I just grabbed that screenshot off my TiVo Series3, note the new menu item “Available In High Definition”! It looks like someone jumped the gun, if you select that item it takes you to the same screen as “Top Categories & Special Deals”. But clearly this is in indication that HD downloads are coming, and probably soon. Most likely someone flipped the wrong bit and I’m seeing a menu item meant for testers. We’ve been getting hints for a while now, back in May in an interview TiVo’s Jim Denney said we’d see Amazon HD content in the “not...
Amazon.co.uk launched its long anticipated UK mp3 download store early this morning. (Thanks to an alert insominiac Hypebot reader in the UK for the tip.) As with most things Amazon, the mp3 store delivers the look, feel and convenience that Amazon users are accustom to. A quick tour of the site shows all four major label groups on board along with artists from The Orchard, IODA, Naxos, Beggars Group, Epitaph, Sub Pop, Rounder and more. Missing are Vagrant, Ani DeFranco's Righteous Babe Records, Bloodshot and a few other indies who one would think would have wanted to be part of...
Looks like even though consumers can get a Blu-ray player for less than $200 this holiday season, most of them probably won’t upgrade from their DVD players. Reasons include the high cost of Blu-ray discs and upgrading to an HD television, which is the only thing that makes getting a Blu-ray player worth it. Still, as John at BoingBoing Gadgets points out, even those with HD sets aren’t necessarily going to jump on Blu-ray. Physical media is “positively antediluvian”, in his view, and streaming television (and, I assume, movies) are what will win out in the end. That may miff...
Filed under: Industry, Blu-ray, Sony, Internet, OLED Both Sony Electronics president Stan Glasgow and consumer sales president Jay Vandenbree were caught opening their mouths lately, with one uttering somewhat more respectable statements than the other. Put the two of 'em in a room together, and this is what you get. At a recent media roundtable at the Sony Building, Glasgow confessed that Blu-ray had not met sales expectations, but he still felt confident that there "would be growth this holiday season." Interestingly, he also noted that Sony's low-end price on a Blu-ray deck would remain "stable" at $299 (for now,...
With 2008 on the way out and right around 10,000 iPhone applications behind them, Apple has released a bunch of lists outlining which applications scored the most downloads since the App Store’s launch back in July. The lists are separated by whether the the application is paid or free - first as an overall look, and then by each major category (games, entertainment, utilities, social networking, and music). While the overall top applications should come as no surprise to anybody who takes an occasional glance at the iPhone’s built-in top downloads page, there are a few interesting gems hidden...
So maybe you just got an iPhone or iPod touch, or maybe you’re going to get one very soon for the holidays. With something like 10,000 applications out there in Apple’s App Store, it’s basically impossible to know which ones to get. Sure, there are the most popular ones right now which are clearly seen in the store, but those leave out a lot of great ones that have been popular in the past. Luckily, Apple has just rolled out a Top Apps section in iTunes as part of its iTunes 2008 year-end section. This section features dozens on apps...
Since its July debut some 10,000 iPhone applications have been released to Apple’s App Store and 9,887 of them are still available for purchase. 10,000 apps. An impressively broad ecosystem for just under five months of development. Apple’s (AAPL) year-end list of Top App Store Downloads for 2008, then, is both handy and timely (Click on the image below to see the top 10 paid and free apps). It’s largely what you’d expect, with the Games and Entertainment categories proving most popular, Facebook and Pandora dominating the Paid App category, and Texas Hold ‘Em and Moto Chaser topping the Free...
Filed under: Industry, Cable, Fiber, Internet, Satellite Seriously, who's not on watch for digital downloads these days? DVDs? Check. Blu-ray Discs? Check. Pay-TV operators? Check. According to new data gathered by Research and Markets, "console-affiliated media portals such as Microsoft's Xbox LIVE and Sony's PlayStation Network will soon become formidable competitors to incumbent pay-TV services." As the report notes, the digital downloads available via these services will eventually become "compelling alternatives to traditional TV programming by providing a more immersive, interactive video experience." Of course, this "research" comes at a time when everyone and their mother are jumping on this...
Filed under: Handsets, MultimediaJust about a year ago today we heard whispers that Blockbuster was shopping hardware manufacturers to launch a mobile video service. Leveraging Microsoft's Live Mesh network, Blockbuster hopes to get video out to average joe consumer's portable media device -- which we will assume includes Windows Mobile sets -- initially through Airport kiosks that'll offer quick downloads while you wait for your flight. Blockbuster's CIO, Keith Morrow went on to say "Eventually, we'll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen" and to that we say, cool beans!...
The fourth annual Microsoft School of the Future World Summit runs from today through Thursday in Seattle. "The theme, “What’s Possible,” will enable more than 250 participants to facilitate a global discussion on what schools in the future can look like by examining the areas of instruction, organization design, technology, the challenges of implementing new policy and emerging trends everyone faces as they prepare students for the 21st century global workforce." Pioneered by the software giant, the first pilot program has been ongoing in Philadelphia. 250 participants from 30 countries are attending the conference presented by Microsoft Partners in...
Filed under: Industry, Blu-ray Remember when high-def discs had to be priced competitively, else the other format would gladly undercut it? Yeah, those were the days. Now that BD is parading around as the lone high-def physical format, the only real competitors are digital downloads, DVDs and internet piracy. All of which are very real threats, by the way. A recent writeup over at The Dallas Morning News brings up an excellent point -- now that Blu-ray player prices are at a reasonable level, when can we expect movies to follow suit? Oh sure, we understand that programming in all...
If you are in the position to have access to a network that has banned Rapidshare but is otherwise pretty lax when it comes to restrictions you might want to bypass the ban to be able to download from Rapidshare. I would not advise doing that at work or school because it can have serious consequences. Still, if you want to try if it is working you might want to head over to the Mozilla website and install the Download Rapidshare @ Office add-one for the web browser. It is not yet another proxy if that is what you thought....
Are you feeling bored right now? Don’t know what to do? If you want to spend time on the Internet but don’t know where you might let fate decide instead. Random Site is a Firefox add-on that opens a random page in the currently active tab in Firefox. It takes those pages from Google Search History. It’s a service by Google that is recording the web activities of a logged in user. To be honest I have no idea how the random pages are fetched only that they are not necessarily the pages that you visited previously. A quick test...
Many may still be scratching their heads at why exactly Blockbuster decided to delve head first into the world of digital downloads this late in the game with such a weak (on paper, anyway) offering. CEO Jim Keyes recently sat down with E-Commerce News to clarify a few things, and here's the skinny. For starters, it's not using a pure "streaming" method on the MediaPoint; instead, it's using a "progressive download" in hopes of improving the quality of the experience for those without a pure, continuous connection. Next, it's solely relying on an à la carte way of delivering...
Maximizing the download rate of an Internet connection might be a good way to download a file the fastest way but it can put a strain on all other network and Internet activities in that time. A user wanting to play an online game while downloading with full speed will notice high ping rates which is not desirable. It can also lead to disconnects or temporary load errors in general. One way of dealing with this situation is to run a traffic balancer to ensure that the other activities are not affected by the downloads or uploads. Netbalancer (via To...
