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LG U900 announced for Hutchison in Italy
Yeah, we know, we're getting a little granular on this one, but remember LG's then-unnamed swiveling DVB-H handset? The one with the weird vaguely W300i-like buttons? Well, it was officially announced in Italy as the U900, and will see service through Hutchison's 3 network with UMTS service and, of course, their exclusive Italian DVB-H broadcast rights to the World Cup. The 1.3 megapixel and VGA cameras won't hurt, nor the 58MB internal flash, but what will, however, is a 3 hour battery lifespan watching video. That's still more than enough for a match, though, which is all it really needs to be, we suppose.
Yahoo Go TV takes Meedio and does it for free
Instead of merely devouring DVR software developer Meedio and leaving us to wait months for the results, Yahoo is releasing their new Meedio-based Yahoo Go TV software a mere week after announcing their acquisition. There's minor Flickr integration, and the software seems bent on answering the call of Front Row, along with the standard WMCE fare. If sounds like your thing, we've got even better news for you: it's free. At least for now, Yahoo! has the public beta of Yahoo! Go TV as a free download, so unless you have a certain aversion deep blue and purple stylings (lets hope the theming community jumps on this one right quick) there isn't much holding you back from giving it a spin.[Via Zatz Not Funny]
Microsoft munches Massive Inc.
Just when you thought Microsoft could get no more massive, The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is acquiring New York-based video game advertising company Massive Inc. for between $200 million and $400 million.We're not sure what took the Journal so long. We totally saw this one coming, like, four months ago. What's that sound? It's a cash register ringing up revenue stream #17 for Microsoft's growing gaming business. Don't remember the others? Here's a refresher on just the Xbox-related streams: (1) Xbox Live subscriptions; (2) royalties from Xbox Live Arcade titles (direct digital distribution 4TW); (3) Xbox Live sponsored weekends; (4) Peripherals; (5) That "artist of the month" music video distribution deal that we've never bothered to write about but that you can be sure Microsoft is getting paid handsomely for; (6) royalties on every Xbox 360 game sold; (7) direct revenues from first-party game sales; (8) Movie trailers (surely, Microsoft's not paying movie theaters to place trailers on the 360); (9) DirecTV on the 360; (10) Xbox gear; (11) game-to-movie royalties; (12) Sound tracks; (13) books based on games; (14) digital tchotchkes purchased with Microsoft points; (15) royalties on content packs and episodic game content (16) sales of the consoles themselves...
Nokia N72 launched
Along with the N93 and N73, Nokia just launched their new N72 multimedia tri-band GSM / EDGE cellphone. This Symbian S60 handset features a 2.1-inch, 176 x 208, 262k color display, Bluetooth 2.0, and 20MB internal memory expandable via RS-MMC. Media support includes a digital music player with dedicated music keys supporting MP3 and AAC playback, an FM Radio with Visual Radio support, and throws in a 2 megapixel shooter with integrated flash capable of CIF video capture at 15fps. Nokia is positioning this pup as a "multimedia computer" which is a bit of a stretch, but we'll play along for now. Expected in Pearl Pink or Gloss Black sometime in June 2006. More pics on the flip.[Via PhoneScoop]
HP Pavilion m7360y, Viiv reviewed, called jive
Here we are, four months since Intel promised a new home entertainment computing revolution the likes of which we'd never seen in the form of Viiv. Sure, no one -- including Intel -- could really figure out what the hell Viiv was, but they successfully convinced a lot of people that it's a brand they needed to see represented in their next PC. Well, according to the Washington Post, who recently spent some serious time with as mature a Viiv product as exists in the form of an HP Pavilion m7360y, the platform "amounts to a smattering of free Web video clips and discounts on online music, movie and game rentals -- plus a nifty rainbow-hued Viiv sticker on the front of the computer." They too couldn't define Viiv, and even called the Intel's much lauded Quick Resume feature as being akin to switching off your display and speakers -- nothing more. Not that we're really surprised, but it's pretty harsh when people start accusing your seemingly directionless platform initiatives as "embarrassing [your]self."
Sneak preview of Leopard at WWDC
Are you dying for a sneak peek at Leopard, the next incarnation of OS X? If so, book a ticket for San Francisco in mid-August. Apple has announced, on its site and by email to customers, that it will offer a preview of OS X Leopard at WWDC 2006, scheduled for August 7-11.The Apple site briefly describes five WWDC session tracks -- Application Technologies, Development Tools, Graphics and Media, Information Technologies, and OS Foundations -- but doesn't provide details about specific sessions. If you're considering going, try to get your boss to pick up the registration fee, which is a stiff $1295-$3500 before June 23 and even more after that date. If you're a student, don't overlook Apple's Student Scholarship Program. We told you before -- but it's worth a reminder -- that applications for a free WWDC ticket through that program are due on April 28.
