Developages - Development and Technology Blog

A bit late on the uptake are we, but The Gadgenista recently featured the Applepod case for the iPod Shuffle:

Hahaha, a bit redundant but amusingly funny! I mean seriously, you just have to love what Apple fanboys come up with.

And can I just say I really love the rainbow colors? Hehehe. Look pretty cute as a buttoniere, too!

Each Applepod case is custom-made so you can actually pick the colors that you want. The case also has slots for the shuffle clip and for the headphones.

Got $12 to spend? Feeling a bit creative? Order and customization details available from here.

Tags: Applepod, iPod Shuffle cases

Share This

Original post by Rico

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/business_finance/Microsoft_and_Netflix_announce_partnership’; After months of speculation and rumors, Microsoft just announced that it’s partnering with Netflix to allow Xbox 360 owners to stream movies from their Netflix queues for no extra charge. Microsoft says the 360 will be the only game system that allows Netflix access for no additional cost — which isn’t entirely accurate, since only Live Gold members will get access. Streaming movies can also be shared with your Live party, allowing you to watch content together. Users will have instant access to their Netflix instant access queues, but it’s not clear what resolution the content will be streamed at — we’d guess it’s roughly the same DVD-quality res that Roku’s Netflix streamer is getting for now, but hopefully that′ll change when the service launches in the fall with the new dashboard.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Looks like Movie Gallery finally got something for the assortment of PBS bandwidth and spare parts remaining from the now-defunct MovieBeam service. The new owner is Indian conglomerate The Valuable Group, headed by Sanjay Gaikwad who apparently thinks serving up a remarkably limited assortment of heavily compressed HD and SD movies on demand is an idea that deserves to fail all over the world, instead of just in the U.S. Since $100 million burned up by Disney and others wasn′t enough to make things work, he plans to invest a similar amount over the next two years to relaunch the service in North America, the U.K. and “other overseas markets”. Variety notes The Valuable Group already delivers movies digitally to India and South Asian theaters via satellite so maybe they know something we don’t about this business model, and with plans to roll out service in three markets with “new, cutting edge features″ by year end we′ll get to find out soon.

Read&nbsp|&nbspPermalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Richard Lawler

Filed under: Handhelds

At All Things D today Mossberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos had a little discussion about digital media, which had a couple of decent nuggets. Check it out:

• On Kindle 2: “There will be a second version, a third version, a tenth version. … but a second version is not that near.”
• According to Bezos, on a title-by-title basis of the 125,000 titles available both in print and on Kindle, Kindle’s sales represent 6% of total sales. We have no idea how significant that actually is (or what that means in dollars), but Bezos seemed to be fairly impressed with that number. Still, “Books won’t go away just as horses won’t go away — they′re still around.”
• Talking about whether the Kindle was built to work on non-CDMA networks (read: networks other than Sprint). Bezo said: “we’re gonna — we need to be thinking globally about the device, which we are.” He almost slipped there and said “We’re gonna launch internationally,” but caught himself.
• Bezos also announced a new, for-pay, streaming video-on-demand service for Amazon, which will be released in the next couple of weeks. The video should start playing “instantly,” but we don’t have any further details (like number of titles, library, price, etc.).

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Ryan Block

Researchers extraordaire NPD has just released its gaming console sales numbers for April and guess what? Nintendo took the number one and two slots in hardware sales, with the Wiihaving sold 714,200 units while the Nintendo DS sold 414,800 units. Third place went to the PSP with 192,700 units. These are staggering numbers and underscore the life in the gaming market, even in tougher economic times.

And while these numbers may be impressive, what’s more impressive is that the Wii outsold the Playstation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, and Xbox 360 combined! Yikes!

For more details, check out Ars Technica here.

