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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

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Quadrocopters enter the Flying Machine Arena, must bounce a ping-pong ball to survive (video)

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 10:17 AM PST

We don't need another hero. We don't need to know the way home. All we want is life beyond the Flying Machine Arena, a test ground at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) where quadrocopters can learn new abilities and stretch their fan blades without injuring too many scientists. One such new ability is juggling balls -- well, one ball, anyway. This particular quadrocopter has learned to identify a ping-pong ball and is quite adept at keeping it in the air while the robot itself stays flying. Interestingly the last project we heard about from ETH also involved table tennis, so hopefully the next one involves a full-scale humanoid player that won't stop hunting until it has crushed every opponent.

Google's big week: Nexus S, Honeycomb tablets, Chrome OS laptops, and eBooks to boot

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 09:45 AM PST

We gotta hand it to Google: if its goal was to own the technology news cycle for 48 hours, mission accomplished. The Mountain View-based company spent the first two days this week laying out pretty much every big announcement it possibly could: a new flagship phone coming next week (the Nexus S), a new Android build (2.3 Gingerbread), a preview of the next Android build (Honeycomb) on a never-before-seen Motorola tablet, the debut of its cloud-based laptop platform (Chrome OS) with hardware, and a giant plunge into the growing e-book market -- and that isn't everything. We've done our best to condense all the days' highlights into something easier to digest, so read on for a recap on all things Google!

Nexus S and Android 2.3 Gingerbread

We've been following the Nexus S saga for just under a month now, when we first broke news of its existence (and even published the first pictures of the device). This past Monday, Google officially announced the Nexus S, a 4-inch WVGA "contour display" phone featuring triband HSPA with AWS support (no HSPA+, seemingly), 5 megapixel camera, 16GB of onboard storage, 512MB of RAM, a 1GHz Cortex A8-based Hummingbird processor (similar to the iPhone 4), and Android 2.3 Gingerbread (more on that later). In a rare move, the Nexus S also supports Near Field Communication (NFC), which works to send and / or receive information when within about four inches of the target. There's not a lot of practical use for it in the US right now, but Google's hoping to jumpstart the trend.
Google Nexus S hands-on

The biggest draw of the Nexus S, though, would have to be Android 2.3 Gingerbread (a perfect codename for the season). The latest update improves upon 2.2 Froyo with some subtle UI enhancements, including a keyboard that now supports multitouch and finger-sized markers for highlighting text / better copy-and-paste. There's also tightly-integrated VoIP support, video calling support via a front camera, gyroscope support, NFC integration, and a built-in task manager (finally). Most notably, the new build is being called out as significantly better for game development, tying in nicely with all these Sony Ericsson rumors we've been hearing as of late. Nexus One users, who seem prone to always receiving Android updates before most, should receive Gingerbread soon, and come CES / Mobile World Congress, we'd be surprised if we didn't find dozens of devices running the OS.
Android 2.3 Gingerbread in pictures

The Nexus S is officially rolling out December 16th to Best Buy stores in the US (and December 20th at Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse retailers in the UK), subsidized at $199 with a two-year T-Mobile contract or $529 unlocked. Check out our full preview here.

Google eBooks

Also that morning, Google, always with its finger on the pulse of our ever-evolving digital lifestyles, has decided to take a wild stab at this nascent market, and launch Google eBooks. Formerly known as Google Editions, the Google eBooks ecosystem is actually a pretty grand gesture, and seems to combine most of the positives of the primary e-book contenders (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple, naturally), while skimping on the UI flourishes, in traditional Google fashion. Books you buy are stored in the cloud, with your progress synced Whispersync-style, and can be read on your choice of native Android, iPhone, or iPad apps; from your browser; or on any device that supports the Adobe Digital Editions DRM for PDF and ePub files, which includes the B&N Nook and the Sony Reader (and plenty of other devices). Google is also trading on its vast repository of public domain books, with 3 million free eBooks on offer at its Google eBookstore, in addition to traditional paid fare. It's certainly a crowded market, full of sharp elbows, but it seems Google is having no trouble adjusting.

Honeycomb and the mystery Motorola tablet

Later that evening, it was time for Google's Engineering VP / Android mastermind Andy Rubin to take the stage at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference (check out our liveblog for play-by-play from the event). Surprising to us, Rubin said -- after some prodding from Walt and Kara -- that Android is indeed profitable by itself. He attributed a lot of the platform's success to its openness, so much so that he even seemed to support Verizon's decision to swap out Bing as a "feature" of the open platform. "Well that's consumer choice, they vote with their wallet on one side and their feet on the other" -- we have a hard time pinning the responsibility here on the choice-deprived consumer (as opposed to the overzealous carrier), but that's just us.


But then there was the hardware. Rubin had a Nexus S on hand, but by then our focus was on his second surprise: a prototype Motorola tablet running the next version of Android, codenamed Honeycomb (Stingray, is that you?). The button-less device has video chat, an NVIDIA processor, a "dual core 3D processor," and a more desktop-like UI that better caters to the tablet environment than current Android, including a bottom dock of icons (Gmail, for example, looked a lot more like its iPad counterpart). Rubin used the tablet to show off the latest Google Maps for Mobile update, which has dynamically-rendered vector drawings of cityscapes now, two-finger tilting and rotating, gyroscope support, and caching for offline view of your most-visited areas. You can check out the tablet and Maps in the video above.

Honeycomb won't just be for tablets: Rubin said it'll be coming to phones, too. He didn't much else to say on the build -- after all, Gingerbread isn't even out yet -- but we should expect to see it "sometime next year."

Chrome OS and Cr48

So, that was all Monday. The next day, Google held a Chrome press event to talk about -- what else -- its browser and browser-based OS of choice (check out our liveblog for the play-by-play). Showcasing integrated Instant Search for the next Chrome was a no-brainer but still very impressive to see, but the first big reveal was the final Chrome Web Store (which launched later that day). Google sees the store as a portal for great web content, with purchases tied to your Google account. And the web apps we saw were pretty good (if not very similar to their iPad counterparts) and will run in any browser that supports the "standard web technologies." There's some gaming, but from what we've seen so far ("you pop it!"), it's nothing you're gonna be focusing a lot of time on.

Then came the Chrome OS laptops. It just takes four steps and less than a minute to set up a brand-new Chrome OS machine -- it pulls all your Chrome themes and settings from the cloud, so it's ready to go almost right away, and changes can propagate in less than a second in some cases. The reference machine demoed was able to come back up from sleep almost instantly -- Google says the limiting factor is actually how fast the user can move their hand. (It wasn't that fast in the demo, but it was still really fast.) The OS also supports multiple accounts with a guest account that runs in Incognito mode, and all user data is encrypted by default. The OS itself is loaded on read-only memory that can't be altered without physical access -- a tech which enables verified booting. (A "jailbreak mode" switch on the developer units lets you install whatever you want, but we'll see what the final machines support.) What's more, the OS will be automatically updated every few weeks -- the goal is for it to get faster over time, not slower.

There's also offline capability -- Google Docs was demoed running offline, with changes synced when the machine reconnects. It seems like that's an app-specific feature though -- apps on the Chrome Web Store have to be built for HTML5 offline to work, obviously. Google also demoed Google Cloud Print, which allows you to print on your home printer from anywhere. Chrome OS devices will also be able to use new Verizon 3G plans for offline access -- you'll get 100MB of free data per month for two years, and then plans start at $9.99 for a day of "unlimited access" with no contracts required. (There will eventually be international options, but those weren't detailed.)

There are still some unfinished bits though -- there's no support for the USB ports on the machines yet, and there are still some performance tweaks and bug fixes to come. (Don't expect ever being able to connect a printer, as the company thinks its Cloud Print service is a better option.) The OS will come on Intel-based machines from Acer and Samsung in mid-2011 -- and "thousands of Googlers" are using Chrome OS devices as their primary machines. An unbranded 12-inch reference machine called Cr48 will be available for developers -- read more about that here.

Overall, Chrome OS is very much a modern riff on the "thin client" idea from the 90s -- an idea that Eric Schmidt himself pioneered while at Sun. Indeed, Schmidt took the stage at the event to explicitly draw the connection, saying that "our instincts were right 20 years ago, but we didn't have the tools or technology." That's a pretty wild statement -- and now Google has to deliver.

Nilay Patel and Paul Miller contributed to this report

European carriers want content companies and smartphone makers to pay network usage fees

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 09:22 AM PST

How do you start a net neutrality debate without ever saying "net neutrality?" If you're a European wireless carrier like France Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, or Vodafone, you do it by just getting straight to the point: you say companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook need to start paying for continued network access because their devices and services use too much bandwidth. Yep, that's a straight-up network neutrality issue, but the carriers are framing it like it's an accounting problem -- and they're not being shy about wanting more cash to even out the books as they invest in next-gen networks. "It's necessary to put in place a system of payments by service providers as a function of their use," says France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard, while Telefonica CEO Cesar Alierta says that Google and Yahoo's free use of his network is a "tragedy" that "can't continue." (No, we're not making this up.)

In addition to shaking down service providers and device makers, European carriers are also following AT&T and Verizon to tiered data plans -- France Telecom is will move from unlimited pricing to something "more sophisticated," and the other networks expected to follow. What's most interesting to us is that the carriers are appearing to conflate bandwidth-heavy services like Facebook and YouTube with devices that customers use to access those services -- does it really make any sense to charge Apple or Google a fee for making good phones that encourage more network use, on top of charging users for tiered data? That's an unexpected -- and unfortunate -- twist on the standard net neutrality debate, and we're not so sure we want to see where it's going. Read the whole article at the source link, it's a good one.

Intel quietly forms netbook and tablet group to fend off competition

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 09:01 AM PST

There wasn't even so much as a press release announcing this one, but The New York Times has confirmed with Intel that the chip maker recently formed a new business unit dubbed simply the "netbook and tablet group." That's apparently been tasked with fending off competition in the netbook and tablet space, and ensuring Intel remains as successful as it has been with its Atom processors -- it will be led by the the current head of Intel's embedded and communications group, Douglas L. Davis. Intel spokesman Bill Kircos further explained that "it makes sense for us to sharpen our focus on these friends of the PC, and Doug's experience running a similar and very successful embedded division makes him the right guy to lead the group."

NASA's shuttle PCs sold with sensitive data intact, insert WikiLeaks joke here

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 08:32 AM PST

Let this be a warning for John and Jane Q. Public (always a cute couple, those two) to always wipe sensitive / secret data from your hard drives before selling a computer. Or better yet, take out the drive entirely and physically destroy it. That's what we'd expect from our government entities, but an internal investigation found that a number of PCs and components from NASA's shuttles had been sold from four different centers -- Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers, and Ames and Langley Research Centers -- that "failed sanitization verification testing," or weren't even tested at all. In Langley's case, while hard drives were being destroyed, "personnel did not properly account for or track the removed hard drives during the destruction process." Meanwhile at Kennedy, computers were found being prepped for sale that still had "Internet Protocol information [that] was prominently displayed." Helluva way to start a shuttle launch retirement, eh?

