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Netflix Watch Instantly's life after Starz includes Academy Award winners, more captions
In a change of conversation that would make Don Draper proud, Netflix has picked up its blogging pen and accentuated the positive, even as hundreds of titles provided by Starz Play blinked away this week. The first bit of good news? Content that's coming instead of going includes several movies that scored trophies at last weekend's Academy Awards,including Best Picture winner The Artist, and Best Documentary winner Undefeated that will arrive "later this year, plus Best Animated Feature Rango that goes live on the service March 31st. That extends to movies in theaters too, as last weekend's top two, Act of Valor and Good Deeds, are pay-TV window exclusives for Netflix. The other positive note is that it achieved a goal of offering closed captioning on 80 percent of the hours streamed by the end of last year, and notes 90 percent of streaming is now done on devices that have been updated to support optional captions. The bad news there is that some embedded TV and Blu-ray player software might not be able to be updated for captions, and progress on adding captions for that last twenty percent of content may be slower since it's content that isn't viewed as often. So, is the red envelope company doing enough to keep you hanging around, or are you going to blow through the last few eps of Lillyhammer and pull the eject button?
Google aids accessibility with ChromeVox reader, better YouTube captions and more
Engineers from Google have commandeered a booth at this year's CSUN accessibility conference and they're keen to talk up their latest efforts. For the visually impaired, there's now a beta version of a Chrome screen reader called ChromeVox (demo'd after the break), plus improved shortcuts and screen reader support in Google Docs, Sites and Calendar. Meanwhile, YouTube boasts expanded caption support for the hard of hearing, with automatic captions enabled for 135 million video clips -- a healthy tripling of last year's total. Check the source link for full details or, if you're anywhere near San Diego, go and hassle those engineers the old-fashioned way.
Roku adds more games, cleans up the PQ on its latest streamers
Don't think Roku is sitting back on its laurels after rolling out a slew of new hardware including the Roku 2 family and the new, low end Roku LT. As promised, it has issued a firmware update enabling new gaming options including Pac Man:CE, Galaga, and Angry Birds Seasons. Even if you're committed to Roku's hockey pucks as purely video streamers, there's a new firmware update to correct, among other things, issues that caused a darker than normal image on some displays, WiFi performance, boot performance, readiness for HBO Go, and subtitles on Netflix. Check out Roku's blog for the full list of fixes or just hit the software update section in your settings menu to make sure you have the latest software.
Enough Already Arduino mutes TV's overexposed celebrities, frees you to live again (video)
Are you besieged by celebrities? Sure, you could try turning off the TV, but now there's a more complex, DIY solution: Enough Already, an Arduino box that mutes your television at any mention of certain names -- Lady Gaga, for example. The setup's fairly simple if you're comfortable with hardware hacking; it uses the Video Experimenter Shield to read closed captioning data, then sends the mute command via IR whenever offending words appear. Of course, you can tweak the blacklist however you like, so Pippa Middleton updates will still get through. Follow the tutorial after the break and you'll be able to once more channel-surf in peace, knowing you'll never again have to hear the word "Snooki."
YouTube brings human-enabled closed captioning to live video for Google I/O
If you were glued to your computer during the live broadcast of the Google I/O keynote yesterday morning, you might have noticed a new feature accompanying an otherwise recognizable YouTube video. The online video provider used this morning's conference kickoff as the springboard for its live captioning feature, which brings human input to the transcription process. According to Google's Naomi Black, a team of stenographers banged out translations during this morning's keynote. The resulting captions were then displayed on the conference floor and delivered by an "open source gadget" to the I/O YouTube channel. This new feature apparently prevents the inaccuracies experienced using Google's automatic captioning function, which, if you'll recall, provided us with at least a couple hearty chuckles when we took it for a spin. The code behind the new live captions will be available to YouTube's partners and competitors on Google Code. You can check out tomorrow's keynote to see how the humans fare.
Caption Contest: Russian prez is impressed by iPad 2
In non-Soviet Russia... presidents tend to receive some pretty swanky high-tech gifts. Dmitry Medvedev, leader of the good people of Russia and one of the few men to successfully rock denims with a suit jacket, has been bestowed with a fresh new iPad 2 and his facial expression seems to suggest he was immediately irradiated with blasts of magic, fairy dust, and the smiles of innocent children from across the world. We just hope he hasn't seen the crummy camera yet, he is something of a tablet photography connoisseur. Darren: "Why, lookie there! I can see Alaska from my iPad 2!" Joe: "I can't believe I'm playing chess with Garry Kasparov!" Jose: "I wonder if Barack also likes to play Risk on his iPad." Josh F.: "See? The cat is talking but he's saying 'has' instead of 'have!'" Don: "Kickin' in the front seat, sittin' in the back seat, gotta make my mind up, which seat can I take?" Tim: "Look, it already has Words with Comrades installed!" Vlad: "And this has push notifications for when Mr. Putin has instructions for me, yes?" Richard Lawler: "10,000 apps and it's still cheaper than buying the New Jersey Nets." Myriam: "And so if I tap here, it opens the door to the shark tank... and over here are the laser controls. Cool, eh?" Richard Lai: "Hullo Anna!"
