Om Malek reports that Akimbo will be killing their hardware line and that current customers will given three months of free service before it’s turned off. Guess what I won’t bother reviewing this month (see above).

In lieu of set-top box services, Akimbo will focus on their software and web products going forward. Akimbo has offered Windows MCE support for some time (though also discontinued) and recently introduced a XP/Vista VOD software client in collaboration with Roxio. They will continue to license their interface and content to AT&T Homezone and seek out additional partners. And that’s probably the key to real money and their survival.

This move doesn’t really surprise me. Akimbo had the unfortunate luxury of being a little too early to the party and without a notable retail presence. But what really hurt them in finding a large customer base (and likely Moviebeam now and Vudu later) is the pricing scheme. Akimbo charged upfront for hardware, in addition to a monthly service fee, plus fees for premiere content. Ouch. (more…)

Joost has gotten more hype pre-launch than any start-up company I can remember, and here I am contributing to it. Officially Joost may have made its commercial launch announcement earlier this week, but isn’t actually be available to everyone yet. If you’re still looking for an invite, I too now have 999 available in my invite widget. So promise to visit my other blog on occasion, drop a line in comments, and I’ll send out as many invites as I can.

Along with the commercial launch, Joost has announced new content deals with Turner and Sony to bring CNN content, full-length shows like CSI and Beavis & Butthead (do we really need to relive the 90s?) and clips like Sports Illustrated Swimsuit videos among others to the Joost screen. Commercials also started showing up on Joost yesterday.

Joost’s pros and cons have been covered pretty extensively, and by and large Dave and I agree with everyone’s assessments: There’s not enough good content and the full-screen mode is irritating. (I don’t like the navigation in general, but I think that’s more of a style and personal preference issue.) Still, Joost is potentially introducing P2P video delivery to a whole new audience. I’m interested to see how it tests bandwidth capabilities and what the reactions of cable and telecom operators will be. Are we about to see significantly more service suspensions?

No, it’s not a new Starbucks flavor. Mochila is a multimedia syndication service that just launched its video player and video content today. It’s an interesting business model and I got a full briefing on it from the CEO earlier in the week. Unfortunately, time has been running shorter than usual and I haven’t had a chance to do a write-up from that briefing. More info to come. In the meantime, check out the company site if you want to learn more.

A press release crossed my inbox today with the announcement of a new camera by DXG USA. Now I have a great digital camera, but this release promised multimedia nirvana in one little device, all for just $199.

Before I get to the catch, here are some of the features of the DXG-589V. It’s a combination 5 megapixel camera, VGA camcorder, video game player, digital music player and video recorder that takes input from TVs and DVD players. Video is MPEG-4 with 30 frames per second at a 640×480 resolution. For gaming, the device has a flip screen and 20 built-in, full-color games. Not particularly exciting for a real gamer, but for someone like me who just likes to have something handy to do while waiting in line, it sounds great.

So why the second thoughts?

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Wondering what kind of foundation is beneath your favorite gadgets and gizmos? Look no farther than the start of earnings season. Among this week’s contenders in the great earnings game are Yahoo, Motorola (my employer), and Google. Followed by Apple, Comcast and Microsoft next week, and Verizon and Time Warner the following.

Recent news that may impact these financial events includes:

• Google’s announced intention to acquire DoubleClick
• Microsoft’s introduction of the Xbox 360 Elite
• Apple’s announcement of Final Cut Studio 2

Since Davis is on safari and I know how much he loves DVD rental kiosks, I figure I better cover the Redbox news on his behalf:

“We are extremely proud to join the nation’s top five DVD renters and reinforce our leadership position in the automated DVD rental category,� said Gregg Kaplan, chief executive officer, redbox.  By the end of June 2007, redbox will have doubled its January 1, 2007 market presence to more than 4,000 locations nationwide.

(via Hacking Netflix)

A million years ago, and for a very brief period of time, I did some public relations work with the Comcast High-Speed Internet division. At the time, Comcast was pushing its Comcast.net portal as a destination site for news, video, entertainment and applications like photo sharing and shopping. Unfortunately, only Comcast subscribers could access everything on the site, so it wasn’t a very attractive story to the consumer media.

Anyway, today Comcast announced that it’s adding Fandango to its online portal (for $200 million?). Not Comcast.net, but the upcoming Fancast.com. Apparently Fancast will offer search and organizing functionality for video across a number of different devices and channels. (TV, computers, DVDs, etc.) Kind of a modern-day TV Guide.

Om Malik wondered who would own the new TV Guide space, and Broadband Daily has an article today (subscription only) about how Comcast is trying to compete with Yahoo and Google portals.

My question is: do we really need a portal site anymore? I love widgets and would rather get just the content and applications I want in widget form. Sure, I’ll still need a guide to find good content on the Web and on the TV, but why get it on a portal? Widgets are wonderful. Can Fancast.com be anything more than Fandango-tastic?