Author Archive

Weekly wrapup, 14-18 July 2008 (E3 coverage and more)

by Steve O'Hear

July 19th, 2008 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | CommentsNo Comments

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.

Enter your email address:

E3 Coverage

This week’s last100 coverage was dominated by the E3 Media and Business conference, the annual event for the gaming industry. As the battle for the living room continues at a pace, both Microsoft and Sony made big announcements…

Netflix is finally coming to Xbox 360, which is getting a dashboard makeover and Mii-like avatars

Long rumored, finally here. Netflix is coming to the Xbox 360. Xbox 360 owners and Live Gold members who are also Netflix subscribers will be able to stream online movies to their consoles at no extra cost. Microsoft also announced that the Xbox 360’s dashboard will be getting a total overhaul this fall. New features will include fancy Mii-like 3D avatars popular on the Nintendo Wii game console and an improved emphasis on community with IM, video chat, and photo sharing.

Xbox Live Video Marketplace gets content from NBC, Universal and other E3 tidbits

Microsoft’s deal with Netflix and the Xbox 360’s impending makeover wasn’t the only news from the E3 Media & Business Summit Monday. A few other tidbits include Microsoft, Universal, and NBC; hard drives; and a new Wii controller.

Sony to open its PS3 and PSP video download service tonight

Sony unveiled its own movie/TV show on-demand download service for its PlayStation line of products at the E3 Media and Business Summit. Sony made a point to note that the service will feature more than Sony-produced content, including movies and TV shows from Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, and Funimation.

Continue reading »

No PlayStation 3 video store in the UK until sometime next year

by Steve O'Hear

July 18th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Sony’s launch of its online video store for the PlayStation Network feels like playing catch-up as it is.  But for those PS3 owners in the UK or anywhere in Europe, the wait will continue.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe head honcho, David Reeves, has confirmed that the PS3 video store won’t be available to European gamers until sometime next year, reports The Register. While Reeves wasn’t specific, he told attendees at a conference in Santa Monica earlier this week that video downloads through Sony’s online gaming service “will not come to the PAL markets this year”.

The problem is an all too familiar one: the company has to work through country-specific licensing deals with each major studio before any launch dates can be announced.

As we’ve noted in the past, there are many challenges that any company faces to deliver a European-wide online movie service. Not least are the disparate licensing agreements that exist across different countries in Europe, along with the staggered release ‘windows’ imposed by Hollywood which govern when and how new titles can be distributed in the various different formats.

Video: YouTube finally arrives on TiVo

by Steve O'Hear

July 17th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Although announced back in March, it’s only today that TiVo users can finally access YouTube through their set-top boxes — and a minority of TiVo users at that. The new feature is made possible because of YouTube’s decision to re-encode its library of content to H.264 video, a format that only TiVo Series 3 and HD models can support. The result, says Streaming Media’s Dan Rayburn, is that of TiVo’s four million subscribers, only 750,000 get access to YouTube, and even then only if they have their set-top box connected to the Internet, which many don’t.

Nonetheless, for those that can get it, YouTube access will be a welcome addition to TiVo’s existing lineup. And typically, TiVo appear to have implemented it well. Don’t take our word for it though, and instead judge for yourselves by watching the video after the jump (courtesy of our friends over at Zatz Not Funny).

Continue reading »

No more downloads, Amazon moves its online video store to the cloud

by Steve O'Hear

July 17th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | Comments2 Comments

With the gradual roll out of Amazon’s new video service, starting today, the company hopes to have fixed everything that was holding back adoption of its original “UnBox” video download store.

Gone are the lengthy downloads or the need to install special software, and instead, “Amazon On Demand” utilizes streaming so that content begins playing almost immediately all within a standard web browser. Additionally, the relaunched service is now Windows and Mac-friendly, and will also be available through Internet-connected televisions, starting with Sony Bravia TVs that are compatible with the company’s rather costly Bravia Internet Video Link device.

“For the first time, this is drop dead simple,” Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice president for digital media, tells the New York Times. “Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button.”

Continue reading »

Win a Vudu set-top box!

by Steve O'Hear

July 15th, 2008 | Posted in Net TV | CommentsComments Off on Win a Vudu set-top box!

Once again, this isn’t a last100 give-away but our good friend Dan Rayburn over at Streaming Media is up to his old tricks, this time giving away a Vudu set-top box (see our early review).

To qualify to win the unit, all you have to do is leave one comment on Dan’s original post with a working e-mail address. He’ll pick one person a week from today using a random number picker website and ship it out to the winner at no cost. (Sorry, U.S. residents only) The unit comes with all of the original materials, box, remote and cables.

RWW Live: iPhonemania

by Steve O'Hear

July 15th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile, Other | CommentsNo Comments

Yesterday, we recorded the latest episode of RWW Live, a new regular bi-weekly feature on Sean Ammirati’s ReadWriteTalk podcast show. The idea is to get together a number of writers from the ReadWriteWeb blog network (that includes last100!) for a live discussion on recent events in the technology world.

