09 January, 2012

VentureBeat

VentureBeat

Intel plans a huge marketing campaign for Ultrabooks

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 09:52 AM PST

Intel’s major marketing campaign for 2012 will focus on advertising for its Ultrabook brand of ultra-thin, high performance laptops.

Kevin Sellers (pictured), vice president of sales and marketing and director of the advertising and digital marketing group at Intel, said at the company’s press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Sellers said 98 percent of the social media reactions to “Ultrabook” are positive, and that’s with very little advertising already.

Intel will launch its Ivy Bridge microprocessors soon and it will tie its Ultrabook campaign to the launch of those chips this spring.

“By April, the marketing engines of Intel will turn on,” Sellers said.

It will be the biggest campaign since Centrino, the successful 2003 campaign that tied laptops and WiFi to easy-internet access. That campaign ushered in the era of mainstream wireless computing and helped seal Intel’s high market share in laptop chips.

Sellers hinted that Will.i.am, the singer from the Black Eyed Peas group, will be part of the marketing and that Paul Otellini, chief executive of Intel, will talk about that in his CES keynote on Tuesday.


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You’ll soon control Ultrabooks with touch, motion, and voice commands

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 09:35 AM PST

Do you want to control your computer with your voice? You’ll get that chance in the not so distant future, thanks to Intel‘s announcement today that it has partnered with Nuance Communication to implement voice recognition in the next generation of Ultrabook laptops.

Ultrabooks will start out with touchscreens, but they will eventually add voice controls as well, said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group in a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show. Some of the Ultrabooks will be convertible, meaning they can be used as either laptops or tablets.

The Ultrabooks can also be designed with accelerometers or gyroscopes built into them, so you can pick up an Ultrabook and move it around to make things happen on the screen via motion sensing.

Nuance voice technology will let you can control an Ultrabook in nine languages.

Intel’s Nikiski notebook technology senses if your palm is touching a palm rest and touch pad on a computer. If it detects that your palm is touching the touch pad, it will consider the touches to be accidental wrist brushes and ignore them. But if you put a finger on the touch pad, it allows you to move around the cursor on the screen.

Eden also said that you’ll be able to control a laptop with motion controls by waving your hand in front of a screen.


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Game developers: Win distribution and funding

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 09:30 AM PST

Get Discovered!
With over 200,000 games in the market, for many developers creating a game is considerably easier than marketing and distributing an application. To address the issue, a team of industry leaders from VentureBeat, Best Buy, Trinity Ventures, Hooked Media and others have banded together to create this new contest to help developers gain wide scale distribution.

Through the Get Discovered! contest, game developers can enter for the chance to:

  • have their game featured in and offered through Best Buy’s App Discovery Center
  • receive funding and advising from Trinity Ventures
  • win an advertising package from VentureBeat

Participating is simple. The only real work developers have to do is use the Hooked Media SDK in their game, which will integrate Hooked Media’s new discovery platform with the game. The result for all participants is increased game plays and recognition, so while not everyone wins the grand prize-everyone benefits. Register here.

Developers interested in participating in the contest are encouraged to check out Hooked Media’s website where you can learn more about integrating the SDK. Judging begins in the end of January with winners announced in March at a live event.

Judging the final competition will be Bradley Horowitz, VP of Product, Google+; Gus Tai, General Partner at Trinity Ventures; Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat; and Margita Labhard, Director of Digital Business Models at Best Buy.

Dates and deadlines:

  • Games must be live in Android market by January 24th 2012
  • Judging period January 24th 2012 – February 24th 2012
  • Finalists notified by March 2nd 2012
  • Winner announced at live event (Date to be announced)

Check out Dean Takahashi’s recent article on the contest, and follow @hookedapp (#GetDiscovered) to help spread the word!

The final event in March is by invitation only. Email event@hookedmediagroup.com if you’d like to be included.


Filed under: dev, games, VentureBeat


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LG debuts HDTV with built-in Google TV and a new Spectrum Android superphone

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 09:03 AM PST

LG-president-Wayne-ParkSouth Korean electronics maker LG showed off some cool new gadgets today, including a Google TV-powered HDTV, a high-powered Verizon Android LTE phone and a connected refrigerator that can order your groceries. Company executives debuted the products live at a press conference at CES 2012 in Las Vegas.

The first big item LG showed off is its LG Smart TV with integrated Google TV. Normally, Google TV is an external accessory. The company did not mention pricing or availability, but we expect the TV to appear in the first few months of this year for a pretty penny.

The company will also be heavily investing in non-Google TV-powered TVs as well and has a smattering of new 3D TVs on the way, including a monster 84-inch model. New premium 3D TVs will feature LG’s proprietary L9 chipset, which has a quad-core CPU and enhanced 3D picture quality. These next-gen 3D TVs will have immersive cinema 3D, with 2D to 3D conversion, 3D sound zooming and 3D depth control.

The company also showed in person its previously announced 55-inch OLED, the largest OLED display we’ve seen to date.

Wanye Park, LG President and CEO, said 3D TVs continue to do well, and in the past year LG has increased its overall market share in LCD and LED-based TVS. “Despite a challenging 2011, life is still good at LG,” Park said.

On the mobile front, LG showed off its new Spectrum Android superphone for Verizon Wireless. It will feature a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, a 4.5-inch display, and 4G LTE. The device will be available on Jan. 19 for $199 with a two-year contract with Verizon. In many ways, this is LG’s successor to its Revolution smartphone.

LG noted that it owns 23% of key patents in LTE technology, worth an estimated $7.9 billion.

On a final note, the company showed off new smart appliances, including a refrigerator that can help you do a lot with your food. The new smart fridge has LG”s “Smart Manager,” with a food manager system, voice recognition, the ability to scan grocery lists, and the ability to order groceries from your fridge panel.

The company also talked about its new “blast chiller” technology, which can reduce the temperature of a can of soda or beer in five minutes.

You can check out a gallery of LG products from the press conference below:


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Intel: More than 75 Ultrabooks coming in 2012

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 08:58 AM PST

Intel said today that more than 75 thin laptops known as Ultrabooks are coming in 2012.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the world’s biggest chip maker said that its third generation of Core microprocessors will serve as the brains of the ultra-thin devices. Intel has a vested interest in making Ultrabooks take off, as it hopes they will be the mainstream computers of the near future and it wants its chips to be in them.

Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of the Intel PC Client Group, said Ultrabooks will have a no-compromise experience, with high performance, built-in security, instant-on capability, and long battery life. The Ultrabooks, which resemble Apple’s pioneering MacBook Air laptops, are thinner than 18 millimeters.

