Stop watching movies and TV shows according to Hollywood’s schedule! With video-on-demand, you can watch TV whenever you want, wherever you want, and you don’t even have to remember to program a box to record it. Here’s MaximumPC’s take on the major online VOD services available today. More »
Early previews of a new update for the Boxee Box mentioned a couple of different version numbers, but now the company has settled on v1.1 for the software update (sorry, still nothing for PCs) it’s rolling out over the next few days with a slew of new features. VP of Marketing Andrew Kippen confirms the “huge browser update” he’d mentioned earlier is included with the following features: favorites, history, a better UI to show more of the picture and include more options, plus expanded HTML5 capabilities that should fix login problems for HBO Go. There’s no mention of iPad support, but the whole on screen display has been trimmed with a new seek bar for more precise FF/Rewind action, along with support for customized local metadata and NFO files, a new MLB.tv app and two new content partners including the worst TV channel ever and SnagFilms. One thing that’s been removed? Volume controls, which Boxee says “improves consistency” and makes it the same as any standard Blu-ray player. As usual, the update will be issued automatically, but if you just can’t wait you can force it manually, check the source links for details, more screenshots and a full changelog.
Boxee Box v1.1 update includes improved browser, playback controls and more originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Google is kicking off its I/O developers conference Tuesday and the search giant is gearing up for a rousing keynote and a two-day conference filled with hardware and software announcements. More »
While we’ve been enjoying Apple’s and Netflix’s strong and extensive streaming movie libraries, YouTube’s been plotting a little jugular strike, sucking the streaming juice with a movie service of its own. Today, it’s real. More »
Gallery: Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air
Continue reading Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air review
Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
We were bowled over from the start by Intel’s Wireless Display technology, which lets you stream HD content from select laptops to an HDTV (with the help of a small adapter, of course). But while WiDi’s been good for watching The Colbert Report on Hulu and streaming flicks stored on your hard drive, it hasn’t played so nice with DVDs and Blu-rays. At last, though, Intel is supporting HDCP-protected discs (along with some online content) through a free driver update. One catch: it only applies to Sandy Bridge laptops, which just started shipping this spring. If your notebook’s a few months too old, well, using an HDMI cable isn’t the worst consolation prize.
Intel refreshes Wireless Display with support for DRM-protected DVDs, Blu-rays originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 10:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
American Airlines would like you to pay for movies and shows you’re used to getting for free to give you a new way to keep yourselves entertained at 30,000 feet. The airline is testing Aircell’s forthcoming service that will let you stream flicks and TV programs to your own WiFi-enabled device. Aircell, the company behind Gogo in-flight WiFi, is curating the library of content, and for now, it’s unclear just how extensive the selection will be (last time we checked, the company was staying mum about content partners). And we definitely wonder how smooth the streaming will be on a crowded flight full of web surfers… you know, considering that Gogo already compresses JPEGs on everyday websites. And really, it had better be — otherwise, you’re better off with the complimentary shows and movies bundled into that built-in entertainment center right in front of you. All questions that will get answered when the service launches this fall.
American Airlines testing in-flight media streaming, staying curiously mum about content selection originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 13:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Here we go again with a good news / bad news announcement from Vudu, as it’s added a nice catalog of TV shows to its library for rent and/or purchase. The bad news however, is that despite having the 1080p / 5.1 audio HDX technology we’ve come to know and love, it’s currently only offering a small subset of them in anything other than standard definition. Like other online stores, there’s an odd situation where some things are a decent value (season one of The Walking Dead is $26.99 on Blu-ray at Amazon, $15.99 on iTunes in HD, and $16.99 on Vudu HDX) and others are not (season six of Weeds is $27.99 on Vudu HDX, $23.99 on Blu-ray at Amazon and $38.87 on iTunes) so shop carefully. Given time the library will probably even out more in quality and price and once Vudu is available on more devices (and hopefully in HD on the PC at some point) there will be more reasons to consider it as a VOD option.
Vudu adds TV shows to its rental catalog, but only some are in HD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 05:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Woah there, Mr. Speedy. We’ve barely caught up with the 10Gbps Thunderbolt interconnect, debuted in the new Macbook Pro, and now Intel’s hyperactive researchers are already chattering away about something five times faster. They’re promising a new interconnect, ready in four years, that will combine silicon and optical components (a technology called silicon photonics) to pump 50Gbps over distances of up to 100m. That’s the sort of speed Intel predicts will be necessary to handle, say, ultra-HD 4k video being streamed between smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes and TVs. Intel insists that poor old Mr. Thunderbolt won’t be forced into early retirement, but if we were him we’d be speaking to an employment lawyer right about now.
Intel touts 50Gbps interconnect by 2015, will make it work with tablets and smartphones too originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 06:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Okay, so if you had to guess a name for an Apple service that exists in the cloud it’s pretty safe to say you’d pick “iCloud,” right? Good, now that we’re past the obvious, there are some slightly more compelling indicators out there that this may indeed be what Apple is going to call its (presumably) soon-to-launch music streaming service. We received anonymous tips about this name in the past, and now Om Malik is reporting some interesting history, that the domain iCloud.com is owned by a company called Xcerion, which recently re-branded its cloud-based storage service from iCloud to CloudMe. TechCrunch reached out to the company and got a beautifully-worded non-denial talking about how the new name better embraces the company’s cross-platform approach. That it does, but the timing is interesting. Obviously nothing is confirmed, but with Warner and at least one other of the big four record labels signed on, we’d guess the real name for this service should be drifting into view any time now.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Apple’s cloud streaming service to be called iCloud? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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