In episode 4, devoted almost entirely to the iPhone, I was joined by ReadWriteTalk host Sean Ammirati, ReadWriteWeb editor and founder Richard MacManus, ReadWriteWeb writers Bernard Lunn and Marshall Kirkpatrick.

You can listen to the podcast below (recorded using the TalkShoe platform) or subscribe here.

As Richard, over at ReadWriteWeb, notes:

We’re still experimenting with the format, but we’re hoping to get the RWW community involved as much as possible in future episodes – for example by doing a live post at the same time, twittering the chat URL, and so on. We’d love to hear any ideas you have on making this an interactive, read/write experience. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

I've jumped on the Netbook bandwagon (MSI Wind U100 / Advent 4211 review)

by Steve O'Hear

July 14th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile, Other, Review | Comments13 Comments

I've jumped on the Netbook bandwagon (MSI Wind / Advent 4211 review)Ever since Asus debuted its first Eee PC, I’ve been fascinated by this new category of mobile device, dubbed the Netbook by chip maker Intel.

The form-factor is a notebook but these devices are purposely cut-down in terms of price – the Eee PC 701 sells for under $300 – as well as size and weight, and to some extent features. While designed primarily as a way of accessing the Internet on-the-go, Netbooks don’t have any pretensions of putting the Internet in your pocket, and instead look to keep the screen size and keyboard small enough to still be extremely portable, yet large enough to be that bit more productive.

See also: Don’t buy a Netbook pleads PC industry

This typically translates into screen sizes between 7 and 10 inches, with keyboards that feature 95% full-size keys, albeit with a rather cramped layout. Also, don’t automatically expect a Netbook to come loaded with a Microsoft operating system, though many offer XP as an option. Instead, in order to keep the cost down, and in recognition that many applications now run in the browser, Netbooks commonly run a flavor of Linux and related open-source software. Another distinguishing feature of the majority of Netbooks is that they do away with a traditional hard drive in favor of solid state storage with less capacity – 4-8GB – again recognizing the move towards Cloud computing.

However, a couple of things about the original Eee PC stopped me from making a purchase – an 800 x 600 screen resolution and an aging and limited processor – both of which have now been addressed by more recent models from Asus itself, along with a host of competitors including MSI and Acer, all three of which run on Intel’s new and improved Atom “Diamondville” processor.

So which of the new Atom-based Netbooks did I go for?

Continue reading »

Weekly wrapup, 7-11 July 2008 (iPhone 2.0 update)

by Steve O'Hear

July 13th, 2008 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | CommentsNo Comments

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.

Enter your email address:

iPhone 2.0 and App Store launch

Inevitably, this week’s last100 coverage was dominated by the launch of the 3G iPhone and the accompanying App Store and first generation of official third-party applications.

Here are the links in chronological order:

Apologies to all of our readers living outside of Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field. Normal business – to some degree – shall resume next week! (Ed. In the interests of balanced reporting, we’re trying very hard to get our hands on some non-Apple mobile devices.)

Hope for Flash on iPhone? New Mac version runs 3 x faster

by Steve O'Hear

July 7th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

Hope for Flash on iPhone? New Mac version runs 3 x fasterIt’s something Mac users have lived with for years: the version of Adobe’s Flash Player for OSX runs much less efficiently than its Windows counterpart. Perhaps then, we shouldn’t have been all that surprised to hear Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ explanation of why the iPhone doesn’t support Flash. Simply put, it runs too darn slow, while the cut-down version designed specifically for mobile devices – known as Flash Lite – isn’t fully-featured enough to grace the screen of Apple’s device. However, Adobe could be about to put its house in order with regards to support for the Mac, leading to speculation that the iPhone could be next.

According to Adobe developer Tinic Uro, the latest beta of Adobe Flash Player 10 running on Mac OSX is significantly faster than previous versions. “If you have followed GUIMark at all you will notice that this version of the player runs this benchmark substantially better on OSX than any previous Flash Player version”, writes Uro on his personal blog. “It should be up to 3 times faster”.

Continue reading »

Weekly wrapup, 30 June – 4 July 2008

by Steve O'Hear

July 5th, 2008 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | CommentsNo Comments

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.

Enter your email address:

Digital Music news

Rhapsody launches DRM-free MP3 music store

Rhapsody, the joint venture by Real Networks and Viacom’s MTV Networks, is the latest digital music service to launch a DRM-free music download store. Although the company isn’t ditching Digital Rights Management software altogether – its music subscription service still relies heavily on copy-protection technology – the new Rhapsody MP3 Store is selling DRM-free MP3s priced at .99c per track or $9.99 for the complete album, which is pretty much inline with the rest of the industry.

Continue reading »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »