Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Mozilla is growing, and it seems that in addition to the recent world record, which was set for the software downloads in a 24 hour time period, they have also risen to 19.03% of the market share. Mozilla saw an increase from 18.41% up to 19.03% from the end of May to the end of June.

Of course, Firefox may be seeing an increase, which is at least partially due to the recent release of Firefox 3, but Internet Explorer still remains on top with a whopping 73.01%.

On the other hand, some are saying that because of the auto-update features within Firefox, that those users are amongst the most users with up to date versions of their browser installed. Firefox was noted as having 83% of their users with an up to date software version, as compared to just 63.3% of Safari users, 56.1% of Opera users and IE having just 47.6% of users with the latest and most stable version.

Read [Yahoo! News]

Music lovers holding a Verizon subscription will better be able to say “I can hear you now” to their favorite musical artists, as Rhapsody and Verizon team up to offer users with certain V Cast phones DRM-free PC downloads. In obvious competition with iTunes, Rhapsody is still behind in the numbers game (about 5 million in their online library as opposed to iTunes 8 million), however, the bonus of not being stuck with DRM puts them ahead in many people’s minds. This way, you can play the music on any PC, MP3 player, or other digital device. Bonus.

So how much is it going to cost you? The songs are going at 99 cents each, and most albums will be $9.99. You’ll also find a Windows-only download utility that will import your music directly into iTunes, RealPlayer, or the Rhapsody client; Mac users will get their songs in a ZIP file. Select Verizon Wireless V Cast phones (including the upcoming Chocolate 3, the new Dare, the Samsung Glyde, the Juke, the RIZR Z6tv, and the RAZR V9m) can purchase tunes from Rhapsody over the air, and get an MP3 “master” PC download in the bargain.

If you jump on the ball, Verizon is running a special through July 4th: The first 100,000 people to sign up with the MP3 store will get their first album free.  And hey...free is always good.

Via [Yahoo! Tech]

While the official announcement of the Tony Hawk branded Sidekick LX showed us a neat new limited edition model, it also gave up some details on just what every other current Sidekick LX users had to look forward to, most notably the soon-to-come video capture support.

Well the good news is that the update will begin to roll out in a little over a week from now. Coming in the form of an over-the-air update it is scheduled to begin on June 25 and will be rolling out, as opposed to hitting everyone at the same time. Which means that in the past it has taken upwards of 4 weeks to reach everyone, so while the update is well worth the wait, try and be patient if yours does not arrive on the first day.

Aside from the video capture support, there is a whole slew of other features which include the ability to send or receive photos, videos, or music via Bluetooth, QuickFind, and no more restarting after a download. Keep reading to check out the full list below.

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Popular rock band Pearl Jam and Verizon Wireless under its V Cast service have reached an agreement that will allow Verizon to sell selected tracks from the band’s long-running live bootleg program. Pearl Jam made the deal in line with its current promotional gig for their summer tour which will kicked off in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Moving forward, three tracks from each of Pearl Jam’s shows will be distributed by Verizon via its V Cast service. Likewise, Pearl Jam fans can also either purchase or download those tracks by visiting PearlJamConcerts.com. Those Pearl Jam tracks will be offered in a “dual downloads” scheme, meaning each track will be sent to fans’ mobile phone and at the same time to their computers. Incidentally, those tracks will have Verizon’s DRM system aside from being sold as ringtones and ringback tunes for mobile phones.

And to boost the sales of these Pearl Jam tracks, fans who will be buying the digital music from V Cast will have the chance to win seats to one of the upcoming shows of the band. Winning tickets will be sent to the winner’s mobile phones. The lucky fan can then show the text message at the entrance to the show’s venue.

Read [Reuters] Via [PearlJam.com]

Well, by now I hope you have already seen our unboxing set that we posted yesterday, but now its time for a quick hands on review with the Roku Netflix Player.

First off the player is small, which may be good or bad depending on your setup. I say this only because it does take up very little space in your entertainment stack, but similar to game consoles and the AppleTV its another odd size device that you will have to make a place for. Lucky for us, we had a nice spot to sneak it in.

The setup was easy an process and the player comes with the remote, a power adapter and a set of cables to hook it up. The setup was simple, find an empty set of plugs on your TV, plug the cables into the TV and into the player, then plug in the power adapter. Just like that its hooked up, and now its time to begin the actual setup, which I am happy to say was just as quick and painless.

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This little set-top box hit the market early last week with quite a bit of excitement. The Roku Netflix Player was what a lot of people had been waiting for, and based on statements about a 10 day delay from the Roku forums, they either sold really well or Roku had underestimated the initial sales numbers. Either way we were lucky enough to be able to get our order in early and with that ours is now in hand. That means you can be on the lookout for a review in the future, and if you have any questions about how it works send them our way. In the meantime enjoy some pics from the unboxing.

Keep reading for some more pics…

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Fresh off the official announcement we have some early reviews beginning to show up for the Netflix set-top box player from Roku. The new player will allow Netflix users with the $8.95 monthly plan (or higher) have access to (currently) 10,000 available titles for instant viewing from just about any television. While the player does have some limitations, it seems to have gotten a fairly good set of reviews, which just makes me look forward to mine arriving.

Overall it seems that most of these review were fairly similar. For the most part the comments were positive, referring to an easy initial setup and nice feature which offers automatic upgrades as they come available. The price, at $99.95 was also right on, especially considering those who are already Netflix customers will not have any additional expense, assuming they have an $8.95 a month (or higher) plan. It seems that while this may offer other devices such as they AppleTV or Vudu some competition, the lack of HD quality and current movie selection is going to hold it back. Assuming the movie selection improves over time, it could become more of a power player in the future. Other items that were mentioned was that the movie management is still done on the familiar Netflix website, you add movies to your queue the same way you always have and the box will then add them to your playlist. One potential drawback will be that the movies are streaming and with a slower connection, this could cause some issues, it was also noted in some of the reviews that because the movies were indeed streaming that it made fast-forwarding and rewinding less than ideal.

Let’s see what they had to say:

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Roku has just released the first set-top box for Netflix, allowing users to avoid the wait and have some instant access to the movie of their choosing. Unfortunately the box does not offer access to the complete Netflix library, however it still does have over 10,000 available as of now. The Roku Netflix set-top box comes in a quiet and fanless design that is about the size of just a few DVD movie cases.

The Netflix player also offers a wide variety of connectivity to include a RCA, S-video, component video, HDMI and optical audio connections. The device also offers both a wired Ethernet port as well as wireless compatibility. Any customers with a Netflix plan of $8.95 or higher will be able to get unlimited viewing of those available titles. As a service that can be used with just about any television, offers a large movie selection and costs less than $10 bucks a month, it seems that the AppleTV and Vudu have just gotten a solid competitor. The Netflix player is currently available and retailing for $99.99.

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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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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]