Ask Engadget: that's just NASty
It's Thursday night, kids, which means it's time for another round of Ask Engadget. Before we get going, if you'd like to ask Engadget something yourself, hit us up at ask at engadget dawt com, and we'll take it to the court of public opinion. Anyhow, last time Brian C wanted to know how to best RF shield his WiFi; this week we got a short n' sweet one for ya, so consider yourself asked by Serge:I'm looking for a NAS solution and was hoping you could make suggestions. I'm looking for something with gigabit Ethernet, Apache / PHP / MySQL, media serving and a RAID configuration.Kinda sounds more like Serge wants himself a web-hosting solution in a box, but take out the LAMP configuration and you've got a ton of options. Too many, in fact, the market's positively saturated with home NAS and media storage solutions (most, it seems, with RAID). Got any favorites?
VDC Live brings all of cable's lamest channels to your phone
It's less of a mobile TV service than it is a convenient way to receive infomercials on the go, but VDC seems to be the new player in town either way. The service transmits "live cable TV" to your Windows Mobile or Windows XP system, with data rates up to 3000Kbps, though more EV-DO-friendly speeds are available as well. The subscription is a mere $12 a month, but the 20 channels of "cable" programming are fairly awful, including such gems as "The Pentagon Channel" and "ShopNBC." The service just went live today, and has more channels planned, including "Celebrity Shopping Network" and "AP Newswires & Newsbites." Where do we sign up?[Via Windows For Devices]
Emmy handheld award nominees announced
Let's face it, with more and more content being created for the third screen (i.e. your cellphone, handheld, portable, multimedia device, etc. -- whatever you want to call it), it was obviously time for the Emmys to create yet another award for a new kind of small screen: the award for outstanding original programming for computers, cellphones and other hand-held [sic] device (or that's what we understand it's called, anyway, they didn't officially acknowledge it on their site so far as we could tell). So whose programming's up for an Emmy? You've got Fox Mobile's 24: Conspiracy, MTV's mtvU Stand In, AOL's Live 8 on AOL, Orrin and Jerry Zucker's It's Jerry Time!, CB Films' Sophie Chase, and interactive puzzle program Stranger Adventures. To be announced April 22 with the Daytime Emmies, the Academy will be reviewing and voting on the nominees with what we can only hope is the utmost reverence and sincerity for the category, similar to how we imagine they vote on the Emmy for Sound Mixing - Nonfiction Programming or Outstanding Game Show Host.
TDK shipping Blu-ray media, still no players
Even with Blu-ray (and HD-DVD for that matter) players still MIA on store shelves, you might be able to buy the discs somewhere. They announced today they are shipping single-sided single layer (25GB) capacity discs. You can get the write-once BD-R blanks for $19.99 apiece while the rewriteable BD-RE will run you $24.99. They also announced they will ship dual-layer 50GB blanks later this year for $47.99 or $59.99 depending on -R or -RE. The discs also include DURABIS hard coating technology to protect against scratches dust and fingerprints form damaging your valuable (25 bucks a disc, yeah thats valuable) data.Eeesh. That certainly puts a damper on the whole create-my-own-archive-of-everything-ever-known-ever project. For $25 we can buy a 50 pack of single layer DVD blanks and get cases to boot. Heres to hoping prices come down (and quick).
Escient ships new FireBall DVDM-552
We kind of thought Escient was somehow taking things in a slightly more "cost effective" direction with their $1000 Escient SE-D1 media manager last year, but they've just gone quite a bit the other way with their new $6000 FireBall DVDM-552 which just started shipping. From the looks of things they're spending most of that $6000 on component video hookups, though there's plenty more to love here. The DVDM-552 can manage up to 2000 DVDs or CDs stored in Sony DVD changers, can send multiple video or digital audio streams to multiple rooms, holds a 500GB HDD, and can stream networked media. Everything can be operated through a web control panel, a PDA, or from a particularly brave remote. Sounds pretty exciting, though for the amount you'd be spending on this thing it seems like you could afford to put a WMCE PC in each room instead. But we're not going to try and stop you or anything.[Via TRFJ]
Samsung's YM-P1 20GB PMP available for pre-order
It's hitting our shores a little later than expected, but you can finally queue up for the US version of Samsung's hot little YM-PD1 personal media player (pictured), the YM-P1 (the absence of the "D" refers to the lack of a DMB over-the-air DTV receiver). Since we've been following this model for some time, you'll no doubt recall that it features a 4-inch widescreen TFT display, sports in-line recording to a 20GB hard drive, and supports a gaggle of formats including MP3, WMA, OGG, AC3, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, AVI, WMV, JPEG, and BMP. You can also jack up the memory a bit via the SDIO slot, listen to and record FM radio, and even play some videogames (although the controls don't look all that well-suited for serious gaming). SamsungHQ spotted the P1 available for pre-order on Datavision's website at $370 (where "Our prices are too low to advertise!"), although there is no mention of when the devices will actually be shipping, so don't toss your Archos aside just yet.
Why doesn't the Front Row remote have a click wheel?
