The best alternative to get "streaming" to work with Windows Media Player 11 is to first locate the file you want to watch over the network, then press the triangle button and copy it to your PS3. The same file that couldn't play back a minute ago will happily render itself when viewed off the PlayStation 3's hard drive.

It seems to us that the fault may either lie with the way that WMP11 streams files or the way that the PS3 plays back streamed files over the network—we're not sure. If the PS3 supported SMB networking, this problem might be eliminated. We'll have to check back in the future if and when they do add this feature.

Sorry for the confusion everybody! When I got DivX, and not XviD, to stream correctly, I assumed that XviD does not work. I should have tested it on an external drive as well. But hurray, XviD works fine on PS3. Thanks for checking up on us.

Update: I just did another test, and EyeConnect on Macs seem to stream DivX and XviD just fine for me. So it looks like a WMP11 problem. Has anyone else gotten it to support streaming w/ WMP11? TVersity seems to stream alright on PCs too, according to some users.

Update 2: Just re-confirmed that TVersity works for me, but the same files that work in TVersity don't work streaming over WMP11. Very strange.

Update: We've found that XviD playback does work, but only on burned DVDs and external hard drives. See here for an update and a workaround.

DivX and WMV play back fine. Just as they claimed, the PS3 now can play back DivX files and WMV files. No problemo.

XviD does not work. Again, no XviD support at all. You'd be surprised how many of your files are actually XviD and not DivX, especially if you've been "obtaining" TV shows and movies over the years. Often times the files aren't labeled with the codec type in the name, so you'll have to try and play it back to know whether or not it's supported. If it's not, the file name will change to "Unsupported Data." [Some readers are reporting that XviD support works. Others have written us saying that some files work, others don't. Jason has tried this with a few XviD files and none of them worked. -JD]

Streaming only works off of Windows Media Player 11 shares, not Windows Media Connect or SMB (regular Windows folder sharing). This one could be a biggie. The PlayStation 3 doesn't actually support SMB network shares, which is the default Windows folder sharing network protocol that both Linux and OS X understand. This means you're going to have to install Windows Media Player 11 (or something similar, like Orb) in order to stream video from your home computer. Windows Media Connect, which sits on our Windows Home Server that housed most of our video files, didn't work. WMP11 did.

You can play files off a burned CD/DVD. If your PlayStation 3 isn't connected to a network, or if it's hooked up to a Wi-Fi network that's too slow to stream big files without dropping out, you can burn your flicks to a DVD. This is a hassle, but ensures that your movie experience won't be interrupted by someone microwaving popcorn.

The quality is pretty good. When we got the network streaming to work and found a compatible DivX file out of all our XviDs, playback was smooth and (for the most part) artifact free.

Video dimensions stretch well. The PS3 knows exactly what aspect ratio your files are and stretches them to fit your screen without distortion. The 360 couldn't quite handle that without a little coaxing.

The first time you play back a WMV file, you need to activate WMA playback first. Not a huge deal, but kind of a pain that you have to go to the System Settings screen and activate WMA playback before you can watch any WMV file that uses the codec.

Playback controls are gimpy. This isn't the fault of the new DivX support, but of the way the PS3 handles all video playback. It's usable, but it's not as polished as the Xbox's (which wasn't all that great to begin with.) UI isn't Sony's strong suit.

It's not all bad news though, as the PS3 is actually entirely DivX certified—unlike the Xbox 360. This means that the console natively supports the codec, so games can play back DivX files as their in-game cut scene movies. However, this fact doesn't help out the rabid downloader that's expecting it to play back most of his media files—like the Xbox 360 does. If you're looking for a machine to replace that aging Xbox Media Center (XBMC), the 360 is the current winner.

Touching the car electrocutes you. A small amount of current is always needed to maintain the arrangement of iron oxide (your custom car color). So when you leave your car parked/off, the car turns white. Now imagine your white car times 5000 during your next IKEA excursion. Yeah, it'll be like Florida, everywhere you go.

CORRECTION: This is not Nissan technology, they merely viewed a demo. [nextenergynews]

As some of our astute readers have pointed out, the Zune 2 looks like it will support a Wi-Fi text messaging service. The extract from the leaked support document details an inbox feature, which "is where customers can send and receive text messages with other Zune users." The added functionality would sure make the social a lot more social, but the exact details are not clear.

