Hasta La Gadget!

Confirming the theory that one day soon everything will have an app store of some kind, Verizon has launched its Widget Bazaar for FiOS TV, dedicated to bringing new interactive experiences to FiOS TV subscribers, starting with Facebook, Twitter, and ESPN Fantasy Football. Don’t expect to tap out 140 character missives via remote for now, at launch viewers can only view tweets, not post them or log in to their own accounts, although updating Facebook status and personalized ESPN Fantasy Football info is available. Verizon has promised to publish its SDK to enable “open development” (limited to a select group of developers of course) which should bring many free & for-pay apps to join the current (free) offerings by year-end. Also made official is the addition of searching and viewing video from blip.tv, Dailymotion and Veoh, plus the long awaited ability to stream personal videos from a connected PC, available free of charge to Home Media DVR customers. No word yet on what codecs the updated Home Media Manager software will support for transcoding to MPEG-2 and streaming to the set-top box so keep those MKVs holstered for now and check a few screens of the apps in action in our gallery or a quick video walkthrough embedded after the break.

Update: Verizon let us know it will support FLV, WMV, MPEG-1, AVI, MPG, PM4/M4V, 3GP/3G2

Continue reading Verizon gives FiOS TV some app store, social media flavor

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet

Verizon gives FiOS TV some app store, social media flavor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MoonFruit, a free web-building provider, is celebrating its 10th birthday. To kick off the joyous event, the service is giving away 10 new Macbook Pros–one each for 10 days, that is. All you have to do is twitter about it.

Include #moonfruit tag in any tweet, and maybe you’ll be one of the lucky winners. There has already been a victor for day one, by the name of gecko84 from the UK. So who’s next?

Sure VIZIO only just showed off new updates in its high end XVT series, but it’s already planning the next generation of LCDs with VIZIO Internet Apps included. Packing widget functionality, 802.11n wireless networking and slider QWERTY Bluetooth remote, the SV422XVT, SV472XVT and VF552XVT Connected HDTVs are coming home in November, October and December, respectively. Already on deck to serve up content for your widgets are Vudu, Revision3, Facebook, Twitter, Rhapsody, Blockbuster OnDemand, Showtime, Flickr and more. The biggest surprise? There’s apparently no price premium planned for these features, with the 55-inch clocking in at the same $2,199 price as the model it’s replacing, though the 47-inch jumps $200 over the previous edition to $1,699, while adding the local dimming LED backlit technology previously reserved for the 55-inch. The 42-inch will be the first and cheapest available at $1,199 (sans LED) — we’ll see if that bar is low enough to get viewers to jump into the internet-connected display future.

Read – VIZIO Announces High Performance XVT HDTV Line Up with 240Hz SPS(TM), TruLED(TM) and Smart Dimming(TM) Technology, VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA), and Slim Line(TM) 120Hz LCD HDTV Models
Read – VIZIO Unveils Rhapsody Digital Music Service for VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA(TM)) Connected HDTVs
Read – VIZIO Reveals Dynamic New Content Partners for VIZIO Internet Apps Connected HDTV Feature

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

VIZIO Internet App HDTVs launch later this year, for less than you might expect originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on April 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

I’ve been meaning to give Digsby a spin ever since the public Beta was released about two weeks ago. It looked like it was a well designed cross-network (and cross-platform) instant messenger, and it offered quite a few features that no other instant messengers have touched on before. And after having used it for only about 30 minutes I think I may have found myself a new messenger. In case you’re wondering it is free!

As you would expect with a cross-network messenger this one supports all of the major networks, just like the open-source Pidgin does. In addition to those you can also add some social networks like Twitter or Facebook where you can change your status from within Digsby. Still not impressed? Here’s a list of some of my favorite features it has:

• AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber messenger account support
• Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook support
• Check Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail. AOL, IMAP, or POP accounts for new mail
• Reply to instant messages directly from the popup notifications
• Tabbed conversations
• Audio/video chatting provided by TokBox
• Inline spell checking
• Update your status with the music you’re currently listening to
• Complete synchronization across computers (including everything from skins to status messages you create)

One of the coolest features has got to be the fact that you can reply to messages from within the notification window that pops up. I mean really, that is pure genius right there. No more having to switch back to the chat window just to send a quick reply! What a huge time saver.

It’s also been difficult for me to find a good application or messenger that can support checking multiple email accounts, and also provide decent notifications when the new mail arrives. That’s one of the reasons I’ve really grown keen to Digsby. Not to mention that the interface is very easy on the eyes:

If you haven’t been content with your instant messenger then I recommend checking out Digsby. It’s completely free, and works on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

• Digsby Getting Performance Improvements
• New Digsby Getting Huge Performance Boost
• Daily Downloads: Digsby, Launchy, and More
• Yahoo! Web Messenger is Quite Good
• When will Google Talk Work with AIM?

Microsoft is busy announcing a slew of upgrades to Xbox Live, and the biggest news so far is relaunch of the video service, now Zune-branded with 1080p instant-on streaming content in 18 countries. XBL is also now integrated with Facebook — your Facebook account can be linked to your Gamertag, and games will support Facebook Connect for sharing content online. That’s pretty huge — but if that wasn’t enough, you’re also getting Twitter and Last.fm in the deal. Want more? Netflix users will now be able to browse the entire catalog instead of simply loading their queue, and Microsoft has also gotten its Party Watch system in order, so you’ll be able to heckle videos with your online friends. Last but not least, there’s now live TV streaming for UK and Ireland gamers, who’ll get Premier League soccer live from Sky. All in all, a solid set of updates for XBL — but we’ll wait and see how that “1080p” video looks before we pronounce Blu-ray dead. PR blurb after the break.

Continue reading Xbox Live gets 1080p Zune video store, Netflix browsing, Twitter and Facebook integration

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Xbox Live gets 1080p Zune video store, Netflix browsing, Twitter and Facebook integration originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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