Items tagged with Player
And just like that, on the eve of Apple's iPhone 5 event, the Zune was no more. Microsoft's valiant effort into the world of portable media players seemed to have a snowball's chance in summer at making it, even from the start. Despite a huge marketing effort and a name like Microsoft, trying to crush the iPod, or even match it, seems to be a fool's game at this point. Years back, an astute SanDisk CEO uttered that you "can't out-iPod the iPod." He tried. SanDisk attempted to come out with a wide range of PMPs, none of which reached even a small amount of the success garnered by the iPod. But Microsoft, of all companies, had the best shot. The Zune and the Zune HD were decent players, but they...
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Funny how quickly 3D found its way into just about everything. Blu-ray players seemed sufficient for awhile, but it didn't take long for movie companies to realize just how profitable 3D could be if you allowed it into the home. The BD-HP75U, BD-HP35U, and BD-HP25U, all from Sharp, start shipping this month. All of these players have one major thing in common. Well, two really. They all handle Blu-ray Discs, and they all handle 3D Blu-ray Discs as well. You'll get HD 3D 1080p/24 fps video output, Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD audio format decoding, Wi-Fi, DLNA streaming and built-in compatibility with Netflix, VUDU, Pandora and YouTube. That's a pretty wild list of features, making it just a game system...
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Well, well--turns out those pricing leaks from Amazon the other day were legitimate, and now Microsoft has stepped in to confirm what most of the tech-savvy world already knew. The company's next-generation Zune, and arguably the iPod's most serious competition to date, will begin to ship to US customers on September 15th, or just over a month from today.For those who can't wait to get in on the action, a slew of retailers and e-tailers are offering consumers the ability to pre-order the device, which will be made available in 16GB and 32GB capacities. The world's first touch-screen Zune will boast HD Radio support (a first for a portable music player outside of Insignia's NS-HD01) and it will,...
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At long last, the inevitable has occurred. Nearly 1.5 years after the curtain fell and HD DVD was deemed dead, Toshiba--HD DVD's biggest fan, backer and producer of players--has agreed to join those on the other side. After years of fighting, the Blu-ray format won out over the other HD disc format, HD DVD, though Toshiba never once showed any indication that it would side with those that helped obliterate the format it poured millions into.Until now. According to a report originating in Japan over the weekend, Toshiba will shelve its pride and push to market its very first Blu-ray player before the year's end. Unfortunately, details about the deck are nowhere to be found. There's no model number,...
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It use to be that the big buzz word going around the industry was convergence. In the multimedia living room of tomorrow, a melding of the capabilities of various entertainment center components, along with the computer functionalities, is the end goal that will culminate into a more intelligent, connected entertainment center. Or at least it seems to be. Granted, the HTPC (Home Theater PC) has come a long way at making that goal a reality but you'd have to agree we're not there quite yet. Interestingly, in a reverse merger sort of fashion, Boulder CO company Silicon Mountain (mountain of silicon perhaps?) steps out today with the first fully integrated HDTV PC product. ...
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Netflix and Samsung Partner to Instantly Stream Movies on Next Generation Blu-ray Disc Players Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray Players Transformed into Gateways that Give Consumers Access to More Than 12,000 Choices of Movies and TV Episodes from Netflix Partnership will Include Streaming to a Range of Home Entertainment Products LOS GATOS, Calif. and RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, and Samsung Electronics America, a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, today announced a broad partnership to offer consumers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes...
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A little over a week ago, Netflix unveiled a set-top box for watching on-demand movies and TV. The content box -- dubbed the "Netflix Player" -- was developed by the ingenious team at Roku.We were curious about the box and how it came to be, so we chatted with Tim Twerdahl, the VP of Consumer Products for Roku. Tim told us a little about the guts of the box, the future of the set-top box, and what he's watching now. Here's what we found out...Hey Tim, what powers the Player?Tim: It's running on Linux and we're using an NXP core processor. I'm not really deep into the tech side of things, but the version of Linux it's running is not off-the-shelf.Is there a storage device in the player?Tim: ...
