The WSJ and the New York Times, among other outlets, are reporting that Apple is in preliminary discussions with ABC and CBS (at a minimum) about a possible subscription plan arrangement for broadcast and cable TV channels. This idea was noted by All Things D in November, which cited a target price of $30 a month for subscription access via iTunes. If the company can get content providers signed up, the service would be likely to launch next year, say both papers.
It’s also possible that Apple’s Lala purchase could play into this new model, with ’shows in the cloud’ and micropayment options that would improve the user experience for TV-watching. Meanwhile, the NBC-Comcast deal might throw a wrench into the works for Apple, and it’s not clear that the other broadcast and cable networks are inclined to make a deal at this point; while CBS has few cable assets to protect, and ABC/Disney have a powerful vote in favor of collaboration with Apple, the other companies may have more to lose by throwing in their lot with the iTunes juggernaut. NBC, in particular, has a hit on its hands with the ad-supported Hulu site, now the second-biggest programming provider according to comScore. If only there were some kind of portable viewing device that could play back your videos…
Its seems that casual TV viewers and large corporations handle Schadenfreude very differently. While MTV’s Jersey Shore has been a constant source of amusement for at least one Engadget editor, TMZ (our other favorite tech site) reports that Dell has joined a growing list of advertisers that are backing away from the reality series. In fact, a company spokesman (with a less jaded view of humanity than us) has gone on record stating that Dell doesn’t “condone or support ethnic bashing in any form.” And neither do we, of course — but we do love a good laugh. Jenni “Jwoww” Farley is unavailable for comment.
Continue reading Dell pulls ads from Jersey Shore, calls show ‘derogatony’ (video)
Sure, GPS can get you to the mall, but can it route you from the Bon Ton down to Penney’s? Not so much. Indoor navigation is still generally a paper map reliant affair, something Nokia attempted to do away with at the Kamppi Shopping Center in Helsinki. The service, also called Kamppi, relied on wireless LAN to position people within the complex, meaning anyone with an S60 handset with WiFi could simply browse to kamppi.nokia.mobi, see their current position, locate their friends, and find their way around as shown after the break. 15,000 people tried it out successfully over the summer and so the service is receiving a fitting send-off: it’s been “archived.” Nokia is pledging to use the tech in future products, but we expect to be reliant on those giant, obelisk-mounted maps for many years to come.
Continue reading Nokia’s Kamppi Trial succeeds at indoor positioning, gets shelved anyway (video)
Quick, which company was founded first: Facebook or Youtube? What year did Apple launch the Jesus phone? Can you name three of the biggest financial calamities of the past decade? The three-minute video above from WatchMojo recaps the decade in business and technology.
The video strangely alternates between the fraud and financial crises of the general business world (Enron, the housing bubble, Bernie Madoff) and all the change and innovation of the tech world (Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the iPhone). It’s as though it is talking about two different worlds or two different eras. If the next decade is going to be anything like the last one, I’ll stay in the tech world.
Samsung’s WinMo 6.5-packin’ Omnia II has been available to Verizon Wireless customers (or at least those unaffected by the Droid) for a few weeks now, but strangely, we’ve yet to see a proper dissection of this here smartphone until today. That said, we’re sure the patience you’ve put into this will pay off after after heading past the break, where all of the itty-bitty internals are shown in stunning detail for your entertainment / education. As a good gal we once knew would say: “Ain’t that the berries!”
[Thanks, Costas]
The long (long!) awaited Pandora gaming handheld is inching closer and closer to reality, with all but a few i’s and t’s left to dot and cross (respectively). It’s so close to ready, in fact, that personnel from the device’s production team invited a mere mortal (also known as a forum member) to their homes in order to test out and tinker with a pre-production model. Naturally, his hands-on experience was nothing short of glowing — but really, we wouldn’t expect anything less from a devout forum member who clearly digs even the idea of having a Pandora to hold and snuggle with. There’s no denying the awesomeness that awaits you in the video past the break, though, and if the unit really does handle everything as smoothly as it does Super Mario 64, we’re all in for a treat.
Continue reading Near-final Pandora handheld gets user reviewed, shown playing Super Mario 64
NVIDIA’s Ion technology may be hogging the limelight when it comes to netbook graphics, but Broadcom’s no stranger to the space. After giving Acer’s Aspire One HD playback capabilities that it could only dream of just months prior, the company’s newly announced Crystal HD platform could provide Intel’s Atom N450 with the multimedia boost it badly needs. The nitty-gritty details are still being withheld, but we’re told that “top-tier OEMs including Asus, Dell and Samsung” will be slapping this into their upcoming N450-based netbooks. If you’re curious as to why you should care, the BCM70015 promises “near flawless” HD video playback, including support for Flash Player 10.1 and Blu-ray flicks. We’re told to expect it to start popping up in forthcoming machines throughout 2010, and if you’re looking to soak up anything else in the meanwhile, a promotional video awaits you after the break.
Continue reading Broadcom’s Crystal HD tech to liven up HD capabilities of N450-based netbooks
How a phone given to thousands of employees still manages to be nothing more than an occasional blip on the internets continues to boggle our mind. This latest Nexus One / “Google Phone” sighting comes care of two Twitter chatters — @djrobrob and the less protected account of @phillm. It’s the clearest shot of the interface we’ve gotten, and given our previous go-to videos have been subsequently pulled, the best “motion picture” interpretation we’ve got — take a look for yourself after the break.
Gallery: More Google Nexus shots
The world needs humanoids, and Fuji Soft is heeding that call. It just unveiled its new humanoid line at the ever-popular All Japan Robot Tournament, and while the robot doesn’t have a model name yet, one of the delightful personalities pictured above is named Sakura-Chan and both seem pretty keen on a bit of robo-Sumo. The mobility and capabilities of the bots seems pretty standard, with an LED visor for facial expressions, speech recognition and a camera for taking in this odd carbon-based world it finds itself in. What’s more interesting is the Robovie-style off-the-shelf parts inside: Atom CPU, Ubuntu OS and WiFi, all of which are compatible with the Eclipse development environment. The robot should be hitting the streets (of Japan) in early 2010 for a supposedly competitive price. Video is after the break.
Continue reading Fuji Soft’s new humanoid is powered by Atom and Ubuntu
Looks like Google is really going full steam ahead with its shortened URLs. Only a week after the search giant launched its own Goo.gl short URLs, its subsidiary YouTube is launching its own short URL service: youtu.be.
In a blog post announcing the new feature, YouTube writes that the short URL will be used exclusively for YouTube videos (which means it isn’t as useful to spammers for misdirection). The post also notes that because all youtu.be shortlinks include the YouTube video ID, developers can use that information to surface thumbnails and track how a video is spreading.