Archive for July, 2008

Looks like Movie Gallery finally got something for the assortment of PBS bandwidth and spare parts remaining from the now-defunct MovieBeam service. The new owner is Indian conglomerate The Valuable Group, headed by Sanjay Gaikwad who apparently thinks serving up a remarkably limited assortment of heavily compressed HD and SD movies on demand is an idea that deserves to fail all over the world, instead of just in the U.S. Since $100 million burned up by Disney and others wasn’t enough to make things work, he plans to invest a similar amount over the next two years to relaunch the service in North America, the U.K. and “other overseas markets”. Variety notes The Valuable Group already delivers movies digitally to India and South Asian theaters via satellite so maybe they know something we don’t about this business model, and with plans to roll out service in three markets with “new, cutting edge features” by year end we’ll get to find out soon.

Yeah, we know pixel count doesn’t equal picture quality — but like it or not, it looks like 8 megapixels are poised to become the new 5 megapixels in the upper echelon of the cameraphone world this year. Samsung’s never a company to shy away from a challenge like that, and sure enough, details are emerging on a so-called i8510 smartphone that features S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, FM radio, GPS, WiFi, and a whopping 16GB of internal storage — not to mention a microSD slot that can take you up to 24GB. Oh, and there’s the little matter of that camera, which features an dual LED flash and 120fps video capture at QVGA resolution. Add in DivX and DLNA certification, and we’re kind of at a loss to figure out what’s missing here. Boundless, unchecked hype, maybe? No word on a release date here just yet.

[Via mobil.cz]

Word on the street was that the $299 price slash we’ve been hearing about wasn’t about carving out a new pricepoint but instead making room for a new 60GB Xbox 360 in its place. Turns out the Mr. Word on the Street nailed this one, with Microsoft finally fessing up to the price drop, and announcing a new fancy 60GB Xbox 360 to fill in at that $349 pricepoint, which will be available in “early August.” You can pick up a 20GB “while supplies last,” but the $279 Arcade and $449 Elite aren’t budging price wise. Oh, and can we just say that this couldn’t come at any better a time? We just had to delete August Rush to make room for National Treasure 2, which we’ll probably have to drop tomorrow for Fool’s Gold. Such is life when you’ve only got 20GB to work with.

[Thanks, Sean H.]

So many of you are probably still in your jammies, reveling in the afterglow of yesterday’s purchase, repeatedly opening Maps on your glossy new iPhone 3G and watching in exaggerated wonderment as your location is determined with frightening speed and accuracy. Others might be standing in a line snaking hundreds of bodies long into your friendly local Apple Store, reading this post from the comfort of your Motorola RAZR V3 and realizing that these are some of the last moments you’ll be using a physical keypad. Still others are bemused by the fuss — but whatever your stance on the phone, it’s pretty hard to ignore the buzz that’s floating around in the aftermath of day zero. Here are some of the goings-on we’re tracking:

• The masses of humanity continue to collect. Massive stock shortages don’t seem to be an issue (yet), but patience is not a virtue we hold dear to our hearts, so we really can’t blame these people.
• Some buyers are reporting a yellow tint to their screens — probably not enough to notice without another unit side-by-side for comparison, but real nonetheless. Of course, the first iPhone suffered from the occasional crappy backlight, bum touchscreen, or negative black, so we wouldn’t be surprised if a few lame displays made it out of the factory floor for this model as well; we’re following up with Apple on this and we should have more for you later today.
• We took the iPhone 3G on a decent drive around New York, and found its tracking to be impeccable. In a situation where we might have veered off the path following Google Maps directions, the blue blip kept us right on track. Despite what you’ve read (we’re looking at you, Mr. Pogue), we see no technical reason that the aGPS can’t provide turn-by-turn directions, provided there’s software to take advantage of it.
• There are some complaints floating around about 3G reception, but it’s been just fine on our review units around the world so far. How’s it treating you out in [your location here]?
• iphone-dev has a video up of BootNeuter going about its business on a first-gen iPhone that’s been upgraded to firmware 2.0, and the process is looking as slick and painless as ever. Unlockers who haven’t shelled out for the 3G, commence your salivating.
• MobileMe seems like it’s up for the moment, but don’t breathe too hard lest you bring the whole thing down again.

Update: We just spoke with Bob Borchers, senior director of product marketing for the iPhone, and he had some very interesting info regarding the “yellow screen” phenomenon we’ve been hearing about. According to Bob (and Apple), the screen’s color temperature has been purposely altered on the new iPhone to produce warmer, more natural tones, sharper images, and deeper blacks. The company says that 1st gen iPhone screens appeared colder and less defined, and they made some adjustments for the new models. In our opinion, what he says is right on — the screens do look better on the iPhone 3G versus the older variety. What do you guys think?

Well, that was quick. We mentioned Ion’s fancy drum kit yesterday, which will be released around when Rock Band 2 ships, but works with both Rock Band games, and now we’ve got a price and a press shot of the Drum Rocker. The $300 set has high-durability pads, which are supposed to play quiet and will register the velocity of your hits, but the real win is the re-configurability of the whole set — much like a for-realises electronic drum kit. We’re also really digging the metal-reinforced kick pedal, which seems a major improvement over the junky, difficult pedal packaged with the original game. Only $300? We’ll take two.

[Via Joystiq]

If you hadn’t heard, hundreds of people were turned away from Apple Stores last night, iPhone 3G-less. However, being gluttons for punishment — and having nothing to do over the weekend — they’ve returned in droves to Apple Stores, with reports of lines longer than 200 people stretching out from The Cube, Apple Store Chicago (pictured) and even a store in Durham, NC. Apple offered up vouchers last night, at least at some stores, to anyone still waiting in line, so those folks can show up whenever and jump the line for a phone — about 30 of them are lined up at The Cube currently. If you don’t mind you can let us know in tips what the current status on the line / stock is at your local Apple or AT&T store is, and we’ll try to keep track of this mayhem through the weekend. Good luck out there!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this stuff in]

No, really, will it? We’re on pins and needles here. Sure, the original blended up fine, but with all the G’s in this thing, perhaps not even the mighty Blendtec can reduce it to rubble. Video is after the break. Oh, and for extra bonus points, check out the fake Belgian edition, also after the break. Yeah, we said Belgian.

According to sources, Acer’s tiny Aspire One laptop is now available in three iterations, the A110L, A150L, and A150X. The A110L sports an Atom N270 CPU, Intel’s 946GSE chipset, 512MB or 1GB of RAM, 8GB of NAND flash storage, an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 display, 802.11b/g, and three USB ports. The other two models come equipped with the same specs, save for a 120GB hard drive in place of the flash storage, and are offered with Linpus Linux, or Windows XP. Retailers in Germany already claim to have the A110L in stock now, selling for €329 (or about $518).

[Via Fudzilla]