Hulu rumored to be considering a sale after receiving an offer from… Yahoo?
June 21, 2011 No Comment
This afternoon rumors rapidly spread that an unnamed company had offered to purchase Hulu from its media giant owners, and now the LA Times Company Town blog has fingered that entity as Yahoo . According to the initial Wall Street Journal report, the offer received was not solicited, but it has caused the board to consider soliciting offers from other companies. The last time CEO Jason Kilar checked in he was looking forward to breaking one million Hulu Plus subscribers, now we’re wondering which giant may be first in line to snap the streaming site up and add its content licenses to their warchest. Whatever happens, the newly formed NBCUniversal conglomerate won’t have a say in it after forfeiting its board seats to get the merger approved. Drop in your wildly speculative commentary below — rumors including YouTube, iTunes, Xbox, or some insane Spotify rumor you just made up, we’re willing to listen to them all. Hulu rumored to be considering a sale after receiving an offer from… Yahoo? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 21:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We’ve already seen Belkin’s ScreenCast TV Adapter at its most unflattering, stripped naked for all the FCC to see , so it was a welcome change spotting the streaming media device in a more flattering light on the floor of GDGT’s New York meetup. The set top box can stream 1080p video and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound from any WiDi-enabled laptop to your HDTV. It’s also got dual-band wireless technology (at 2.4 and 5GHz) and can also handle your Blu-ray collection. The ScreenCast will start hitting living rooms in mid-July for $130, including a bundled HDMI cable. Stream some press releasey goodness after the break. Gallery: Belkin ScreenCast WiDi hands-on Continue reading Belkin ScreenCast TV Adapter streaming from a WiDi laptop near you in July Belkin ScreenCast TV Adapter streaming from a WiDi laptop near you in July originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Sling Media teased its SlingPlayer for Connected Devices with a Google TV demo last month , but we had a chance to go hands-on with the TV streaming service on a Boxee Box at tonight’s gdgt event in NYC. The player launched without issue on the demo system we saw, and the interface should feel familiar if you’ve used any of the SlingPlayer mobile apps. Sling says the application will appear in the list of Boxee apps and in the Spotlight on Google TV when it hits public beta within the next month, or you can sign up to be notified on Sling’s website. Post-beta pricing and availability details haven’t been released, but you can get your TV fix for free for the duration of the beta period. Jump past the break for a quick peek in our hands-on video. Continue reading SlingPlayer for Boxee Box hands-on (video) SlingPlayer for Boxee Box hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Leica’s new M9-P digital rangefinder taps the till at $7,995 — the same price the original M9 commanded when it was released in 2009 — but you don’t stay in the business of making pricey cameras for nearly a century without doing something right. The new version adds a virtually unbreakable sapphire crystal covering on the LCD, produced using diamond cutting tools, and an anti-reflective coating. The body includes a vulcanite leatherette body finish, for a more secure grip, but curiously lacks the familiar red Leica logo and M9 lettering on the front, in line with the camera’s elegant “minimalist styling.” Beyond that, the P includes the same full-frame 18 megapixel sensor featured on the M9 , an “almost silent” shutter, and is compatible with Leica’s full range of astronomically expensive M lenses. The M9-P will be available in black or chrome for $7,995 beginning next month, or $15,990 for two — since we know you’re planning to buy both. Continue reading Leica M9-P looks like it costs a fortune, doesn’t disappoint Leica M9-P looks like it costs a fortune, doesn’t disappoint originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it
June 21, 2011 No Comment
Our big, bad digital era’s been caught red-handed overturning media industry business models before, so it comes as no surprise that publishing houses have a new headache on-hand. Straight outta sunny Seattle comes word that Amazon has welcomed its first self-published author to the “Kindle Million Club.” John Locke (so this is where he wound up after going to that quasi-’heaven’) is the lucky dude who gets to claim the prize, and that’s not all — Mr. independent-author-from-Kentucky now shares bold-face status with the likes of Stieg Larsson and Nora Roberts. By churning out action / adventure novels on the $0.99 cheap and making heavy use of some leggy lady models, Locke easily blew past the one million mark, and even has a book to tell you how he did it. Take that evil publishing overlords. Hit the break for Amazon’s