Yep, get ready to take “oversharing” to a whole new level.

Now, just to be clear, the impending changes to your Facebook profile page won’t land in your account for a few weeks, although several related new features—like that floating “ticker” that appeared on the Facebook home page a few days ago—are already here.

But the changes, once they do arrive, will be fairly significant. In place of the linear “wall” of activity on your current Facebook profile will appear a jumbo-sized “cover photo” that you can use to … well, “express who you are,” as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg puts it. The cover photo could be a snapshot from a recent vacation, or a picture of your dogs, or your tykes in their Halloween costumes; think of it as the wallpaper on your PC desktop.

Your new Facebook profile page, with the Timeline on the right.

Also new will be a series of thumbnailed tiles for letting visitors view your Facebook friends, your most recent photos, a map of everywhere you’ve been, and a compendium of your various “likes.”

Most importantly, though, there’s the new, appropriately named “Timeline,” which will let your Facebook pals browse your shared photos, links, videos, and stories through the years, with summaries and “trends” of your activity posted at the top of the page.

Make no mistake, Facebook has big plans for your Timeline. Instead of just collecting the content you’ve actively shared with your friends, your Timeline can also show the world (depending on your comfort level, of course) what you’re listening to on Spotify, what you just watched on Hulu, and how many laps you did around the park last week.

How so? With the help of a new series of applications that can share what you’re doing, once you’ve given them the go-ahead.

Using a new behind-the-scenes architecture dubbed “Open Graph,” this new “class” of apps (like, for instance, Spotify for music, or Hulu for TV shows) will ask you once—and only once—for permission to access your activity and publish to your Timeline.

Grant that permission to Spotify, for example, and your friends will be able to see what you’ve been listening to on Spotify—or indeed, the song you’re playing right now—automatically, with updates appearing in your Timeline and on that new “ticker” on the Facebook home page.

Not only that, but your friends will be able to listen or watch (in the case of Hulu or, soon enough, Netflix) along with you. All they’ll have to do is click an item in your Timeline or in the ticker—which might read, for example, “Ben is listening to Born to Run on Spotify”—and click a button to sample what you’ve been playing.

A new breed of Facebook apps will only ask once before they start sharing all your activity with the world.

The same principle will apply to games, too. Take “Words with Friends,” the Scrabble-like social game that you can play on Facebook. With the new “open graph” system, your friends might be able to see that you just got a triple-word score in a game—and they’ll even be able to see an image of the board, complete with your brilliant 78-point Words with Friends move.

These new “open graph” applications will also extend to news sites, letting your friends see each and every story you’ve read on, say Yahoo! News or The Huffington Post, while a new series of “lifestyle” apps will let the world track the latest recipes you’ve tried, or the milestones you’ve hit in your fitness regimen.

“Real-time serendipity” is how Mark Zuckerberg is describing Facebook’s new, wide-ranging sharing philosophy, noting that these new social apps will make it even easier for users to find more music to buy, more movies to watch, and more stories to read, all thanks to the “passive” suggestions of their Facebook friends.

Of course, another way of looking at Facebook’s new Timeline is as the ultimate example of an “overshare”—in other words, exposing everyone in your world to (almost) everything you do online.

Now, I should point out that the items in your Timeline will be subject to the same privacy controls that govern the rest of Facebook; you can share all your activity with everyone or just some of it, or you can allow only your friends or just you to browse your every last click.

Also, this new breed of social apps from the likes of Spotify, Hulu, Netflix, and Yahoo! won’t share anything unless you give them permission to first—although once you do, the sharing will begin without any more prompting.

So, what do you think? Looking forward to sharing what you’re watching, reading, and listening to on Facebook—and seeing what your friends are enjoying, as well? Or is Facebook taking this whole “real-time serendipity” thing a bit too far?

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Orb’s $19 “BR” disc has been on sale for a couple of months now, and I actually got a preview of the thing back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. There’s also a $10 Orb Live app that streams videos directly to the iPhone and Android devices, as well as a $99 set-top device that connects to any TV with composite or component video inputs.

I’ve finally had the chance to try the Orb disc with my own PlayStation 3 console, and yes—it works as advertised, although you’ll have to jump through some hoops to get your free Hulu.

Just insert the Orb disc into your PS3 console and press play.

Here’s how the Orb system works in practical terms. First, you insert the Orb BR disc into your PlayStation 3’s Blu-ray drive (an Orb disc that supports other Blu-ray players is supposedly coming soon) and press play.

Next, you install the free Orb Caster software onto your PC or Mac, create an account (the on-screen setup process takes only a few minutes), and leave the application running on your machine.

