New version of Babelgum tweaks its flavor
Earlier today Babelgum pushed out an updated version of their Internet TV application. Version 0.9.1 tweaks the user interface and addresses a few of the glaring problems that were mentioned in my Joost vs. Babelgum comparison. The automated update ability included in Babelgum was pretty smooth aside from adding an extra Windows desktop shortcut. It should be noted that there’s still no sign of a Mac version of Babelgum.
When starting Babelgum users are now greeted with a video that showcases a bunch of the company’s content. The video isn’t nearly so slick as Joost’s but it is a welcome addition. Best of all you can now jump forward and backward in the video stream by clicking on the time bar.
Subtle additions like the “Coming Next” pop-up message when your current video is finishing adds a bit of polish that was previously lacking. It gives you a quick snapshot of the next item in the channel, although the image is difficult to make sense of due to the small size.
Another tweak is the removal of lag when jumping to a new video channel. Now a brief loading image is shown while the streaming content is buffered. It definitely gives you instant feedback but the transparency level is usually set way to high so it’s almost invisible like in the shot below.
Overall the readability of the application has improved, especially the “invite a friend” and login features. Search has been added to a few more screens and is a primary way of finding new material to create “Smart Channels”.
Babelgum’s new version announcement says that there have been a number of performance and bug fixes, but the new version felt slightly slower and actually crashed during my tests. For a bit more information about the miscellaneous changes you can find them here. A fair amount of video has been added since the last time looked at Babelgum. Music content from Ministry of Sound and the recently announced partnership with Baeble Music have helped fill out a portion of the site. Unfortunately their competition is also getting a lot of press for their unique additions like exclusive airing of a VH1 show before its broadcast premier. Babelgum’s new CEO needs to start making some calls if it doesn’t want to get buried under the avalanche of press for other Internet TV contenders.
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