official PR spiel. Continue reading Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It’s always a good idea to take benchmarks with a grain of salt — their synthetic tests don’t always match up with real-world performance. But, we wouldn’t blame you if your wrote them off completely after spying these results from Android Community forum member Simms22. Simms took his Nexus S, blessed it with a little Cyanogen Mod 7 pixie dust, overclocked it to 1.544GHz, and made a few other tweaks for good measure. The results? An absolutely unbelievable score of 10,082 in Smartbench2011. To put that in perspective, the 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos powering the Galaxy S II hit only 3,053 — and remember, the Nexus S is working with a one core handicap. The creator of Smartbech has acknowledged there are bugs to be worked out (did besting the Xoom by 400 percent give it away?) but we’re not quite ready to dismiss the numbers game completely — then what excuse would we have for publishing copious amounts of bar charts? Nexus S hacked and tweaked to slaughter benchmarks, reality be damned originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It’s not uncommon for a company to make a public endorsement from time to time, but AMD today drafted a press release to announce that it’s not endorsing a product — BAPCo’s SYSmark 2012 benchmark — going so far as to drop out of the non-profit org to drive its point home. AMD claims that it attempted to work with BAPCo to focus testing on real-world usage, rather than traditional benchmarks that don’t necessarily represent how we use computers today. Nigel Dessau, AMD’s CMO, explains the decision on AMD’s blog: “Unfortunately, our good intentions were met with an outcome that we believe does a disservice to the industry and our customers. We weren’t able to effect positive change within BAPCo, and the resulting benchmark continues to distort workload performance and offers even less transparency to end users. Once again, BAPCo chose to ignore the opportunity to promote openness and transparency.” The biggest issue appears to be that SYSmark highlights processor speed while ignoring GPU power — a significant flaw, considering GPUs now play a large role in overall system performance . Continue reading AMD resigns from BAPCo consortium, denounces SYSmark 2012 benchmark AMD resigns from BAPCo consortium, denounces SYSmark 2012 benchmark originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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“Having difficulty with your PRO-HD this week?” That announcement headlining the Slingbox Answers Forum sums it up: a software update pushed last week “caused some Slingbox PRO-HD models to appear unavailable for TV streaming” — a fairly significant issue, considering TV streaming is what these things do. Sling Media has since released a fix, but your device will need to connect to the internet to receive it. A spokesperson said that a “very small percentage” of users were affected, and that power cycling the device and waiting 10 minutes should solve the problem, as each box is programmed to connect and check for updates during the boot sequence. One Pro-HD owner wrote in claiming that the new software “bricked” his unit, meaning it’s unable to power-up to receive the new update. If you’re experiencing a similar issue, Sling suggests calling customer service at (877) 467-5464 — mentioning the failed firmware update should help you avoid that nasty $30 service call charge. [Thanks, Tom] Sling sends some users offline with PRO-HD update, issues fix originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Microsoft is sending out a subtle reminder this week that, despite all of the fanfare surrounding its newly announced service, Apple isn’t the only game in the cloud . Redmond has unveiled updates to SkyDrive, including speed boosts, a revamped UI, and improvements to photo viewing. The latest version of the almost four-year-old service has cut wait time on actions like clicking folders, from six to nine seconds down to 100 to 300 milliseconds. The updated software also features H.264 video playback, a navigation system more akin to desktop browsing, and a single view for files, docs, and photos. Let Microsoft hold your hand through a video tour of its cloud below. Continue reading Microsoft upgrades SkyDrive, reminds us of its place in the cloud (video) Microsoft upgrades SkyDrive, reminds us of its place in the cloud (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Why it seems like only yesterday that our little Firefox had its last major upgrade . As expected , the browser turned 5.0 today, and you can celebrate by downloading it now from Mozilla’s site. We’d like to know how your test drive of the update is going so far. Let us know in the poll and the comments below. View Poll Firefox 5 is officially released, how are you liking it? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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