Mattel Puppy Tweets review

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 08:05 AM PST

Though Twitter has become a greater professional tool than we'd imagine anyone ever intended it's still hard to take the service too seriously. We like silly twitterers, whether they be offering pretend writing advice, charting the reclusive tendencies of Hollywood's leading men, or just threatening to force choke any troll who gets in their way. Wouldn't it be fun if your pooch could get in on those antics? No, as it turns out, it isn't all that fun at all.
Mattel Puppy Tweets


Hardware

Mattel's $30 Puppy Tweets is a medallion intended for attaching to the collar of your four legged friend, the livelier the better. It sports an internal accelerometer, a microphone, and a wireless connection. With that connection it says howdy to a dongle that must be installed on a PC or Mac, upon which you install the Puppy Tweets software. That software, naturally, will need the username and password of the Twitter account it should represent.

Get all that going and when the collar gets in range it will hook up with the dongle to tell it what's shaking. The software reads that and turns it into something funny. Well, ostensibly funny, anyway.

That's all fair enough, but there's one glaring flaw already: the size of this collar. It measures two inches in diameter and is a full inch thick. That may not bother your Dobermans and Malamutes and the like, but put this on a small breed or a very young large breed and you're putting quite a burden on your little pooch. At the very least you'll create the appearance of a pastel-colored ball and chain.

Test puppy

Thankfully pooches are not something we're short of at Engadget, though finding one of the right age, size, and mentality took a little work. For this task we chose Yoshi, a nine-month-old chocolate lab mix who's been with us since we rescued her about six months back. She likes to romp and play and pick on her (non-biological) big brother Bowser, rarely sitting still long enough for us to get a blur-free picture.

Like most puppies she especially likes to chew on things, whether they be Nylabone toys, balls, sticks... even rocks if there's nothing else around. At this point you can probably tell where this review is going, but don't ruin the surprise for the other readers.

Yoshi is about 60 pounds at this point; big enough that the size and weight of the Puppy Tweets didn't bother her. In fact she kind of liked it, romping around in the yard and swinging her head so that the device smacked her on alternate sides of her face. This, apparently, is good fun for a dog.

Yoshi has a tendency to make odd noises when she gets excited, but she'll never do them on cue and rarely when there's a camera around. Imagine Chewbacca sleepily grunting in the morning with a mouthful of Listerine and you're not far off. For this reason, and because one of her owners has spent way too much time playing Banjo-Kazooie games, one of her many nicknames is Gruntilda. Her Twitter handle would be @MsGruntilda, then.

Tweets

Mattel advertises that the device has up to 500 tweets, and naturally they're classified based on what the sensor detects. After we enabled it we left it sitting around for awhile and it started spewing out things like "Getting up from my nap to tweet clearly demonstrates that I get daily exercise" and "Opening your eyes is overrated." You know, lazy puppy tweets from a presumably lazy puppy that was actually just the desk the device was resting on.

We left the Puppy Tweets on its default, medium frequency, yet inside of a day it was repeating itself. "Getting up from my nap to tweet clearly demonstrates that I get daily exercise" was seen three times within a single 24 hour period, and that's despite it not being very funny the first time.

Things did get a little livelier when clamped to Yoshi, with phrases like "Am I wagging my tail, or is my tail wagging me?" and "Dog - 1. Door-to-door salesman - 0." Cute and, yes, humorous, but completely irrelevant to what was happening in reality. Yes, Yoshi sure does wag her tail a lot, but she wasn't then. And why does the thing say "It's getting late" when it's 6am, or make references to eating her food in the middle of the night, long after her bowl was picked up? You can see all the inanity (plus the occasional hand-coded interjection by the author) yourself at her Twitter account.

However, there was one very accurate tweet: "You're my best friend, but my chew toy and I have become very close." Unfortunately for the device, in a cruel twist of fate, this chew toy she was referring to was the Puppy Tweets itself.

Chomp

The Puppy Tweets has a two-inch clasp that's used to attach it to the collar, which lets it hang down free of a dog's fur and enables the sort of puppy self-flagellation we mentioned above. But, the best part is this lengthy clasp means it's long enough for a dog to chew on it.

Now, Yoshi isn't the brightest dog we've ever seen (see the above chewing on rocks mention), but within an hour or two she'd figured out how to grab the Tweets with both paws and pull it up so that she could fit it in her mouth. When we corrected her initially she did what all good dogs do: she got up and went into another room, where she could continue doing what she wanted without supervision.


Within about two hours the Puppy Tweets was in a bad way, still functioning fine but the little hole for the microphone was now a big gash. Bits of blue plastic dotted Yoshi's nose, tooth marks marred the device, and you could tell she was trying to pry off the battery door (which thankfully is screwed in place).

It was clear she wasn't going to stop chewing until she got to the thing's chewy CR2032 core, which we're guessing would have given her a mighty tummy ache and us an expensive trip to the vet. So, we took it away, less than a day after the two came together.

Wrap-up

In the Puppy Tweets FAQ is the question "Is puppy tweets safe for my dog?" There's a simple answer given: "Yes." We're not so sure. Unless you have a dog that has zero interest on chewing on things your four-legged friend will find a way to get it into its mouth. Once that happens it's only a matter of time until your $30 doo-dad is a series of plastic shards and silicon internals, and while our dogs have eaten worse, we're not fans of tempting fate.

Is it funny? Yes, at times, but it's not something we'd leave on our dogs unsupervised, and if you have to be there supervising them what's the point of having them tweet? Dogs are funny enough even without applying canned catch phrases, and if your best friends aren't giving you your requisite number of smiles and laughs per day we can think of dozens of silly dog toys they'd enjoy rather more than this thing.

Neo Geo games hit PSN, add online play, ditch the gigantic cartridges

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 07:44 AM PST

Neo Geo games hit PSN, add online play, ditch the gigantic cartridges
If you're of a certain age, there was one console you wanted more than any other: a Neo Geo. It was so big, so dark, and so freaking expensive it was like a gadget from another time -- yet there it was, looking down at you from behind the counter at Babbage's. $649 in 1990? Yeah. Ouch. Anyway, people today can now experience that machine's greatness for a much lower price, with the PlayStation Network receiving 10 of the system's greatest hits, each selling for between $6.99 and $8.99. Yes, these games were already available on the Wii Virtual Console, but the PSN versions will support online competitive and co-operative play, which is truly worth getting excited about. All games will be hitting the PS3 on December 21, while Fatal Fury and Metal Slug will be hitting the PSP then as well. For other games, like Magician Lord and Super Sidekicks, you portable folks will just have to wait until January.

TI's OMAP4440 processor brings two blazing Cortex-A9 cores to the table

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 07:23 AM PST

Phones and tablets based on TI's first production OMAP4 processor -- the OMAP4430 -- won't even be on the market until early next year, but TI's already planning ahead with the announcement of an upgraded chip that promises a 50 percent boost in overall performance. The new OMAP4440 can send its two Cortex-A9-based cores as high as 1.5GHz, while the 4430 tops out at 1GHz; TI says that means we should expect a 1.25x improvement in graphics performance, a 30 percent decline in webpage load time, and 1080p playback performance that doubles the slowpoke (comparably speaking, anyway) 4430. The company expects to sample these little speed demons to manufacturers in the first quarter of next year with volume shipment coming in the second half, itching to do battle with Samsung's Orion; in the meantime, we suppose your 4430 will have to do. Follow the break for the press release.

Show full PR text
TI's OMAP4440 processor boasts new upgrades, raises the bar for mobile design

Mobile video teleconferencing, stereoscopic-3D and gesture recognition capabilities gain from OMAP™ 4 technology upgrades, including speeds of 1.5 GHz per CPU core

DALLAS (Dec. 8, 2010) – Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN) today announced that the OMAP4440 applications processor enhancements deliver impressive performance improvements beyond the OMAP4430 processor, including a 1.25x increase in graphics performance, a 30 percent decrease in webpage load time, a 2x increase in 1080p video playback performance and clock speeds as fast as 1.5 GHz per ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCore™. These marked performance advantages, along with other feature enhancements, reaffirm the OMAP™ 4 platform's ability to drive today's most coveted Smartphone and tablet user experiences, such as 1080p stereoscopic 3D (S3D), 1080p video conferencing and gesture recognition. For OMAP4440 processor details, visit: www.ti.com/omap4440.

"The increased performance given by the OMAP4440 applications processor illustrates TI's ability to push mobile computing possibilities with the right processor architecture enveloped in the right platform, " said Remi El-Ouazzane, vice president, OMAP platform business unit, TI. "We seized an opportunity to enhance the platform capabilities driving the OMAP4430 processor's success today. As OMAP4430 processor-based products hit the market in first half 2011, we're arming our customers with a huge performance boost via an easy migration to OMAP4440 processor for their next wave of exciting devices. The resulting user experiences will radically impact how consumers continue to integrate mobile technology into their daily lives."

OMAP4440 processor: Primed for upgraded mobile user experiences
The OMAP 4 platform is a highly-optimized system-on-chip (SOC) leveraging two ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore general-purpose processors, reaching speeds of 1.5 GHz per core, complemented by two ARM Cortex-M3 cores to power-efficiently offload time-critical and control tasks. High-performance multimedia capabilities are provided by programmable cores including a POWERVR™ 3D graphics engine, TI IVA 3 for high-definition/multi-standard video, TI image signal processor (ISP) for high-quality/high-megapixels imaging, TI low-power audio processor and TI digital signal processor (DSP) based on the TI C64x DSP for natural user interface and signal processing innovations optimized for mobile applications.

AR.Drone gets Urbi open source robot interface drivers, tracks a red rubber ball like nobody's business (video)

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 06:59 AM PST

Just when we thought that Parrot's iPhone-controlled airship couldn't be any more of a blast, a gentleman named Psykokwak (yes, really) has been hard at work on an implementation of the URBI (Universal Robot Body Interface) for the AR.Drone. And what's more, he's gone and written a twenty-five line script that lets the thing to pick out -- and shadow -- a red rubber ball. Pretty awesome, right? You'll need an AR.Drone of course, as well as a computer (clients are available for PC, Linux, and Mac), the interface of your choice (joystick, keyboard, whatever) and of course -- for the current demonstration -- a red rubber ball. For the technical nitty gritty, check out the links below. But before you do make sure you peep the demonstration video after the break.

