• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

Google Voice returns to the App Store and brings some Basic and some Ringtones along for the ride. We're talking Facebook phones, Verizon rumors, Apple buying Faces and Guides, and more. Get social folks, it's iPhone live.

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPhone accessory store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You -- iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

Doesn't look like NBC will be joining iTunes' $0.99 TV show rental service anytime soon, as CEO Jeff Zucker thinks it's not enough to charge for 22-44 min. of... whatever soon to be cancelled sitcom they've shoved up against that inane reality show on that other network:

We do not think 99 cents is the right price point for our content. ... We thought it would devalue our content," Zucker said at a Goldman Sachs investor conference. He pointed to the fact NBC shows are already available for $1.99 for download on Apple's iTunes service.

But that's $1.99 to buy the show and watch it as many times as you want, not rent it and watch it once (or however many times you'd actually watch it during the 48 hour window). Want to watch it again next week, you gotta give NBC another $0.99, which brings them almost right back to that $1.99 and you still don't own it. Want to show it to a friend a month later, that's another $0.99, giving NBC almost $3, or more than they would have made for selling it to you.

But who am I to explain volume pricing, below impulse-buy thresholds, and -- you know -- math to one of the big media networks. After all, Zucker is the guy who yanked NBC off of iTunes entirely, only to come crawling back a short time later.

Fox, meanwhile, is keeping their options open, describing their involvement in the $0.99 program as a short term test.

Maybe someone should show them that Rolling Stone interview with Steve Jobs where he explained they aren't competing with other forms of purchase, they're competing with free.

[Reuters]

CBS has confirmed that they plan to bring all CBS.com video content to iPad via HTML5 format by the fall television season.

ABC has had an iPad app available to stream video content since the device launched, but CBS has chosen to deliver their content via CBS.com instead. In regards to this choice, Interactive executive Anthony Soohoo said

When we were looking at the iPad as a separate device, it had a lot more similarities to a PC in our mind…So for us, we wanted to make sure that video was available through HTML5 on the iPad first.

Although the PC and iPad versions of their websites will have identical content, CBS does plan to take advantage of multitouch on the iPad, particularly with advertising.

There are some interesting elements to the iPad, such as the idea of a user navigating the site with their fingers versus doing a mouse click, so that might lend itself to doing some interesting advertising programs, and that’s something that we’re learning about and looking into right now.

So who's counting down the days until CBS' fall television season?

Watch the full interview with Anthony Soohoo after the break!

[NewTeeVee]

In that stream of 700 iPad apps revealed last night, Engadget noticed a few gems including Netflix and ABC, and with CBS doing the HTML5-video thing and Hulu once again being rumored, could content consumption nirvana finally be near?

Netflix is said to be a free app that will be ready by the April 3 iPad launch. You'll be able to browse and manage your queue and stream movies and TV shows right to your iPad. No word on weather its Wi-Fi-only or 3G as well, and no word on whether an iPhone and iPod touch version is coming (ahem!)

ABC's player is also said to be free but Wi-Fi bound. You'll still get your Lost and Grey's Anatomy fix direct from the network, however. Whether it will make into the iPad App Store by launch day is unknown, as is their monetization method (i.e. will there be commercials?)

CBS, according to the Wall Street Journal, is sticking with their web-based strategy of streaming HTML5 video through Mobile Safari and not making a dedicated app. Hey, maybe that at least will give iPhone and iPod touch owners equal access?

Hulu, which carries the last two remaining networks, NBC and FOX is still unclear but the New York Times once again gets our hopes up. It's not all rosy, however, as the network nuts behind the scenes reportedly aren't happy with revenue and want something like subscriptions bolted one. They better get their act together and quickly or their old world thinking will condemn the bright boys and girls at Hulu to last place in the brave new mobile media world...

The 2010 Winter Olympics officially began yesterday and if you want to keep up with your country to see how well they are performing, the NBC Olympics Mobile app [iTunes Link - Free] for iPhone and iPod touch is a great companion piece that offers a ton of great features.

• News, results and medal counts are all updated live.
• Video on-demand: Those of you in the U.S. can watch NBC Olympics video clips and highlights. Sorry Canada!
• Favorites: Save athletes, sports and nations as favorites
• Push Notifications: Have results for your favorite sports pushed directly to your iPhone.
• TV Coverage Schedule: View NBC's TV and online coverage schedule and set program reminders.
• Athlete Bios and Sports Information: You can read up on all of the sports rules and get the full details about nations and teams.
• Social networking: Share Olympic Games content with your friends directly on your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts.

Why Canadian users would be omitted from viewing video is beyond us, especially since they are hosting all of the events. Surely some sort of deal could have been made for those of you in Canada? Now if you throw that major fail aside, you have a great app to give you your daily dose of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Screenshots after the break!

Big Media, which pretty much makes the loons in Big Music seem reasonable, witnessed NBC have the distributive equivalent of a hissy fit last year when they pulled their content from iTunes. At issue? They wanted more control over pricing. They said they wanted lower prices. Anyone ever seen media lower prices on anything established? No. Us neither.

