Section: Video, Portable Video We’ve heard it all before, that the DVD is dying, and that the Blu-Ray might not even matter for movies, that the industry is going towards digital download. While that may be true, there is a chance that we might be seeing another physical way of distributing movies before we move to all download and streaming. The good news is that’s it won’t be yet another optical disc to worry about. The “new” method comes from a deal between Kingston and Paramount that would see movies distributed via flash memory. More specifically, movies will be available on USB flash drives and SD cards. The new method would see movies sold not only individually, but as part of bundles possibly on the same drives/cards or as part of a series, it’s not particularly clear. The deal itself isn’t too clear at the moment, with no release date scheduled, but the partnership and plans seem to be there. Distributing movies on flash memory seems like a smart idea. Assuming the files are in some sort of standard format without DRM, they should be able to work on just about any computer or netbook. These would work especially well on netbooks or laptops, where users don’t want to carry around DVDs, but may not have the storage to fit a large collection of movies, or no Internet connection that can stream movies. It would be nice if the drives/cards contained both HD and SD versions for a netbook and laptop version. What’s more likely, however, is just SD films so they can be put on the cheapest cards available with a small amount of storage space. Either way, when the partnership does see some real product emerge, it will be interesting to see how well it takes off/fails miserably. Read [Electronista] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Broadband Cards, Mobile, Computers, Netbooks Sprint has announced it will begin offering a mobile broadband equipped Dell Inspiron Mini 10 in select markets across the country. The netbook is similar to those already offered by Verizon and AT&T and comes with a built in EVDO Rev.A wireless service. It weighs just over 2.5lbs, offers a bright 10 inch screen, 160GB HDD, 1GB of RAM, and in addition to the built in broadband, includes Bluetooth and WiFi 802.11g connectivity. "Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is a fun way to easily access the speeds of Sprint's network to catch-up on email, surf the Web and more," said Kevin Packingham, senior vice president – Product Development, Sprint. "We are excited to add this great Dell product to our industry-leading portfolio of devices available from Sprint that work on America's most dependable 3G network. It offers an affordable way to stay in touch and stay connected."
Sprint is offering the netbook for $199 after a $100 mail in rebate and requires you sign up for their $59.99 a month data plan as well, which comes with a 5GB cap. Since Dell sells the Mini for $299 on their website it may not be the best deal for your buck. A data card will give you the freedom to use it with any device you want rather than being locked into a single one, and Sprint's Mi-Fi portable access point allows up to 5 devices to share the connection. Still, if you're in the market for a netbook and mobile broadband anyway and don't mind being locked to once device, it's worth checking out. Sprint's data service is among the best in the business. For now, Sprint is only offering the Dell Mini in Baltimore, Phoenix, Indianapolis, the Twin Cities and the Bay Area, but it wouldn't be unrealistic to see it become available nationwide as the holiday season unfolds. Read [Business Wire] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Web, Google  I have been a Google Voice user since before it was Google Voice. That was before Google had purchased the service, which was once called Grand Central. Of course, I did not really begin using and taking full advantage of the service until after Google began allowing us to change our phone numbers. That move did cost me ten bucks, but it gave me a pretty sweet number and my love with Google Voice truly began.
That said, while I really love the service, there was once a time when I was constantly bugged by people looking for an invitation. And now that I have a few available I have not been able to give them away. Based on that, I cannot help but wonder just how many people were using Google Voice, because at least in my little bubble of tech, the shinyness that was once Google Voice seems to have faded. Now thanks to some documents that were discovered by Business Week I have that answer. According to these documents, Google Voice currently has 1.419 million users, but only 570,000 are regularly using the service. And to clarify, their definition of use was based on people who use it everyday. All things considered, the number of people that have an account is pretty high, but at the same time the active users seems a bit low. Of course, given the definition of “use it seven days a week” I am not sure I even qualify as an active user. So maybe that is squed just a little. Either way, I still love Google Voice. Read [Business Week] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Computers, Networking, Security, Features Back in November 2008, security experts became aware of Conficker, a worm that adds as many computers to its botnet as possible. Then in April of 2009 fear spread that April Fools Day, 4/1/09 would be dooms day, but it never came. Instead, the worm has built a ring of 7 million machines around the world that only wait instructions on what to do next. The only thing is, those instructions haven’t come. Although Conficker is probably the computer worm most known about, PCs continue to get infected by it, said Andre DiMino, co-founder of The Shadowserver Foundation. “The trend is definitely increasing and breaking 7 million is pretty much of a landmark event,” he said.
But why no instructions? Researchers have a couple of theories. One is who ever built this thing is scared to do anything with it. The clever code is adept at re-infecting systems even after it was removed. Companies have spent time and money dealing with this potential threat and if caught the developer could be looking at a lot of time with the boys in blue. The fear is with a botnet of 7 million and growing, the army could weaponize and have affect on a great many of us. To be clear, it doesn’t seem this is the case today, but it is always a possibility. The most common symptom of Conficker is a machine that cannot be logged onto. The worm will attempt to gain access to other machines on the network by guessing passwords and in doing so will get locked out. Do you have it? Get tested A simple test, called an Eye Chart is found at the Conficker Working Group that was set up to deal and track these issues. It is a simple load and see if your machine loads images. If so, you are clean if not, you can find which variant of the the worm you’ve got and how to expel it. Read: [NetworkWorld] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Gadgets / Other  Experience what it’s like to download at unlimited speeds from a massive collection of over 800 Terabytes of user uploads. You’ll max out your Internet connection downloading a file in minutes that would take hours using other technologies.
