Kyte 360° Video Experience Coming to Your Living Room - Through Boxee

Posted by: Jenna Quilalang    Under: Product | Introducing yet another extension of the Kyte 360° Video Experience – we’re expanding our line of Kyte App Frameworks to Boxee, a fast-growing Interactive TV Platform.

The Kyte Boxee App Framework allows you to deliver a fully-branded video experience through Boxee to PCs and television sets. Our turn-key solution makes it easy to build apps, which can be broadly distributed through Boxee’s Apps directory, enabling you to reach to your audiences while they’re at home.

You can further benefit from Boxee’s sharing functionality and rating system, which allows users to recommend video apps to contacts both inside and outside of the Boxee community, and pushes popular content to Facebook and Twitter.

Like all our frameworks, the Boxee App Framework significantly reduces the time, cost, and complexity of building interactive video applications, allowing you to focus on delivering a great user experience. Now, you can really reach and engage audiences wherever they are, even if it’s on the couch in front of their television sets.

Click here to learn more about our Boxee App Framework.

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Simon & Schuster Select Kyte to Power Author Applications for the iPhone

Posted by: Jenna Quilalang    Under: Product |

Leading publisher Simon & Schuster is utilizing the Kyte iPhone App Framework to deliver social video apps for their authors.

The Kyte Mobile App Frameworks provide a cost effective, turnkey solution for bringing Kyte-powered video and interactivity to leading mobile devices like the iPhone.

Jodi Picoult, writer of the bestseller, My Sister’s Keeper, is the first of their authors to have an app available for download on iTunes. The app features the following turnkey and custom features:

TURNKEY MODULES

• “Fan Wall” for engaging multimedia chat
• “Author Appearances” for event listings with native map link
• “Fan Photos” for UGC photos and videos uploaded by fans
• Twitter Feed to stay up-to-date on Jodi’s Tweets
• Videos and Pictures to display various content types

CUSTOM FEATURES

• Native UI showcasing the author’s books, including excerpts, reading group guides and buy links
• Web modules built and hosted by Simon & Schuster featuring book quizzes, lyrics, recipes, and newsletter signup
• iTunes Movies & Podcasts links to the iTunes App Store

We’re excited to be powering Jodi’s iPhone app and hope her fans enjoy it as well. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date on Jodi’s events, and a superb platform to engage with people who share your similar interests. To learn more about iPhone App Framework, click here.

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Announcing Kyte iPhone/iPad SDK and Support for HTML5

Posted by: Gannon Hall    Under: Product |

Everyone’s buzzin’ about it. Some call it a “magical and revolutionary” product that’s going to change the way we consume content, while others dismiss it as “an oversized iPod Touch.” 

On April 3rd, Apple’s iPad is going to hit the shelves, and while not quite "magical," we do believe the iPad represents an important shift in the evolution of media consumption and personal computing. The iPhone gave Apple a rare opportunity to create a new interaction model that addressed many of the flaws and complexities we now take for granted in our everyday use of computers. The iPad, which uses the same interaction model at a form factor better suited for media consumption, is much closer to the ideal of what a media experience should be for the average consumer.   

Whether you agree or not, one thing is certain: publishers of all sorts are super excited about the iPad and the opportunities it brings for media delivery, consumer engagement and monetization. What is less certain is whether iPad usage will be largely app driven, like the iPhone, or browser-based, given the device's larger screen size. 

To address both scenarios and give our customers choice and flexibility, we’re announcing a two-pronged approach to iPad support:

1. an SDK for developing Kyte-powered iPad apps for distribution through the Apple iTunes App Store;
2. web-based support for the iPad through the use of a universal embed code that outputs HTML5 video when browsed via the iPad.

Reducing the time, cost and complexity of building interactive video applications was our primary goal in designing the Kyte iPhone/iPad SDK. We want developers leveraging the Kyte Platform to focus on creating great user experiences instead of worrying about media optimization, complex communication protocols or the need to build server-side components.

Key features of the Kyte iPhone/iPad SDK include:  

• Binary API that delivers video, pictures, and audio optimized for the user's connection
• Single media API for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch
• Simple methods to integrate multimedia chat, comment threads, and ratings for all media
• Additional APIs to build modules such as an RSS reader, Twitter reader, downloads and location-aware events 
• Real-time notifications update the application when new content is available
• Ability to build a single, universal binary with optimized user experiences for both iPhone and iPad form factors.

We’re excited about helping our partners realize the full potential of Apple’s new device and look forward to experiencing the creative and innovative ways they are sure to leverage Kyte on the iPad.

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Kyte @ SXSW 2010

Posted by: Gannon Hall    Under: Product | Events | Mobile |

If you're at SXSW Interactive you may run into me and Maks, who'll be out and about demoing Kyte LivePro Unwired, the newest addition to the Kyte Platform which enables broadcast-quality live streaming via 3G (and future 4G) wireless technology. Live streams are automatically archived for on-demand viewing, so if you miss an actual live stream, you can always watch the on-demand videos after the fact.

We put up a page where we'll be broadcasting, so check it out to catch the live (and on-demand) SXSW action. Let's just hope the 3G coverage is better than last year. Good news is that Kyte LivePro Unwired bonds several 3G cards from multiple carriers, so even if a particular carrier is experiencing difficulty (you know who you are), the others should compensate.

Click Here

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Kyte First Online Video Platform to Deliver Wireless High Quality Live Streaming

Posted by: Gannon Hall    Under: Product | Mobile | Media Coverage |

Earlier this week, Daniel visited Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch to show off our new toy, Kyte LivePro Unwired, which enables high quality wireless live streaming via the Kyte Platform.  Check out the video below and Erick's post on TC.

In conjunction with the launch, SPIN Magazine will be using the technology to bring music fans behind the scenes live coverage from SXSW. 

Kyte LivePro Unwired, which uses wireless backpack technology provided by LiveU, will allow SPIN to deliver high-quality live video from places where deploying traditional broadcast technologies would be impossible or too costly. All that is needed for Kyte LivePro Unwired is the battery-operated backpack unit and any camera that supports IEEE 1394 (Firewire) output.

We’re super excited about this product, and we can’t wait for you to see it in action!  Check back here to see SPIN’s live coverage during the show.

Kyte LivePro Unwired extends our professional live streaming capabilities first introduced with Kyte LivePro. Check out our Kyte LivePro Overview to learn more about both products.

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