Gogo to bring enhanced WiFi to Virgin America, expands video streaming on American Airlines

Virgin America‘s in-flight perks are getting even perkier. This week, the domestic carrier announced that it’s bringing Gogo’s ATG-4 service aboard its fleet of aircraft, in a move that promises to enhance in-flight WiFi capacity by a factor of four. The upgrade is slated to roll out during the first half of 2012, when the company will begin outfitting its planes with Gogo’s directional antenna, dual-modem and EV-DO Rev. B technologies. But VA isn’t the only airline getting in on the Gogo game, as the in-flight entertainment company announced this week that it’s expanding its new video streaming service to American Airlines, as well. American, as you may recall, became the first airline to test the Gogo Vision service back in August, aboard its fleet of 15 Boeing 767-200 planes. Now, the streaming product is slated to expand to a full 400 of AA’s aircraft, bringing about 200 movies and TV shows to entertainment-starved passengers. Movies will be available for 24 hour rentals, with TV purchases good for a full 72 hours. Unexpired rentals, meanwhile, will still be available once you land and can be accessed with the same browser and device you used aboard the flight. No word on final pricing, though Gogo is extending its introductory offer ($1 per TV show and $4 per movie) through October 15th. Taxi past the break for more details, in a pair of press releases.

Continue reading Gogo to bring enhanced WiFi to Virgin America, expands video streaming on American Airlines

Gogo to bring enhanced WiFi to Virgin America, expands video streaming on American Airlines originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kaleidescape adds iPad control, ultrawidescreen support to its media servers

Two years after launching its iPhone remote, Kaleidescape has brought a new iPad app to CEDIA 2011 that gives owners of its media servers full control of their media from anywhere in the house. Users can browse their collections based on various metadata, jump directly to favorite scenes of stored movies, or control displays and audio in other rooms of the house. Also new for 2011 is support for 2.35 widescreen viewing with its CinemaScape feature, a software upgrade that can automatically process the video internally and reformats the UI as well. Check after the break for a quick demo of the iPad app which will launch later this year as a free add-on — assuming you can afford the hardware of course.

Continue reading Kaleidescape adds iPad control, ultrawidescreen support to its media servers

Kaleidescape adds iPad control, ultrawidescreen support to its media servers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Robopocalypse coming soon to a theater near you, Spielberg to smother it in PG

The Robopocalypse is coming — just not in the way you’d feared. DreamWorks and Twentieth Century Fox have joined movie-making forces to reanimate Daniel H. Wilson’s fictional (for now) literary account of a future, robot-helmed doomsday. The studios have thrown some guy named Steven Spielberg behind the lens of this cinematic cautionary tale, and plan to scare the bejeezus out of us all when it premieres July 3, 2013 — that’s if we make it past the Mayan end of the world. No casting was mentioned in the project’s announcement, so we’ll continue to cross our toes in the hopes a certain daytime show couch jumper and film star-turned-pilot don’t join in on the blockbuster fear-mongering.

Continue reading Robopocalypse coming soon to a theater near you, Spielberg to smother it in PG

Robopocalypse coming soon to a theater near you, Spielberg to smother it in PG originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Harman Kardon SB16 Sound Bar Lightning Review: How Much Is Good Sound Worth?

At $600, Harman Kardon’s SB16 sound bar is intended for someone who isn’t quite impressed with a $200 soundbar, but doesn’t want to drop $1000 on one that will inspire envy. More »

Samsung outs new Blu-ray and media hub drives: dammit, the ODD still lives

You’ve seen our musings on the continued relevance of optical drives and it seems Samsung agrees entirely: it’s just announced two external spinners to keep pace with our “evolving mobile entertainment demands.” Er, great Sammy, but how? First off, there’s the USB-powered SE-506AB Blu-ray writer depicted above, which will give that awful Pacific boxset one last chance on your ODD-neutered Mac or netbook. But that’s not nearly as interesting as the SE-208BW CD/DVD writer, which doubles as a WiFi media hub to stream music and movies to your smartphone, tablet or PC. It works the other way round too: letting you backup content from your mobile device direct to a disc. It even supports Dynamic DNS and can cooperate with a flash drive or HDD to become a “personal cloud server.” Still not impressed? This wonder drive additionally functions as a WiFi extender, or it can create an access point from scratch when cabled up to your network. Man, that’s ODD OD. The media hub will arrive at the beginning of 2012, while the new Blu-ray drive should be out any time now. No word on pricing, but check out the PR double-shot after the break for the full specs.

Continue reading Samsung outs new Blu-ray and media hub drives: dammit, the ODD still lives

Samsung outs new Blu-ray and media hub drives: dammit, the ODD still lives originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MoviePass, a Netflix for theaters, gets another shot

Movie tickets are expensive. With prices as high as they are, it almost feels like a luxury to go see a film. A new service, MoviePass, has sought and still seeks to avert the high prices by bringing a subscription service to the big screen. After massive opposition from theaters, MoviePass has a second life […]

iTunes Celebrates the Wrong Kind of Labor Day

For Halloween, the iTunes storefront highlights scary movies. For Christmas, flicks about Santa Claus. For Valentine’s Day, Valentine’s Day. And for this Labor Day? Babies! Because hey, ’tis the season. For… pregnancy? More »

Why Does Disney Insist on Shitting All Over My Memories?

Dear Disney, More »

Personal subtitle glasses from Sony may get trial run in UK next year

Subtitle Glasses

It’s been quite a while since we’ve heard any news about those spiffy specs that put private subtitles in your field of view. It looks like they’re finally inching closer to reality though, with some help from Sony’s UK arm. The BBC recently took hard-of-hearing Brit Charlie Swinbourne to the theater and let him give the glasses a go. Rather than displaying subtitles on screen the eye-wear projects text on the lenses where only that particular user can see them. Going to see a French film in an American cinema, but your first language is Spanish? One day you could pick your language, in addition to keeping the captions out of other movie goers way. Sony hopes to trial the glasses in UK theaters next year. Check out the source link for the full report.

Personal subtitle glasses from Sony may get trial run in UK next year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Which Hulu Bidder Should You Be Rooting For?

Hulu has been for sale for awhile now, but the WSJ says the initial bids are about to trickle in. Who’s interested? Google, Yahoo, Amazon and DirectTV (where’s Microsoft?). More »