As David Pogue says, “life is teeming with opportunities to see movies: movie theaters, video stores, DVD-by-mail services (like Netflix and Blockbuster), TV movie channels, pay-per-view, video-on-demand, Xbox 360, iTunes, Internet downloads, hotel rooms, airplanes and so on.” Now it appears Vudu’s new $400 movie box.
This device connects to your TV and the Internet through a high-speed link (we tested, and at least you need 2 Mbps connection), and its 250-gigabyte hard drive permits your choice of 5,000 movies (Netflix has a larger selection, +70,000) to begin playing instantaneously, with a DVD quality. There is no waiting, because the box holds only the first 30 second of each movie, and while you watch the rest of the movie undetectably begins to download.
And there is no monthly fee either. You can either rent a movie (usually $2 to $4) for 24 hours, or you can buy it ($15 to $20).
Another backstage tech trick is that the Vudu boxes communicate with one another using a peer-to-peer system, and as a result people receive part their watched movies from other people who have already downloaded it. Doing so, Vudu saves money, avoiding to paying for pumping out video. Vudu has some similarity to MovieBeam, whose hard drive contain only 100 movies a time, does not require an Internet connection (its movies are beamed through the air) and it costs only $150.
Silverlight 1.0, the Microsoft response to Flash
Microsoft has officially released Silverlight out of beta. This is the Microsoft response to Flash. Silverlight 1.0 is a cross-browser, cross-platform (still not for Linux) plug-in for delivering live video and .NET rich interactive applications for the Web.
This plug-in, 1,37 Mb size, offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web application. There is already a list of adopters, including Major League Baseball, Fox movies, Entertainment Tonight, The Home Shopping Network, and Break.
Is this a threat to Flash? It seems that live-streaming technology with Silverlight appears far more stable than live video with Flash.
An iPod that looks exactly like it does the iPhone
Apple unveiled a Touch iPod with WiFi, a 3.5 inch widescreen, 8mm thick, and the same touch functionality as the iPhone. It will allow to downloading content via WiFi from iTunes, and soon in Starbucks. Two models: 8GB for $299 and 16GB for $399. They will ship by the end of the month.
Also, Steve Jobs unveiled a controversial price drop on the iPhone, and the new iPod Nanos with a 2-inch color video screen.
Where to find the coolest gadgets of the World
Contrary to many people think, many cool gadgets are not on the sale in the U.S. A column in the New York Times talks about it. First adopters willing to pay a premium for the exotic notebooks computers, cell phones and tech toys can turn to any number of businesses that specialize in finding objects that are not sold near home.
Some importers you can use out there are RedOrbit.com, ThinkGeek.com, or Dynamism.com. This one has agents in Japan, South Korea and Europe who watch the stores for new products. Three of the most sought devices are HTC Kaiser stmart phone, HTC Touch and TZ90 Sony laptop. (However, some of them are available at J&R in New York’s downtown)
