Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

The wrappings come off a couple of cool applications this week:

Even though Google Sky was first to allow wannabe astronomers to surf the heavens from their computers, Microsoft Research’s Worldwide Telescope is getting some good reviews for ease-of-use and the sheer wonder of its visuals. The app, previewed at the TED Conference in February, is now public and uses images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, among other sources. Sorry, Mac users aren’t invited to this sky party; this window on the galaxy is Windows only.

You like to watch. Admit it. You know you do. Uh...we are talking about live car chases on local TV, right? If you live in the Chicago area, you can now watch those who do the watching of vehicular perps around the Loop. AirFox Live is the Fox affiliate’s website for its chopper video, streaming live from a number of cameras on the helicopter. The nice bonus is live GPS tracking on a map. I’m linking to the AirFox Live site but I first read about this on the Lost Remote website, which does an excellent job of tracking technology developments within the news business.

Read [Worldwide Telescope] Read [AirFox Live] Read [Lost Remote]

We recently saw the MPAA go after the now shut-down, but once popular torrent site, TorrentSpy. Now, the MPAA has gone after The Pirate Bay as well. The MPAA seems to be starting to crack down heavily on torrenting websites, so other such websites should be take note and be very careful as they move forward.

Basically, in the case, the MPAA stated that “The Pink Panther” had been downloaded nearly 50,000 times. Personally, I wonder why they decided to use that torrent file as an example, I’m sure there are other files that have been downloaded many more times. Anyway, 50,000 downloads of a torrent file doesn’t tell the whole story, there could be many more people who got the full movie. Now, the MPAA wants between $37 and $44 per download, and per film. They are also asking for nearly $70 per every downloaded episode of the hit TV show Prison Break. 

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Torrenting is used by many, and I’m sure everyone who torrents has used or at least heard of, TorrentSpy. The website has been closed down since March 24, 2008, and after the latest news its safe to say that it will remain down. Basically, their reason for shutting down is that they had lost too much money from court cases, and according to the statement on their site the “legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile.” Now in the latest blow, the MPAA has come out victorious after going at TorrentSpy and not only did they win the court case, but also $110 million. Looks like this will keep them down.

Via [CrunchGear]

Universal Music Group is joining the ranks of music companies who are giving away their music for free and in a legal way. The company has announced that it has reached an agreement with file-sharing site Qtrax to offer free, legal downloads of all its digital music. If you would recall, Qtrax announced sometime in January that it has the support of “all major music labels” in its revenue generating ads music download service. But some of this music companies denied Qtrax’s claim, including UMG. Prior to these events, Qtrax was forced to shut down its service a few months after it was launched in 2002 to avoid some legal troubles.

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Although we have already seen the migration of YouTube video content into our living room TV. HP wants to up the notch a step higher by bringing you a better video watching experience with its HP MediaSmart Products that include the MediaSmart Connect digital media receiver and the high-definition MediaSmart TV.

Yes dear readers, with this tie-up between HP and YouTube, you will be able to watch and share full-screen videos on your HDTVs. You can also create multiple playlists from anywhere you watch TV. Even sweeter is the fact that just like the old habit of slacking on your couches and watching your favorite TV shows from morning till dawn, you can do all these things using your HDTVs remote control,. Only this time, you have a full YouTube video database to watch, which if you would calculate, could probably last you a lifetime to finish watching.

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Look who’s playing catch up with Apple’s iTunes?  Microsoft has confirmed the rumors that it will start selling TV shows in its Zune Marketplace, possibly to compete with the recently announced iTunes movie download offerings. For starters, Microsoft has sealed a deal with NBC, which incidentally is coming off the recent break-up with Apple’s iTunes.

Although Microsoft’s move maybe a little bit late, lagging behind Apple’s iTunes which started selling TV shows two years ago, Microsoft is confident that its Zune Marketplace will be able to make some headway over the iTunes especially now that one of iTunes biggest content providers has decided to move over to the Zune Marketplace. NBC and Apple had previously disagreed over pricing which caused NBC to stop offering their content in iTunes. 

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Just as quickly as we learn that any new Radiohead tracks will soon require your wallet, Nine Inch Nails opens up with two free singles and then a complete album, all for free.

Following up on the success of Ghosts, Trent Reznor and his crew offered up both Discipline and Echoplex as singles, both of which are available as free downloads. While its nice to get the odd track for free we could not really expect to get a complete album, but that is exactly where they have gone.

The most recent release is the 10-track album called The Slip, and it is 100% free, both in terms of DRM and money. Its available for download in a variety of formats ranging from MP3 up to lossless and even if you wanted you cannot pay. Although Trent Reznor has been very public in the past about his dislike for the record industry, he has really been standing behind those words lately.

Read [NIN]

For the majority of you who paid nothing for Radiohead’s most recent album, In Rainbows, you may be sad to learn that the UK based band has no future plans to offer any similar promotion in the future.

Lead singer, Thom Yorke, called the revolutionary experiment a “one-off” thing.

“It was one of those things where we were in the position of everyone asking us what we were going to do,” Yorke told the Hollywood Reporter.” I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time.”

While Radiohead is calling this just a “moment in time” it seems some other artists, most recently Nine Inch Nails, have adopted and fully understand the free music theory. Hopefully, artists will continue to be as gratuitous as Radiohead has been in the past, as they move into the future.

Read [Reuters]

Remember what we told you about Skype needing to give itself a boost to avoid getting sacked by its mother company, eBay? Well, after successive announcements the past couple of weeks, it looks like Skype is really out to prove itself and hopefully sends the signal that its “synergies are strong.” For its latest buzz creation strategy, Skype has just taken version 3.9 for Windows out of beta.

So, what’s in mean for us, the Skype-using public with this new version? A couple of good features actually, including reduced background noise during calls, less delay, fewer call drops and fewer cut-offs. Plus, changing headsets, headphones and microphone will now be easier as Skype 3.9 will adjust the settings of the devices automatically. Another major improvement made by Skype is the taking out the default profile image that previously shows up when authorization request is incoming. This is in response to users’ demand as some of them encounter offensive profile photos of other Skype users. These plus other improvements which the Skype blog did not mention, are supposed to come with the new version of Skype for Windows.

It’s up to you if you want to be part of Skype’s move towards strengthening its synergies. By all means download the new Skype for Windows version or just continue using the old one.

Via [Skype]

Getting pressured by eBay into proving its worth seems to be working well with Skype. After recently offering unlimited calls to their users at an affordable rate, Skype is making headway yet again with the beta release of their mobile client. The Skype for Mobile now works with around fifty Java-enabled phones worldwide. Yes, this new service works with incoming calls from Skype and SkypeIn features. It also features chat, chat group and Skype presence.

In addition, Skype for Mobile features Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls for mobile handsets, but only for Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden and the UK.

If you want to give Skype for Mobile a spin, as I know you really want to just like me, you can either download the application directly into your mobile phone or download it into your computer before transferring it into your mobile phone. And if you are not sure whether your mobile phone supports Skype-for-Mobile, you may check out the Skype-for-Mobile site and look into the directory of mobile phones supporting this Skype mobile client.

Read [Skype]