Vizio and OnLive mulling subscription-based video services for next year

As if we didn’t already know that video on demand was the hot new ticket, the Wall Street Journal is today reporting that a couple more companies are ready to throw their hats into the ring. OnLive, the cloud gaming upstart, has confirmed its intention to offer up a subscription-based movie streaming service at some point next year, while HDTV vendor Vizio is said to also be looking at its options. What makes these new guys intriguing (aside from the fact that Vizio sells a lot of TVs in the US) is the general feeling among media companies that Netflix is growing uncomfortably big and should be diversified away from. Well, whatever happens, neither we nor content distributors should be strapped for VOD choice come 2011. Hit the source link for a more expansive look at the current situation.

Vizio and OnLive mulling subscription-based video services for next year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  sourceWall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

Verizon hosting 4G LTE news conference tomorrow to discuss launch plans

Guess what people, Verizon’s LTE network launch is really for real and the carrier has now scheduled a news conference for tomorrow where it’ll discuss its December plans in more detail. Tony Melone, VZW’s chief tech officer, will be on hand to answer any questions beyond the already known plans for 38 metropolitan areas to get the 4G LTE treatment — accounting for a cool 110 million Americans who’ll be able to ride the lightning of faster internet speeds on the move. The event kicks off at 12PM and we’ll make sure to tune in, if only to find out what Tony’s answer is to the inevitable “what is 4G” question.

[Thanks, Henry]

Verizon hosting 4G LTE news conference tomorrow to discuss launch plans originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Peter Jackson nabs thirty RED EPIC cameras to film The Hobbit, tempt you to blow your savings

We’re still slightly bummed that Peter Jackson never made Halo, but this should patch things up a tad — the Lord of the Rings director will film The Hobbit in 3D entirely on thirty hand-machined RED EPIC cameras, starting early next year. That’s the news straight from RED founder Jim Jannard, but that’s not all, as a limited number of pre-production EPIC packages will be available to early adopters as well. $58,000 buys your deep-pocketed budding director a machined EPIC-M body, titanium PL mount, Bomb EVF and 5-inch touchscreen LCD, a REDmote, a four-pack of batteries, a charger and a solid state storage module with a four-pack of 128GB SSDs. Jannard expects to hand-assemble that first batch of 5K imagers in December or January, start the real assembly lines a month after that, and hopefully have widespread availability by NAB in April, though he’s not making any promises there. That’s how RED rolls. PR after the break.

[Thanks, Patrick]

Continue reading Peter Jackson nabs thirty RED EPIC cameras to film The Hobbit, tempt you to blow your savings

Peter Jackson nabs thirty RED EPIC cameras to film The Hobbit, tempt you to blow your savings originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mitsubishi i is the new name of the i MiEV for American market, coming next fall for $30,000

Mitsubishi promised it’d bring the i MiEV over to the US before 2012 and now it’s rehashed that pledge with a slightly more detailed roadmap and an indicative price point to boot. Maurice Durand, the company’s communications manager for North America, is quoted as saying the newly renamed i will cost “around $30,000” when it launches, which is expected to happen in fall 2011. Sales expectations are a very modest 20,000 units by 2015, but apparently the idea is for Mitsu to just get its foot in the US electric vehicle market before introducing more powerful and versatile people carriers. The i is pitched as primarily a commuter’s vehicle, though it has been enlarged slightly to accommodate US safety regulations and “larger frame people.” Be honest, Maurice, you mean larger waistline, not frame.

Mitsubishi i is the new name of the i MiEV for American market, coming next fall for $30,000 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple bringing iAds to Europe in December, nobody rejoices

If there’s one benefit to living in the technological backwater that is Europe, it’s that “innovations” like iAds take a little longer to filter though — but filter through they eventually do, as evidenced by Apple’s announcement that its mobile advertising platform is hitting the Old World this December. French and British iOS users will get to enjoy being pestered by L’Oreal, Renault, Louis Vuitton, Nespresso, Perrier, and Unilever next month, while their German counterparts will have their lives enriched in January. This follows on the heels of news that iAds is headed to Japan in early 2011 as well, covering the biggest developed markets with glorious promotional material. Advertisers don’t seem to be shying away from the platform, either, as Apple boasts it has signed up half of the top 25 US ad buyers (as judged by Ad Age). Full press release follows after the break.

