The change in range is due to the chunk of spectrum being used (5GHz for WHDI and anywhere from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz for UWB). UWB is a low-power, short-range broadcast because it has to play nice with the other protocols found on the wide breadth of spectrum it calls home. (For better or worse, Monster's wireless HD kit is wireless up until the point it needs to use your home's coax wiring to gain whole-house coverage).

WHDI, however, is camped out in a chunk of unlicensed 5GHz spectrum just like 802.11n Wi-Fi, meaning it must be able to tolerate the reasonable levels of interference only from other devices that use the same frequencies, and can broadcast at higher power levels than UWB—enough for a range of "over 100 feet." WirelessHD, a third major spec also funded by Samsung and Sony, plus Panasonic, Toshiba, LG and NEC, uses the 60GHz band, and apparently has problems unless the transmitter and receiver are within line-of-sight.

Components will be paired through menu systems using a pass-key, like Bluetooth. The spectrum can hold around six streams of 1080p video at a time, although real-world interference may vary. A likely scenario would be streaming from a WHDI cable box or Blu-ray player downstairs to 3 TVs throughout your house while still having room for HD gaming in the den.

The fact that a few heavies like Panasonic are still notably missing could mean another standards battle is on the horizon. While WirelessHD already claims a published 1.0 spec, and Monster's UWB product should be out by the fall, the WHDI spec is due to be finalized at the end of the year, with products hopefully popping up in time for CES '09. Stay tuned until then—as one format war ends, another begins.

Qik video is streamed to a personalized Qik page, and can be pushed to other places, such as Facebook apps. Latency is as short as .5 seconds or as long a 3 seconds, and the service can now stream privately to select groups. Qik says they're intent is not to be a destination page, but be a conduit for content to appear places like personal blogs and Facebook. [Venture Beat via Electronista]

The Price: $119.95 for a two pack (currently on sale for $99.95 ) or $69.95 in a single version (on sale for $59.95)

The Verdict: The i2i Stream works as advertised. The sound quality from the streaming music is good and it holds up well inside the range of 30 feet (even when separated by walls). Furthermore, switching between audio sources is easy with the color coded channels, and it gets a decent amount of battery life (around 6 or 7 hours). Still, I can't recommend something that seems unnecessary to me. It's not that it is huge or anything (although it could stand to be a little smaller), but when you plug in an iPod and headphones it is nothing more than another cumbersome gadget taking up space and emptying your wallet. And why? So you can share your horrible taste in music with your friends? If you want to DJ your tunes, a simple portable speaker would suffice. Besides, for the price of a single i2i Stream you could get a 2GB Shuffle and listen to your own music.[i2i Stream]

While Sling plans to develop and distribute the software through the iTunes App Store, the demo build we were shown runs on a jailbroken iPhone because of current testing limitations with the iPhone SDK. And since this is in the early stages of development, the demo was limited in function, but from what I saw, it looks like a totally awesome alternative to mobile TV.

Once you connect to your Slingbox, you control channels with an on-screen remote whose buttons scroll horizontally at the bottom of the screen. There's also a scrollbar full of channel icons that provide shortcuts to specific stations. Video ran pretty smooth and looked good over a wi-fi connection. And it goes without saying, but Sling also has their fingers crossed for a 3G iPhone.

While the current proof-of-concept software is using a WMV codec to stream video, Sling is hoping Apple will make its video decoding assets available on the iPhone so they can use that instead. There's no word on an official release date for the application, but for those iPhone owners with Slingboxes, dreams of mobile TV just became an afterthought. [Sling on Giz]

1. Some of Cinemanow's content will be available in HD. (Unbox will soon be offering HD as well.)
2. TiVo is clearly not opposed to offering more VOD partners. (C'mon Netflix!!!)

A man can dream, can't he? Also of note, TiVo has confirmed that YouTube support will be coming this summer. Here's the full press release:

TIVO TO OFFER MOVIE RENTALS FROM THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS ON DEMAND

TiVo now offers movies from all major studios directly to the television set

ALVISO, CA - May 28, 2008 - TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that TiVo subscribers will soon be able to download movies from The Walt Disney Studios to their broadband connected TiVo® DVRs directly from the TV.

Titles will be available to rent through an agreement with Disney-ABC and CinemaNow, a digital entertainment provider of high-quality Hollywood movies and TV shows across multiple platforms, and the latest partner to join TiVo's broadband efforts. The companies will offer the movies for a 24-hour rental period in standard definition, with many also available in high definition.

