Netflix just signed a deal allowing them to stream 2,500 Starz Play movies to their subscribers, boosting their streaming video library to over 12,000 pieces of content. Current Netflix subscribers will receive the bonus content free (1,000 films immediately) and cheapos who just want access to the Starz movies can get a subscription through Netflix for $US7.99. Good stuff. Now just to wait for that announcement where Apple, Amazon, Netflix, VUDU, the movie studios, satellite providers and cable networks all team up to offer a Utopian platform of instantly streaming HD films.

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Boxee has been turning any PC, Mac or Linux box into a capable, social-networking equipped media centre for a while in its extended alpha phase--and now, news is that it will also work on your Apple TV for a free way to go beyond the iTunes lock-in for streaming all DRM-free media. Like aTV before it (which is not free), Boxee installs on a flash drive (this time using Mac-only for now ATV USB Creator) and sports a similar interface as the original Xbox version that started it all. Sign up for the alpha: [Boxee]

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Japan mobile phone carrier KDDI has a knack for turning out handsets that belong in museums. Past hit designs like the INFOBAR, talby, neon and MEDIA SKIN made into the permanent collection at the MoMa in New York. The trendy telecom showed off some of its concepts at CEATEC outside Tokyo, showcasing the talents of Hideo Kambara, a designer from Hiroshima who also made into the MoMa with his Kadokeshi eraser that has 28 corners. Kambara's PLY phones are inspired by songs, novels, numbers and symbols. PLY means "lamination layers," according to KDDI, and the whimsical handsets in the series include concepts like a mobile projector, a printer, a game controller, tissue dispenser, and a mint tablet dispenser. The other concept phones from KDDI include models resembling jewel boxes and satellites, and are apparently equipped with mini solar panels. Just in case civilization fails, there's always the sun.

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Here's the video of the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display, one of those technologies that will probably change entertainment forever: A high-fidelity 3D force field on the air that allows you to actually touch virtual objects with your bare hands. Initially, this technology could find its way into virtual keyboards, but in the future--as the size and resolution increases--there are endless possibilities. And with "endless possibilities" I really mean "virtual sex." Don't believe me? See what the developer has to say about it:

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Pac-Man-like padded seats, kitted out in leather and with accompanying power-pill-like stools...sounds like a fabulously retro way to pay furniture-y homage to the '80s arcade game. The Poufman seating sets come in a bunch of colours, but retro gamers keen to dot them about their homes had better have made lots of dollars in the time since the '80s: the price of these things is unknown, and not listed on the maker's website. And we all know what that means. [Product via Technabob]

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Why Akihabara's Refresh Club doesn't have a New York outlet, I don't know, but on the wake of this groundbreaking news, they better open it soon. For $US25 you will be able to play Wii Fit with Japanese girls in French maid dresses. Yes, Wii Fit, that game with the balance board that often requires you to lean forward and backward. Because, you know, as the owner says, exercise is all about your playmates:

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One way to increase the potency of Bluetooth headsets as social poison is to wear them while affecting strange, inexplicable and constant head movement. With Plantronics' new movement-charged headset design, that may become a necessity. The device relies on a small flywheel that, when rotated in a magnetic field, draws enough current to power the headset. Plantronics claims that the system would harvest enough energy to power the headset during constant use, which is actually pretty impressive.

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Over at Phonearena they've got their hands on one of those 8-megapixel Samsung M8800 Pixons, and they've given it a good preview prodding. In general the phone went down well: though it's a slightly fat device, the 8-megapixel camera (which shares an identical interface to the Omnia) impressed them particularly in terms of speed, and the multimedia capabilities got a thumbs-up too. They weren't overly impressed by the browser, however, and the lack of menu personalisation options, plus the fact that it's not quite a smartphone...being a little more like the F480 than the Omnia. [Phonearena]

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A purported screenshot of a Best Buy sales terminal indicates October 26th as the day that the first Android phone will be showing on shelves at the retailer. Accompanying screenshots hint at an unlocked Treo Pro as well, meaning Best Buy will soon sell arguably the four most desirable phones on the market. Whether or not there will even be any G1s left for Best Buy to sell is a different story altogether. [BGR]

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A bunch of programmer/hackers have come up with a driver solution that'll get your PS3 Eye off its lazy arse and functioning as a webcam for your PC. Why's this interesting? Because it's relatively cheap, and actually pretty high-spec'd: it can deliver VGA video at 60fps over USB2, which makes for neat webcam action. It's also got pretty wide viewing angle and low distortion, meaning it's perfect for multitouch applications—which the group's also working on. Much better than having the thing lying in a drawer unused after you last played an Eye-compatible game six months ago. [NUIGroup via Hackaday]

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Almost reflexively, six studios have filed suit against RealNetworks for their brand-new DVD copying software. RealDVD, as it is (was?) called, was tepidly received on account of crippling DRM which only allows for viewing of a ripped DVD on one PC, precluding the portability that might account for someone wanting to rip a DVD in the first place. That uselessness is precisely why these suits are so interesting; it's difficult to see what the studios—Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, the Walt Disney Company and Sony— actually think they stand to lose.

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A bit like Dean Kamen's miraculous water distiller, only not quite so fancy or miraculous, is the WaterMill drinking water collector. It's basically a clever dehumidifier that collects airborne water and filters and purifies it with an ultraviolet steriliser, providing you with up to 12 litres of water per day. And before you start thinking your home air is going to be all dry and uncomfy, it is actually designed to hang outside your house and inhale water from there, streaming it to where it's needed inside: like your in-fridge chilled water dispenser. It's due out February 2009, and though unit pricing's not known, it'll cost you about 11 cents per day to run. Or you can just drink tap water. [Product via Geekologie]

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For those who don't need a whole keyboard full of OLED buttons, Nikkai is showing off standalone units at CEATEC. The buttons are bulkier than anything on an Art Lebedev product, and seem to have three input states: depressed, tilted left and tilted right (or up and down, depending on orientation) which makes makes for what amounts to a highly versatile and communicative switch. A second type of button is a simpler in/out configuration, albeit with a larger screen.

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Laptopmag went ahead and tested out Xohm WiMax goodness, now that it's live in Baltimore. They jammed an ExpressCard Xohm into a Sony Vaio laptop, and compared it to a Kyocera EVDO card running on Verizon, at a spot where both signals were strong. The conclusion? Xohm beats EVDO for speed when doing intensive downloading, such as streaming video, or large file transfers—the top download speed they found for Xohm was 3.05Mbps while EVDO managed just 1.43MBps. So far so groovy, and Laptopmag gave a few more thumbs up to the system, like how it auto-connects when you plug in the adaptor, and the daily subscription options. But this isn't much of a surprise—it's designed to be faster—and for now Xohm's coverage is severely limited, to say the least. Check out the link for the full picture. [Laptopmag]

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A true "next generation" Nintendo console, tentatively referred to as the Wii HD, will hit the market in 2011, according to the folks at What They Play. The site claimed that Nintendo is currently showing early presentations of Wii 2.0 to the game development community, and that Miyamoto's new device will be based on completely new hardware and will contain HD visuals, digitally distributed content and expanded storage.

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Not content with his first astronautic experience, Ex-Microsofter billionaire Charles Simonyi is now training for a second trip to the International Space Station in Spring 2009. Simonyi will be the first repeat Space Adventures customer since the company began sending private citizens into the final frontier in 2001.

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Want to be the scariest ancient history buff in your neighbourhood? A couple of timber engineers are selling their recreation of a Roman ballista, which they made for a Discovery Channel documentary, on eBay. Though the 12-ton, 24 foot-tall war machine needs a little restoration work and doesn't currently work, the engineers insist that it can be made into a fire-able weapon if the right people got involved. All you need is roughly $44,000 to show your neighbourhood Hannibal who's boss. [eBay via Boingboing]

Let's do a little word association game, shall we? You know - I'll say a word or a phrase, and you say the first thing that pops into your head. Okay, let's go:
Red Xbox controller...

...

Did you say Red Ring Of Death? So did I. Which is weird, because the two have very little to do with eachother. In reality, Microsoft's new red Xbox 360 controller is exactly the same as all the other (official) Xbox 360 controllers on the market, except it's red. Oh, and it comes with a Play and Charge cable and a red rechargeable battery, which gives about 25 hours worth of gameplay per charge.

The red controller hits stores November 7, which is the same day as Gears of War 2. I wonder if they wanted it to remind you of blood? In any case, it'll set you back $99.95 RRP.

[Xbox]

Killing two marketing birds with one stone, Microsoft's bundling some of its Zunes with various Gears of War 2 (launching soon!) paraphernalia. Each 120GB Zune will sport a laser-etched "Crimson Omen" and come pre-loaded with 244 pieces of media, including the soundtrack, behind-the-scene videos and concept art. The entire package will cost you $US280 and will start shipping on November 7th. Pre-orders on Amazon.com and Walmart.com will begin at 3am EST tonight. Looks like M'soft's stopped going after babies and chosen to focus on teenage boys instead. [Engadget]

Research into invisibility cloaks, which work by bending light around 2D objects, could end up protecting offshore rigs and vulnerable coastlines from water. Scientists at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France said that established cloaking principles can be applied to ocean waves, and built a 10cm model to show how carefully placed concentric pillars make objects in the centre "invisible" to the sea.

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Sydney Harbour has had its fair share of accidents recently, and some of them have involved ferries. That's why the NSW State Government is spending up big to arm its ferries with state of the art night-vision gear.

The ferries are currently trialling the night vision technology in order to avoid smaller craft in the Harbour. So far, it's already cost $100K, and if it's deemed successful and rolled out across the Sydney ferries fleet of 31 ferries, will cost over a million bucks.

I'm not sure what kind of gear is being used as part of this trial, but making ferry pilots wear Sam Fisher-type goggles isn't going to help anybody (unless the ferry captain is a double agent, like Steven Seagal in Undersiege).

As much as I love my tech, and especially night vision tech, I can't see how this is a good way to spend taxpayers money. How about we stick some of that million dollars into education?

[SBS news via Fashionfunky]

Podcaster, the app that just won't quit no matter how many times Apple tries to shut it down, is now up for download on Cydia as version 1.1. People who want Podcaster can now get it through the iPhone app black market, though questions about why it was blocked from legitimate channels are still left unanswered. [Thanks Ameet and MN!]

Picture this: You're trying to figure out why your grandmother's computer is running so slow when she mentions that an error message told her to download a $US39.95 "fixer-upper," and you realise that some rat bastard out there tricked the poor old dame into installing spyware. Doesn't that make you angry? It's certainly pissed off Microsoft, who's filed a lawsuit with Washington state against "scareware" software makers.

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When I see images of Bruce Munro's Field of Light installation, whatever glumness I might have felt during the day disappears, and that Beatle-esque Lenny Kravitz song of a similar name starts playing in my head. If I had the chance to check out Munro's light installation, coming to Project Eden in Cornwall, England on November 1, I would totally wander through the fields—slowly, slowly through the fields, in fact—touching the acrylic globes that float at the ends of 6,000 fiberoptically united tubes.

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Samsung have decided to deliver the good old one-two combo on Australian consumers by following up their "first networked TV" jab with a "first LED TV" right hook. The Samsung Series 9 LCD uses LED backlighting to bring a clear, vibrant picture to your TV screen. It also uses less energy than traditional LCDs.

The tech, as we've seen before, intelligently turns off LEDs that aren't needed, like in dark scenes, by analysing the input signal. Because it switches lights off, it not only saves power, but dramatically increases the dynamic contrast ratio.

On top of the new backlighting tech, the Series 9 brings the new networking features seen in the Series 7 and Series 8 TVs, and be available in both 46 and 55-inch sizes for $5,499 and $6,999 respectively.

That might sound pricey now, but it won't be long before we see LED backlighting become the norm, and prices will drop accordingly.

For the full press release, see below:

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Ars got their hands on Nero's freshly-announced LiquidTV/Tivo PC team up, and thought the Tivo software and Hauppauge TV Tuner hardware was a good experience for $US200 ($US100 for software only). They looked not only at how the UI functioned in the PC environment, but also at export options, content exchange, and hardware performance. Here's what they liked and didn't like.

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Netflix will introduce their API to the public tomorrow at the Experience AJAX conference, and according to ReadWriteWeb, it will allow free access to movie data and stats stored on their servers. This doesn't mean that anyone will be able to write a streaming video app for any random piece of open hardware. However, it does mean that people will be able to will be able to integrate movie info (ratings, related films, etc...) into widgets, like the ones you'd see on Typepad or Facebook. Or more importantly, create apps that allow for queue management (yes, this API is read and write capable).

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