Microsoft has finally got it right with their latest Windows 7 ad. The cutesy animation paired with an Avatar cameo captures an appropriate (albeit bizarre) aesthetic that informs viewers about Windows 7’s Blu-ray playback support in a fun, creative way. Apple, the ball’s in your court.
[Via Gizmodo]
Calling this particular auction item a rarity is a bit of an understatement. This here Apple-1 computer is 1 of 200 made by original Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. You’ve heard the tales of Jobs and Woz tinkering inside the walls of Jobs’ garage; this fascinating piece of machinery imagined, designed, and eventually sold in 1976 during those primitive days of early personal computing. The sale will include all the original contents of the Apple-1: an Apple-1 motherboard (number 82), printed circuit board, three capacitors, a heatsink, cassette board connector, 8kb of RAM, and a keyboard interface. In addition to the bits and pieces, the item will ship in its original packaging, along with printed manuals and a letter from Jobs himself! Said letter was a typed response to the original owner of the computer answering some questions. The item goes on the auction block at Christie’s in London on November 23, with a starting bid set at £100,000 – £150,000 (or $160,300 – $240,450). Curious to see where it ends up; dontcha think an item as exceptional and rare as this should find a home at a museum?
[Via Christie’s; Engadget]
The video games industry has done it again. More specifically, Activition has pushed out another Call of Duty game that has managed to break launch day records and become the biggest entertainment launch in history. Call of Duty: Black Ops garnered $360 million during its first day on sale in the United States and United Kingdom, according to internal Activision estimates. This sales figure beats out MW2 which generated $310 million almost exactly one year ago. 5.6 million copes of Black Ops were sold on day one, topping MW2‘s 4.2 million copies sold.
Says Activision CEO Bobby Kotick: “There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year’s five-day global sales record of $550 million. The game’s success underscores the pop culture appeal of the brand. Call of Duty: Black Ops is the finest game that Treyarch has ever made and raises the bar for online gameplay by delivering the deepest and most intense Call of Duty experience yet. The Call of Duty franchise has over 25 million players around the world that are engaged in billions of hours of online gameplay, and we are committed to supporting them with new content and features on a more frequent and regular basis.”
Yes, that feeling of speechlessness is normal. Wowzers.
[Via Activision; Joystiq]
In honor of the upcoming Nov. 21 launch of Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii console, Nintendo has filed a request with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the pop-culture phrase “It’s on like Donkey Kong.” For those unfamiliar with the term, “It’s on like Donkey Kong” is an old, popular Nintendo phrase that has a number of possible interpretations depending on how it’s used. In addition to Nintendo’s use, it has been used in popular music, television and film over the years, pointing to Donkey Kong’s status as an enduring pop-culture icon and video game superstar.
I just had to copy that snippet from Ninty’s official press release regarding this hilarious bit of news. Can you believe it? In just a matter of time the house that built Mario will own the famous phrase “It’s on like Donkey Kong.” Ridiculous or not so much? Sound off in the comments below.
Update (11/15): Colbert got wind of the news.
[Via Engadget]
Social network explosion! Apple has partnered with Twitter to bring Twitter integration to Ping, the “social network for music” built into iTunes 10. After linking your Twitter account to your Ping account inside iTunes, all of your Ping activity (whenever you Post, Like, Review, or tell your friends why you purchased a song or album) will show up in a tweet be seen by all your followers. And if you opted to preview the new Twitter redesign, Ping’d tweets will come complete with playable song previews and links to purchase and download music from iTunes. If you see a tweet that’s got Ping data in it (either a tweet sent within Ping or a tweet with an iTunes link attached), you can now click a new music button and this will superimpose the tweeted song or album on the right side details pane, allowing you to see album art, preview, and listen to songs. So watcha waiting for? Connect up and let the good times roll.
[Via TwitterBlog]
Last night the developers at Boxee hosted a launch party in NYC to celebrate the debut of the Boxee Box by D-Link. We already know everything there is to know about the Internet streaming box, so I’ll jump right into the juicy new details shared at the launch party. First, Netflix and Hulu Plus are coming to the Boxee Box; the former is expected to arrive before the end of the year, and there’s no release window for the latter though Boxee promises they’re working on it. They’re also working on an updated version of the 2-sided Boxee remote (one side control buttons, the other a QWERTY keyboard for search) that will include a dedicated Netflix button. VUDU, TED, VEVO, and VICE videos will be accessible to browse and stream on the Box, too. There’s also been some changes to the user interface since it was last previewed in the beta. The home screen is a lot more streamlined, making it easier to find your content and view featured content. A new drop down menu provides quick links to Home, Shows, Movies, Apps, Files, and a search bar. Music and photos have been pushed into the Files category until the Boxee team can find time to give it some more “TLC.”
And that about does it. Boxee Box can be yours today for a cool $199.99.
[Via BoxeeBlog]
Shortly after Logitech and Sony introduced their devices that welcomed Google TV into family living rooms, CBS, NBC, and ABC blocked TV programming on their websites from being accessed on the Google TV platform. On Wednesday, after only a couple of weeks on the fence, FOX decided to join its network competitors and block its Internet streaming content from being watched on TVs through Google TV-enabled boxes. Why is this happening? I’ll give you the same reason as before. It’s all about making money, and Internet-based ads provide far less revenue than television ads. We’re in what I call a weird transition state, and the TV networks simply don’t know how to handle to move from watching TV to watching TV content from the Internet on the TV. It’s all a big mess right now with the customers stuck on the unfortunate side. Hopefully network TV can get their act together and make peace with the tech companies (Google, Boxee, etc.) who are trying to make content accessible on more screens. We will win in the end; the question is not if but when.
