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Hyundai's 'Seven' concept EV is a self-driving lounge
Hyundai has unveiled a concept self-driving EV with a lounge-like interior — it even has shoe refreshers.
YouTube blows out seven candles, cuts birthday party short to log 72 hours of video per minute
Ah, YouTube. It wasn't long ago that it was pumping out around 60 hours of content every 60 seconds, but nothing can stop the video juggernaut. Celebrating its seven years of existence with a video charting its rise, rise and rise, YouTube's official blog has also announced that it's now dealing with an eye-bleeding 72 hours of video every minute. We're still finding all this content as pervasive as ever though, with over 3 billion hours now watched every month. Catch the site blowing its own trumpet in the tribute vid right after the break -- which is all well and good, but where's the free game?
Australian networks backing off of HD sports broadcasts?
It's shocking this is still an issue in 2011, but viewers in Australia are struggling with OTA networks that have suddenly decided there's not enough room to broadcast sports programming in HD. The digital switch over Down Under isn't scheduled to finish until 2013, and since each network only has the space to broadcast one HD feed alongside two SD channels, they shuffle a few things to the side. According to an article in The Australian the free to air networks have decided to develop male or female-skewed programming lineups (sound familiar?) of comedy and drama that they think are more appealing. The situation seems very reminiscent to the one here in the US with NBC locking down the Olympics and insisting on tape delays to pump the ratings while ESPN is willing to broadcast the games live, except there it's Fox Sports that will be airing AFL games in HD -- next season.
The Daily Grind: Which of the deadly sins have you committed in MMOs lately?
You know the seven deadly sins, right? The "Devil's Most Wanted" that pop up in Morgan Freeman movies from time to time? If nothing else, the seven deadly sins are an instructional list of words like "sloth" that nobody uses on a daily basis. Since we tend to take our real-world failings into virtual space, it stands to reason that our bad habits follow as well. So which of the seven deadly sins have you committed in MMOs as of late? Let's run down the list: Wrath: Have you wigged out on your guild, engaged in nerd rage, or cussed out your PUG? Greed: Are you never satisfied with your wealth and gear, but always need more, more, more? Pride: Do people know you as "that player who's always waving around his or her e-peen"? Lust: If there's a naked elf dancing on a mailbox, do you stop to look -- and take screenshots? Sloth: Are you too lazy to get off your butt and finish that major project in game that you've been putting off? Envy: Do you constantly find yourself on edge because other players have the cool uber-loot that you lack? Gluttony: Have you played a little too much -- OK, way too much -- when you know you have other things to be doing? Confess, my child. Confess and clear your virtual soul! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Switched On: Kin's seven deadly sins
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. There may have been a lot of behind-the-scenes machinations at Microsoft and Verizon that resulted in the discontinuation of the Kin One and the Kin Two, but there were also many marketplace miscues that resulted in the demise of the handsets. Here, then, were Kin's seven deadly sins: Lust. With the Kin handsets, Microsoft was too eager to get its hands into the pockets of young social networkers for whom the smartphone market had proven elusive. The key paradox of this was that the Kin data plan was the same for that of other smartphones at Verizon, and that continued to shut out those who aspired to mobile digital sharing nirvana. Gluttony. If Microsoft was angling to get Verizon to offer a sweetheart deal for Kin data, it certainly didn't help its cause with the automatic backup of rich media to the Kin Studio website. If there was one aspect to the Kin handsets operation that may pave the way toward future success, it was the Silverlight-based web interface to all the media that was captured with the device. This also allowed Microsoft and Sharp to minimize the amount of on-device storage. However, constantly backing up high-resolution photos and even standard-definition videos to the cloud required a lot of bandwidth, making it difficult for Verizon to justify a "light" data usage plan for Kin users.
Windows Mobile 7 megarumor: LG Apollo and HTC Obsession running flagship '720p' specs, Zune Phone Experience
Alright, this is some wild, heavy stuff, but the folks at WMExperts have compiled what they believe to be true about Windows Mobile 7, including a whole bunch of previously undisclosed info and even a couple of flagship phones. We can't vouch for the rumors, but there's a ring of truth to plenty of it, and most of the rest of it we want to be true. First off, Microsoft is approaching the revision with two flavors: Windows Phone Seven Business Edition, and Windows Phone Seven Media Edition. The former is a stripped down OS that will allow OEM overlays like HTC's Sense UI, and includes lower minimum specs -- though a WVGA "minimum" is nothing to get angry about. Meanwhile, it sounds like the Media Edition is the quasi-"Zune Phone" we've been dreaming of, with a heavy emphasis on HD media playback and capture, along with social networking activities like Xbox Live, Facebook and Twitter. Other features include cloud-style services on the Business Edition side for live manipulation of stored data, a long with a location-aware platform dubbed "Orion." This all sounds great, but what's really exciting is what Microsoft is dictating should be in some of these Media Edition phones. The first two to break cover are the LG Apollo and HTC Obsession. The Apollo is a 3G worldphone (EV-DO and HSDPA) that runs a 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 processor and a 3.8-inch AMOLED 1280 x 720 WXGA display. The phone also is purported to have a 10 megapixel camera capable of 720p video recording. Meanwhile, HTC's HSDPA-limited Obsession runs a mere 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 proc, with a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera and 720p video recording. The Apollo is due in August or September of this year, with the Obsession following in October. Now, some of these specs are admittedly suspect, like the WXGA resolution on the Apollo and that seemingly 10 megapixel sensor, but we want to believe. As for what we know to be true? Well, we know we'll see something at MWC next month, unless Robbie Bach is just joshing around, and we also know HTC has confirmed its involvement with Windows Mobile 7 -- lending some credence to rumors of the Sense UI sticking around for a new-generation -- and that LG has gone on (and quickly off) record as well saying it'll have a WinMo 7 phone in September. It's all a lot more vague than the pages of specs we're staring at now, but it's clear that something is brewing. Hit up the source link for the full nitty gritty.
