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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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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Cellphones

Given that both the iPAQ Data Messenger and Voice Messenger were spotted on HP’s website last night, we didn’t exactly need a press release to affirm their ascent into officialdom, but hey, we’ll take it. The two WinMo 6.1-powered handsets will soon be loosed on Vodafone in Europe, and starting next month, prospective consumers can buy in for £399 ($677) / £333 ($565) off-contract as for the subsidized rates, you’ll have to hold your horses for those. If you’re just interested in the hands-on video, however, you can mosey on beyond the break and mash play.

Continue reading HP’s iPAQ Data Messenger / Voice Messenger get official on Vodafone, hands-on treatment

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

Looks like that rumor was mostly spot on, as two new consumer-minded iPAQ handhelds have emerged on HP’s website. Without much fanfare, the Windows Mobile 6.1-powered iPAQ Data Messenger and Voice Messenger have been granted dedicated sites, complete with imagery, specifications and recommended accessories. Starting with the touchscreen-heavy Data Messenger (seen above), you′ll find a 2.81-inch LED-backlit display (320 x 240), a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR / WiFi, HSDPA, quad-band GSM support, aGPS, a 3.1-megapixel camera and a microSD card slot. As for the Voice Messenger (pictured after the break), it’s packing a 2.4-inch 320 x 240 LED-backlit screen, a 20-key “keyboard” and most everything else already mentioned on its big bro. There′s nary a clue on pricing or a release date, but we imagine both of those snippets will reveal themselves shortly.

[Via WMPowerUser]

Read - HP iPAQ Voice Messenger
Read - HP iPAQ Data Messenger

Continue reading HP iPAQ Data Messenger / Voice Messenger handhelds emerge

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Laptops

Well the rumoratti has certainly been working overtime today when it comes to Apple, so we’ve decided to bundle all the news that’s currently doing the rounds into one tasty and nutritious post.

First up, there are new — and quite detailed — pictures out of what appears to be those MacBook and MacBook Pro casings we saw during the week. Again, we can’t 100 percent confirm that these are the real deal, but they certainly have that Air-meets-MacBook hybrid quality to them that would suggest we’re looking at the next iteration of the line.

Secondly, Apple has gone and published a support document for the “MacBook/MacBook Pro (Late 2008)” — which suggests (gasp!) that there might be some late 2008 refreshes in our future. Oh really? Weird.

Rounding out the excitement, AppleInsider “confirms″ the rumor that the new MacBooks will jettison the integrated Intel graphics which previous models have used in favor of NVIDIA’s MCP79 platform. The new GPUs apparently use a new set of GeForce 9300 and 9400 chips that will make previous performance look archaic by comparison. Additionally, according to hotshot Mac rumor specialist Kevin Rose, the new systems will support Blu-ray drives, thus finally allowing you to watch season 4 of Lost the way the lord intended it.

As with all rumors, you can never really know which one of these is going to stick, but luckily we won’t have to wait very long to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, feel free to peruse the various links below and soak in the sweet, sweet gossip.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - Leaked MacBook / MacBook Pro casing photos
Read - Apple Document Confirms MacBook/MacBook Pro (Late 2008)
Read - Apple dumping Intel chipsets for NVIDIA’s in new MacBooks
Read - Kevin Rose drops MacBook Blu-Ray Rumor at Live Diggnation event

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Laptops

Oh Apple — release some new laptops so this madness can end. The forums at MacRumors are abuzz over a Taiwanese site that’s showing off pictures of what appears to be a very close cousin of that MacBook Pro-esque casing we saw earlier. This isn’t the same model, surely, but it does bear a striking similarity in both design and materials — and after lots of deliberation and comparisons, we′re fairly sure this isn’t the Air either (the hinge ends in a totally different spot in relation to the keys). That machined quality we noted in the earlier post is present, though as we said previously, the sides of these housings do look like separate pieces. Regardless, if any of this is even remotely true (and not another Photoshop from someone′s mother’s basement), Apple is indeed taking its laptops in an Air direction, which isn′t surprising — but signs of these being the end-result of new manufacturing process? The jury’s still way out. One more pic after the break of that controversial side piece.

[Via MacRumors]

Continue reading More pics of Apple’s supposed new laptops surface

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Robots

Erector’s WiFi-enabled Spykee robot hasn’t even begun to ship to mere mortals just yet, but through some random acts of wizardry, Sven was able to grab hold of one and give it the ole unboxing / impressions treatment (on video, no less). It could be the novelty factor, but he seemed pretty stoked with the whole package, and the clip waiting in the read link gives some real hard-hitting insight as to whether or not this $300 character deserves a spot in your family. Give it a watch, won’t you?

[Via RobotsRule]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Anthony_Cargile writes “We all now know about Asus shipping illegal software cracks and confidential documents/source code on their recovery DVD (and in the system root), but this article tells exactly how it happened. It’s even more careless than you think, and most likely an accident.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by timothy

CWmike writes “Apple ’s latest version of iTunes crashes Windows Vista when an iPod or iPhone is connected to the PC, scores of users have reported on Apple’s support forum. Plug in and Vista crashes and shows the ‘blue screen of death.’ The errors began showing up immediately after updating iTunes to Version 8.0, which Apple released Tuesday as part of its iPod refresh. ‘I just installed iTunes 8 over my iTunes 7 on Vista [and] now whenever I plug in my iPod, I get a blue screen death. Three times so far. Even if it is plugged in on boot, I get a blue screen,” said a user identified as ’sambeckett′ on the support forum about 90 minutes after Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrapped up the iPod launch.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by timothy

Filed under: Home Entertainment

D-Link’s $230 DSM-330 media streamer has always been among the most flexible set-top boxes out there, and it’s just gotten even better, with the latest DivX Connected server software bringing Flash video support to the device. It’s not quite browse-and-play — every site requires a specific plug-in — but Hulu, College Humor, YouTube, ABC News, and Vimeo are already working, and there are more on the way. That’s pretty tempting for two bills, but we’ll stick to rocking PlayOn with our 360 and PS3.

