Brian Barrett

Amazon’s X-Ray for Movies Knows What You’re Watching—And Who’s In It

So this feels like the future: Amazon’s X-Ray for Movies can tell what flick you’re watching on your Kindle Fire HD, and gives you every piece of information you could ever want about it every time you pause. Pretty incredible stuff. https://gizmodo.com/kindle-fire-hd-better-faster-cheaper-bigger-update-5941061 The information is gleaned from IMDB (which Amazon conveniently owns), and pulls granular…

Kindle Serials Brings Back Dickensian-Style Book Installments

Back when Charles Dickens and his cohorts were publishing, books didn’t come fully formed; instead, they came out in regular installments; that’s why each chapter tends to end with a cliffhanger. Today, Amazon announced that it’s bringing that proud tradition back with Kindle Serials. The way Serials will work is that you pay upfront for…

Our Amazon Kindle Liveblog Hoopla Starts Right Now

Greetings from Los Angeles, home of the second-place Dodgers and a host of brand-new Kindles. Amazon’s mega major event starts in an hour or so, but we’re firing up the liveblog now to get you up to speed on what the scene is like and what we’re expecting to see. Join us, won’t you? On…

After months of deal-closing and regulatory whatnot, Instagram has officially been assimilated by the Facebook Borg.

Hey Google, Why Can’t Motorola Put Out a Jelly Bean Phone When You OWN MOTOROLA?

As Motorola introduced its new handsets today—including the Droid RAZR HD—it crowed about how tightly integrated it was with Android. Which makes sense! Because Google owns both Android and Motorola. Synergy is a beautiful thing! https://gizmodo.com/motorola-droid-razr-hd-beauty-in-a-kevlar-coat-5940661 So why does the Droid RAZR HD launch with a year-old operating system when a new one came out…

There are 1.3 million Android devices (and 70,000 tablets) activated EVERY DAY, with 480 million devices total. So many!

Apple Responds to Alleged UDID Leak: Don’t Look at Us

The news that AntiSec hackers had leaked a million Apple UDIDs onto the internet was met first with concern, followed swiftly by suspicion. While the situation swiftly devolved into a he said/FBI said, the one concerned party who had remained silent on the matter was Apple itself. Until now. https://gizmodo.com/antisec-leaks-1-million-apple-device-ids-obtained-durin-5940183 The confusion settled in after…

Report: It’ll Cost $10 To Make the iPhone 5 Work With Your Old Speaker Dock

According to iLounge, who’s generally reliable as far as Apple rumors go—the adapters that will make the iPhone 5’s smaller dock connector work with your 30-pin speakers and such will cost 10 bucks a pop, or three for $29. The future don’t come cheap! https://gizmodo.com/the-next-iphones-rumored-foolproof-dock-connector-5935305 The pricing, if true—and if there’s even a new dock…

The Lumia 920’s Wireless Charging Speaker Dock Looks Crazy Cool

The Lumia 920 has wireless charging, which in and of itself is fun and neat and interesting and a delightful little quirky perk. But it’ll also have color-matching Power Up speakers from JBL that charge your phone every time you gently lay it on top. Pretty cool. How well does it work? How much does…

Nokia’s New City Lens and Maps Make Lumia an Augmented Reality Beast

Well this is a nice garnish Nokia’s put on its new Lumia 900 superphone: an augmented reality app—called City Lens—that might actually be worth a damn. And it might make Nokia Maps the undisputed champ. Like all AR applications, seeing is believing, but if the Lumia 920 delivers on its promise, we could have something…

Our Nokia Windows Phone Liveblog Jamboree Starts Right Now

Nokia! Windows Phone! A match made in heaven both in that they work well together and that you never actually see them in person. That may change today, though, with Nokia’s major Lumia announcement at 10 am EST, which we’ll be covering live for you right here. And in case you were wondering just how…

This week: Nokia, Motorola, Amazon. Next week: Apple. September 19th, we just heard? HTC. EVERYONE’S GOT NEW STUFF.

Xbox Live is reportedly down! Although it’s early enough that you probably shouldn’t be on Xbox Live anyway. [Mashable]

Will Apple Intro New (Less Terrible) Headphones With Its New iPhone?

We’re a week and a half away from Apple’s iPhone gala, which means we’re in the absolute thick of Apple rumor season. And while you may have tired by now of hearing about—and seeing—that stretched-out unibody handset, this latest curveball from Vietnam should have your full attention. That’s right. It looks like Apple might finally…

Why I Pay for Content (And Why That Makes Me Feel Like a Sucker)

In 2001 I downloaded five songs by a now-defunct “folk rock duo” from the internet. The band was obscure, its albums not stocked at the small-town music stores nearby or the Walmart 25 minutes up Route 1. iTunes didn’t exist yet. Amazon was still a bookstore. So I fired up LimeWire and snapped them up…

Whoever racks up the most Virgin Atlantic miles between now and August 7 2013 gets a free trip to SPAAAACE. [TechCrunch]

Amazon Could Put LCD and E-Ink in the Same Read-Anywhere Tablet

Back in 2010, a company called Pixel Qi seemed to have neared perfection with its transforming display. In a flash, it could bounce between a glare-free black and white readable screen and a vibrant LCD offering. Two years later, and we’re still waiting to see a major product actually use it. https://gizmodo.com/e-ink-is-dead-pixel-qis-amazing-transflective-lcd-just-5443895 Well, some of…

Why (Unfair, Expensive) Shared Data Plans Just Became the Inevitable Future

You’ll be forgiven for not paying too much attention to IFA, a giant tech conference taking place this week in Berlin. There have been some fine spectacles so far—84-inch, 4k TV anyone?—but for the most part, you’re not missing much. https://gizmodo.com/sonys-84-inch-4k-tv-is-mammoth-and-beautiful-and-we-wan-5938854 Except, maybe, for the exact moment that data plans started down an irreversible path…

Microsoft Surface Games Will Look Kickass With Unreal Engine 3

For all we know about Microsoft Surface, questions still abound. Nvidia appears to have answered one of them emphatically today though: Windows 8 games are going to look absolutely sick. See for yourself. Above is a Tegra-powered ASUS Vivo Tab RT play running ‘Epic Citadel,’ an Unreal Engine 3-based game that looks smooth and beautiful…

If you’re trying to access the Facebook help center, sorry; they’re busy battling a VAST ARMY of spammers. [AllFacebook]