"We are very excited to be working with Disney and CinemaNow. Adding Disney movies really delivers on TiVo's promise to offer the best television entertainment experience with unlimited content choices that are easy to navigate across broadcast, cable, and broadband using one device, one remote, and one user interface," said Tara Maitra, Vice President and GM of Content Services at TiVo Inc.

"TiVo has always delivered a superior experience," said Dan Cohen, executive vice president of pay television and interactive media, Disney-ABC Domestic Television. "We're pleased that their subscribers will be able to enjoy our extensive catalog of new releases and classic library titles."

The service is available to all broadband-connected TiVo Series2™ and Series3™ subscribers later this year. TiVo offers more than 30,000 titles through Amazon Unbox, Music Choice and more than 50 other content providers. The company recently announced that TiVo subscribers will be able to access YouTube videos directly on the TV via the TiVo DVR this summer.

Install
You boot up the box, set the network to wireless or Ethernet connectivity. You get a five digit code, head over to netflix.com/activate using a browser on a PC or other device, log into your Netflix account and enter the code. The Roku box gets your queue and the movie/show cover art. There are HDMI and optical connections on top of the standard video outs, but those cables are not included.

Using
The box itself doesn't have menus. No, instead, you use Netflix's brilliant website to load up your queue. You just use the remote to scan through your instant viewing queue (now separate from the disc queue) select a movie and play. It starts streaming. (Remember, there's no download/purchase program here and the device has no HDD, just 64MB of buffer.) The box is completely quiet, again, due to its fanless design. Movies stream in at different VC-1 bitrates of 500kbps, 1Mbps, 1.6Mbps and 2.2Mbps, depending on connection speed. Quality is not great, even at 2.2 Mbps, but I'm happy enough considering viewing is instantaneous. Note: Unlike Apple TV, scrolling between cover art is not done in an animated way. HDMI res is 480p, while all the other outputs are 480i. Fast forwarding is handled by key-framing movie content every 10 seconds, so you can FF to parts of the movie that haven't been downloaded yet, at three speeds. Once you hit play, the movie buffers for a few seconds and resumes. Speaking of resuming, the player itself does remember where you left off last in a movie and will continue playing from that point. One nice touch: You can score movies from the movie detail page. One bad thing: You can't search the Netflix website specifically for instant titles.

Choices
While appearing to have double the collection of Apple TV or Vudu, what do you get in Netflix's 10,000 movie collection? Basically, you get a lot of back catalog (classic movies) and a lot of TV shows (unheard of in rental situations!) right as they hit the market. But you don't get the same blockbusters on day one release that you'd get from Apple TV or Vudu. That makes the Netflix box and disc system a great supplement to those systems, which seem to specialize in new releases. (Kudos to Saul from the NYTimes for discovering this initially.) The business model behind a flat rate unlimited streaming system is unheard of. Sure, they're taking a lot of older content, which is inherently cheaper. But think of it this way: For a nine-dollar-a-month account, you can hold off on buying older DVDs or watching TV shows. A box set of Ghost in the Shell or 30 Rock costs over 50 bucks on DVD or by renting individual downloads, but you can stream many of these episodes for nine bucks a month. Buying the Karate Kid, an old movie not on many download services, costs a few bucks on DVD, but I can just watch it whenever I want as long as I'm a Netflix customer. (And consider that the number of great back catalog titles like that will probably outpace new releases you'd find on Vudu or Apple TV.) It's basically the same as Netflix's current model, but instead of being limited by the postal service, you're limited by your spare time and interest in older titles. (And don't forget Netflix's disc-by-mail service, which still covers new titles.)

The Future
Netflix is planning HD streaming, and this box will support it. When Netflix gets HD streaming content, they'll update the box by firmware to support HD resolutions at higher bitrates of 4-6mbps, including 5.1 surround (everything is stereo now). The menus will also be upgraded to HD res, too. In the future, the Roku-branded box will be upgraded to accept non-Netflix content, too. (And btw, the update on the Mac client situation is that they're just trying to sort out the DRM issues, or lack of a suitable system they can stream to Macs on.)