Netflix licenses even more TV for streaming from ABC/Disney

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 06:34 AM PST

We're not sure if Netflix ended up paying the $100,000 per episode it was rumored to be offering to put new TV shows on Watch Instantly, but it has reached a new deal with Disney-ABC Television Group that keeps episodes of shows like Lost on the streaming service while also adding new ones. The delay time for adding new episodes is at least 15 days for new programming so keep that ABC.com / Hulu bookmark handy if streaming video is your viewing method of choice, but with every single episode of older favorites like Scrubs, Ugly Betty and Reaper due up in 2011, plus expanded offerings from Disney Channel and ABC Family including Greek and the High School Musical / Camp Rock series of movies we're sure everyone can find something to watch in the meantime. ABC/Disney has been down with Netflix streaming since early on, not to mention 99-cent TV sales/rentals, whether the rumored popularity of cord cutting is true or not, it seems both companies have found a balance they can agree upon for now, check the press release after the break for more details on what's available and when.

Show full PR text
Netflix and Disney-ABC Television Group Announce Deal to Stream Array of ABC Network, Disney Channel and ABC Family Shows to Netflix Members
Agreement Includes Prior Seasons of ABC Hits 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Brothers & Sisters,' plus Favorites from Disney Channel and First-Time Netflix Access to ABC Family Shows

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. and BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Disney-ABC Television Group today announced a new licensing agreement between the two companies that will allow Netflix to stream hundreds of episodes from the ABC Television Network, Disney Channel and – for the first time – ABC Family over the Internet.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101014/SF81638LOGO)

The agreement, brokered by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, will add significantly to the growing selection of movies and TV episodes that can be streamed from Netflix. Once made available to Netflix from Disney-ABC – which, for relevant programming, will be no earlier than 15 days after initial telecast – episodes can be streamed instantly with Netflix memberships starting at $7.99 a month.

Among the highlights, Netflix members will be able to enjoy:

* Prior season episodes of current ABC hit series "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives" and, for the first time on Netflix, "Brothers & Sisters," all of which are among the network's most successful and popular TV franchises in recent years.
* Every episode of recent ABC favorites "Lost" and "Ugly Betty," the latter making its streaming debut at Netflix.
* Each season of several hit series from ABC Studios, including "Scrubs" and "Reaper," which are both new additions to Netflix.
* A host of content from the Disney Channel, including the hits "Phineas and Ferb" and "Good Luck Charlie," which are also new to Netflix; updated and expanded offerings of "The Suite Life on Deck" and "Wizards of Waverly Place;" and library offerings from the smash hits "Hannah Montana" and "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody."
* A wide range of content from ABC Family, marking the introduction of ABC Family content streaming from Netflix. Included are the hit series "Greek," "Make It or Break It," "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and "Melissa & Joey."


"TV content streamed from Netflix has proven to be immensely popular with our members," said Ted Sarandos, the company's chief content officer. "Adding to our existing Disney-ABC lineup with great network and cable shows, and opening up ABC Family for the first time, are important steps in creating a wide and diverse selection of content Netflix members of all ages can watch."

In addition to the hundreds of TV episodes included in the agreement, Disney Channel and ABC Family movies such as "High School Musical," "High School Musical 2," "Camp Rock," and "Beauty & the Briefcase," as well as new releases "Avalon High," "Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam" and "Revenge of the Bridesmaids," will also be available to watch at Netflix.

About Netflix

With more than 16 million members in the United States and Canada, Netflix, Inc. [Nasdaq: NFLX] is the world's leading Internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV shows. For $7.99 a month, Netflix members can instantly watch unlimited movies and TV episodes streamed over the Internet to PCs, Macs and TVs. Among the large and expanding base of devices streaming from Netflix are Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PS3 consoles; an array of Blu-ray disc players, Internet-connected TVs, home theater systems, digital video recorders and Internet video players; Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, as well as Apple TV and Google TV. In all, more than 200 devices that stream from Netflix are available in the U.S. and a growing number are available in Canada. For more information, visit www.netflix.com.

About Disney-ABC Television Group

The Disney/ABC Television Group is composed of The Walt Disney Company's (NYSE: DIS) global entertainment and news television properties, owned television stations group, as well as radio and publishing businesses. This includes the ABC Television Network, ABC Owned Television Stations Group, ABC Studios, Disney Channels Worldwide, ABC Family and SOAPnet, as well as Disney/ABC Domestic Television and Disney Media Distribution. The Radio Disney network, Hyperion publishing, and the Company's equity interest in A&E Television Networks round out the Group's portfolio of media businesses.

SOURCE Netflix, Inc.

Ripxx ski app out now for Android, still has no idea what the street value of this mountain is

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 06:11 AM PST

The closest we have ever come to a ski race is the worn out VHS copy of Better Off Dead we still have in the back of our closets somewhere, but if you're an Android-lovin' ski bunny jealous of all the attention Ripxx has been giving the iPhone, you're in luck. That's right, your fave open source smartphone OS has its very own version of the Ripxx Ski and Snowboard app. Version 1.1 features over 200 mapped out resorts, GPS tracking, stats recording (including speed, distance, and vertical drop) and more. Not bad for $5, eh?

Google Latitude makes brief appearance in App Store, gets yanked post-haste

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 05:48 AM PST

Ah, the games that grown-ups play. It's a situation that's beginning to feel an awful lot like the Google Voice fiasco that made the rounds in mid-2009, but if it ends in a similar fashion, you won't find us kvetching about the teases. As the story goes, a bona fine Google Latitude app made its appearance in Japan's App Store hours ago, only to be yanked before it could sashay over to any other nation. TechCrunch reckons that it was El Goog doing the pulling -- it's quite possible that the folks in Mountain View weren't quite ready to publicly reveal it, and with all that Chrome action going down yesterday, it's not hard to imagine how an impending launch was overlooked. At any rate, the description of the app as well as most of the screenshots were in English, so we're cautiously optimistic that it'll resurface in the near future once a few Is are dotted and Ts crossed. With iOS 4 supporting background location, there's hardly a reason to wait any longer, right?

Nightstand tweets, scans, prints, and presumably makes some sort of artistic statement (video)

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 05:23 AM PST

Whether tweeting from trees or providing the catalyst for zany conceptual art projects, people love to make Twitter do silly things. Is this simple whimsy, or is it something deeper -- say, some sort of high-minded juxtaposition between the way people live now and how they lived pre-Internet? Hell if we know, but maybe John Kestner can explain it to us. You see, this artist and designer has created something called the Tableau, a networked nightstand that has two functions: scanning and posting images to Twitter, and printing out photos that pop up in your Twitter feed. And that's it. The thing is made from recycled (read: old) materials, and even features an alert in the shape of a light-up drawer pull for notifying you when you receive pics. It's all very clever, cool looking, and potentially heartwarming (unless you have us in your Twitter feed, in which case all you'll receive are pictures of KIRF cellphones). But don't take out word for it -- see for yourself after the break! Currently on display at the Saint-Étienne Biennale 2010, the designer has plans to bring the devices to market sometime next year.

Peel turns your iPhone into a universal remote -- using a wireless external IR blaster

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 05:00 AM PST

The idea of using an iPhone or iPod touch as a universal remote has been tossed around for years, but it's always required either a finicky external dongle or an extravagantly expensive home automation rig. Instead, we've been treated to a host of single-device remote apps for everything from FiOS, DirecTV, Comcast, and Dish Network DVRs to the Apple TV to the Boxee Box to... well, you name it. A little company called Peel has a dramatically different idea, though -- it's launching the Peel Universal Control system, which is designed to take your iPhone or iPod touch head-to-head with universal remote heavyweights like Logitech's Harmony system.

The company is made up of a bunch of former Apple engineers, and their solution is extremely novel: instead of attaching a dongle to the iPhone itself, they're controlling your A/V rack using a pear-sized (and Yves Behar-designed) wireless IR blaster that's supposed to live quietly on your coffee table. The blaster (called the Peel Fruit) connects over ZigBee to a tiny network adapter (the Peel Cable, also designed by Behar) that attaches directly to an open Ethernet port on your WiFi router -- a two-part hardware setup that seems fussy, but is designed to obviate the need for software configuration during installation, and allows the IR blaster to run for nine months on a single C battery.
Peel iPhone app screenshots

Peel Universal Control System for iPhone hands-on

As you're probably aware, we're famously suspicious of any system that requires IR blasters, and what Peel's proposing here seems like the most intense IR blaster of all time -- so what's the upside? Well, the Peel TV guide app has been in the iPhone App Store since October, and it's gotten some great reviews -- in addition to simply displaying and searching what's on, it uses a recommendation engine to show you things you might like based on a variety of criteria that get more refined over time. Once you find something you're interested in, it's now just another tap to change the channel. The idea is to make finding shows the primary function of the remote, not simple control. The lack of hardware buttons for commonly-used controls like volume and channel is addressed with gesture support -- you can just swipe vertically to raise the volume, for example. It's definitely slick, and it looked like it worked well during our quick demo period.

Of course, there are downsides here, most notably being that Peel can't do much more than control your channel and volume right now -- although support for things like Roku, Apple TV, and the Xbox 360 are coming, right now you're pretty much stuck with controlling your cable box. The Peel app also only lists live TV results at the moment, so finding content on Netflix or iTunes or Amazon is currently out, and we're very curious to see how Peel deals with running a DVR -- will it remember what we've recorded? We're also wary of some of the extremely negative reviews for the Peel app's gotten for being crashy -- we haven't had any problems, but a remote that crashes just won't cut it. We'll have to check this out in much closer detail when we review it, we suppose.

So how much will this extremely unique system cost? Well, pricing is equally unique: the first batch will be sold for whatever consumers are willing to pay. Pre-order customers will simply make an offer on the Peel website, and those making the best offer will get the first units. After that, the system will be available in major online and physical retailers -- given the company's focus on Harmony, we'd expect pricing to settle between $100 and $200, but that's just a guess. Oh, and the Peel Fruit is actually two pieces -- the bottom half contains all the working bits, while the top half is just decorative and can be swapped out. That's great, because the Behar-selected hospital-beige top piece that ships by default is super-nasty looking -- we'd like to see something in all-black, or better, nothing at all. Whatever the case, we're definitely interested in trying this whole thing out when it hits in "a matter of weeks" -- stay tuned.

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Peel announces Peel universal control for iPhone®: a user-friendly TV discovery guide and universal remote control for home entertainment systems

New features and hardware for the free Peel app give TV viewers a unique way to control of thousands of home entertainment components, including set top boxes, TVs, home theater receivers, Blu-ray players and more. The price for personalized control? Whatever you want to pay.

SANTA CLARA, CA, Dec. 8, 2010 – Peel announced today that new hardware allowing the free Peel discovery iPhone app to control home entertainment systems. This new system brings a new level of simplicity and personalization to discovery and control of television programming. Peel universal control will be available on retail shelves in a matter of weeks.
"Peel feels that channels have become irrelevant to viewers, and networks and sources have become too complicated. When the audience turns on their TV, they're doing so to see their shows, movies, and sports. That's why the Peel universal control centers around programs, not long, boring grids or tons of buttons. Watching, sharing, and favoriting shows are just one tap away, and you can control your whole entertainment system with easy gestures. Swipe up, and your volume goes up. It's that simple," said Thiru Arunachalam, co-founder and CEO of Peel.

