking.
Seriously they have a gold mine of a product. If they would just roll it out to more places they would surely have more customers. Were all sick of cable providers aging analog technology and circa 1994 on screen guide.
Money Mike @ Jul 15th 2009 5:44PM
That "2%" you're reporting doesn't sound right. I know they have a long way to go, but I'd bet that number was slightly higher. These things take time and the fiber needs to be laid before anything can happen.
EricBrady @ Jul 16th 2009 12:22AM
Got it here in the NoVA/Wash DC area. Not that I have much use for it.
StillLife @ Jul 16th 2009 9:37AM
Why would you use your TV for communication when you can pick up your laptop and do the same thing? FiOS is trying something new and we'll soon see how successful it is. My guess is it will go the way of banner ads on the internet. Internet TV is a much more viable technology. Allowing TV viewing anywhere is more appealing than allowing internet on your TV.
surge @ Jul 22nd 2009 12:18PM
the media manager app is awful.
We've been waiting for video support for some time, but it sucks
Reasons why:
1.) Even before with the oler version, I couldn't even get audio streaming to work. The song plays, progress bar goes, but no sound comes out of my tv (lol).
2.) Now with their "video" support, it's funny. They support MPEG1, but only if the video's file name is .mpg. If it's .mpeg, it will tell you it's an unsupported format (rofl, who coded this, a high school student??), even though the CODEC is exactly the same!!
3.) It seems to support Xvid but it's extremely choppy even in the "high" quality setting; BUT -- it will stretch the video out to the resolution of the TV. No way to tell their software to keep the video's native resolution. Again, poor programming.
4.) No support for MKV's, or any video files that have AC3 audio.
ispinsider @ Aug 13th 2009 8:21PM
Verizon has promised to publish its SDK to enable "open development" (limited to a select group of developers of course)
Now what the hell does that mean?
It sounds closed and smells of traditional telco think.
We will say its open but it wont be and know one will no.
I will give Verizon credit for trying to be innovative in this space but I really don't know who goes to a TV for twitter or facebook and struggles with a remote control to navigate.