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ICYMI: Turbine sunbather, NASA stress test and an aquatic hedge trimmer
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-447825{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-447825, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-447825{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-447825").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It, Usain Bolt may be the "fastest man on Earth" but he can't outrun a cameraman on a Segway. An amatuer drone pilot stumbles across a sunbather 200 feet above the ground. NASA puts its 3D-printed rocket engine pump through a grueling series of tests. The UK showcases its amphibious weedwhacker and some delightfully demented genius has recreated the Pokemon theme song within Grand Theft Auto V. If you come across any interesting videos, we'd love to see them. Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd. And if you just want to heap praise on your handsome guest host, feel free to hit him up @mr_trout.
Microsoft integrates live TV from Sky TV, Foxtel and Canal on Xbox 360 -- more providers coming
Microsoft confirmed the recent rumors and announced a new streaming TV implementation for the Xbox 360 today at its pre-E3 2011 keynote. The Kinect and Bing-powered voice search that can pull in content from online sources like Hulu, Netflix and Xbox Live Marketplace, will also work with live TV from IPTV partners. So far that list only includes Sky in the UK, Foxtel in Australia and Canal+ in France, but users there will be able to search across all the services and view them directly through the console itself. There's no word on any US-based partners but if we had to guess AT&T's U-verse will probably be first in line again. One thing you will be able to watch in the US -- PPV UFC fights, streamed directly to the Xbox 360. Update: The official press release is out (and included after the break) where Microsoft mentions its "commitment to expand access to live television programming on Xbox 360 to more providers in the United States and around the world during the upcoming year". While U-verse's Mediaroom underpinnings certainly put it in the lead, we can see others like FiOS or Comcast potentially swooping in as well. Finally, would it be too much to ask for some of this universal search magic to extend to the Media Center extender software as well? %Gallery-125419%
MS partners with Canal+ for on-demand programs in France
MCV reports that Microsoft has signed a deal with Canal+ to provide on-demand programming to France via the Xbox 360. Microsoft will utilize the Canal+ on-demand service Canalplay, which offers movies and television programs, and will also offer the football (soccer) channel Foot+. According to MCV, the deal will eventually expand to include other Canal+ services and other Microsoft platforms as well.Welcome to the magical world of Xbox video on-demand, France. Or should we say bienvenue?
Canal+ live & on-demand TV comes to French Xbox 360s
The U.S. has Netflix, the UK has Sky TV and now France is getting Canal+ added to the Xbox 360, in a similar deal to the one bringing live and on-demand Sky TV in England, the French will be free to party up and watch more than 3,000 movies and TV shows, catch-up TV, French Ligue 1 soccer games, and headbutt flopping, filthy-mouthed Italians in the chest. No word if sports hooliganism will be supported in this iteration, but judging from the screens the avatar support should also mirror its UK counterpart. This is likely not the end of tie-ups between the two either, with the partnership planned to eventually encompass other Canal Plus & Microsoft products. Check out one additional pic of the updated dashboard after the break.[Via Reuters]
Sogecable's Digital+ brings Canal+ Deportes HD / Dcine HD to Spain
Spain's been dealing with a pitiful lack of high-def content for awhile now, and just a few months shy of a full year since Sogecable's Canal+ HD showed up, we finally have two more making the trip over. The satellite pay-TV operator Digital+ has delivered a new pair that we can only imagine will go over quite well with locals: Canal+ Deportes HD (sport) and Canal+ Dcine HD (movies). Sure, two ain't many, but are you really going to complain about a 300% increase in available HD material? We thought not.
World Table Tennis Championships get HD coverage -- can it get any better?
You know high-def is well on its way to "arriving" when the World Junior Table Tennis Championships secure HD coverage, don't you? While the vast majority of you will likely laugh this off as some sort of promotional stunt, we can't help but be pleased at what this could signal about HD adoption overseas. For the first time in the history of the tournament, viewers in Spain with access to the high-def version of Canal+ will be able to see the team and individual finals in astounding clarity. Negotiations are currently underway to get the HD feed beamed out to more nations, and even if you're completely disinterested in the sport, you should probably hope that pans out.
Canal+ prepping Sport HD, Film HD for Spain
Now that Canal+ customers in Spain have developed a taste of HD sports, Canal+ is readying Sport HD for its debut in the fall. But to introduce a little more variety into the HD-diet, Film HD is also being brought to the TV food pyramid. It sounds like Spaniards are loving their HD, with 92-percent of iPlus HD PVR owners reporting they'd recommend the device to friends. Specific offerings for Film HD weren't given, but the Sport HD channel has UEFA Champions League soccer, NBA basketball and tennis lined up -- all the better to bring the Spanish countryman Rafael Nadal's progress in December's Australian Open.
Canal+ launches Catch-up TV video-on-demand service
By now, we've all heard of Start Over (right?), but Canal+ is introducing some new terminology overseas with its Catch-up TV service. For Le Bouquet subscribers that own a Dual-S set-top-box with an ADSL connection and an external hard drive (got all that?), they can seemingly enjoy programming aired earlier on-demand without having to worry over "traditional timetables and reruns." Generally speaking, a show stays available for between seven days and a month after it's first shown, and of course, this material will all be delivered via broadband. Not a bad sounding setup, if we should say so ourselves.[Via BroadbandTVNews]
TV Norge HD delivers Norway's first homegrown HD channel October 3
Norway has its first local HD channel is on the way, as TV Norge and Canal Digital have teamed up to deliver TV Norge HD beginning October 3. Norwegian produced content isn't due until '09, in the meantime viewers can live with simulcasts of programs like The Closer, CSI and Rome. Canal Digital previously delivered the European soccer championships and Olympics in HD, and reports over 100,000 HD receivers already installed among Norwegians 1.3 million HDTV owners. NRK, TV2, the ball is in your court.
