Hasta La Gadget!

Digital radio and music streamer manufacturer Pure continues its attack on Sonos with a new model, the retro-styled Evoke F4. Compatible with Pure’s Jongo multiroom system, launched back at CES in January, but also throwing in FM and DAB radio, the Evoke F4 also includes Bluetooth and a trick to identify track and artist information when there’s a song on the radio you like.

A new “Tag” button on the front automatically pulls up track information for whatever is playing, and Pure will also allow you to then buy a copy. Alternatively, there’s support for Pure Music – Pure’s Spotify rivaling on-demand system – and tagged tracks can be added to a playlist on the service, if they’re available in the 15m-song-strong catalog.

Meanwhile, there’s also a bundled Bluetooth dongle for streaming between the F4 and your phone or tablet, along with a 3.5mm line-in port. The USB port can also be repurposed with an (optional) ethernet adapter, in case you don’t have a WiFi b/g network the radio can hook up to; alternatively, you can plug in a USB memory stick and record live and internet radio, with around 15hrs at 128kbps fitting onto 2GB.

Although Pure radios have often found themselves ending up in kitchens and on bedside tables before now, the Evoke F4 can also do duty as part of a more comprehensive multiroom setup. It’s compatible with the company’s Jongo system of wireless speakers and HiFi-adapters, each of which has both WiFi and Bluetooth for different streaming options. Alternatively, multiple Evoke F4 radios can be strung together and made to play the same track simultaneously.

Pure Jongo overview:

As for the radio itself, there’s a single 3.5-inch speaker with 7W RMS of power, along with an optional battery pack that’s good for 12hrs of wireless use. It has a 128 x 64 monochrome OLED display and touch-sensitive buttons, multiple alarms, and can be paired with a matching standalone speaker to create a proper stereo pair.

The Pure Evoke F4 will go on sale in June, priced at £179.99 ($271). The F1 battery pack will be £34.99 ($53), the same price as the matching speaker. Pure Music subscriptions are priced from £4.99 ($7.50) per month, with a £9.99 tier incoming that will also support caching.

Pure Evoke F4 digital radio and streamer looks retro (but isn’t inside) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft Japan announced that they will release Windows 8 Pro built-in Tablet PC “Surface Pro” on June 7.

It is already being sold in other countries, however, “Surface Pro” released in the Japanese market will have “Office Home and Business 2013″ as standard and also 2 models (128GB and 256GB) will be available. Other countries are selling 2 models as well but they are 64GB and 128GB models.

Magnesium alloy is used for the body, which makes the body strong, thick and slick. ClearType full HD display (resolution 1080p) and Core i5 processor CPU are built-in.

128GB model – ¥99,800
246GB model – ¥119,800

In March, we announced the release of the Surface RT.

Netflix shares are down more than 6-percent after the much-anticipated return of Arrested Development saw a lukewarm reception on the on-demand streaming service this weekend. The well-hyped fourth season of the comedy arrived after a flourish of promotion from Netflix, the latest in its push for homegrown original content, but mediocre reviews have left investors wary and seen Netflix stock down by 6.36-percent at time of writing.

Influential reviews didn’t pull their punches in slating the new series. “Chalk one up for the Internet: It has killed Arrested Development” the NY Times opened with, criticizing the episodes for being flabby, dull, and with thin, underwhelming jokes.

Netflix opted to release the full fifteen episode season in one fell swoop, rather than pace out its availability as happens to new titles on iTunes and other on-demand services. That led to the inevitably binge-watching; Procera Networks, which does network traffic analysis, claims to have seen a significant surge – more than a third on one unnamed DSL network – when the show went live.

However, only 10-percent of viewers watched through to the end of the season, though it’s unclear exactly how many that amounts to in total. Netflix is yet to release viewer statistics, though Procera deems the premiere a success – in terms of traffic, at least – even if the critics disagree.

Unfortunately, shareholders don’t apparently share that enthusiasm. It’s not the only bad news to impact Netflix this week; the end of the company’s deal with Viacom had been known about for some time, but still apparently caught parents by surprise, when episodes of Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go disappeared from the catalog.

“I have never heard of a business that claims to be so involved with what their customers want, and can keep track of statistics and preferences, yet fails to re-negotioate a contract before it is expired, when that content is obviously very much wanted by the customers” Jeannie Shirling, Netflix customer

The resulting furore – prompted, it appears, by harassed parents driven half-mad by their childrens’ complaints – has led to mass threats of account cancellations, along with a rise in attention on rival services such as Amazon Instant Video where episodes are still available.

There’s also the possibility of a rise in illegal torrents of the shows. Arrested Development season four has already been downloaded, unofficially, more than 100,000 times, AfterDawn reports, with ripped copies showing up on download tracking services immediately after Netflix made the new season available. What this could do to Netflix’s plans to double original content production in 2014 remains to be seen.

VIA: TechCrunch

When shows sink stock: Arrested Development reception bites Netflix is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I-O DATA is releasing 3 models (4GB, 8GB, 16GB) of the “ED-HB” series security USB memory stick. They will be available in early July, with the 16GB model only available on request.

There has been USB memory that supports software password authentication, however these sticks cannot be used with an OS that is not compatible with the software. With “ED-HB”, the process of password authentication is very simple – password authentication is done with buttons on the USB memory stick before inserting it into a PC.

4GB – ￥10,400
8GB – ￥14,800
16GB – ￥19,800

I-O DATA is releasing 3 models (2TB, 3TB and 4TB) of DTCP+ compliant network-attached storage – “RECBOX HVL-AT” – in late June.

If you have a “RECBOX HVL-AT”, with your smartphone or PC, you can watch a previously recorded high-definition television program anytime outside of the home in an internet environment.

Regarding smartphones, NTT docomo’s ARROWS NX F-06E (to be released in mid-June) and Disney Mobile on docomo F-07E (to be released in mid0July), and SoftBank’s ARROWS A SoftBank 202F (to be released in late June) are compatible with DTCP+.

To watch with your PC, install free software “DiXiM Digital TV 2013 for I-O DATA” to your PC and pair it up with the NAS.

2TB – ￥34,900
3TB – ￥43,400
4TB – ￥58,300

Size: 215 x 183 x 40mm
Weight: 1.2kg