SEVEN brings Google Calendar to legions of handsets
Mobile software vendor SEVEN may not be bringing any huge news to Vegas, but it's still making a small-to-medium sized splash by delivering Google Calendar access to millions of handsets. The access is being delivered via an update to the company's Integrated Mobile Messaging Platform, and any current mobile supported by SEVEN can take advantage. The improved calendar access is an extension of SEVEN's true push technology, and aside from giving users the ability view calendar requests, it also gives 'em the ability to update their calendar, create and delete appointments and more -- right on their phone. We'll be hitting the floor at CTIA to see what the fuss is all about, so be sure to keep it locked for more.
The Queue: Seven
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Before I wrote six. Now I'm writing seven. And if you got the picture on six, you'll probably understand why Kara Thrace is the featured image for this article where I answer seven of your questions. And if you don't understand what I'm talking about, just know that my girlfriend bears a resemblance to Katie Sackhoff (beyond sharing the same first name), and that's worthy of a Queue introduction right there.And mark my words, she is somehow related to the seventh Cylon. Starbuck, not my girlfriend (although...).Nakabeast asked..."Heirlooms and similar items are listed as "Bind on Account." Now wouldn't this make more sense if these BoA items actually did what their tooltip lists, and let us trade these throughout entire accounts, not just one server? I'd love for my Death Knight on my friend's server to have Murky and the Big Blizzard Bear."
SEVEN shows off Android e-mail client at MWC, may or may not be coming to Sprint's Android device
We know Sprint's been eyeing the G1 and that it's getting Samsung's Android phone by June, but if mobile software vendor SEVEN has anything to do with it, we now know a bit more about the device's e-mail client as well. Sprint's already a fan of the company's other offerings, and we anticipate they had something to do with this new Android version. The app uses SEVEN's push tech to get your e-mail almost instantaneously -- something that offline-enabled mobile Gmail probably can't do. Planned support for calendars, social networking, and instant messaging make this all the more enticing. A rep from the outfit promises that we'll see partnerships on "more than just Sprint in 2009" and we definitely hope this thing trickles down to the Android Marketplace in due time. There're a bunch more shots over at the read link, so if you're interested be sure to check them out.
Australia's Seven, Nine and Ten not leaping to add new digital channels
Australia's Seven, Nine and Ten -- the three free-to-air networks in the country -- are now free to launch new digital channels to supplement their current offerings, but on the whole, there's not much excitement about doing so. Thus far, the only one that has even announced plans to launch a new channel with distinct programming is Ten, which hopes to debut a 24-hour HD sports channel dubbed One. If everyone would follow suit, the commercial networks alone could offer a total of nine stations with unique programming. Sadly, the networks have known about this opportunity for two years now, but it seems to us that everyone might be waiting around for another to seriously approach the opportunity before they follow suit. Monkey see, monkey do, right?
Aussie TiVo users to bleep, bloop and ding their way to pizza
Nothing crosses borders like couch potato culture, and according to the linked report, Australian TiVos will get the power to order pizza right through the device in 2009. But that's not all -- TiVos down under are reportedly getting access to all sorts of third-party online offers, including a movie store with (gasp) more than 100 titles. To kick things off, users will get free access to the library from next week until March. We're all for the patient TiVo buyers down under getting increased functionality (just like the US), but we'll stick to a laptop for picking out our toppings, thanks. [Via PVRblog]
TiVo completes hat-trick of profitable quarters, then slips
It's hard to believe that TiVo has been with us for 11-years, and even harder to understand how it's managed to hang around all that time with only three profitable quarters. TiVo closed out its second profitable quarter in a row on July 31st, but don't call off that deathwatch just yet -- the company followed up the good news with a gloomy Q3 forecast to the tune of a $7M - $9M net loss, and revenue below expectations. Mounting competition from cable and satellite operator is eating into the DVR pie, and getting things up and running with Comcast has been painfully slow. For TiVo's sake, we hope that things with Cox and Australia's Seven go a whole lot better, because cutting marketing costs to profitability in the competitive DVR market doesn't sound like a viable long-term strategy to us.