Intel said it would offer a simpler and safer checkout process for online merchants as a result of a partnership with MasterCard. Intel also said it will team up with Nuance Communications to create voice recognition technology for Ultrabooks based on Nuance’s Dragon voice command technology. That will let people control laptops with voice commands.

In April, Intel will kick off a big marketing campaign — dubbed A New Era in Computing — to market Ultrabooks. Intel’s new third generation Core chips are made with a 22-nanometer manufacturing process, which enables both good graphics and powerful computation.

Intel first started talking about Ultrabooks in May, 2011, but many PC makers have been focused on making thin computers for the past couple of years. Eden said Intel will emphasize the better experience that consumers will have with Ultrabooks, rather than talk about the finer points of “branch prediction” in chips.

With Ultrabooks, users will be able to create, not just read, things on their computers. They won’t have to wait, they can work in an unwired way, without having to pay a lot. Many Ultrabooks will be under $1,000.

“We want the average person to be able to enjoy this part of the computing revolution,” Eden said.

Eden showed a demo of better graphics performance with a 1.8-gigahertz Intel Core i7 microprocessor (code-named Ivy Bridge) by blowing up a bridge that collapsed in a realistic way thanks to physics processing calculated by the processor. He also showed a racing game with DirectX 11 graphics, which is the high-end graphics standard from Microsoft.


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Link aggregator Buzzfeed secures $15.5M round

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 07:53 AM PST

Business CatBuzzfeed, a site known for curating the best viral content across the web, has raised a new $15.5 million round of funding and has added a handful of staffers responsible for the Huffington Post’s early success.

Buzzfeed’s aim is to feature fresh content that you’d want to pass along to friends, such as “an outrageous video that's about to go viral, an obscure subculture breaking into the mainstream, a juicy bit of gossip that everyone at the office will be talking about tomorrow, or an ordinary guy having his glorious 15-minutes of fame,” the site states.

The new funding, which was first reported this morning by TechCrunch, will go towards Buzzfeed’s goal of transforming itself into a site that does original reporting. Last month, the site announced that former Politico writer Ben Smith would be taking over the site as Editor-in-Chief. These two moves signify that Buzzfeed is definitely aiming to become more than just a place to find the 30 Most Important Cats of 2011.

Smith isn’t the only one taking up residence at Buzzfeed. Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer is assuming the position of the site’s Executive Chairman, and former Huff Post President Greg Coleman is joining Buzzfeed’s board as an adviser. Also worth noting is that former Huff Post CTO Jonah Peretti is a Buzzfeed co-founder.

The new round was led by New Enterprise Associates with participation by Lerer Ventures, Hearst Media, Softbank and RRE Capital. Founded in 2008, the New York-based company now has a total of $27 million in funding to date. The site currently brings in 30 million unique visitors per month.


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Fox News has a new digital look for 2012 (exclusive)

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 07:30 AM PST

Fox video player

With the new year comes new resolutions and Fox News has one of its own, to usher in a new digital strategy, taking the mobile world into special account.

“The starting point for all [these changes] is there are more devices, more connectivity,” said Fox New and Business’ vice president of digital Jeff Misenti in an interview with VentureBeat.

Fox is introducing a slew of new ways for its audience base to interact with news anchors, articles, video content, live streaming, and even the front page of Fox News’ website itself. The emphasis, however, is on the recently adopted term “TV Everywhere.” A number of media outlets are taking to TV Everywhere as a way to deliver content to a number of different devices, and do it as seamlessly as possible. Now that television is available on many different screens, proving you have access to certain accounts, and syncing your customers’ viewing experience is a challenge.

One of the first major digital moves Fox is making deals directly with this problem. Akamai and Fox have partnered to create a cross-device authentication system that allows Fox customers to prove they have Fox News accounts. From there, they can access saved and new content on any authorized devices. Comcast and Disney recently struck a deal to provide a similar service across Comcast Xfinity customers’ devices.

The access wouldn’t only allow you to see the content, but pick up the content wherever you left off. If you were watching a program on Fox News, you can pause the video and be prompted to either resume at your paused place or continue along with the show. This is particularly useful for those keeping up with the election through Fox, who are watching live programs, but cannot commit to sitting in front of the TV all day.

Live streams are also getting a face lift, one that online Iowa Caucus watchers were able to enjoy last Tuesday. A new media player (see top photo) available on the Fox News website allows you to watch live streamed content, but keep up with multiple streams at one time. For instance, if there are multiple cameras focused on the candidates, you can add up to four different streams into one video box. The box allows you to toggle between candidates, focusing on one stream at any given time.

According to Misenti, Fox’s live stream traffic for the Iowa Caucus this year was comparable to that of the Japanese earthquake in 2011. Because of this momentum, Fox isn’t going to stop working on its new video. The company would like to one day see interactive information that can be viewed from the video player regarding a specific candidate. It would show in a side wing that person’s political views and platforms.

Politics will obviously play a big roll in Fox’s 2012 digital strategy, and dictates much of the new changes to Fox News’ website. The company is redoing its look to accommodate interactive live video of candidates, as well as more compatibility for tablets and smartphones. Misenti explained Fox sees the mobile Web as just an extension of the regular, computer accessed Web. It deserves just as rich an experience as applications get. Fox will try to emulate this richness with interactive maps developed in Java and CSS, rather than Flash and other website adjustments.

But more important than its political strategy is the interaction its audience will have with all of these improvements — and it’s not just going to be through gamification.

“Some of [gamification] is compelling and some of it is cute to be cute. We’ve taken a pragmatic approach,” said Misenti.

Fox News Xbox Video PlayerFox News' Xbox Kinect video player

Fox will identify its biggest users by allowing them to upload videos, photos, opinions and more to the site. The point is to make the person feel like they are also a part of the news, without actually letting them report. The community center on Fox News’ website will be redone to allow for more discovery through social connections and sharing on the site. For instance, if you find someone whose views you appreciate, you can pull up their past posts and comments to see what else they have to say.

In its last, major change focusing on its audience, Fox is also releasing an Xbox video player. The company has been seen recently teaming up with a number of companies “young people” use, such as Google and Twitter. Misenti explained that Fox is looking, not necessarily to connect with technologists or Silicon Valley more broadly, but rather is just following people to where they get their news.