Continue reading Apple bringing iAds to Europe in December, nobody rejoices

Apple bringing iAds to Europe in December, nobody rejoices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 04:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp plans 3D smartphones for US, China and India in 2011

It might be all Japanese to you now, but Sharp’s autostereoscopic 3D is coming to a smartphone near you next year. The tech will debut next month on the Softbank-bound Galapagos 003SH and 005SH Android handsets, but now Sharp has confirmed its intention to also bring it Stateside as well as to two of the world’s most populous nations in China and India. It’s not yet exactly clear what handsets those markets will be getting, but if you’re looking for further signs of Sharp’s expanding international ambition, the company’s reported to also be contemplating extending its e-reading tablet platform out to the US and China. Taken alongside Panasonic’s recently announced plans to start selling Android smartphones globally in 2012, this does suggest we might soon be watching a neat little resurgence from our buddies from the land of the rising sun.

Sharp plans 3D smartphones for US, China and India in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink 3D-Display-info  |  sourceMainichi Daily News  | Email this | Comments

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: NVIDIA chief calls Galaxy Tab ‘a large phone,’ can’t wait to show you some real tablets

We’ve literally been waiting for Tegra 2 tablets since CES in January, but that isn’t stopping NVIDIA boss Jen-Hsun Huang from extolling their virtues yet again, this time on a roadmap that points to just after next year‘s CES. In his company’s most recent quarterly results call, Huang was bullish about the disruptive potential of tablets, but insisted that they can’t simply be built like the Galaxy Tab (or the Folio 100, for that matter), which uses a smartphone OS stretched out to a larger screen. “A tablet is not a large phone,” says Huang, and he’s of course not alone in expressing frustration with Android’s current immaturity for the tablet realm, but once Google’s slate-friendly OS update drops, he promises NVIDIA will be ready to capitalize: “Our tablet and phone business is going to ramp. And it’s going to ramp hard.” We’re looking forward to all this ramping, oh yes we are.

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: NVIDIA chief calls Galaxy Tab ‘a large phone,’ can’t wait to show you some real tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 03:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hanvon’s color e-reader up for pre-order in China — for just $530

We’ll rarely be accused of being proper economists here, but we do have to question Hanvon’s calculations in throwing up a pre-order price for its brand new color e-reader of 3,500 Chinese Yuan. That’s the report coming out of DigiTimes this morning, placing the device at around the $530 mark in a market that’s not exactly known for its rampant consumption of tech luxuries. Then again, what we’re talking about here will indeed be the very first E Ink Triton-equipped device anywhere once deliveries commence in February, so there’s the cachet of short-term exclusivity to look forward to. Or it might be very long-term exclusivity if nobody thinks that color is worth paying that massive premium over more conventional e-readers. We shall wait and see.

Hanvon’s color e-reader up for pre-order in China — for just $530 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 05:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD GPU roadmap points to a happy 2011 for Radeon lovers

The ATI name might be dead, but Radeon graphics cards are only growing bigger, bolder and better. AMD’s recent financial analyst day has made official what many of us already knew or suspected: there’ll be three new high-end GPUs forthcoming in the first quarter of 2011. The slides explicitly describe the recently launched HD 6870 / 6850 as mere refreshes, aiming to bring HD 5800 series performance in a more efficient package, but peek beyond them and you’ll see an armada of HD 6900 chips just itching to bring the fight to NVIDIA and its newly crowned GTX 580 king of the single-GPU hill. No specs yet, of course, but at least we now know there’ll be some fireworks to greet us early in the new year. Oh, and if the mobile realm is more your thing, we’ve got a shot of AMD’s plans on that front waiting for you just after the break.

Continue reading AMD GPU roadmap points to a happy 2011 for Radeon lovers

AMD GPU roadmap points to a happy 2011 for Radeon lovers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel Light Peak on track for release in first half of 2011?

10Gbps. In both directions. At the same time. That’s been the tantalizing promise of Intel’s Light Peak optical interconnect, and now we’re hearing its penchant for speed is overflowing into the company’s roadmap. CNET cites a source familiar with developments behind the scenes in reporting that Light Peak is expected to arrive in the early part of next year, slightly accelerating the already known plans for delivering the technology at some point in 2011. We’ve already been graced with a set of Light Peak-enabled prototypes, so you could’ve guessed things were gathering pace, but it’s always good to get the odd bit of anonymous confirmation that things are moving along swiftly. And hey, when Light Peak hardware finally drops, we can just switch gears and start salivating over improvements that’ll lift that 10Gbps ceiling even further.

Intel Light Peak on track for release in first half of 2011? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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