Sep 29

More TV Coming to TiVo and Roku This Fall with Hulu Plus

Posted in: apple tv, cable, dvr, Home Audio and Video, hulu, netflix, tivo, Today's Chili

Roku’s streaming media players can shake off the “Netflix box” tag once and for all. TiVo, too, keeps its spot high in the set-top food chain. Both Roku players and TiVo’s Premiere and Premiere XL boxes will be able to stream network shows with Hulu Plus this fall.

Hulu Plus, a $9.99/month subscription service that offers additional premium content in addition to the network TV shows and backlist films offered through the free Hulu web site, is already available for streaming with net-connected Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players, Boxee’s set-top boxes, and Sony’s Playstation 3, with announced support for XBox 360, other Sony devices, and some Vizio TVs and Blu-ray players coming either this fall or in early 2011.

The announcements from TiVo and Roku did not specify dates on which the service would be available on either device. Roku currently offers access to Netflix Watch Instantly, Amazon Streaming Video, Pandora, and other streaming media channels. TiVo offers DVR capability in addition to most of the same services. Apple’s much-anticipated new version of Apple TV offers Netflix access and rentals through iTunes, but not Hulu at this time.

The emerging model for set-top boxes appears to be devices that offer a wide range of streaming services, whether free, for purchase, for rental, or through subscriptions. Either the boxes are inexpensive and dedicated for this purpose, like Roku and the new Apple TV, or relatively expensive but offer additional services like gaming, web browsing, or video recording, like TiVo, PS3, or XBox 360.

The devices have differentiated themselves according to three features: 1) price; 2) some exclusive features, as in the case of game consoles; and 3) the strength and ease-of-use of their interfaces — both the on-screen software and remote control capability.

All can be used in conjunction with traditional cable and satellite TV service, but some users are beginning to find the offerings of internet video rich enough that they can forego cable or satellite altogether. Hulu Plus on TiVo and Roku may be what pushes many of them over the edge.

Image via Hulu.com

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Sep 29

How to Pick an Android Smartphone – September 2010 [Android]

Posted in: Android, att, droid, Google, samsung, Sprint, TMobile, Today's Chili, top, verizon

The last few months have been phenomenal for Android fans, with Samsung’s Galaxy line hitting all four carriers and Verizon getting a few, new, better Droids for their customers. But which should you pick? It’s actually an easy decision. More »

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Sep 29

Motorola ES400S earns its keep on Sprint in October

Posted in: moto, motorola, rugged, Sprint, Today's Chili, Windows Mobile, WindowsMobile

You may not remember the Motorola ES400 announced back in June; it’s the first device to run Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Handheld platform, after all — an offshoot of WinMo 6.5.3 — and doesn’t have a whole lot of relevance to the average consumer. Well, let this be your refresher: Sprint has revealed that it intends to launch its own version of the phone, the ES400S, through a variety of Sprint sales channels next month, marking the first time an enterprise-oriented Moto has been branded and offered directly by a carrier. It meets a variety of standards for ruggedness and includes a 3-inch VGA display, full QWERTY keyboard, 3.2 megapixel camera (which actually performs the barcode scanning duties, not a traditional laser scanner), 802.11a / b / g, GPS, and both CDMA with EV-DO Rev. A and GSM / HSPA for international use. You get a 1540mAh battery in the box, but a whopping 3080mAh unit is available separately if you plan on enterprisin’ away from a charger for days on end. “Qualified” businesses will be able to get in on the ES400S starting sometime before the end of October for $499.99, while average Joes will have the option of paying $549.99 on a new two-year deal. Follow the break for the press release.

Continue reading Motorola ES400S earns its keep on Sprint in October

Motorola ES400S earns its keep on Sprint in October originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 29

ATT snags BlackBerry Curve 3G, Pearl 3G

Posted in: Today's Chili

The new RIM BlackBerry Curve 3G and Pearl 3G will be available from the carrier. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20018061-85.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Dialed In/a/p

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Sep 29

Mercedes SLS AMG: You’ll think you can fly

Posted in: Today's Chili

It was with great pleasure–and a sprinkling of cynicism–that the folks from Crave UK scurried to the test track to go hands-on with the supercar.

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Sep 29

MetroPCS fires up another LTE market: Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas

Posted in: lte, mobile broadband, mobile internet, MobileBroadband, MobileInternet, Today's Chili, wwan

Look out, WiMAX — LTE is blazing a path, and it’s one that leads directly to the market you’re aiming for. Shortly after launching its first commercial LTE market in Sin City, MetroPCS has just lit up its second in the Dallas / Fort Worth area of Texas. Monthly plans start at $55 per month (including all taxes and fees), and as with customers in Vegas, DFW users will also be looking at the dual-mode Samsung Craft ($299 in contract-free form) in order to take advantage. The carrier has reiterated that it hopes to launch even more LTE markets “later this year and in early 2011,” which means that your 3G phone is getting more antediluvian by the minute.

Continue reading MetroPCS fires up another LTE market: Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas

MetroPCS fires up another LTE market: Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 29

Dell Moves Closer to the Launch of a 7-Inch Tablet

Posted in: 7-inch, Android, ipad, playbook, streak, tablet, Tablets and E-Readers, Today's Chili

Dell’s 5-inch Streak tablet may not be on a tear but the company is still moving forward with plans to introduce its second Android tablet.

Dell plans to launch a 7-inch tablet “in the next few weeks” and a 10-inch tablet within a year, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Dell’s founder and chief executive Michael Dell briefly showed the device at a Oracle conference last week but didn’t offer any details about the product.