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A set-top box that delivers streaming video from Netflix is now a reality. The Netflix Player is made by Roku, and retails for about $100. If you've got access to a broadband connection, have a Netflix rental account, and own a Roku box and some cables, you're good to go. Just not "go everywhere," yet. Setup is simple, and--if you've got a solid broadband connection--picture quality is acceptable and streaming performance was almost entirely lag-free. Those looking for the HD video quality and polished interface of Apple TV and Vudu will be disappointed. The Netflix Player is strictly barebones--you're not intended to do anything more than just dive in and watch the movies and TV shows...
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Adobe's Flash player has a 98% percent install rate, so I guess it's safe to call it an industry standard for video content. They've just released the latest version, Flash Player 10, nicknamed "Astro," as a beta test. It's got some interesting things under the hood that work in the background to make video playback faster. On the visual side, it allows interactive 3D display based on 2D pictures, and for some reason, a "Pixel Bender" that allows you to swirl and distort the image and make yourself seasick if you like. Adobe has enhanced performance by enlisting the user's graphics card to render Flash graphics as well as by employing dynamic streaming, which means that video quality changes...
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$986 million to be more precise. Why so much? It's the last one. That's the projection for the cost to Toshiba to close up shop and retool its production line to make something else. It's the final chapter for Toshiba's ill-fated attempt to offer its HD DVD alternative to Sony's Blu-ray high-definition disk player. Toshiba still turned a profit for their full fiscal year, although it was much smaller than anticipated, and that helped drive its stock price substantially lower after the report of the price tag for HD DVD funerary expenses hit the wires. The report came from the Nikkei Business Daily, not directly from Toshiba. What's Toshiba have to say about it?"We did not announce this, and therefore...
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Some retailers have been offering credits or trade-ins for returns of HD-DVD players, but you always need to buy a new Blu-ray player in exchange. Circuit City is going them one better, extending its 30-day return policy to 90 days for HD-DVD players.Circuit City Stores Inc. is getting on the Blu-ray digital video format bandwagon by tripling the period in which customers who purchased a rival HD DVD player can return them.The nation's No. 2 electronics retailer has instructed its stores to "take care of our customers" and accept returns of HD DVD players within 90 days of purchase, spokesman Jim Babb said."Take care of our customers," now that's a great sentiment. Nice move, Circuit City....
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Now that Blu-ray has won the format wars, many are wondering when the prices are going to start dropping, maybe even coming into line with HD DVD player prices. Don't hold your breath:The $200-player Blu-ray cavalry is at least a year away, according to Sony Electronics CEO Stan Glasgow, who we talked to today in New York. "I don't think $200 is going to happen this year. Next year $200 could happen. We'll be at a $300 rate this year. $299 will happen this year."We're still keen on the PS3 as a Blu-ray player. Sure it's a little more expensive than a simple player but you get Blu-ray, the ability to play the latest games, and it can even help cure diseases with folding@home....
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A lot of users have called RealPlayer "badware," but mostly for performance reasons. All right, all right, we're being kind; there have been plenty of complaints over Real Networks' policies before.StopBadware.org said Tuesday it has labeled two versions of the RealPlayer media player as "badware," or spyware.RealPlayer 10.5, it claims, "fails to accurately and completely disclose the fact that it installs advertising software on the user's computer." And RealPlayer 11, it claims, "does not disclose the fact that it installs Rhapsody Player Engine software, and fails to remove this software when RealPlayer is uninstalled." Ryan Lukin, PR manager for RealNetworks, disputed some of the claims....
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Yahoo released the beta version of its browser-based MP3 player yesterday. It allows you to link MP3s from anywhere on the web on your web page, add Yahoo-supplied javascript, et voila! :working play buttons appear next to any MP3s. * The interface between your document and our library is unobtrusive Javascript and semantic HTML: even though our library is Javascript internally, the API is HTML. * The API is fairly rich. You can set the image we use for album art. You can control the playlist sequence. You can tell us the song title. You can operate in strict mode or quirks mode. To learn more, see How To Link on the wiki. * We're creating...
