‘OnLive’ Video Game Service to Start Streaming this Summer
Gamers have been waiting for OnLive, a cloud-based video game streaming service, to launch since last year. Good news: the wait will soon be over. According to Joystiq, CEO Steve Perlman announced that a final version of OnLive will debut at E3 2010, and the service will become available to gamers in the 48 continental states on June 17th, 2010. For $14.95-a-month, you can stream video games directly to your PC or Mac using a browser plug-in, but there are plans to release a television adapter later this year. You'll have to pay extra to rent or purchase a game -- which we imagine would involve a physical disc or an actual download -- but the company hasn't announced a price for those yet though.
If you're one of the first 25,000 folks to visit the OnLive site and subscribe, the first three months won't cost a dime. That's incentive enough, but OnLive is also packing a decent arsenal of games, too. To start, you can play games like 'Mass Effect 2,' 'Borderlands,' and a few others. Of course, we're sure the library will grow over time.
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Filed under: Audio/Video, Video Games
'OnLive' Video Game Service to Start Streaming this Summer originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Target Fights Papercuts With Cell Phone Coupons
As far back as 2008, retailers were flirting with the idea of offering customers coupons via cell phones. It never really caught on, but, now, Target hopes to change that. According to a press release, the retailer began a program today that allows customers to receive digital coupons on their cell phones. Using a barcode on the screen, customers can scan and save money at any Target store in the U.S. The coupons will have an expiration date and can only be used once. To take part in the program, customers can visit a Web site to register, or download a free iPhone app.
While Target claims it's the first to offer this service at every store, other retailers have experimented with the concept. According to USA Today, J.C. Penney is testing a similar scanning technology at 16 locations across Houston, Texas, while grocery stores like Kroger and Safeway have implemented similar projects, although on a smaller scale.
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Filed under: Cell Phones
Target Fights Papercuts With Cell Phone Coupons originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
OnLive Streaming Game Service Launches June 17 For $15/Month [Onlive]
The OnLive streaming game service that takes console and PC games, renders them server-side, then streams it to your Mac or PC, will go live on June 17 in the US (lower 48). More
Remainders – The Things We Didn’t Post: Tomorrowland Edition [Remainders]
In today's Remainders: tomorrow's news! Cisco's ushering in the next generation of internet with the CRS-3; Kempler & Strauss's futuristic PhoneWatch gets reviewed; geolocated Tweets; a WebKit-borrowing Firefox; an HTML 5 drawing app; Samsung's point and shoot prices, and more!
Hang Ups
Back in October we previewed the Kempler & Strauss PhoneWatch—the smallest of its kind and the model that promised to bring the James Bond dream to every geek's wrist. Or so we hoped. PC Mag just published their review of the watch and found it "basically unusable," complaining about the tiny screen and how texting (as you might assume) was pretty much impossible. As they point out, i's a one way street, this watch/phone business: your phone will always be able to tell the time, but your timepiece will not always be able to make phone calls. [PC Mag]
Tubular
Last night Cisco grabbed our attention with its promise that it was soon to make an announce that would "forever change the internet." This morning they unveiled their internet changer: the Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System. Doesn't sound very exciting, does it? Basically, the new server triples the capacity of Cisco's current ones, allowing for 322 Terabits per second transfer and ushering in, Cisco hopes, the "next generation" of the internet. Sure, that's great, but even with crazyfast back-end, there are still plenty of things limiting the speed of the intertubes. Cisco's claims for the CRS-3 are impressive, for sure:
The Cisco CRS-3 triples the capacity of its predecessor, the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, with up to 322 Terabits per second, which enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.
But if it's only three times as fast as the one that came before it, Cisco's current platform can stream every movie ever made in twelve minutes. It took me like two hours to download Lost last week, so I'm not ready to say that Cisco forever changed anything just yet. [Cisco]
Firey Fox
Firefox's JavaScript engine, TraceMonkey, is starting to fall behind some of the other browser monkeys, so Mozilla is building a new engine, JagerMonkey, to get back up to speed. Ars Technica reports that Mozilla will snatch code from Apple's WebKit to add to their TraceMonkey optimization techniques. David Mandelin, a developer on the project, explained:
The reason we're [building JägerMonkey] is that TraceMonkey is very fast for code that traces well, but for code that doesn't trace, we're stuck with the interpreter, which is not fast. The JägerMonkey method JIT will provide a much better performance baseline, and tracing will continue to speed us up on code where it applies.
