Vizio plans another strong year with Jive home theater
Several new HDTVs are due from the manufacturer, which saw significant growth during the past year.
Vizio came from basically nowhere to reach the top spot in LCD TV for the second quarter of 2007. Sales have cooled somewhat since then, but it still remains quite competitive in the market.
TiVo to make Internet videos directly downloadable
Monday, TiVo said it will allow users to stay up to date on their favorite online videos much like they do with traditional television programs.
Ed Oswald, BetaNews: 'Season Pass' functionality will now work for Web videos, allowing the user to automatically receive Internet videos that use RSS feeds on their set-top boxes. This would allow users to watch online content from the networks as well as Internet-only programming like DiggNation in the same manner they do for their favorite shows.
Napster bids adieu to DRM with MP3 announcement
Is the on again, off again San Fran Wi-Fi back on track?
After Earthlink and Google scrapped plans to offer wireless in the city, many weren't so sure. But a start-up is promising to finish the job.
Silicon Valley-based Meraki, which has financial backing from Google, says it will attempt to complete the citywide network within one year. The company says it plans to lay out its plans on Friday.
Intel decides to leave OLPC project
Citing "philosophical differences," the chipmaker has abruptly announced its departure from the One Laptop Per Child organization.
Intel failed to appear at a board meeting in Florida recently, which apparently set off a dispute between the company and those in charge of the program. It is this argument which led to Intel's announcement on Thursday.
Xbox Live 'up and running' for some, but not all
Despite claims on the service's support page that all is well, users are still reporting to BetaNews and other media outlets that the problems said to be fixed still continue.
Microsoft is blaming the outages on the massive influx of new customers over the holidays, which could mean that the company was ill-prepared to handle what is typically the busiest time for the video game sector.
The era of DRM fades further with Sony BMG's switch
The lone holdout of the big four music labels caved to pressure from the rest of the industry and will begin to sell tracks free of the restrictive technology.
EMI and Universal Music Group had announced their plans to drop DRM earlier in 2007, and Warner Music Group announced its plans in December. With Sony BMG's announcement, a majority of the top acts in music today will now be available in MP3 format.
CES Trend #5: Notebooks becoming the PC of choice
At CES 2008 next week, manufacturers won't be showing off hot new desktops; instead, sleek new notebooks will take center stage. In the United States, notebooks are already outpacing desktop PC sales by a small margin and it won't be much longer before the rest of the world catches up.
The desktop market peaked in the United States in 2006, but with growth in developing markets continuing, it will take a while longer for the market to peak elsewhere. Research firms seem to agree that this will happen sometime around the end of the decade, when notebook sales will eclipse desktops in combined worldwide shipments.
China censoring foreign video sharing sites
In an obvious effort to keep its citizens from seeing content that it hasn't already pre-approved, the Chinese government is about to block video sites it doesn't control.
The new laws in China will take effect at the end of the month. Under the policy, Web sites that offer streaming video in the country will need to obtain a permit to operate. Applicants will need to be either state-owned or controlled to qualify.
Netflix partners with LG on streaming movie device
The movie rental service has decided to abandon its plans for its own set-top box, instead opting to offer its platform through a new device to be manufactured by LG.
A networked set-top box player will make its debut at CES 2008 next week, while actual retail rollout is slated for the second half of this year. The device provides Netflix a delivery method that would allow it to move beyond the computer screen as its current streaming movie offers.
Sears found to be using spyware to track visitors
Security researches are criticizing retailer Sears for not adequately describing its efforts to track the behaviors of those who provide the company with their contact information.
The process begins after the customer provides Sears.com with an e-mail address. An e-mail will appear in the customer's inbox inviting them to join a program called "My SHC Community."
CES Trend #6: The rush to render the iPhone obsolete
No list of trends would be complete without a mention of Apple's iPhone, a device that many handset manufacturers will be looking to beat in 2008 in order to attract a consumer that is ever more interested in advanced wireless services. Many of those devices will debut at CES next week.
Since its launch in June of last year, iPhone sales have nearly topped 2 million. While the closed nature of Apple's business model has kept the device out of the hands of many consumers, the iPhone no doubt has sparked a revolution in the entire mobile phone industry.
Xbox Live running normally after spotty holiday service
While Microsoft is not specifically citing any cause, reported issues with the Xbox 360's online Xbox Live service seem to have been resolved as of Wednesday morning.
In all, the problems lasted 12 days, frustrating those who may have unwrapped a new Xbox over the holidays, or even longtime users eager to play the latest game that was found under their Christmas tree this year.
Evidence Adobe uses analytics to sample CS3 user behavior
Users of Adobe's programs are taking issue with an apparent feature within the company's products that is sending out some type of data to an outside service.
Dan Moren of Uneasy Silence first posted about the apparent data sniffing on Wednesday night. Using a program for Mac OS called Little Snitch, he was able to discover Adobe's hidden practice.
Loss of HP puts end to Wal-Mart's video download store
The retailer decided to silently walk away from its planned video download service after HP ended its participation.
HP was providing the back end to the service, but apparently the company felt it was not getting enough of a return and decided to stop offering it. From there, Wal-Mart just decided to end the service altogether.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
Ethics Statement© 1998-2024 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.