Hasta La Gadget!

It’s undeniable one of the most popular premium cable channels to offer an online streaming video service is HBO with its HBO Go service. HBO Go allows you to not only watch recently aired shows, sometimes, being able to watch them online minutes after they’ve aired, but also catch up on complete seasons of older shows, movies and specials. Unfortunately, the only way to view HBO Go is if you’re an HBO subscriber, but that may soon change.

According to Reuters, chief executive at HBO Richard Plepler recently made some interesting comments regarding the evolution of the company’s HBO Go service at a recent premier for Game of Thrones’ third season. ”Right now we have the right model,” Plepler told Reuters. “Maybe HBO GO, with our broadband partners, could evolve.” This, of course, means the company has heard our cries for a streaming-only option for HBO Go as paying a full subscription to be able to use the service seems a little redundant. (more…)

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Google announced late last year it would be broadening the horizons of its Google Fiber network. Unfortunately, it probably wouldn’t be in your neck of the woods, that is, unless you currently live in Kansas City or the additional five neighborhoods the company announced it would begin rolling out Google Fiber to this year.

Google announced the first neighborhood within the Kansas City area to receive an expansion of Google Fiber service is Olathe, Kansas as earlier this week, the Olathe City Council approved of the expansion. The Google Fiber expansion may be crawling at this point, but Google believes Olathe is a worthy addition as they believe the city fits the mold of locations that will take advantage of their service. (more…)

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Panasonic of Japan is not exactly going through the best of times at this point in time, as the TV business, especially on the Japanese side of things, do not seem to favor them, as the South Koreans, namely Samsung and LG, have already usurped them for a fair number of years already. Well, we now have word that Panasonic of Japan could very well consider exiting the plasma TV stage as part of a downsizing of its TV business over the coming three years, beginning from fiscal year 2014 onwards.

Panasonic has already started to sell off their assets, where among them include real estate, in an effort to strengthen its financial position. Back when Panasonic’s TV business was at its peak, it managed to generate sales of over 1 trillion yen ($10.5 billion), and they have projected that they will be earning less than 50% of that amount when 2015/2016 rolls around. A Panasonic spokesperson said, “We are considering a number of options regarding our TV business. But nothing has been decided yet.” Do you think that other TV manufacturers will follow the footsteps of Panasonic where plasma TVs are concerned?

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Philips must be thinking out of the box as they do not seem to be too hot and bothered by Ultra HDTV sets that rolled off from the manufacturing lines of its rivals, but rather, would want to concentrate on beautifying your home by blending in their offerings with the rest of your abode. Case in point, Philips’ latest 46-inch and 55-inch DesignLine TVs that comprise of a single sheet of glass, and these will lean against your wall at an angle. When placed at the optimal viewing angle, Philips claims that you will have your eyes totally blown away.

According to Philips’ senior designer Frank Rettenbacher, “We really wanted to move away from the current product language used in TV design. We wanted to create a single sheet of glass, leaning very casually against the wall — without a frame, without a neck and a base.” Do you agree with Frank’s assessment that this will work? We think that the jury is still out on this one, and it will be rather challenging to predict just how well the DesignLine TVs will perform in the market. What do you think? Pricing details have yet to be determined, but something tells me that they ain’t gonna come cheap.

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For most of us, entering the house and turning on the lights involves a flick of a switch. Turning on another light is another switch, the fan, the air-con and so on. However with home automation starting to catch on, we wouldn’t be surprised if one day the majority of us lived in homes where our gestures could control more than one gadget from a single switch, and that’s what the Ube WiFi Smart Dimmer is hoping to accomplish. Making an appearance at SXSW, its creators have announced an upgraded version of its Smart Dimmer that will be able to control other smart devices at home.

As it stands, the Smart Dimmer does exactly as its name implies, which is adjust the lighting in your home by swiping on the touchpad. A single swipe turns your lights on/off, while using two fingers will adjust multiple lights. Now no longer content with merely adjusting the lighting in homes, the updated version of the Smart Dimmer will be able to control other smart devices, such as a smart water sprinkler simply by swiping the letter “W”, or enabling/disabling your home alarm by tracing the letter “A” on its surface. No word on when this updated version will be released, but for those interested in its current iteration can head on over to its Kickstarter page for the details.

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