2008Olympics
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MST3K crew appears during the Summer Olympics broadcast?
Now look, we're not sure if this was someone's drug-induced fever dream or not, but if it did really go down, it might be the best thing that's happened at the entire 2008 Summer Olympics. According to the Dirty Red Commie, sometime on August 17th between 2:00 PM and 3:13 PM Mountain Time, Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000 appeared on NBC's broadcast of the summer games. The DRC says they were simply static -- no hilarious jokes or animated banter -- but cut out during local commercials, giving him the impression that this was coming from the NBC mothership rather than his local station. Apparently a video of the action was set to go up on YouTube, but was "copyright-killed before it was even done processing." If anyone out there on the interblogs is able to confirm this, we'd love to hear from you. Update: While not exactly proving the authenticity of this, we've now got video of it after the break. Update: Aaaaaand... the video has been taken down.
How to get the most out of the 2008 Olympic Games
The 2008 Beijing Olympics -- the first covered entirely in high definition, with super slow-motion cameras and 3,600 hours of coverage, online and on TV -- approach. Think you're ready to get the most out of the Games, and maybe, just maybe catch the event you actually want to watch live as it happens? Head over to Engadget HD and get the full rundown on the different ways the Games are coming home and how to take advantage of them all.
Ready to watch the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
There's no doubt about it, no matter what the air quality -- or the political climate -- is like, these will be the best Olympics ever to watch from home (maybe 2012, eh Oscar?) With every moment captured in high definition and available right away, viewers will have their choice of sports to watch at all times, on a number of different platforms. Whether you're new to HD -- and are absolutely sure your HDTV is set up properly -- in the last four years or still have nightmares punctuated by "We've got chips...and salsa" (we've formed a support group for the survivors of 2004) we'll do our part to make sure you're equipped to get the most possible out of the 2008 Olympic Games.
Comcast and Charter tout enhanced Olympics 2008 coverage
Just in case you thought only AT&T and DirecTV are the only ones lining up HD video on-demand offerings for the Olympics (scheduled to kick off tomorrow with women's soccer ahead of the August 8 opening ceremonies), as Comcast and Charter just dropped some details on their plans for the Beijing Games. For the most part HD VOD plans seem identical to the offerings from other providers, with 15-20 daily updates and highlights sorted by sport, while Comcast promises more than 700 hours of HD on NBC HD, Universal HD and USA HD, plus multiple live NBC feeds on Comcast Central. Charter however has highlighted a few different features , with plans to carry the NBC Olympics Soccer Channel and NBC Olympic Basketball Channel in HD on top of the NBC and Universal HD feeds, plus foreign language TV coverage. Since no one person can hope to keep up with all the coverage (and don't forget the 2,200 hours of streaming video planned for the NBC website), plan for HD VOD to be the lifeline keeping you updated with your sport of choice.Read - Comcast PRRead - Charter PR
CBC plans 282 hours of HD Olympic coverage
Our friends in the Great White North can expect some great HD coverage of this summer's Olympic games, as the CBC recently laid out its broadcast schedule, planning 282 hours of high definition coverage, while TSN promises 150 hours of HD coverage. CBC will also throw in 400 hours of SD coverage, which, may not equal NBC's numbers, but anyone who's viewed both can tell you without a doubt their presentation has trumped NBC's in its ability to satisfy sports fans (with the exception of their curling obsession during the Winter Olympics) with live action for many years. Online streaming of 1,500 hours of event coverage including live events will also be available, so we don't expect Canadians will miss a minute of the action from Beijing.
European broadcasters rushing to add HD ahead of the Olympics
Despite word from France Television's director of sports programming that HD wouldn't be available for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, France 2 HD has already launched on CanalSat DTH and Numéricable. Unlike the Versus broadcast here, French viewers are also getting the Tour de France in HD and can expect the same from their Olympic coverage. Meanwhile Belgians can thank TV Vlaanderen for adding VRT's Eén HD temporarily to its DTH platform, delivering both events in HD, along with Belgacom TV adding Eén HD, France 2 HD, Eurosport HD and TF1 HD for a total of 13 high definition channels. Really, we can't see watching the Olympics any other way.Read - Belgacom TVRead - France 2Read - VRT Eén HD
Lenovo says "no thanks" to Vista for 2008 Olympics
Poor Vista, you really can't buy a break. First you've got legions of users angrily awaiting a decent update for a whole slew of problems, then there's the CEOs taking pot-shots at you, and now, Lenovo, supplier of the 2008 Olympic Games' computer systems says it's sticking with XP. Word on the street is that all vital computing tasks for the Games will be handled on XP-enabled PCs, while some internet lounges used by athletes will be equipped with Vista systems. According to Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo, "the Olympic Games require mature, stable technologies and it's not a place to try new technologies." Yang, we're pretty sure a legion of Vista users feel similarly about their desktops. You can almost hear Microsoft's sharp intake of breath from here.[Via Slashdot]
Lenovo 3000 J200 and J205: major Olympics fans
Following up on its Olympics-themed laptops, Lenovo has just announced a new series of desktops which will sport a tiny, barely visible Olympics logo in support of the upcoming Bejing games. The 3000-series J200 and J205 desktops both look the same on the outside (drab, gigantic, PC-ish), but pack ever-so-slight differences on the inside. The J200 is an Intel Celeron based model, with 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and an integrated graphics chipset, while the J205 will feature an AMD CPU and... nope, that's all. The Olympic-lovers will be on sale in August for $399 and $449, respectively.