The Peel discovery app
The Peel app was launched in October to enthusiastic reviews, largely centered on the sleek, simple interface. Opening the free app takes a user through a simple setup process that identifies programming sources including cable, satellite, internet, and telephone systems and devices, as well as show, movie, and sports preferences. Once setup is complete, the Top Picks screen welcomes the user to a personalized program guide suggesting shows based on those preferences. Tap a show, and you'll see episode information including the time and channel on which the show appears, lead actors, and a show synopsis. From this screen, easy interaction points, including selecting the show as a favorite and sharing it via Facebook and Twitter, help the app to learn an individual's show preferences, tailoring further the recommendation engine that powers the Top Picks. Swiping side to side allows you to scroll through the show cards of your other recommendations for a great summary of available programs. No matter what you feel like watching, from comedy to drama to all your favorite sports, all the top choices sit at your fingertips.

Peel universal control
The beautifully designed Peel universal control system allows the Peel discovery app to seamlessly connect viewers to their shows and control their entertainment systems, right from an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The Peel hardware consists of two pieces: the Peel cable and the Peel fruit. Designed by renowned product designer Yves Behar of fuseproject, the hardware was carefully approached to fit beautifully in any home entertainment configuration.

"Since there is only one piece of the system that is visible in the living room, we wanted it to be beautiful and independent of traditional remote control systems. We approached Yves because of his reputation of taking a different spin in product design, which is apparent in every product he's ever created. Yves was just as thrilled with our notion of putting the audience first, and the results were outstanding. The Peel universal control is just as unique as it is elegant," said Bala Krishnan, a co-founder who now serves as head of product for Peel.

The Peel fruit sits within line-of-sight of a user's entertainment system, and it's the only visible piece of the system. Cluttered piles of remote controls, hundreds of buttons controlling thousands of confusing interfaces, and searching for a lost remote are things of the past as a single, simple, gesture-based interface takes over volume, channels, menu systems and more. There's nothing to plug into the iPhone, and the second piece of the system is designed to plug directly in to a power outlet on one end and the ethernet port of a wireless router on the other.
The careful integration of the Peel discovery app with Peel universal control allows the system to recommend top viewing choices from a user's available sources, then begin a show with one tap. Over time, Peel learns an individual's viewing patterns including time of day, premium channels, sporting events and more, and the suggested shows become better tailored. After a show has been chosen, the interface was designed to be used without having to take one's eyes away from the TV.

"We felt that the interaction points for finding programming, accessing it, and then controlling your system are all different. When you're searching for a program, you want the guide up close, clear, and easy to navigate. However, once you're watching, your attention should be on the TV screen. For that reason, we designed the Peel universal control interface to work intuitively without having to look at the iPhone screen. It's a totally new model for touchscreen interfaces: you never have to point the phone at anything, there are no cables or attachments, and the system responds instantly. It's really cool, and our beta users have been thrilled," said Greg Lindley, Chief Experience Officer for Peel.

What will you pay for Peel?
As part of Peel's commitment to place simple control back in the hands of consumers, Peel is running a social campaign to help determine hardware pricing. Further, a limited quantity of the first units to be manufactured are available directly from Peel – for whatever consumers are willing to pay. Consumers can simply make an offer on the Peel website, and the first units available will be shipped directly to the customers making the best offer. After that quantity is sold, Peel universal control will be available in major online and retail stores. Users of the Peel discovery app will also be able to purchase the control system through the app.

"For too long, audiences have been forced to change the way they watch and find programs around the demands of difficult guides, grids, and multiple remote controls with hundreds of confusing buttons. Peel was created to give control back to people who really just want to watch their favorite TV shows, and our first pricing model echoes our commitment to those users. We know our solution is valuable–comparable remote systems start over $200, but we want our first users to judge its value first-hand. As they experience the 'aha moment' when their entertainment system wraps around their own preferences rather than the other way around, we expect a revolution in show discovery and control. It's still your shows on your TV, but it's much friendlier and much more fun to use," said Alec Marshall, VP of Marketing at Peel.

Specifications
Peel universal control works with iPhone OS 3 and above, and it controls thousands of models of TVs, DVD and Blu-ray players, cable and satellite boxes, internet-connected streaming devices like Roku, Tivo and Apple TV, and home theater receivers. The Peel discovery app is available to download free from the App Store, and it works without the hardware to provide tailored show suggestions and viewing information. Adding the hardware is a seamless update, and it can be done without losing a user's viewing preferences.

About Peel
Peel operated in near-stealth mode since 2009, breaking silence just long enough to be recognized as a CES Innovations Honoree for their revolutionary discovery system. After early angel financing, Peel entered Series A financing with Redpoint Ventures, known for their successful endeavors in consumer entertainment and interactive media. Peel delivers on their promise of making TV more friendly-for discovery, control, and shared entertainment experiences.

Google eBooks 404 page tips spear to Twitter, would make Ahab proud

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 04:38 AM PST

Google eBooks 404 page tips spear to Twitter, would make Ahab proud
That iconic "fail whale?" It was created in 2007 by an artist named Yiying Lu who had never heard of Twitter when the site grabbed the image from iStockphoto, where she'd uploaded it. The rest, of course, is history and, with the launch of Google eBooks (née Google Editions), the Googs is giving something of a tip of the hat to Twitter with its own error page -- but putting a literary spin on things. You can see the result above, a dejected man finding a decidedly non-white whale, and you don't have to be called Ishmael to catch the reference here.

Futuristic water bottle uses technology, science to let you know you're thirsty

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 04:06 AM PST

The future is a scary place, yes -- but one thing we don't need to fear is being unaware that we're thirsty. Research and development firm Cambridge Consultants will be showing off its intriguing "i-dration" concept fitness water bottle at CES in a few weeks, combining a series of sensors on the bottle itself that communicate with an app you've got installed on your smartphone. The bottle will measure ambient temperature, how much fluid you've pounded, and how often you've consumed it; the phone, meanwhile, will use its accelerometer to measure how hard you're working out and combine that with heart rate data from a chest strap. After crunching some numbers, the app determines whether you're low on H2O -- and if you are, it'll make a blue light on the bottle pulse. If it seems like a roundabout way to stay hydrated... well, that's because it is, but Cambridge's angle is that this is a demonstrator for cool new ways that sensors can be tightly packed and integrated with smartphones to create "hardware apps." Speaking of, we could use a tall, cool glass of water. Follow the break for the full press release.

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Real-time hydration advice from new 'smart' drinks bottle

Cambridge Consultants introduces i-dration – the first in a new generation of hardware smartphone apps

Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, MA – December 7, 2010 – Cambridge Consultants, a leading technology product design and development firm, today announced the development of the i-dration drinks bottle. The i-dration is a device that works, in synchronization with a smartphone, to help sportspeople maintain optimum levels of hydration for improved performance. The company has developed the concept to demonstrate the full potential of mobile applications and how they can be brought to life through dedicated devices, or 'hardware apps'.

In physically demanding scenarios, levels of hydration can have a significant impact on performance, and the i-dration hardware app encourages athletes to drink when they need to, rather than only when they feel thirsty. Drinking too much water can have an equally negative effect on sports performance as drinking too little, so Cambridge Consultants designed the i-dration to ensure that users maintain a proper balance of hydration for optimum performance.

The device works by giving advice based on real-time data gathered by the bottle, which is transmitted wirelessly to a smartphone application. Intelligent sensors in the i-dration bottle can be used to monitor the external temperature, drinking frequency and quantity, and this data is then sent via Bluetooth to its user's smartphone. The phone's inbuilt accelerometer and gyroscope can measure exercise levels, and by 'fusing' the data from a heart rate chest-band and information pre-entered using the smartphone interface (such as height, age and weight), the application can perform an assessment of a user's hydration levels. The i-dration bottle then responds accordingly by flashing a blue light if the athlete needs to drink more.

i-dration demonstrates the work that Cambridge Consultants is currently undertaking in bringing mobile applications to life. "Most people still perceive an 'app' to be something that performs a certain task, whether it's checking the weather or the latest sports results, in a virtual world. However, we believe that in the next 12 to 18 months we will see a plethora of new dedicated 'hardware apps', such as the i-dration drinks bottle, that will work in tandem with a smartphone to enhance a range of consumer products and services ," said Rachel Harker, Business Development Manager at Cambridge Consultants. "While smartphones have some excellent capabilities, it is not always practical to use the device itself for collecting or displaying data. Inexpensive, wireless hardware apps have the potential to increase the versatility of smartphones. In the case of the i-dration bottle, it's also relevant to the increasing number of consumers who view their smartphones and technology products as integral to maintaining their health and wellness."

Such 'sensor fusion' algorithms, where the data from multiple sensors are fused together, are typically found in large distributed software systems, but can now be applied to smartphones with Internet connections working with dedicated hardware apps. Cambridge Consultants has the technology and the expertise to develop hardware apps for a vast range of functions, including the signal processing required for real time processing of the algorithms, at a low enough cost-point to make them commercially viable. Using this innovative approach, 'hardware apps' can be developed for multiple markets, including the medical and security sectors.

Cambridge Consultants will demonstrate its i-dration drinks bottle and application at the 2011 International CES, Jan 6th-9th at the LVCC in Las Vegas, USA.

Locking iPad case makes your tablet far less portable, attractive, and enticing to thieves

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 03:33 AM PST

Sick and tired of hauling your iPad into a dodgy work environment, scared to even leave it in your desk drawer for half a minute while you scurry across the office for a cup of scorched coffee? Never mind finding a new career -- just fill out the paperwork necessary to pack a concealed weapon and head over to Mac Locks. You see, the aforesaid site is now carrying what it calls the world's first locking iPad case -- a plastic shell that can be closed via lock and tethered to pretty much anything via a coated steel cable. Once it's secured, the only way to remove the tablet is the right way, or the fast way, with the breaking-and-entering method rendering the device worthless. The case itself can be had for $39.95, whereas the case / cable bundle is going for $64.95. But hey, it's hard to put a price on peace of mind, ya know?
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It's Finally Here: the iPad Lock

An anti-theft accessory as cool as your Apple iPad

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 7, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Apple forged the world's hottest new gadget but forgot to give us a way to protect it! The iPad® is a remarkable tablet computer that lets you swipe your way to a more mobile lifestyle. But it's also extremely vulnerable to theft.

Tens of millions of computers are stolen around the world each year. With tens of millions of iPads to be sold by the end of 2012, iPad theft is an epidemic in the making -- they're small, expensive, easy to steal and easy to resell. And since they have no security slot, there's absolutely no way to protect them from theft. Thankfully, Mac Locks has solved this problem with the iPad Lock: the first and only iPad cable lock.