Apparently, there are three types of messages, including text, artist or album. What the artist and album message formats will allow is not clear. (Simply a message with the information seems unlikely, but anything beyond that also seems a little unlikely). What has not been touched upon is a method for text entry; we sure hope there is some form of a solution to make this doable. Given the hardware infrastructure we cannot see a solution, but we'd love to be proven wrong. [Zune Scene via Zune Boards]

Apple to Ship Mac OS X Leopard on October 26

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today announced that Mac OS(R) X Leopard will go on sale Friday, October 26 at 6:00 p.m. at Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, and that Apple's online store is now accepting pre-orders. Leopard is packed with more
than 300 new features and introduces a brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock; a redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and Time Machine, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac(R).

"Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we've ever released," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "And everyone gets the 'Ultimate' version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129."

Leopard's new desktop includes the redesigned 3D Dock with Stacks, a new way to organize files for quick and easy access with just one click. Leopard automatically places web, email and other downloads in a Downloads stack to maintain a clutter-free desktop, and users can instantly fan the contents of this and other Stacks into an elegant arc right from the Dock. Users can also create their own Stacks for quick access to folders, documents or applications. Leopard's gorgeous new look extends to all applications, with every window on the desktop offering a consistent design theme and active windows outlined by deeper shadows that make them stand out.

The updated Finder includes Cover Flow(R) and a new sidebar with a dramatically simplified way to search for, browse and copy content from any PC or Mac on a local network. Content on any computer on a local network can now be searched using Spotlight(TM), browsed using Cover Flow or copied across the network with a simple drag and drop. .Mac members can use the new Back to My Mac feature to browse and access files on their remote Macs over the Internet.

Quick Look is the fastest and easiest way for users to look inside files without launching them or even having the application that created them. With Quick Look, users can instantly view full-screen, high-resolution files of virtually anything, even media files, from any view in the Finder.

Spaces gives users a powerful new way to organize their work by creating customized desktops which can contain only those applications or documents needed for each project, with the ability to quickly switch between Spaces with the mouse or keyboard.

Time Machine lets users easily back up all of the data on their Mac, find lost files and even restore all of the software on their Mac. With just a one-click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on the Mac.* In the event a file is lost, users can search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media and then instantly restore the file. If it's ever necessary, Leopard can also easily restore an entire system from the Time Machine data on an external drive.

Mail has been updated in Leopard and features more than 30 stationery designs and layouts that look great on a Windows PC or Mac so users can easily send stylish, personalized emails with beautiful graphics and photos. Notes and To Dos help users stay organized by acting just like emails that can be easily created, saved as drafts, synced across multiple Macs and stored in Smart Mailboxes. Data detectors automatically sense phone numbers, addresses and events so they can be added to Address Book or iCal(R) with just a few clicks, and users can keep up-to-date by getting the latest news and blog feeds delivered directly to the their mailboxes with a built-in RSS reader.

iChat(R), the easiest-to-use video conferencing application on any personal computer, offers even richer video chats in Leopard with iChat Theater, which makes it easy to show photos, presentations, videos or files in a video conference; screen sharing which lets users remotely view and operate another Mac; and Photo Booth(R) effects for fun distortions and video backdrops that can instantly make users appear to be anywhere they choose.

Other new features in Leopard include:

— improved Parental Controls, aiding parents in managing their kids' online activities with automatic identification of unsuitable content before allowing website access, plus time limits and activity logs that can be accessed from any Mac on a home network;
— the complete Boot Camp(R) release, previously available only as a beta, making it possible to run Windows natively on Intel-based Macs;**
— Web Clip, bringing anything that a user wants from a web page to Dashboard as a live widget;
— new Photo Booth features, helping users create animated iChat buddy icons or fun effects and backdrops with still or video images;
— an enhanced Dictionary with Wikipedia built in, allowing users to access up to date information on virtually any subject in a snap;
— a newly updated iCal with multi-user calendaring based on the new CalDAV standard; and
— an updated version of Front Row, making it even easier to play music or watch movies, TV shows and photos on a Mac using the ultra-simple Apple Remote.