Last but not least, you use the (free) Orb Controller software—versions are available for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android handsets—to control the video playback. Nope, you can’t use your regular TV remote to take command of the Orb streaming software.

Once you start the Orb Controller, you’ll get the option to stream music, videos, and photos from your system (the one with the Orb Caster software running on it). You can also connect to Internet radio services like Pandora and Last.fm, or watch videos from YouTube.

Not bad, but the option that has everyone excited about Orb is Hulu, which offers free videos on the web but normally requires an $8-a-month Hulu Plus membership if you want to stream its shows on your TV, the iPhone, or the iPad.

Waiting for the video to buffer...

But with the Orb Caster software on your PC and the Orb BR disc in the PlayStation 3 (both of which must be connected to your home Wi-Fi network, by the way), you can watch Hulu’s free web-based videos on your TV for the low price of zero.

Wait a minute … is this legal? Well, I’ve had this discussion with Orb co-founder and CEO Joe Costello a couple of times now, and he swears it is. Why? Because of the Orb Caster software running on your PC, which is merely streaming the video from Hulu’s web site from your desktop to your TV.

Of course, the suits at Hulu probably don’t see it that way, but thus far they’ve done nothing to block their videos from Orb’s software. Yet.

So, that’s how the Orb BR disc is supposed to work. But does it really work?

In my brief tests, the answer is yes, more or less. The setup and operating is a hassle, namely because the Orb software must be up and running on your PC any time you want to stream video to your PlayStation 3 or one of Orb’s mobile apps.

...success!

You’ll also have to be patient, as Orb-streamed videos (from Hulu or elsewhere) can take up to a minute to “buffer” before playback begins, depending on the speed of your Internet connection.

Video quality can be a little blocky and choppy—don’t count on HD, especially for Hulu—and the Orb Caster software on my PC occasionally crashed, meaning I had to get up off the sofa, go back to my office, and re-start the Orb client on my system.

So, is it all worth it? That depends on how much you mind having to turn on your TV, your PlayStation 3, your computer, and potentially your iPhone, all just to watch a little free television.

Personally, Orb isn’t my cup of tea—too clunky, if you ask me. That said, it does works, and it’s definitely cheap.

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So, when do the new rules take effect? Which pay-TV carriers are “approved”—and which aren’t? And is Fox the only TV network restricting online access to its latest TV episodes?

OK, so what’s happening here? No more Fox shows on Hulu?
Well, not exactly. Fox TV shows (including “Glee,” “House,” “Bones,” “The Simpsons,” and “Family Guy”) will still be available for streaming on Hulu.com (and Fox.com, for that matter) for free.

What Fox is now saying, though, is that unless you’re a customer of an “approved” cable or satellite carrier, you’ll have to wait to watch any new episodes on Hulu or Fox.com until eight days after they’ve aired on network TV.

And if you’re signed up with an “approved” pay-TV carrier…
…you’ll get to watch new episodes as soon as they’re available on Hulu, usually the day after they air.

When does this eight-day delay go into effect?
Starting August 15, or in about two weeks.

I’m already paying $8 a month for Hulu Plus (the premium Hulu service that lets you watch Hulu shows on smartphones and various TV set-top boxes). Does the eight-day delay apply to me too?
That’s the good news. Hulu Plus subscribers will still be able to watch new Fox shows the day after they air (this according to the Los Angeles Times), even if they’re not pay-TV subscribers.

I’m a Time Warner Cable customer, and I pay my bills every month. Will I get to watch new Fox shows on Hulu the day after they air?
Unfortunately, not yet. According to the New York Times, Fox has to cut deals with all the big cable and satellite carriers before allowing their customers to “authenticate” themselves as honest-to-goodness pay-TV subscribers—and thus eligible to sidestep the eight-day delay. So far, Fox has only signed an agreement with Dish Network.

You’re kidding. So when is Fox going to make a deal with my carrier?
Great question. Soon, hopefully, but it all depends on when the various Fox and pay-TV execs manage to sign the dotted lines.

I’m a Dish subscriber. How do I get … uh, “authenticated” for Hulu?
Visit this site to get up a username and password (you’ll need your 16-digit account number or your 10-digit receiver number). If you’re still having trouble, Fox has set up a “frequently asked questions” web page right here.

Is Fox the only TV network that’s delaying its shows online?
For now, yes, but that may not last for long. According to the Times, ABC is also sniffing around the idea.

Why is all this happening?
Pay-TV carriers have long been worried about the trend of “cable cutting”—that is, TV viewers who ditch their pay-TV subscriptions in favor of watching their favorite network TV shows online.

