Hasta La Gadget!

Back on March 24 of this year, Vudu‘s offices were burglarized, with the robbers stealing a variety of items, including hard drives. As you can image, those hard drives were full of sensitive data, including information about the service’s customers and account passwords. The theft was kept a secret while law enforcement investigated, but now customers are being urged to reset their passwords.

To make it simple for customers to get information about the theft, Vudu has published a FAQ page on the incident, which you can check out at the via link below. Fortunately, the hard drives that were taken did not have contain the full credit card numbers of customers, but they did include just about all the information identity thieves want to get their hands on.

Says Vudu, their investigation shows that the hard drives taken have their customers’ names, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and the last four digits of select credit cards. In addition, the hard drives also contain account activity, including encrypted passwords, which Vudu says it believes will make it hard for the thieves to access them, but that it isn’t impossible. Because of this, the company says users should reset their account passwords.

If you use the same password on other websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, or even your bank, you should change them, as well, to ensure all your accounts are safe. Vudu suggests monitoring accounts for user activity from elsewhere. Those who have used credit cards with the service don’t have to worry about their accounts being depleted, however; the service does not store complete credit card numbers. Some users have already been notified about the breach via email, while other users will receive a notification in the near future.

[via Vudu]

Vudu reveals March 24 burglary, says to reset passwords is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Boxee’s second box is getting a fresh round of updates, as GigaOm points out software version 2.1.0.7781 has been detailed and is rolling out. It includes features that appeal to classic Boxee fans like support for DLNA rendering that lets it browse and play files from PCs or other devices on the same network and DMR that lets users push media to it from apps like Skifta. For more traditional viewers, the update also brings a standard TV guide users can pull up by selecting “TV” on the home screen, the ability to schedule and manage DVR recordings from antenna on the box itself (previously only possible via webpage for the still-in-beta feature), notifications for upcoming recordings and even 3D support in the Vudu app. Boxee co-founder Idan Cohen joined us at Expand and mentioned some of the other updates the team is working on, we’ll see if oft-requested features like the ability to pause live TV are added any time soon. Hit the source link for the full list of changes, current owners should see the new software arrive over the next few days.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Via: GigaOm

Source: Boxee Support

As promised, Vudu has taken the trip to Wally World out of the process used to watch your discs via UltraViolet streaming apps and sites — the legit way. Just like the in-store process, DVDs or Blu-rays can be leveraged to buy digital versions of the movie anywhere UltraViolet movies are available. Going from a DVD to an standard definition copy will run you $2, while upgrading to HD is $5 — Blu-ray to HD is also $2 — which is the exact same pricing as the in-store offering. Those who want to convert a few titles, and are lucky enough to get invited to the beta, can download the Windows-only application to a computer that has the required optical disc drive. Mac support is promised soon, but with the limited number of Macs with Blu-ray drives, we’d suspect that version will only work with DVDs.

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Whenever you ask a friend to suggest a good TV show, they often just bellow praise for The Wire, Breaking Bad or My Little Pony — not useful if your tastes are a little more diverse. That’s why major players Time Warner and Vudu have signed up Jinni’s taste engine to build into their platforms to help you find entertainment — no more boring grid-style guides, Jinni promises. We’re apparently entering, “a new era of intuitive, personalized user experience,” which sounds perfectly swell to us. A duo of European providers are also hopping on board — Bouygues Telecom and C More Entertainment — as well as Asia’s SingTel and Africa’s Multichoice.

Nobody’s talking specifics on when we’ll see these metadata-pulling suggestions appear in homes, but if your horizons suddenly start to broaden, you know who to blame.

Continue reading Jinni’s TV search tools selected by Time Warner and Vudu to power intelligent search

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Gadget manufacturers may be the ones taking the limelight here at CES 2013, but retail chains are also making an appearance and announcing some cool new services. Case in point: Walmart just announced an expansion to their disc-to-digital service by bringing it to the comfort of your home, making it easier to convert your physical media.

The new in-home service is powered by video-streaming service VUDU, and it will give users the capability to convert DVD and Blu-ray movies to UltraViolet digital copies. UltraViolet is a free, cloud-based digital library that allows users improved flexibility with how and where they watch movies and TV shows that they’ve purchased.

Walmart is making the process fairly simple as well. Users just need to go to the VUDU website, or open up the desktop app on Windows or Mac, and then search for content that you already own in physical form. You’ll then have a couple of options to choose from: converting a DVD or Blu-ray to digital for $2 each, or upscale a standard-definition DVD to HD for $5 each.

The new service is set to launch sometime in the middle of February, but the VUDU mobile app is available for download in both the iTunes App Store and Google Play. Walmart has announced that it’s giving customers who sign up for a new VUDU account 10 free pre-selected movies when they either sign up for an UltraViolet account or link to an existing account.

Walmart announces new in-home disc-to-digital service at CES 2013 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.