ViodiTV


News on Demand – Everywhere

[Editor’s Note: This video was hosted on Google Video – It needs to be updated to a new server]

News on demand – a concept that has been around for a long time, but was it was just an abstract notion for me until recently. Anthony Bontranger of 1cast let me know, via a Facebook comment on my recent story about the T-Mobile/Google G1 phone, that this news service is now available as an application for both the G1 moblile phone and iPhone. The PC-delivered version of this service has been around for awhile, but it had little utility for me, as I normally find it distracting to watch videos on my PC (I know the irony given the videos we post to ViodiTV).

The 1Cast application on the GPhone1cast aggregates news from various sources and places them into various playlists, such as by top news stories, by topic (e.g. Auto Industry or Somali Pirates) or by news source. Within the playlist, the news stories play sequentially with brief advertisements separating the various stories. It even has social networking aspects to the service, whereby one can create and share custom playlists (such as the above embedded video).

I use the service much like I would have used a transistor radio from days gone by, whereby I listen to the stories on the G1 while driving or walking. With fewer commercials and more solid news, it seems to provide a more informative experience than what is found on the typical radio station. I like the way it provides diverse points of view on a particular topic. On any given story, one might hear videos from AP, Barron’s, BBC, CBC, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.

The quality of the video is quite good, but I only watch it when the story merits; most of the time, audio provides the essence of the story. Of course, with the trick play functionality, I can rewind if I don’t hear a sentence or want to see an image I may have missed. It automatically pauses upon an incoming call and resumes playing the video once the call has ended. Overall, my experience with the 1Cast service has been quite good and it presents another alternative to print and broadcast media.

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