Pricing & Availability

Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard will be available on October 26 at Apple's retail stores and through Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $129 (US) for a single user license, and online pre-orders can be made through Apple's online store (http://www.apple.com) starting today. The Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack is a single-household, five-user license that will be available for a suggested retail price of $199 (US). Volume and maintenance pricing is available from Apple. The standard Mac OS Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after October 1, 2007 for a shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Leopard requires a minimum of 512MB of RAM and is designed to run on any Macintosh(R) computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 (867 Mhz or faster) processor. Full system requirements can be found at http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs.

Apple Announces Mac OS X Server Leopard

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today announced that Mac OS(R) X Server version 10.5 Leopard will go on sale on Friday, October 26, at the same time as Mac OS X Leopard. Leopard Server extends Apple's legendary ease of use, making it even easier to take advantage of the benefits of a server, and introduces Podcast Producer, the ideal way to automatically publish podcasts to iTunes(R) or the web. Leopard Server packs more than 250 new features including Wiki Server, allowing people to collaboratively create and modify their shared web sites with just a few
clicks; and iCal(R) Server, the world's first commercial CalDAV standard-based calendar server.

"Leopard Server is the best release of Mac OS X Server yet, bringing more great innovations, like Podcast Producer, Wiki Server and iCal Server," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

"With new setup features that have a server up and running within minutes and no client access licenses, Leopard Server is the ideal alternative to complicated and expensive server offerings for small and large businesses."

Leopard Server presents new features for effortless setup, management and monitoring of systems on the network. Server Assistant configures server applications, network settings such as IP addresses and DNS configurations and user accounts with just a few clicks. Server Preferences simplifies management of users, groups and key server applications, and a Server Status Dashboard widget remotely monitors activity and usage. Leopard Server also eliminates the need to manually set up Leopard clients by automatically configuring client applications, including file sharing, Mail, iChat(R), iCal, Address Book and VPN from user information stored on the server.

Podcast Producer is the easiest way for anyone to record content, automatically upload it to the server and convert it into a podcast optimized for playback on almost any device, including a High Definition TV, iPod(R), Apple TV(TM) or multimedia-enabled cell phone.

With Wiki Server, anyone can easily create and edit collaborative web pages, called wikis, with a few clicks of a mouse. Wiki Server has 20 Apple-designed web page themes and provides a complete revision history to make it easy to restore previous entries and merge or compare different versions. Wiki Server can automatically notify users whenever a change is made, keeping them up-to-date on the latest information, and users can tag keywords to find content quickly.

It's easy to share calendars, schedule meetings and coordinate events within a workgroup, school, small business or large corporation using iCal Server. iCal Server is the first open, standards-based calendar server that works with popular calendar programs which support the new CalDAV standard and does not require client access licenses, so businesses can add users freely as they expand at no additional cost.

Leopard Server is fully UNIX compliant and its core services, including Apache 2, MySQL 5, Postfix, Podcast Producer and QuickTime(R) Streaming Server, are 64-bit, allowing users to work with larger data sets and take full advantage of the performance and processing power of their 64-bit hardware. Since Leopard Server is fully 32-bit compatible, users can run 32-bit and 64-bit applications natively side-by-side.

Pricing & Availability

Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard will be available on October 26 at Apple's retail stores and through Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for a 10-client edition and $999 (US) for an unlimited-client edition. An unlimited client license of Leopard Server is included with Apple's powerful Xserve(R) rack-mount server hardware at no extra charge. Online pre-orders can be made through the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com) starting today and current subscribers to the Apple Maintenance Program will receive Leopard Server as part of their service agreement. Volume and maintenance pricing is available from Apple. The standard Mac OS Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Xserve system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after October 1, 2007 for a shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Leopard Server can run on any Macintosh(R) computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or G4 (867 Mhz or faster) processor, a minimum 1GB of RAM and at least 20GB of available disk space.

After seeing the Nokia ad—which WAS from Nokia—he decided to make a fake one, which caught Apple's eye. Long story short, Apple called Commission Junction, who told this guy to take it down. We should have checked the original story more, instead of assuming that because it forwarded to the Apple store, it was an ad from Apple. We'll do better next time! [Didn't You Hear]

Did Page Six swap the text on you, or did you not read carefully enough? We'll update when things clear up.
And if you thought the idea of Kathy Griffin getting ahold of Woz's personal D List was weird, take a look at this video of Apple's co-founder in a Datsun 280-ZX in the early '80s. As a fan of the Z, we can see why Woz did it. [Wired]

Update: Adario gives us this explanation in an email:

The Post never referenced the Contact Music report, it just reported that the two 'planned' to meet at some point. But if you look at the Contact Music report that everyone linked to it sounds like they are already dating when, according to their PR people, the two haven't even met.