The big TV networks, meanwhile, depend on the giant pay-TV carriers for the lion’s share of their income, meaning it’s in the best interest of ABC, CBS, Fox, and the like to help keep cable and satellite companies (such as Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, and DirecTV) happy and healthy.

That’s why we’re seeing moves like this—that is, rules and restrictions for online video that encourage pay-TV subscribers to keep paying their bills.

Wait, I still have more questions?
Sure thing—just post a comment or ask me directly.

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Well, Roku just refreshed its entire line of TV set-top boxes, with the new devices getting sleeker shells, more robust Netflix features (including support for English subtitles), and—best of all—casual video games, starting with the ridiculously popular Angry Birds.

On sale starting today, the low-end Roku 2 HD still sells for just $59, and it’s still capable of displaying 720p HD video (a slight step down from the full-on 1080p video quality you’ll find in most big-screen HDTV sets) from Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.

You’ll also be able to watch live Major League Baseball, NBA, and NHL action, as well as stream music from Pandora and display slideshows from Flickr. In all, about 300 media “channels” are available.

Up next is the Roku 2 XD ($79), which adds 1080p video support, while the $99 Roku 2 XS boasts a port for plugging in a USB memory stick loaded with videos, music, and photos, plus a couple of bonuses sure to quicken the pulse of Angry Birds fans: a free copy of the ubiquitous, bird-slingshotting smartphone game (now tailored for TVs), as well as a gaming remote that you can wave in the air, à la the Nintendo Wii. (The remote even comes with a wrist strap to keep you from accidentally flinging the thing across the room.)

The Roku gaming remote will also be available separately in the “coming weeks” for $30, meaning you can pick up the $59 Roku 2 and snag the new remote for a grand total of $89.

Pretty nifty, but I have to say: even forgetting the Angry Birds business, the Roku still makes for a tempting buy, especially for anyone who wants to start streaming Netflix or Hulu on their TVs without breaking the bank.

You can check out the new Roku 2 boxes for yourself right here.

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The long-awaited app is available now on the official Android Market, and it’s free—although to use it, you’ll have to subscribe to Hulu Plus, an $8-a-month “premium” service that lets you watch Hulu’s massive collection of streaming TV shows and movies on television sets, phones, and tablets.

The lion’s share of new TV episodes on Hulu are still free to watch on the web, although you’ll need a Hulu Plus subscription to scour Hulu’s complete archive of older episodes.

A version of the Hulu Plus app for the iPhone and iPad has been available for about a year now, and you can also access Hulu Plus through Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gaming consoles, several makes and models of HDTV sets and Blu-ray players, and the Roku TV set-top box. (Click here for a listing of all supported Hulu Plus TVs and devices.)

But owners of Android-powered smartphones with a hankering for mobile Hulu have been cooling their heels—until now.

Unfortunately, the new Hulu app will only work on a lucky six Android devices: Google’s Nexus One and Nexus S phones, HTC Inspire 4G and Motorola Atrix on AT&T, and the Motorola Droid II and Droid X on Verizon Wireless.

Support for more Android phones will be “announced throughout the year,” according to the app description page on the Android Market.

Got any questions about the Hulu Plus app, or about Hulu in general? Let me know!

Follow me on Twitter!

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Rita writes: I really do want to replace my cable, but it seems like such an effort and it might not even save me money. Is Apple TV worth it? The only shows my family watches are Dora the Explorer (for the kid), Daily Show (for me), MLB (for my husband).

Well, Rita, here’s my first question for you: Are those really the only TV shows you watch? Because as many shows as there are available on iTunes and Netflix, there are still an awful lot of gaps—particularly when it comes to live TV.

And here’s another thing: While cutting the cord with an Apple TV or another set-top box certainly can be a lot cheaper than a cable subscription, it’s not like all those Internet-streamed movies, TV shows, and sporting events are free.

Let’s start with your family’s favorite shows. Dora the Explorer is available on Netflix (which you can stream over Apple TV) if you happen to be a subscriber, while episodes of “The Daily Show” are available for purchase on iTunes. Even better, Apple TV and other competing set-top boxes come with an app for streaming Major League Baseball games.

Not bad, right? But before you get too excited, let’s break out a calculator and do a little addition.

First, the Apple TV itself, which sells for $99—not nothing, but relatively cheap all things considered, and it’s a one-time cost. Even cheaper is the $59 Roku HD, a small streaming set-top box that supports Netflix, Hulu Plus (the for-pay version of Hulu, the website that streams network TV shows for free), Amazon Instant Video (which boasts many of the same TV shows and movies as iTunes does), MLB.tv, NBA games and more. Other TV set-top boxes are also available, but some—like the $199 Boxee Box—are expensive, while others—like Sony’s $79 Netbox—don’t support MLB.tv, which sounds like a requirement in your living room.

