Hasta La Gadget!

It’s a more rounded and sports a little more chrome than Google’s recent redesign efforts, but the new YouTube Cosmic Panda experiment does bring the darker UI elements and polished feel of Google+ to the video sharing service. This is much more than a fresh coat of paint however, navigating the site is a much more interactive experience now and you can continue to watch videos as you search and browse — provided you’re using Chrome. Channel pages have also been completely overhauled with large images for each video, several layout templates, and easier to use customization options. Playlists have also been revamped and now bear more than a passing resemblance to Leanback. The one thing missing at the moment is integration with Google+ and the new navigation bar, but we’re sure those features will be added eventually (and if they’re not, then the Goog has really dropped the ball). You can opt in now by heading to source link.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

YouTube Cosmic Panda experiment adds darker UI, lots of spit and polish originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 02:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aching to ditch your cable box, but can’t bear to let go of that sweet, commercial-skipping DVR? If the folks behind PlayOn get their way, you won’t have to. MediaMall launched the beta for PlayLater this week, a service it’s calling “the world’s first DVR for online video.” The idea of a DVR for the internet sounds a little wonky at first, but it is an accurate description of the program’s facilities — pick a network (Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc.), a show, and an episode, and PlayLater downloads your selection to your computer’s hard drive for belated enjoyment. Simple? Sure, but not without a catch — anything PlayLater pulls down it wraps in a neat layer of DRM, locking that content to the PC that downloaded it. Time-shifting Hulu will set you back $5 a month, but beta testers (the first 5,000, at least) can score a free month just for trying it out. Hit the break for a press release and additional details.

Continue reading MediaMall’s PlayLater brings DVR to internet video

MediaMall’s PlayLater brings DVR to internet video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Space nerds, get your browsers ready — UrtheCast will soon be streaming HD video of Earth straight from the ISS. The system will actually consists of a pair of cameras, one still and one video, that will be mounted on the Russian arm of the station. The still shots will be very wide, covering about 30 miles with a resolution of 18-feet per pixel. Much more exciting will be the three feet per-pixel stream of 3.25fps video that will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You probably won’t be able to see yourself waving as the ISS passes overhead, but you should be able to spot your cardboard box fort house. The feeds won’t be your typical boring NASA fare either — you’ll be able to search, rewind, and tag objects or events, and UrtheCast is providing APIs for developers to build upon the service. The project won’t be launching until June 28th, so bide your time by checking out the video and PR after the break.

Continue reading UrtheCast to stream live HD footage of Earth from ISS, like Stickam for space

UrtheCast to stream live HD footage of Earth from ISS, like Stickam for space originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jun 2011 09:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Cloud Engines updates Pogoplug’s software-only version with OneView, enhanced iOS support

Cloud Engines updates Pogoplug’s software-only version with OneView, enhanced iOS support originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With all the hubbub surrounding competing 3DTV technology, it’s easy to forget the all important delivery process: how is your TV getting its content, and what does it mean for the viewer? It may seem trivial, but the answer is all-too important to the folks at NHK, who are hoping to facilitate Full HD delivery for 3D content using a new hybrid broadcast system. Think you already have Full HD 3D? Think again: most broadcast 3D content is delivered via side by side transmission, forcing two images (one for each eye) into a single 1080p frame. This allows 3D content to pipe through existing HD channels, but when the separate images are reconstituted and upscaled, resolution and picture quality suffer. NHK hopes to resolve this by fusing broadcast transmission with broadband streaming, what it calls Hybridcast. In a recent dual-stream demo, NHK sent the image for one eye over standard HD TV broadcast pipes, and the other through those wondrous internet tubes, eventually reassembling the two streams into a single, Full HD image, ready for your hungry eyeballs. This prototype delivery system is little more than a demo right now, but with any luck, it’ll be giving us a whole new reason to freak out about broadband bandwidth caps in the near future.

NHK demos Hybridcast streaming, teams up internet and cable TV for superior 3D delivery originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 04:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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