Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Vudu, a startup that sells and rents movies via its Internet-connected set-top box, has boosted High-Definition library to 1,100 on-demand titles – for now, outdistancing any cable operator’s HD video-on-demand service.

To build what it claimed is the largest library of HD content available to consumers, Vudu added on average of 150 HD titles per week in October.

The service requires a minimum 4-Mbps connection for instant playback of HD titles.

Vudu is attempting to sell its $300 set-top to home-theater buffs by emphasizing the service’s broad content selection and navigation features. Movies on the service are available for 24-hour rental for between 99 cents and $3.99, and $9.99 to $19.99 for download-to-own.

As part of its strategy to target high-end consumers, Vudu last month began offering 65 feature movie titles for rental in 1080p high-definition video format, the highest HD format currently defined. 

More at Multichannel News.

Tags: video on demand, vod, vudu

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Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Laptops

Generally speaking, Americans can count on the US price of any particular piece of kit being a fair bit less than the straight pound-to-dollar conversion. Unfortunately, the exchange rate here is nearly on point, with the £299 Nᨶ 10-inch netbook on sale for $480 (give or take a few nickles) in the US of A. Granted, it looks as if it’ll be a fortnight or so at the very least before any Yanks can wrap their grimy paws around the germ-shunning PC, but we’ve already got the e-tailers lining up to hold your place in line. Who knows — maybe our version will come with built-in WiMAX and 12-hours of battery life to really sweeten the deal.

[Via Liliputing, thanks Michael]

Read - Pre-order NC10, option 1
Read - Pre-order Nᨶ, option 2

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

No need to defog your spectacles, what you just read there in the headline is the truth. Astoundingly enough, Motorola’s nearly archaic (in cellphone years, anyway) RAZR V3 is still the top-selling handset in the United States. Of course, it helps that it’s highly subsidized on practically every carrier from coast to coast, but we’re still a little stunned that it’s selling this well nearly 2.5 years after Moto moved its 50 millionth unit. The rest of the top five isn’t nearly as shocking, with Apple’s iPhone snagging the silver, RIM’s BlackBerry Curve grabbing the bronze, LG’s Chocolate at number four and the BlackBerry Pearl at five. With the original RAZR still selling so well, one would think Motorola could just tweak it slightly and issue a second iteration for even more windfall profits. Er, wait.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Standalone videophones may not be quite as plentiful as you may have expected them to be at this point in the 21st century, but D-Link looks to at least be doing its part to keep our 1980s / early 90s selves happy. It’s new GVC-3000 model also takes things a bit further than most, with it able to be connected to a TV or projector for some big screen videoconferencing, and it apparently able to function a with minimum bandwidth of just 128 kbps as well. That, the company says, makes it ideal for its target market of India, where the phone will set you back between Rs 23,000 and Rs 25,000 (or $540 to $580) when it lands in September.

[Via About Projectors]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

According to the Boy Genius, it’s not just iPhone users that will be getting / not getting the telco’s WiFi on the house — the company has plans to offer use of its hotspots for free to Laptop Connect and smartphone users. An internal memo from the provider appears to state that effective May 20th, anyone with a $60 or higher Laptop Connect plan will be able to take a ride on AT&ampT’s networks in 17,000 locations, and the service will be extended to smartphone users later in the year. Of course, the company hasn′t exactly wowed us with its rollout of this service for iPhone customers, so don′t be surprised if nothing goes the way it’s planned.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones

It’s hard for us to be sure about this stuff for sure in the early stages, but since last night we’ve gotten a flood of reports from readers that BlackBerry services are down on T-Mobile and possibly also Bell Mobility (if not other providers). What’s the story, are you having any trouble? Shout it out in comments — if you are, do us all a solid and leave your location and provider. Even if it’s just an isolated outage, you know you desperately need to get your act together when Palm, of all companies, is taking potshots.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We′ve heard that there was indeed a planned outage scheduled for last night, but it was due to end 6 hours ago. And curiously we continue to get feedback that services are still down.

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Original post by Ryan Block

In a news release, Intuitive Voice Technology is calling out other Asterisk-based solutions. First, Intuitive Voice Technology (IVT) espouses their 3,500 deployments as well they should. They then follow this back-slapping good news with a claim that "competitors clamor to keep pace with industry’s most innovating, easy-to-use Asterisk-based PBX". Them’s fightin’ words! They then stoke the fires some more when CEO Chris Jones states they he believes IVT’s offering is blazing new trails in the industry, as evidenced by industry competitors who are mimicking the company’s Evolution PBX 3.0 - released in September 2007. Specifically, Mr. Jones commented on the similarities to Evolution PBX 3.0 in Fonality’s recent announcement of their latest release. “Many of the features introduced in their new release are similar to Intuitive Voice Technology’s Evolution PBX 3.0 which was introduced September of 2007 and released publicly in October of 2007.”

IVT then points to these similar "copycat" features which include follow-me/find me, cell phone integration, presence detection, and simultaneous ring.

There’s one feature Intuitive Voice Technology neglected to mention that most other Asterisk solutions don’t have but IVT does- and that’s call screening. In my Cool Stuff at ITEXPO post I espoused IVT’s Evolution PBX 3.0 product and how it’s one of the few Asterisk-based solutions that supports call screening.

Just yesterday in my Voiceroute article, Voiceroute was claiming their Asterisk front-end GUI was better than anything on the market, including FreePBX and now today Intuitive Voice Technology is claiming they are the "best of the best" in the Asterisk universe.

The Asterisk (Asteroids?) Wars have begun…

Or even better - to quote Yoda - "The Asterisk Clone Wars have begun…"

Of course, the Asterisk Clone Wars been going on behind the scene for awhile. If you’re in the Asterisk community you already knew this. It’s getting almost as bad as the VoIP Clone Wars.

Well, soon we shall have a battle royale between all the Asterisk players… Digium’s Asterisk vs. Trixbox vs CentPBX vs. Elastix vs. Fonality vs. Intuitive Voice Technology vs. Voiceroute vs. PBX-in-a-Flash vs. PBXact, etc. etc. It’ll be Clash of the Titans! Fun times ahead for the Asterisk community.  Competition is a good thing and will help drive Asterisk to only get better & better.

Actual IVT news release after the jump…

Continue reading Intuitive Voice Technology Calls Out other Asterisk Competitors - Asterisk Clone Wars Have Begun……

Tags: Asterisk, CentPBX, Elastix, Fonality, Intuitive Voice Technology, IP-PBX, PBXact, PBX-in-a-Flash, Trixbox, VoIP

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Original post by nafiz

I was researching some info on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/) and then the website died. Murphy′s Law. I tried both over a T3 line and an EVDO connection and both pages timed out. I’ve never seen Wipipedia have an outage. Anyone else having problems?

Update: 1:56pm
Looks like it was at least a 3 minute outage. Could have been longer, since I was googling a keyword along with the word "wiki" to try and find the wiki page. I then clicked through from Google and the Wikipedia page timed out. So the outage could have been longer.

Tags: outage, Wikipedia

Original post by Eric