Mar 30

Netflix raising rates for Blu-ray subscribers by around 20 percent

Posted in: blu-ray, breaking news, BreakingNews, netflix, price, pricing, Today's Chili

Ruh roh. In a move that will undoubtedly cause an incredibly raucous stir, only to fade away as movie renters realize that Netflix is still the best deal going, America’s most adored by-mail rental service is hiking the price of Blu-ray rentals once again. If you’ll recall, Netflix already implemented a $1 per month fee for Blu-ray customers back in October, and now it’s looking to push that premium higher by around 20 percent across its pricing tiers. The company asserts that the increase (slated to hit April 27th and only applicable to BD customers) is due to it buying more titles on BD to “accommodate the increasing number of Netflix members who prefer renting movies on Blu-ray.” In fact, nearly 10 percent of all Netflix customers are choosing BD now, and obviously these platters cost quite a bit more for anyone (even Netflix) to procure. Head past the break to see how big of a hardship this will be on you.

Continue reading Netflix raising rates for Blu-ray subscribers by around 20 percent

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Netflix raising rates for Blu-ray subscribers by around 20 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 30

LG’s GD900 with (multi-touch?) transparent keypad gets S-Class UI

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, ctia, LG, slider, Today's Chili

The recent glut of telephony news can mean only one thing: CTIA Wireless 2009 is getting ready to kick off in Vegas baby, Las Vegas. In the runup we have LG upping the hype on its 13.4mm-thick GD900 handset first outed in Barcelona at February’s MWC show. This time, however, the 7.2Mbps HSDPA slider with world’s first transparent glass (not plastic as originally assumed) keypad will be functional, running LG’s new S-Class UI on the 3-inch display. We know that the GD900 features vibrational haptic feedback and that the transparent keypad seems to double as a touch-sensitive mouse pad (like that on your laptop) when surfing the internet or navigating the UI — it also seems to support gestures like writing “M” to launch the MP3 music player and multi-touch such as pinch to zoom on photographs. The GD900 will launch in Europe and Asia sometime in May. No US release announced so we’ll have to make the most of our time with it this week in order to clear up all the mysteries presented by the Korean press release. One more pic showing an apparent finger-swipe rotating the UI after the break.

[Via Akihabara News and Engadget Korea]

Continue reading LG’s GD900 with (multi-touch?) transparent keypad gets S-Class UI

LG’s GD900 with (multi-touch?) transparent keypad gets S-Class UI originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 29

LG Xenon, Neon join Samsung Magnet and Impression on AT&T

Posted in: att, breaking news, BreakingNews, LG, qwerty, samsung, Today's Chili

Outside of the smartphone realm, AT&T’s really stepping up its game in the feature phone game, too — so let’s take this clockwise from the top left, shall we? First up, we have the brightly-colored Samsung Magnet, targeted squarely at the teen audience looking for serious texting power in a cheap package. Pricing hasn’t been announced, but it should be easy on the wallet; it’ll be available in the next few weeks. Next is the Impression — also from Samsung — which we’d previously known as the a877, the very first handset to officially launch on a US carrier with a full AMOLED up front. The screen’s 3.2 inches of organic touchscreen awesomeness, accompanied by a 3 megapixel cam and a full HTML browser, all launching on April 7 for $199.99 on contract after rebate. Down below, we have the LG Neon — a phone that’s already launched up north on Rogers — offering a full landscape QWERTY keyboard in addition to a touchscreen display for a low price, thanks in no small part to its lack of 3G data. The launch day hasn’t been set for this one, but it’ll come shortly. Finally, we have the long-rumored Xenon, featuring 3G, a 2 megapixel cam, QWERTY slide, GPS, and your choice of colors — black, blue, or red — all for $99.99 when it launches on April 8.

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LG Xenon, Neon join Samsung Magnet and Impression on AT&T originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 29

AT&T pulls trigger on Nokia E71x and Samsung Propel Pro

Posted in: att, breaking news, BreakingNews, nokia, samsung, Today's Chili, Windows Mobile, WindowsMobile, winmo

Kicking off what’s sure to be a fun-filled week of announcements surrounding CTIA out in Vegas, AT&T’s smartphone lineup just got a little beefier thanks to the official introduction of a couple devices we’ve been expecting for a hot minute now. First up, the Nokia E71x is just about ready for shelves, bringing WiFi, AT&T Navigator (which hopefully won’t preclude the use of Nokia Maps and other GPS-enabled apps), and all of the lauded physical design characteristics you’re used to from the original, unbranded E71. The best thing here might be the price — just $99.99 on contract after rebate, thankfully beating rumors of $200 and $150 by a country mile; it’ll hit shelves “in the coming weeks.” Next up is the Samsung Propel Pro, a device that shares very little in common with its Propel namesake other than a form factor, mainly because this sucker’s a full-out smartphone running Windows Mobile 6.1. It’s got WiFi, a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard (naturally) and will be available on April 14 for $149.99 after all your discounts have been applied and your two-year agreement is filed away.

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AT&T pulls trigger on Nokia E71x and Samsung Propel Pro originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 26

SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry exits beta, iPhone version submitted to App Store

Posted in: BlackBerry, breaking news, BreakingNews, RIM, Today's Chili

Get ready, BlackBerry users, because your days are officially about to become less productive (or, at the very least, your mass transit commutes). You too, iPhone types — not to say you didn’t already have enough time-wasting apps cluttering that 8 to 16GB wasteland you call “storage” in your pocket — because SlingPlayer Mobile is destined for both of these platforms. BlackBerry’s already had it since December in beta form, but they’re now at a stable 1.0 release; and speaking of 1.0 releases, that iPhone version Sling’s been talking up for a while now has now been submitted to Apple’s App Store for approval, so we hope we’ll be seeing that on the open market shortly. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some Dora to watch on the Bold.

[Via TUAW, thanks Digitac]

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SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry exits beta, iPhone version submitted to App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 26

Tesla Model S now official

Posted in: BreakingNews, electric car, electric vehicle, ElectricCar, ElectricVehicle, ev, LED, tesla, Today's Chili

After a brief period of unofficial officialness this morning, Tesla has rolled out the Model S to a sea of eager photographers. The company’s also revealed specs for the EV: this seven-seater can go from 0 to 60 MPH in 5.6 seconds, boasts a top speed of 120 MPH, features a dashboard display and a 17-inch main touchscreen monitor. It’s fully 3G capable, sports HD and satellite radio, uses LED and neon exterior lights, smart-key power, and push button gear selector. While that $49,900 base price will get you a battery that’s good for 160 miles per charge, 230-mile and 300-mile range packs will be available. On a 220V outlet, the company says it’ll charge in four hours with a 45 minute “QuickCharge” option, and you should be able to swap batteries if necessary in under 8 minutes. Excited? Find a way to control yourself, this baby isn’t going into production in Q3 2011. Check out a brief glimpse of the interior after the break.

Gallery: Tesla Model S now official

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Tesla Model S now official originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 26

Apple announces WWDC 2009 dates; iPhone, Snow Leopard countdowns begin

Posted in: Apple, breaking news, BreakingNews, iPhone, Mac, mac os x, MacOsX, Today's Chili

Here we go: Apple’s just announced that its Worldwide Developers Conference will take place June 8-12 in San Francisco. If you’ll recall, last year’s WWDC was where a little gadget called the iPhone 3G made its appearance, and we’d say chances are good we’ll see new hardware this year as well — especially since there’d be no bigger way for Steve Jobs to make his planned June return to the company. Also on the list of expected attendees? Snow Leopard, possibly with a revised interface. It should be a big one — you know we’ll be digging for all the info we can get in the leadup, so keep it locked.

Update: Jobs said he’d be out until the “end of June,” of course. Still, we’ve got a feeling he’d want to be involved in any iPhone hardware announcements. We’ll see!

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Apple announces WWDC 2009 dates; iPhone, Snow Leopard countdowns begin originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 26

Tesla Model S official shots unofficially unveiled

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, electric car, ElectricCar, ev, tesla, Today's Chili, touchscreen

Kevin Rose has some Tesla Model S imagery up on his Flickr account, including the first unshrouded pictures of the car, along with a rather wild interior shot. The all-electric sedan is styled beautifully — if rather predictably — but things start to get weird on the inside. In what looks to be a concept car mockup of the interior, there appears to be a large touchscreen taking the place of the entire center console, wrapped irregularly by dashboard padding. The instruments panel also appears to be a screen, though it could just be a mockup at this stage. Concept cars typically have rather strange and unlikely interiors compared to their tame street-legal counterparts, but even so, if this indeed isn’t some sort of cruel Photoshop trickery, we’d say Tesla really outdid itself here. Besides, who needs safe, tactile ways of adjusting climate and audio settings when you’re living life this large?

[Via Autoblog Spanish]

Gallery: Tesla Model S official shots unofficially unveiled

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Tesla Model S official shots unofficially unveiled originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 12

iPhone OS 3.0 is coming, preview on March 17th

Posted in: Apple, breaking news, BreakingNews, iPhone, iphone 3g, Iphone3g, Today's Chili

We just got the announcement, iPhone OS 3.0 is coming. Set your clocks, mark your calendars. It’s going down March 17th. Apparently, we’ll get a sneak peak at the new OS, as well as a look at a brand new version of the SDK. Exciting stuff indeed, and we’ll be there live at 10am PST (1pm EST) with the liveblog. Apple’s calling this an “advance preview of what we’re building,” so we’re not expecting anything ready to go as of the 17th, but hopefully this will allow developers to start building toward future functionality (hey, how about some push notifications?), and presumably users won’t have too many months to wait after that for the real deal.

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iPhone OS 3.0 is coming, preview on March 17th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 12

Dell’s multi-touch Studio One 19 PC makes exclusive debut in Japan

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, Today's Chili

Well, well. Japan just scored an exclusive on this new multi-touch Studio One 19 PC from Dell. The All-in-One “entertainment PC” comes in a variety of colors to match your kitchen decor with specs that max-out on options such as a Core 2 Quad processor, 4GB of memory, 750GB hard disk, 6x USB, integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics, and Blu-ray player. The 18.5 inch display features a 1,366 x 768 aspect ratio with touch or non-touch glass panels — capacitive or resistive… that’s the question. Prices start at about ¥149,800 which translates to a tax inclusive price of about $1,538 of the green stuff. Hey Dell, how about a shot from the side so we can measure the chub index?

Update: Helloooo chubby sexy! Profile and top-down pictures found (thanks LionelatDell!) and dropped in after the break and into the gallery. Who knew that the display was actually offset-forward from the main slab? Nice. And she sure is curvy.

Update 2: PC World got a demo of the new AIO and reveals a $699 starting price (now confirmed by an official press release) when it hits the US this Spring — a lot more when you start adding the $100 touchscreen option, $200-ish Blu-ray, more memory, etc.

Gallery: Dell’s multi-touch Studio One 19 PC makes exclusive debut in Japan

[Via Engadget Japanese]

Continue reading Dell’s multi-touch Studio One 19 PC makes exclusive debut in Japan

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Dell’s multi-touch Studio One 19 PC makes exclusive debut in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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