“Younger audiences are interacting with content through things like Google News,” he said, as if to sum it all up, “We want to be where the people are. “


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Hipmunk launches mobile app for booking hotels

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST

iPad hotel filter

Finding a hotel in a place you’ve never been, or last minute is an extemely stressful experience. Hipmunk, known for its visual flight search, launched a mobile application today, with a really pretty way of booking those overnight stays.

“If any point the user has engaged in active mental math, then we’ve failed somewhere,” said Danilo Campos, Hipmunk’s iOS developer, in an interview with VentureBeat.

Hipmunk was founded on the idea that booking trips and taking them is an agonizing process. Thus, you should be able to choose your flights based on the toll they would take on your psyche. The company recently branched out into hotels for it’s website, but waited to take it mobile until it had the right visual feel that Hipmunk is known for.

Its flights tool allows you to choose your dates, times, destinations, amount and type of tickets and then provides you a graph of flights, sorted by “agony.” The hotels does something similar, but instead employs a map as its visual. Hotel searchers enter in the area they are looking to book in, or they can use “current location,” and are taken to a Google map of that area with blue, green and red dots showing price point. A heat map overlay shows if your hotel is near food, shopping, or “vices” such as strip clubs. The app allows you to keep and compare up to three hotels and once chosen, you are taken to either the hotel’s website, or a website like Orbitz to complete the transaction. Cleverly, you can also take a finish code and bring your search back to the laptop for a wider keyboard experience.

“This has been the most personal project I’ve ever had in my professional work,” said Campos, “ I was able to ditch all my stuff, hop on CalTrain and within five minutes find a hotel I actually trusted was a good one.”

The user experience is a great one, I tested it on the iPhone, iPad and Android. But Hipmunk itself, and therefore its apps, is very dependent on its third party aggregators, such as Orbitz, which seems like a vulnerability for the year old company. A spokesperson for Hipmunk who also attended our meeting explained that Hipmunk won’t rely on those third parties forever. The company is new, so it’s first and foremost concern right now is getting the technology down, gathering happy customers, making its product beautiful. In the future, however, Hipmunk will make a concerted push to make direct partnerships with airlines and hotels and start cutting out the middle man. Then it’s moving on to other areas of the travel experience.

“We’re not going to move onto cars or cruises or packages until we make hotels and airlines a success,” said the spokesperson.

Hipmunk was also less than jolted when Google launched its own flight search. The company was nervous leading up to it, but nerves were calmed when one person tweeted, “Google travel search is Hipmunk for Hipmunk,” explained Campos.

Hipmunk was founded in 2010 and has taken on $5.2 million in funding from Ignition Partners, Y-Combinator and angel investors. The app is available on iPhone, iPad and Android.


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Vimeo launches Android, WP7 mobile apps; previews revamped iPhone, iPad apps

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST

vimeo-ipad-640

Popular video sharing site Vimeo has launched slick new mobile apps for Android and Windows Phone 7 devices. The company is also showing off its upcoming revamped iPhone app and brand-new iPad app at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas.

Vimeo’s launch of the apps at CES 2012 shows the company is getting much more serious about mobile. Joe Schmitt, Vimeo’s head of mobile, told us that the percentage of mobile-based site traffic has doubled in the last year. He said Vimeo’s total traffic coming from mobile was at 7 percent in Jan. 2010 and that now sits at 15 percent.

The company previously just had an iPhone app and a mobile site for other smartphones, and while that’s a good start, it’s not enough. Native apps almost always provide the best possible experience on a smartphone or tablet versus HTML5-based mobile sites. Thankfully that’s not a problem any longer with the new Android app (which is optimized for smartphones and tablets) and a new Windows Phone 7 app. Both of those apps are available to download now from the Android Market and Windows Phone Marketplace, respectively.

Vimeo also designed its Android tablet app so it will be available through Amazon’s Android Appstore, which means it will work for the seemingly popular Kindle Fire. The Fire may already be the number 2 tablet after the iPad in the U.S. and likely cut into iPad sales this past holiday season, so it’s a smart move for Vimeo to target that device as well.

On the iOS front, an updated iPhone app and brand-new iPad app are on the way. The iPad app is especially important because that device is tailor-made for media consumption. Schmitt expects they will be ready for release by the end of January.

Vimeo has been owned by IAC, which also owns companies like Match.com and The Daily Beast, since August 2006. The company doesn't reveal subscriber numbers, but it has more than 8 million registered users. It attracts 58 million unique users per month, and that doesn't include embedded views across the web.

A gallery of the new and updated apps can be viewed below:


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Netflix launches in the UK. LoveFilm undercuts it.

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 05:51 AM PST

Netflix announced yesterday on the company’s blog that its streaming service is now available in the UK.

TV programs and movies, including local favorites such as The Only Way is Essex, can be streamed via Netflix to smart TVs, game consoles, computers, tablets and mobile device for £5.99 ($9.23)  per month. A month’s free trial is available.

Netflix’s main rival in the UK market is Amazon's well-established LoveFilm, which reacted quickly to the announcement by undercutting Netflix with a new introductory streaming package for £4.99 ($7.69) per month. VentureBeat previously reported that Netflix had signed deals with Sony, Disney, Paramount, ITV and Channel 4 in advance of the launch while Lovefilm had bagged BBC Worldwide and ITV.

Netflix’s chief product office, Neil Hunt, wrote on the company’s blog that the service will offer social viewing suggestions, based on an integration with Facebook. Netflix will also give personalised recommendations based on your previous selections and those of similar users. “If you watch a lot of dramas and loved an inspiring, rags-to-riches tale like ‘October Sky’, you might get a set of ‘Emotional Dramas based on contemporary literature’ titles such as ‘Chocolat’ and ‘Cider House Rules,’” explained Hunt on the blog.

Netflix has more than 20 million streaming customers in the U.S., Canada and Latin America who collectively watched over 2 billion hours of content in Q4, 2011. The company has been in the firing line in the last year due to its decision to raise subscription rates on its DVD-by-mail service by 60 percent in July 2011 and in October to spin-off its DVD-by-mail business into a separate company called Qwikster (a decision later reversed after uproar from customers).

CEO Reed Hastings has admitted that the company’s UK operation will take at least two years to turn a profit. However, Hastings doesn’t seem like a man who’s easily rattled. At Dublin’s F.ounders conference last year he gave an entertaining talk about business lessons he learnt from his marriage counsellor. Netflix shareholders will be hoping that the company’s customers will be as forgiving as his wife.


