Hasta La Gadget!

We won’t get into the myriad ways to impress one’s audience while engaging in a live video podcast, but here’s one that slides into the ‘surefire’ category. The crafty folks over at MAKE decided to construct an automated On Air light for their new live sessions, and rather than automating it with a human hand flipping a switch at a predetermined time, they decided to wire it up to receive signals from a UStream API. In essence, the light is programmed to turn on when the podcast shows ‘online,’ and turn off when that status changes to ‘offline.’ It’s a beautifully simple concept, and yet, so illuminating. See for yourself after the break.

Continue reading Networked ‘On Air’ light illuminates when webcast begins, dims when it ends (video)

Networked ‘On Air’ light illuminates when webcast begins, dims when it ends (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were looking for something more worthwhile to spend Facebook credits on than virtual trinkets for some game, Warner has an idea: all those movies you said you “liked.” Starting today it is testing out a plan to rent movies right on their respective pages for 30 Facebook credits / $3 each. The first one on deck is The Dark Knight (again?) which should be live later today, with more available to rent or purchase in the future. there’s no word on resolution or other features, but at the price we’re assuming SD only. Full details are in the press release after the break, but the rentals have the standard 48-hour VOD window and can be paused/resumed simply by logging back into Facebook. In its current state, we doubt Netflix, Amazon and the rest have anything to worry about as far as competition, but maybe Warner thinks it can snag a few bucks from simply making sure there’s a buy button of some kind awaiting our various identities in as many places as possible.

Continue reading Warner Bros. starts renting movies via Facebook

Warner Bros. starts renting movies via Facebook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know all that rumor and speculation about Apple launching a subscription-based streaming music service? Forget it — at least until the next rumor comes along. Bloomberg is citing three people with knowledge of private talks between Apple, Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music to make purchased music more easily accessible to iTunes users. Two sources claim that an agreement could be announced by midyear. Contrary to popular speculation aroused by Apple’s purchase of Lala, they’re not talking about streaming music from Apple’s new North Carolina data center scheduled to come online in the spring. According to Bloomberg‘s sources, Apple is instead, planning to offer unlimited downloads to any device linked to the same iTunes account. So, purchase a track on your iPhone and download it again for free to your iPad without having to go back and tether the mobile device to your PC or Mac for a sync. Hard disk crash? No worries, there’s a permanent backup in the cloud. Of course, there’s nothing preventing Apple from providing unlimited downloads in parallel with a streaming service except for the labels and artists who prefer the higher revenues paid out by download services. Then again, if it was left to them we’d still be buying our music on $15 CDs.

Incidentally, one Bloomberg source was also caught blabbing about Apple’s plans to overhaul the MobileMe service to store pictures, video, and other online content sometime this year. Better yet, it could drop from $99 per year to free — something already reported by the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago.

Apple working on unlimited downloads of purchased iTunes music, setting MobileMe free? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a slow climb since Netflix first announced it was adding closed captioning to the PC and Mac in early 2010, but today’s blog post indicates its reached 30% of the available titles. So far platforms on the second revision of its streaming frontend like the PS3, Boxee Box, Google TV and Nintendo Wii support optional captions while the Xbox 360 and Roku players should “later this year.” Of course, while its per-episode count is significantly higher, it’s still only a few hundred of Netflix’s available series, and deaf/hard of hearing users face problems like having some episodes subbed while others aren’t. Netflix’s new page breaking out supported titles should help, while nc-mac-asl’s blog or InstantWatcher.com also can provide a filter. The plan is apparently to have subtitles on 80% of content by the end of the year and here’s hoping it gets to 100% soon — makes our quibbling over 5.1 surround sound seem sort of trivial doesn’t it? (But, while we’re on the subject, Netflix, where’s 5.1 on non-PS3 clients?)

Netflix: 30 percent of Watch Instantly titles subbed with more on the way, plus Xbox & Roku support originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This technology will allow me to broadcast live video on two cameras (using either skype or FaceTime to a local studio for re-broadcast), send live location/pace/heart rate data via Runkeeperon the iPhone, transmit temperature, COx/humidity/noise levels via a custom-made Android app – and do all of this while looking incredibly cool.