Apple said NBC wanted to be able to charge up to $4.99 per episode of TV, much of which was 22 min. long and had already aired "for free", and that they wanted to be able to bundle content together so, for example, if you wanted Hot Show X, you had to take Dud Show Y as well. Anyone ever seen media overcharge, re-release "Special Editions" to double dip, and raise the prices of movie downloads to DVD levels (when it costs them nothing to distribute and includes none of the bonuses typically packaged with a DVD)? Yeah. All the time.

Still want to give NBC the benefit of the doubt? Remember, one of their demands for coming back was that Apple block non-commercial content from iPods and iPhones. I.e., if you can't prove you bought your show specifically for the iPhone (no content swapping from your PVR! And no home movies!), you're a de facto pirate.

After trying all sorts of disruptive alternate markets, including giving their content ("their" in that they own it, but typically did not create, direct, produce, star, or otherwise do anything but cull and cancel it), away for free on Hulu (to people in the US, at least) along with a back-door onto the iPhone, and through other online distribution models, at Apple's September "Let's Rock" event, it was announced NBC was coming back to iTunes.

The results? Check them out after the break...

Pundit link-baiters quickly claimed victory for NBC, since old (catalog) shows would cost $0.99, recent shows $1.99, and the newly announced HD shows, $2.99. NBC likewise claimed they'd "won". Apple's VP of Internet Services, Eddy Cue quickly pointed out Apple has always had those price points (while HD TV Shows were new, HD Movies were already priced 1$ higher than SD), and NBC had merely skulked come back to the table.

We guess getting around $2 a pop for TV you'd already shown "for free" and would still sell (often for less, you @$$#0!3s!) on DVD, Blu Ray, and into syndication, was too cherry too ignore.

Given over 1 million NBC shows were downloaded since "the return" -- admittedly, many offered as promotional freebies -- our guess might be right. In fact, Hollywood Reporter says:

On iTunes, about 30% of the top-selling episodes and season passes now comprise shows either airing on or produced by NBC Uni.

And that's before the new season starts.

Dear NBC. You're welcome. Love Apple.

Well, NBC is still boycotting iTunes, but in a surprising move, they're back on the iPhone (and iPod Touch). How? Streaming live through the built-in to MobileSafari QuickTime player -- take that, Flash snobs! -- and without advertising!

Silicon Valley Insider has the Hulu-trumping details:

NBC is streaming full episodes of "The Office" and "30 Rock" to the iPhone in unprotected Quicktime format. Without advertising. Go figure. To get there, go to nbc.com on an iPhone (or presumably, an iPod touch). Scroll past Howie Mandel and Sam Waterston, and NBC invites you to "WATCH FULL EPISODES!" Be warned: the quality is pretty bad and our borrowed iPhone froze twice.

Now, while I do get a snazzy iPhone-optimized web page, I don't get the watch full episodes option (probably because I'm not in the US, and were I to see such US content, the world would explode), so if you get it to work, please let me know, and let me know how well!

NBC done gone lost their rainbow peacock'd minds? Maybe, if Gizmodo is properly quoting their Chief Digital Officer, George Kliavkoff:

"We'd love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience. We'd love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes." [They want more money per show to] "reflect the full value of the product." [And for iTunes to block you from loading pirated content onto your iPod.] "If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy [sic] measures. We are financially harmed every day by piracy. It results in us not being able to invest as much money in the next generation of film and TV products."

Huhbuwhat?!

NBC is currently turning down $1.99 per 22-44 minutes of The Office or Battlestar Galactica. 2 bucks for content previously aired on FREE television, which can be easily, legally (and much to their chagrin and previously failed efforts to block it) taped or PVR'd. They're turning down that EXTRA money because they want MORE of it, and they want iTunes to prevent you from, say, shifting that FREE content from your PVR or media center to your iPhone without paying MORE of that EXTRA money?!

Dare I suggest the only reason the pirates exist is because of Big Media's greed and short sightedness. The minute they charge fair prices for fair use, given the low barrier of entry and elegance of use of iTunes' interface, the piracy disappears for everyone but zealots. (Never mind the marketing value of downloads alone -- The Office being a prime example.)

Apple really can't pull the trigger on their DVR patent fast enough.

What do you think?

There's a great article over at the Salt Lake Tribune, titled "NBC is loser in spat with Apple." It's a good article, insightful in most of its points, but the title makes me feel left out. What about my suffering? I lost something too, eh? At any rate, it's well worth the read. It appears the only language that Vince Horiuchi speaks is "money quote."

Finally, NBC, which is in fourth place in the ratings, needs iTunes to drum up interest in its series. [...] It also doesn't help that this deal went sour just before the start of the fall TV season, when millions will be turning to iTunes to get episodes of new shows. [...] NBC, like all the other television networks, doesn't understand why downloadable content is going to change the face of TV. They just want to make money off it.

[via]