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Atmel enables slimmer and more precise touchscreen and charger chips

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST

Chip maker Atmel is delivering technology advances at the Consumer Electronics Show that will result in better touchscreens and chargers. This means we’ll soon have thinner, more accurate and more battery-efficient gadgets to buy.

Each year, touch technology is getting better and better, but device engineers and consumers are also getting more demanding and have no tolerance for flaws in touchscreens. So the San Jose, Calif.-based company is unveiling its next generation of maXTouch S series of controllers for touchscreens — the chips that determine how quickly and precisely the screens react when you swipe your finger across them. The chips enable screens up to 17 inches diagonal that can track the movement of an unlimited number of fingers at the same time.

The chips work with smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, e-readers and other applications. Atmel has three versions of the chips that work for everything from a 4.3-inch screen smartphone to a 17-inch tablet running Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system. The chips enable smaller devices and form factors, responsiveness, higher-quality displays, great battery life, and multiple ways of capturing user input, such as a pen or a finger.

“We’re trying to deliver on the wish list that designers have always wanted in a touchscreen,” said Sherif Hanna, tablet touchscreens marketing manager at Atmel, in an interview. “The devices still don’t feel and behave as they should.”

The S series chips have SlimSensor technology, which enables a thinner and lighter screen without sacrificing responsiveness, touch fidelity or battery life. The chips can eliminate display noise and still operate twice as fast in responsiveness than previous chips. Since the touch sensors can be 60 percent smaller in these new chips, system designers can reduce the thickness of a screen by more than one millimeter. That is a huge reduction, considering some phones are only seven millimeters thick.

Atmel is also adding a new feature for the S series chips: maXCharger technology, which blends analog circuits and mathematical formulas that enable battery chargers that are much more efficient. The technology eliminates false touches — where the screen reacts to an unintentional touch. It can also suppress severe electrical noise spikes, making the devices about three times more responsive to touch. This means your device won’t get messed up when you plug a low-quality charger into it, something that happens a lot now that many devices use universal serial bus (USB) chargers.

Production versions of the maXTouch S series chips will be available in the first quarter. For the unlimited touch maXTouch chips, this is the third generation of chips. Prior versions were launched in 2011 and 2009. Rivals include Cypress Semiconductor, Synaptics and a number of Asian competitors.


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Dropcam releases new camera, lets you chat with your robbers

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 03:00 AM PST

Dropcam Lens

Security camera maker Dropcam released its newest camera today, with new features to help you stalk your own house.

“Dropcam HD [is] a product that introduces quality hardware and intuitive user experience to a space that has missed it completely," said Greg Duffy, Dropcam’s chief executive officer and co-founder, in a statement.

Dropcam allows people to monitor their homes from a wall-plug-in camera, which can record up to 30 days of video, without running into the battery issue. The flagship camera connected to the Internet via a wireless connection and stored this video in the cloud, accessible through a DVR player, or streaming. The company, which originally employed a third party to create its cameras, has taken on the process itself now and added ways to not only watch your house, but interact with it from afar.

Dropcam StandThe new camera, Dropcam HD, has a totally new look to it. The lens is round, small and black in comparison to its clunkier, white forefather. The lens can fit on your fingers, and comes with a removable stand. It’s power source is still a wall plug, which is inconvenient for ceiling fixtures, but the camera should never die on you in the middle of the day.

Before, the camera could pick up audio and movement, but now it can also pick up light change and toggle between a night vision camera and daylight. The camera also allows you to zoom in from afar. Some may find this more useful if they want to zoom in on a particular door, or keep an eye on the jewelry box. The weirdest, but perhaps best feature, however, is the new two-way audio.

Robbers in your house? No big deal, just yell “GOTCHA, PUNK!” That would be my choice of threatening words, at least.

Dropcam was founded in 2009 and has raised $5.8 million from Accel Partners and a number of angel investors including Bradley Horowitz. The camera is priced at $149 and is available for pre-order.


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The Powerbag charges your electronics on the run (video)

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 02:50 AM PST

Here’s a product for the true nerds among us who can’t go anywhere without a bunch of digital electronics. The Powerbag allows you to charge all of your portable electronics inside the pockets of a satchell bag.

Dubbed the “ultimate survival gear for the digital age,” the bag was on display at the opening press reception for the Consumer Electronics Show.

The bag is the brainchild of RFA Brands, a company in Commerce Township, Mich. RFA has a number of different kinds of Powerbags, which all have a powerful battery that can charge a number of mobile devices at once. You can get the Powerbag in the form of a backpack, messenger bag, sling bag, and others.

Seamlessly integrated into every Powerbag is a universal “smart-charging system,” or a rechargeable and removable battery for charge on the go capability. It charges via a universal serial bus cable and adapters that allow for the charging of iOS devices. The bag has an AC adapter that can be plugged into any wall outlet.

You can connect up to four mobile devices at a time using various connectors. The system auto-detects the type of device and sends the right amount of charge to it. The Powerbags start at $139.99 and are available at Best Buy, OfficeMax, QVC, F.Y.E., WirelessZone and Amazon.com.


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Parrot shows off version 2.0 of its AR.Drone flying robot (video)

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 02:23 AM PST

Parrott wowed the world a couple of years ago when it launched its AR.Drone flying “quadricopter,” a helicopter-like smartphone-controlled drone with four rotors. Now the company is showing off AR.Drone 2.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Like the earlier model, this one can be controlled via a WiFi-connected smartphone or tablet. But it has a new high-definition camera, video recording, flight data sharing, a new piloting mode, increased stability, and a new look.

Users can download a free app from the Apple App Store or the Android Market to get the controls for the drone. In free flight mode, the pilot can record flights, take videos or photos and save them in the piloting device. All the flight data can be saved, checked by the pilot and shared. There are new games available for the AR.Drone and users can upload videos to YouTube.

Flying is still pretty simple, as you place your thumbs on either side of your touchscreen. A button forms underneath your fingers and then you move your fingers in various directions to make the drone move. If you slide your finger over the right button, the quadricopter rises or descends or rotates.

The drone has some sophisticated sensors, such as a 3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis magnetometer, a pressure sensor, and two ultrasound sensors (for added stability). You can use the drone with an indoor hull that protects the rotors (pictured at top) or without the hull for outdoor use.

The drone 2.0 will be available for purchase in the second quarter for $299.


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With $2M in funding, Wemo Media plans a 3D animated ocean world, TheBlu

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 02:08 AM PST

Wemo Media announced to day that it has raised $2 million in seed funding to finance the creation of its first 3D digital animated world set under the sea. The ocean world will have realistic 3D animated fish, fauna, sharks and other sea life. It has the production values of a high-quality online game, but is aimed at providing cool educational experiences.

