True to last week's rumors, Hulu today unveiled a new subscription tier called Hulu Plus which allows users access to Hulu across a broader spectrum of devices, not just limiting consumption to PC screens.

Select Samsung Internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players can download a Hulu Plus application from the Samsung app store and start streaming Hulu Plus today, and iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and iPad users can download the Hulu Plus app to stream content over 3G or Wi-Fi as well.

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Documents recently unsealed in a three-year old court case against Dell Computer indicated that the company sold millions of computers with faulty parts, knowing full well that the components inside were faulty.

First reported by the New York Times, the computers were sold in a two-year period from 2003 to 2005, and were sold to educational institutions, large companies such as Wal-Mart and Wells Fargo, organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, and others.

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XStreamHD has always looked exciting on paper, but has had difficulties existing in the real world. Since we first started watching the company in 2008, there have been some serious delays in its 1080p high def TV over fixed satellite (FSS) service, but it is finally beginning to look like it is becoming a reality this year.

Today, XStreamHD signed a long-term agreement with EchoStar Satellite Service which will let XStreamHD use some of EchoStar's satellite transport capacity on the AMC-16 communications satellite.

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With the 3.40 software update to the Sony PlayStation 3 on Tuesday, Sony's new subscription-based gaming service called PlayStation Plus has gone live in several international markets.

Through the PlayStation Store, users can pay $49.99 for a year subscription to PlayStation Plus, or $17.99 for a three-month trial. Once a user's account is activated, content exclusive to subscribers is made available, such as one hour full game trial versions, discounted titles, and exclusive themes and avatars. Content exclusive to PlayStation Plus is marked by a yellow D-pad icon.

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Betanews readers have responded to my earlier-in-the day question -- "Are you caught in the iPhone 4 Death Grip?" -- with surprising answers. Some of you are having reception problems, and many others are not. Granted this is an unscientific survey, but several trends are still clear:

1. The reception problems aren't as widespread as blogs and news stories suggest.

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A mobile digital television service test underway in Washington, D.C. is going well, signaling that a more widespread launch of the technology is not too far off. The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) started the test in May with 23 channels, and so far has received about 2,800 comments on the service.

Included in the test are the major local broadcast networks, several radio station rebroadcasts, and some retransmissions of secondary and tertiary over-the-air digital channels. OMVC is also testing out premium content, and has included several cable stations including Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, MTV, and E!, among others.

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I am. But are you? I'd like to hear from iPhone 4 users about their calling experiences with the so-called "death grip." Please share your experiences in comments or by e-mail (joewilcox at gmail dot com). I'll collect reactions into a separate post. Do yourself a favor and respond. The more feedback Apple and AT&T receive, the better chances death grip can be resolved -- and there are problems. I only personally know about a half-dozen iPhone 4 owners, and all complain of some reception problem or another.

On June 23, I asked: "What's wrong with iPhone 4's antenna?" Only hours after receiving iPhone 4, I observed that the number of bars receded to zero over about 20-30 seconds when holding the device in my left hand. I wrote: "By appearances, the act of holding the phone impares signal strength. I'm not so bothered because I typically use a Bluetooth headset rather than hold a phone. Flat or holstered in a case are the handset's typical positions when used." Whoops, I'm having Bluetooth reception problems, too.

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Sprint and Samsung today have unveiled the next 4G WiMAX-capable smartphone, the Samsung Epic 4G. The device follows the impressive (and perpetually sold out) HTC Evo 4G in Sprint's roster of 4G devices, and is immediately differentiated by having a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Despite recent Web chatter proclaiming the contrary, keyboards are not dead.

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Last month, Microsoft sued Customer relationship management (CRM) software company Salesforce for nine counts of patent infringement in the District Court in the Western District of Washington.

The complaint appeared to be a defensive maneuver after Salesforce purchased cloud data management provider Jigsaw, a company in which Microsoft had important interests.

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Intel has announced a partnership with Best Buy to bring its line of solid state drives (SSDs) to the consumer market. The drives will be sold at retail in about 800 stores as well as online.

Two drives will be initially available for brick and mortar customers -- a 40GB model which will retail for $129.99, and an 80GB version for $229.99. Best Buy will also sell a 160GB model for $449.99, but it will only be available online, representatives told Betanews.

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While it is no secret that Sony will launch PlayStation Plus next Tuesday --a for-pay tier for the formerly 100% free PlayStation Network online service-- a Bloomerg report yesterday revealed a heretofore unknown partnership between Sony and Hulu may result in a new Hulu video service after the launch of the PlayStation Plus tier.

According to an unnamed source, the PlayStation Network's free tier will include subscription-based access to a Hulu streaming service that makes primetime NBC, Fox, and ABC content available on demand.

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People wait for the opening of the fourth Microsoft Store in San Diego

Move over Best Buy and Fry's. Smaller, specialized, tech company shops are the future -- not that this is news to retail experts. It "always has been," said Stephen Baker, "once consumers started driving technology and not enterprise." NPD's vice president of industry analysis should know; he sat in the front-row watching Gateway shutter stores about the time Apple opened them (2001) through the demise of Circuit City and CompUSA and broadening of Internet retail sales.

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Thousands of people swarm San Diego's Fashion Valley Mall Apple Store for iPhone 4

Apple and Microsoft faced off in the same San Diego mall today. Microsoft opened its fourth retail store. Apple launched iPhone 4. Both events drew long lines of fans. But the Apple line was ginormous by comparison, and the two groups were demographically quite different. To my bitter disappointment, Fashion Valley Mall management kept the Apple and Microsoft store lines far apart. I secretly hoped for a mixing of the two groups. Fanboy conflict would have made good news, and the combustion might have set off a mushroom cloud marking where San Diego once was.

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News Corp-owned subsidiary Fox Mobile Group launched late Wednesday its fee-based Bitbop mobile entertainment service, aiming to compete with the likes of Sling and FloTV in offering entertainment on the go.

Bitbop has launched exclusively on the BlackBerry platform, although company representatives told BetaNews that versions of the application will be made available for the iPhone and Android platforms in the near future. The company declined to offer any specific time frame.

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The ability to record 720p HD video has become a standard feature in the big flagship smartphones this year. The Google Nexus One, Apple iPhone 4, Motorola Droid X, HTC EVO 4G, and Nokia N8, for example, can all capture HD video.

For companies involved in the pocket camcorder business like Cisco, Kodak, and Creative, this convergence poses a threat to sales of their small, ultraportable cameras. But according to a report from Futuresource Consulting today, the consumer camcorder business has not yet begun to feel these effects.

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