The box will be sold on Roku's website directly. Worth buying if you're a Netflix customer (or thinking of becoming a Netflix customer) and can find enough titles for Instant Viewing on their site. [Roku and Netflix]

NETFLIX TEAMS WITH STREAMING MEDIA INNOVATOR ROKU ON PLAYER
THAT INSTANTLY STREAMS
MOVIES FROM NETFLIX DIRECTLY TO THE TV

Priced at Just $99.99 and Available Starting Today,
The Netflix Player by Roku™ is Compact,
Easy to Set Up and Intuitive to Use



LOS GATOS and SARATOGA, Calif., May 20, 2008 - Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world's
largest online movie rental service, and Roku, Inc., an innovator in digital media streaming
technology, today announced the introduction of The Netflix Player by Roku™, a device that
enables Netflix subscribers to instantly stream a growing library of movies and TV episodes from
Netflix directly to the TV. Priced at just $99.99, the player is available for purchase starting today at
www.roku.com/netflixplayer.

The player is simple to install, easy to use and gives Netflix members instant access to more than
10,000 movies and TV episodes.

"We're excited to bring the first Netflix ready device to the market, " said Anthony Wood, CEO and
founder of Roku. "The seamless integration of the Netflix service into our player has resulted in
true ease of use for the consumer. Now, streaming video isn't limited to people sitting in front of
the PC; it's ready for the TV in the living room."

"The key breakthroughs of The Netflix Player by Roku are simplicity and cost," said Reed Hastings,
chairman and CEO of Netflix. "First, it allows consumers to use the full power of the Netflix Web
site to choose movies for their instant Queue, and then automatically displays only those choices
on the TV screen. That's a major improvement versus the clutter of trying to choose from 10,000
films on the TV. Second, there are no

- more -




2-2-2-2-2-2
extra charges and no viewing restrictions. For a one-time purchase of $99, Netflix members can
watch as much as they want and as often as they want without paying more or impacting the
number of DVDs they receive."
About The Netflix Player by Roku
The Netflix Player by Roku is surprisingly compact - roughly the size of a paperback book - and
can integrate easily into any home entertainment system. All it takes is connecting the player to a
TV and to the Internet. For homes with wireless Internet connectivity, the player is Wi-Fi enabled
and offers the ultimate in placement flexibility.

From the Netflix Web site, members simply add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant
Queues, and those choices are then displayed on the TV and available to watch instantly. With
the player's accompanying remote control, members can browse and make selections right on
the TV screen and also have the ability to read synopses and rate movies. In addition, they have
the option of fast-forwarding and rewinding the video stream via the remote. In all, the Queue-
based user interface creates a highly personalized experience that puts members in control.

Additional features of the product include optimization of the Netflix video streaming technology,
which eliminates the need for a hard disk drive associated with video downloads, and built-in
connectivity for automatic software upgrades, which will keep the device current with service
enhancements.
Technical Details
In the Box
• The Netflix Player by Roku set-top box (approximately 5"W x 5"D x 2"H)
• Remote control (including 2 AAA batteries)
• A/V Cable (Yellow/Red/White RCA)
• Power Adapter
• Getting Started Guide

- more -


3-3-3-3-3
Video and Audio Connections
• HDMI
• Component Video
• S-Video
• Composite Video
• Digital Optical Audio
• Analog Stereo Audio
Network Connections
• Wired Ethernet
• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)

At this point, I can tell you we have LG plus three additional partners actively working on integrating our technology into their products. Three of the four partners are major companies which each sell millions of devices per year and will enable the Netflix functionality in some of those devices likely in Q4 of this year. The fourth partner is a small company with which — which will likely launch sooner than Q4.

Rumors have been floating around about the XBox 360 for awhile now, so that makes Microsoft one likely contender. Naturally, that could also mean that Sony and the PS3 would be included. Other major company players that naturally spring to mind are TiVo and Apple—but the fourth "small company" is anyone's guess. [Seeking Alpha via Hacking Netflix via Zats]

If you really want to stream on the go, without Wi-Fi, you could probably rig up a Wi-Fi internet connection sharing thing with a Windows Mobile phone as well.

We tested it over Wi-Fi and it streamed back all of Adam Pash's songs without a problem (eventually). It crashed and hung the first couple times. [Simplify Media]

Releasing a statement about a survey? Sounds like someone's trying to jockey a better negotiating position while talks are still underway. On a similar note, Netflix's online site seems to have been down for most of Monday, which makes the case for streaming media even stronger. [Reuters - Thanks David!]