(By the way: connecting a streaming-video box to your TV typically takes all of five minutes. In most cases, you just plug an HDMI cable from the video output in the back of the box to the input on the back panel of your HDTV; after that, a setup wizard will usually guide you through connecting the device to your home Wi-Fi network.)

Next, we’ve got the subscriptions for your various streaming services. You can get a streaming-only subscription to Netflix for just $8 a month—quite a bargain, considering the tens of thousands of movies and TV shows available—while a season’s subscription to MLB.tv will set you back $80. If you want access to Hulu’s shows (which aren’t available on Apple TV, by the way), that’s another $8 a month. Now, if you forego Hulu, you could always buy shows (like “The Daily Show”) on iTunes à la carte—but they’ll run you $2 a piece, or $10 for a bucket of 16 episodes.

Add all that up (let’s assume that you chose Hulu Plus, which offers “The Daily Show” for $8 a month), and that comes out to a reasonable $16 a month, or about $30 during baseball season ($80 divided by six months = about $13.33). That brings your total cost for the year to about $270, give or take, compared to an annual cost of $864 for, say, digital cable and an HD DVR from Time Warner.

Pretty good, but here’s the thing: You’re still going to need a broadband Internet connection for streaming your shows, either from the phone company or your cable carrier. A decent broadband connection for streaming HD video will typically run you anywhere from $20 to $40 a month, so let’s split the difference and call it $30/month.

So…$30 a month for 12 months comes to a total of $360. Add the $360 Internet bill to your $270 in streaming video subscriptions for the year, and we come up with $630—still cheaper than Time Warner’s digital cable plus broadband combo, which goes for $948 a year.

Now, even if those numbers work for you and you’re ready to cut the cord, there are still a few factors to consider before you snip.

While sporting events like the MLB and NBA basketball (assuming you’re ready to pay up for streaming professional hoops, of course) are often streamed live, other network TV shows—like, say, American Idol or Dancing with the Stars—are not. That means you’ll need an over-the-air antenna if you want to see who gets kicked off Idol along with the rest of the country. (And remember, unless you own a TiVo—which costs between $13 and $20 a month—you won’t have a DVR anymore, so no time-shifting.)

Also: does your husband watch ESPN? If he does, bad news: the main ESPN channels aren’t available online without a cable subscription—and since ESPN is a cable network, you can’t get it over the air.

So, Rita … where does that leave us? No question, if you have a standard TV antenna, an Apple TV or Roku, and subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, and MLB, believe me—you’ll never be bored, and you could save hundreds of bucks a year by cutting the cord (well, the digital cable part of the cord, at least). Then again, I’d be lying if I told you there weren’t any compromises involved or hoops to jump through.

Did this help? Have more questions? (I’m sure you do, since I skipped over so many details.) Let me know!

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Now, wait a minute—doesn’t the Xbox 360 already stream movies and TV shows via Netflix and Hulu? Yes indeed, but the grapevine’s been buzzing for months that Microsoft wants to deliver entire bundles of TV shows over Xbox Live, and now WinRumors claims that the (totally unconfirmed) “Xbox Live Diamond” service might toss Kinect motion controls and social viewing with your Xbox pals into the mix.

Interesting, but don’t get too excited just yet, with WinRumors warning that Microsoft is still engaged in “last-minute” negotiations with content providers, and that “some details and demos might be held back if agreements are not in place in time.”

here’s the thing: Microsoft hasn’t been coy about its ambitions to turn the Xbox 360 into a full-on home entertainment hub, and a full-on TV service would fit in perfectly with Microsoft’s plans for domination of the living room—assuming there’s any truth to the rumors, of course.

Update (5/6/11): Well, Microsoft’s E3 event came and went Monday, and we didn’t get much in terms of live TV announcements (not in the U.S., anyway). Oh well.

Source: WinRumors

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AdAge reports that execs for News Corp., the parent company of Fox, are “pushing for the ability to run a greater number of ads.” While network execs are wary of turning off viewers by stuffing too many commercials into the mix, News Corp. is interested in “gingerly…narrowing the gap” between the relatively small number of ads in Hulu videos and the somewhat larger “ad load” during traditional TV broadcasts, according to AdAge.

Will News Corp. get its way? Hard to say, with the AdAge story noting that the current negotiations between Hulu and the network (which, by the way, holds a major stake in the website) “may not result in any concrete changes.”

But here’s the thing: Like it or not, free TV sites like Hulu will face mounting pressure to allow more commercials as the number of online TV viewers continues to climb.

So, what’s your squeal point when it comes to commercials in your favorite Hulu shows?

Source: AdAge

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