Please note: the competition is now closed. The winner has been announced.

The 31 Days of the Dragon giveaway continues, and today it’s our turn.

To qualify for a chance of winning a top of the line HP HDX Dragon Entertainment Notebook loaded with features and software — 20.1″ display, Intel Core 2 Extreme x9000, 4GB of Ram, Blu-Ray drive and lots more including a good few games and Blu-Ray movies to get you started (total retail price approx $5,000) — you’ll need to do the following:

1. Leave a comment on this post listing your top five digital lifestyle products and/or services. They don’t need to all be products you own, and they could be digital lifestyle services you use, but they must all be currently available. It would also be useful to add in brackets what they do (see example below).
2. Make sure you leave a working email address in the ‘email’ field of the comments form.
3. You may only enter once.
4. If you are the winner and based in the U.S. you must be willing to file a tax return form with Buzz Corps who are administrating the competition. However, they will issue a check to offset the taxes in the U.S. relating to the prize.
5. After seven days from this post, the winner will be chosen randomly from all complete entries.
6. Our decision is final and we reserve the right to change the rules if there has been an omission on our part or we suspect unfair conduct on the part of an entrant.

As an example, my top five current digital lifestyle products and services are:

• iPod touch
• BBC iPlayer (for iPhone/iPod touch)
• PlayStayion 3
• Zattoo (Live TV on a PC)
• Pandora (Internet radio)

Good luck!

Other sites where you can still enter the Dragon…

09 May - 16 May www.thedigitallifestyle.com
10 May - 17 May www.digitalhomethoughts.com
11 May - 18 May www.windows-now.com
12 May - 19 May www.windowsconnected.com
13 May - 20 May www.geekstogo.com
14 May - 21 May bink.nu
15 May - 22 May www.mediablab.com
16 May - 23 May www.last100.com
17 May - 24 May www.labnol.org
18 May - 25 May www.notebooks.com
19 May - 26 May www.slashdotreview.com
20 May - 27 May www.neowin.net
21 May - 28 May www.geek.com
22 May - 29 Mau www.lockergnome.com
23 May - 30 May www.planetx64.com
24 May - 31 May www.thegreenbutton.com
25 May - 01 Jun www.istartedsomething.com
26 May - 02 Jun www.bleepingcomputer.com
27 May - 03 Jun www.hardwaregeeks.com
28 May - 04 Jun www.geeknewscentral.com
29 May - 05 Jun www.geekzone.co.nz
30 May - 06 Jun www.thetabletpc.net
31 May - 07 Jun www.gearlive.com
01 Jun - 08 Jun www.gottabemobile.com

Please note: the competition is now closed. The winner has been announced.

I screamed then, I’m screaming now. NBC Direct, version 2, still disappoints. It’s like NBC is working overtime to piss off its users, or at least force them to use its other online video service Hulu.

NBC opened a second beta trial of NBC Direct, its Web-based video-on-demand (VOD) download service. The new-and-supposedly-improved Direct is now powered by peer-to-peer content distribution from Pando.

NBC Direct, in the works now for nearly a year, is a free download service for NBC programs. It requires a software install (still Windows only); the shows expire in seven days and 48 hours after you begin watching; and include advertising. Direct was universally panned when version 1 debuted last November.

The panning continues.

Continue reading “Just like version 1 of NBC Direct, version 2 will leave you screaming in frustration” »

Soulseek, which was creted by former Napster programmer Nir Arbel and visibly resembles early versions of Napster, is not one of the most popular filesharing apps. It doesn’t have the mainstream appeal of Kazaa or Limewire, nor does it garner the press attention of BitTorrent. And that’s all probably fine with its users, who tend to gravitate toward more independent musical fare. But Soulseek has done something the others haven’t — made the jump to the iPhone.

Developer Errrick created iSlsk, a new filesharing client for jailbroken iPhones that works with the Soulseek network, by basing it on open source versions of the client for the Mac. “I saw all the capabilities this little gadget had and then thought ‘why didn’t someone already do something like this?’” he told TorrentFreak.

Continue reading “iSlsk brings filesharing to the iPhone and iPod touch” »

A long standing rumor that just won’t go away: Apple is working on a tablet computer of sorts. Only this time the source is Intel, no less, following comments made by the chip maker’s Manging Director for Central Europe Hannes Schwaderer.

