Paramount is releasing ten enhanced movie apps exclusively for Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone users who buy one of the “enhanced” movies, such as “School of Rock”, can tap their mobile screens to learn more about the objects, actors, locations, music and other elements of scenes, reports TechFlash.
Seattle startup Hypershow, which specializes in interactive media technology, developed the software. Hypershow is focusing first on apps that run on Microsoft’s Silverlight. Users can tap or click on objects in a video to find out more about them. Silverlight enhanced features include the ability to create custom clips, view the movie with pop-up trivia powered by ‘Scene It?’, and a Movie Info feature offering users the ability to identify actors, objects, music, and places in the movie, while providing contextual information, such as bios, descriptions, and even maps to the locations.
The independent company, founded last year by Microsoft veterans Tim Harader and Dan Gehred, worked with Paramount Digital Entertainment on the “School of Rock” app. Selling for $9.99, it’s the first in a series of individual movie apps that Paramount plans to release for Windows Phone 7. It can also run on Windows PCs, Macs and set-top boxes running Microsoft’s Windows Embedded.
Even without cross-platform capability, the “School of Rock” app for Windows Phone 7 has been well-received. Released on Dec. 14, it has garnered an average customer rating of 4 1/2 out of 5 stars in the Windows Phone marketplace.