Currently in private beta, TheBlu seeks to recreate the ocean on the web, creating a collectively designed work of art that taps digital artists and developers from around the world.  The company showed off some animated scenes from the world at the Consumer Electronics Show today in Las Vegas. Once the world is launched, you’ll be able to explore the oceans as easily as browsing the web, choosing different camera views and interacting directly with the sea life.

Neville Spiteri (pictured), co-founder and chief executive of Wemo Media, said in an interview that the reaction to the beta test has been astounding and the funding will help the company execute on its vision of creating worlds that allow people to appreciate the beauty of the world. He said it has been drawing interest from schools and museums around the world as a platform to raise awareness about environmental issues.

Among those contributing to it are Andy Jones, the animation supervisor for the sinking sequence in The Titanic as well as animation director for Avatar. Another participant is Ben Miller, lead designer at Wemo Media and former game designer at Insomniac Games.

TheBlu is the first of many titles that Wemo Media plans to release through its media creation platform, which enables a number of artists, animators, programmers,  and composers to collaborate from afar. The company is inviting thousands of such professional to contribute to the creation of the world. So far, people from 40 countries are contributing art. They can, for instance, create a 3D model of a shark, drop it into the world and watch it come to life.

Advisors include Joichi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, and Sylvia Earle, explorer in residence at National Geographic.

“TheBlue is an extraordinary way to enjoy the oceans and learn about all the individual species that interdependently form our life support system,” Earle said.

Ito said, “The really interesting thing about TheBlue is that it brings together the biology, the activism of conservation, the beauty and the artistic elements as well as grass roots, participatory social media movement.”


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Toshiba’s new tablet is no thicker than a ball-point pen, and it looks great (slideshow)

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 12:35 AM PST

Toshiba amazed me with its Excite X10, a very slim Android tablet that the company claims is the thinnest and lightest tablet on the market.

I don’t know if that claim is true, but it felt amazingly light and trim in my hands. At 0.3 inch thick and just 1.18 pounds, it’s certainly one of the most svelte tablets on the market.

An unusually comfortable textured magnesium alloy makes up the device’s back. Inside, it’s running Ice Cream Sandwich (the latest, tablet-oriented version of Google’s Android operating system) on a Texas Instruments OMAP system-on-a-chip. Despite its thin profile, the company has found a way to include micro USB and micro HDMI ports as well as a micro SD slot, plus a dock connector. One thing it lacks is 3G, however: Only Wi-Fi models will be available when the Excite X10 ships in late February. A model with 16GB of storage will cost $530, the 32GB model will go for $600.

Toshiba’s not skimping on the engineering to make things skinny this year. The company also showed off a 0.63-inch-thick ultrabook, the Portege 2830, that weighs just shy of 3 pounds. It has USB, HDMI, RGB ports and even an RJ-45 port (that’s for the Ethernet cable, for those of you who have long been living in the wireless world).

To help make the most of its engineering, the company created an ultrabook encased in clear plastic so that, like the Visible Man, its internals could be seen. Like Apple’s Macbook Air, the Portege 2830 has a shrunken motherboard, which appears to take up less than a quarter of the computer’s footprint. That leaves plenty of room for cooling, decent speakers, and even standard-sized memory, which helps keep the price down. The Portege 2830 will sell for $800, the company said.


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CES 2012 kicks off with a flood of this year’s coming gadgets (video)

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 09:58 PM PST

CES Unveiled kicks off the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 with a roomful of new gadgets and journalists.

You’re going to see a whole lot of stories from us in the next four days, so fasten your seatbelts: This week is going to be one big flume ride through the consumer electronics industry.

The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show is where the U.S. tech industry gathers its forces to push into a new year. It’s a flood of new products, and it all started tonight with the first pre-show event, CES Unveiled, where the VentureBeat crew has just landed.

Although the tradeshow itself won’t start until Tuesday, members of the media were stuffing themselves into this ballroom to get a peek at some of the show’s highlights: Multi-touch screens, flying iPhone-controlled toy helicopters, Wi-Fi-enabled baby scales, updated Android tablets and lots of skinny, svelte Ultrabooks. (And once inside, many people were stuffing themselves with shrimp and weird blue cocktails.)

It’s not just about goofy gadgets. Read up on the CES trends that will shape tech in 2012, and then read our interview with Consumer Electronics Association president Gary Shapiro, who says CES “is doing phenomenally well.”

VentureBeat is sending its biggest ever team of reporters to the show this year. Dean Takahashi, Devindra Hardawar, Sean Ludwig, Christopher Peri and myself are on the scene, shooting video, taking pictures and filing stories.

CES from Venturebeat on Vimeo.

Follow our CES news feed for the latest gadget news.

Got a hot tip about CES? Let us know.

Hold on tight, and keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle!


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Lenovo’s IdeaPad S2 tablet is thin, light and can dock for 20 hour battery life

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 09:34 PM PST

lenovo ideapad s2 tablet dockLenovo has come out swinging at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

Along with its first TV, the Taiwanese company today also announced a revamped tablet, the IdeaPad S2, which weighs only 1.1 pounds and is one-third of an inch thick. Even better, it has a keyboard dock accessory that has a battery of its own — when connected to the dock, the tablet can have up to 20 hours of battery life, Lenovo says.

The IdeaPad S2 comes on the heels of Asus’ popular Transformer tablets, which also sport a keyboard dock. In a sense, the IdeaPad is the Decepticon to Asus’ Transformer Prime, though it can’t compete when it comes to power since it doesn’t feature a quad-core CPU.

The 10-inch tablet instead runs a dual-core SnapDragon CPU, and it will come loaded with the Android 4.0 operating system, “Ice Cream Sandwich.” The IdeaPad S2 is slightly lighter than the iPad 2 and Asus Transformer Prime, so it may appeal for those looking for a 10-inch tablet that’s particularly portable.

Pricing and distribution for the tablet haven’t been revealed yet.


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Design and print 3D objects from your iPhone with a new app from Sculpteo

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 07:04 PM PST

Someone used the new Sculpteo app to create a 3-D vase based on a person's profile.3D printing service Sculpteo today announced a new iPhone app that you can use to design 3D objects, upload your designs to the cloud, and receive a ceramic object in the mail a few days later.