From the sound of things, JagerMonkey is aiming to put the fire back in the fox. [Ars Technica]
Image credit Smoking Apples
Gates' Cells
Intellectual Ventures, the very cool, very smart invention factory we've covered before, has a new patent for the modification of red blood cells. Edward Jung, Intellectual Ventures' CTO, explains:
Red blood cells are odd cells in the body because they have no nucleus. Thus they are 'stripped down' cells that cannot reproduce and cannot renew themselves; therefore they die quickly and must be constantly manufactured by special cells in the bone marrow. All these attributes make red blood cells interesting vessels for sensing devices and medicines. There is no risk of their reproducing thereby creating a hazard, nor is there a lot of machinery to run awry.
We'll take your word for it, guys. [TechFlash]
Doodling
We've already explained why HTML 5 isn't going to save the internet. But it might save you from a few hours of office drudgery, in the form of Harmony, an awesome HTML 5 drawing app. Warning: Not Safe For Productivity. [Harmony]
Tweetin' All Over the World
These days, social media seems to be focused on location, location, location. Foursquare is more popular than ever. Buzz, despite its faults, is a big play by a big company the location game. And Facebook is set to roll out its location-based solution next month. Today, geolocated Tweeets went live on Twitter.com (only to be turned off a few hours later). Still, Twitter is expected to turn the service on for good any day now, adding yet another element to Twittermania, for better or for worse. [TechCrunch]
Pricetags
We were very excited when Samsung's new point and shoots, the TL500 and the TL300, first splashed on the scene last month. Now we have prices: the TL500 will go for $449 and the TL350 for $349. As for the "rugged" cams, the water-friendly AQ100 will have a price tag of $199 with the SL605 going for $129. [Engadget]
Browsin
Lab 126, the unit in Amazon responsible for the Kindle, posted a new job opening looking for someone to help build "an innovative embedded web browser." The Kindle's web browsing capabilities have been, well, lacking, so a more fully realized browser would be a welcome addition. And maybe a necessary one, if Kindle's going to keep up with the iPad and its finger friendly version of Safari. [All Things D]
Link:
Remainders - The Things We Didn't Post: Tomorrowland Edition [Remainders]
Verizon’s Gender-Based Ads Fall Flat, Viewers Go ‘Gaga’ For Vevo
Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines....
- AdMob recently surveyed almost 1,000 smartphone owners in order to glean information pertaining to age, gender and brand choice. Despite Verizon's attempts to blatantly, and offensively, pander to women, the study's data indicates that men still make up the majority of webOS owners. Apple's gadgets successfully crossed the gender lines, though, as iPod and touch owners were pretty evenly distributed between male and female. [From: Engadget]
- Vevo is just a fledgling in the online music scene, but, according to early usage statistics, the service made an almost instant impact on the Web. More than 35 million unique visitors apparently checked out the site during its first month, but, for some ungodly reason, 25-percent of those people were there solely for the Lady Gaga vids. [From: Mashable]
- Since Verizon's gender-based Droid and webOS advertising didn't produce noticeable gains in male or female usage numbers, Palm is now saying that its overall sales numbers are also disappointing. The company's third quarter numbers were remarkably similar to those of the second quarter, back before Verizon started carrying the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. [From: Engadget]
- A Virginia federal judge has sided with Microsoft in its quest to deactivate a purported botnet army that is believed to be composed of thousands of compromised PCs. Microsoft will now be able to disable hundreds of Internet addresses linked to the network of corrupted computers, which is reportedly operated by 27 unnamed defendants. [From: FOX News]
- While Verizon and AT&T are still waging their incessant 3G ad battle, Sprint is focusing on 4G and the future. The company says that beginning in 2010 its 4G WiMAX service will be available in "many" markets, including Boston, New York and San Francisco. [From: Engadget]
Verizon's Gender-Based Ads Fall Flat, Viewers Go 'Gaga' For Vevo originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Boxee Beta hits Apple TV
The news is a bit aged but Boxee Beta is now on the Apple TV which means folks who updated to the latest ATV firmware can now get their media fix on. How do you get it? Hop over here, make a nice little patchstick, and rock out.
Boxee has full instructions right here and here’s our quick how-to.
Curious about Boxee Beta? Jason took a look at it and said:
The new version is really a complete overhaul of the app — it’s received a new, sexier UI that makes it easier to browse through the service’s content (and anything you might have saved locally too). Niceties include the ability to filter a show by season and episode and easier sharing using Boxee’s social features. There’s a lot that’s changed in the background too, including a switch from OpenGL to DirectX and support for hardware-accelerated video decoding for Windows users.
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The Boxee Beta hits Apple TV
UPS: Getting Your Packages Into the Garbage On Time or Your Money Back [Shipping]
I'm pretty sure BSMT GARBAGECAN is not where this package was intended to be delivered. But hey, UPS delivered it, and that's all that counts, I guess.
Martin says:
On Monday I couriered an envelop containing paper objects and a DVD from Toronto to New York, to be included in an exhibition that will open this afternoon. The envelop never arrived, and today I saw UPS's "proof of delivery" – which I attached for you as a pdf document. They had successfully delivered my shipment to a "BSMT GARBAGECAN."
The objects were meant to be included in an exhibition entitled "How To Do Things With Words and Other Materials," and its seems UPS has contributed its own little performance piece. Also, they haven't heard the last of me.
And on a related note, at least it wasn't THIS:
[Thanks, Martin!]
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UPS: Getting Your Packages Into the Garbage On Time or Your Money Back [Shipping]
Alaska Airlines offers Wi-Fi across all routes
Alaska Airlines goes one up on its rivals in the near future, allowing you to enjoy Wi-Fi connectivity aboard all their flights, regardless of the bird which you're assigned to. This is made possible thanks to their collaboration with Aircell’s Gogo service aboard all aircraft. Currently, both parties are working hard to install the service on a Boeing 737-800 followed by rigorous testing that has the ultimate aim of receiving an approval and certification from the FAA. There will be a base price of $4.95 for the Wi-Fi service once available, and that too depends on the length of the flight and the device which you're going to hook up with.
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Alaska Airlines offers Wi-Fi across all routes
1/3 of Americans don’t use fast Internet
According to the FCC, about 93 million Americans don’t use fast, broadband Internet, citing cost and complexity as a factor in their refusal to enter the 20th century.
The study, below, found that 80 million adults and 13 million children either still use dial-up or don’t use the Internet at all at home, suggesting that either the survey methodology might be flawed or we’re in serious trouble.
UPDATE – Also, one American doesn’t know how to use apostrophes. Fixed.
Here’s the main focus:
The Federal Communications Commission’s October- November 2009 survey finds that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of American adults use high-speed Internet con- nections to go online from home.
The FCC conducted a survey of 5,005 Americans in October and November 2009 in an effort to understand the state of broadband adoption and use, as well as barriers facing those who do not have broadband at home. The main findings are:
➤ 78 percent of adults are Internet users, whether that means broadband, dial-up, access from home or access from someplace other than home.
➤ 74 percent of adults have access at home. ➤ 67 percent of U.S. households contain a broadband user
who accesses the service at home. ➤ 65 percent of adults are broadband adopters. The dis-
crepancy of two percentage points between household and individual home use is because some survey respon- dents are nonbroadband users but live with someone who, at home, is.
➤ 6 percent of Americans use dial-up Internet connections as their main form of home access.
➤ 6 percent are Internet users but do not use it from home; they access the Internet from places such as work, the library or community centers.
In a survey of 5,005 Americans – a fairly small sample, to be sure – found that college educated Americans earning $75K+ are most likely to have broadband while the lowest penetration is in folks over 65+ and Hispanics. While this is hardly a surprise, extrapolating out to get 93 million potential non-broadband users is slightly disconcerting. Sure, the jokes here write themselves (“Oh no! The old can’t use Facebook!”), the fact that broadband is out of reach for folks in lower-income brackets and for minorities creates another educational chasm we’re going to have to deal with sooner than later.
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1/3 of Americans don’t use fast Internet
Twitter Ads Imminent, Might Actually Make Money
One of the games that digital prognosticators love to play is guessing when and how Twitter will make money. We've taken particular joy in lambasting one of our favorite social networks for absorbing investor dollars like a black hole. But all of the fun and games may be coming to an end now that rumors are swirling of a Twitter Ad platform that will be unveiled at South by Southwest (SxSW) Interactive.
According to MediaPost, Anamitra Banerji, head of product management and monetization at Twitter, has confirmed that the service is working on an advertising platform. This is following a panel on interactive advertising hosted by Seth Goldstein, CEO of socialmedia.com, where Banerji reportedly unveiled Twitter's plans in a relatively vague fashion. According to Goldstein and MediaPost, the plan is to let brands and companies interact with consumers and capitalize on trending topics (can't they already do this?), as well as ensure that the delivered content is "relevant and useful." Banji also indicated that initially the ads would feature hash tags to distinguish them from tweets, but that the developers were working on a better solution.
Continue reading Twitter Ads Imminent, Might Actually Make Money
Filed under: Web, Social Networking
Twitter Ads Imminent, Might Actually Make Money originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.