Hasta La Gadget!

Best Buy is teaming up with Sonic Solutions to provide customers on-demand access to streaming movies and TV shows.

Best Buy will embed Sonic’s Roxio CinemaNow technology on a number of devices, like web-connected TVs, portable media players, PCs, Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, and mobile phones. This will include a variety of manufacturers, Best Buy said, but the store did not reveal any specific companies at this time.

The multi-year agreement allows Best Buy to license Sonic’s technology to make its on-demand digital content delivery a standard feature on connected devices. As part of the deal, Best Buy purchased an undisclosed number of Sonic common stock.

When the service is in place, Best Buy customers can buy or rent from the CinemaNow catalogue, which includes access to new movies, TV shows, independent films, and older catalogue films. Some of those movies will likely be available on the same day as their DVD release, Best Buy said.

Both companies said they also plan to work with movie studios on “new service and content offerings” but did not elaborate.

A California-based company filed suit Monday against Barnes and Noble, accusing the retailer of stealing its ideas and using them for the Nook e-reader.

Barnes and Noble copied features found in Spring Design’s Alex e-reader and used them in its Nook e-reader, according to Spring Design. The company is accusing Barnes and Noble of misappropriating trade secrets and violating a non-disclosure agreement.

“We showed the Alex e-book design to Barnes and Noble in good faith with the intention of working together to provide a superior dual screen e-book to the market,” Eric Kmiec, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Spring Design, said in a statement.

Barnes and Noble unveiled its e-book reader, the Nook, on October 21. The device, which will retail for $259, is expected to debut at the end of November. It has a color, touch-sensitive display for navigation, allows for wireless downloads via AT&T’s 3G network or Wi-Fi, and runs a variation of the Android platform.

Spring Design claims that it first started filing patents for its Alex e-book reader in 2006. The device is a dual-screen, Android-based reader. It includes Internet browsing and a touch screen. According to a press release on the Spring Design Web site, it was announced on October 19.

Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.

It’s Friday, and it’s just about Halloween, which means you’re probably sitting in your cubicle eating candy for lunch and looking at photos of dogs dressed up as Darth Vader. Just me? Well, Gearlog has a few
spooky sites for you to check out.

1. If you didn’t get around to carving your own jack-o-lanterns this Halloween, then you can do so online. Check out this virtual pumpkin carver from vidugiris.com.

2. It’s too late to mail a Halloween card, but it’s not too late to send an e-card! Take a look at these Halloween e-cards from MyPunchBowl.com before it’s too late.

3. Although this has nothing to do with tech, it’s still extremely disgusting, and a great cake for this spooky holiday. Check out Instructables’ Brain Cake.

4. Thanks to Popular Mechanics, you can spy on those hooligans coming to toilet-paper your house, or steal your Halloween decorations with this DIY pumpkin surveillance camera.

5. Spruce up your computer with a flashy Halloween desktop. (Via LifeHacker)

6.  It might be a little too late for this year, but you can always get an early start for next Halloween:  Check out the Pumpkin Pal Stake (pictured above) which lights up your jack-o-lantern by sticking the stake directly in the pumpkin. 

Happy Halloween!

Netflix on the Wii? Netflix and Nintendo are staying mum.

Rumors surfaced on Wednesday that the DVD rental service is preparing to offer its streaming movie service via Nintendo’s Wii. It makes sense–Netflix already has streaming deals with the Microsoft Xbox and, more recently, the Sony PlayStation–but at this point, there is no official news to report.

“Certainly the Wii represents a great opportunity given the size of its installed base, but we’re not commenting on rumors or speculation,” a Netflix spokesman said in an e-mail. “The Xbox partnership has been terrific for Netflix members and we’re equally excited to announce the partnership with PS3.”

A Nintendo spokesman said the company does not respond to rumors or speculation.

Jedi trainees can stop wandering the neighborhood looking for a kindly old man or frog-like hermit to train them in the ways of the force. Uncle Milton’s new Star Wars The Force Trainer can help them hone their mind-object control skills. I’m no longer a kid, but I grew up with Star Wars and still secretly (well not so secretly now) wish I had Jedi mind skills.

The $99 product arrived in our offices last week, and I took it for a test drive earlier today. It takes AA batteries and three AAAs, but otherwise set-up is a no-brainer (get it?). The double AAs go in the base, which uses a fan to push a decorated ping-pong ball up a transparent tube. It communicates wirelessly with the adjustable headset, which features three sensors that ostensibly read your brainwaves and transmit the information back to the base. With the right kind of concentration (sit still, don’t hold your breath, and think about making the ball rise), you can make the fan blow harder (or softer) and send the ball up and down the tube. Training takes you from Padawan level to Jedi Master–Yoda is your audio coach throughout.

Virtually all promotion pictures and video show a boy with his hand stretched toward the device. This isn’t necessary, but a fair amount of concentration is. I didn’t break a sweat during the test drive, but I believe I may have, with Yoda’s help (he coaches you throughout), finally become a Jedi. The proof is in the video.

Check it out, after the jump.