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FCC Authorizes Free Wireless Internet Band
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Internet, Wireless / WiFi,
The FCC has released a report that says that utilizing a new U.S. radio band for free wireless service will not overly interfere with cell phone use that has a nearby band. The agency is thinking of auctioning off frequencies in the AWS-3 (Advanced Wireless Services 3) band that is between 2155 and 2175 MHz if operators offer free service. The auction’s earliest date is set in June or July 2009 and once decided, the FCC would have to set rules for usage of the band.
Read More 
| PC World
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SlingCatcher now available for purchase
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet, Peripherals, Videos,
Yesterday, our pals over at Sling Media announced that their long-awaited SlingCatcher was finally shipping and hitting store shelves. The unit, which “catches” what’s being “pitched” by a SlingBox, the Internet, or an attached USB storage device, has been available for pre-order for the past month. Our only real problem with the device at this time is that some of the main functionality is only available to those running Windows XP SP2 or Vista, OS X users are out of luck for now on the really cool feature that lets you highlight a portion of your screen for the SlingCatcher to capture and display on a television.
The SlingCatcher can be had for $299.99. If you wanna see it in action, check out our video after the jump.
Click to continue reading SlingCatcher now available for purchase
Read More | SlingCatcher product page
Spotify Launches Free Music Service
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Hot Deals, Internet, Music,
Speaking of EMI, the new music service Spotify launched this week. Other companies they are dealing with include UMG, Sony BMG, WMG, Merlin and the Orchard. Already in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Norway and Sweden, it will make their way elsewhere by next year. Download and installing is simple for access to millions of tracks, and you can create and share playlists with your buds. The streaming is free since it is financed by advertising.
Read More | Spotify
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Netflix charging $1 per month premium for Blu-ray
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet, Movies,
Netflix has been charging new members a $1 monthly fee, in addition to the price of their standard monthly rate, for the pleasure of renting Blu-ray discs, while those who have been members of the service for a long while have had no such increase to deal with. Well, as of November 5th, Netflix will make the $1 fee mandatory for all members. If you don’t want to rent Blu-ray discs, you are fine, no change in price - but if you, like us, are all about the 1080p, lossless surround sound goodness, then I think you’ll find that paying one extra dollar isn’t really so bad. Seriously, it could have been a lot worse.
Read More | Netflix Blog
EMI To Establish Online Music Source
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Music, Portable Audio / Video,
EMI has decided to offer their music directly to consumers with an online Web portal. Not only will they offer tracks and videos, there may be some freebies and non-EMI artists as well. The label says that it is doing this to collect customer behavior data and may use something akin to Pandora, which recommends tunes based on what music the user already prefers. We find this a fine idea, not only because it might cut costs in the overpriced and ailing CD sales market, but also isn’t it nice that someone may actually be listening?
Read More | Daily Tech
LG BD-300 Blu-ray Player with Netflix Streaming
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet, Movies,
LG’s BD-300 Blu-ray Player is almost here. As we told you back in August, the player up-converts standard DVD to 1080p and allows Netflix subscribers access to over 12,000 titles. You can now pre-order the player from Circuit City for $349.99 and it will begin shipping soon. Amazon offers the BD-300 in price ranges of $379.00 up to $399.95 and says that they are in stock. This is certainly one instance that Amazon is not the bargain site for ordering.
Read More | Boy Genius Report
We once witnessed a plant’s reaction with a lie detector to someone’s bending one of its leaves and were pretty impressed that the plant exhibited stress. But Midori-san, a Sweetheart Hoya, makes that look juvenile in comparison. Satoshi Kuribayashi of KAYAK has developed sophisticated technology that allows the house plant to blog on line. With surface potential sensors, it measures changes such as temperature, vibration, and nearby humans. An algorithm translates that data into Japanese sentences that make up the blog. You can monitor Midor-san and offer it a dose of light through its site, which seems to lose something with the translation.
Read More | Pink Tentacle
InstantAction Offers Mac Games Online
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Video Games, Videos,
InstantAction has announced the debut of their open beta for Mac OS X users. Gamers can register on the site and play Rokkitball, Marble Blast Online, Think Tanks and the FPS, Fallen Empire: Legions. Mac owners can also play PC users with cross platform compatibility. System requirements are Mac OS X 10.4.11 (or later) with Intel chipsets for some of the games, while others need Mac OS X v10.5.4. Safari 3 and Firefox 2 are supported. Check with the site for more specifics.
Read More | InstantAction
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“Gearlive.com is a top 10,000 site that reaches 341K monthly people, of which 208K (61%) are in the U.S. The site is popular among a largely male audience. The typical reader reads Gizmodo and subscribes to National Geographic.”
Read More | Quantcast
Barack Obama iPhone Application
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Internet, Portable Audio / Video,
We already know that the Obama campaign is pretty savvy when it comes to the Internet. His team has further proved their point with the Obama ‘08 free iPhone application. Features include getting stats, connecting with other “friends” receiving local and national news, finding events, viewing videos and photos and finding out how O’Biden (thanks for that one, Sarah) feels about the issues. Available at iTunes App store, the application works with the original and iPhone 3G and iPod touch, and needs the 2.0 software update.
Read More | Barack Obama
