Hasta La Gadget!

When Microsoft announced that Silverlight would be coming to an end in 2021, it gave companies that utilize the video technology less than a decade to gravitate to an alternative. Perhaps the biggest and most prolific user of Silverlight is Netflix, which takes advantage of its “high-quality streaming experience” for Watch Instantly. Today the company announced that in light of Microsoft’s announcement, it will be switching to HTML5 video.

Netflix talks about the reality of video plugins, making specific mentions of browsers that don’t support them (Internet Explorer in Metro Mode, for example), as well as the security risk using plugins can pose. Moving to HTML5 from Silverlight will take care of these two issues, and will open up the ability to watch instant video via the service on a wider range of devices and browsers.

For now, Netflix is waiting to make the switch on what it calls three “premium video extensions”: Media Source Extensions, Encrypted Media Extensions, and Web Cryptography API. The company says it is working with industry leaders, and that these initiatives will be the solution to current issues with delivering video in the absense of a plugin like Silverlight.

The first iteration of this has been pushed out for the Samsung ARM-based Chromebook, which takes advantage of the Media Source Extensions and Encrypted Media Extensions in Chrome browser to deliver Silverlight-free video content. According to Netflix, Web Cryptography API isn’t in use on the Chromebook yet, instead being replaced with Netflix’s own Pepper Plugin API. The PPAPI plugin will be swapped out with WebCrypto when it is available via Chrome, at which point HTML5 video testing will start for OS X and Windows.

[via Netflix]

Netflix switching to HTML5 video from Silverlight is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google has issued an official confirmation that their long awaited Chromebook Pixel LTE has started to ship, which means those who placed an order from Google Play ought to be able to receive it from as early as April 12th onwards. The Chromebook Pixel LTE was unveiled to come with a 12.85” touchscreen display at a whopping resolution count of 2,560 × 1,700 pixels earlier this February, where it will cost $1,449 for the bare bones LTE model over at the Google Play store.

Originally, it was mentioned that the Chromebook Pixel LTE will ship by April 8th as a US exclusive, so to see it miss that date by a few days is nothing worth raising a ruckus about after one has been waiting since February this year. While the display is extremely high end, we do wonder why the rest of the hardware specifications do not seem to be on par, namely it carries a mere 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD, and three years of free access to Google Drive cloud storage at 1TB of space.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Asus Qube Release Date Announced, Lenovo ThinkPad Twist Review (S230U) ,

Google announced the Chromebook Pixel late last month, and said that it will begin shipping sometime next month, but no specific release date was disclosed. However, the LTE model of the new laptop looks to have a solid ship date of April 8, according to the product listing on the Google Play store. The entry level model still has yet to display a ship date, however.

The LTE version costs $1,449, which is $150 more than the entry level variant at $1,299. Then again, it comes with twice the storage capacity, but that still only makes it a device with 64GB of storage. Then again, we could see some users upgrading to the 64GB model for the storage alone, with LTE being a nice perk that comes with the package.

Obviously, though, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee through Verizon if you want to use more than 100MB per month. According to GigaOM, $9.99 will get you an unlimited day pass. $20 per month will land you 1GB of data, $35 for 3GB, and $50 for 5GB. The free 100MB-per-month deal only lasts two years, so all LTE Pixel users will end up paying a monthly fee sooner or later.

Verizon customers can also add their new Chromebook Pixel to their existing Share Everything plan for only $10 per month. This allows Verizon customers to not have to pay more for data than what they’re already paying for. If you’re not familiar with the Pixel, it’s Google’s newest product and it sports a super high resolution 2560×1700 display, as well as an Intel Core i5 dual-core 1.8GHz processor and 4GB of RAM.

[via GigaOM]

Google Chromebook Pixel LTE model shipping April 8 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I am not quite sure about you, but have you actually taken a Chromebook out for a ride before? And by that, I do not mean a ride in your car or motorbike, but rather, whether you have used it before, doing some work as well as surfing mindless sites for images of kittens in weird poses. You know, nothing heavy duty, as the Chromebook was not meant to be a high powered computing device in the first place. Well, as we all jolly well know, the mid-range tier of products and its intended market tend to be the largest segment in most bell curves, and hence the Google Chromebook would fall under this category nicely. It is nice to know that if you happen to live in places like Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, you should be able to pick up a Google Chromebook.

Better late than never, or so the saying goes, and for folks living in the US, you might have noticed that the Samsung Chromebook has remained at the top of Amazon’s best-selling laptop list for 149 days ever since it was launched, and for folks who live across the pond, Dixons claims that Chromebooks comprise of over 10% of laptop sales in Currys and PC World stores.

From today onwards, you will be able to pick up Chromebooks from the likes of Acer, HP and Samsung, especially if you happen to stay in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. Not only that, Google wants to do their bit to improve computing for organizations, as the Internet search giant is rolling out its fair share of Chromebooks to businesses and schools alike, too.

Folks living in the US have something else to look forward to – the Chromebooks will be introduced to more than 1,000 Best Buy stores nationwide, which virtually doubles the number of stores Chromebooks are presently sold in, although this is set to happen within the coming fortnight and not immediately. Any potential Chromebook owners reading this?

Press Release
[ Google Chromebooks hitting new countries copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

If Chromebooks from Acer, HP and Samsung have struck your fancy but haven’t been available in your country, your fortune might have just changed. Google’s proclaimed that Chrome OS laptops from the trio will see begin rolling out to folks in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. Not only is Mountain View expanding its laptop initiative’s international horizons, but it’s bringing them to more than 1,000 Best Buy stores too, roughly 500 more than previously carried them. Ready to snatch one of the notebooks? Hit the source links to get crackin’.

Filed under: Laptops, Samsung, Google, HP, Acer

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