The designs are based on photographs you take of yourself or a friend. Sculpteo’s app turns your face’s profile into a 3D object, such as the vase shown here. You can also transform it into a number of other objects, such as a bowl, plate, or mug. Once you’ve completed the design, you upload it and Sculpteo sends it to a local 3D printing facility which manufactures the object using a ceramic printing process.

Pricing depends on the size and complexity of the object: Large objects such as the vase (pictured right) cost about $300, while a small cup costs just $70. The app itself is free.

Sculpteo is also partnering with designers such as Jen-Louis Frechin to find other ways of transforming “human data,” such as facial profiles, into designs that you can personalize. In effect, the designer is creating a set of parameters instead of a finished design, and the customer is applying the final touches to instantiate the design in a particular object.

It’s an interesting application of “mass customization,” which allows each customer to have their own, personalized product while still giving manufacturers some of the advantages of mass production. Thanks to the rapidly decreasing cost of 3D printing, other companies have also been pursuing mass customization: Bespoke Innovations makes custom prosthetic fairings that give prosthetic limbs a more personal look; computer companies such as Dell have experimented with giving customers the option to personalize their laptop designs; and MilkorSugar provides a catalog of mass-customized products, from personalized underwear to rowboats.

But this app also shows just how far 3D printing has come. Just for fun, here’s an amazing 3D skull created by artist Joshua Harker and printed in plastic using Sculpteo.

Photos: Dylan Tweney/VentureBeat.com.


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Lenovo announces world’s first Android 4.0 TV — but it’s no Google TV

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:48 PM PST

Not content to sit around and let Apple beat it to the TV market, Lenovo introduced its first television today at the Consumer Electronics Show, which is also notable for being the first TV to run the Android 4.0 operating system, “Ice Cream Sandwich.”

Called the Lenovo K91 Smart TV, the set will initially be available only in China. It’s a sign that even unlikely computer makers can step into the TV business — though we don’t yet know how successful Lenovo’s attempt will be.

It’s also worth noting that the TV isn’t running Google TV, a sign that Lenovo would rather create its own custom interface, rather than deal with the beleaguered Google TV platform. Lenovo calls its interface “Sandwich” because it’s comprised of three smart-TV pieces: video on demand, apps and standard TV functionality.

Under the hood, the K91 is also the first TV to be powered by Qualcomm’s 1.5 gigahertz dual-core SnapDragon 8060 CPU. Lenovo says the TV will have access to “thousands” of apps from the Android Market and the Lenovo Store, but it’s unclear how the company will highlight TV-optimized apps.

Lenovo plans to offer two models initially, a 42-inch and a 50-inch 3D LED unit, reports GigaOm. The TV will also sport a 5-megapixel webcam, which will open it up to the world of video chat and facial recognition. Its remote will feature a touchpad and integrated mic, and there will be a gamepad with 3-axis gyro available as well.


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Solar-powered Kindle cover means you never have to plug it in again

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:44 PM PST

solarfocus-kindle-caseIf you’ve ever wanted a Kindle that you never have to plug in, SolarFocus has the accessory for you with its solar-powered Kindle case.

Green tech has dominated the conversation around cars, but now it seems these eco-friendly trends are edging into mobile at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, where SolarFocus is debuting its Kindle case. Taiwan-based SolarFocus has other solar-panel products that have USB ports, but its Kindle case might be the most interesting, specific device.

The solar-powered Kindle case fits only the fourth-generation Kindle, but it should be available for the Kindle Touch in the spring. The front part of the case features one long solar panel, which is a bit inelegant. On the inside, there is a pop-up light that can help you read at night or in low-lighting.

SolarFocus says its Kindle case will make the Kindle battery last three times the normal duration, which amounts to three months. But because you can charge solely off the solar charger, you could, in theory, never need to plug it into a wall or computer USB port again.

The SolarFocus solar-powered Kindle case is a 2012 International CES Innovations Design & Engineering Awards Honoree. The device will be available online starting Jan. 15 for $80.

Here are a few other photos of the innovative solar-powered case:


Filed under: green, mobile, VentureBeat


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Toshiba shows off its 10-inch Excite X10 Android tablet

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:30 PM PST

A new generation of tablets will be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, including a 10-inch Android model from Toshiba.

The new Excite X10 tablet from Toshiba is one of the thinnest and lightest of the bunch, at just 0.3 inches thick and 1.2 pounds. The device joins other Toshiba Thrive models that are already on the market, realizing a tablet trend that started with the Apple iPad and is now gaining full momentum in the broader computing market.

The device has a magnesium alloy on its back, Corning’s durable Gorilla Glass as its surface and a particularly bright and colorful screen.

“This is one of our new concept products for the year,” said Phil Osako (pictured) director of product marketing at Toshiba’s U.S. division.

In contrast to the Apple iPad, this machine has a lot of ports, including Micro HDMI, Micro USB, and Micro SD so that it is easy to transfer files onto and off of. It has a two-megapixel front-facing camera and a five-megapixel rear-facing camera with a flash. On the sides are a power button, volume up/down, and a rotation lock switch.

It has a docking connector so you can add things like stereo speakers. It has a file manager and the latest Android media player, with the ability to play music, videos and pictures. It also has DLNA capability so it can be connected to other devices on the same network, giving you the ability to stream from the tablet to a TV or stereo. You can upscale videos and use Toshiba’s audio enhancement technology.

It uses the Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Android operating system from Google and will be available in the middle of the first quarter. The device has WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth connectivity. A 16-gigabyte version will sell for $529 and a 32-gigabyte version for $599.

Toshiba’s existing 10-inch Thrive model will also now have the option to use 4G mobile broadband service provided by AT&T. The 4G HSPA+ technology will sell for $80 and will allow users to get on the mobile internet when WiFi isn’t available. Toshiba expects to show future tablets with 5-inch, 7-inch, and 13-inch screens at its booth.

Osako said one of the big changes this year is that Toshiba won’t have any netbooks on display, since tablets and upcoming Ultrabooks have pretty much wiped out that market.

Toshiba also has some new models of Portege laptops on display.


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Interview part two: CEA chief Gary Shapiro says CES will be stellar, even without Microsoft, in years to come

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 05:51 PM PST

The Consumer Electronics Show is in good shape for years to come, even though Microsoft is pulling out of the top keynote slot for the 2013 show, according to show chief Gary Shapiro.

Shapiro, president and chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on the tech extravagana show in Las Vegas, said in an interview with VentureBeat that he was surprised that Microsoft’s decision to drop out of CES starting in 2013 turned into such a huge story. (See his remarks on anti-piracy legislation SOPA in part one of our interview).

