YouTube TV now available in the Pittsburgh Area

I just signed up for the trial version last night and was suitably impressed at the connection speed and resolution of the image stream. This service is just $35/month and provides basic cable channels for you with unlimited DVR functions. If you are only interested in local sports and news this is a great alternative to other TV options. I’m currently looking at a $250+ bill each month for my current Comcast account. If you are thinking about cutting the cord then let’s look at the math.

Looks like a no brainer to me. The only thing I am loosing that I touch once in awhile is HBO. So…

If you decide that this is something you want to consider, you will probably want to purchase a couple of ChromeCasts for your TV’s around the house. This gives you the ability to access YouTube TV right from there without a problem.

Shared YouTube TV memberships & family groups

Create a family group to share YouTube TV—as well as other Google apps and services—with up to 5 other people.

How family groups work on YouTube TV

• If you've purchased a YouTube TV membership, you can create a family group to share your membership with up to 5 people at no additional cost. When you create a family group, you become the family manager.
• As the family manager, you can invite family members (ages 13+) to join your family group. 
• As a family group member, you can build your own personal library of content in YouTube TV. Your viewing preferences and DVR are all your own—we won't share your library or watch history with your family group.
• Sharing YouTube TV as part of a family group also lets you share other Google services with the same people. Learn more about family groups on Google

Watch YouTube TV on multiple devices

You can use YouTube TV on up to three separate devices at the same time. For example, if you're watching YouTube TV on both a computer and a mobile device, this counts as two of the three available devices—even though they’re being used by the same account.

This looks very tempting to me except that two of the channels my wife watches PBS and Hallmark, are not included and for local sports we are missing Root for the Penguin Hockey games and Pittsburgh Pirates. I have another eight months on my current Xfinity Contract so hopefully we will see some other changes over the next couple of months.

Have you looked at YouTube Red yet?

So what is YouTube Red? Here is another add-on service for YouTube content that provides Ad-Free content for $9.99/month. It also gives you the ability to save the content off-line (stored on your device) so that you can watch, listen or play even when you don’t have internet access. It also let’s you play your content in the background so you can be using a different app then the player at the same time, even when the screen is turned off. You also get a Google Play Music Subscription at no additional cost if it is available in your country. However, this service does not extend to any paid services that you are currently subscribed to. You can cancel this subscription at any time.

For more information look here.

Cord Cutting–Is YouTube TV an alternative for you?

Do you live in Chicago, San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles, New York or Philadelphia? Then you have an alternative to Cable TV. YouTube TV is now available in the areas mentioned above for just $35/month. The channel line up is okay but doesn’t have a lot of what my family watches at this time. YouTube TV is planning on adding more options as well as locations as time goes on and if you sign up and are out of the current supported areas you will be notified when the service is available in your area. The best thing is that if you don’t like the service there is no commitment.

Currently you can purchase Showtime ($11/mo) and Fox Soccer Plus ($15/mo) as add-on channels. You get 6 accounts and everyone in your household gets their own login and personal DVR library. Also, the DVR storage is unlimited so you can save to your heart’s content. There is also no limit to the number of simultaneous shows that you can capture as well.

My only issue is that some of the stations that my wife watches all of the time are not part of the selection. But in time they may show up. I was sort of surprised that HBO isn’t available as an add-on nor are Hallmark or PBS available as part of the lineup.

For more information look here.

Knomia-an online video platform directed at education

Knomia allows you to create and share lessons as a teacher, view lessons as a student, and as a parent to choose lessons that you think would be good for your students. They have several tools posted for teachers to create content with more coming. Use the iPad app to create lesson plans or link to video that you have produced on iTunes and Vimeo. Currently advertising over 7,000 video lessons available at this time, all published by teachers. They have 3 different accounts that you can sign up for. You may register as a student, teacher or parent. You will be asked to setup using an email and to put in personal information about yourself. As a teacher you can create video in QuickTime, MPEG4 or H.264 formats or point to YouTube or Vimeo posts in your accounts. Use the iTunes lessons creation tool that is a free lesson planning and recording tool for teachers.

It helps you create short video lessons on any subject and publish them on knowmia.com so your students and the public can find them. Knowmia Teach makes it easy to bring in visual aids from multiple sources, organize them in steps (like slides in a presentation) and use your own voice and fingers to bring your lesson to life. You can design each step in the lesson, record illustrations as you draw them, and create sophisticated animation sequences with a simple stroke of a finger. We give you the ability to describe your lesson with details that make it simple for any student who is interested in the subject to find it.
Main features include:

• Build your lesson out of smaller steps (like slides) so it's easy to manage and organize your lesson
• Create each step of your lesson on a separate whiteboard so you can seamlessly introduce new concepts
• Record everything that you do on the whiteboard as well as your voice to create the lesson step-by-step
• Use the shape tool to quickly draw common shapes
• Type text with any font/size directly on the whiteboard
• Import graphics from the iPad's media library and built-in camera - or paste in any image of your own
• Draw freely with multiple pen widths and a highlighter mode
• Use the pointer tool to attract attention to anything on the whiteboard while recording it
• Publish the complete lesson to Knowmia.com with a touch of a button

It is great to start seeing new products coming out that will enhance the teacher’s lesson plans and parents ability to help direct their children’s education.

15 Minutes of Fame

Well, one of the big items floating though the blogosphere today was an posting in YouTube’s daily blog stating that you will now be able to produce up to 15 minute video that you will be able to post to YouTube. So for you guys that bumping up against the limit here is you go. Enjoy!

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