[Myka]

Interestingly, the transmission method is unique to Audioengine, which uses their own AvenraAudio technology. We're not too sure how that sounds, but it supposed to churn out CD-quality output with no dropouts or static. At $149, it may be worth the investment if the sound reproduction is as good as they claim. [Audio Junkies]

I mean, you can't have it both ways, studios. If you're going to restrict it to streaming and keep people from downloading to watch on their media extenders and portable devices, you can't try to protect your DVD sales by only tossing out a handful of episodes.

Just the other night I tried to watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica on there as I misplaced one of my DVDs and found that there were only a few episodes available, none of which from season 2, which I was looking for. I then poked around and tried to check out SNL and found that they only had four sketches and none of the musical performances from the most recent broadcast. And away to Bittorrent I went.

People can tell the difference between something designed only to tease and promote broadcast TV and DVD sales and something designed to be an actual entertainment destination. If you keep it gimped it's only ever going to be seen as the former, studios. Don't blow it. [Reuters]

The DIR-855 also features three dual external antennae, an OLED network activity display, Dual Active Firewall (SPI, NAT), Green Ethernet technology, backwards compatibility with 802.11a/g, and a 1 year warranty. Not to mention a hefty £169.99 ($340) price tag. No word on when we might see it in the states [D-Link and Trusted Reviews]

NWA-A720
• 4, 8 and 16GB
• Windows Media DRM compatible
• MP3/AAC/WMA/L-PCM audio
• h.264/MPEG4 Video
• 2.4-inch LCD
• Comes with EX-Headphones
• 36 hours of battery life

The NWA-A820 is exactly the same as the A720, but comes in a 16GB version with Bluetooth 1.3 A2Dp on board. The NWZ-A820K is also exactly the same as the A820, which includes the Bluetooth 1.3 A2DP streaming, but comes with a pair of Bluetooth headphones. However, the 820K is only available in an 8GB model.

SONY UNVEILS NOISE CANCELING AND BLUETOOTH WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY ENABLED WALKMAN VIDEO MP3 PLAYERS

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 26, 2008 - Sony today unveiled three new Walkman® video MP3 models that for the first time in the United States support noise-canceling and Bluetooth® technologies.
All three NWZ-S710F, NWZ-A720 and NWZ-A820 Walkman® players also support common audio formats, including MP3s.
"Achieving the highest audio quality is one of our top priorities when designing our players," said Steve Haber, senior vice president of the Digital Imaging and Audio Division at Sony Electronics.
High-Quality Audio and Video
The new Walkman® video players offer great video resolution and brightness, along with high-quality sound and an extended battery life. They come with Sony's EX series in-ear-buds with 13.5 mm drivers that passively block out ambient noise and help create a better listener experience.
Sony's clear audio technologies are also included and significantly improve sound quality when playing back digital music files. They fill in the high tones that can be lost during file compression, enhance the bass, minimize distortion and maintain a consistent channel signal.
The devices have a standard user interface that makes it easy to enjoy songs, videos or pictures. For exceptional image quality, the video players have a large Quarter Video Graphics Array (QVGA) LCD screen that displays video at 30 frames per second. QVGA is a display mode for small screens in which the resolution is 320 pixels vertically by 240 pixels horizontally.
The battery life is up to 33 hours of music playback for NWZ-S710F models and up to 36 hours for NWZ-A720 and NWZ-A820 models. The battery life is also up to nine-and-a-half hours of video playback for the NWZ-S710F model and up to 10 hours for the NWZ-A720 and NWZ-A820 models.
Integrated Noise-Canceling Walkman® Players
For business travelers or families who want to keep the volume down and the audio quality high, Sony has created the NWZ-S710F series of noise canceling Walkman® players.
These Walkman® players have a built-in noise-canceling system that can reduce up to 75 percent of the ambient noise. Five clear audio technologies are built into the device to create sound clarity that maintains the same quality of the original source.
Because the system diminishes intrusive noise, listeners can avoid turning up the volume. Travelers can turn on the noise canceling feature and get peace and quiet even without listening to music.
The compact and lightweight NWZ-S710 players have a 1.8-inch QVGA (320 by 240 pixels) LCD screen (measured diagonally). They include an FM tuner with 30 presets that make it convenient to listen to the radio on the go.
With or Without Wires
The NWZ-A720 series has a bigger 2.4-inch QVGA (320 by 240 pixels) LCD screen (measured diagonally). Incorporating the design ethos of both the previous A and S Series Walkman® players, these models have a slim body and a sleek industrial design.
With the same look and feature set as the NWZ-A720 series, the NWZ-A820 and NWZ-A820K series adds Bluetooth® technology. This technology eliminates the inconvenience of wires while streaming tunes from the MP3 device to headphones or other devices with Bluetooth® technology. It also makes it easier to listen to music virtually anywhere, anytime: in the living room, bedroom, office or even outdoors.
These Walkman® players have a 2.4-inch QVGA (320 by 240 pixels) LCD screen (measured diagonally). For NWZ-A820 and NWZ-A820K series, users can manually delete videos directly from the devices' internal memory without connecting to a PC.
For fitness enthusiasts, the NWZ-A820K Walkman® player comes bundled with both the EX-series earbuds and the DR-BT21G Bluetooth® wireless technology enabled headphones. With a wireless behind-the-neck style, the DR-BT21G stereo Bluetooth® headset has built-in remote control features that play, pause and forward tracks. Fully charged, this headset offers hours of listening to music, watching videos or hands-free talking while connected to a compatible cell phone.
These devices use Bluetooth® Stereo technology with Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) to deliver high-quality sound. The Walkman® players support multiple digital music devices and accessories, including headphones, headsets and speakers with Bluetooth® technology.
Consumers can check whether their Sony device is compatible by visiting www.sony.com/bluetoothstereo.
Sony's Open Platform Means More Choice
The Walkman® players support an open platform, providing more choices for downloading and managing music and video collections online. The devices support security-enhanced Windows Media Audio (WMA), as well as non-secure AAC, linear PCM and MP3 music formats, plus JPEG files for photos, in addition to the AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline Profile and MPEG-4 video codecs.
The Walkman® video players store up to 3,800 songs on the 16GB models, 1,850 songs on the 8GB models and 925 songs on the 4GB models, for songs an average of four minutes in length at 128kbps in the MP3 format.
All of the new players are compatible with most subscription music services. The new players are Certified for Windows Vista, meaning they have passed a series of compatibility tests including Plays For Sure verification.
To help manage digital music libraries, the new Sony Walkman® video players come with Microsoft Windows Media Player 11. This familiar interface makes transferring music very intuitive.
Pricing and Availability
The NWZ-S710F series of Walkman® noise canceling video MP3 players come in two different capacities and three colors:
• The NWZ-S716F player has approximately 4GB of internal storage; comes in silver, red and black and will cost about $150.
• The NWZ-S718F player has approximately 8GB of internal storage; comes in black and will cost about $200.

