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Verismo's VuNow internet TV platform ambushes OEM market
If you're still resisting the onset of the internet TV revolution, we're here to inform you that your efforts are in vain. Shortly after launching a dedicated box at CES, Verismo Networks has announced an OEM program that's apparently drawing lots of attention from manufacturers of TVs, optical media players, AV receivers, etc. Essentially, the company is looking to get its open VuNow platform, which pulls in content from around the web, onto other standalone boxes and integrated within future devices -- much like Netflix's Watch Instantly has done, and exactly like we saw at CES with Netgear. And don't think the cash flow stops at the consumer level, as there are also opportunities within education and medicine sectors for institutions seeking a streamlined way of distributing learning materials. Watch out, pay-TV -- we've got options here, and we aren't afraid to use 'em.
Recession-busting $150 Blu-ray players coming this year
If digital distribution is going to be held off for another year, Blu-ray players are going to need to achieve some serious market penetration at a rather difficult time. VIZIO's $200 VBR100 should help when it releases in a few months, but could be quickly undercut by a predicted flood of $150 drives said to be inbound from a number of other industry players, including Lite-On. These "white-box" drives will probably be short on features, but so too were the cheap DVD players that killed off the VCR, and nobody thought twice about that. If all goes according to plan look for stacks of inexpensive drives to start appearing at whatever retailers are still in business later this year.
Save your screen with movies and SaveHollywood
Got a folderful of movies of your kids? It'd be delightful to have them playing on your Mac as a full-motion family album. Or, suppose you're setting up a kiosk Mac where people are going to walk up, use it for a while, then wander away -- it would be nice if you could revert to an 'attract loop' of a QuickTime movie when the machine went idle for a few minutes.Enter the handy (and free/open source) SaveHollywood screen saver module from developer Stéphane Sudre (also the force behind the indispensable Iceberg packaging utility). Select an individual movie to play back, or a folderful of clips -- you can choose to show the movies in fullscreen mode or at the original size of the source material, and you can adjust the sound to a custom level (or mute) if desired.SaveHollywood is a 144K download and a Universal Binary. It's compatible with Mac OS X Tiger 10.4 and later.Thanks Laurie
White Box Robotics' 914 PC-BOT on the loose
It's been a long seven years for the folks at White Box Robotics, but it appears that the company is all but ready to start pushing a limited production lineup of 914 PC-BOTs out the door. While a past interview with White Box's CEO showed (false) promise of seeing shipments in 2005, an official pre-order page typically means business. Those anxious to get their hands on a maid that won't demand a raise once or twice annually will be forced to pay substantially more than the company's target price (which seems to vary from time to time), but will receive a 55-pound motorized personal assistant reminiscent of R2D2 that comes prepped and ready to learn. The 21-inch tall 'bot sports a differential drive train with independent front suspension, two DC "stepper" motors, dual M2-ATX PSUs with automatic battery monitoring and auto-shutoff, head-mounted webcam, eight integrated IR sensors, an IO board rocking a myriad of control inputs, a VIA motherboard, 1GB of RAM, 40GB 2.5-inch SATA drive, DVD burner, WiFi, Windows XP Home, and most importantly, PC-BOT software (code name "Brian") to get those wheels moving in the right direction. The company boldly claims its robotic companion can do "anything you want it to do" -- so long as you can program it -- and should begin shipping "anytime" for around $5,000 (or $5,599.99 for the mounties in Canada).[Via GoRobotics]