[Via eHomeUpgrade and Zatz Not Funny!]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV

Thanks to an early jump in Japan, we already knew that Canon’s VIXIA line was getting a refresh, but now we can rest easy knowing they’ll be coming to America. The H᭣ Dual Flash camcorder (32GB in addition to an SDHC slot) and HG20 (60GB) / HG21 (120GB) HDD camcorders all boast 1,920 x 1,080 capture modes, Instant AutoFocus, SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization and 24Mbps recording to the AVCHD format. The whole lot is expected to ship next month for $1,199, $949 and $1,299 in order of mention, and the increasingly intriguing H᭣ has already spent some quality time on Camcorder Info’s review bench. Check out the in-depth writeup below before pulling that trigger in the heat of the moment.

[Thanks, Robin]

Read - Canon VIXIA releases
Read - Canon VIXIA HF11 review

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Digital Cameras

No sooner did we have a chance to wrap our mitts around JVC′s Everio GZ-HD40 and Samsung’s SC-HM≴C than Canon comes out with a pair of its own. Kicking things off is the iVIS HF11 (which turned up in name back in April) — an HD camcorder with 32GB of built-in memory, an SD / SDHC card slot, Full HD recording capabilities (using the polarizing AVCHD format) and a 12x optical zoom. The iVIS Hᯑ (pictured after the break) relates most closely to the aforementioned HD40, as it packs a capacious 120GB internal HDD, 2.7-inch flip-out LCD and most of the same specifications as its sibling. Expect ‘em both to land next month (at least in Japan) for ¥140,000 ($1,317) apiece.

Continue reading Canon churns out H᭣ / HG21 HD camcorders

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Original post by Darren Murph

So much for the old tried-and-true method of standing on your front lawn and yelling really, really loudly until your dog comes back home. Navigation device manufacturer Garmin introduced today a redesigned version of its GPS dog tracking collar.

Designed to work with the Astro GPS Dog Tracking system, the new DC 30 is more rugged that previous offerings and features a better antenna placement, according to the company.

Says the company’s VP of worldwide sales, Dan Bartel: “The new DC 30 collar is designed to stand up to the torturous abuse of hunting dogs. Whether it’s hounds crashing through thick and swampy woods, or bird dogs bounding through dense CRP fields, the DC 30 is made to take the beating that working dogs dish out daily.”

The weight of the entire DC 30 unit, transmitter and antenna included is 8.7 ounces. When used with the Astro system, the collar can help owners locate their dog up to 7 miles away. The Astro can give owners updates on the dog’s location every five, 10, or 30 seconds, and should last up to 36 hours on a charge. It also features a microSD slot, letting users insert pre-programmed maps.

Original post by Brian Heater

At Hasbro’s line show today, we (well, maybe just me) were excited to see the current lineup of Littlest Pet Shop VIPs (for Virtual Interactive Pets), including the newest members: a very cute cow (above) and a scene-stealing squirrel (after the jump). Each Pet is $14.95 and, of course, are co-branded with the VIPs Web site, where kids can go to play games, find new items for their pets at the boutique, and so on.

The 5-year-old in me is not happy that she was born too soon for these toys.

Original post by Carol Mangis

When your dog barks, it may be trying to tell you something. That belief is tied to Israeli jails using a custom-built computer program called DogGuard that interprets a guard dog’s barks.

Bio-Sense Technologies created the system to notify the prison staff when dogs were barking because of suspicious activity, i.e. prisoners trying to escape. It involves a sensor, placed on a wall or fence within a 15-yard radius of the dog, which can determine a dog’s stress based on the sound of its bark. If an emergency is detected by a bark, an alarm sounds in the prison’s control room.

“It collects the dogs’ barks through microphones…and sorts and grades them,” explained Noam Tavor, head of the Israel Prisons Service canine unit. “It relays only the barks that are significant in terms of security—barks that reveal stress or aggression in the dog.”

Using dogs as a means of patrolling a prison’s fences initially wasn’t an efficient system: “The dogs would bark, and staff of the prison wouldn’t hear it, or would hear it and would not take action fast enough.” Tavor said. However, after thorough research, Bio-Sense was able to record the patrol dogs’ different barking patterns, load these recordings into a computer program, and determine “what makes the emergency bark different than the other barks,” said Bio-Sense project manager Orit Netz.

The first DogGuard system was developed in 2005, and three more have been installed in Israeli prisons.

[via USA Today]

Original post by Jen the Weird Hunter

And you thought $49.99 was cheap. Word on the street has it that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on, which has been seen as slightly less valuable since Toshiba pulled the plug on the once mighty red format, has stooped to €9.99 across the pond. For those not savvy on the absurd devaluation of the US dollar, we’re talking $15.47 — and that’s with a Media Center remote bundled in, too. We’re totally straight-faced when we say that’s actually not a half bad deal if you’re a fan of the media already out there, but the parsimonious among us are definitely waiting for these to come bundled with our favorite cereals before pulling the trigger.

[Thanks, Conor]

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Original post by Darren Murph