Clicker.com analyzes Amazon Prime Instant Video offerings vs the competition

Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service is finally here, and while we know how it works and that, unlike Netflix, it will play nicely with your ‘Droid, how does its content measure up? Clicker.com pulls in feeds from all the online video sites and has broken down its data into this handy chart to investigate just that. The numbers above don’t lie, Netflix has far more content at the moment, and right now, the Amazon service compares more directly to Hulu Plus than anything else. However, it is an excellent start for Amazon to grow from and the breakdown points out what numbers might miss — while Amazon’s movie selections are hurting for any high profile flicks not already on Netflix, it does bring some otherwise unavailable episodes of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Bonanza and Dr. Who (1963) to bear — click through for all the details, while it may not be enough to cause you to switch just yet there’s definitely enough reason to keep an eye on this latest entrant to the market.

Clicker.com analyzes Amazon Prime Instant Video offerings vs the competition originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New MacBooks Get Faster Chips, Thunderbolt Port

Apple's new MacBook Pros gained faster chips and a new connectivity standard. Image courtesy Apple.

Apple on Thursday refreshed the MacBook family with faster processors, more-powerful graphic cards and, most notably, a new connection port called Thunderbolt.

Ranging from 13 to 17 inches in screen size, the notebooks ship with the brand-new Thunderbolt connectivity standard that Apple co-developed with Intel.

Thunderbolt can transfer up to 10 Gbps, which is theoretically 12 times faster than the previous FireWire 800 connectivity standard. This is usually where you’d connect an external accessory such as a hard drive.

Apple has historically been nimble with pushing new connectivity standards. Apple created the FireWire connectivity standard before it became widely adopted in the PC industry.

The updated 13-inch MacBook Pros include Intel’s newer Core i5 and Core i7 chips, which were previously codenamed Sandy Bridge. Meanwhile, the 15- and 17-inch notebooks get quad-core Core i7 chips.

For anyone who cares, the MacBooks have updated graphic cards: the 13-inchers get the Intel HD Graphics 3000 chip; the 15- and 17-inchers have the AMD Radeon HD processor with up to 1GB of memory.

All the MacBook Pros have a reported battery life of 7 hours, according to Apple — lower than the previous generation, which got up to 10 hours battery life. This is presumably due to the speedier chips and graphic cards.

The MacBook Pros range from $1,200 to $2,500 and are available today at Apple retail stores or Apple.com.


Verizon now selling Samsung Galaxy Tab for $300

Carrier drops price on Galaxy Tab to $299.99 for those willing to sign a two-year contract. Formerly you could only get it at Verizon for $499.99 without a two-year contract.

Originally posted at The Digital Home

Google pulls Recipe View out of the oven

Okay, so this Google announcement doesn’t come with some dessert-themed upgrade, but we guarantee you’ll be able to find recipes for cupcakes, gingerbread, and maybe even ice cream. Yep, those always-hungry folks in Mountain View are rolling out a new Recipe View tab, which will not only narrow your search results to show cooking recipes, but will also provide some pretty awesome ways to filter down your inevitable query for spaghetti and meatballs. The image above pretty much explains it all — you can filter down by your ideal ingredients, cooking time, and even the calories count. Google’s even making it easier for recipe website developers to add markups to their webpages so that content can eventually appear all nicely sorted on the new search pages. It should all be rolling out as we speak in the US and Japan, which really means you have no choice but to cook tonight.

Google pulls Recipe View out of the oven originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel unveils Thunderbolt data transfer tech

The current copper-based generation of Thunderbolt, formerly known as Light Peak, boasts 10Gbps data transfer speeds between computers and attached devices.

4G LTE for Xoom to require shipment to Motorola

Buyers of Motorola’s Xoom tablet who want to move from 3G to 4G when that option is live will need to mail the device to Motorola for a hardware upgrade, according to Verizon.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

iFixit tears down Galaxy S 4G, lights a fire for science

iFixit’s teardown of the Samsung Galaxy S 4G doesn’t exactly contain a ton of surprises — until the very end, that is. Apparently, there’s been some talk that Samsung used magnesium instead of aluminum for some of the components, and the best way iFixit could find to test that was to file some dust off the frame and set it ablaze (magnesium’s reaction is noticeably different than aluminum). Spoiler alert: it’s magnesium. Hit up the link below for the full blow-by-blow account.

iFixit tears down Galaxy S 4G, lights a fire for science originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ohio Girl Scouts accepting mobile payments for cookies, your thin mint craving starts now

Short on cash but wishing you could stock up on Girl Scout cookies? Then you no longer have an excuse — at least if you’re in Northeast Ohio — and as the local Girl Scout group there has teamed up with Intuit to accept credit cards using the company’s GoPayment app (and accompanying card reader) for iOS and Android. What’s more, while the Ohio group is the first to sign up, Intuit is now also extending the same offer (which includes reduced transaction fees) to Girl Scout organizations across the US — something tells us it won’t have much trouble getting attracting interest.

Continue reading Ohio Girl Scouts accepting mobile payments for cookies, your thin mint craving starts now

Ohio Girl Scouts accepting mobile payments for cookies, your thin mint craving starts now originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What Is Thunderbolt? [What Is]

Along with snappy Sandy Bridge processors and beefy GPUs, Apple’s new MacBook Pros have a superfast, versatile new I/O tech called Thunderbolt. Whazat? More »

Sprint allegedly talking to LightSquared over 4G infrastructure deal, Clearwire should be sweating

Bloomberg is citing “three people familiar with the talks” (it’s not often that we get a specific number!) as saying that LightSquared is in active negotiations with Sprint to use its network infrastructure as it builds out its L-band LTE network. As you might recall, LightSquared is the would-be 4G wholesaler that is in the process of repurposing some satellite spectrum for terrestrial LTE use — a concept the FCC has approved, but concerns over GPS interference could end up delaying or derailing the strategy altogether if they aren’t solved to everyone’s satisfaction. Of course, building out any sort of national terrestrial wireless network is a multi-billion dollar, multi-year type of venture, and presumably a tie-up with Sprint to use some of its hardware would help move matters along. What this means for Sprint’s existing dealings with Clearwire is unclear; the two operate a WiMAX network together, after all, but the carrier has made it clear in the past that LTE could definitely be an option in the future.

Sprint allegedly talking to LightSquared over 4G infrastructure deal, Clearwire should be sweating originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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