Xbox Live to Offer ESPN TV Downloads
ESPN said Monday that it had signed a deal with Microsoft to bring some of its programming to Xbox Live, including games and television shows. Some of the content has already appeared on the offering, including several past NCAA college sporting events, the Summer X Games, and hit shows such as the World Series of Poker and Madden Nation.
The move expands ESPN's video distribution beyond iTunes, the only other non-ESPN owned property to sell the network's videos for almost the past two years. Pricing of the TV shows will be roughly the same as iTunes at $2, while HD versions will cost 40 cents more. Sporting events will carry a $1 premium, while HD downloads will cost $4.50, ESPN said.
Nintendo to End Support for Original NES
Nintendo has reportedly decided to stop all repairs of the original Nintendo after 24 years of support, Agence France Presse reported on Friday. A spokesperson said that the company has decided to end support due to increasingly short supplies of replacement parts. The iconic game system was sold as the Nintendo Entertainment System in the US and Europe, and as the Famicom in Japan.
Nintendo's Ken Toyoda said that while the company is sad to turn its back on the NES, the company wanted its legions of loyal fans to focus on the Wii, currently the best selling next-generation console worldwide. Nexgenwars.com, a tracker of game console sales, says the Wii has shipped 12.26 million consoles, compared to 12.2 million for the Xbox 360 and nearly 5.08 million for the PS3.
P2P Still Lives: Mininova Passes 3 Billion Downloads
In a sign that peer-to-peer file sharing is still thriving in a post-Kazaa world, popular BitTorrent site Mininova has reached a milestone 3 billion downloads. With a reported 3 million daily visitors and almost 10 million torrents downloaded a day, the site has shown tremendous growth over the almost three years it has existed.
The site's blog says there were hopes of reaching 4 billion downloads this year, but that goal will take another few months to reach. Due to the loopholes that .torrent files fit through, sites like Mininova can thrive and actually become desirable locations for advertisers. Ask.com, eHarmony, and Howard Johnson hotels all currently have ads running on Mininova despite the obvious illegal filesharing that takes place around the site.
Toshiba A3 HD DVD Player Now $199
In yet another price drop for HD DVD, Best Buy and Circuit City are now offering Toshiba's latest third-generation A3 player for $199, $100 off the original price. Although the older A2 player can be picked up for $98 while supplies last at a number of retail outlets, the A3 has only been out for one month, making the sale quite a surprise.
Further enhancing the $199 deal, the A3 includes 7 free HD DVDs - two of which can be selected instantly and another 5 sent via mail-in offer. Sears previously announced plans to sell the A3 for $169 on just the day after Thanksgiving, but Best Buy and Circuit City's sale doesn't appear to be limited, and units are in stock online and at stores. Blu-ray plans to offer discounts for the holidays as well, but Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said prices of Blu-ray players will not likely fall below $400.
MacBooks Get a Slight Speed Bump
Apple on Thursday quietly pushed updates to its MacBook line of laptops, giving them integrated video, a faster front side bus, and slightly faster processors. The white models will be bumped to 2.0 and 2.2GHz, while the black model gets the 2.2GHz processor. All the chips now are based on the Santa Rosa architecture, Macrumors reported. In addition, all models come with an 800Mhz front side bus, and GMA X3100 integrated video.
Customers may also choose to upgrade their MacBooks to 2.6GHz processor for $250 extra, according to the product pages. Overall, the bumps provide only marginal speed enhancements, a less than 10 percent increase from their predecessors. Silent upgrades to its products are common Apple practice: the company often upgrades the internals with little, if any notice to the press.
Wal-Mart, Buy Price HD DVD Player at $100
Not to be outdone by rival retailers that have dropped the price of Toshiba's A2 HD DVD player to just under $200, Wal-Mart is knocking another $100 off the price this Friday, but only for one day. Wal-Mart shoppers can pick up the Toshiba A2 in stores for $98.87 from 8am to midnight. Best Buy is now offering the A2 for $99.99, although it appears to be out of stock at most stores.
While it has been replaced by the Toshiba A3, the A2 is fully capable thanks to firmware upgrades that keep older HD DVD players current. Although it's only a temporary sale, such low prices for HD DVD players will surely drive sales from those on the fence about whether to invest in high-definition movies. Blu-ray has yet to respond to the price drops, which could hurt the format's adoption this holiday season.
WD Ships 320GB Laptop Hard Drive
Filling the growing demand for larger mobile storage options, Western Digital announced Wednesday it has begun shipping a 320GB 2.5-inch hard drive for laptops and portable devices. The drive features a Serial ATA interface with transfer speeds of 3Gb per second.