Described as being a future member of the iPhone family, only slightly larger, the new offering will make use of Intel’s Atom processor, designed for a product category the company calls Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). However, while the Atom is certainly low-powered, delivering a very efficient power-per-watt ratio compared to previous designs, in it’s existing ‘Silverthorne’ incarnation it isn’t suitable for cell phones — suggesting that Apple’s new device will be significantly different to the existing iPhone and iPod touch line. Instead, think of larger, more tablet-like devices, or conceivably, anything all the way up to low-cost sub notebooks such as Asus’ Eee PC.

Continue reading “Apple working on Atom-based Internet tablet? Let’s hope it’s more open than the iPhone” »

Here’s an interesting jab at Google and its mobile operating system Android: Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, is joining the LiMo Foundation because it has software and phones available, Google does not.

The LiMo Foundation, representing Linux Mobile, is the lesser known of the mobile operating systems. There’s Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, supplying many makers of smart phones; Symbian, supplier mostly to Nokia; Qualcomm, supplier mostly to Verizon; upstart Google, and Apple. Then there’s Linux Mobile, slowly creeping along by adding devices mostly in Europe and Asia.

The LiMo (Linux Mobile) Foundation is a consortium of companies well vested in the mobile industry: Motorola, Samsung, LG Electronics, Vodaphone, NTT DoCoMo, and many others. Verizon is the first U.S. carrier to join the LiMo initiative, which now has 40 members worldwide.

The idea behind LiMo is to build a standardized, Linux-based mobile platform, which members can customize to meet their needs. For the most part, Linux Mobile is a competitor to Android, which is not yet available on any handsets. Linux Mobile is showing up on phones from Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, and LG.

Kyle Malady, vice president of network for Verizon, said in a conference call today that he expects Verizon to sell both regular devices and smart phones using mobile Linux next year.

“We expect that Linux Mobile will rapidly become our preferred operating system,” Malady said to The Associated Press [via The New York Times] . “As the development community looks at how best to bring new applications to the marketplace, they should check out LiMo and Linux Mobile first.”

Continue reading “Mobile OS wars heat up as Verizon joins LiMo Foundation, a Google-Android rival” »

Seeing the results of the Google Android Developer Challenge today was like being told what you’re getting for Christmas … in July. Worse yet, what’s under the tree is mostly socks and underwear.

Google announced the 50 round-one winners in the worldwide search for the best Android-developed applications. For using Google’s open-source mobile operating system, each winner will receive $25,000 to further fund their apps.

Also see: Android Developer Challenge I Winners Announced: Our Picks (ReadWriteWeb)

For a list of the winners, you can go to several places on the Web:

• The Android Developers Blog
• Phandroid, an Android fans blog, which provides some links and descriptions of the winning applications.

It’s not that the winners are unworthy and their applications unimaginative and useless. Quite to the contrary. These point to the future of mobile applications.

Continue reading “It’s like Christmas in July: Google announces winners of Android Developers Challenge” »

As we’ve noted before, Apple isn’t the only company putting the full Web in your pocket. When Opera released version 4 of its Java-based Opera Mini browser last June, we suggested that features such as ‘desktop view’, tiled zooming, and the use of a proxy server to speed up browsing, meant that it went a long way to addressing any iPhone-envy.

With the release of version 4.1, Opera isn’t resting on its laurels. New features include the ability to search for text within a Web page, auto-complete of URLs as you type based on your bookmarks and browsing history, and — as long as your phone supports the higher spec JSR-75 version of Java — you can now upload files and save Web pages for offline browsing. The ability to handle uploads means that Opera Mini can, for example, be used to share photos with sites such as Flickr, Facebook or a personal blog, all within the browser. Additionally, Opera claims that improvements to its proxy servers means that Web page requests are now up to 50% faster, resulting in “desktop-like speeds”.

Check out the company’s own video tour of Opera Mini after the jump…

Continue reading “iPhone who? Opera Mini gets speedy update” »

A quick update to the iTunes-HBO post from yesterday. Six of HBO’s most popular shows are now available for purchase on iTunes, ranging from $1.99 to $2.99 an episode. They are:

• “The Wire”: $1.99
• “Flight of the Conchords”: $1.99
• “Sex and the City”: $1.99
• “Deadwood”: $2.99
• “Rome”: $2.99
• “The Sopranos”: $2.99

(Apple release)

This translates to considerable savings, especially for those who 1) don’t subscribe to HBO; 2) are interested in the series but are not sure if they want to spend the money on the boxed sets; 3) would buy the boxed sets if they were a little cheaper.

