Hasta La Gadget!

We knew it was Intel’s plan to launch its Sandy Bridge or Core 2011 processors at CES, but leave it to Chipzilla to throw in some total surprises ahead of the show. Yes, you read the headline right — Intel’s planning to launch its very own movie and video service in the first quarter of 2011. Unlike iTunes or really anything else out there, Intel’s Insider will allow those with Core 2011-powered laptops or desktops to purchase or rent the latest movies in full HD — yes, good ol’ 1080p. But, why exactly is Intel teaming up with studios, content owners, and video distributors when so many others out there are trying to do the same thing? In essence, the company sits in a good place to combat a lot of the issues movie studios have had with HD video distribution — Insider is tied to the new 2nd generation Core processors, and thus provides hardware protection, rather than software protection of the content. According to Intel’s Erik Reid, the company has already struck deals with CinemaNow and Warner Brothers, and the plan is for all content to be made available at the same time as the DVD or Blu-ray release. It is unclear whether there will be an Insider portal for all this content or if other services will just be certified to work on the hardware platform, but we will be finding out much more once the show starts.

Naturally, Intel doesn’t only want you to watch those brand spankin’ new 1080p movies on your laptop screen — it is pushing WiDi in a big way, and the second generation, which will be baked into new Core 2011 systems, will support 1080p streaming and will eventually enable streaming of protected content, including DVDs and Blu-ray discs. WiDi 2.0, as they are calling it, will work a lot like the original version we like so much and allows you to extend your desktop to an HD monitor, but unfortunately, it will require a new HDTV receiver to enable the full HD capability and it still has that two second lag. No word yet on who is making those boxes or how much they’ll cost, but we’re hoping to learn a few more details about Intel’s big push to tie video content to its new processors at its CES press conference in just a few days.

Continue reading Intel to launch Insider movie service with 1080p content, WiDi 2.0 will let you stream it to your TV

Intel to launch Insider movie service with 1080p content, WiDi 2.0 will let you stream it to your TV originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not exactly sure of the cause of this fancy new issue affecting Apple’s super cool iPhone line of cellphones, but apparently you’ve got trouble come 1/1/2011. According to an explosive stream of frustration-filled tweets on the Twitter microblogging service, when the clock strikes midnight, one off alarms will cease to sing out. The issue sounds eerily similar to recent Daylight Savings Time trouble we witnessed back in November, although we saw both repeating alarm and single alarm failures.

So how can you fix this potentially life-ruining problem? Well until Apple patches its OS — and it’s currently unclear if this is just iOS 4.2.1 or earlier versions as well — you can simply create a recurring alarm at the time you need to be woken up, and then disable it once your dreams are completely ruined. We’re taking a deeper look into the issue and have contacted Apple — if we get more news, you guys will be the first to know. In the meantime, feel free to commiserate in comments, and… happy new year?

Update: 9to5 Mac says that the bug will get fixed all by itself once the calendar hits January 3rd. We haven’t confirmed this, but if it turns out to be the case, that’s pretty good news. In less good news, the issue seems to be affecting iOS 4.1 and 4.0.2 as well.

Update 2: Apple responded to us on the issue, though they didn’t offer any surprises:

We’re aware of an issue related to non repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2. Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

PSA: iPhone alarms not working come New Year’s Day 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So let us set this up for you: Skype has been telling everyone that it’ll be making a “series of video-related announcements” at CES next month… and it’s participating in a panel called “Video Calling Gets Ready for Primetime,” so yeah, needless to say, we’d have to guess that Skype’s finally getting ready to enter the mobile video calling game in a big way. Anyhow, the final piece in the puzzle filtered into our inbox this morning: a help document on Skype’s site detailing making video calls using Skype for iPhone. We don’t know whether there’s a corresponding document out there for Android, Symbian, or other operating systems, but we’re certainly hoping so — because if these guys come to the table at once with versions for all the major phone platforms, we’ve got a feeling they’ll be dominating the mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-PC video calling market in no time.

Oh, and here’s a little trivia fact for you: the Nokia N900 was actually the first device to get official video calling support from Skype, so this isn’t a first for these guys — but it’ll certainly be the first time they’ve taken it to a mass market. Seems like they’ll probably have the MeeGo build ready to go, at least.

[Thanks, Nelson]

Update: …and they’ve pulled the help document. You’ll just have to trust us, it was there. We swear!

Skype finally bringing video calling to iPhone 4, maybe other mobile platforms? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, no surprises here — the FCC just passed a set of limited net neutrality rules by a 3-2 vote. The three Democratic Commissioners, including FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, voted yes, while the two Republican Commissioners both strongly dissented — to quote Commissioner Meredith Baker, “I really, really, really dissent.” The rules haven’t been made public yet, but the general understanding is that wired broadband will be more heavily regulated than wireless — a crucial point as carriers begin investigating pay-per-service charges. That means even net neutrality advocates are unhappy with today’s decision — Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps straight-up said, “Today’s action could — and should — have gone further.” What’s more, we’re hearing that Verizon is already considering a challenge — which is odd since the rules appear to track closely with that joint Verizon / Google proposal from the summer. We’re still waiting on the full text of the rules and will post a complete breakdown once we get them, but for now hit the source link and check out Genachowski’s remarks on the regulations.

P.S. – Need a net neutrality refresher? Check out this awesome (and educational) animation and interview with Columbia law professor Tim Wu!

FCC passes limited net neutrality rules, almost no one happy about them originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 13:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s on, suckers. Motorola just sent us this “Tablet Evolution” teaser video for their CES 2011 announcements, and it doesn’t mince any words — it calls the iPad a “giant iPhone” and says the Samsung Galaxy Tab is running Android “for a phone” before closing out with a buzzing bee over that new red Motorola logo. That certainly suggests some Honeycomb action to us — and it fits perfectly with Andy Rubin demonstrating the next-gen version of Android on a Motorola tablet back at D: Dive Into Mobile. You know, the tablet that’s since leaked out with a Verizon logo on it. Yeah, we’re ready for this to go down — and you know we’ll be there live as it happens.

Motorola’s ‘Tablet Evolution’ video teases some Honeycomb at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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