SES ASTRA tardily trumpets 12 channels of HD Olympics across Europe
There's nothing here that wasn't apparent already, but SES ASTRA is just now getting around to boasting about a dozen HD channels that it's hosting to broadcast the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Ready for an exhaustive list? The channels broadcasting the Olympics in HD include for the UK, BBC HD, for France, France 2 HD and CANAL+ HD, for Germany, ANIXE HD, for Poland, TVP HD, for the Slovak Republic, STV3, for the Netherlands, 1 HD, for Belgium een HD, for Spain, TELEDEPORTE HD, for Sweden, Viasat HD and SVT HD and for Austria, ORF HD. So yeah, if you somehow missed this for the first week of the Games, at least you're clued in now.[Image courtesy of Beijing 2008]
Spain preps HD channel for 2008 Olympic Games
Good news, Spain. The president of the Radio Televisión Española has just announced that high-definition coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing will be available in your country. After a meetup with the Directors Board of the Association of Olympic Sports, Luis Fernandez asserted that details were being finalized for a TVE channel that will carry the events in HD and will likely be broadcast by Canal+ HD. Outside of that, details were scant, but considering the dearth of time before the Games get kicked off, you probably won't be waiting long to hear more.
Canal bringing over 2500 movies through French VOD service
The two million PSP users in France just got a lot to celebrate about. Canal plans on making 4,000 programs available to PSP owners, including 2,500 movies, using Sony's DRM system. With this new service, subscribers will be able to use their PCs and download videos directly to their PSP."It provides Sony with quite an appealing content proposition for their portable device, in addition to the games," said Dan Cryan of media analyst Screen Digest to Variety. "What's become clear for about every form of online content, with the exception of sport and adult, is that the PC is not a paying platform. "But if you move it onto a device, people become more interested in handing over money."There are plans for other services to become available throughout Europe. However, no similar program has been announced for America.
Poland's Cyfra+ to pick up Eurosport HD
We already knew that Eurosport HD would be making the rounds in various parts of Europe, but now we've got confirmation that the forthcoming high-def version will also be carried in Poland. Cyfra+ (a Polish digital satellite platform) will begin offering the channel as soon as it goes live on May 25th. The network will join Canal+ Film HD, Canal+ Sport HD and National Geographic HD as the only HD stations available on said carrier, though Eurosport HD will purportedly cost around €1.44 ($2.24) per month to enjoy.[Via Broadband TV News]
Eurosport going HD on May 25
Not quite two years after we wondered when HDTV would ever make its way across the pond -- and not even two weeks since we found that barely 5-percent of European HDTV owners even watch HD programming -- along comes news that yet another channel is slated to go high-def in Europe. And for what it's worth, we've all ideas this one will get some attention. Eurosport is getting set to launch an HD simulcast channel on May 25th, just in time for the start of the French Open-Roland Garros tennis Grand Slam. Additionally, viewers can count on seeing content from the Tour de France and the Beijing Olympics, and for folks stuck watching SD, at least that version will be morphing from 4:3 to 16:9. As of now, carriage agreements have been landed on "platforms in Israel, Turkey, Portugal and the Nordic countries, where Canal Digital will deliver the channel."
Canal Digital nixes dedicated HD package, moves channels to affordable Family tier
We're not totally certain if this move is in response to Viasat's recent launch of HD offerings in Europe -- or the simple fact that few Europeans were likely taking advantage of it -- but whatever the case, Canal Digital is reportedly doing away with its pricey dedicated HD package. Thankfully, the seven channels within the plan -- SVT HD, TV4 HD, History Channel HD, Discovery HD, National Geographic HD, Voom HD and Silver HD -- aren't vanishing, as they're simply sliding over to the Family tier and becoming a lot more affordable in one fell swoop. Reportedly, Canal Digital has some 46,000 HD subscribers, but we can't see how that number won't increase now that acquiring these seven just became a whole lot cheaper.
Astra touts boost in HD channel offerings, expects more to follow
It wasn't too awfully long ago that Astra was tooting its own horn about 20 extra HD channels hitting the European front, but not only did the company maintain its word, it exceeded expectations as well. In a recent announcement, the satellite provider boasted that it is now broadcasting 26 high-definition channels across Europe, including BSkyB, Discovery, National Geographic, and The History Channel from the UK, CANAL+, M6, and TF1 from France and Premiere, and ProSieben, Sat1, and Anixe from Germany. As if this weren't good enough (it never is), Astra is also planning to match DirecTV's recent claim and offer up 100 HD channels -- but it'll likely be closer to 2010 before Europe reaches the coveted milestone.
First HDTV channels hit French television
We'd insert some corny French welcome here, but we don't know any. Regardless of our language barrier, we now all know one thing clearly: HDTV. Rival platforms Canal Group and TPS are competing to get more high definition to their customers, quicker. While TPS has been airing part time high def since February, Canal has promised to launch one full time channel on April 4, followed in June by National Geographic HD.Well, now we can check France of our banned travel countries list. I had so missed the Louvre.
