Developages - Development and Technology Blog

DeviceGuru writes “In a better-late-than-never move, Blockbuster has introduced a video-on-demand (VOD) service accompanied by a ‘free’ set-top box (STB). Like TiVo, Roku’s Netflix box, and many other modern Internet-enabled A/V gadgets, Blockbuster’s new VOD STB runs Linux. But darn it; when will someone finally offer a reasonably-priced, open-platform STB that serves as an A/V gateway to multiple Internet-based services — one consumer-friendly, environmentally-designed, low-power gadget ‘to rule them all,’ if you will.”

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Original post by timothy

phorm writes “BBC is carrying an article which states that 90% of visitors to Europe’s ‘video game addiction clinic’ are not, in fact, addicted. The problem is a social one rather than a psychological issue. In other words, the patients have turned to heavy gaming because they felt they didn’t fit in elsewhere, or that they fit in better ‘in the game’ than elsewhere in ‘the real world.’ This has been discussed before, with arguments ranging from gaming being a good way to socialize, the clinical definition of gaming addiction, and claims than males are wired for video-game addiction.”

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Original post by Soulskill

TRS-80 writes “Apple has sent a DMCA takedown notice to the IpodHash project, claiming it circumvents their FairPlay DRM scheme. Some background: Apple first added a hash to the iTunesDB file in 6th-gen iPods, but it was quickly reverse-engineered. They changed it with the release of iPhone 2.0 and a project was started to reverse the new hash, but weren’t successful yet. My guess is Apple used the same algorithm as FairPlay for the new hash, so Apple could use the DMCA to prevent competing apps like Songbird and Banshee from talking to iPods/iPhones. BTW, don’t tell Apple, but the project uses a wiki, so the old page versions from before the takedown are still there.”

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Original post by timothy

JTRipper writes “Monty Python seems to have done the right thing. Instead of issuing take down notices of their videos on YouTube, they are doing it better themselves with their own YouTube channel. They are putting all their clips (including snips from their movies) up in a decent resolution, with the only caveat being a link to buying the movies and TV episodes from Amazon.”

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Original post by timothy

Ashutosh Saxena writes “Stanford artificial intelligence researchers have developed software that makes it easy to reach inside an existing video and place a photo on the wall so realistically that it looks like it was there from the beginning. The photo is not pasted on top of the existing video, but embedded in it. It works for videos as well — you can play a video on a wall inside your video. The technology can cheaply do some of the tricks normally performed by expensive commercial editing systems. The researchers suggest that anyone with a video camera might earn some spending money by agreeing to have unobtrusive corporate logos placed inside their videos before they are posted online.”

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

The New York Times reports that China has “agreed to loosen restrictions on foreign news and information providers inside the country, settling a trade dispute with the United States, the European Union and Canada.” Formerly, all such news sources required licensing through China’s official Xinhua News Agency. Note that the focus seems to be on financial reporting and information, rather than all forms of news reporting.

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Original post by timothy

rallymatte writes to mention that camera maker RED has announced a new digital stills and motion camera system that includes one model that can shoot up to 28K at 25 fps. The new system will come in three tiers, scarlet, epic, and their top of line model which wont be out until possibly 2010. Still image capture will range anywhere from 4.9 megapixels to an insane 261 megapixels. In addition to some impressive “traditional″ hardware RED also announced a 3D camera.

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

Filed under: Desktops

We haven’t heard too much about ASUS’ all-in-one touchscreen PC on this side of the drink, but folks overseas are apparently having a field day with it. For your eyes only comes a hands-on / impressions vid showing off the user interface, the design and the overall touchability of the so-called Eee Top. Not too many surprises are in store, but you’ve got to watch for the accent if nothing else. It’s after the break, of course.

Continue reading Video: ASUS Eee Top gets touched, chatted about

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Laptops

You wouldn’t know it by the vast array of spin-offs and iterations, but the Eee PC has only just now turned one year old and, whether by coincidence or design, it’s also now finally dropped under the ever-elusive $300 mark. That doesn’t come in the form of that rumored new sub-$300 model, however, but rather an existing Eee PC 900A that’s now available from Best Buy for $299.99. Not that we’re complaining, as this particular model packs an 8.9-inch display compared to the 7-incher on the 701SDX spotted yesterday, along with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB or RAM, a 4GB SSD, and Linux pre-installed. Now, about that $200 Eee PC.

Read - jkOnTheRun, “Asus breaks sub-$300 price barrier with Eee PC 900A at Best Buy″
Read - Laptop, “Happy Birthday Eee PC!”

