Flo
Latest
DVD-sniffing dogs awarded medals, returning to NYC
Lucky and Flo, the two danger-loving police dogs whose exploits as international crime fighters are well know to readers of this site, have just become the first non-humans to be awarded Malaysia's outstanding service award for their tireless work in trotting around and sitting down at the first whiff of plastic. Following several raids that led to 26 arrests and $6 million in seized counterfeit DVDs during their five month tour of duty -- as well as a contract on their young lives -- these real-life Underdogs will be returning home to a hero's welcome in New York later this week, although there will be no ticker tape parade for the courageous canines. Rather, they'll be put right back to work in the hopes that they "take a bite out of movie piracy in the Big Apple," according to the Motion Picture Association's Edward Neurbronner -- that is, when they're not busy putting on little, um, dog-and-pony shows at local events. Well we certainly wish you guys luck as you begin your new career battling piracy stateside (and later on in Canada, apparently another hotbed of IP theft), although we're still not sure why the cops need trained dogs to help them track down all those nefarious pirates hiding in plain sight on almost every avenue in Manhattan.Read - MedalsRead - Return to NYC
Lucky and Flo sniff-out another $450k in pirated DVDs
Last month, the MPAA's two DVD sniffing dogs busted a ring of $3 million worth of pirated DVD movies and games in Malaysia. Over the weekend, Lucky and Flo sniffed down another $430,000 after police failed to find the discs during an initial search. After calling in the "canine brigade," the dogs were able to quickly sniff-out the discs hidden away in a room that could "only be accessed by the push of a button hidden under a plug outlet." Nice work pups, Scooby snacks for all.
DVD pirates attempt subterfuge in war on crime dogs
Our favorite DVD-sniffin' crime dogs, Lucky and Flo, won't just have that price on their heads to worry about now: bootleggers have added in chemical sprays to throw the dogs off the scent. The two dogs went into hiding when the bounty hunters started after them last week, and haven't participated in any raids since they busted up a $3 million piracy ring. Now police believe pirates are trying to "show off their strength" by getting pirated DVDs back onto the streets, and part of that effort is using chemical sprays to fool the dogs, which are on the hunt for polycarbonate chemicals -- the smell of plastic. We'll see how effective they are when Lucky and Flo get back out on those mean Malaysian streets, but Malaysia is already looking into training its own set of DVD sniffers, so these two won't be alone in their fight against Evil for long.
DVD pirates put out hits on Lucky and Flo the crime dogs
If you thought that IP piracy was all fun and games (and cheap movies and software), think again, because the war on counterfeiting just got a lot more dangerous, with Malaysian "syndicate bosses" today announcing a reward for the heads of two real-life McGruff's. You probably remember black labs Lucky and Flo as the Federation Against Copyright Theft's latest weapons in tracking down bogus discs -- they're trained to sit when they smell plastic -- and their careers were apparently going pretty well until they helped bust a $3 million bootleg ring this week only to draw the ire of whomever just lost a major source of shady income. With an undisclosed contract now threatening their very lives, the two canine Columbos have reportedly been moved to a Cheney-like undisclosed location where security has been "beefed up" to ensure their safety as well as future contributions to Team MPAA. Because, as we all know, police dogs do have a tendency to keel over just days shy of retirement, and these hits sure aren't gonna help that much.
Hands-on with the Samsung SCH-U620 for Verizon
Yeah, MediaFLO support is cool and all, but the SCH-U620 definitely felt like the "me-too" handset at today's Verizon press event; it just couldn't hold a candle to the LG VX9400's drop-dead good looks. 'Course, it was quite a bit smaller than the LG, and folks partial to the conventional slider form factor will feel more at home on this one. As with the VX9400 (and the service itself), pricing and availability are to be announced at a later date. Click on for some more shots.
