Rockville, Md. – Hillcrest Labs, developer of the Loop air-mouse
remote control, introduced Tuesday the latest version of its
.
At the same time, the company said it is running a half-price
promotion on its Loop pointer remote.
The company introduced an initial version of the free Kylo
browser for TV earlier this year, to bring PC and Mac users easy access to
video content from across the Web for playback on connected TVs. But Hulu
quickly blocked the browser from gaining access to its popular content.
The upgraded Kylo browser (Beta 0.7) is based on Mozilla’s
Firefox open-source code and offers a “compatibility mode” setting that gets
around
blocking measures by making
the browser appear to be a regular PC running a Firefox 3.6 browser.
“We know that one feature that is likely to attract attention is
the capability for advanced users to configure the Kylo browser to access
Hulu,” said Dan Simpkins, Hillcrest CEO.
“It remains our position that Kylo is simply a Web browser based on
open-source Mozilla code, like Firefox.
We fully respect the rights of content owners and aggregators, and as
such, we do not deep link, re-index, divert users past ads, or overlay
different user interfaces on video players.
However, we believe consumers should be able to use the Kylo browser to
visit any site on the Web on the display screen of their choice. Our hope is that a respectful dialog with
Hulu will encourage them to consider changing their policies.”
Kylo was designed to allow users to visit sites across the Web
with a browser that was specifically designed to be viewed from a distance in
the family room, living room or dorm room, Hillcrest said.
The latest version of the Kylo browser is available at
and includes a number of additional new product feature
enhancements that enable users to launch Kylo from a plug-in created for
Windows Media Center, hide Kylo’s control bar and keyboard, configure Kylo’s
settings in order to access Web site pages designed for other hardware
platforms, enjoy enhanced zooming, print from their TV and more, Hillcrest said.
Hillcrest said the Kylo browser is not meant to replace
traditional browsers that are intended for use with standard computer display
screens, but instead is for use on a television connected to a computer. Kylo permits free and open access to content
from throughout the Web and is not a “walled garden” with aggregated video
content.
Meanwhile, Hillcrest Labs is using the browser to drive sales for
its companion product, the Loop pointer. The company said the Loop is now
available for a $49 estimated street retail, half the normal price, through
June 11 “in celebration of the new Kylo release.”