He also said he expects that Microsoft will return in the future and it will, in the long run, probably return to the keynote speech slot at some point. He said Microsoft will bring hundreds of people to the show next year, but it only has a couple of days to retain its booth space on the show floor and he believes that will lapse as the company figures out what it wants to do in the future. So in 2013, there won’t even be a Microsoft booth at the show, in all likelihood.

“The impact of Microsoft is about several hundred people,” he said.

But CES could draw more than 150,000 attendees this year, about the same as last year, Shapiro said. The show has 2,700 exhibitors with 1.8 million square feet of exhibit space in the huge Las Vegas Convention Center.

“The show is doing phenomenally well,” Shapiro said. “We’re at or near our record in attendance and footprint. We have been approached by all sorts of companies that want to do the opening keynote. We will decide in time.”

As far as trends go, Shapiro said this year’s show will demonstrate that the car is becoming your consumer electronics “place away from home,” with all sorts of entertainment, wireless technology and other applications that go beyond navigation. He said that different sectors have taken off, such as healthcare electronics, gear for seniors, and gadgets for education.

Last year’s show had lots of vendors showing off netbooks, the stripped-down computers that focused only on web access. This year, they’ve been replaced by tablets at the low end and Ultrabooks, the instant-on laptops that are as thin as the MacBook Air, on the high end.

“There is definitely substitution going on in the computing space,” he said.

Some pundits have predicted the show will lose its importance, but Shapiro said such comments “baffle me.” Microsoft said that the cycle of its product releases was out of sync with the show, which uses the old model where technology companies announced their products in January and retailers signed them up for sales debuts in the fall. Now, the cycle is much more irregular and faster than that.

“There is no questions that the speed of the introduction of electronics has changed,” Shapiro said. “But a show forces companies to meet a deadline. We give people a reason to get things done. The show is also a five-senses experience, where you can see and hear everything. And face to face meetings still work the best. These are reasons why more than 150,000 people still come to the show.

This year, Shapiro said, major companies on the show floor include Intel, Motorola, LG, Samsung, Audi and many others. Roughly 7,000 people are coming from Hollywood, and so are six of the 10 largest auto companies, he said. There are lots of attendees from Google, Twitter, and other cool internet companies, he said.

Apple isn’t attending, but there are 300 companies with Apple accessories showing things on the floor. The show has a section just for startups.

As for cool tech, Shapiro pointed to new TVs with 4K resolution, a step up from today’s highest-resolution 1080p high-definition TVs. He also said he was excited about 4G wireless products, gesture recognition, haptics, and voice recognition.

Shapiro said that, despite a softer economy in the U.S., consumers came out in droves to buy consumer electronics gear in the fourth quarter, and he said, “We are projecting strong growth for 2012. The love affair that American consumers have with electronics is strong and growing.”In his own keynote speech Monday morning, Shapiro said that he will talk about ten trends for how technology is changing the world, including making cars much safer.

“The world is our oyster and we are toddlers,” he said. “So much is happening.”


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Interview: CEA chief Gary Shapiro pushes anti-SOPA agenda

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 03:56 PM PST

Gary Shapiro, chief executive and president of the Consumer Electronics Association, feels good about how government is jumping on the technology competitiveness issue in a bipartisan way.

But in an interview with VentureBeat on the eve of the group’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, he said he is disappointed that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is distracting a lot of lawmakers from the larger agenda now as they obsess over what he and many other people in the tech industry consider to be a poorly written proposal to deal with online piracy. One of its controversial provisions is that it it would force web hosting companies to shut down web sites if copyright owners make a complaint about copied content, without first obtaining a court order.

“It’s too bad that in Washington, the urgent replaces the important,” Shapiro said. “We care about piracy and so do a lot of people. But this bill is shocking, and it’s shocking it has some support. We are playing defense, and we are being outspent 10 to 1 by the copyright extremists.”

He added, “There are two types of members of Congress: those who understand the internet and those who will vote for SOPA because they have made commitments to the copyright extremists. We think online piracy stinks, but this is very bad legislation.”

Shapiro is happy that some companies like Microsoft and game companies (Epic Games) are starting to withdraw their support for SOPA, as has the Business Software Alliance. And he believes that members of Congress will listen to a groundswell of citizen opposition to SOPA as well.

Shapiro wrote a book last year entitled The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream. It turned into a bestseller and has drawn a lot of attention from the 536 people (Congress and the President) that it was written for, Shapiro said.

“I’m thrilled it became a bestseller and we have a bipartisan consensus on a lot of the main points,” he said.

The book raised the alarm on problems that are hurting innovation in the U.S. Those include a lack of a strategic immigration policy that allows skilled researchers to stay in the U.S., the need to improve science and math education, and heavier investment in research and development. He also argued that something has to be done about the huge deficit, which is putting the nation at risk in terms of its competitiveness.

“I”m pleased that on every major issue, we have progress and bipartisan support,” he said. “We have to tie it into jobs better.”


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AcerCloud or iCloud? Acer unveils copycat service at CES

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 03:44 PM PST

acer-acercloud

Acer will launch a new iCloud-like service called AcerCloud in the coming months that will connect content on Acer laptops, Android phones and other PCs, the company announced today in Las Vegas at CES.

We predicted that consumer cloud services would be a major trend this year in our CES 2012 preview. Apple often sets the agenda for the year with its own products and services, so when the company debuted iCloud and iTunes Match in the middle of last year, it was only a matter of time before the competition cooked up something similar.

Acer’s AcerCloud service on its face sound a lot like iCloud. The company said the service “securely connects all personal smart devices for anytime, anywhere access.” Basically, if you take a picture on your Android smartphone, it will be available on your Acer notebook automatically or with a single click.

AcerCloud will store photos and documents for 30 days. During that time, an AcerCloud-connected PC can backup and access the images and documents as needed, making it an easier process for moving around and managing your media.

The AcerCloud service will begin showing up on Acer laptops and PCs in the second quarter of this year, and worldwide availability is expected in the fourth quarter. The company likely hopes its cloud offering will help set its products, such as its Windows-based ultrabooks and Android tablets, apart from many similar ones.

The company used the same press conference to announce an upcoming 1080p quad-core Acer Iconia tablet.


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Acer has a quad-core, 1080p Iconia Tab on the way

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 03:30 PM PST

Being first has its advantages.

Taiwanese computer maker Acer was the first major company to hold a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show Sunday, where it briefly showed off a powerful new Iconia Tab slate with a quad-core processor and high-resolution 1080p display.