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Laptops

With HP’s touchscreen laptop looming on the horizon, out come the leaks of an ASUS touchscreen lappie scheduled for launch in the first half of 2009. Touchscreen Eee PCs too (finally, right?) if DigiTimes‘ sources at panel makers are correct (which they tend to be with regard to ASUS). According to the Taiwanese industry rag, ASUS will likely use either a 12.1-inch or 11.6-inch touchscreen panel developed by AU Optronics (AUO) or Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). What’s odd here is the claim by sources that the touch-panel notebooks “are expected to take advantage of Windows 7” and presumably the new Microsoft OS’s multi-touch capabilities. Strange, since Windows 7 isn’t officially expected until sometime in early 2010 — a date looking more and more like a publicly padded goal to avoid the bashing Microsoft received for its Vista delays. The whispers certainly add a bit more credence to rumors of a 2009 release as expressed by Bill Gates himself, or more specifically June 3rd, 2009 as allegedly marked in the internal Microsoft calendar.

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Laptops

Nothing’s quite official just yet, but the folks at Eee PC News have gotten their hands on some pics of a hereto unheard of Eee PC 701SDX model, which they speculate could well be the sub-$300 (we’re guessing $299) Eee PC we’ve been hearing about it. From the looks of it, that seems to be a pretty safe assumption, with the netbook packing a 7-inch display and ditching the webcam to save a few bucks. No word on any specs, unfortunately, but Eee PC News seems to think there’s at least a chance it could ditch the Celeron of the original Eee PC 701 in favor of an Atom processor, and pack either a 4GB or 8GB SSD drive, plus Windows XP for an OS. If ASUS’s history is any indication, however, we should know for sure soon enough.

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Desktops

Oh sure, there’s absolutely no viable reason for ASUS to slap an Eee moniker on this all-in-one desktop, but it’s there, so we just couldn’t resist the mention. Now that we’re beyond that, this touchscreen-based desktop — which was peeked way back in June — is finally showing signs of life courtesy of a formal pre-order page hosted up at Play.com. The all white machine packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 15.6-inch LCD, Windows XP Home, a 1.3-megapixel camera, built-in stereo speakers, WiFi, a slew of ports and an integrated graphics set. The current release date is set for November 20th, though we wouldn’t bet the farm on that or anything. At any rate, those unable to resist can plunk down £399.99 ($685) right now and look forward to free delivery in just over a month.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Laptops

We’ve seen tons of Eees modded with touchscreens, and it looks like ASUS is taking the hint — it’s saying that it expects to launch touch-enabled Eee PCs next year, as long rumored. It’s not clear whether the new models will run XP or a special Linux build, but we’ll find out soon enough, since the company plans to show them off at CES in January. Unsurprisingly, we should also be seeing dual-core Atom 330 chips make their way into the Eee line as soon as they’re available in quantity, but the best piece of news is probably that ASUS will be getting aggressive on price with a sub-$300 Eee. Now just wrap all that up in the S101’s case and we’re all set — that would be just about perfect.

[Via Electronista]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Storage

Though not the first SSDs we’ve seen looking for homes specifically in netbooks, Super Talent is hoping to make an even bigger splash with its latest trio and their bite-sized prices. Merely days after causing us all to drool with a sub-$300 128GB drive, the firm has revealed a trifecta of mini PCIe SSDs designed “explicitly for the ASUS Eee PC.” The units are available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flavors, each with 40MB/sec maximum read speeds and 15MB/sec maximum write rates. The trio is expected to hit mass production next month, and they’ll only cost you $53, $79 and $149 in order of mention.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Rev B  of Astfin’s BRI (ISDN) Appliance has just arrived. The BR4 appliance (or BRI Appliance) is an open hardware BRI Asterisk Appliance running Astfin. I′ve written about this Asterisk-based appliance before. The Astfin.org blog author writes how he used the popular USB jtag (ICEbear) to connect to the new BRI Appliance rev B board. He then gives the blow-by-blow account of his experience, including running dumpreg & flashload. If you love to flash (memory that is - get your head out of the gutter) or if you’re an Asterisk techie, it’s a worthwhile read.

Some background - uCasterisk (you-see-Asterisk), which is a set of scripts, makefiles and patches to build Asterisk for uClinux and targeting Blackfin hardware. I should mention Digium’s Asterisk Appliance is also based on Blackfin hardware. Also, uCasterisk was deprecated in favor of Astfin. The BRI Appliance certainly is more of an Asterisk fan’s hobby rather than a direct competitor to Digium’s Asterisk Appliance, which obviously is backed by Digium’s technical support, customer service, warranty policy, etc.

Tags: Asterisk, Asterisk Appliance, Astfin, Blackfin, Digium, Linux, open source, uCasterisk, VoIP

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Original post by nafiz