Hasta La Gadget!

Government-helmed China Movie Channel’s site M1905 announced this week that it’s joining forces with Jiaflix — a consortium comprised of Hollywood-types like former Columbia exec Sid Ganis — to launch a movie streaming service in China. The still unnamed offering is set to stream both Chinese and international films, including a deal struck with Paramount that will bring the studio’s back catalog and future releases to the service. The fruits of the partnership are set to launch in the fourth quarter of this year, bringing streaming to a number of platforms, including smartphone and tablets. Jiaflix and China Movie Channel added that they’ll have a plan in place to combat potential piracy through the service, but have yet to spell out what such a plan of action would entail.

Continue reading Government-backed movie streaming service coming to China in Q4, bringing Paramount titles along

Government-backed movie streaming service coming to China in Q4, bringing Paramount titles along originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Reuters  |   | Email this | Comments

U.S. Cellular has confirmed to PC Mag that it’s “excited” by the prospect of carrying Windows Phone 8 handsets when they land later this year. A PR person even went as far as saying that WP8 “will be an important part of our lineup.” The move leaves Sprint, Cricket and MetroPCS as the only major-league holdouts for the new platform — or perhaps their PR departments just aren’t as bubbly.

U.S. Cellular pledges to carry Windows Phone 8 devices in the fall originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 09:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  PC Mag  | Email this | Comments

While it only just revealed Google Developers Live earlier last week, offering interactive broadcasts and tutorials, the hardware-dabbling giant has now kicked off two more programs to support its dev faithful. The Google App Engine, Google Drive, YouTube and several advertising APIs will all be covered by the Google Developers Academy, a new site hub that offers up training materials on the above, with more promised in the future. It’s joined by a new University Consortium, aiming to collaborate between academics who use Google’s tools and dev platforms in their research and teaching. Both sites are now live — learners can hit up the sources for all the details.

Google helps train developers, hook up universities in new education programs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 06:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Google Developers Blog  |  Google Developers Academy, University Consortium  | Email this | Comments

It’s been a awhile since we caught up with Peel, but the company has certainly been putting its time to good use with a big update to its Android app at Google I/O. A new AllPlay TV component acts primarily as a companion for Google TV, pooling together listings of the disparate sources of conventional and streaming TV without having to break out the awkward remote until absolutely necessary. Live TV, DVR recordings and Netflix all sit side by side; if the season premiere of a show is coming up and last season’s finale remains tragically unwatched, Peel will be the cue to record the new airing and hit Netflix for the catch-up. Peel warns that AllPlay TV won’t be part and parcel of the app until July — as compensation, it’s promising that the release will bring Android 2.3 users into the fold, and a parallel version is coming to iPhone and iPod touch owners in the next few months.

Peel AllPlay TV unites media sources for Android fans, puts them in harmony with Google TV originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Google Play (when updated)  | Email this | Comments

Hulu Japan has mailed in a status update noting that its content library has increased by more than 300 percent since launching last fall, now amounting to over 800 films and around 6,900 TV shows. Newly added to that list is Mad Men and more notably, “select HBO shows” including Entourage and Sex And The City today, followed by Entourage and Band of Brothers later this year. Of course, similar to the situation that sees Showtime favorites like Dexter available on Netflix in Latin America but not here in the States, it doesn’t make it any more likely HBO will suddenly become cord-cutter friendly at home — this is an international deal only. Hulu does have more good news in Japan though, now that it works on more devices with the Wii coming soon and “aggressive expansion” planned for the rest of 2012. While it doesn’t help the list of Hulu Plus-compatible Android phones grow any faster, there is a quick trailer celebrating the new content, viewers on either side of the Pacific can check it out after the break.

Continue reading Hulu Japan lands HBO content, but don’t expect any changes in the US

Hulu Japan lands HBO content, but don’t expect any changes in the US originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Hulu Blog  | Email this | Comments