The NWZ-A720 series of Walkman® video MP3 players come in three different capacities and two colors:
• The NWZ-A726 player has approximately 4GB of internal storage; comes in black and pink; and costs about $150.
• The NWZ-A728 player has approximately 8GB of internal storage; comes in black and pink and costs about $200.
• The NWZ-A729 player has approximately 16GB of internal storage, comes in black, and costs about $300.

The NWZ-A820 and NWZ-A820K series of Walkman® Bluetooth® wireless technology enabled video players will initially be available in the following configurations:
• The NWZ-A828K comes in black, has approximately 8GB of internal storage, and costs about $270.
• The NWZ-A829 comes in black has approximately 16GB of internal storage, and costs about $320.

Presales have begun for the new Walkman® models online at www.sonystyle.com/walkman and at Sony Style stores. The players will be available in March across the country at military base exchanges and at authorized dealers nationwide.

Update: A reader points out that DivX was saying Stage 6 is successful, but consumed too much of their attention and resources, so the only options they had were to spin it off, sell it, or shut it down. We're not one to argue about varying levels of being "successful", but if it really were as "successful" in terms of being "profitable", we're not sure why DivX couldn't hire some more employees to man the site. Having a dedicated site to provide content in the correct format would have been a good asset to have as the DivX "platform" is growing.

It works by receiving DVB-H, MediaFLO or WiMax (depending on the standard for your particular market—Verizon uses MediaFLO) and transcoding it on the fly to a video stream sent out via Wi-Fi. Your device (the one you're actually watching the video on) then grabs the video stream over Wi-Fi and displays it. It'll be available later in the year, but Packet Video usually works with service providers and not directly with the consumer, so your only option may be to buy a branded one. [Tech Radar]

The New UI:
Gone is the right side text, left side image menu system of the first-gen Apple TV. It's now a two-column affair, with the major categories on the left and subcategories for the selected entry on the right. It may not be quite intuitive at first, but you'll get the hang of it in about 30 seconds. Simple and easy to use is the name of the game in the end, which is more than fine for the 10-foot living room experience, since Apple TV doesn't really have all THAT many functions once you break it down. But the good news is, all of them behave the way they're supposed to.