Acer VP of mobile computing Campbell Kan teased the 10.1-inch Android tablet to the CES crowd, saying simply, “Isn’t it cool?”

The new Iconia Tab will be powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 system-on-a-chip, but other than that we don’t have any other details about the device.

While the specs initially sound interesting, I can’t help but see this as the CES equivalent of an obnoxious Internet commenter shouting “First!” in a comment thread. We expect many quad-core tablets to be unveiled at CES 2012 (Asus has already released its quad-core Transformer Prime), and many of them will likely be more tempting than Acer’s, especially since the company has failed to impress with any of its Android tablets so far.

Via Engadget


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Netflix inks major new content deals ahead of UK ad launch

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 02:42 PM PST

Doctor WhoNetflix is putting the finishing touches on new film and TV licensing deals and launching an ad campaign this week for its streaming video service in the UK. The actual launch date for the service is still unknown.

The newest UK streaming agreements are with heavy-hitters Sony, Disney, Paramout, iTV and Channel 4, the Guardian is reporting. Netflix is launching an advertising campaign in the UK this week to build excitement among potential subscribers.

Good licensing deals are essential if Calif.-based Netflix wants to succeed in the UK. It’s going up against rivals such as Amazon’s LoveFilm, which recently announced it’s adding streaming access to BBC and iTV shows. Other competitors include BSkyB and Blinkbox. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has acknowledged that it could take more than two years to make the UK expansion profitable, and the amount of money required to get quality content may be a big reason why.

The jump across the pond was first announced in October, and in December Netflix announced an agreement with BBC Worldwide to add popular British shows such as Torchwood, Spooks, Doctor Who, Little Britain and Sherlock. Netflix already has UK agreements with film studios MGM, Miramax and Lionsgate.


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CES opening: The PC is no longer the center of the digital market explosion

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 02:34 PM PST

The consumer electronics industry is humming with great acceptance of digital consumer electronics devices, and now we’re about to see the morphing of computing into more and more non-computing devices.

Shawn Dubravac, chief economist and director of research at the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on the the Consumer Electronics Show, made that observation at a session on the state of the consumer electronic industry. CES  press events start today and exhibits open on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

The PC still sells in great numbers and was once the center of digital electronics, but now smartphones, tablets and other devices are becoming the focus of the show, Dubravac said.

Dubravac said that we have seen a big transition in the past decade moving from analog stand-alone consumer electronic devices to digital devices. Now we’re moving into a second decade of digital. The average household in the U.S. has 25 CE devices, and the next step is to take advantage of those devices.

In a survey of attendees, the hottest devices are expected to be wireless technology and wireless devices, followed by lifestyle electronics. CES buyers said that the hot trends will be apps, tablets, connected TVs and others.

Dubravac’s big trends a year ago were “portable vs. pocketable” devices, the intelligence of things beyond computers, sensorization of consumer technology, and the shift from amplification to applification. There is a trend toward more and more apps, a convenient way to launch a software program simply by tapping an icon, on more and more platforms.

More than 100 tablets launched at CES last year, and a plethora of smartphones too. This year, more phones will launch at CES than ever before, Dubravac said. Many new CE devices, like Microsoft’s record-selling Kinect motion-sensing system for the Xbox 360 video game console, are really just collections of sensors that capture data and turn it into input for the device.

Wireless devices that couple with another, from blood monitors that transfer data to a smartphone, are also multiplying.


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Dish Network could announce a multi-room DVR and broadband satellite service at CES

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 01:17 PM PST

Satellite provider Dish Network might unveil a broadband satellite service and a new home DVR solution called the “Hopper” at CES Monday, according to leaked reports.

The Hopper DVR will work across multiple rooms, allowing you to stop a show in one part of your house, and pick up where you left off in another. It will have three tuners: the 2 terabyte main unit acts as a server, and two extender units, called “Joeys,” stream recorded content to other sets in the home.

In addition to a revamped user interface, the Hopper will have a feature called PrimeTime Anywhere that can automatically record primetime programing on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.There’s a placeholder set up for the Hopper on Dish’s website, that touts a “Whole new animal in whole-home entertainment.”

Dish’s new broadband satellite service would serve 8 million customers, mostly in overlooked markets currently lacking broadband or fiber optic coverage.

The DVR rumors first surfaced when blogger Dave Zatz wrote about an article that appeared on TWICE early, before being removed. The broadband details were in an article in the January issue of Dealerscope magazine, which has also been yanked.

Zatz also says Dish will announce a rebranding effort at CES, dropping the “Network” from its name and getting a new logo.

Dish’s CES press conference is scheduled for Monday, Jan 9.

Via the Verge

Kangaroo thumbnail via Shutterstock


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Is a $10,000 donation enough to make the world forget about Ocean Marketing?

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 10:00 AM PST

N-Control, makers of the Avenger Controller accessory that was recently the center of the Ocean Marketing disaster, has touted a $10,000 to the Child’s Play charity via an official press release. The donation earns N-Control platinum sponsor status alongside companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

Child’s Play was created in 2003 by Penny Arcade founders Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins to improve the lives of children with toys and games in a network of over 70 hospitals worldwide. Those following the Ocean Marketing saga will know that it all came to light when Paul Christoforo, handling support for the N-Control Avenger Controller, berated a customer before turning his anger and terrible grammar on Krahulik. Aside from being banned for life from any Penny Arcade-related event, Christoforo’s actions went viral, earning the Avenger Controller a slew of 1-star reviews on Amazon and no small amount of bad press.

Christoforo has long since been fired, but N-Control is obviously still attempting to pick up the pieces. While it’s hard to argue with anyone giving to charity, it’s safe to say this sizable donation is not entirely altruistic. N-Control has also offered up $50,000 worth of Avenger products–should they be “needed.”

"N-Control appreciates our customers' patience and support through this rough patch we have been through," said founder David Kotkin. "We have been in regular touch with Customer Dave, who prefers his identity not be revealed, and he's been very supportive."

Aside from horrid PR and customer support, N-Control has also become known for large delays in shipping orders, another issue they’re attempting to rectify (now that it’s come under the microscope, of course). The company has suspended new sales for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 accessories “in the interest of focusing on backorders and ensuring sufficient product inventory worldwide,” according to a press release issued this week.

The Avenger Controller was allegedly invented by Kotkin to help a disabled student enjoy video games, though the origin story seemingly changed once the concept became a funded retail product. It’s interesting to see how this company holds up to the light when they never expected to come under such scrutiny.

Image via Tracy Olson


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