Hasta La Gadget!

DirecTV paired its HD interface with the five tuner, RVU ready HR34 Home Media Center DVR back in March, so what will it do next to take advantage of the multiroom boxes with five tuners and massive hard drives? The answer is Genie, a new feature / rebranding that should be very familiar to TiVo users, since its aim is to find other shows you might be interested in and store them on the DVR without being prompted. The folks at Solid Signal and DBSTalk have had an early preview of the fall software update that will enable it, and have both posted hands-on impressions.

Once the user enables the feature, after a few hours it begins episodes of shows similar to the ones they already watch and recording them automatically. The feature uses hard drive space that’s already reserved for DirecTV’s video on-demand (so user accessible recording space is not impacted) and works in selections available from VOD. Watching a program at your leisure VOD-style, setting up a series recording for a new favorite or blasting it from your drive is just a click of the remote away on the DVR or one of its multiroom extenders. Helping viewers discover new content is a field suddenly filled with competition, from the social networking based to Dish Network’s Hopper that records everything on primetime network TV and even filters out commercials. That Genie can let you watch already recorded episodes right away and pull from any broadcasts its finds may give it a leg up, but so far we haven’t seen recommendation systems good enough to promote switching from one service to another. Hit the source links for more details on how it all works, along with a video preview, also embedded after the break.

Continue reading DirecTV HR34 DVR ‘Genie’ recommendations and autorecording get previewed ahead of fall launch

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

DirecTV HR34 DVR ‘Genie’ recommendations and autorecording get previewed ahead of fall launch originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You can imagine that the team building Alibaba’s Aliyun mobile OS must have hurt feelings following Google’s accusations that Aliyun is just a corruption of Android. Alibaba chief Jack Ma is keen to restore some of that wounded pride, at least on the surface. The CEO has used a since-confirmed staff memo to spin out Aliyun as a separate entity that will “safeguard the healthy growth” of the platform and Alibaba’s mobile strategy. It’s not solely an instance of tough love, either: Alibaba is putting $200 million into the new firm and will use executive Wang Jian as a link between the two sides, having him serve as the CTO for both companies. With that in mind, Ma’s ultimate intentions aren’t clear. While the separation may be a sign of a tighter focus on software, it also reduces the impact for Alibaba if anything drags Aliyun down — and either motivation would be helpful for a company devoted to the web before anything else.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Alibaba spins out Aliyun team with $200 million investment, pep talk originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever since the bootloader of the Galaxy S III for Verizon Wireless was cracked wide open, there’s much less of a clamor for the Developer Edition of the handset from Samsung. That said, the unsubsidized smartphone is now available to purchase — for backorder, anyway — directly from the manufacturer, which gives all owners the ability to easily unlock the phone’s bootloader and thus delight in the world of custom ROMs. As of now, only the Pebble Blue variant is available, but purchasers may choose from the 16GB ($600) or 32GB ($650) versions. We still maintain that Verizon Wireless gave its subscribers a pretty raw deal with the Galaxy S III, as all other carriers left it to the owner’s discretion of whether to unlock their phone’s bootloader. We wouldn’t expect Big Red to change its tune any time soon, but you can take solace knowing that the hacking community and manufacturers have your back.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Samsung Galaxy S III Developer Edition for Verizon Wireless now available to order originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Droid Life, Phandroid  |  Samsung  | Email this | Comments

This test-firing may not match the flame of earlier demonstrations, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted out a brief eight-second video of another setup it’s testing, the “Grasshopper” reusable vertical takeoff, vertical landing rocket. While the first hop would’ve been shamed in any interstellar dunk contest, future tests will range in height from a few hundred feet to two miles. The goal is to eventually create a reusable first stage for its Falcon 9 rocket, able to land safely instead of crashing into the sea and being damaged beyond repair. Hit the more coverage links for a few more details on the project as well as pictures of it at the Texas test site, or check after the break to see the video.

Continue reading SpaceX’s ‘Grasshopper’ vertical takeoff / vertical landing rocket takes its first small leap (video)

Filed under: Transportation, Science, Alt

SpaceX’s ‘Grasshopper’ vertical takeoff / vertical landing rocket takes its first small leap (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 00:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Elon Musk (Twitter), yfrog  | Email this | Comments

After landing on American store shelves just a few short weeks ago, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has officially gone on sale in the Great White North. Priced at $499, the Galaxy Note 10.1 features a 10.1-inch display, a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos 4 quad processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.9-megapixel front shooter for placing video calls. Sadly, the Galaxy Note 10.1 ships with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but Sammy has promised that it’ll be blessed with Jelly Bean “very soon.” In addition to its snazzy innards, the Galaxy Note 10.1 includes its signature S-Pen and offers 50GB of free storage from Dropbox for two years. If you think this sounds like all that and a bag of chips plate of poutine, you can purchase the Galaxy Note 10.1 at Staples and other major Canadian retailers.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 now on sale in Canada for $499

Filed under: Tablets, Wireless, Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 now on sale in Canada for $499 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 21:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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