Week In Tech: Verizon lures millennials with mobile video; LA Philharmonic launches VR venture

NEW YORK, N.Y. – VERIZON LURES MILLENNIALS

Verizon is starting a new mobile video service that’s aimed at young people who are increasingly choosing to watch TV on their phones and tablets.

The service, called Go90, is free and will have ads. It will show live events like NFL football games and concerts and TV shows, including “The Daily Show,” a day after they air on TV. There will also be Web series available.

You don’t have to be a Verizon Wireless customer to use Go90, but some content will only be available for Verizon customers. That includes NFL games and shows from media conglomerates Discovery, Scripps and Viacom, including “The Daily Show.”

The service is being rolled out this month and is expected to be widely available by the end of the month.

Verizon is the country’s largest wireless carrier. The No. 2 carrier, AT&T, is also trying to marry TV and mobile. It bought DirecTV in July for $48.5 billion and has begun offering a package of satellite TV and wireless service that saves customers $10 a month.

— Tali Arbel, AP Technology Writer

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L.A. PHILHARMONIC GOES VIRTUAL

The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra is trying to get more people to experience classical music concerts, almost as if they were there, by putting on a virtual reality headset.

As part of “Van Beethoven,” the orchestra is sending a decked-out truck around the L.A. area starting Friday to give locals a bite-sized taste of classical music — Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony — as if they were in the concert hall.

Wearing either the Oculus or the Samsung Gear virtual reality headset, listeners can see a 360 degree video of the orchestra as it plays inside L.A.’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. Besides seeing the audience’s perspective, though, you are taken down to the orchestra floor, so close to conductor Gustavo Dudamel that you can almost reach out and touch him.

Virtual reality is a “great opportunity to help people see things they wouldn’t see,” said Amy Seidenwurm, director of digital initiatives at the Philharmonic. For people who have been to the concerts, she added, VR can show new perspectives.

The Philharmonic is also launching free virtual reality apps for the headsets.

— Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer