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Sprint Introduces Trio of Motorola Devices
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, GPS, Movies, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,
Sprint has just released its MOTOKRZR (pictured), MOTORAZR, and MOTOSLVR. Each Motorola device utilizes a high-speed EVDO network, features PAM (phone as modem), a camera, Bluetooth technology, and Telenav GPS.
Sprint TV offers more than 50 channels of live TV and and on-demand video and audio. Sprint Movies is also available as a pay-per-view service that allows you access to full length movies. Sprint Music affords you access to downloads of full-length songs. NFL Mobile gives you same-day highlights, real-time statistics, scores, and even injury reports every two seconds.
You can pre-register for your Motorola device at Sprint or wait until November when they become available. That means you can delay dealing with the inevitable price and keep on believing in Santa.
Read More 
| Sprint via Sprint Press Release
Gallery: Sprint Introduces Trio of Motorola Devices
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Sony Unveils NW-S706 Flash Player
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Movies, Portable Audio / Video,
Sony has finally revealed its long-awaited NW-S706 flash player with color screen. Available in basic black, plucky purple, or perky pink, it features up to 4 GB memory, channel separation, FM tuner, and up to 50 hours playback. The NW-S706 has a line-in recording capability and comes with EX headphones. As yet, we have no details as to price and availability, nor those of its Chinese brother CE. Although the screen appears smaller than its playback control knob, it’s one baby step further along an audio player’s evolutionary scale.
Read More | dapreview
Gallery: Sony Unveils NW-S706 Flash Player
Sony Q&A on 1080p and Blu-Ray for Playstation 3
Posted by Brian Viele Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Movies, Video Games,
A GamePro editor got to sit down with Phil Harrison, an executive at Sony Computer Entertainment America(SCEA) at the Tokyo Game Show and had an interesting Q&A about the Playstation 3’s Blu-Ray and 1080p advantage. The interview was short, but very interesting. Phil of course touted the 1080p support, “True HD” he called it, that only the PS3 has out of the box. This is true at present, but as reported earlier this week, the XBOX 360 will be receiving a software upgrade to support 1080p, likely for the launch of their HD-DVD drive. It was also interesting to note that Phil stated some games look better in 720p. I’m not quite sure how that would work, but I guess we’ll see soon enough.
My favorite part of the interview was about Sony’s choice to use a Blu-Ray drive in the PS3, which has driven up the price and helped to make setting a launch date a nightmare. A lot of the critics, and apparently Microsoft, think that the only use of the Blu-Ray drive in the PS3 is for HD movie playback and just makes the device more expensive even for those who don’t plan to use it as a movie player. I will leave you with Phil putting the “Smack-Down” on that idea.
“There’s this sort of misunderstanding that the Blu-ray disc player for movies is somehow burdening the console with unnecessary cost. That is completely not true. We put our Blu-ray Disc functionality in the console purely from a game design point of view. Once we had that storage capacity on Blu-ray Disc, adding the movie playback functionality was extremely cost-effective, [the cost] is actually non-existent.
So games like Resistance which, as a launch title, is up to 20-something gigabytes already. And that’s day one—think about four years, six years from now. We’ll be pushing the 50 gigabyte limit with dual-layer Blu-ray very quickly. So we absolutely need it as game designers, and in that regard, the consumer is getting the movie functionality effectively for free.”
—Phil Harrison, Representative Director SCEA
Read More | GamePro
Gallery: Sony Q&A on 1080p and Blu-Ray for Playstation 3
Apple has just released iTunes 7.0.1, just over two weeks from the time iTunes 7 was released at the It’s Showtime keynote. With all the bugs that have been reported in recent weeks, it’s good to see a quick update out of Cupertino. Here are the iTunes 7.0.1 highlights:
With iTunes 7 and the new iTunes Store, preview and purchase high-quality hit movies plus new and classic games designed exclusively for the Fifth Generation iPod. Flip through your collection by album cover with Cover Flow, protect your iTunes library by backing up to CDs or DVDs, and much more.
iTunes 7.0.1 addresses stability and performance issues with Cover Flow, CD importing, iPod syncing, and more.
Good to see the iPod syncing issues have been addressed, along with Cover Flow. You can all stop emailing us about those now.
Read More | iTunes 7.0.1
Gallery: Apple Releases iTunes 7.0.1
Xbox 360 HD DVD Player To Retail At $200 In USA
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Movies, Video Games,
Microsoft has finally announced pricing for their HD DVD Player add-on for the Xbox 360 in North America, making it know that the unit will sell for $199.99 USD. While no date has been set, Microsoft did give us a few extra notes - the HD DVD Player will included the HD DVD version of King Kong, along with the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote control. With the next Xbox 360 dashboard update comes the ability to output the signal in 1080p, allowing Full HD compatibility.
While not super-cheap, getting and HD DVD Player for $200 can’t be seen as anything other than a bargain, as the cheapest standalone unit runs for $500 USD - and that one can’t even play Xbox 360 games.
Read More | Playfeed
Gallery: Xbox 360 HD DVD Player To Retail At $200 In USA
Delphi Unveils NAV200 PNS
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Movies, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Transportation,
You thought you were confused. Take a look at Delphi’s NAV200. This portable navigation system not only finds your nearest Taco Bell, it also houses a PMP. Just pop it onto your windshield or dashboard, and the pre-loaded NAV is good to go. Once your route is set, built-in speakers provide you with voice-guided directions. Features include a touch screen based on MSN’s Windows CE, a 400mHZ processor, a SIRFstart III GPS chipset antenna, a NAVTEQ mapping database, and a DVD backup for its 1.5GB SD card.
Utilize the 3.5-inch LCD screen to watch a movie through AVI, view JPG, GIF, and PNG images, or listen to WAVs or MP3 tunes with the built in rechargeable
3-hour battery. The NAV200 also features games, a world clock, and calculator. Optional is TMC (Traffic Monitoring Channel) programming, a subscription service that provides traffic info via radio stations. NAV200 is due for release in October at retail outlets or preorder at Delphi for $349.
Read More | Delphi NAV200 Product Page via
Gallery: Delphi Unveils NAV200 PNS
XBOX 360 to Support 1080p
Posted by Brian Viele Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Microsoft, Movies, Video Games,
Some info from the Tokyo Game Show 2006 has stated that the XBOX 360 will receive 1080p support (1920x1080) through a dashboard update coming this year. Current games and even DVD’s will be up-converted to this extended resolution, but no native 1080p content has been announced yet. I would imagine that the update is namely due to the upcoming release of the HD-DVD add-on which supports 1080p media. It is also a good tactic to take away some of the hype from the PS3 being released in November, which will support 1080p. Now if they would only add an HDMI port to the thing, it’d be a true HD machine!
Read More | Playfeed
Gallery: XBOX 360 to Support 1080p
Microsoft Offers Waiting List For Soapbox Beta
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Microsoft, Movies, Music,
Watch out, iTube. MSN has announced the beta release of Soapbox, their user-uploaded video service. Available on MSN Video, it joins their growing family of Windows Live Spaces and Live Messenger. With Soapbox, you can upload and share videos, seach through 15 video categories, subscribe to RSS feeds, and even rate and comment on videos.
Soapbox is available in the U.S. by invitation only, but plans on expanding in the future so that you can also invite a few friends to your Internet party. Users must have MSN IE 6 or later with Windows XP, or Firefox 1.0.5 or later running on Windows XP or Macintosh OS X.
Read More | MSN Press Release
Gallery: Microsoft Offers Waiting List For Soapbox Beta
RFID Tagged Disks May Put a Halt to Piracy
Posted by Brian Viele Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Movies, Rumors,
Movie makers are planning to begin to use RFID tags embedded within media to prevent playing of pirated disks. The technology will be applicable to DVD’s, HD-DVD’s and Blu-Ray disks. Essentially, the system will read the ID tag to ensure the disk is authentic, which will require the unit 1) To be able to read RFID tags and 2) To be able to connect to some database to retrieve valid ID tags. All of this is going to be, of course, at the consumer’s expense.
I have a few issues with this upcoming system. First of all, there will undoubtedly be ways to rip and re-burn the video into some generic form that will not require the player to scan the RFID. Otherwise, it will make recording home movies and such impossible, so it doesn’t totally rid the potential of pirated media. Additionally, when these new security measures come into affect, people with older systems that do not have the RFID capability will be forced to upgrade in order to view the new releases. At $500 a pop for the low-end Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players today, I find it obscene to expect consumers to purchase a new device to incorporate new anti-piracy technology that likely will not be totally effective. Unless U-Tech, IPICO or the movie makers decide to upgrade consumers current equipment for free, I don’t think many people will find this a great idea.
Read More | VNUNet
Gallery: RFID Tagged Disks May Put a Halt to Piracy
iLoads Transfer Audio and Video Without Computer
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Accessories, Movies, Music, Portable Audio / Video,
Wingspan’s iLoad has a very simple mission. Connect your iPod to any media source, such as cable TV, satellite box, cell network, or CD player. iLoad will transfer musical content, as well as data, directly to your iPod at high speed without the use of a PC or the Internet.
Wait, there’s more. Here comes the iLoad+, an add-on that will download audio and video to your iPod, USB storage device, or flash disc. Pre-order at the iLoad site and you will receive free priority shipping (a $20.00 savings) and a free 3-year extended warranty (a $29.95 value.) iLoad is priced at $249, while the iLoad+ will set you back an additional $100. Shipping begins in early November.
Read More | Wingspan iLoad Press Release
Gallery: iLoads Transfer Audio and Video Without Computer
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