Zattoo Blog
Localize it.
Posted 27 Junio 2007 by francesco in Community, Features
We ran all the text strings that make up our software through Start Trek's Universal Translator (pictured above), but the results sucked were disappointing to say the least. That's why we're now looking for help from our users to localize the Zattoo player in all of the following languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese, and Kazakh.
If you:
- can translate geek IT-related terms from English into one of the languages above with your eyes shut,
- have done that already for other software applications, and
- won't ask for anything else in return than our endless gratitude and your name in the "Credits" section,
then our inbox is eagerly waiting for a message from you.
UPDATE: Ok, ok, you got me... I only put Kazakh up there to bedazzle our competitors ;-)
Take the bull by the antennae.
Posted 19 Junio 2007 by francesco in Announcements, España
Sunday has been a big day for half of Spain, with Real Madrid winning its 13th Liga title. The other half, of course, was mourning. We thought it'd be nice to ease the sorrow of the sad ones, and make it an even better day for the ones getting drunk celebrating. So, we took the bull by the horns antennae and launched Zattoo in Spain.
As in every zattooed country, we're bringing our new Spanish friends a great selection of top local TV channels -from La Primera to La Sexta- as well as well-known international ones. Thanks to Zattoo you can now watch Nadal beating Federer, PSOE beating PP (or was that the other way around?), and Dr. House beating himself wherever you are, as long as you can find a broadband internet connection. All of this directly to your PC, with a quality you could only dream of until now.
We hope Zattoo will spread in Spain like the omnipresent bull. Given the thousands of subscribers of the first 24 hours, we are pretty... bullish about it.
Zattoo - Yabba Dabba Doo!
Happy Birthday, Zattoo.
Posted 6 Junio 2007 by francesco in Announcements
365 days ago we opened the gates and released Zattoo to the wild. On day one we had 5 downloads. Today, 1 out of 5 broadband Internet users in Switzerland is a Zattoo subscriber. We also grew from 4 to 67 channels, available across different lineups in Switzerland, Denmark and the UK.
We try hard to bring all channels to all countries: if we don't offer a specific channel in a country, it's not because we don't want to - it's because we can't (yet). That is also why Zattoo is not available worldwide (yet): we want to show you the top TV channels in every country, not grass-chewing bears...
We're honestly grateful to every single one of you who endured with us various updates, critical bugs and some outages - and hope you'll stick with us for the ones to come ;-)
While we can't announce now what the next 365 days will bring, we sure can tell you that to celebrate our 1-year birthday we'll be launching soon in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Spain. We've still a long way to go to world dominance, but the journey to get there promises to be lot of fun.
Set sail with Zattoo
Posted 5 Junio 2007 by francesco in Announcements, Channels, Suiza
Thought you'd miss the America's Cup? Think again... Thanks to Zattoo you can keep up to date with what's going on Luna Rossa, Team New Zealand and Alinghi while in the office pretending to work working or following that boring class. Some of the channels in the Swiss lineup do in fact provide live coverage of both the final phases of the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America's Cup. Those are SF2, TSI2, TSR2 and the newly added La 7.
Here's the schedule of the upcoming regattas:
June 6, 15:00 CET: Louis Vuitton Cup Final - Race 5
June 8, 15:00 CET: Louis Vuitton Cup Final - Race 6 (if needed)
June 9, 15:00 CET: Louis Vuitton Cup Final - Race 7 (if needed)
June 10, 15:00 CET: Louis Vuitton Cup Final - Race 8 (if needed)
June 11, 15:00 CET: Louis Vuitton Cup Final - Race 9 (if needed)
June 23, 15:00 CET: America's Cup - Race 1
June 24, 15:00 CET: America's Cup - Race 2
June 26, 15:00 CET: America's Cup - Race 3
June 27, 15:00 CET: America's Cup - Race 4
June 29, 15:00 CET: America's Cup - Race 5
June 30, 15:00 CET: America's Cup - Race 6 (if needed)
July 1, 15:00 CET: America's Cup - Race 7 (if needed)
July 3, 15:00 CET: America's Cup - Race 8 (if needed)
July 4, 15:00 CET: America's Cup - Race 9 (if needed)
For detailed schedule information, check out your preferred EPG, captain.
Danish Launch Party
Posted 24 Mayo 2007 by francesco in Announcements
In what is becoming a company tradition, Zattoo will host another launch party to officially greet a new country to the Zattoo constellation. This is your turn Denmark: we're warmly inviting all Danish users to join us this coming Friday, May 25, in Copenhagen.
We'll meet you at Aristo (Islands Brygge 4), close to the city centre and with a nice outside area. Please join us starting 17:00 for a chance to meet and chat with part of the Zattoo team (including its Chairman and its CEO), mingle with other users, and, of course, savour free beer ;-)
Be there, or be square!
PS: If you plan on attending, leave a comment below, so that we'll know how many glasses to set aside.