As I was writing up my previous post about a Designtechnica article praising the Front Row remote for its simplicity and iPod-like ease of use, a question came to mind: if the Front Row remote is another extension of Apple's easy-to-use ideals, why doesn't it posses a click wheel? That round white circle is one of the iPod's design fundamentals that has brought the device into so many households and pockets. More importantly, it's also just about the best darn UI for browsing through massive amounts of media - and isn't that what Front Row is designed to do? I see Front Row as Apple's "iPod for the living room." It is a really, really simple piece of software that wrangles all our content (just like the iPod) together for our viewing and listening pleasure in just about any room we want. From this perspective, I wonder if Apple dropped the ball on the remote's design. Don't get me wrong, I really like the remote (especially in comparison to its competitors) and I'm excited to one day afford a Mac mini for our living room. I just think it would be so much cooler if we could have a click wheel to control nearly all the media we have on our computers. Apple could easily have made the remote the size of something like the iPod nano which would still give it that "amazingly small" aura, as well as room to fit a click wheel and maybe even save some production costs. A click wheel Front Row remote would make it even easier to browse through the zillions of songs, videos and photos that people can now access from the comforts of their couch. Lastly, I think it would even help Apple to further the iPod brand, as users could now have the same UI on one of their home remotes as they have on the music player in their pockets.*Sigh* It's too bad Apple didn't give me a call when kicking around ideas for the remote. Maybe I'll get lucky with the 2.0 redesign version some day. Something tells me, however, that I shouldn't hold my breath.
Mainstream media nails it!
Well done Kim Komando of USA Today. Well done. Projectors can be a great option for some consumers that seeks a HUGE screen but have space requirements. (and a budget) But they can be daunting because of the huge price range ($800 - $15,000) but Kim did a great job laying out most of the things you need to look for. She goes over LCD, DLP, and CRT options and talks about how important lumens is. Kim even talks about their Achilles heal: the pricey bulb.Ms. Komando covers most of what a person should look for but forgot to cover the different resolution. A lot of lower priced units do not produce a high enough resolution to be considered high-def. They will display the same image, but will do so by lowering the resolution of the signal to its native resolution. You can find good inexpensive projectors for under a thousand that does have a good resolution however; just stay away from the 800x600 units if you want to use it for HDTV.Check out Kim's guide to projectors if you have any questions about these mini-giants of TVs.
MSM & HDTV: So close but yet so far
As we've noted, sometimes the media can be a bit shaky when it comes to talking about HDTV accurately. This time it's Cleveland's News Channel 5 reporting to make sure you don't buy an EDTV plasma assuming it's HDTV, a worthy cause and one we've mentioned before.The article is good, with enough warning and not too much hysteria, until they mention HDTV becoming standard in three years. Awww man. Everybody listen to Engadget, DTV ≠ HDTV. Thank you and please remember to tip your waitresses.
What needs to happen with TV shows on the iTMS
I almost gave up complaining as my New Year's resolution, when I realized that I gave up New Year's resolutions as my New Year's resolution back in 2000.In any case, since you all know I am rather fond of beating dead horses, here's my current gripe: Last night, Arrested Development and Surface were both new episodes. I watched Arrested Development, knowing that I would be able to either grab Surface off of iTunes or via bittorrent later. As I am up this morning, preparing for work, I check the iTMS and there is no new Surface. Apple and NBC both just missed out on $1.99. I'll grab the show off of bittorrent for free, since it's not ready to go when I need it. I also have no problem doing this because I don't see how temporarily grabbing something off of the Internet (supposedly illegal) differs largely from recording it on my Replay TV the night it was showing and downloading it to my computer and then to my iPod (legal).Now, whether this is really what I do or not (wink wink), the above paragraph describes the actions of a certain percentage of the market that is escaping the sales of Apple and the TV networks. If Apple and these networks really want to profit and change the face of media, then they need to start releasing the shows simultaneous with the airing of the show. They could even charge $.25 extra as an "early bird" fee, and they'd most likely make a lot more sales and a nice profit, because that's why the iTunes Music Store has been a success: it's more convenient than all the alternatives of questionable legality.Also, because of this, on the morning commute, I won't be watching Surface. I'll be watching things like Rocketboom and Channel Frederator. Free media daily and weekly with no odd restrictions. That's what the networks should be worried about more than presenting a nice space between airing the shows and offering them for download. What's that? They'll lose advertising dollars? Well, then, how about you cut out the middle man and rather than distributing the shows for $1.99 through the iTMS offer them for free with advertisements available from your website, pre-formatted for the iPod and the PSP in a nicely scalable MPEG-4 format. Slap it in an RSS feed, call it a podcast, and that way anyone can subscribe to your shows on any computer and you won't keep losing mindshare to new media.
"Only in HD, Please"
It's official. I'm boycotting all things not high def. E3 was the start, and last weekend's Tokyo Game Show sealed it. The high definition gaming era is upon us, and I'm not squinting at low resolution photos and postage-stamp sized movie trailers anymore. I'm going to play it in high definition, why would I try to judge a preview of it in anything less? Microsoft and Sony have taken the right steps in person, displaying their wares on glistening high definition displays at each tradeshow, but finding proper quality trailers and screens is still much like panning for gold, a few shiny nuggets every now and then, but mostly just mud.Bus passes for the revolution after the jump, along with links to the best sources for HD resolution trailers and pictures I've found.
