Jeff recorded one of his favorite episodes of Star Trek at 1PM and got the message above, giving him a whole 2 1/2 hours to watch it. Last time, the flag was a gltich—it's probably the case here, too, since the TiVo Copy Protection site doesn't even exist. Still, it's a nice reminder your magic box really only has as much as power as the broadcasters generously decide grant it. [PVR Blog]

Note: For the record, Star Trek > Star Wars – Jason Chen
Note: No it's not - Matt Buchanan

Developers in the Flixwagon lab created the first-ever mobile client that can broadcast live high-quality video from unlocked iPhones to the web. The company wanted to experiment with ways to broadcast live video from the iPhone until the official SDK supports video. Flixwagon plans to continue working with the iPhone SDK in the future so that it can offer this functionality to all users once video becomes a standard iPhone feature.

After Flixwagon is installed on the phone, users can broadcast videos from it to the Flixwagon website with one click. Videos can be watched live or stored for future viewing. Also, they can be embedded in blogs via our flixee widget or uploaded to the user's YouTube account. Users can also easily determine which of their contacts to share each video with.

If you have an unlocked iPhone with Installer in it, you can click here to join the alpha testing. [Flixwagon and Flixwagon iPhone Clips]

Microsoft's had this ability in Media Center to prevent specific shows from being recorded for a while, and the last time there was an error was a few years back during an episode of the Simpsons. It's not something broadcasters usually do. This also isn't a unique thing to Microsoft—TiVo has something similar but not quite as severe—it does illustrate the fact that if the providers wanted to, they could shut down your Media Center DVR right now and you couldn't do much about it. [JustinJas via Ars Technica]

Short answer: hot. Long answer: We're not reading the comments of anyone who disagrees. [product via 7gadgets]

In other words, the only reason why you would use this TV is if you really like watching TV on the go and you want to be prepared when analog broadcasts get shut down in 2009. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Insignia]

Giant mobile and electronics empires Nokia and Samsung have decided that it's best to work together in mobile TV. They want to accelerate the adoption of the technology, all after realizing that past collaborations often brought great benefits to famous former enemies. You know, like funky policemen Starsky and Hutch, great superheroes Superman and Batman or failed comedians Adolf and Josef.

Both will now work on compatibility among their respective DVB-H mobile devices, with Samsung adopting the Open Mobile Alliance BCAST standard in addition to their current CBMS OSF. What does this mean to consumers? Hopefully, that compatible mobile TV services will be available all over the world from different operators. Sadly, OMA BCAST has it's own DRM, which leaves us pretty much OMFG STFU and learn the lesson already. – Jesus Diaz

Samsung and Nokia to Cooperate on Mobile TV Interoperability [PR Newswire]

Granted, this only applies if you're still pulling TV signals from the air like magic with an antenna. If you're already part of the 21st century and have cable or satellite hookups, ignore this and go back to your TiVo. – Matt Buchanan

U.S. Sets Rules for Digital TV Payments [NYT]

Apple is using the NAB show in Vegas next month to make an announcement, but don't get your knickers in too much of a twist about it, say our Bothan spies in the company. The Cupertino company is taking to the floor on Sunday April 15, and there is no new hardware on offer, just new versions of the Pro media software, focusing on the Final Cut Studio suite - which in itself is rather good news.

Steve Jobs' ninja teams usually take the first stall in the South Hall, but this year they are upgrading to a bigger booth. Our sources, however, stress not to expect any radical new hardware until the launch of Leopard... yet they remind us that, with Apple, you never know. Oh, and a direct quote: "The next quarter is really going to be packed with new stuff." So on second thoughts, do get your knickers in a twist. Now. – Ad Dugdale

Apple To Hold Special Event At NAB [MacWorld]

The company claims a 5000-to-1 contrast ratio on each of these whopper displays, and in back they're all equipped with DVI and component inputs. To really show you these displays are aimed at professionals, there's an HD-SDI (Serial Digital Interface, used almost exclusively by pro video jockeys) input but no HDMI. The 65-incher that's now shipping runs $10,995, while the 103-inch monster will set you back a cool $70K. The 50-inch model will ship next month at a more-reasonable $5995.

It doesn't get any better than this. Huge displays like these are commonly used as set pieces in television studios and in remote production trucks. In fact, we've seen a similar display used for camera control on board the Monday Night Football production truck. Heck, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for our home theater. Bring it on. – Charlie White

Flash memory is turning up in all kinds of unusual places, and here it finds a home in the base of a high-quality Sennheiser omnidirectional microphone. Powered by two AA batteries, the FlashMic can run for eight hours, and its gig of flash memory can store 18 hours of broadcast quality audio. Although the memory card isn't removable, the resulting files can be downloaded to a Mac or PC via USB 2.0.

This is a professional device, recording linear PCM MPEG audio at 192kbps at up to 48KHz, which is not the highest of high-end audio but certainly is good enough for broadcast. Might be a good tool for well-heeled podcasters with an extra $1300 lying around. – Charlie White

Product Page [HHB Communications Ltd., via über gizmo]

Some in the blogosphere see this as a trojan horse, where the content cartel will get the HD players into consumers hands en mass and then slam-dunk full copy control on them once they've all invested in the crippled players. But we're thinking that 2010 is a long way off in techno-years, and by then the whole concept of playing content on physical media will be a quaint notion. Heck, by then, even noobs will be BitTorrenting 1080p.

Hollywood reportedly in agreement to delay forced quality downgrades
[ars technica, via boingboing]

Some of you will be excited to know that Sprint will be broadcasting sixteen hours hours of live coverage from the NFL Network to their cellphone users during the April 29-30 draft, so you can see the draft live when you're in line at the grocery store, or watch clips of the prospective draft picks on demand as you wait for the bus; we're excited mainly because this gives us yet another way to ignore sports.

Got a cellphone? You might see NFL Draft live [USA Today, thanks Schuyler!]

Come on HBO, don't be such a downer. We pay for your services, we love your programming, if we want to record an episode of The Sopranos, please don't take that away. You make some good money on us, so don't get so greedy.

HBO wants its programming to be off-limits for DVRs

With all the natural disasters this past year, Japan isn't taking any chances. As one of the highest risk areas for earthquakes, the country's Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is looking to develop an emergency broadcast system that would be able to turn on your cell phone and send a warning alarm and other information via text messaging. The system would use a digital terrestrial television broadcasting signal and would receive data, including information about disasters and evacuation instructions and routes. The plan is to use a new broadcasting system called One Seg that will be used to play TV shows on cellphones—due out in April of next year.

Quake-alarm cell phone to be tested [Yomiuri]