Called the Scorpio, WD's drive comes in a speed of 5400 RPM, which might scare off enthusiasts, but is more than capable for most situations. Acer and other laptop manufacturers are expected to begin offering the drive shortly, and it can be purchased directly from WD for $199.99 USD.
Microsoft Follows Google Into Geospatial Standards Group
A scant few months after the Google Earth's KML was deemed a best practice by the Open Geospatial Consortium, Microsoft has joined the OGC as a principal member.
The Open Geospatial Consortium consists of 345 companies, government agencies, and universities. Their aim is to build a consensus around the development of the OpenGIS Specification.
Hackers Open Up Mac OS X Leopard for PC
Apple has a new set of hackers to contend with: a group of developers on the OSx86Scene forum have published instructions on how to install Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on a standard PC. The move will no doubt bring Apple's legal team a knocking very soon, but for the time being, the instructions are still available on the organization's website. Not all features are available to those who install the OS, however it is apparently stable.
Apple is not only fighting hackers who wish to bring the company's OS to the PC, but also those who are trying to break into the iPhone and iPod Touch. An application called Jailbreak has been released, and Apple in updates have specifically tried to fight back through "bricking" hacked devices.
Leopard Sales Top 2 Million in First Weekend
Apple said Tuesday that it sold over two million copies of Mac OS X 10.5, known as Leopard, on Friday when the operating system went on sale and over the weekend. That tally makes Leopard the most successful Mac OS release - at least if looking only at the first weekend.
Available for $129 individually and $199 for a five-user license, Leopard introduces over 300 new features, according to Apple, and the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. Most critics say it's faster and easier to use than Windows Vista thanks to additions like Time Machine for backups and a single retail version compared to Vista's four.
NBCU: We Made Only $15 Million Off iTunes
No doubt in an effort to build up its own recently launched Hulu service, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker criticized Apple yet again over its unwillingness to work with the company.
At a Syracuse University benefit, Zucker claimed that NBCU had only made $15 million off of its video deal with iTunes, and said it was unfair that Apple had made millions off of iPod sales and was not sharing any of the revenues with content providers.
Acer Seeks 12% Market Share in 2008
Acer's acquisition of Gateway has had a definite impact on its overall market share, its chairman said Friday, and forecasted the manufacturer would be able to ship 25 percent more computers in 2008. The boost should allow the company to claim an 11 to 12 percent share during the next year. Analysts have said that Acer likely took over the third spot behind HP and Dell from Lenovo following the deal.
Third quarter profits at the company surged 58 percent behind strong demand for its laptops and growth in emerging markets. Acer expects its fourth quarter numbers to be equally as good, as it hasn't seen any slowdown in demand for its products. Fourth quarter shipments of Acer products are expected to be 10 percent above third quarter numbers, the company said in a conference call.
Opera 9.5 Hits Beta with 'Rock Party'
To coincide with its "Rock Opera" launch party held last night, Opera Software has released the first beta of version 9.5 of its eponymous Web browser. Company developers say hundreds of bugs have been fixed since the first alpha, with speed and compatibility the primary focuses.
New features in version 9.5 include the ability to search the browser's full history, restore closed windows, better UI integration on Mac and Linux, support for Mac OS X's VoiceOver technology, new skins and a revamped Opera Mail client. Download Opera 9.5 Beta from FileForum and tell us what you think.
Blu-ray Discs Still Outselling HD DVD
While HD DVD may be trumpeting the success of Transformers, the format is still struggling to take the lead back from rival Blu-ray. Sony's format has seen sales of 2.6 million discs from January 1 to September 30, compared with 1.4 million discs sold on HD DVD.
Home Media Research, a division of Home Media Magazine, released the figures Tuesday, which were in line with analysts expectations. Industry watchers expect HD DVD to gain some ground in the 4th quarter thanks to a move by Warner Bros. and Paramount to begin selling all movies as combo discs, which have the standard DVD on one side. Expanded special features and Web enabled content not yet found on Blu-ray titles could also help push HD DVD ahead.
Laptops With Both EV-DO and HSDPA Coming
While computer makers have for the past year been rolling out laptops with built-in 3G broadband services, customers were forced to make a choice between HSDPA, used by AT&T and soon T-Mobile, or EV-DO, used by Verizon, Sprint and Alltel. Qualcomm aims to change this with its new "Gobi" chipset.
The Gobi chip is compatible with both technologies, which could lead to its quick adoption by manufacturers - and potentially drive more consumer adoption of 3G services. Qualcomm says the chipset is available now, and expects consumers to see laptops with the dual capability by the second quarter of 2008. Gobi does not, however, support WiMAX, which is currently being tested by Sprint as a better -- and faster -- alternative to cellular-based 3G offerings.
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