Hasta La Gadget!

In Sky’s latest bid (after getting Sony and Warner on the hook) to corner premium viewing content in the UK before rivals including Lovefilm and Netflix get traction, it has announced an extension to its 24-year agreement with Disney. Beyond guaranteeing Disney — which means Lucasfilm, of course — Pixar and Marvel flicks will be on Sky (plus Sky Go, and 3D movies on Sky 3D) a year before any other service, it’s also creating a new Sky Movies Disney Channel in its lineup that launches March 28th. In order to reach those not with the typical TV package, the deal also brings Disney’s movies to Sky’s Now TV internet video service for users with a monthly movie pass. We’re sure 24 years ago, such deals didn’t cover so many devices or avenues of access but snagging exclusives to gain a market advantage has stayed exactly the same.

Filed under: HD

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Source: Sky

HBO brought some of the content walls down when it opened up AirPlay support in the HBO Go app for iOS users, proving that it wasn’t going to protect TV viewing at all cost. It just removed some more barriers: the premium channel has quietly rolled out an update to its Android app that enables HDMI video output. Provided a phone or tablet supports the connection (sorry, Nexus 7 owners), it too can pipe video to the big screen. The solution still doesn’t let us watch HBO without a pricey TV subscription, but it will give us fewer qualms about catching up on Girls when we’re at a friend’s place.

[Thanks, Carl]

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD

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Source: Google Play

LG was all about the tease yesterday, with its mysterious, alphabetic MWC warm-up video. Today, the covers have potentially been unceremoniously whipped off from at least two of the forthcoming offerings. The ever fruitful evleaks comes up with the goods again, and claims that what you see are the Optimus F7 (left) and Optimus F5 (right). There’s little to go on specification-wise, other than these are undoubtedly Android devices, with a design language not quite in keeping with the recently spotted Optimus G Pro behemoth. So, while you try to join the dots on what might be underneath those displays, we’ll keep an eye out for any remaining L-series and V-for Vu “surprises.”

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: @evleaks (Twitter)

We’re getting the band back together. After we welcome Ryan Block and Peter Rojas back to the fold, we dig into all the news that came out of the AllThingsD conference last week. Sony, Dish, Microsoft, Intel and others had plenty to say, but did we believe everything we heard? We’re also on the bleeding edge of a new display technology as OLED HDTVs hit the streets, so we’ll make our best guess as to whether mainstream pricing is in the near future. Finally, several connected TV platforms have updates, and the battle for content continues to heat up with customers stuck in the middle — press play to find out all the details.

Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh (@bjdraw), Richard Lawler (@rjcc)

Producer: James Trew (@itstrew)

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00:19:32 Aol acquires gdgt: get those engdgt puns out of your system today
00:25:42 Sony Entertainment’s Michael Lynton praises the DVR for enabling an ‘explosion in creativity’
00:32:55 Dish’s Charlie Ergen on wireless dreams, ad skipping, à la carte programming and more
00:37:13 Microsoft talks plans for premium content production, details Xbox 360’s transition to an ‘entertainment console’
00:39:44 Intel confirms new internet-based television streaming product, ‘working with entire industry’ to launch this year
00:43:33 Eric Kessler announces AirPlay support for HBO Go and Max Go apps, says à la carte HBO access still isn’t economically viable
00:49:50 LG’s 55-inch OLED HDTV ships in Korea next week, has 100 pre-orders so far
00:52:32 LG Display invests $655 million to expand OLED HDTV mass production next year
00:54:45 Samsung Display drops injunction request against LG Display, moves closer to OLED peace
00:56:45 Red sues Sony over patents, wants disputed F-series cameras ‘destroyed’
00:58:14 Vizio Co-Star update brings new Google TV UI, native Amazon and Vudu
01:00:16 TiVo Premiere now loaded with Flingo LaunchPad, nets more than 70 video apps
01:02:49 Western Digital unveils WD TV Play streaming box, directly competes with Roku
01:04:45 Raspbmc 1.0 brings stable media center duties to your Raspberry Pi
01:06:45 Seas0nPass jailbreak and aTV Flash (black) version arrive for Apple TV 5.2, bring Bluetooth keyboard compatibility
01:07:31 Amazon expands CBS content on Prime Instant Video, lands an Under the Dome exclusive
01:09:42 Amazon to spice up Lovefilm with BBC and original content, serve it to Bravias in HD
01:10:10 Comcast grows in Q4, buys the rest of NBCUniversal and rolls out more new DVRs
01:13:04 Netflix and DreamWorks to launch original show for kids in December
01:14:08 Now you too can watch Valve’s Gabe Newell and Bad Robots’ J.J. Abrams talk about storytelling
01:15:00 Must See HDTV (February 18th – 24th)

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Filed under: Podcasts, HD

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Twitter’s acquisition of TweetDeck definitely ruffled some feathers, but unlike other purchases made by the social network, there appears to be a future for this once-celebrated application. Available today by way of a browser restart, the blue bird has rolled out a new set of filters for TweetDeck’s web and Chrome apps that allow users to fine-tune what content their columns track. The new Showing option manages what your timeline displays, such as tweets with images, videos, links or any other type of media. The Matching and Excluding filters give the option to search for keywords in your feed that you wish to blacklist or single out. Rounding out this list of new features is the ability to enable or exclude retweets from your setup. Sure, seeing your words quoted a few times can be an ego boost, but a continuous echo can get annoying after a while.

Filed under: Misc, Software

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Via: Gigaom

Source: Twitter