For the chef, the investor, and the kid in you
Posted 9 Mayo 2007 by francesco in Announcements, Channels
Oops - we did it again: we made Zattoo even better. Only a couple of days after releasing a Linux version, we are adding more channels to an already impressive list. The latest release brings no less than 9 new channels in the Swiss lineup to satisfy all your TV appetites:
With Al Jazeera International and France 24 you get 24-hour breaking news from around the world. CNBC Europe helps you make better investment decisions for those sweated savings. With the capital gain and the help of TV Gusto you may be finally able to cook something more elaborate than frozen pizza and Betty Bossi's ready-made lasagne. DMAX, "TV for men", gets you the content to go with that pizza. And WDR is for our German friends who Cablecom so badly disappointed when they removed the channel from the analog lineup.
Finally, we've swapped BBC Prime with ITV1, and added a layer of topping with MTV for music lovers and Super RTL for the kids and those who still feel like one.
With a total of 48 channels, spanning 5 languages and all genres, we may deserve a little rest. After all, even God did rest on the seventh day from all the work he had untertaken. But we're workaholics indefatigable, and we'll keep adding channels, countries, and features. So stay with us.
Good night, and good luck.
Penguins rejoice: Linux gets TV
Posted 8 Mayo 2007 by francesco in Announcements, Features
The wait is over, Linux users out there. We just released the first Zattoo client for the operating system of your choice (and that of Michael Dell). The main supported distro is Ubuntu 6.10, but the package can also be made to work with Fedora Core 6 and OpenSuse 10.2 with a little extra effort.
Can't wait to get TV on your Linux computer? Visit our homepage and download it now (if you're in Switzerland or Denmark) or sign up to be notified when we launch in your country.
Feedback, as always, is most welcome.
UPDATE
Here the answers to the most frequently asked questions thus far:
Q: I tried Zattoo on a Linux distribution that is not listed on your download page and it didn't work. When will Zattoo work on my Linux distribution?
A: We hope to continuously expand the number of Linux distributions on which Zattoo will run. At this time we cannot however provide a precise time estimate, so please check the download page with future releases.
Q: I checked the "Remember Login in Keychain" button, but it always asks me for my login and password. What is going on?
A: This feature uses the gnome keyring, so the gnome-keyring-daemon must be properly configured for your system. For KDE desktops, you will probably have to install and configure gnome keyring. Please see the Linux download page for further instructions.
Q: I tried it on Debian (Etch) and it won't work. Is there a way to make it work?
A: Zattoo can only run on a system with GLIB 2.4 currently.
Q: I installed from the rpm package and when I run Zattoo it complains about a missing library...
A: Look at the library that it is complaining about and make sure that the package for that library is installed. You may also want to try running the "ldconfig" command on the "/usr/lib/zattoo" directory with something like this: "sudo /sbin/ldconfig /usr/lib/zattoo".
Zattoo launches in DK and pilots in UK
Posted 20 Abril 2007 by francesco in Announcements
Denmark, here we come! Ten centuries ago, Vikings raided the coasts of the British Isles and mainland Europe. Today, Zattoo descends on Denmark with its first free Internet TV service, bringing nothing less than 10 channels for the Danes to enjoy: DR1, DR2, TV2, NRK1, NRK2, SVT1, SVT2, ARD, ZDF, and TV Polonia. Get Zattooed now and tell your friends to do so.
In the UK, we are still in private beta mode. If you want to give it a try click here, and we'll send you a personal invitation. If everything runs smoothly Buckingham Palace Guards will get their Zattoo soon...
Alive and kicking
Posted 27 Marzo 2007 by francesco in Announcements, Community
You might have (rightly) wondered where we've all been, since no news appeared here for some time now. I, for one, have been on holiday ;-) But the rest of the Z-Team worked hard and the results are here for you to savor:
- Zattoo is one of the "Red Herring 100 Europe 2007" companies. While to John and Jane this might not sound like a big deal, industry insiders do value this kind of awards. We're very happy RH recognized our potential.
- In Switzerland, we passed the 250'000-user mark. It took us just over six months to zattoo more than 10% of the Swiss broadband population. We know that "past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results", but we're confident that we can do well in many more countries.
- We're ready to roll in Denmark, where we'll launch on April 2. If you live there and want to get zattooed right on day 1, make sure you click on "Download Zattoo" on the homepage, and add your email address to the list.
Zattoo + Vista = Love
Posted 18 Febrero 2007 by francesco in Announcements, Features
The Zattoo Player and Windows Vista met on February 14, Valentine's Day:
Vista: My older brother XP told me great things about you.
Zattoo [blushed]: Thanks, I'm flattered. But who are you?
Vista: I'm Vista, and I'm much more entertaining than XP.
Zattoo [horny]: Well, I'm entertaining too, so I think we should get to know each other better...
It was love at first love sight. They knew each other (as in "Adam knew Eve"), and Zattoo 2.2.4, the fruit of their love, was born. Download it here if you already have a Zattoo account. Or sign up here first if you don't.