Movies:
This is going to be the core of your Apple TV experience. Browsing for movies is a fairly easy task, with a Top Movies section listing the most popular movies available right now, along with a genre browser and a search function. Typing in your Apple login and password with the remote is arduous, and you'll want to let the Apple TV remember your password for future sessions (unless you're worried about security, then you'll have to go through the fun of re-typing in your password every time you rent/buy anything). After you accept the EULA, your Apple TV buffers for about a minute before you can start watching; longer if your connection sucks.

It's $3.99 for an SD rental and $4.99 for an HD, then you have 30 days to start watching it and 24 hours to finish watching it once you've started. That's competitive with Blockbuster, Netflix and other VOD services.

There's a limited selection of content right now, despite the fact that Apple has the full blessing of all the major studios, which means that Netflix is still your best bet for the time being in terms of most content for your buck. This is especially true when you account for their streaming Watch Now program, which can now be used directly on your TV via a Media Center PC. If you're talking just HD content, your selection gets narrowed down even further.

Not that it really matters that much in the end, since the HD you're streaming doesn't look nearly as good as an actual Blu-ray or HD DVD disc. But it's still better than SD. If we had to scale the HD movie picture quality of HD on a scale where Blu-ray is a 10, HD cable is a 7 and VHS is a 1, this would be about a 5. It's better than DVD, but it's not "true" HD. Oh, and their 5.1 audio doesn't sound as good either. It's good enough to watch and think you're watching HD, but it's not quite good enough for true HD movie fans.

Podcasts and Movie Trailers
Browsing Podcasts is almost exactly like browsing movies for rentals. You scroll around, find a video (Collegehumor's Street Fighter: The Later Years for example), and hit play or download. Depending on how the podcast you're watching is encoded, you can either make out that Blanka's makeup is splotchy around the neck and beard, or barely be able to tell the difference between Mike Birbiglia and Jim Gaffigan on Comedy Central's two-minute clips. It's usually watchable at the very least, plus it's free, so there's little to complain about. You can also subscribe to your favorite podcasts, which will be downloaded to your Apple TV when you go to your "My Podcasts" screen and click on them.

Movie trailers are pretty much the same as before. Browse around, pick a trailer, then watch it. Incidentally, it's very distracting trying to write a review when the thing you're reviewing throws up stuff like the Dark Knight trailer in your face.

Photos
.Mac and Flickr galleries look fantastic, with slick transitions and soundtrack support. It definitely works better than it did back at Macworld (after which Steve Jobs choked an engineer backstage), and is fairly easy to set up once you go through the one-time process of typing in a contact's name using the Apple remote. I hooked it up to Adam Frucci's Flickr gallery, and boy does his crotch look huge in HD. You can still view your iTunes-synced photos as well, if you're feeling frisky.

TV Shows, Music
Browsing TV shows and Music is essentially the same as what you get on the computer, except clumsier since you have to do everything with the remote. Once you find something you like, you can purchase it directly onto your Apple TV without going to your machine.

YouTube
It's the same as before. Browse YouTube like you would on your iPhone or your computer. Watch amateurs make amateur-grade video.

Random Notes
In case you cared, it took about four minutes for me to download the update, and another 10 minutes to install it.

Verdict
Just like Apple TV 1.0, it's a fantastic way for people to get their iTunes-purchased movies, music and TV shows from their computers onto their living room TVs. What's even better—the "mass appeal," if you like—about version 2.0 is that it doesn't require a computer to function. People can plop down an Apple TV into their homes and rent movies, listen to iTunes music, sync up with their grandchildren's Flickr or .Mac streams, or just waste an hour surfing YouTube.

The only question you have to ask yourself to justify this purchase is whether or not you have faith in Apple to back up their fancy piece of hardware with content—both on the Movie and TV side—in order to provide you something to watch for years to come. It may take a while, and things might not go entirely smoothly (see NBC's iTunes departure for example) but I think they'll get there. And for the new, lowered price of $229, it's not even an expensive gamble. [Apple]

First, you have the MyNetflix plugin for Windows Vista Media Center PCs that turns the Media Center into a streaming frontend for the Netflix Watch Now interface. The developer of this app says that Media Center Extenders don't work "yet", which might mean that it's an issue with codec support (Netflix doesn't stream in the right video codec). They might even be able to fix this with a little bit of real-time video transcoding on your PC.