Tags: Ars Technica, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, NPD, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360

Related Entries
• Holiday Gift Shortages: Xbox 360 & iPods Top This Year’s Model -
  Dec 05, 2005
• PlayStation Phone Home -
  Mar 07, 2007
• Sony PS3 haters video -
  Feb 26, 2007
• PS3 Sales Go Soft: Trouble in Paradise -
  Jan 26, 2007
• Early Xbox 360 Holiday Treats from EA -
  Oct 31, 2006
• PlayStation 3 at $499 & Up? -
  May 09, 2006
• E3 Opens Tomorrow: Gamers Unite -
  May 09, 2006
• What’s missing from the XBox 360? -
  Nov 23, 2005
• Microsoft XBox 360 vs. Sony Playstation 3 - Game over man! -
  Nov 18, 2005
• Microsoft to remove Sony copy protection malware -
  Nov 15, 2005

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Gaming

Ha, seems our Japanese gaming overlords aren’t the only ones looking down the retail barrel at the limited edition gunmetal gray MGS4 PS3. Sony’s official Playstation.blog is reporting that the MGS4 Limited Edition PS3 Hardware Bundle will be available exclusively from Konami.com for $600. For that you get a 40GB gunmetal PS3, matching Dualshock 3 wireless controller, Metal Gear Online, an exclusive Blu-ray disc with 2-hours of additional content (making of documentary and look at Hideo Kojima’s production team) and of course the MGS4: Guns of the Patriots Limited Edition game. Pre-orders from the “very limited supply″ begin on Monday the 19th. Best set your alarms.

[Via Playstation.Blog]

Read&nbsp|&nbspPermalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Gaming

Microsoft is making some noise today about the Xbox 360’s sales numbers — it’s the first of this generation of consoles to top 10M sales in the US. That’s well ahead of the Wii, which stands at 8.8M, and the PS3, which has under half the 360’s installed base at 4.1M units sold. Worldwide, the 360 is also doing quite well: Microsoft says it’s moved 19M consoles total, and that 12 million people are signed up for Xbox Live. That’s behind the Wii’s global sales of 25M units, but Microsoft isn’t exactly content with second place — it’s making a point to say that the 360 has the ” largest global install base of any current gen, high definition gaming console.” Take that, Mario. Meanwhile, the Ṕs doing quite nicely for itself as well: in addition to outselling the 360 in both the US and Europe, Sony says worldwide sales were up an astounding 156 percent last year with a total of 9.2M units coming off shelves, and that it expects to sell another 10M consoles by March 2009. Looks like the console race is hitting the next level — any bets on how things will shake out in a year?

[Via Joystiq]

Read - 360 sales
Read - PS3 sales

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Gaming

Edward Keith Stoddard Jr. really likes his PlayStation 3. So much, in fact, that if you were to touch his PS3, he may just kill you. Such was the fate of his neighbor, Douglas F. Abrams, who Stoddard believed had taken his console. During an argument over the missing system, police say Stoddard shot Abrams, fatally wounding him. When cops showed up on the scene, Stoddard surrendered and was taken to Land O’Lakes jail (no, really) in Dade County, Florida. It’s okay to love your console, people — just don’t get jealous if it drops by the neighbor’s house for some tea.

[Via PS3Fanboy]

Read&nbsp|&nbspPermalink&nbsp|&nbspEmail this | Comments

Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger

Filed under: Gaming

2008 was predicted to be a big year for the PS3, and it looks like things are going according to plan: Sony announced today that European PS3 sales had topped the five million mark, and that the PS3 has been outselling the Xbox 360 sur le continent since October. Combined with the PS3’s strong US showings lately, and that’s a pretty solid run — and we′d assume things are only get to get better once MGS4 hits in June. Hmm, looks like a few of you decided to take the plunge after all.