The iPad introduction video, as captioned by Google
Hey remember that feel-good iPad introduction video with the Ben Folds cover of "In Between Days" Apple posted on launch day? Yeah, well you're going to remember the hell out of it once you watch it with Google's auto-transcription enabled on YouTube. Trust us, you owe yourself these few moments of absurdity. Update: Video after the break! [Thanks, Jeff] %Gallery-87737%
Caption contest: What is Craig doing?
Sure, Intel's demo man -- Craig -- had something specific he was showing us earlier at the company's CES press event, but you can assuredly think of something more... creative, can't you? Tim: "Laaaadies...." Josh T.: "You over there, feel like makin'... no? Okay." Joe: "This one's called Cold Lampin' With Intel." Richard Lai: "Intel outside." Chris: "We doin'... big pimpin', spendin' cheese. We be... big pimpin' on C.O.R.E.'s" Darren: "'Cause my Atom don't stop 'til six in da mooooaannnin'." Ross: "Our Flavor Flav impersonators aren't like your Flavor Flav impersonators." Thomas: "Quick to the point to the point no fakin, I'm cooking AMD like a pound of bacon." Richard Lawler: "This ain't funny so don't ya dare laugh." Don: "I pity the fool that buys AMD." Joanna: "No, you're a rockstar." Vlad: "I might look like a fool, but I'm getting paid to dress and act like this, what's your excuse?"
Caption This contest winners!
Miss last week's Caption This contest? Well, even if you missed out on entering, you can still enjoy reading through our winning entries. In first place, with 571 votes, was Lustig, who submitted the following caption:Hmmm... why does my display say that I'm still in combat?However, I'm afraid Lustig wasn't eligible to take home a prize, so he's just leaving our contest with the pride of winning. In second place, we have Angus, with 215 votes, who is taking home a 60-day gamecard due to his entry:Just run through them, they said. No problem, they said. You're a big bad level 70, they said. Pull the entire instance to the front door and we'll AOE grind them all, they said... Cheap blues for enchanting mats, they said. We need to go, they said...And in third place, we have Trevin, with 211 votes, who is going to be getting a quest-giver hat from J!NX after entering this caption:Indiana Jones 5: The Temple of Zul'Farrak"THIS MASK BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!"Didn't have a chance to enter? Check in with us next Monday for another edition of our Caption This contest!
Caption This: Vote for winners! [Updated]
I hope everyone had a blast participating in this week's Caption This contest! However, as of Wednesday night at 11:59 PM EST the entry period officially closed, and I'd like to thank everyone who participated for making it a success! (And if you missed this week's contest, never fear, there will be another one starting on the Monday after next!) But now it's time to pick a winner -- the staff of WoW Insider has narrowed hundreds of entries down to ten finalists, and we want your opinion on which captions for the above screenshot are the best of the bunch. The winner will be walking away with a 60-day gamecard and second place will snag a More DoTs t-shirt from J!NX. So come on -- let us know which entry you liked best (polls will be open until 9am EST tomorrow), and on Monday we'll announce the winners!Update: The voting period is now closed -- we'll announce the winners soon!
Caption This! [Updated]
Did you catch our Onyxia caption contest the week before last? If you did, you're welcome to go check out the results -- or you could jump right in on this week's contest, which starts right now! And with a chance to win a 60-day gamecard or a More DoTs t-shirt from J!NX, you've got plenty of good reasons to enter.To win, all you have to do is come up with a hilarious caption for the screenshot above (click it for a larger version!). Submit your caption in our comments any time between now and Wednesday, June 27th at 11:59 PM EST. After that, the WoW Insider staff will narrow the entries down to ten finalists -- and you get to vote on who wins.However, there are some restrictions to this contest. The legal team says we're only allowed to open the contest to residents of the United States of age 18 and up. And as much as I hate to cut anyone out on this, legal has the final say on these matters. A complete copy of the contest's rules may be found here. But enough talk! Get to writing those captions!Update: Sorry, folks -- the entry period is over. Check back on Friday to vote for a winner!
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Day 7
Horde lovers, yesterday you had a chance to win an I survived Barrens chat t-shirt, and today is the day of the Alliance. The same deal applies as yesterday -- you need to provide the best caption for the image above in order to take home a Team Paladins shirt in your choice of size. We'll choose 10 finalists from all the entries received by 2pm EST tomorrow, January 7, and put it to a vote to let the popular opinion determine the winner. Happy captioning!P.S. Don't forget to get your entries in for the lyrics, fan art and machinima contests!