But what would you say if you could stream Netflix's Watch Now movies directly to your 360 at no additional charge? Would you be happy, or really happy? [Thanks Andy!]

Among the things they liked about the player included the supported artworks, band biographies, ability to store Wi-Fi keys and the option to have access to a free, or paid, enhanced music services. The Slacker Portable also auto refreshed channels when it detected a trusted network, as well as automatically refreshing whilst recharging.

What didn't go down so well was the buggy touch sensitive strip; the jog dial was far better, and was used instead. The free mode meant only 6 songs could be skipped per hour. as well as the terrible obligation to listen to adverts during your music time. As the stations are cached for the times you are out of range of a wireless network, there is little room left on the player for your own tunes. (Either 500MB, 1.5GB or 4GB, depending on the capacity of the player chosen.) Content cannot be downloaded from a Mac, and the 10-hour battery life was not great.

The folks at Wired easily looked past the Slacker Portable's shortcomings, and we think we might follow suit. Now, why is our review unit taking so long to get here? Damn slacking postal service. (Sorry.) Check out the full review, as well as some unboxing pics by hitting the link. [Wired]

Unfortunately, we don't think the green and blue versions match entirely, but with an LCD screen for FM station display and great styling to accompany your iPod nano, you cannot go far wrong. Pricing and shipping details are not available at present, but we shouldn't imagine you will be waiting too long. [Akihabara News]

7:39 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Gizmodo Live at Macworld 2008 Keynote. The keynote starts Tuesday, January 15 @ 9:00 AM PST (12:00 PM EST), but we're going to start liveblogging hours before that, giving you color commentary on the area, the attendees, and any secrets we can glean from uncovered banners.

7:59 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen:
We're here! It's dreary as hell (even for San Francisco standards), but we're here, in line, waiting for the keynote to start. There's definitely something in the air, but to us it smells like the pungent desperation of various media types who were forced to wake up at way too early.

8:02 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Crazy. Instead of a Pikmin-like blob of people massed outside the giant aluminum shutters, we've actually got an orderly line.

8:04 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen:
And here's it is. $5 if you can spot Mossy/Waldo.

8:15 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen:

And since there's no comment field here in the liveblog proper, feel free to discuss the upcoming proceedings over on the other liveblog post.

8:17 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: We see all our normal friends here: Wired, Ars...I guess that's all the people I know. OH, Macrumors. Can't forget them.

8:25 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen:
Someone's excited about what Steve's going to announce today.

8:36 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Top 3 guesses on what's going to be announced today. My guess: new laptop, Apple TV media news and Apple buying out Diebold and leading the way to electronic voting we can trust. Put your guess in the comments.

8:44 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen:
There's Something in the Air Update 1: The orderly line has dissolved into a scene outside Britney's first car-cooter-exposure: everyone's in a mob, pushing each other around with cameras, randomly shooting a shot off hoping to get something worth publishing. What's in the air? Sweat. And greed. And more than a little desperation.

8:46 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Lightning Review. The Gadget: The food.
The Verdict: The orange juice dispensed from a water cooler is classy, but the blueberry scones put it over the top. Definitely worth the money ($0) we paid.

8:59 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Update 2: Mark here, we are trading off the duties of "laptop bitch," making one another hold the computer so we don't need to risk life, limb and foul-smelling crotch on the floor to bring you these updates.

9:03 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: We're in! We've done this many times now, so we can safely say that Coldplay is the band Apple designates as the official soundtrack to the "running of the media" every single time.

9:03 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:05 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: It's 9:02, people are still filing in, so it's going to be a minute or two before the keynote gets started. Can you taste it? CAN YOU SMELL IT!?

9:08 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Steve's added a new song to his playlist this year. Kanye. No one can say Steve Jobs doesn't care about black iPods.

9:13 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Here's a question for you: do you like the Macworld keynote during CES like last year, or after CES like this year?

9:13 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Still no Steve, but Feist's 1 2 3 4 is on. And the lights are dimming! Exciting!

9:14 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Steve's most likely waiting for Feist to end. Nobody cuts off Feist...bitch.

9:15 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: It's starting! A new Mac vs. PC commercial: Happy New Year 2008. And Steve Jobs takes the stage.

9:15 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: "Welcome to Macworld 2008. We've got some great stuff for you. There's clearly some great stuff in the air today."