Australian peace restored with free HD tuners
For all of our complaining about the long run-up to the analog shutoff here in the US, this story illustrates the benefits of taking time to do a little consumer education. In Australia, it turns out that not everyone was aware that TVs with analog-only tuners are unable to receive the HD programming that Seven and Ten are advertising so heavily. This all came to a boil with Ten's HD-only Masters golf broadcast, and some customers returned to stores with talk of "misrepresentation." Retailers are giving away digital set-top boxes to smooth things over, though, so hopefully things are cleared up for now. This sounds exactly like the kind of thing US big-box retailers avoided by clearing shelves of analog-only TVs, and we might suggest some similar action for other global HD citizens.
TiVo officially launches in Australia
Ah, so whispers did prove true. TiVo went all out today Down Under as it trumpeted the forthcoming release of its heralded set-top-box in Australia. As we'd already heard, the box will be available exclusively through Harvey Norman stores for three months starting on July 29th, after which the AUD$699 device will find its way into other retail outlets. On the plus side, the HD DVR will have all of the standard features as seen on the US model (Season Pass, Wish List, etc.) and there will be no monthly fee. On the downside, most of the networking extras we're accustomed to in America -- TiVoToGo, music playback, photo viewing, etc. -- won't be immediately available. The unit itself is based on the TiVo HD, as it features a 160GB hard drive, dual tuners, an eSATA port and support for SD / HD broadcasts. Hit the read link for all the gory details, okay mate?
TiVo Series 3 coming to Australia next month
Great news, Aussies -- you too can enjoy the same box Americans have been using for eons starting next month. Yep, as of July, the TiVo Series 3 will go on sale via Seven for $700, and while Harvey Norman will sell the device exclusively for three months, it'll filter into "all major electronics chains" shortly after that window of time closes. Of note, Seven claims that it is not attempting to compete with Foxtel and its newly announced iQ2 box, and that it is instead aiming for subscribers who want the functionality of a DVR without the costly Foxtel subscription fees. If whispers prove true, you folks can expect to see this on sale in late July following a July 1st media launch.
Turf war down under: Seven's TiVo getting muscled out by Nine and Ten?
If you thought it was hard to keep track of the network players in the US, check out the roster in Australia. Seven Networks has been representing for TiVo for less than a year, but is now getting competition from Channels Nine and Ten. New markets don't just develop overnight, so the competition coming in the form of FreeView is no small thing. No knock on TiVo, which gets lots of love here in the US, but FreeView has a wide range of OEM and broadcaster support. And that broadcaster support may push things in FreeView's favor, forcing Seven to abandon plans to make TiVo a centerpiece of an Australian TV platform. Sad to think that the TiVo bleeps and bloops down under could go silent, eh?
Australia / India Twenty20 match to be aired in 1080i
In what's believed to be an Australian first, the Twenty20 matchup between Australia and India is slated to be aired in 1080i. The event, which will occur on February 1, 2008 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, will be shot and broadcast in high-definition on Australia's Nine Network. The announcement is coming in the midst of competition between Seven, Nine and Ten to ramp up HD offerings, as Ten is already planning to broadcast every single 2008 AFL (Australian Football League) contest in HD while Seven aims to show the Beijing Olympics in 1080i. Meanwhile, we Americans will be gearing up for Super Bowl XLII.
Reminder: Bungie Day goodies on XBLM tomorrow
Tomorrow is Bungie Day for the Halo 3 developer, as they've celebrated every July 7 in recent memory. Since it will be 2007 (i.e. 7/7/07, or triple 7s), there is some "extra special content" coming to Xbox Live Marketplace, according to the developer's website, in addition to new content on Bungie.net itself.As to what the goodies will be, exactly, Bungie isn't saying -- "don't get too excited, it's not Halo 3," said the newsbrief. We're predicting gamertag pictures, themes, and the like, of either Halo, Marathon or their long-running joke Pimps at Sea.Regardless of what the content is, there's only a small window of opportunity, as the mysterious content will only be available from 5:00 am ET until 3:00 am on Sunday. [Via X3F]
Aussies criticizing Seven Network for compressing HD feeds
Same story, different continent. The compression bug has seemingly struck again, and this time its aggravating those Down Under who'd like to enjoy Seven Network's 1080i programming in all of its high-definition glory. After just recently flipping the switch to broadcast content in HD, a sect of Australians have already begun to grumble over the "relatively low amount of bandwidth the network has allocated to the high-definition channel." Of course, it should be noted that "most" viewers have seen no reason to get bent out of shape, but for those relaxing in Oz, what say ye on the Seven situation?
T-minus seven days (Times Square coverage)
While some lucky members of our staff are able to enjoy the Wii as we speak, most of us have to wait. We've been waiting for a long, long time. It's felt like agony at points, some ethereal event that would never really happen. We are seven days away, people, one lousy week. Get ready for the tents, the bitter cold, the local DS multiplayer, and the greasy fast food runs. Get ready for the lines, the excitement, the anticipation and the reward.With that in mind, we'd like to inform you that Nintendo Wii Fanboy will be on location in Times Square, New York for the official global launch party of the Nintendo Wii. We'll be doing live updates from the event (pending hot spot availability) and video coverage as well. If you live within reasonable distance, we encourage you to come ... it's gonna be one hell of a party.