It still doesn't really clear things up.

This factoid showed up on blogs like this one after Pogue's review went up, and spread from there. Here's Pogue's statement in the NY Times, which sources Apple, and is nowhere near as drastic as we'd originally interpreted:

Here's the official word, now:
That's from the right hand of the iPhone battery page on Apple's site, closer to the bottom.[Apple] [NYTimes]

Sending it in also wipes out all your saved data, so you'll have to resync it (but it also wipes out your text messages and email, which you may not be able to resync). Hopefully nobody will have to deal with this for another year or two. Apple Battery Replacement Program [Apple]

•Each EXO prototype has a polished aluminum chassis frame, and this one has carbon fiber panels all around. You can, however, order whateverthefrick panels you want, including woods like bamboo, diamond patterned steel plate, and more. Whatever. Seriously, not just what you can select in a drop down menu in a browser based shopping cart.
•Instead of routing power supply cables through you entire case, they've got a mobo tray mounted "power strip" with short lead cables to all components. Very clean.
• Like I said before, the EXO has an exclusive deal with NVidia to get their top ~%1 of the bin. That means that the chips inside of the EXO machines will be of higher quality, and shipped to overclock. (A first.)

and...

•They'll ship with drive bays with power and SATA cables in the back of the drive array. Plug in, like a rack system, no fussing with wires.
•The watercooling system is done with a combination of a small water reservoir, and a peltier thermalelectric cooler. That's both video and CPU, of course. Each hosed system is tested to 30PSI, but it runs at 5PSI. This won't leak.
•Every computer is built by hand, by one technician.
•Every PC comes in a giant steel luggage case, suitable for shipping and lugging your PC to a LAN party.
•If you have to ask how much these things are, you can't afford it. Really. But they will have lower-priced units.
•3-motherloving-years of warranty! US based tech support! English is NOT a second language!
•Warranty doesn't include overclocked parts, but they'll swap in your new chips for free if you send it back.
•They'll ship in about eight weeks or so.

The lead designer came over from Alienware, and the company is backed by ultra products, makers of various PC accessories, to do a Gaming PC without compromise. (Like when Honda develops Formula 1 cars.) It'll be interesting to see how these machines stack up, side by side with the Alienware and Voodoo and Falcon Northwest machines in the world. –Brian Lam

Homepage [Ultragamingpc.com]

Obviously. This post isn't 'bout that. Let's talk about Shaw.

He has a 4/5 rating from Yahoo! Finance, and Macrumors tracks him at about a 50% hit ratio. He's often right, with great foresight, but this prediction is vague and obvious. Maybe he knows more, and can't say anything. He reminds me of this uncle I had that got rich on the stock market during the bubble, and who would whisper inane secrets in my ear like "Psst, buy Microsoft!" But maybe
he knows more.

So, here's my prediction list of Shaw Wu's 2007 prediction list:
•6th-generation iPods due before end of Q3 2007. Or Q4. 2008. Will be offered in white and black.
•iPhone 2 coming in 2008. Will be sleeker, more nano-like. Will have a 12GB and 16GB model, or at least more storage than the 8GB version. Unless it doesn't.

Just kidding. Come on dude, hit us with some specifics, like when you dropped the MacBook moniker on us out of nowhere. Now, that was awesome. –Brian Lam

[UPDATE: Apologies to the very Nice Mr Shaw Wu, who was nice enough to clear things up with his prediction, and we talked about this piece being too personal. I totally agree, in hindsight, and I have made some changes.]

Apple iPhone Variant [Techwhack]

The new technology will add video capability directly into the Web browser, so that users can see and play back video content directly in Opera. As of yet, Opera has not commented on whether or not the new native playback ability for Opera Mobile will be able to play existing Flash content.

Sounds good, except the power of Flash is that everyone uses it, market penetration in browsers is sky high, and what good is yet another browser, esp if its specific to mobile phones?