Why do you need to protect your iPad? Here are some reasons that should have you shaking in your iPants:

* You've spent a small fortune on something that has become invaluable to you. So why not spend a fraction of that cost to protect it? You lock up your car, don't you?
* You store valuable information on your iPad and it automatically logs into your e-mail accounts, social networks and maybe even financial accounts. Do you really want someone walking away with all that?
* Computer theft is said to affect nine out of 10 companies; IT managers have estimated that 45% of thefts would be prevented if a lock were deployed.


Of all the iPad accessories out there, this is the one you need if you're to use it in public places like schools, offices, libraries, hospitals and coffee shops. With an iPad Lock you retain all of your mobility -- you can lock and unlock it in seconds, taking it with you wherever you go. The only other solution out there is to mount your iPad to a stationary bracket, which defeats the purpose of having an iPad in the first place!

The iPad Lock is also the best security solution for retailers: Stickers leave residue. Security cameras, theft detectors and security guards -- which are much larger investments -- only catch events once they've happened. Using a cable lock is certainly the most effective way to deter and defeat iPad theft.

How Does it Lock?

The first component of the patent-pending iPad Lock is a hard, clear plastic case you can leave on for everyday protection. And since the iPad has no security slot, the case has one built in. That way you can lock the security cable to the case, and loop the cable's other end around a fixed object (like a table). Once the case and cable are locked together, thieves can't detach the case without damaging the iPad.

Likewise, the strong steel cable will discourage any thief. Weighing less than one pound, the cable is extremely sleek and its lock-head has the smallest diameter of any computer lock in the world. This makes the iPad Lock flexible and light, not to mention stylish, so you can easily pack it in your bag and take it with you wherever you go.

E-mail sales@maclocks.com to pre-order your iPad Lock today! You can also stay up-to-date with Mac Locks products by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Reseller Information

Are you a retailer of Apple accessories? Mac Locks is setting up worldwide resellers and distribution channels for the iPad Lock. E-mail info@maclocks.com immediately to secure your first shipment! Also, for a limited time, each unit comes with a FREE scratch-resistant screen protector ($25 retail value).

The product has a suggested retail price ranging from $39.95 to $79.95, and comes in three variations:

1) Stand-alone case: Custom security case for iPad

2) Security bundle: Custom security case for iPad + universal security cable lock

3) Resale pack: 25 or 100 units of the stand-alone case or security bundle

About Mac Locks

Mac Locks sells the world's best locks for Apple computers. It is a division of Compulocks Group, a leading supplier of computer security solutions to large corporations, federal governments, resellers and distributors worldwide. CompuLocks was founded by Gad Alexander and exclusively designs, markets and sells Noble Security-branded products. The iPad Lock was created by industry-leading inventor Mr. Meir Av Ganim.

Inventec ships 60,000 Chrome OS netbooks to Google, says let the testing begin!

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 02:52 AM PST

Chrome OS, or "Chrome without any OS getting in its way" as we like to call it around these parts, finally got its first bit of dedicated hardware yesterday in the Cr-48 testing device. This not-for-sale, unbranded laptop will be distributed to developers and curious onlookers via the Chrome OS Pilot Program, which we already warned you will have a limited number of machines available. Now we can be a little more precise about that limitation with official word from Inventec placing current shipments to Google at a total of around 60,000. That's not to say that it'll be the final tally of Cr-48s, if anything this just means there's decently rich availability for the starting cohort of recipients, but we know you like numbers so thought we might as well share that one with you.

Samsung Gloria to be a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet with slide-out keyboard?

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 02:22 AM PST

Like a netbook, only not. The latest thing to drop into our "crazy rumor" inbox is the Windows 7 tablet conceptualized above. Blogeee have it on the authority of two separate sources that Samsung is planning a 10-inch slate device dubbed Gloria, which would run Windows 7 and have a slide-out keyboard. What you see above is only a mockup of how this Gloria might appear -- if she ever does appear at all -- though we're told it'll include a Samsung software overlay to make Windows 7 that little bit more touch-friendly. We've yet to find any other corroboration for this beyond Blogeee's sources, so treat it as the unconfirmed bit of salacious info that it is, but if you must feel hopeful about the future, March and April are the months mentioned for a potential release.

LG's next set of 3D glasses were designed by a designer, will grace CES 2011

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 02:10 AM PST

Alain Mikli, for those of you (and us) who didn't know, is a highly regarded designer of eyeglasses. LG, as we're all aware, is a 3D-peddling purveyor of HDTVs. Marry the two together and the offspring is a rather fetching set of 3D goggles, built out of "select metals," and featuring a co-patented nose bridge and perfect weight balancing for the utmost in user comfort. LG promises to let us play around with the new eyewear at CES next month, which we'll be more than happy to do -- telling you about the eventual price tag, on the other hand, probably won't be such a pleasant experience. More imagery of the specs and the full press release follow after the break.




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SEOUL, Dec. 8, 2010 – LG Electronics (LG) today announced it will introduce 3D glasses designed in conjunction with Alain Mikli, a world-renowned French eyewear maker. By combining its expertise in 3D TVs with Alain Mikli's know-how in eyewear design, LG is delivering the best quality in every aspect of 3D technology.

With over 30 years of history and tradition, French designer Alain Mikli has gained an international reputation by providing unbeatably comfortable and stylish glasses. The company operates a collection of flagship boutiques around the world in cities such as New York, Paris and Milan, attracting fashion-conscious consumers.

"Numerous studies have shown that of all the challenges facing 3D technology acceptance, the glasses always rank near the top," said Havis Kwon, President of LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. "The fact is, 3D viewing glasses don't have to be ugly and uncomfortable. We've just proven that with Monsieur Mikli's help in creating what are probably the best, most stylish 3D glasses in the world,"

The new glasses raise the bar for 3D eyewear in terms of design, fit, and user comfort. Unlike the current 3D glasses made of plastic, LG and Mikli opted to make their 3D glasses from select metals, while also sticking to the French designer's signature streamlined design.

In addition, the glasses are ergonomically designed to offer the utmost comfort. The optimum weight ratio on the front and back of the glasses means viewers will feel less fatigue when wearing them over longer periods. A special nose pad, which Mikli and LG have co-patented, provides a snug fit around the bridge of the nose. Also, spring-hinged arms with extra-long tips ensure the glasses will fit perfectly around the sides of the viewer's head for viewer's ultimate comfort.

The new premium 3D glasses will be available worldwide after being showcased early next year at CES 2011. These will be provided with LG's 2011 new premium 3D TVs.

MOD Systems' Download2Go kiosks now hawking DRM-free music

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 01:39 AM PST

You'll need to pop into a Quick Chek in New York or New Jersey to take advantage for now, but if you and iTunes just aren't on speaking terms, a hear-to-heart with a MOD Systems' Download2Go kiosk may be your best alternative. Planted in ten locations across aforementioned states, these kiosks work a lot like the movie-equipped ones that were installed in various Blockbuster locations and in 30 US airports, but rather than hosting the newest chick flicks, these are loaded down with singles, albums and other things you may enjoy on your so-called MP3 player. You can get a general idea of how it works with a film just after the break, but whatever you do, make sure you bring an unloaded SD card or USB drive.


See more video at our hub!
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MOD Systems Introduces Digital Music Kiosks at Quick Chek Stores

Download2Go Kiosks Enable Direct Loading of DRM-free MP3 Music to MP3 Players and Flash Storage Drives, Bringing Digital Music to Retail Environments

12.07.2010– Music fans now have new and convenient ways to purchase DRM-free MP3s as MOD Systems introduces its Download2Go digital music kiosks in Quick Chek stores. Quick Chek features the music kiosks in 10 locations across its New York and New Jersey convenience stores. Download2Go kiosks bring digital entertainment into retail environments, allowing consumers to build their digital music collections by downloading songs or albums to MP3 players, SD cards, or flash storage drives.

The Download2Go digital music kiosks allow consumers to choose from a wide variety of MP3 music tracks, easily purchase individual songs or entire albums, and play anywhere-on MP3 players, cell phones, or PCs and Macs. MOD Systems deployed the first Download2Go digital movie kiosks this summer in 30 InMotion Entertainment stores in airports throughout the U.S. The kiosks are designed for retail environments and other out of home locations-such as airports, convenience stores and shopping malls-and give retailers the latest entertainment titles for sale, promotions and loyalty programs, and a differentiated value add for their customers.

"Retailers are looking for opportunities to capture customer interest in digital entertainment or take back sales that have shifted from their stores to online," said Anthony Bay, CEO of MOD Systems. "Consumers can now build their digital music collections outside the home without requiring connectivity, while retailers can sell the latest entertainment content in a way that drives impulse purchases and repeat customer visits."

Quick Chek, a leading New York metro food service retailer, enters the entertainment products category with Download2Go kiosks. Through the relationship, Quick Chek brings an innovative new product to its stores and a new way to engage its customers.

"Quick Chek is focused on total customer dedication, which is exemplified by our second to none customer service, in store bakeries, great sub and soup offers, award winning coffee, and no fee ATMs," said Vice President of Sales and Marketing John Schaninger. "The new Download2Go music solution with MOD Systems is another example of Quick Chek partnering with innovative companies to satisfy the needs of our customers. We are excited to bring digital music products to our customers that differentiate our brand, attract new customers, and integrate well into our sales and marketing campaigns."

In addition to music, MOD Systems provides Download2Go digital movie kiosks with thousands of films from major Hollywood and independent studios. With movie rentals, and movie and episodic television sales, customers can browse for and download the latest new releases, box office hits, and catalog classics to Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, with content playable on Windows PCs and a growing number of portable and home devices. The Download2Go kiosks can include music, television shows, and movies for a complete digital entertainment download solution for retailers.

About MOD Systems
The MOD Systems Retail Digital Entertainment Platform enables retailers to deliver digital entertainment to consumers through self-service, touch screen kiosks. The company's growing entertainment catalog includes licenses for more than 4,000 major and independent movie titles and television programs, and more than five million music tracks. MOD Systems takes a digital content lifecycle management approach by seamlessly bridging physical, digital, in-store, and online, to the benefit of the entire content value chain. The company is a member of several digital entertainment industry associations, including the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, and Connected Media Experience (CME). More information is online at www.modsystems.com.

Nexus S will drop Super AMOLED in favor of Super Clear LCD in Russia, maybe other territories too

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 12:53 AM PST

The US and UK may be the only officially official markets for the Samsung-built Nexus S from Google, however Sammy's Russian team has already dished out a few extra details on overseas availability. Penciling in a February 2011 launch for the Gingerbread flagship, the Russki guys point out that their version of the Nexus S will come with a 4-inch Super Clear LCD instead of the Super AMOLED panel adorning the English-speaking variants. This is most likely motivated by the still limited supply of S-AMOLED displays, though we wouldn't fret too much -- the Super Clear stuff has shown that it's no slouch either. If anything, it'll be the February release that has us grumbling our way through winter.