[Via Engadget]
By now you should all be well acquainted with Google Instant. When you start typing your keyword into the search bar you are immediately provided with results for the most likely search given what you have already typed. Google is adding “visual search results” to the mix and they’re calling it Instant Previews. After you type in a keyword and Instant gives you a list of results, now you can hover your mouse over a given link and you’ll see a small visual preview of the website before you click into it. In addition to these quick glances, you are also provided with orange-tinted text call outs that highlight where your search terms appear on the website. It’s all about making the search experience more intuitive; the combined force of Instant and Instant Previews will help you find what you’re looking for in a quick and easy manner. To enable Instant Previews, click on the small blue magnifying glass located next to the title of a search result. After this initial click, Previews will remain on and you can simply hover over any other search result to sneak a preview of a website before entering it. Click the magnifying glass again to disable the feature. Like I always say, happy browsing! Video demonstration after the break.
[Via GoogleBlog] Continue reading Google adds Instant Previews to Instant results
Ya’ll remember the introduction to YouTube Leanback, the minimalistic way of browsing and watching YouTube videos on the desktop? Well now that YouTube and the Leanback viewing experience has found a second home on the television through Google TV, the search giant has decided to create and disseminate a YouTube Remote app for Android users (sorry, iPhoners) that allows you to control Leanback using your phone. Setup is simple. You “pair” your phone to your television (or PC) by logging into your YouTube account on both screens and boom! Now you can “find and queue up videos to watch, send them all to Leanback with a single tap…[and] play, pause, skip forward and back and even control the sound volume.” The power of YouTube user control lies in the palm of your hand. The free Android app is available for download today.
[Via YouTubeBlog]
If you’re an early adopter of the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system and a proud owner of a SlingBox, listen here! What was hinted at back in October has been made available to purchase–SlingPlayer for WP7 devices. Jump into the Windows Marketplace and you’ll find SlingPlayer Mobile for $29.99. Select, download, and let the streaming festivities begin. Full PR after the break.
iPad owners, SlingPlayer is coming for you too.
[Via Engadget] Continue reading SlingPlayer has arrived for Windows Phone 7 users
Two new Droid phones in one week!? Hot damn! OK, it’s not that exciting since this latest iteration is essentially identical to the Droid 2. What differentiates it from its slightly older sibling is three-fold: it is “global ready”, meaning its got CDMA/GSM dual-mode functionality, it packs a faster 1.2GHz processor, and it comes dressed in a white coat. The rest of the specs are standard: 3.7″ WVGA multitouch display, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 5 megapixel camera with auto focus, WiFi, Bluetooth, DLNA Wireless, 8GB internal memory (expandable up to 32GB), Android 2.2. It’s available for purchase today at Verizon Wireless for $199.99 on a new two-year contract. If you travel ’round the world and need a dual-mode world phone and enjoy the Android experience, check the ‘ol BlackBerry and pick up the Droid 2 Global.
Note: Neither Motorola nor Verizon has officially announced the introduction of this device; it just happened to show up on the VZW website for sale. If/when either of these companies feels like pushing out an official press release regarding the Droid 2 Global, check back at this space for those details.
[Via Verizon]
Sick and tired of the same old desktop browsing experience? Are you constantly logging into your Facebook and Twitter accounts and checking up on your latest RSS feeds? If you answered “yes” to one or both of these questions you might want to give RockMelt a spin. RockMelt, backed up Netscape founder Marc Andreeseen, is a modern browser with a social twist. First off, it’s fast. It’s built on Chromium, the open source project behind Google’s Chrome browser; so if you’re used to Chrome browsing speeds, you know what to expect. Here’s the social aspect. To use RockMelt you must sign into it with your Facebook account; that’s right–it’s the very first web browser you sign into. But there’s an upswing to this; you can access your browser information, including social integration, RSS feeds, and more, on any computer that has RockMelt installed. Social integration, right. So you log into the browser using your Facebook account. The left side of the browser populates a list of your Facebook friends and you can chat with them, send and receive messages, and view status updates. The right side of the browser stores your Twitter followers and their updated tweets, along with a running list of website icons representing individual RSS feeds so you can keep tabs on your most frequently visited sites. RockMelt boasts “push notifications” meaning that it will keep track of and alert you to updates from Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds. The browser also promotes URL sharing among your connected social networks; there’s a built-in URL shortener that’ll push your favorite sites and posts to friends. Search is faster, too. Worried about privacy? Don’t be. RockMelt developers promise that login information and settings are encrypted before they are sent over to RockMelt servers for cloud storage.
Want to get in on the RockMelt craze? The browser is currently in beta (so expect numerous bugs pop up) and the developers are enabling the Internet at large to participate in an early access hands on with it, so along as you’re willing to fork over your Facebook username and password (remember, that’s required to use the browser). Hop over to the RockMelt homepage to “connect for an invitation.” It runs on Windows and Mac. Look after the break for a video demonstration to learn more about RockMelt. For beta software it runs pretty well, and if you’re a heavy Facebook/Twitter user you’ll surely appreciate the social integration aspect.
[Via RockMelt] Continue reading RockMelt, a modern browser with a social twist