Microsoft renames its IPTV platform

SEATTLE, US: Microsoft Corp. unveiled on Sunday a new brand name for its Internet-based television platform, a service deployed by 10 companies including AT&T Inc.

Microsoft Mediaroom, formerly known as Microsoft Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), will link with computers found in the home to allow users to access a PC hard drive to listen to music or view photos on a TV screen, the company said.

The television push by the world's largest software maker aims to deliver TV over high-speed Internet networks and hopes the software will eventually open up the TV to a world of services already on the Web.

Microsoft said Mediaroom will also enable some applications that access the Internet without a Web browser, so users can view streaming online video or look at photos uploaded onto the Internet.

The company said it will introduce a toolkit to allow developers to create applications for the Mediaroom platform.