Hasta La Gadget!

We had a sinking feeling from day one that this so-called “evil plot to destroy the world” was really just an evil plot to eventually invade our wallets, and unfortunately for the freeloaders in attendance, it’s looking all the more likely that at least some portion of Hulu won’t be free for much longer. We heard back in January that bigwigs surrounding the streaming service were tossing around various pay-for-access schemes, and now the LA Times has it that a bona fide subscription service could go into effect as early as May 24th. Under the terms, which were disclosed by those oh-so-knowledgeable “people familiar with the matter,” viewers would be asked to pay $9.95 per month for access to episodes that weren’t brand new. We’re told that Hulu would continue to provide the five most recent episodes of hit shows for free, but a Hulu Plus pass would be required to view shows older than that. Not surprisingly, Hulu failed to comment on the allegations, but it’s safe to say we’ll know exactly how legitimate the claims are in just over a month.

Hulu Plus subscription service rumored: $9.95 a month for access to older shows originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate’s FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player has quite a few competitors surrounding it, and for the most part, it didn’t really offer a huge competitive advantage when we peeked it back in September. ‘Course, that’s before support for Netflix‘s Watch Instantly came along, and today, the tables seem to have turned. The aforesaid storage outfit has announced that a gratis firmware update will enable this here player to stream Netflix as well as content from YouTube, vTuner and Mediafly. For those just now willing to give this unit a second look, it also doubles as a UPnP / DLNA streamer to play content stored on networked PCs and drives, and it can procured for right around $100 sans a FreeAgent HDD. So, Roku — you just going to sit there and take this, or what?

Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player gains Netflix streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS O!Play AIR reviewed, deemed ‘capable’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we all wait patiently for Apple to concoct its own subscription-based, unlimited music streaming service (hello, Lala acquisition!), MOG is jumping on the opportunity right away. Er, almost right away. Down in Austin this week, the company announced that an iPhone and Android app would be out “in early Q2” in order to bring unlimited music streaming to both operating systems for $10 per month. We’re told that a catalog of seven million songs will be available, but there’s no way to know if 6.99 million are of the “no one cares” variety. At any rate, your monthly fee will also allow unlimited streaming from the desktop, but alas, you’ll be left with nothing but hollow memories should you ever stop ponying up. In related news, Rhapsody has announced (video after the break) that offline playback support is coming to the iPhone, with the updated app expected to be passed along for Apple’s confirmation “shortly.” Granted, the Rhapsody to Go subscription is $5 per month more than MOG’s option, but with all this competition popping up, we wouldn’t be shocked to see that slide lower in due time.

Continue reading MOG bringing unlimited music streaming to iPhone and Android, Rhapsody taking iPhone music offline

MOG bringing unlimited music streaming to iPhone and Android, Rhapsody taking iPhone music offline originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look out, OnLive — you’ve got company. InstantAction is having their coming out party at GDC, and we stopped by for a lengthy chat about the technology, its future and the hopes / dreams of the company. Put simply (or as simply as possible), IA has developed a browser-based plug-in that allows full games to be played on any web browser so long as said browser is on a machine capable of handling the game. In other words, you’ll still need a beast of a machine to play games like Crysis, but the fact that you can play them on a web browser opens up a new world of possibilities for casual gamers and independent developers. You’ll also be notified before your download starts if your machine and / or OS can handle things, with recommendations given on what it would take to make your system capable.

Oh, and speaking of operating systems — games will only be played back if they’re supported on a given OS, so you won’t be able to play a Windows only title within a browser on OS X or Linux. Rather than taking the typical streaming approach, these guys are highlighting “chunking.” In essence, a fraction of the game’s total file size has to be downloaded locally onto your machine, and once that occurs, you can begin playing. As an example, we were playing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition — which is the sole title announced for the platform so far, though Assassin’s Creed was demoed — within minutes, and since you’re curious, that’s a 2.5GB game, and we were on a connection that wasn’t much faster than a typical broadband line.

More after the break…

Continue reading InstantAction streams full games to any web browser, gives indie developers a business model (video)

InstantAction streams full games to any web browser, gives indie developers a business model (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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