Popbox Launches With 20 New Content and Application Partners

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CES Unveiled Table 9

“The openness of the Popbox platform is now enabling content providers and application developers to move beyond simple audio, video and photo playback and into more interactive realms such as multiplayer gaming and social networking”

Syabas, a global provider of over-the-top settop software and hardware and makers of the award winning Popcorn Hour C-200 and just unveiled Popbox, today announced 20 new content and application partners have joined the Popbox platform.

The new partners include:

BlipTV: Distributes 48,000 independently-produced Web shows
Clicker: An Internet TV guide that catalogs all broadcast programming online, along with TV-quality Web originals, making it easy to discover what's available to watch (and what isn't) online, where to watch it and what's worth watching
Crunchyroll: An online video service and community that offers full-length episodes and movies of the very best in Japanese anime and Asian entertainment
Eyecon: Enables consumers to connect to their content and seamlessly route it to any compatible playback device in the home
FunSpot: A casual gaming service that offers everything from multiplayer board, arcade and card games to puzzles, strategy and quizzes
Internet Movie Database: (IMDB) A video search engine that supplies the metadata that integrates a consumer’s video collection with the corresponding movie’s artwork.
Internet Video Archive: The entertainment industry's leading aggregator of movie and TV trailers, game previews and music videos. The channel features 500,000 unique video assets from over 1,200 content providers
Livestation: Live video streams of international news channels to give you more choice and perspective wherever you are.
MalaysiaKini: An independent media organization that streams Malaysian video news and views
Mediafly: An Internet service for managing digital media shows such as video and podcasts and downloading them to many types of devices
MetaChannels from Channels.com: A video aggregation and distribution service that enables device manufacturers and application developers to integrate the best shows on the Web into their product offerings
Netflix: The world's largest online movie rental service, with more than 11 million subscribers
NextNewNetworks: Producer of online television networks that creates, packages, brands, markets and syndicates some of the Web's most popular regularly scheduled and episodic programming
Photobucket: The premiere site on the Internet for uploading, sharing, linking and finding photos, videos and graphics
PicoChannel: A service that makes it easy for people to share their personal photos and videos with friends and family on connected TVs and picture frames
Swarmcast: Transforms the Internet into a reliable medium for distributing high-quality video enables content providers to engage global audiences through high-quality viewing experiences
Twitter: A free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables consumers to send and read messages up to 140 characters in length
Twonky: Streams music, photos and videos to compatible devices in the home
Waterfront Entertainment: Develops casual games for interactive TV, Web, mobile and emerging platforms
WeatherBug: The leading provider of weather information services that manages and operates a proprietary network of over 8,000 WeatherBug Tracking Stations

Additional partners already announced include:

CCTV: The largest media content and television programming producer in China
FrameChannel: Offers over 1000 RSS-based content widgets in 12 different languages including everything from sports scores, to stock quotes, weather and news, photos, status updates from your favorite social networks and more
Revision3: Creates and produces original programming for passionate, committed fans who want to watch shows about technology, movies, video games and music that entertain, educate and help to expand their life experiences
SHOUTcast: A radio directory that allows Popcorn Hour owners to access more than 32,000 professional and community programmed radio stations that span more than 30 genres of music, news, talk, public, community and world programming

“It’s great to finally see an over-the-top settop box that’s able to do more than just play photos, video and music to their television sets,” said Michael Lantz, CEO of Accedo Broadband, the company behind the FunSpot brand. “Thanks to the open nature of the Popbox platform, it is easy and straightforward for companies like Accedo to create engaging and attractive new ways for people to interact with others through their television sets.”

Popbox enables consumers to enjoy a wide assortment of content including blockbuster movies, Internet radio, home videos, photos, music, games and Tweets from their PC, the Internet or an attached USB storage device on their HDTVs. The user interface, designed by Emmy Award-winning designer Dewey Reid, allows users to easily navigate a wide variety of content channels, browse and playback multimedia content from their computer and interact with others through social networking sites and interactive multiplayer games.

“The openness of the Popbox platform is now enabling content providers and application developers to move beyond simple audio, video and photo playback and into more interactive realms such as multiplayer gaming and social networking,” said Alex Limberis, chief operating officer of Syabas. “From companies making applications that allow users to access media from any home PC to developers making channels that enable consumers to enjoy content from a multitude of sources, it’s amazing to see the sheer number and variety of developers understanding the value that the Popbox platform can bring to their brands.”

Announced in May of this year under the DAVID platform name, the Popbox developer’s kit consists of a software development kit (SDK) and an over-the-top settop device SDK that incorporates the ability to develop and deploy applications to the company’s app store portal. Developers can sign up for the program at www.popbox.com.

Availability

Popbox is expected to be available in March for $129. For more information on the Popbox, please visit www.popbox.com.

About Syabas

Syabas, headquartered in Fremont, California and with facilities in China and Malaysia, was founded in 2001 and develops software for inexpensive wired/wireless digital home entertainment settop boxes that are sold around the world. Syabas’ product family, which includes the award-winning Popcorn Hour, A-110, C-200 and just announced Popbox, enables users to access content such as high- and standard-definition video, music, photos and services, such as BBC, CBS, CCTV, CNET TV, CNN, NBC, Photobucket, Revision3, SHOUTcast, Veoh, Vuze and DLTV, over a local network and the Internet. For more information on Syabas and their products, please visit www.popcornhour.com.