Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Some of you might remember two weeks ago when we said that we would keep you posted on the Lenovo IdeaPad U8. 

Well, it has been officially launched at the Olympics!  I guess there is no better place to launch Chinese technology than in Beijing right now, right? 

MORE »

The Summer Olympics are set to take place in Beijing this year, and of course, NBC will be there to broadcast every event. However, with technology becoming more popular and more important in everyone’s busy lifestyle these days, NBC is planning to use the internet to its advantage.

They recently partnered up with Wavexpress, a digital content provider company, and these two companies are set to make every event available for download. Basically, how this works is that people who are interested in this and have Vista Media Center PC will be able to schedule when they want to receive the events and choose which events they want to receive. After entering in all that information, the events will automatically update onto your PC or laptop, through a website called TVTonic. These videos will also come in near HD quality, which makes watching the videos almost as nice as watching them live on an HDTV. Finally, the best part of this deal is that it’s free, however, I would imagine there would be some ads on the video, but NBC doesn’t shed any light on whether they are adding advertisements to their videos.

“This service will provide a fantastic viewing experience for Olympic fans with Windows Vista Media Center,” said Michael Sprague, president of Wavexpress. “They can choose their favorite sports, from diving to water polo to gymnastics, and extended coverage is automatically synchronized to their PC in the middle of the night. With a laptop, they will get a high-quality video experience to view on the train, the plane, or in the college quad.”

Look for this service to be launched when the Olympics roll around in August, beginning on the 8th and running through the 24th.

Read [NBC] Via [Gizmodo]

• Do you Hulu yet?  Here are ten shows that make it worth it.
• “30 Rock” to premiere on Hulu before it hits NBC
• YouTube’s political blood spilling.  Stealing the election via the net

Sections: Video, Content, Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Online Music/Video

Most companies have, at some point, released some sort of themed device, with the theme of the last two years being this summer’s Beijing Olympics. Lenovo, put out their so-styled laptop, a very long time ago. Now Kodak is keeping true to customs with their Olympic-themed M2008 digital camera.

The device features the Olympics logo, along with text that reads “Beijing 2008.“  From a more technological standpoint, the M2008 offers a 10-megapixel camera and 3x optical zoom. The standard Kodak menu system can be viewed via the 3-inch LCD on the device.  You can even record events, sporting or otherwise, in 720p with the video functionality, a nice touch.

Those of you living in China can pick one up for around $270, but no word about a Stateside release. Keep reading for a few more pictures.

MORE »

On Friday, the IOC - International Olympics Committee, gave their official approval for athletes to be able to blog at this year’s summer Olympics in Beijing. However, these athletics cannot publish any media of the event or any material that is Olympic property. The IOC thinks of blogging as a way to expression, which is not like journalism, therefore they don’t have a real reason to ban blogging.

Also, any blog postings by these athletes have to be in the Olympic spirit and be “dignified and in good taste.“ I’m not sure how they will find out if someone posts something not in good taste, and then how they would punish them. Furthermore, athletes that were in the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2006 Turin Olympics and had blogs, they were not officially recognized by the IOC, and so this raised some debate. It will be interesting to see which athletes blog and what they blog.

Via [Electronista]

• Olympic Video Games: The not so wonderful world of sports
• FriendFeed: Live blogging gone wild
• Top secret “Facebook for Spies” at A-Space

Sections: Tech News, Web, Websites