SlingPlayer mobile, the app that lets you watch all your TV shows on your cellphone streamed from your SlingBox, has just launched in the US for $29, Canada for $34, and the UK for £19. It’s the same basic functionality—although this has streaming support over 3G and/or Wi-Fi and landscape fullscreen support—but now supporting Nokia N95, N75, and E65. Good news for N95 users as well, as Sling’s going to provide the client free to all owners. Now there’s absolutely no excuse to cry spoiler alert when people talk about Heroes the next morning if you can watch it while you drive to work. [Slingmedia]
newVideoPlayer("ShowStoppers_Griffin_Wireless_Speakers.flv", 475, 376); We saw and listened to the Griffin Evolve at IFA2007. They have a good sound and the possibility of using any number of wireless speaker cubes around the house or garden, which auto-configure themselves by touching the dock and can play for 10 to 12 hours in a 2-hour battery charge. Griffin is still targeting an end of October launch date for this $350 hot dock —$300 at BestBuy— with a “future date” for the sale of individual cubes. [Griffin Technology - Video by Nick McGlynn]
Microsoft has revamped their Live Search, looking for their personal Holy Grail: beat Google. And the other guys. According to search and advertising platforms VP Satya Nadella “this time, we feel we can claim we are as good as Google.” Which is kind of what they said the last time, so we will have to wait until the new version becomes available in the US next week, making its international debut at the end of October. Spoiler: Indiana Jones dies in episode IV and Bono has still not found what he was looking for. [AFP]
You may have heard about the new Media Center Extenders from Cisco’s Linksys division. The DMA2200 shown above is a high-def MCE with 1080p-upscaling DVD player and Dual-Band Wireless-N, priced at $350. The smaller $300 DMA2100 MCE is geared for bedrooms and kitchens, places where you’re going to want less clutter, though to be honest, the built-in DVD player is quite the clutter-reducer all by itself.
Both MCE devices require Vista-based Media Center PCs, which means nearly every PC running Vista. One of the best things about the new interface, which looks almost exactly like the Vista MC interface, is that you can actually browse through the DVR schedule and order up shows to watch. It means you can really leave your big ugly PC in the den, but use all of its Media Center functions when you’re on your couch. This wasn’t really possible before, and especially not in high-def.
I had the pleasure of trying on the BackpackShield bulletproof bookbag insert tonight at ShowStoppers, and it was amazing. Made from 13 layers of K-29 Kevlar, this thin, lightweight plate fits in most backpacks and can stop every bullet from a 9mm all the way to Dirty Harry’s .44 Magnum. It doesn’t just deflect them, either. As you will see in the gallery below, bullets that try to penetrate the BackpackShield end up with its “fishnet” imprint on themselves.
DirecTV rolled out 21 of its promised 100 new HD channels today, boosting its HD count to 37 networks in all. Some of these, such as Showtime too, Starz West, and The Weather Channel, are total fluff. However, some of these, such as the NFL Network and A&E are welcome additions. Animal Planet and the Discovery channel were also listed among the new titles, but weren’t there already HD channels for these two networks? Either way, we’re just happy to have more pretty pretty TV to drool over. [DBSTalk]
AU: Yep, irrelevant in purest content, but I just want someone at Foxtel to see this. Please, Foxtel! Even a single HD channel would be a step forward! One of those nice National Geographic type HD channels would be pretty sweet. -SB
Our recent rumours have come true, with word out of Telstra that their new 6Mb down / 1.3Mb up HSUPA services are live. Most existing NextG data cards will be upgradeable to the new DOWNLOAD speeds, which implies new cards are needed to take full advantage. Telstra states the speed will burst at around 6Mbps down (theoretical 7.2Mb down is not mentioned), with average rates between 550kbps and 3Mbps. Up should average between 300kbps and 1Mbps, bursting to 1.3Mbps.
Like the theoretical down numbers that haven’t been used in Telstra’s announcement, our rumours had mentioned 1.9Mb up as a max. Telstra seems very well behaved by only mentioning real burst speeds as their top figures. These up numbers in particular are a big improvement and better than most hard wired services.
Two Sierra Wireless cards, one USB and one Express Card, also mentioned in rumours, are confirmed as the first card available at the new speeds. Pricing below.
Digital-picture frame pioneer Ceiva is jumping the gun on Whirlpool’s latest refrigerator announcement, called “centralpark” I believe. The concept has been shown off before, but this is its first production application: it’s got a modular interface at the top, and Ceiva (and presumably others) have built something to fit the module. Why did Whirlpool go with a Wi-Fi-enabled LCD frame first? Because the #1 complaint is that magnets no longer stick to modern fridges, and people want to look at their damn baby pics! [Ceiva]
WiMax modems. The phrase doesn’t generally conjure gadget lust, which is why I’m so confused looking at these better than well designed WiMax modems from Moto. The silver and droid-like CPEi300 is a desktop modem based on Intel’s 2250 Rosedale 2 chipset, compatible with 802.16e-2005, which TG Daily spells out as the 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 Ghz bands, or WiMax mobile. It’ll be out in Q4 for $200. The much nicer looking CPEi800 has WiFi, 4 ethernet ports, two analogue line jacks, and external antenna jacks, and will be out in the second half of 2008. Question — Why are they so big? More photos over at TG Daily. [TG Daily]