Hands on with the LG VX9400 for Verizon
It may not be Chocolate -- but in terms of style, the VX9400 isn't very far off. From the pictures, we'd thought that this was going to be one heavy, wide, unusable disaster of a handset, but we were dead wrong on every count. The phone can be used against the ear whether open or closed (obviously crucial for easy access to the keypad and quick taking of a call while watching TV), the pivot is smooth, and the glossy black top contrasts nicely with the silver bottom. The MediaFLO-based VCAST TV service, announced during the press conference today, is fully functional on the phone; we caught wind that Vegas and Seattle are fully live (among other markets) so it seems reasonable for Verizon to meet its goal of launching before the quarter's out. The video was smooth and quick to load, and the interactive guide (which loads via the FLO link) seemed well laid out. Click on for more pictures!
LG announces 9400 with MediaFLO, sort of
Wait wait wait, LG, let's be sure we have this straight: you've gone ahead and distributed pictures of the rumored 9400 with your CES press kit, but you make positively no mention of it in your press release. Didn't something just like this happen at CTIA with the VX8600? Either you've truly mastered the fine art of brilliant viral marketing, or you've accidentally announced yet another critical phone in Verizon's lineup early. Our money's on the latter. Anyhoo, here's the 9400 finally in all its blur-free glory, finally ushering in the age of mobile TV stateside. Though it's not branded as a Verizon release, we know from our candid shots that it's due up as a launch device for the imminent unveiling of Big Red's MediaFLO network -- possibly as soon as this afternoon at Verizon's press event. As always, we'll keep ya posted; in the mean time, check after the break for some more eye candy.
T-Mobile hits up MediaFLO for mobile TV trial
We have to hand it to 'em, T-Mobile's gotta be given some credit for doing their homework in the whole mobile TV biz. It turns out that their trial agreement with Hiwire really is just that -- a trial -- and success won't guarantee them T-Mobile's signature on the dotted line. Besides working with both Hiwire and Modeo, the States' number four carrier has now hooked up with Qualcomm's MediaFLO folks, too, giving them the trifecta (if you will) of mobile TV partnerships. Though Qualcomm is more strongly associated with CDMA, GSM carriers have no particular reason to shy away from MediaFLO since the TV system is disjoint from CDMA itself. So far, T-Mobile's been low-key about naming a winner, which makes sense: the Vegas-based Hiwire trial hasn't yet begun and the MediaFLO trial (location unknown) is apparently still underway.[Via MocoNews]
MediaFLO gets FCC green light
Although we're sure MediaFLO holds plenty of promise as a downlink-only TV mobile TV delivery platform, the folks over at Qualcomm wouldn't be doing much of anything with the technology -- here in the US, anyway -- without the requisite bandwidth. Happily, that's one hurdle they can now put behind them, as the FCC has granted MediaFLO the right to broadcast on TV channels 54, 55, or 56 ahead of the digital TV transition scheduled to complete on February 17, 2009. The feds came to their decision (a wise one, if we do say so ourselves) after drawing the conclusion that FLO broadcasts would have little or no ill effect on existing TV or DTV broadcasts on those channels, opening the door for mobile TV goodness just as soon as everyone can get on the same page and get some equipment and content out the door. Of course, if we discover that our beloved PBS is starting to get snowy as a result of this newfangled FLO business, we'll be having a few choice words.[Via The Wireless Report]
Eidos and PlayFirst team up to bring Diner Dash
In announcing handheld versions of the PC downloadable game Diner Dash, Eidos and PlayFirst are attempting to establish a unified front and achieve success in the handheld arena when they bring Flo, ex-convict waitress, to store shevles for eager gamers in 2007. Diner Dash, which can be found in various different versions throughout the internet, has players seating customers, clearing dishes, and taking orders in this restaurant simulation game.
Qualcomm wrangles three mobile TV standards into one chipset
Qualcomm has announced its Universal Broadcast Modem, a mobile TV chipset supporting DVB-H, ISDB-T, and Qualcomm's own FLO technology alike. The UBM, as it's known, is not dependent on a Qualcomm device chipset, which should help ease adoption. Sadly, samples won't be available to manufacturers until 2007, meaning we have a long haul ahead of us before we see devices using the technology. Although we think it's awfully big of Qualcomm to swallow its pride and bundle support for competing technologies with FLO, we'd rather see more standardization instead -- heck, we don't even have any one of these three available to consumers in the States yet. [Via Phone Scoop]