Continue reading “HBO offers six shows on iTunes; even with higher prices, savings are considerable” »

Apple and Home Box Office will be achieving a couple of very important firsts when HBO content comes to iTunes in the next few weeks.

For Apple, it will be the first time the company will allow variable pricing for content on iTunes in the United States. According to Josh Saul of Portfolio.com, sources indicate that Apple has agreed to a separate price structure to bring HBO content to iTunes.

No details were given, but it’s expected that HBO shows will sell for more than $1.99 a episode. Apple has held steadfast to its philosophy of fixed pricing — $0.99 cents per song, $1.99 for TV shows, $2.99 to $4.99 for movie rentals and $9.99 to $14.99 for movie purchases.

Apple has been so adamant about fixed pricing that NBC to pull its shows from iTunes at the end of last year after a loud, public dispute over, in part, variable pricing demands.

For HBO, the expected agreement marks the first time the cable station’s content will be available online. This content includes current shows such as “John Adams” or “Entourage” as well as old favorites like “Sex in the City,” “The Sopranos,” and “The Wire.”

Continue reading “Something is going on at iTunes: Apple reportedly agrees to variable pricing to get HBO shows” »

Apple and Sony are fierce competitors, but that hasn’t stopped the PlayStation 3 playing nicely with Mac OSX computers. Thanks to some great third-party software, and Sony’s decision to add support for the UPnP AV standard, the PS3 has, in some ways, become a better solution than Apple’s own offering to the problem of streaming content - audio, video and photos - from a Mac to the TV. Here’s our quick guide to creating a Mac-supported PS3 media center.

Step One: Turning the Mac into a PS3-friendly media server

Assuming that your Mac is already on the same local network as your PlayStation 3, the first thing you’ll need to do is install a UPnP AV-compliant media server. In fact, this will need to be done for all of the Macs that you want to share media from.

Continue reading “How-to: Stream media from a Mac to PlayStation 3″ »

Here’s a summary of the week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.

Support last100: If you would like to enquire about sponsoring last100 (including our weekly wrapup) please contact us for a Media Kit.

Internet TV news on last100

iTunes same-day movie releases reportedly a loss leader, yet prices remain too high

In striking a deal with Hollywood to offer new movie releases for purchase on iTunes the same day as their DVD equivalents, Apple is making a loss, reports the Wall Street Journal. According to a “person familiar with the matter”, Apple is paying the movie studios a wholesale price of $16 per movie while maintaining its current retail price of $14.99.

Take that, Apple: Zune update adds TV shows from NBC Universal, among others

The Zune Marketplace (U.S.-only) has begun selling downloads of major television shows, including content from NBC Universal — a move that sticks it to Apple, following last year’s public spat between the iPod maker and major television studio, which resulted in NBC pulling its content from iTunes.

Continue reading “Weekly wrapup, 5 - 9 May 2008″ »

I’m going out on a limb here because I’m more of a casual gamer than hardcore. But lately I’ve been wondering, with the coming iPhone 2.0, third-party applications, and expected mobile games, might Apple return to the game-console market?

I know: That’s crazy talk. Apple’s last foray into console gaming was 1996’s Pippin, named as the 22nd worst tech product of all time in a 2006 story in PC World magazine. Since then, we’ve seen the advent of Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox, a slew of Nintendo consoles, and no new attempt by Apple to introduce a game console.

But Terrence Russell of The Industry Standard wonders, like I have, that maybe Apple might be following a different path into gaming — through the mobile market.

“Consumers are already ga-ga over Apple’s mobile devices to begin with,” Russell writes, referring to the success of the iPhone and iPod line of products, “so whether they should be re-imagined as gaming gadgets is more of a marketing issue.

“But with the developer community in a tizzy to create the next great Apple-friendly game, it’s only a matter of time before Cupertino announces that it’s ready to connect the dots.”

Maybe.

Continue reading “What if Apple re-enters the console gaming market through the iPhone?” »