Binverse utilizes 256-bit SSL encryption (the same encryption used by banks) to protect your privacy and security. Easy-to-use downloading software with a powerful built in search engine makes Binverse so easy that even a novice internet user can harness the awesome power of Usenet. Just try it once and you’ll be begging for more. Limited Time Offer Try Binverse Now and Download 150 GB FREE! Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Mobile Tag Heuer has teamed up with Automobili Lamborghini to create a new luxury limited edition phone, known as the MERIDIIST Automobili Lamborghini. In a tribute to the year Lamborghini was launched, only 1963 phones will be available for sale. The phone is crafted from titanium and crystals with a top coat of stainless steel. The keyboard features the bull logo for Lamborghini while the back of the device is engraved with the phone's limited edition number. Features include 28 hours of standby time, 7 hours talk time, 2 megapixel camera sensor, music playback, 2GB, USB compatible, 2 LCD screens, web browser and built in modem. The MERIDIIST Automobili Lamborghini will be available starting this month through select authorized retailers. You can find a listing of these retailers on the phone's official website. Although no official pricing was announced in the press release today, expect to pay upwards of $8000 to own one of these phones. Read [Tag Heuer Lamborghini] Image Source: GQ Magazine Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile 
The Samsung Moment, the world’s first AMOLED screen with slide-out keyboard phone featuring Android is now available from Sprint at $179 after rebates and another 2-year commitment to the carrier. The phone definitely has some muscle under the hood but does it make up for having Android 1.5? Read on to find out. The Moment features a 800MHz processor that drives the phone faster. Faster than, say, the Motorola Cliq - Engadget found the boot times to be 41 seconds for the Moment and 1:22 for the Cliq, ouch. A lot of that has to do with the processor and the lack of a skin on the Moment. The Cliq features a skin on top of the OS called Blur that will add some time to load in. In other tasks, the faster processor was noticeable making transitions faster and movement through menus faster The AMOLED or active matrix organic light emitting diode, is inherently rugged, very thin and lightweight and is intended to have lower power consumption rates. These all add up to a win in the mobile phone market. In the smartphone wars, every battery-saving advance is a big plus. Should you buy the Moment? Sprint recently began selling two Android phones, the Moment which is launching today and the HTC Hero, launched a couple of weeks ago. The Hero is a physical keyboardless phone running HTC UI skin over the top to give a very specific user experience. The Hero runs Android 1.5 and it is not clear if an upgrade to 2.0 will be supported (though, we believe it will). The Moment runs Android 1.5 and again the same upgrade questions abound. If you need a qwerty keyboard that will fit big hands, the Moment might just be up your alley. Be warned though, they keyboard is a little on the awkward side: the “z” key extends past the “a” key instead of the other way around. A nice feature is a row of dedicated number keys. Keyboard action is good with positive clicks keeping the action familiar. With just the Cupcake update to the Android system, users will miss out on the updated Android Market, Google Navigation and the goodness that built into 2.0. Sprint ought to be upfront with potential buyers on the upgrade possibility for this phone. The phone is capable of over-the-air updates, so upgrading is a real possibility. My call: hold off until either Sprint makes it clear on upgrades or you get some time on the new Verizon Droid (a 2.0 device) so you can decide if you need the latest. Nobody likes walking out of a store with last years software and at $179 and two years commitment, you shouldn’t have to. Product Page: [Sprint] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile 
I am loathe to use job posting info on what a company is thinking but it is worth mentioning that RIM is looking for a webkit developer presumably to help out with Blackberry’s browser. In addition to their recent Torch Mobile purchase it seems clear RIM is owning up to the fact that their browser needs some love. Somebody wise once said, “knowing is half the battle” though that could have been G.I.Joe. From CNET on the BlackBerry Storm 2 browser: “We thought that the BlackBerry browser was slightly faster and easier to navigate than previous versions, but it still needs a lot of work to catch up to the browsers on the iPhone, the Palm Pre, and the HTC Hero. “
Yesterday, Robert Scoble wrote a post on which mobile phone OS developers though was best. He asked Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora on download numbers for the top three OS for the wildly popular Pandora app. The results might not surprise you, but Roberts comments caught me off guard. While the iPhone claimed top honors, BlackBerry was in the #2 slot and Android was #3. What caught me off guard were comments about which two OS developers were looking at to develop for: Westergren told me if he were starting development today he'd build for the above three platforms and is seeing more growth in Android than the others, so he'd bias to iPhone and Android, if he had to make a choice of only two platforms to develop on. This is also what I'm hearing from many other developers.
So if developers are looking elsewhere, the browser isn’t a game winner, is the Storm relegated to just an option for BB owners? Essentially RIM has spent a lot of money on R&D to simply fracture their customers. Not a good scenario all the way around. Read [careerbeacon] via [Engadget ] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Email / IM, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Transportation  New York State has just added a new law that further bans the use of cell phones while driving. Effective immediately, drivers can no longer text while driving and if they are caught doing so they face a fine of up to $150.
While a great law, for me this always goes back to common sense. Personally, I do not mind seeing laws like this but at the same time hate seeing laws that are passed that should just be common sense. Bottom line, it is not safe to text and drive. Of course, this like many other offenses this is considered a secondary violation. Which technically means that you cannot be pulled over for texting and driving alone. The officer would also need another reason, that said, it seems safe to believe that they could most likely find something. After all, no driver is perfect. Anyway, the real strange part here is that this texting and driving ban comes a long time after, in fact it comes years after they banned talking while driving. I guess we can just say, better late than never. Read [Poughkeepsie Journal] Via [MobileCrunch] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
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