Verizon 3G network goes down nationwide, everybody panic! (update: back up for some)

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 12:18 AM PST

Is your Droid not finding its way to the internet mothership? Don't worry, it's not your hardware, it's your carrier's wireless connection -- or the lack thereof, to be more precise. We've heard from a bunch of folks this morning that Verizon's 3G network is experiencing a slight bout of disconnectedness, causing a great deal of grief and discombobulation around the country. Just sit tight, we're sure engineers are engineering solutions as we type this, and will update you as soon as things have been rectified.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Some parts of the country are reporting their 3G service has been restored, though it's not yet certain that all troubles have been ironed out. Our own Droids seem to be working fine now, how about yours?

NVIDIA touts the benefits of multi-core processors for smartphones and tablets

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 11:59 PM PST

It may simply be a case of stating the obvious, but NVIDIA has just published a rather lengthy whitepaper extolling the many benefits of multi-core processors for mobile devices. That obviously includes some talk about Tegra 2, which is now shipping for tablets (and appearing in some phones), and a couple of fairly bold statements -- namely that dual-core processors will be "the standard" for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets in 2011, and that quad-core processors are coming "in the near future." The ultimate conclusion, of course, is that smartphones and tablets will effectively follow in the footsteps of desktops and laptops, and that as far as NVIDIA is concerned, it intends to be a big part of making that happen. Hit up the source link below for the complete paper (in PDF form).

EVO Shift 4G (aka HTC Knight / Speedy) shows up in accessory pics, exhibits dubious dress Sense

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 11:14 PM PST

Can't have enough Androids in your life? Well, here's another one! Alternately known as the Knight or the Speedy, HTC's upcoming Android device has made a couple of premature photo appearances in an effort to help sell some cases for its future self. The guys at HTCPedia report they have all the cases in their imagery in stock and confidently identify the Speedy Knight as a 3.7-inch QWERTY slider, while the phone's UI and rear inscription leave no doubt about it running HTC's Sense skin for Android. The likeliest scenario for this phone's retail future is that it'll be dubbed the EVO Shift 4G and exploit Sprint's WiMAX airwaves, leaving the only unresolved issue as a one-word query: when?

Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver is still fiction -- but not forever

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 10:32 PM PST

Kudos to Bristol University for catching our attention, and doing so in the name of promoting education. Professor of Ultrasonics Bruce Drinkwater is evoking a rather iconic name to better explain how cool science / engineering can be. Though already used in the manufacturing and medical fields -- don't yawn and look away just yet -- Drinkwater expresses some confidence that the future of this technology could very well usher in a pocketable device similar to the sonic screwdriver fancied by a certain former resident of Gallifrey. You know, that do-it-all device that can repair electronic equipment, burn and cut items, fuse metals, scan for information, and render virtually any lock useless... except here we're focusing on ultrasonic sound waves capable of fixing parts together and creating miniature force fields. As for the Time Lord himself, we know of at least one past Doctor who, as joked by a later incarnation, would rather "save the universe using a kettle and some string" (and has, in more recent iterations, pulled out miraculous victories with even a BlackBerry Storm). Point is, you should maybe consider a degree in Physics and an eccentric outfit should you ever find yourself holding a working prototype.

Garmin launches OpenCaching community, pushes caching closer to the mainstream

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 09:47 PM PST

What's that? You've never heard of caching? For shame! In all seriousness, we're surmising that quite a few of you out there may have overlooked this up-and-coming jewel of recreation, but Garmin's doing its darnedest to change that. The GPS maker has just opened up a new online community at OpenCaching.com, hailed "a completely free online community for creating, sharing and finding geocaches around the world." For those out of the loop, caching is akin to a sophisticated game of hide-and-seek, where individuals download GPX files and then head out on adventures that'll lead them to various surprises and / or treasures. A two-month old honey bun, an original script from Step Brothers, or maybe even a sealed bag of Deutsche Marks from last century -- you know, things of that sort. The site even lets users rank the 'Awesomeness' in addition to size, terrain and difficulty, and while it's obviously hosted by Garmin, it's platform agnostic in nature. Head on over if you're looking to blaze a few trails over the holiday break.
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Geocaching Free for All: Garmin® Launches OpenCaching.com

New online community makes it free and easy to create, find and share caches

OLATHE, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced the creation of OpenCaching.com, a completely free online community for creating, sharing and finding geocaches around the world. An exciting and engaging outdoor activity, geocaching combines exploration, education, entertainment and recreation. At OpenCaching.com, everyone can enjoy all of the caches and helpful information – the tips, descriptions, previous attempts, mass downloads, etc. – for free.

"Because OpenCaching is brand new, we're counting on cachers everywhere to get creative and get involved"

"Garmin is extending its reputation for ease of use even further into geocaching, creating the most intuitive experience possible," said Dan Bartel, Garmin's vice president of worldwide sales. "By making it free and easy to download every detail of every cache, Opencaching.com will introduce more people to this great activity and show them just how fun, easy and rewarding it can be. OpenCaching.com gives us a chance to go beyond the development of hardware and software and interact directly with the vibrant global community of cachers."

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt where participants of all ages explore the outdoors, hiding and finding containers of various shapes and sizes that are filled with collectables, trinkets and logbooks for signing in and letting fellow cachers know you were there. Creating a cache consists of placing a container in a public area, saving the GPS coordinates and uploading them to a website. Finding a cache is as simple as searching the website and downloading those details to a GPS handheld. As free and open as the great outdoors, OpenCaching.com was created to help promote the growth of geocaching and build the worldwide community of cachers.

The Awesome Factor

Continuing Garmin's role as an innovator within the geocaching community, OpenCaching.com gives creators and seekers alike a way to quantify the "Awesomeness" of any given cache. While every cache has its enjoyable elements that make it unique, everyone has personal favorites that defy traditional descriptions. For that reason, OpenCaching.com lets users rank the Awesomeness in addition to size, terrain and difficulty. These four factors are displayed in a "bulls-eye" illustration for each cache, giving geocachers a unique and vivid idea of the fun that lies ahead. And cachers themselves can rate these factors, turning the bulls-eye illustration into a true representation of peer reviews.

Open to everyone

The strength of OpenCaching.com lies within the geocaching community, from diehard cachers to families and classrooms trying it for the first time (for which there is an informative how-to guide included on the site). Everyone – regardless of experience or numbers of caches found or placed – is welcome to the same information and invited to get as involved as they want. OpenCaching.com will work with any device or software package that can read GPX files, regardless of manufacturer.

"Because OpenCaching is brand new, we're counting on cachers everywhere to get creative and get involved," said Bartel. "We want everyone who posts, seeks and finds a cache to have the pride of ownership in this new site, and there's no better way than to build it together. As the word gets out about OpenCaching, we expect the number of caches posted to grow quickly."

Through the recent announcements of OpenCaching.com and the chirp™ wireless geocaching beacon, geocachers around the world now have exciting new tools to unleash the potential of their creativity. Garmin is just one of countless businesses – large and small, corporate and self-owned – that make up the interdependent geocaching ecosystem. From collectables to events to software such as mobile, web-based and desktop applications, these creative collaborations stimulate ideas and enthusiasm. Garmin's goal is to provide even more support and opportunities to the various innovators involved in this global activity.

For cachers who have created or found caches elsewhere, Garmin designed OpenCaching's cache code system to seamlessly coexist and integrate with other databases, devices and applications. Also, developers can access the OpenCaching.com database through an API, and cache owners can share their information on other sites through the Creative Commons license. Cachers can quickly get credit for cross-listed caches found on other sites and easily add existing caches they own to OpenCaching.com, where they can also be tagged and enhanced with more helpful information.

A legacy of innovation

Since geocaching first began, Garmin has embraced the role of innovator and leader. Garmin was the first company to offer open and closed treasure chest icons on the screen of the device. Garmin devices featured the first dedicated application with the "Geocaching compass," and the direct "Send to GPS" function started with Garmin. In considering the environment – and ease of use – the industry leader introduced paperless geocaching for increased efficiency and decreased waste as users could see descriptions and helpful hints right on the screen of the device instead of relying on numerous printouts for each cache.

Garmin's recently announced chirp wireless beacon is the latest breakthrough in geocaching. Affordable, durable and waterproof, chirp can communicate with, and be programmed by, any compatible wireless-enabled Garmin handheld for a more interactive and enjoyable geocaching experience. Cache creators and seekers alike will enjoy the benefits as chirp stores hints, transmits multicache coordinates, counts visitors and confirms the cache is nearby.

Garmin has spent more than 20 years developing technologies and innovations to enhance users' lives, becoming a household name in the automotive, aviation, marine, wireless, outdoor and fitness industries. For more about Garmin's products and services, go to www.garmin.com, www.garmin.blogs.com and http://twitter.com/garmin.

VCR head gets Frankenstiened into a beefy momentum scroll wheel

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 09:06 PM PST

We've seen a fair share of VCR hacking in our day, but this momentum scroll wheel built from an old VCR head by Instructables community member Osgeld sets a new bar for jerry-rigging dead technology. Apparently the project arose from a desire to find a 21st century-approved use for the circular part that was gathering dust after being stripped from a spare Sony VHS player. The result is a bulky, yet useful, scroll wheel that can easily be set into motion and sustained via its own inertia to keep spinning for long periods. That feature could prove useful to anyone saddled with a mountain of video editing work, or even you lazy folk just hoping to flick less while reading the web. Unfortunately, a quick glance at Osgeld's DIY tool and part lists indicate you'll need to do quite a bit more than ransack a tape player to get this job done right. But then, when do the good things in life ever come easy?

ZScape 3D holographic prints take maps to the next dimension, sans spectacles

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 08:23 PM PST

As the video above shows, Zebra Imaging's so called ZScape prints pull off some pretty amazing 3D visual effects despite being based on old school hologram technology. These prints are made using a variety of 3D data sources -- think AutoCad and the like -- that are then rendered as thousands of holographic elements by recording laser light onto a single film-based material. The resulting images are easily viewed without glasses or spinning mirrors, and just require a run-of-the-mill halogen or LED light source to reveal 360-degree, full color representations -- akin to what a physical model might look like. Fancier versions can also be made using overlays and layering techniques to show more information. To date, over 8,000 ZScapes have already been developed for the US military, but surprisingly their prices range between $1,500 for a 12- x 18-inch version to $3,500 for the largest 2- x 3-foot size, making them relatively obtainable for those not on Defense Department tabs. If the video of Seattle pulling an Inception above didn't impress you enough, be sure to check another embedded video after the break.