[Thanks, Nimro]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Stuff.tv is kicking back in Nike’s HQ at the moment and claims to have official word about Nike’s future plans with Apple. They say that the Nike+ system will be “definitely″ extend beyond the iPod nano to support the relatively bulky iPhone and iPod touch. Interestingly, it will move beyond the proprietary RF link between the shoe module and nano adapter to take advantage of WiFi and eventually 3G. This of course leads to all kinds of speculation with regard to Apple’s “lifestyle companion” patent we showed you last month. 3G support would presumably allow for real-time coaching and uploads of your training activity (and tracking) through the Nike Plus website. So let’s see… cellphone (check), iPod (check), Internet device (check), handheld gaming (almost), and now a Nike lifestyle companion (could be).

 

Read&nbsp|&nbspPermalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Wearables

Nah, it’s not April 10th just yet (in most of the world, at least), but one particular bloke managed to score one of Nike’s new SportBands at a London marathon exhibition today. The going rate on that side of the pond was £40 ($78), but we wouldn’t mind that dreadful exchange rate too much if you′re curious about eventual US pricing. Nevertheless, feel free to tap the read link to peep the unit fresh out of its packaging, but be forewarned, there aren’t any surprises.

[Thanks, Terry]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Splendid news on the Canadian front — it seems as if that proposed tax on digital recorders and storage devices (you know, like Apple’s iPod for instance) will actually not come to pass. According to Judge Karen Sharlow, the board “had no legal authority to certify a tariff on digital audio recorders or on the memory permanently embedded in digital audio recorders.” The ruling enables all music lovin′ Canucks to breath a sigh of relief, as it makes tacking on fees ranging from C$5 ($4.95) to C$75 ($74) in order to “compensate the recording industry for music that was copied″ illegal . From here, a decision still needs to be made to clarify the legality (or illegality) of copying music from discs to DAPs, but at least we’re seeing a touch of levelheadedness in the music biz, regardless.

[Via ArsTechnica]

&nbsp

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Laptops

We’re not exactly sure what became of that biodegradable laptop being touted by NEC all the way back in 2004, but the concept of corn-based notebook casings is far from dead, with Fujitsu showing off just such a machine at this year’s CES. According to Inhabitat, “the main component is polylactic acid, also known as PLA, a resin that comes from the fermentation of the raw biomass from plants,” although a small amount of nasty fossil fuels must still be mixed in to create a housing with the proper structural integrity. Fortunately, once the rig is ready for the great gadget heaven in the sky, the plastic can be separated from the PLA so that the latter material can be left to safely biodegrade. No word yet on when we′ll see these edible inedible lappies hit the market, so for now we′ll have to continue kicking Mother Nature’s ass with our biannual tech upgrades.

[Via, and image courtesy of, Inhabitat]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Evan Blass

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

After months, months, and yet more months of speculation, rumor, and leaked press shots, Verizon has gotten official with its own version of the HTC Libra, the SMT5800. The Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone-based handset is essentially a Vox gutted for CDMA / EV-DO airwaves, featuring a slide-out QWERTY keypad along with a standard numeric keypad up front to fool all your inquisitive peers into thinking it’s nothing more than a candybar. The spec sheet reveals Bluetooth 2.0, a 2 megapixel camera, a microSD slot for packing up to 8GB, and a 2.4 inch QVGA display. Find it starting January 21 for $299.99 after rebate on a two year contract — $199 if you’re bold enough to sign up for a qualifying data plan at the same time.

[Via Phone Scoop]

&nbsp

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Speculation is growing that the device Palm recently blamed for its revenue shortfall is none other than the yawn-worthy Treo 755p, a phone that launched on Sprint eons ago and, despite being rumored in Verizon trim eons ago as well, has apparently had all sorts of trouble getting through Big Red’s testing process. While it’s hard to deny that it’s a pretty unspectacular handset at this point, we can also imagine that failing to launch it on the country’s largest CDMA network would account for a significant drop in cash flow — the Palm OS / Garnet faithful are still plentiful, after all, and there’s no Centro in sight for Verizon at the moment. So, tell us: is anyone out there really drooling for this thing right now?

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Chris Ziegler