“As I predicted here last week, Neokast was the hit of the Video on the Net conference in San Jose. The prospect of high-quality streaming (not downloading) with almost no bandwidth cost whatsoever and no YouTube ads, either, was compelling to a broad spectrum of conference attendees,” Robert X. Cringely writes for PBS.com.
From Neokast.com:
Neokast is the next generation media distribution network on the Internet offering a fully automated, deployable, user-generated, real-time streaming broadcast platform. Through its unrivalled capacity to cheaply and easily broadcast live media content in HD quality, Neokast will be the most powerful video distribution service ever offered. Neokast gives anybody the opportunity to become a professional content provider by streaming continuous live videos to an unlimited number of viewers, free of charge.
Cringely explains more about what Neokast does and writes, “The other interesting news this week is the Apple TV started shipping and — guess what? — IT KINDA SUPPORTS HDTV! Other than movie trailers, of course, Apple has no HD content, but we can all bet that will shortly change… Steve Jobs said that 2005 would be the ‘year of HD,’ but I think it is much more likely to be 2007 and the Apple TV will be the spoiler of many a Blu-ray or HD DVD sale because Apple TV is cheaper and easier, has no expensive consumable media, and HD movies will probably cost a little less to buy through iTunes than at Target.”
“The chance to grab market leadership happens when hardware standards are in transition, so in a sense Apple couldn’t have introduced the Apple TV any earlier than now, when HD video players are finally reaching the market in real numbers,” Cringely writes, “But if you think Neokast will steal Apple’s thunder, probably not. I can’t imagine Neokast will remain independent for more than another six months. And if Apple has a lick of sense, they’ll be the ones to buy it.”
Full article here.
More info: http://www.neokastblog.com/
Maybe. But I definitely think Apple should buy me lunch.
MW: should – coincidence?
Two items to note:
1. Cringely often makes convincing-sounding but utterly inaccurate and boneheaded predictions
2. Apple rarely buys other companies. They prefer to develop moneymakers in-house
That’s not to say Cringely could not be right. But given his abysmal track record, I strongly doubt it. Frankly, if I see one more “Apple should do this”, or “Apple should buy that” headline, I’ll hurl chunks.
I agree, I’m starving and broke.
There is no Robert X. Cringely.
MW: ‘wrong’
What’s stopping Apple from adopting a better compression standard and doing it themselves?
Some researchers have already developed a faster internet protocol that is amazingly 150,000x faster than a modem.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0318_030318_internet.html
So why should Apple pay for a startup?
Alexis:
Apple wouldn’t need to buy the company, just the technology/software. Similar to what they did with Final Cut from Macromedia.
For years now I’ve been hearing “Apple should/is-going-to buy x company” and every single time it’s been wrong.
The real company buys that Apple does are usually followed by “Why did Apple buy x?” articles..
“high-quality streaming”
Yeah, for a tiny screen cell phone maybe – but HDTV 1080 quality? – nah that´s 5-10 years away.
Apple should buy SoundJam
As long as the app they use isnt based on Real Player
or that Win Crap media … I guess it might be cool
for Apple to buy them …
The question is …
will they ?
MW = “far” …. could be far in the future ..
I wish MDN would stop calling Marc Stephens “Robert X. Cringely”. As ChrissyOne said, there is no Robert X. Cringely.
Besides that article sounds like a blatant stock manipulation to me.
I think Apple should by Next.
-c
MW: ‘power’ (computing would be nice, too)
What Apple buys
Apple buys small ‘REALLY FREAKING COOL’ companies with ‘MUST HAVE COOL’ things.
The iPod was developed by a engineer and brought to Apple
iTunes visuals, yep another small company.
CoverFlow – ditto.
So if your small, got something REALLY COOL that could enhance Apple’s “COOL” image. Your odds are good. Especially if Apple can make it appear that your product came from them orignally.
If your big, well known and/or expensive or want too much as far as your royalty cut, forget it. If your connected with anything located in Redmond Washington, forget it.
You have to be California “cool”. Show up in your Hawaiian shirt and shorts, flip-flops and pair of cheap sunglasses to Cupertino HQ and the game is yours.
Trust me, they will be drooling over you.
Yeah, just what I want… tie up my internet connection for a day or two with 50GB downloads of HD content instead of Netflixing a Blu-ray disk.
Nuh-Uh. Not this year… or next.
Slow news day? This has been the top story for over an hour now.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I just went to Neokast and signed up for the beta… and then it tells me that it requires XP or Vista. Is this a Mac-friendly service or not?
Apple should bring back Mike Markkula.
I should buy Apple
If Marc Stephens wants to call himself “Robert X. Cringely,” then he’s Robert X. Cringely.
He doesn’t need anyone’s permission. He’s doing what most writers have done for centuries. Using a pen name.
Why do people have an issue with this?
Maybe he just likes being called Bob rather than Marc.
I want to be called Pedro Cucaracha !!!
I wonder if the corporate world would have an issue with that…
Isn’t that the name of Keanu’s latest garage band?