FEATURES
Razercut™ is an internet browser with advanced video capabilities. To comply with U.S. copyright law and to offer IMDS services, Razercut needs to match a television market with your location. Check: “Allow Location Services” so that you can access your local broadcast TV signals.
The Razercut browser arrives preloaded with a plethora of popular bookmarked websites. The first two are the IMDS websites ituna.tv and tuni.media. Unless bookmarked by Razercut, you would likely never discover these world-class websites.
iTUNA® provides your smartphone with the live television signals being broadcast over-the-air in your market. TUNI® provides a selection of popular à la carte cable, satellite, and internet TV channels. Typically, these are pay-TV channels which are billed your credit card. Some advertiser-supported TUNI channels are available for free, but providers may set a fee for you to watch their content based on viewing time. TUNI charges no fixed monthly subscription fees. Viewers may sample channels without a subscription.
WATCHING LOCAL TV CHANNELS
Touch the Razercut icon to launch the app. A matrix of local television channels will appear as live thumbnail images that update every few seconds. The channel nr, call sign, and network affiliation of each local TV station in your market appears below its thumbnail.
Double-tap any icon to watch that station. The selected station will play full-screen. To return to the matrix of thumbnails, double-tap the screen and the selected channel will stop playing.
The double-tap gesture prevents accidental channel changing while handling the touch screen. The audio level can be set with your phone’s mechanical side buttons. If the “mute” switch is on, “closed-captioning” will be displayed instead of audio.
note. In iPhone Settings, the mechanical mute switch on the left side of the phone can be set to “Mute Audio” or to “Lock Screen Rotation”. Chose the “Mute Audio” option. On iPhone X, this option is accessed by swiping-down from the upper right corner of the screen and touching the LOCK icon prior to launching the app. Since over-the-air (OTA) television is made to be viewed horizontally, automatic rotation of your screen is the preferred mode.
You can switch between playing TV channels with the one-finger side-swipe gesture. Swipe-up, down, left, or right to navigate between adjacent channels in the matrix. Each channel plays immediately after a brief display of the station’s call sign.
To see a TV station’s PSIP data (descriptive data which is transmitted within the station’s digital signal), use the two-finger pull-down gesture over a playing channel. A semi-transparent screen will drop down and display information about the selected program. Use the two-finger push-up gesture to remove the overlay.
To see the Program Grid for all stations in the market, return to the thumbnails and use the two-finger pull-down gesture to display a live schedule of all available shows. Program time slots can be shifted into view using a one-finger left/right swipe gesture. To remove the Program Grid, use the two-finger push-up gesture.
You have now seen how Razercut interacts with the iTUNA website. This site automatically determines which local TV stations to deliver to your device based on a sophisticated geolocation algorithm. Razercut is compatible with the advanced interactive multimedia features available at IMDS websites.
WATCHING TUNI® CHANNELS
Return to the thumbnails page with a double-tap and then left-swipe the screen. A new page slides into view which contains programming from TUNI®, the browser’s second pre-loaded URL. iTUNA and TUNI are the first and second bookmarked websites. TUNI displays live thumbnail images of popular cable, satellite, and internet (i.e. non-broadcast) channels. You can select any subset of thumbnails to display on a TUNI page from its pulldown menu. The grid can be altered by highlighting or de-highlighting any item in the list of available channels. For example, double-tap “BBC AMERICA” in the pull-down menu and this entry will dim. When the grid is lifted using a two-finger push-up gesture, “BBC AMERICA” is deleted from the matrix of displayed thumbnails. To restore the channel, go back to the menu and re-highlight its name.
A TUNI channel can be played full screen by double-tapping its thumbnail image. A detailed description of what’s playing can be viewed on that channel’s PSIP semi-transparent pull-down screen. A vast number of linear and non-linear (on-demand) channels are available to TUNI subscribers. Since this platform is available throughout the world, certain channels may alter their language or content based on geographic location. Some may be available as subscription channels or may not be available in certain regions.