Blockbuster Express kiosks test $2.99 per night new release rentals, Redbox looks unimpressed

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 07:07 PM PST

28 days. It's more than an unappreciated flick from the turn of the millennium, it's also driving the executives at Redbox, Netflix and a smattering of other unorthodox rental companies mad. Movie studios have been hellbent on keeping their new release DVDs and Blu-ray Discs out of instant-rent hands for 28 days after release, noting that dollar-per-night rentals could drastically reduce DVD / BD sales in the all-important launch window. Now, however, it seems that at least a couple of 'em are willing to bend. Starting this week in four major cities (Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco, for those curious) DVDs for Warner Bros.' "Inception" and 20th Century Fox's "Knight and Day" are being slipped into NCR's Blockbuster Express kiosks. The catch? It'll be $2.99 per night to rent either of them, a nearly threefold increase in the nightly rate that Redbox charges. Additional details on the trial are few and far betwixt, but it's safe to say that Redbox isn't any closer to nabbing fresh flicks sooner, and unless you're down with a 3x price hike, neither are you.

Screen grabs: ReWalk helps Glee's Artie Abrams put his best foot forward

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 06:34 PM PST

Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dot com.

Sure, in real life it's a $100,000-plus piece of machinery, but for West McKinley High School's glee club, the ReWalk is a chance for one of its quieter stars to get a chance to use his legs again (and not just in a dream sequence like from season one's "Dream On"). But hey, that's Hollywood for ya. Or maybe it's a Christmas miracle -- with lots of singing! Yeah, that's the ticket. A shame they didn't break out into "Domo Arigato (Mr. Cybernetic Enhancement-o)," though.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Google: Chrome OS laptops won't dual boot with Windows, live customer support for Cr-48 owners

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 05:59 PM PST

We know there's a lot to digest after Google's Chrome OS event today, but following the shindig we caught a few minutes with Google VP of Product Management Sundar Pichai. While he wouldn't answer our questions about upcoming Chrome OS laptops -- you know, the ones coming from partners such as Acer and Samsung in mid-2011 -- he did tell us that those Atom-powered laptops won't dual boot Windows. In fact, he told us that "certified" Chrome OS laptops won't support dual boot environments at all. Of course, the Cr-48 has a root feature so it will likely be able to run Windows (assuming there's enough flash storage), but it's clear that major manufacturers won't be shipping laptops with Google and Microsoft operating systems living side by side.

With that said, we asked Sundar about one of the major concerns we've had about Chrome OS: customer support. (Some history here -- we've heard from a few laptop manufacturers that Google's lack of customer service for the computer OS is a major issue and a legitimate reservation). Sundar said that it's a valid concern, but that the OS is incredibly simple and that Google doesn't expect to have many confused or troubled customers when it's ready for primetime. Nevertheless, Google will provide live support for those that receive a Cr-48 and help with any and all issues. No word on if that aid will continue past this limited pilot program, but we're sure there will be more much more to come on all of this next year.

Spotify still planning to launch in the US... sometime

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 05:22 PM PST

Wondering about the state of Spotify in the United States? You're not the only one, and Spotify CEO and co-found Daniel Ek was once again asked that key question at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference today. His response? The company does indeed still plan to launch the music streaming service in the US, but it can't say when it will happen -- he did confirm, however, that it will cost $10 a month. Ek further explained that the reason for the delay is due to the nature of the service, which requires "complex deals" with recording companies -- there apparently wasn't any mention of any other potential complicating factors.

LG invents imaginary 1GHz processor requirement to say Optimus One won't get Gingerbread

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 04:57 PM PST

So here's the story: dude asks LG's US mobile team on Facebook when the Optimus One -- the basis for the various Optimus devices that have launched recently on American carriers -- will be getting Android 2.3. LG responds saying that "the minimum requirements for Gingerbread require 1 GHz processor," hence, no update's in the cards. Well, Android lead Dan Morrill took to Twitter to drop some knowledge, saying "there's no hard minimum processor requirement for Gingerbread... trust me, if there were I'd know." In other words, whoever's manning the ship on LG's Facebook account is either sorely underinformed or showed some awful judgment in choosing a lie to justify keeping the Optimus off the upgrade path. Sure, we can understand why LG wouldn't want to temper excitement for a still-new smartphone line by telling buyers their phones won't be receiving the next version of the platform, but the least they could've done is formulated a reasonable excuse, no?

RIM's Mike Lazaridis: QNX coming to BlackBerry phones when dual-core processors are ready

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 04:35 PM PST

Unfortunately, the crazy rumors that Google's Nexus S would ship with a dual-core Orion processor didn't pan out, which means we're still waiting for a smartphone to ship with honest-to-goodness multicore silicon of any sort; it's still unclear just how soon we're going to see that wild dream come to fruition, but RIM's Mike Lazaridis is talking like he wants to take the lead in making it happen. At D:Dive Into Mobile this evening, Waterloo's outspoken co-CEO went on record that they'll be taking the PlayBook's QNX platform to smartphones just "as soon as [he has] dual core baseband CPUs," though power consumption remains a limiting factor. At any rate, RIM seems to be fully acknowledging now both that QNX is a little too beefy for today's smartphones and that BlackBerry OS isn't quite beefy enough, which leaves these guys in a bit of a pinch until the dual-core revolution takes hold.

Phenom II X6 1100T review roundup: AMD's fastest desktop processor to date

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 04:14 PM PST

When it comes to GPU and CPU releases, there are quantum leaps, and then there are baby steps. Based on the web's collective views on AMD's newest slab of silicon -- the Phenom II X6 1100T -- it seems as if this chip is a better example of the latter. According to TechSpot, the device "does little to improve upon the performance of AMD's hexa-core CPU series, [but] it does help improve the value of these high-end desktop processors by making the 1090T BE model even cheaper." By and large, that sentiment was mirrored throughout. Hot Hardware found that while it was easily "the fastest desktop processor released from AMD to date," it still couldn't topple Intel's (admittedly more expensive) six-core chips in terms of performance. But of course, AMD rarely competes strictly on benchmarks -- the 1100T lists for just $265, making it one of the more affordable desktop CPU options for this level of oomph. Those really looking for a bargain could snap up the now-deflated 1090T or 1075T, and while the bulk of the reviews below focus primarily on today's new flagship, the 3.4GHz Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition ($115) and 3.3GHz Athlon II X3 455 ($87) are also touched on.

Read - AnandTech
Read - Hot Hardware
Read - TechSpot
Read - HardOCP
Read - Firing Squad
Read - Hexus
Read - Legit Reviews
Read - PC Perspective

Mike Lazaridis live at D: Dive Into Mobile (with the PlayBook!)

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 03:26 PM PST



5:05PM And that's it for us from D! Thanks for reading!

5:05PM Kara: Mike, thanks so much.

5:05PM Q: I noticed that you recently acquired The Astonishing Tribe, I worked with them on the G1 -- what do you think it means for your user experience?

Mike: Well TAT is an amazing company. When we first met them it was obvious that they knew what they were doing and had a lot of experience. They had a really good fit with RIM. It's the ability to add 150 of the top developers to the BB family.

5:04PM Q: Huge consumer demand for smartphones. What is your sense of the Android and iPhone devices and their enterprise penetration? Google providing their platform to enterprise... is that a threat?

Mike: I see a thriving industry. If you went back in time when the auto industry was developing, you wouldn't have sat there and said one person will own the market. There are lots of car companies, and we're going to see that with smartphones. What I find exciting is that the market continues to grow. When you see how large it is, and then you see that it's got to transition to smartphones -- that's a great recipe to grow a business.



5:00PM Great question from Lance without a real answer from Mike.

4:59PM Mike: Here's another way of looking at it. If it's 1GHz now, it'll be 2GHz next year... we're bypassing the arms race and going straight to multicore. We're going to lead the way in an environment where we can scale properly without burning up the battery.

4:58PM Q -- Lance Ulanoff from PC Magazine: So I own a Torch, but it's slow and has a low res screen. I'm confused, you're creating a false dichotomy between the PlayBook and the smartphone. I don't understand that. How can you deliver this phone without the best hardware available today? You seem to be looking to the tablet for that. But this is a tiny tablet. What is the strategy? Why are you demoting my phone?

Mike: First of all, the Torch was designed to be a launch vehicle for BB 6. That argument could be used in reverse. In a world where Half VGA was high performance, the world had moved on to 1GHz CPUs and higher res displays... when you see how quickly that phone moves around, just imagine the next generation...

That answer also makes no sense.

Lance: I don't see that performance. I see the lag.



4:56PM Q: When is BB 6 rolling out to other high end devices?

A: This is the work of the last ten years -- bringing our OS into the next decade. It's the foundation of us going forward with the BlackBerry. We continue to improve the platform, we added the WebKit browser...

Mike didn't really answer.


4:54PM Question time!

4:54PM Mike: So here's the thing you don't realize. QNX already runs a lot of the world you don't see. The big Cisco routers -- trains all over Europe, in the Space Station -- it's all over the place. FDA certified hospital equipment... this is not something we just wrote. This is the foundation of the things you don't see. We've finally brought it out into the open. We're using the BB brand and pedigree... working with Adobe... that's what we're doing. This is a unique path for us. It's a huge market and we have a front row seat.


4:53PM Walt: Next year?

Mike: I'm not going to comment on our future.

4:52PM Walt: What is the price of the PlayBook?

Mike: It's going to be very competitive.

Walt: How soon will it get into a smartphone?

Mike: As soon as I have dual core baseband CPUs.

4:52PM Walt: So that's a differentiator. But they're selling those Flashless devices anyway.

Mike: But it's really early.

4:51PM Kara: How do you rank Palm, Apple, Google?

Mike: I'm biased. The PlayBook platform is the most advanced in the world right now. What I find weird is that we're all using Flash on our PCs, on our Macs -- why wouldn't we expect to see it on our tablets?

4:51PM Mike: Who would have predicted this would be the fastest growing market 5 years ago? We have a front row seat.

Walt: No one would have predicted Apple and Android.

4:50PM Kara: And that will happen with the PlayBook?

Mike: It's already happening. People want this product.

4:50PM Mike: We continue to build products that meet the requirements for enterprise and government.

Walt: Is that your market then?

Mike: I think we have a higher bar, and that appeals to the consumer.

4:49PM Mike seems very defensive. We suppose it's understandable, but he'd not answering a lot of questions straight on.


4:48PM Walt: So where is the PlayBook going?

Mike: We continue to focus on enterprise and security...

Walt: Then why do you run consumer facing ads?

Mike: I'm just answering where we see the PlayBook going.


4:47PM Mike: We built all our own stuff -- and you see it with the PlayBook, that's real time. Powerful graphics.

Mike begins listing protocols they use...

Walt: I don't know what any of that is.

Join the club Walt.

4:46PM Mike: We've made the right bets going through... we've had a lot of competitors how big this market is. I've been talking about how big it's going to be for 5 years at every shareholder meeting. We built a sizable business on this.

4:46PM Mike: We invented the smartphone. We never stopped innovating. We decided to go global. We targeted the network tech that was available.

Walt: Did you chain yourself to the lowest common denominator?

4:45PM Walt: So something has happened... or do you disagree?

Mike: I disagree with that.

Kara: Not in Sumatra...

Walt: In the US.

Mike: India has close to a 1b people.


4:44PM Kara: How do you take those RIM is dead stories?