9:15 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:16 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Steve's taking us on a retrospective of 2007. iPhone, iPod, etc. He's thanking everyone for an extraordinary 2007.

9:17 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:17 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: He has four things he wants to talk to us about today. The first is Leopard. Over 5 million copies sold, and about 20% of Mac OS X's install base has upgraded to Leopard. Now Steve's quoting Mossberg, Pogue, Ed Baig and PC Magazine for quotes on Leopard. Two thumbs up, as it were.

9:17 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:20 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:20 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Time Machine: Leopard works great with a desktop machine, but it doesn't work well with laptops because you have to keep plugging and unplugging a USB drive. Now he's introducing a new backup station with 802.11n and server-grade backup station. It's an AirPort Extreme station with ports in the back, allowing you to back up your macs wirelessly to Time Capsule.

9:21 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:22 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:23 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Time Capsule will be sold in a 500GB version and a 1TB version for $299 and $499. It ships February. It also looks exactly like an Airport Extreme, except with different ports on the back.

9:23 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: And that's the first thing! The second thing: The iPhone. Today is exactly the 200th day that the iPhone has been on sale. Apple has sold 4 million iPhones to date, which means 20,000 iPhones sold per day on average. What does this mean compared to the overall smartphone market?

9:26 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:27 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:27 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam: Jobs: Joo! (Boom substitute),

9:27 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: And today, he's introducing new iPhone features:
Maps with locations, webclips, customizable home screens, SMS multiple people at once, chapters, subtitles, and language support in video, and lyrics support in audio.

9:30 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Here are the numbers for the iPhone's first full quarter of shipping (Q3 2007). RIM has 39%, Apple has 19.5%, Palm has 9.8%, Motorola has 7.4%. In just one quarter, they managed to grab second place.

9:31 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:31 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:31 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Webclips: On the iPhone's Safari browser, just pick out a website, hit the "+" button, and hit "Add to home screen", and it'll be added as an icon on your home screen. Hit the button from the home screen and it'll fire up Safari and take you there. You can even customize the shortcut to a specific part of the web page.

9:33 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Rearranging icons: Hold down an icon and all the icons on the screen jitter (the leak was right!), allowing you to drag stuff around to rearrange. You can now have 9 different screens to hold all your apps or webclips (internet shortcuts).

9:34 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:35 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: All these updates are available today, for free, for all iPhone users.

9:35 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: So how do you get locations without GPS? Apple's partnering with Google and Skyhook. Google helps you triangulate cellphone towers, and Skyhook helps you triangulate Wi-Fi data. When you go past a Wi-fi hotspot or a cell tower, the phone remembers the data and uses it to calculate where you are.

9:36 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:36 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: How about the iPod touch? They're adding Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes and Weather. For existing iPod touch users, it will cost $20. If you buy a new iPod touch, it'll be free and built-in.

9:37 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Multiple recipient SMS: Just as you'd expect. Pick different recipients at the top, type stuff, hit send. It's also customized for the iPhone's "conversations" because it remembers all the recipients under that one "conversation", so you can send multiple messages to the same people easily.

9:38 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: The third thing Steve's talking about today: iTunes. They've sold 4 billion songs, 125 million TV shows and 7 million movies. TV shows and movies have sold more than "everyone else put together", but "did not meet our expectations". "There's a better way to deliver movies over the internet." What is it? iTunes Movie Rentals.

9:38 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Here are the studios involved: Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, New Line, Lion's gate, Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Sony. What's missing?

9:39 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Steve says "We have every major studio", and that they'll have all the great first-run films.

9:40 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:41 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:41 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: 1000 films by February, and movies will be available 30 days after the DVD release. You can watch them anywhere: Macs, PCs, iPods and iPhone. You can watch instantly, meaning streaming. You'll have 30 days to "start" watching it, and then 24 hours to "finish" watching it once you've started to watch it. You can watch the first half on your computer, transfer the movie to your iPod, then watch the rest of the movie on the airplane. Here's the cost.

B. Lam:

9:43 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: Old releases: $2.99. New releases: $3.99.

9:43 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:43 am ON Jan 15 2008
Jason Chen: iTunes movie rentals launches today, and it's a free software update for iTunes. Free update for iPods and iPhones in order to support this. Support for the US comes today, but international support comes later this year.

9:44 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:44 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam:

9:44 am ON Jan 15 2008
B. Lam: