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Handheld device knows when your high-end seafood dish is a little fishy
As much as we love the idea of fish police, stoically patrolling high-end restaurants, scanning plates of food and shouting "That is NOT real fugu, good sir," that's (sadly) not how this device works. Yes, this handheld machine called QuadPyre made by University of South Florida researchers can detect if someone's trying to pass off inferior fish as their more expensive counterparts. But at the moment, it can only detect if shady sellers are trying to pass off riffraff as grouper fish. See, local fishermen are apparently not capable of keeping up with grouper demand in the country, so the US has been importing metric tons from abroad.
Nokia Grouper, Mako, Snapper, and Thresher rolling deep on AT&T
Who said Nokia doesn't have a major commitment to North American carriers? We've landed news of a whole plethora of Espoo-sourced devices scheduled to hit AT&T over the coming months, and a few in particular caught our eye. Most notably, the Mako (pictured) is unlike anything we've ever seen Nokia make, mostly thanks to a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard that doesn't really resemble any existing hardware. It rides on the same S60 3.2-based platform as the 6650 and E71x, features dual-band HSDPA, a 2.4-inch QVGA display, AGPS, 2 megapixel camera, Video Share, and 128MB of internal storage with microSD expansion. Sadly -- this is going to be a dream killer for some folks, we think -- it's only got a 2.5mm headphone jack, which is a step back for multimedia support. This one was at one time targeted for June 5, but if we had to guess, it's been pushed back -- maybe we're crazy, but we feel like it hasn't leaked enough to meet that date at this point. Anyhow, looks like this one's a good foil for that QWERTY swivel allegedly due on Verizon. Speaking of "this looks nothing like a Nokia," the Thresher is an ultra-glossy slider that doesn't quite resemble anything officially announced in other markets. It shares its Series 40 guts with Grouper, which was the codename assigned to the 6750 Mural flip we recently saw hit the FCC. Both devices do HSDPA and AGPS; the Grouper makes do with a 2 megapixel cam, though, while the Thresher steps up to 3.2 with an integrated flash. The Thresher's signed up for September and the Grouper for July, but as with all of these, it's anyone's guess whether those dates will hold. Finally, the Snapper flip is a lower-end device that we could envision replacing the 6555, lacking the Grouper's style but still staying strong with triband HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1, AGPS, and a 2 megapixel camera. This one's tentatively targeted for August.
Sony kills Grouper: say hello to Crackle
Sony's flailing attempts to get some traction in the online media space continue on today, as the company has announced that it's shuttering its video-sharing site Grouper and relaunching it as Crackle. We can't say we're surprised -- although Sony bought Grouper last year for a cool $65 mil, it's not like it was ever a real threat to YouTube, drawing just 4.3 million viewers the month it was acquired. The new site, Crackle, aims to be something of a filmmaking incubator -- uploaded videos can be entered in contests and judged by panels of editors, with the promise of up to $20,000 in additional funding and pitch meetings with Columbia Pictures execs for the winners. On top of that, Crackle content will be made available on the Playstation Network and Bravia sets that have the Bravia Internet Link accessory -- which isn't exactly the type of vertical integration from Sony we've been hoping for, but it's a start. Crackle went live as of today, any bets on how long it'll last?
Grouper purchased by Sony Pictures, gives tons of videos to PSP owners
You know YouTube, right? And GameVideos? How about Grouper? I've honestly never head of them until now. The service is pretty much like every other video uploading service, except Grouper is now owned by Sony Pictures. Sony paid $65 million to own these obvious Sony fanboys (watch the video after the cut). Like Google Video, all the videos available on the site can be downloaded in PSP format, but even cooler than that, there are PSP-compatible RSS feeds, so you can have crazy viral videos, or some "sexy" videos delivered to your PSP on a daily basis. In fact, checking out the RSS feed, you'll have access to hundreds of videos on 2.80+ PSPs. It's sorta insane.[Via DownloadSquad]
Sony snags Grouper video sharing site for $65 mil
In news from the "what are they thinking?" department today, Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired video sharing site Grouper for a cool $65 million. What's that? Never heard of Grouper? You're certainly not the only one, with Nielsen/Netratings reporting just 430,000 visitors in July -- although Grouper's co-founder Josh Felser says it's actually closer to 8 million. Either way, it's well behind the current rockstar of the video sharing space YouTube, which, if you follow some analysts' reasoning, is now worth something in the $2 billion range. As a result of the deal, Grouper says it'll work with Sony to promote the company's movies and TV shows on the site. Another reason Sony apparently found Grouper particularly appealing is because it operates its own peer-to-peer network -- a way to distribute high-quality downloadable movies, perhaps? Either way, it seems a little bizzare, given Sony's Connect service, but hey, they really friggin' want you to put those clips on the PSP, because lawd knows most people aren't using it for games, or, ahem, UMD movies.