The right thing to do is for Adobe to develop a server side piece of software that can downscale flash content for Mobile devices, depending on browser, connection, etc. They could get rich, and I can get YouTube on my cellphone browser. Unless YouTube is already thinking about this stuff in transcoding to H.264. – Jason Chen, fact checked by Brian Lam

Infoworld [via Ars Technica]

All that verbiage can be boiled down to two sticking points: the lack of tactile feedback and the fact that people will have to re-learn (in at least a limited sense) their phone's method of input.

Point one is valid. Even Mossy has his doubts about the touchscreen conquering the keyboard. Haptic feedback would go a long way in addressing those concerns—look at the love for RAZR2's haptic-feedback touchscreen.

But the more interesting point, the second one, is that the iPhone "requires users to learn the new system, a task that Apple executives acknowledge may require several days." Helio's Sky Dayton is the primary mouthpiece here, saying that

There has never been a massively successful consumer device based solely on a touch screen. "Texting" is central to an entire generation of people... There is a generation of users who are always online and who don't communicate the way their parents did. They're e-mailing; they're texting; they're I.M.-ing.

There might be other reasons to doubt the iPhone, but an iron grip on input paradigms by this mysterious "always on" generation is not one of them. If anything, we're as fickle as they come, ready to drop old habits for new toys at any given second.

All that said, some haptic feedback wouldn't help Corrected: hurt. – Matt Buchanan

P.S. I'm only hard on you NYT because I love you.

That iPhone Has a Keyboard, but It's Not Mechanical [NYT]

See the original idiot post of mine after the jump. – Jason Chen

Save $100 At Apple By Being A Tease Over The Phone? [Consumerist]

Our life-hating sisters over at Consumerist have an unconfirmed tip on how to save $100 when you get an iPhone on June 29. If you walk into an Apple store, browse around, and whine to the customer sales rep about the iPhone being cost prohibitively expensive ("Oh, I'd get one but the price is a kick in the iBalls"), they can take $100 off your order just like that.

To us, this sounds both too good to be true and fantastically, ridiculously fake. Odd, yes, but we know that Apple's not going to let sales reps take off $100 for no reason than some shmuck hemming and hawing over the price. When have they ever done that before?

Quiet as you like, Sony have snuck out a couple more HD-compatible camcorders, the SR8 and the SR5C without even a whisper. The SR8 looks like an upgraded version of the SR7 which is barely two months old, and the SR5 is now the SR5C. You want prices, shipping dates, more pics and just what these lovers are saying to each other? Of course you do.

Say howdy doody to the SR8, with its 3.2 megapixel video sensor and 10 x optical zoom. It'll cost you $1,600 and is available "on or before", says Sony, July 9.

This, my friends, is the SR5C, which has upgraded storage, and increased capacity from 40GB to 100GB. If you encode your video in H.264, you should be able to get about 36 hours of 1080i-resolution HD video onto the camera. Again, July 9, and expect to pay around $1,300.

Loverette: "I have acute angina, you know."
Lover: "Yes, it's as soft as a mouse's ear."

UPDATE: Matt from the Digital Camcorder News website has pointed out to us that Sony has updated every single one of its tapeless camcorders, most of which have been doubled in capacity at least. Big up to that man for pointing it out to us. – Ad Dugdale

Sony slips out SR5C, SR8, HD video cams [Electronista]

Hit the jump for the full list of 16 ways the iPhone has grown up, which range from the useful—message previews in the mail screen—to the mundane—the home icons are in a different order. No hair in funny places, though.

1. Bluetooth icon shifted to top right
2. Time font is less bold
3. Home icons have changed order
4. Web home button changed to Safari button
5. In iPod mode the icons and order have changed, and Podcasts added
6. The incoming call screen includes Wi-Fi status
7. Photos screen changed from glossy grey to glossy dark blue (possibly different color schemes available)
8. Includes number of picture in album next to name
9. Photo album screen does not include number of photos at the top
10. Mail screen's top right button changed from "vertical or horizontal view" button to edit button
11. Mail screen shows first sentence(s) of message
12. Bottom bar of mail screen includes the time mail was last updated
13. Mail message view screen changed with the sender now above the subject and date sent
14. Arrows and the number of messages have changed positions in the top bar
15. Back arrow to the inbox includes the number of unread messages
16. Ring tone has changed

16 ways the iPhone has changed [The Simple Web Solution via digg]

[Wiki, RetroThing and TUAW. Image of the Apple I adopted for use from The Joy of Tech]