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Another grinch appears as a ten-year-old in Tennessee received a decidedly unwelcome present.Hill bought three of the players as Christmas presents for his children. He said one of the devices had apparently been returned to the store from a previous owner who loaded sex clips and songs with lyrics about using drugs."Within 10 minutes, my daughter was crying," Hill said Thursday. "I wish I could take the thoughts and images out of her head."Hill questioned why Wal-Mart Stores Inc. would sell used merchandise as new, which he said violates its own policies.The father is keeping the player until he speaks to a lawyer (obviously)....
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The continuing battle between Blu-Ray and HD DVD might eventually boil down to who can get their player into more consumer hands. A large part of that equation is price. How does less than $200 sound?If you're worried that $200 will buy you a cut rate player, think again. We're talking about a HD DVD player that was going for $499 just a year ago:“Toshiba's HD-A2 was originally released in December 2006 with a $499 price tag. Over the past year, the price for the player has steadily dropped to $399 in April and to $299 in July. Toshiba's long-running five free HD DVD movie offer [PDF] has also been available to give customers more bang for the buck.”The jury is still out as...
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Want to find out if you're dating a player? Or simply want revenge (as we could see as a possible abuse of this service)? This could be the service for you, and it's all text message-based.Based on the highly optimistic starting assumption that "people cheat and lie while dating and in relationships," PlayerBlock claims to be the first ever text-based service that enables romance seekers to investigate the dating habits of others (the Web already hosts similar date- and fidelity-tracking sites).PlayerBlock members (who pay $4.99 per month for up to 100 messages) are encouraged to report both positive and negative dating experiences, with their insights then linked to the phone number...
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Being on the bleeding edge has its pluses and minuses. You get to sample the latest stuff first, but if that same technology advances and it doesn't take your older hardware into account, you may end up with a brick. There was thus some trepidation over the latest wave of features being added to 20th Century-Fox's latest Blu-Ray releases.With the next wave of interactive features having been added to 20th Century-Fox's latest Blu-Ray Disc releases, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Day After Tomorrow, there was always a certain level of anticipation that some existing Blu-ray consoles would have trouble, especially the first-generation editions. Surprisingly, it's...
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Super Talent Launches New Family of Personal Media Players San Jose , California - Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of DRAM memory modules and flash storage solutions, today launched a new line of VIDEGO personal digital media players. These new players support MP3/WMA music playback, as well as FM stereo and voice/FM recording. They are packed with audio features including FM presets, various repeat modes and equalizer settings. But VIDEGO players are much more than just music players. These new VIDEGO players are designed for video on the go, sporting full color 2.4-inch or 2.8-inch screens...
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Way back in early June, HotHardware told you that Mozilla was considering configuring the next iteration of their Firefox web browser to detect malicious code, and to warn users not to open infected websites. The next version of Firefox is indeed being developed to do just that, and may or may not even allow you to override the warning and load the page. Security company Sophos reported last month that the number of malicious Web sites has skyrocketed over the past few months, from 5,000 new ones a day in April to nearly 30,000 a day in early July. One reason, according to Sophos researchers, is that hackers are increasingly turning away from e-mail as their preferred method of...
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Computers have gotten to the point where they can routinely decimate the best human players at many games, but most of those games can be boiled down to simply analyzing x number of moves in advance and seeing which move(s) result in the highest probability of success. What about games that might use a bit of instinct and intuition, especially in regards to observing betting trends?We might get an answer soon as computers are going to try to take on a pair of poker champions at their own game: Texas Hold ‘Em. “Laak will play with a partner, fellow pro Ali Eslami. The two will be in separate rooms, and their games will be mirror images of one another, with Eslami getting the cards that the...
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Sony has lowered the price of their Playstation gaming console by $100. Or they'll sell you a new model with an improved 80 GB drive at the old $ 599 price point. While Microsoft is busy going through the couch cushions looking for a billion dollars to fix all the Xbox 360s with the "Red Ring Of Death," this move will probably jumpstart lagging sales of the Sony unit. If nothing else, it's an inexpensive Blu-ray player that plays games. At US$499, the PS3 is once again the equal [of the] cheapest Blu-ray player on the market. The Blu-ray factor has definitely helped PS3 sales in Australia where HD flat panel TV sales are ramping up in a big way. Staff at two of the biggest Australian...
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