PS3, e-readers and laptops: What we want for Black Friday
Tis the season for gadgets, and while Turkey day is Thursday, gadget gurus know Friday is the annual free-for-all for the Christmas season. What are some of the big presents under the tree this year? We ask Christina Warren from Mashable, and our own Iyaz Akhtar.
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Video streaming: What’s next, what’s now?
We're big fans of streaming video into the living room, and whether its through an Xbox 360, Boxee, Roku or even hooking a laptop up, we think it's high time our cable bills started shrinking and internet video took over. Today, a Best Buy executive told the NYT that the company is looking to jump head first into the streaming game next year with a partnership with Cinema Now. Yesterday, rumors floated about Apple's intentions in the living room. What's streaming video really going to look like when it's done, and what's it going to take for us to get there? We ask Kevin Tofel of jkOnTheRun, and Jason Hiner of Tech Republic.
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Roku updates line of video players
Roku, most noted for its original "Netflix player," has announced a new lineup of boxes for connecting TVs to Netflix, Amazon Unbox and MLB.com video. Among them, the high end $129 Roku HD-XR, which features HDMI connectivity, along with optical audio out, 802.11n WiFi, Ethernet, and an unused USB port which the company coyly mentions will be used in the future. The mid-range $99 Roku HD player is the company's previously named "Netflix Player," which has all the same connections as the XR, but comes sans USB port and only has 802.11b/g WiFi.
Lastly, the Roku SD player is a $79 player which rocks composite video out, B/G WiFi and Ethernet.
The company says its planning to unveil an application store which will allow more content to be added to the device in the coming weeks, which makes the units more appealing , though we don't know all the partners Roku has signed nor how easy it'll be to add channels to the unit.
We were lucky enough to have Roku send us an HD-XR unit which we've been testing for about a week. Read on for our experiences.
Netflix now offers streaming on Insignia Blu-Ray players
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Netflix has announced a partnership with Best Buy which integrates Netflix's streaming service into Insignia Blu-Ray players. The NS-BRDVD3 and NS-WBRDVD will allow on-device queue management, WiFi connectivity on the higher-end player, and Ethernet-only on the cheaper model. The players, retailing for $179.99 and $249.99, are on sale now exclusively at Best Buy.
Netgear releases Internet-connected set-top box
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Netgear, known for its computer networking products, has thrown its hat in the set-top box ring. Its offering, the Digital Entertainer Live, streams video directly from a number of web sites such as YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix via PlayOn. The unit will also play HD video and music, and display photos, from a PC, network attached storage, or USB drive, and is available now for $149.
Xbox 360 dashboard update available today
Microsoft has unleashed the latest Xbox 360 dashboard update to the public. Most notable in the new release? One of our fav features is the updated Netflix app, which lets users add and remove Instant Queue titles from the Xbox, rather than requiring a trip to a web browser. There are other features too, like the ability to download full Xbox 360 games on-demand for prices that are similar to what gamers would pay in stores, and an updated avatar clothing collection.
The update only takes a minute or two to download and is extremely quick to install. Check out Microsoft's official Xbox 360 update page for more info.
Million-dollar Netflix challenge has a winner
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Netflix's three-year million dollar challenge to improve its movie recommendation system has finally ended with the company declaring a winner. Two groups went head-to-head to improve Netflix's movie rating system by 10%, with one group improving it by 10.10%, edging the other group by .01% in the contest. The winning group will take home the $1,000,000 after the results are verified independently, and then Netflix will begin implementing the winner's algorithm soon after.
Netflix stock soars as rumors fly about Amazon acquisition
Netflix, the company most known for its on-demand DVD rental service as well as its internet-based WatchNow movie platform, is said to be an acqusition target for ginormous e-tailing giant Amazon, which caused Netflix's stock to rise significantly yesterday. Some analysts peg the rumors as unfounded, noting Amazon's recent woes with local governments requiring sales tax where Amazon does business. If Amazon were to acquire Netflix, it'd have a much larger physical footprint, since Netflix has distribution centers across the country.
Netflix headed for Sony Bravia HDTVs
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Netflix will be heading to internet connected Sony Bravia HDTVs by the end of the year, in a similar form to the ones we've seen on the Roku box, Xbox 360 and Samsung Blu-ray players.
Netflix integrates with Windows Media Center
Users of Windows Media center can now access Netflix's thousands of on-demand streaming films more easily after the two companies announced a partnership to bring Netflix to Microsoft's preeminent media software.