VIEWING BOOKMARKED WEBSITES
Return to the TUNI thumbnails page by double-tapping the screen. Left-swipe to the next page of the browser. You have exited the TUNI website and are now viewing an assortment of homepages of conventional websites which have been bookmarked. More popular websites can be found on the next screen. New browser pages can be created for the websites which you frequent.
Website URLs may be grouped into categories, such as news or financial resources. You may directly access a website by double-tapping its home page thumbnail image. To exit a website, double-tap the screen. While visiting a website, screen control is handed-off to that website. The double-tap and triple-tap gestures are reserved for exiting a website and returning control to the browser.
Swipe-left and right to see more pages of bookmarked websites. Certain sites such as BITCOIN display dynamic financial trading data in real time. By using Razercut’s graphic mode, you can quickly navigate to any bookmarked URL by double-tapping its image.
Bookmarked URLs may be be deleted or replaced by the user at any time (see USING THE BROWSER KEYBOARD).
MANUAL NAVIGATION USING THE BROWSER KEYBOARD
From any page of thumbnail images, use the two-finger swipe-up/down gesture to display the browser’s DATA ENTRY KEYBOARD. Stored bookmarks are displayed above the keyboard. Double-tap any of these bookmarks to navigate directly to its URL. Double-tap to exit the website or to back up one level when inside of a nested website URL. Use the two-finger swipe up/down gesture whenever you wish to use the browser’s manual keyboard.
The CIRCLE ⊗ button to the right of the DATA ENTRY WINDOW clears the data line. When a URL is manually typed-in, you can navigate to that website by touching the RAZERCUT key which is located directly below the keyboard’s DELETE key.
You can bookmark and title a new URL by typing it’s URL and then touching the CIRCLE ⊕ button to the left of the DATA ENTRY WINDOW. Razercut will ask you to compose a bookmark title. Enter a suitable title (spaces are allowed) for the new bookmark and press CIRCLE ⊕. Your bookmark is now added to the field of titles which are positioned above the keyboard. A current image of the website’s home page will appear in the matrix of thumbnail images for future ease of navigating without any need for a manual keyboard entry.
The URL string for a stored bookmark can be recalled to the DATA ENTRY WINDOW by touching its title. The bookmark can then be deleted by touching CIRCLE ⊖.
You can assemble a page of bookmarks which suits your needs. You can create new pages accordings to theme. Bookmarks can be moved between browser pages by loading a URL to the DATA ENTRY WINDOW, swiping the bookmark titles which are displayed above the keyboard to the desired target page, and then saving the URL onto that page by touching the CIRCLE ⊕ button.
The Razercut keyboard has three faces. Each face can be sequentially accessed by touching the rectangular button above the DELETE KEY. Mathematical and other special characters, including super and subscripted symbols, can be input to the data line. This is useful while at engineering and scientific websites which require entry of complex equations. Touching the upper and lower portion of the extended SHIFT KEY will cause subsequent entries to be superscripted or subscripted. A non-destructive reversible BACK-UP CURSOR is available at the lower left of the keyboard for correcting errors. To hide the keyboard, use the two-finger swipe up/down gesture at any time.
SUMMARY
Razercut provides instant access to advanced IMDS websites, some of which provide local TV signals for free. IMDS website iTUNA turns an iPhone or iPad into a broadcast television receiver. Razercut supports the custom pagination of stored bookmarks and is delivered with popular URLs including world-class multimedia platforms for linear and non-linear television programming. With seamless access to IMDS websites, Razercut can integrate specialty video channels with local broadcast TV in the manner of a multichannel video programming distributor having à la carte channel selection and no set monthly subscription charges.
Razercut prioritizes telephone operations by moderating audio to enable use of the speakerphone. Razercut uses Wi-Fi and cellular data connections to access the internet. Without Wi-Fi, Razercut switches seamlessly to cellular data and provides continuous, stable television reception even in a moving vehicle. Razercut respects high level SSL encryption and controlled data access based on advanced geolocation. Razercut does not monitor or track user browsing data. Razercut does collect limited metadata to measure network traffic.
an IMDS-compatible
internet browser
patents pending