Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on June 22, 2009 by CyberNet.

So last week there was a story about a girl, Colby Curtin, that touched the hearts of thousands of readers, and Pixar played an important roll in it all. She was dying of vascular cancer, and her last wish was to see the movie Up. The only problem was that the movie is only in theaters, and she was to ill to be transported. So a friend of the family made a call to Pixar, and it touched their hearts enough to fly an employee out with a DVD to the family’s home the next day (on June 10th). Just 7-hours after watching the movie Colby passed away.

Pixar didn’t want to comment on the story, and from what I’ve read Pixar even asked the mother not to talk to the media about it. They wouldn’t even release the name of the employee who had gone out to the family’s house. They weren’t doing it for the publicity, they were doing it because they cared. They cared so much that they wasted no time getting out there, and that made all the difference. Bravo Pixar. It’s not often that you hear of a big company striving to make a difference in someone’s life.

After 24-hours the source of the article reported that it had been read by over 400,000 readers on their site. Not to mention the thousands of other people that I’m sure read the story in forums, blogs, and countless other sites. It’s safe to say that this story has traveled around the world.

I had also read that this isn’t the first time Pixar has done something like this, and it’s never the media attention they’re after. I guess they are the only ones who know how many wishes they’ve made come true, and hopefully they’ll keep doing so.

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Streaming media provider Vudu has partnered with LG to include its software into upcoming LG high-definition TVs. The move will get rid of the intermediary set-top box and allows consumers to directly watch on-demand content from the internet on their TVs.

“Smart TV’s are part of an exciting new industry trend,” says Alain Rossmann, CEO of Vudu. “Vudu is partnering with leading consumer electronics vendors to embed the new Vudu service directly into the TV, eliminating the expense and hassle of purchasing, installing or connecting another device to the TV.”

The new Vudu service delivered through LG TVs allows consumers to discover and watch high definition movies on-demand. The service will be available on upcoming models of LG’s broadband TVs later this fall.

Licensing Vudu’s software to consumer electronics makers such as LG though is a strategy that allows Vudu to go out of the box and focus on delivering the service.  It’s a strategy similar to what GPS-navigation devices maker Dash had adopted. Dash started out by producing standalone GPS boxes with its software that offered services such as local search. But the company soon abandoned the hardware-based GPS systems and instead focused on licensing its applications and services to run on other products.  BlackBerry maker Research In Motion acquired Dash earlier this year.

In the last two years, streaming media boxes that bring online movies, TV shows and content to the TV have become popular with consumers, though they are still a small fraction of audience that rents movies. Apple launched its Apple TV in 2007.  Meanwhile, Roku, a company that started by offering $100 boxes in partnership with Netflix included access to content from Amazon.com earlier this year. Netflix rival BlockBuster also has a streaming video box available.

Vudu says its service differs from rivals in that it can offer movies in 1080p definition and high resolution Dolby Digital surround sound. Vudu also offers features such as instant fast forwards, rewind and instant start for all its movies. Customers can instantly buy or rent from the company’s library of movies with no monthly fees.

See Also:

• Vudu Movie Streamer Plummets to $150
• Vudu Summons Pandora as a Web-based App
• Vudu Application Brings Remote Rentals to iPhone
• Vudu Software Update
• Vudu Software Update Adds More HD Content

Think the skintight costumes are the scariest part of this year’s Comic-Con? You clearly have not toured the MGM booth. The studio rolled out Feed your Fear, which involves a series of fake electric chairs featuring virtual reality goggles. Guests sit down and strap in, and a barrage of clips from MGM and Fox horror movies such as Child’s Play stream for roughly 2 minutes.

I couldn’t help but liken the whole thing to A Clockwork Orange, a comparison not denied by the MGM rep I spoke with. I didn’t get a chance to try it out–mostly for fear of the long line–but I’m told the experience is rather intense. And while there haven’t been any heart attacks or fainting spells yet, apparently plenty of viewers have let out a few screams.

I had the same reaction to the $10 dollar sandwiches on the convention center floor.

We can only hope that the travesty that is slotMusic isn’t coming over to the film side, but just days after Disney announced its intentions to offer up major motion pictures on microSD cards, Sonic Solutions has stepped in to bring CinemaNow flicks to USB flash drives. Unlike you’d probably think this would work, Sonic has actually developed these to function in more than one place. Each stick contains a movie along with an integrated media player and the necessary video codecs, but aside from enabling users to play back content locally, there’s also the option of catching it remotely. Once connected to the ‘net, owners can add the title to their Roxio CinemaNow Digital Locker to access it on network-connected Blu-ray players and HDTVs. If all goes well, the first drives will start showing up in Q4 of this year, just in time to puzzle your young ones when they unwrap their favorite film on something other than a round disc.

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video

Sonic brings CinemaNow films to flash drives, connected devices originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you have the dominant high-def optical storage format — which can serve both movies and games with equal aplomb — built right into your consoles, shouldn’t you be leveraging that synergy? Well, the assimilation is now complete, as Watchmen Director’s Cut launched today with The End is Nigh Parts 1 and 2 for PlayStation 3 in tow. The price of admission here is a penny under $50 before tax / shipping — and considering both parts of the game cost $30 total on their lonesome, that’s none too shabby of a deal. It’ll be interesting to see what film and tie-in game make the merge next — anyone up for a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory re-release?

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

Watchmen Director’s Cut movie / PlayStation 3 game Blu-ray combo now available originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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