Mike: We've been in this a long time. You know. I knew what we wanted early on, but we had to build it all from scratch.

Walt: And you earned a lot of success from it. But Kara is right -- there's a feeling that you've fallen behind.

Kara: In my own case, I no longer have a BlackBerry because it doesn't have the capabilities of the iPhone.

4:43PM Mike: BlackBerry is a huge brand around the world, and we focused on our strategy for the next decade. It's a multicore strategy...

Walt: You don't think Apple will have multicore CPUs...

Mike: Our competitors have taken a smartphone operating system and they're trying to take it to a tablet computer. We're starting with a powerful OS and platform... as we get lowercost multicore environments coming, we'll be able to provide the highest performance, the best reliability...

4:41PM Walt: You're going to keep moving the platform forward on phones?

Mike: When we have multicore processing on phones, we'll be using the PlayBook platform.

Uh, okay.


4:40PM Kara: So you're saying that the strategy of Google and Apple -- making the phone with video and audio, that's not the right direction?

Mike: We're going to see different categories. You're going to see smartphones taking on multicore processing, you're going to see powerful tablets...

He isn't making any sense at all. Quite literally, we don't know what Mike is talking about right now.



4:39PM Mike: What I'm saying is that with BB 6 it's a great multimedia platform. But the difference is, rather than being all things to all people, we can present the best platform for the application. Full web, real multitasking... very few people can do it properly. The point here is in that environment, you can use it differently. But a 7inch screen is too big to be a phone.

4:38PM Mike: A lot of markets are still on 2G. Even in 3G markets, BlackBerry is in its own space and becomes very popular. What the PlayBook allows us to do is jump into the next stage of mobile. In the US the PlayBook is perfectly targeted.

Walt: I'm a little confused. You said it will free the smartphone to focus on communication. You mean it will free you to not pay as much attention to apps and video and music on the phone?

4:37PM Mike: No, the tablet is what mobile computing is all about. In cases where we want a high performance smartphone, the tablet is perfect for it.

What? We think he's saying the phone is no good for multimedia experiences... and that RIM will hang onto its old mobile OS! Really? Really Mike?


4:36PM Walt: But look, there's a growing consensus that your OS is dated. When will this become the new OS?

Mike: By focusing on the tablet market, we see it as a way of freeing where smartphones can go.

Kara: So the tablet is the phone?

4:35PM Walt: So this is going to migrate into BlackBerry OS?

Mike: We've been seeing the future as a true mobile computing world. But we were always constrained by the tech. By the CPUs, power consumption. We worked within those limits to provide a great experience. It's made us the largest company in Canada.


4:33PM Walt: So when is this launching?

Mike: We're tracking Q1.


4:33PM Walt: So you have QNX, which you acquired.

Mike: What's amazing is that all these companies come from the U of Waterloo... we also have Certicom. That's part of the family. DataViz, and now Torch. We're bringing all of these together to setup BlackBerry for the next decade.





4:32PM Walt: This is not using the BlackBerry OS at all?

Mike: No, though we're using JavaScript, so you can write apps using web tools.

4:32PM Walt: This is the QNX platform, but running Adobe AIR.

Mike: We run a lot of platforms here -- we also run POSIX natively. Lots of gaming options there. This is a complete mobile computing platform.

4:31PM Mike: What's really powerful here is the engine. It allows us to do a lot of things.

4:30PM Mike is on stage and showing off some of the PlayBook. It looks pretty slick -- though there is some slight animation lag.
We're starting right now... and Mike has the playbook.

OnLive demos Windows 7 on an iPad and Galaxy Tab, launches cloud computing tablet app

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 03:20 PM PST

Flash on an iPad? No problem, and neither is QuickTime on a Samsung Galaxy Tab -- assuming you're running both from a virtualized Windows 7 PC using OnLive's new app. OnLive may have originally pitched itself as a streaming games service, but founder Steve Perlman revised his ambitions at the D: Dive into Mobile conference today, showing off a host of Windows 7 programs (including 3D modeling software Maya, above) running on the pair of ARM-based tablets. Like always, OnLive requires a nearby server and fast internet connection to function adequately, and the apps themselves would need touch controls, but Perlman said it's actually easier to deliver apps than games since they're less sensitive to lag. OnLive didn't provide a date when we can expect full cloud functionality, but you can get a sneak peek at a pared-down version right now -- the brand-new OnLive Viewer app, which lets you spectate games in progress (and will eventually let you play them) is now available for iPad.

MOG hits the Chrome Web Store, cools our Flash fever with a nice cool HTML5 washcloth

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 02:48 PM PST

We've long been proponents of subscription music, but it's always a rocky relationship: Rhapsody's excellent selection but bad app and terrible web player (you call that a bitrate?), Zune's beautiful UI but Windows-only-ness, and Spotify's continued inability to work in the US. Eventually, this particular writer drifted over to MOG, which was initially a $5 a month web-only service, best known for its high bitrate and decent selection, with a more recent move to Android and iPhone apps (including offline play) for a still-palatable $10 a month price. Unfortunately, all this time we've had to put up with the indignities of a pop-up, window-based Flash player for our main MOG experience, which crashes any browser on a Mac at least once a day -- like most Flash things on the Mac. Which brings us to today: MOG is a featured app on Google's new Chrome Web Store, and once "installed" it offers an all-new luscious, speedy, HTML5 UI for MOG. Better yet, the web app also works in Safari at mog.com/chrome. Under the hood there's still a "headless" Flash playback element for DRM purposes, but everything else is a vast improvement. The only thing that could make us happier would be some sort of exfm-style Chrome extension for adding music we discover on the web to MOG playlists. You know, as long as we're getting lifelong dreams granted like this, might as well go for broke.

Jon Rubinstein live from D: Dive Into Mobile

Posted: 07 Dec 2010 02:06 PM PST


3:29PM And that's it. No new devices. No details. Nothing really. We still love you Jon, but you need to release some new hardware.


3:27PM Kara: So where do you see the next radical change in this market coming from?

Jon: I don't know about radical... HP has an ability to bring this connected world to the consumer.

Kara: And you're going to stick with it?

Jon: Yeah.

Kara: You're going to be number 3 -- not number 1?

Jon: Well you have to get to number 3 before you get to number 1.

3:27PM Q (again from Josh!): So, when are you going to introduce a new product?

Jon: We will be talking a lot next year! We will see you on your show!

3:26PM
Q (from Mr. Joshua Topolsky!): Apple has a story and Microsoft has a story now in the mobile space. What is the WebOS story that is going to make consumers buy a Palm device?

Jon: The first thing is that we have a unique user experience compared to everyone else. Some of those features where we integrate into the Cloud are going to be really profound. Another point is this connected device strategy and that fits really well with HP. Right now we are really quiet cause we don't have anything we can talk about.

3:20PM Kara: So your relationships with carriers... has it changed with HP?

Jon: Well HP obviously sells a lot of stuff to carriers. We've got some great products coming and we're really excited about it.

Okay Jon, we hear you. Great products coming. Check.

3:19PM Jon is talking about the cloud-based services which webOS offers. "A seamless user experience across devices." He's talking tablets, phones, PRINTERS.

3:18PM Jon: We've added quick actions, universal search has become just type. We're continuing to add capabilities with our OTA updates. We have a really exciting year upcoming -- a new tablet as well.


3:16PM Kara: You talk about people not wanting to use an iPhone -- what has to be radically different?

Jon: If you look at webOS 2.0, we've done a lot of innovative things. It's got 50 new features, Flash, Skype, new Facebook app...

Kara: But is there a new concept?

Jon: That's where I'm going.

3:15PM Jon: But look at overall smartphone ownership. It's 20 or 30 percent in the US, 20 overseas. The growth is huge.

3:15PM Kara: Is there room for all these different devices? All these competitors?

Jon: You know I think it's a 3 to 5 company game.


3:13PM Kara: Is it going to be redesigned?

Jon: It's too early to talk about that. The first Pre was one of the first to use some new technologies. But we have a variety of products coming next year, including a new tablet.

3:12PM Kara: So the phone?

Jon: We have a variety of products coming out. Next year we'll have a very different conversation.

3:12PM Kara: Okay, so when is your phone coming out? Is the Palm name going to continue?

Jon: What do you think?

Kara: No, kill it.

Jon: Okay you heard it here first. You know honestly I have no allegiance to it. It has some good connotations, it has some bad.




3:09PM Kara: So do you have autonomy at HP?

Jon: What we chose to do as part of the acquisition was integrate part of the company into HP, but we really kept engineering separate.

3:07PM Jon: It was a distraction... it was lots of turmoil for a day or so.

3:07PM Kara: Did the Mark Hurd stuff impact you guys at all?

3:07PM Sorry folks -- we're having network issues!

3:06PM Jon is out!

Kara: We're going to play an interview I did with you at CES.

Ha! It's the clip where he says he's never used an iPhone. "I've actually never used one." Kara: "What?" Jon: "It's true." Ha!

Kara: So, have you used one?

Jon: We're going to go through this again? Have I used one as my own device? I haven't. Have I touched one, yes.

Kara: Well I brought on Apple for you.

Jon: We wanted to create something unique with webOS, we didn't want to copy anything. Look, we have people who use iPhones, and I read reviews, I see launches. But I don't want to be tainted by a different experience. I'm trying to come with a fresh outlook on how things should work. I think what we're seeing in the industry is that everyone is copying the iPhone.

Kara: So let's talk about what happened at Palm. You guys started from a blank slate... but Andy Rubin said you were still in the mindset of the original Palm experience.

Jon: That's just not true. We couldn't leverage anything from the old OS. We did take some of the DNA -- ease of use, minimum number of steps to execute functions, the gestures... that all came from what made the Pilot great. We wanted to have a Palm, and now HP experience, but we didn't use any of the stuff from before. If anything, I would say webOS is the most advanced mobile OS out there. We use the languages of the web. We designed webOS to be connected to the cloud. That was part of the original concept. If anything, Android is based on Java, that's even more backwards looking.

Kara: So let's talk about Palm. Why couldn't it get the traction it needed?

Jon: I think we had a lot of what we needed to make it happen. We had a great team, carrier support, over half a billion in cash. But the market moved too fast as far as the competition went. We didn't have a way to get to scale. We could be small, but that's not sustainable.

Kara: So it was an issue of scale. It was the weird lady marketing? Well you changed that quickly. But it wasn't marketing?

Jon: There were things we could have done differently.

Kara: So was it the only option to sell?

Jon: The feeling was it was the best alternative. We felt the most expeditious outcome was the partner with HP.

Kara: Who else bid on you?

Jon: I can't tell you company A B C and D.
Palm / HP's Jon Rubinstein is just about to take the stage at the D: Dive Into Mobile event. Will there be talk of past failures? Future triumphs? Will he break out a rumored device? Will he breakdance? Only the liveblog knows for sure... so keep reading after the break!
at 11:42 AM

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