The iPhone application has been hailed as innovative and disturbing: half screen electronic program guide (EPG) that uses Facebook and Twitter to the people viewing choices about what their friends and the rest of the world watching and tweeting about driving.
It was interesting to see the reaction of the owners of the iPad, expressed through their reviews in the App Store. Dozens of five star reviews hail as "impressive", "Amazing" and "the beginning of something big," while a decent number one star reviews to wonder what all the fuss is about.
"I do not understand", "waste time" and "In essence, a TV guide that asks for your Facebook account, no thank you" to three examples. Zeebox has divided opinion, in other words.
Talk to the founders Anthony Rose and Ernesto Schmitt, and it is clear that Zeebox in its present form is only the beginning of the ambitions of the company, with the intention of adding new features that may convince some of these skeptics - even as their confidence runs the risk of hardening of the antipathy of others.
"The TV lounge was the last screen of the silent house," says Schmitt. "The emergence of networks connected TV, the proliferation of weapons of mass companion devices such as smartphones, laptops and tablets,. And the expectation that the entertainment is socially connected felt like a perfect storm was the right time on the TV revolution."
One reason for some of the most negative reactions can be Zeebox v1.0 it does not feel as revolutionary as it was built to be. It is a well-designed EPG that allows you to see what people are twittering like a show, and if you have friends who have Facebook and actively using the program, lets you connect to them.
The potentially revolutionary stuff is what will come in the coming months. A feature called Showtime, which will debut Nov. 28 via a partnership with Channel 4, according to the new reality show drama Scousewives Housewives.
"Showtime is a tool that allows broadcasters to use our platform to connect their content," said Schmitt. Display that a mini-app Twitter, tweets from the cast, video, information about the soundtrack, a Google map of the major locations of the show in Liverpool, and a "Scouse Glossary" for viewers who are struggling with some of the snake contains.
"Broadcasters can choose what they want to do: it is a new plugin architecture that allows them to take over and Zeebox, a private space to increase their own content," says Rose. "We also see manufacturing companies to have the skills to use this plugin architecture to develop and you will see many programs for the next months to benefit from this."
The pitch to broadcasters and producers is that this content Zeebox do - in the long term, at least - a better bet for the splash to their stand-alone applications for individual shows. Zeebox is not alone in this idea: IntoNow Shazam, Umami and Yahoo are three companies that work with similar ideas.
Showtime has been added to the iPhone v1.1.0 Zeebox the update, which went live on November 23. Next to it was another new feature called Star Watch, Rose says that the valves of hundreds of celebrities who tweet about their TV viewing habits.
"It's all the way to using Twitter reinterprets," he says. "We made a list of 400 famous people, by Alan Sugar and Stephen Fry to politicians, hosts Radio 5 live sports and so on. And when he tweets about a program, our servers hashtag and follow them, assign them to the Zeebox program and display their icons in the interface. "
In other words, users Zeebox watch a show - The X Factor, they say - will be able to see that even famous people watch and tweet about. Or even watching and tweeting about something on another channel.
"When Stephen Fry tweets about a program, thousands of people take away from this show," says Rose. "Celebrities can planners TV of the future, saying:" I'm looking for this "going out to the audience and Twitter."
Social characteristics are fundamental to Zeebox but one of the critical current of such applications by people who do not want their TV viewing for social networking imposed. Rose admits that many people are not attracted to the idea, although he notes that this may partly generations - "some people over 35 are a bit" scared, but people under 35 years can not get enough of it. "
He points out that Zeebox not force the user to access Facebook, and shows how his personal view, which is used when someone does not want to share what they look with friends or the world. But it is bullish in its belief that people should not the idea of social TV to cancel before you've tried.
"If you have not tried viewing companion app, because you think your distractions, try and see," he says. "To peremptorially diss is just stupid. Check it out to see if it will work for you. It may be better or worse for different shows, but even if only one third of the vision improves, that's fine."
What comes after Showtime and Star Watch? An iPhone version is almost ready for release, with an Android later. After that? E-commerce. Zeebox is working on ways to help people to products they see on television shows and advertisements in its application to buy.
"We will use the award to recognize video ads on TV, so for something like Nike will be able to purchase the product from the second screen with a few clicks. But it can use the songs to play on TV and links to the restoration of the content. " Since Zeebox to more closely integrate with personal video recorders (PVRs) and video on demand, the company's agenda for 2012, too.
A question for Rose is seen as Zeebox strategies of Google and Apple TV, with the earlier works to improve the Google TV platform, after an unpromising start, and the second strongly rumored to work on your television for 2012.
Rose does not mince his words when it comes to Google TV. "Google is still not the TV room to understand: it is like entering a technology company rather than as a content company," he says.
"If you look at the homepage of Google TV, a set of buttons app. People need to rotate and the content. Principe, Google is planning to software engineers, and not as people who really watch television. But perhaps someone a Other Google TV will be a great app - a Spotify for television will change that -. "
And Apple? Rose has much less to say on this point, given the lack of information about what the company has created: "It's a complete surprise."
Yet his enthusiasm for the potential applications companion - and Zeebox in particular - is unlimited. "This is the TV of the future, and it's not science fiction. It's happening now. According to the screen is really the tectonic plates shift around the television."
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