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MLB.com, the digital arm of Major League Baseball, announced Wednesday that, starting with the 2010 season, its subscription-based, live streaming-enabled broadband video service, MLB.TV, will for the first time offer portability. According to the company, subscribers to the service will be able to access a complete season of 2,430 games on a range of portable interactive platforms, including the new Apple iPad and the MLB.com At Bat 2010 app for iPhone/iPod touch. The company says that it expects to be able to announce additional platforms for MLB.TV's live streaming prior to baseball's Opening Day.

In a posting on its official blog, Tuesday evening, the White House announced the availability of a new, free White House App for the Apple iPhone/iPod touch. "One feature that stands out is live video streaming," the blog post stated. "Now anyone with this app can watch the president's public events at the White House, frequent Web chats with administration officials, and other events like key speeches and press briefings, in real time. In fact," the blog post continued, "the president's State of the Union speech next week is a great example.

Fort Lauderdale-based L5 Technology on Monday launched a solution--comprised of a hardware accessory and a free software application--that it bills as transforming any iPhone/iPod touch into a universal remote, capable of controlling TV sets, DVD players, DVR's, cable set-top boxes, audio equipment, and most other products that come with an infrared remote (including, the company points out, ceiling fans and air conditioners).

Premium programmer, HBO, has launched a free iPhone/iPod touch application in the Apple App Store. According to the company, the app, which was designed by Atimi Software, is designed to provide an "in-depth, interactive experience" that incorporates a range of branded entertainment, including video clips and in interactive episode guide. "We think the HBO App for iPhone and iPod touch will quickly attract both HBO's loyal fans as well as new consumers," HBO's VP of brand strategy, Alison Moore, said in a prepared statement.

A number of items of augmented reality news have come across [itvt]'s desk over the past few days. Here is a brief round-up:

A report by Sam Schechner and Yukari Iwatani Kane in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal claims that Apple is planning to launch a subscription-based over-the-top-TV service, and that CBS and Disney are considering participating. The report, which cites unnamed sources "familiar with the matter" (note: Apple, CBS and Disney all apparently refused to comment), also claims that Apple is hoping to launch the service next year.

A number of items of broadband-video and live-streaming news have come across [itvt]'s desk over the past few days. Here is a brief round-up:

CNN on Tuesday launched what it calls an "interactive news app" for the iPhone/iPod touch. The app, which is available in the Apple App Store for $1.99 (note: it will also be monetized through advertising; it currently features logos and banner ads from "launch advertisers" Chevron and Lexus), offers among other things live breaking news video, push notification, localization and personalization tools, and user-generated content capture and upload functionality, the broadcaster says.

A number of new augmented reality applications for the Apple iPhone have launched in the Apple App Store over the past few days, now that that technology is officially supported by the device (thanks to the release this month of iPhone OS 3.1). They include:

Revision3, a company which bills itself as "an actual TV network for the Web" and which develops and produces original broadband TV shows, contacted [itvt] earlier this week to let us know about a new show it has just launched that may be of interest to our readers. Entitled "AppJudgment" and hosted by a rotating roster of Revision3 personalities, including Patrick Norton ("Tekzilla"), Revision3 co-founder David Prager and Ron Richards ("iFanboy"), the show reviews new applications for the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Palm Pre platforms.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Friday, Apple recently told Acrossair, the developer of the Nearest Tube subway-finding application profiled on itvt.com, July 9th (note: Acrossair has since launched New York and San Francisco Bay Area versions of the app), that it will officially support augmented reality applications with the next release (version 3.1) of its iPhone OS software, and that such applications will launch in the Apple App Store in September.

Two French companies, Streamezzo (offers a platform for developing "rich applications" for a range of mobile operating systems) and Atos Worldline (specializes in electronic payment and transaction technologies), announced Monday that they have collaborated on an "interactive live TV application" for the iPhone 3G. The solution was developed and is operated by Atos Worldline, using Streamezzo's application-development platform. The companies bill their partnership as "combining the power of Streamezzo's technology and of Atos Worldline's in-depth experience in the telecom market with large volume hosting capacity."

TV placeshifting company, Sling Media (note: the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corp.), announced Wednesday that it is now offering a version of its SlingPlayer Mobile application (allows users to watch their home TV service and DVR-recorded programming remotely on their mobile phone) for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch devices. However, the application, which is priced at $29.99 and available in the iPhone App Store, only works with Wi-Fi and not with the 3G mobile network of AT&T, the only US wireless carrier to offer the iPhone.

--Sling Media to Offer Client for Apple's New iPhone 3G

At the NCTA Cable Show last month, EchoStar Technologies, a
subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation, announced that it is targeting the
cable industry with a CableLabs-certified DOCSIS 2.0 product dubbed
the SlingModem. EchoStar Corp. was spun off earlier this year from
satellite-TV company, DISH Network (formerly called EchoStar), and
retains the latter's hardware business and certain of its infrastructure
assets. The new modem was developed by TV "place-shifting"
company, Sling Media, which was acquired by EchoStar last fall. "The
introduction of the SlingModem demonstrates our operator-agnostic
philosophy, as well as our dedication to the cable industry," Sling