brite-View – Vision Accomplished

Dear brite-Viewers,

We hope that when you think of brite-View, you’re filled with bright thoughts only. But in order to keep streaming your digital entertainment happily, you’ll need to voice your opinion about this matter now.

I’m sure you’ve heard about this by now, that Google and Verizon just drew up their blueprint of how the Internet should look like. And Google+Verizon are definitely not the only companies who want to ensure they get on the fast lane online. Remember what happened to Comcast and FCC back in April?

That’s right. All the “big guys” – be it Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner, Google or Yahoo – want to have a say of what applications, videos, websites or content are supported by them and their partners, and what should not be prioritized in the online traffic.

What does that mean to the Internet? If our worst fear happens, it “could” mean that, when your ISP provider is AT&T, you can’t watch Hulu videos (or AT&T just makes Hulu traffic unbearably slow so you would eventually give up), or when your ISP provider is Verizon, your iPhone won’t work at home. It may also mean you can’t use the torrent download feature on the CinemaTube or CinemaTube Mini any more.

Imagine the Internet becoming more and more like what’s happening to your TV programming. You have to pay a ton of money for 500 channels, but in reality you’re only watching 20 of them. And no, you can’t choose what you want and when you want it. It’s all decided for you.

The beauty of net neutrality is that, as long as you have great new idea or insightful thoughts to share, you don’t have to be a big corporation to have your voice heard. There are many bloggers who pose greater influence than the traditional media outlet nowadays. And in fact, 75% of the news consumed online is through shared news from social network sites or email. But now the big guys want to decide for us where we should go online, and what information we should receive. Once again.

So tell Congress today that you want your Internet to stay open. Tell Google to not be evil. There is only one Internet! And remember – these companies have deep pockets (= huge lobbying power) and they can schedule a meeting with Washington D.C. any time. We are on our own so we have to make sure we will let their phones ring off the hook!

(Source: Public Knowledge, Free Press, The New York Times, and Mashable)

(Photo: http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/google-dr-evil.jpg)

(Warning: this post may appear to be cheesy and sentimental)

Since the launch of the CinemaTube in September 2009, it has become, well, if not “well-known”, at least “known” in the “scene”. It is a product people talk about, wonder about and sometimes criticize about. We welcome all thoughts and suggestions, because the day when people stop criticizing it is when the product is dead (or when it becomes perfect – not to look for excuses, but we all know there is no perfect product that pleases everyone. We can only try.).

Another example: when you login to your Linkedin account, in the middle section of your right-hand side it says “Who’s Viewed My Profile?” The day I saw “someone from the product marketing team of Western *igital (or *estern Digital; either way)” had viewed my profile, I knew we kind of made it.

Today is especially a good day for us, because we just received the 100^th review on the CinemaTube on Amazon. We were holding our breath for it because we weren’t sure if it was going to be positive or negative. We really wanted to encourage our customers to leave that comment but we knew we couldn’t bribe you. It wouldn’t be an authentic one, and thus less iconic.

(But boy, can you imagine the torture? We sometimes just sat there refreshing the page 100x times. Yes, pretty pathetic.)

And… whew! It finally showed up today after lunch time (PST) and it was a 5-star review. Thank you, Mr. Douglas A. Weber! We have announced earlier on Facebook that he will get a pair of the LinkE powerline adapters. We hope it helps with his media streaming experience.

Thanks for reading this and thanks for being here with us. It’s true. We mean it.

*picture “borrowed” from this page

If you would like to connect with me on Linkedin, you are more than welcome to do so. Thank you in advance for taking the time to do so!

Sincerely,

Charlotte Han

brite-View by Xpike Innovation

UPDATE: this version (new GUI) will be applied to the CinemaTube, as well as the CinemaGo.

Hello brite-Viewers,

We hear your concerns when you question whether the support will still be the same for you, CinemaTube owners, since that we changed the company name, and have just launched a new product, the CinemaGo.

While we can not and will not give you empty promises, we can show you, however, what the team has been working on. And a picture paints a thousand words, doesn’t it? Not to mention we have 3.

Doesn't This Excite You?

Is It Possible? Movie Cover Art?

Flickr Gets A Face Lift, Too

Now you can see why it’s taking a bit longer to debug, because we’re working on adding something new at the same time, too. Please stay tuned – you will not be disappointed.

And in case we don’t post anything new before then, happy July 4th weekend everyone!