Hasta La Gadget!

When the Pirate Bay was suddenly and unexpectedly commandeered by Global Gaming Factory late last month, only a few clues were dropped as to how the new site would proceed as a legally acceptable entity. Now, however, the owners are speaking up, and their business plan sure sounds unorthodox, if not fatuous in nature. In a new report, we’re told that the new face of TPB should appear in around a month, and with the refresh will come a handful of “give-and-take” pay models that will somehow please both customers and the top brass within the music industry. Here’s how Hans Pandeya, the chief executive of GGF, explains things:

“The more you give, the more you get. For the great majority, [the new service] will be free of charge, for a minority it will actually make them money, and for a small portion it will cost them. We know that unless we’re able to create revenues for the filesharers they’ll just move on to the next free site. Filesharers are our best friends.”

Mr. Pandeya also affirmed that his outfit was currently in negotiations with some of the music industry’s biggest players, and while he wouldn’t list ’em by name, he did note that things have been “positive” so far. Another interesting aspect of all this is how it expects to generate revenue outside of actual music consumers. Reportedly, the new site will raise cash “through advertising and by making network data traffic cheaper and more efficient for internet service providers, which would be done by making the filesharing more local, allowing users in the same city to be interconnected as opposed to swapping data across multiple borders.” Is P2P 2.0 upon us? Is the conventional subscription model about to be turned upside down by a most unlikely source? If Hans’ dreams come true, it sure seems possible.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Software

Pirate Bay owners announce give-and-take model, proclaim “filesharers are our best friends” originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Episode 41 of the Digital City, where we discuss Apple’s falling market share, Scott’s love affair with the Game Boy Micro, and whether Alienware’s $5K laptop means the death of …

Originally posted at Digital City Podcast

Those who follow Nokia know that its phone lineup is divided roughly into three segments: the Nseries, populated by high-end, media-heavy smartphones (plus the N770, N800, and N810 tablets); the Eseries, concentrating on business, and the four-digit line, which acts as a catch-all for anything not deserving of an Nseries or Eseries designation. It looks like Espoo could be prepping to add a fourth line into the mix, though, on news that they’ve gone ahead and trademarked “Cseries” in Finland. What “C” stands for is anyone’s guess, but this does dovetail nicely with the near-constant stream of information suggesting Nokia will be driving hard with MIDs and netbooks later this year and next, so maybe the “C” stands for “computer.” Of course, it could also stand for “crap,” so we’ve just got to wait and see what becomes of this little moniker.

[Via puhelinvertailu]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Laptops

Nokia files for “Cseries” trademark — but what’s it for? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A music-oriented home theater speaker system from Dynaudio.

(Credit: Dynaudio)

First thing, determine your system’s priorities. Will you watch movies or listen to music? Most folks do one or the other.

Since more home theater speaker buyers watch movies than listen to music, I’ll start there.

It’s hardly an overstatement to claim movie-oriented home theater systems succeed or fail based on their center channel’s performance and sound quality. The center speaker delivers virtually all the dialog and it can, depending on the mix, convey upward of 80 percent of a movie’s soundtrack. The center speaker has a big job.

So invest 30 percent of your 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 system budget on the center speaker, the Center Centric HT approach. As always, when it comes to sound quality, size matters. Bigger centers tend to sound better than small ones.

The subwoofer is the next most important player in a home theater sound system. Invest the next 30 percent of your dollars on the sub. The sub is largely responsible for home theater impact and power.

…

Originally posted at The Audiophiliac

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got an OWI Robotic Arm Kit on offer. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Huge thanks to OWI for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) OWI Robotic Arm Kit. Approximate retail value is $53.95.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Saturday, July 18th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Robots

Engadget’s recession antidote: win an OWI Robotic Arm Edge! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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