Dell’s move to a larger screen tablet is in keeping with the company’s strategy of slowly but steadily introducing new handheld devices. In February, Neeraj Choubey, general manager of the tablets division at Dell told Wired.com that the Streak aka Dell 5 Mini would be the first in a series of devices.

“We are going to have a family of tablets,” Choubey said. “The first one is a 5-inch screen but we want to scale that up to a variety of screen sizes.”

Since the introduction of the Apple iPad earlier this year, almost every major PC maker has announced that it is working on devices that can rival the iPad.

Just this month, Samsung, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and tablet startup Kno announced new products. Samsung showed a 7-inch tablet called Galaxy Tab that will be available on four major U.S. carriers –AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile in time for holiday season shopping.

Meanwhile, RIM has announced the BlackBerry PlayBook, a 7-inch tablet targeted at business users and consumers. The PlayBook is expected to be available early next year.

Tablet startup Kno is focusing on students with 14-inch single screen and dual-screen tablets that are expected to be available by the end of the year.

Apple has sold more than 3 million iPads so far.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has canceled its planned tablet ‘Courier’ while HP is trying to integrate the Palm webOS into its tablet products.

The 7-inch Dell tablet could make the company a real contender in the tablet space. With its 5-inch display, the Streak is more like a super-sized phone than a real tablet. Dell has also priced the Streak like a phone –offering the device for $300 with a two-year contract on AT&T.

So far, there’s no word on pricing for the 7-inch Dell tablet. But Dell will have plenty of competition to keep it real with its upcoming tablet.

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Photo: Dell Streak (Jon Snyder/Wired.com)


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Sep 29

Unicycle-riding bot Seiko-chan learns new trick

Posted in: Today's Chili

Now, in addition to riding forward and backward at 2 inches per second and idling in place, she can navigate a curved balance beam.

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Sep 29

Sprint Epic 4G update coming tomorrow, should fix 3G upload issues

Posted in: Android, cdma, GalaxyS, samsung, Sprint, Today's Chili

So, you aren’t crazy after all. Feels good, right? After nearly a month of bickering from Epic 4G owners, a Sprint forum administrator has finally come forward with glowing news about this so-called 3G upload issue: a fix is coming, and soon. If you missed out on the story, users were finding that their 3G uploads were being capped at around 150kbps, and a ginormous thread over at the carrier’s message board has grown as the problem has persisted. Just today, though, one dshoem01 has provided the following snippet:

“Good news – an update will be released tomorrow 9/30. It will be rolled out over a 4 day period so not everyone will get it on day 1. I will have the standard MR information (fixes included, rollout schedule, etc) available tomorrow morning and will post it in a new featured thread.”

Note that this doesn’t specifically say that the 3G caps will be fixed here, but why else post this newsflash in the very thread that surrounds the issue? Rest assured, our fingers are firmly crossed.

[Thanks, Bradley]

Sprint Epic 4G update coming tomorrow, should fix 3G upload issues originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 29

The 404 676: Where Mark Zuckerberg sees dead people (podcast)

Posted in: Today's Chili

pspan class=”noAutolink”a rel=”enclosure” href=”http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/1pcast.the404/http://podcast-files.cnet.com/podcast/cnet_the404_092910.mp3″/abr/span/p

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pBig thanks to Sony for sending us to last night’s prescreening of a href=”http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/””The Social Network”/a. Of course, all three of us loved the film, and without giving away any spoilers, we spend some time at the beginning of today’s episode of The 404 Podcast to discuss everything we loved (Sorkin’s screenplay, Reznor/Ross’s score, actor performances, etc…) as well as our suspicions about the truthfulness of the story, but with a a href=”http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-social-network/”100 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes/a, you should definitely see for yourself!/p

pIt seems that at least one story on The 404 per week is dedicated to the movie “Hackers,” and this week we’re celebrating the a href=”http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fred/hackers-the-movie-15th-anniversary-party-on-oct-2n”15th anniversary/a of the movie’s 1995 release by running through Alexander Sotirov’s a href=”http://www.phreedom.org/cyberpunk-style-guide/”Cyberpunk Style Guide/a. /p

pThe photoblog showcases some of the movie’s best wardrobe choices, which includes a lot of multipocketed vests, latex leggings, rollerblades, and at least a href=”http://www.phreedom.org/cyberpunk-style-guide/shot0214.jpg”one cat shirt/a. Of course, Jeff’s favorite scene featuring a href=”http://www.phreedom.org/cyberpunk-style-guide/shot0276.jpg”Angelina Jolie in a NJ Devil’s jersey/a is always represented on the site as well./p

pIt’s hard to believe, but George Lucas and his visual effects teams at LucasFilms and ILM are actually re-re-releasing the six “Star Wars” films in 3D, starting with a href=”http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/09/29/star-wars-release-coming-soon-theater-near/””The Phantom Menace”/a in 2012. After that, Lucas will release one “Star Wars” film per year in 3D, and Lucas says by 2012, enough theaters around the country will have the 3D technology to support a wide release./P

pSounds like a plot to squeeze a billion or so more dollars out of the series, and while many fans were irate about the changes and additions to the beloved classics, apparently the 3D releases will also include ieven more/i never-before-seen footage. For die-hard fans who can’t wait, the Star Wars films will also be available in a href=”http://cnettv.cnet.com/star-wars-heads-blu-ray/9742-1_53-50091739.html”high definition on 2D Blu-ray/a next year./p

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!– end show notes container — pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-13952_1-20018043-81.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The 404 Podcast/a/p

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