Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Companies are finally realizing that with the economy the way it is that if they want people to keep renting their movies, they need to make them less expensive.  Enter the DVD kiosk.

DVDPlay, the country’s first automated and remotely managed DVD rental kiosk company, recently noticed a need to change their pricing to make it even easier and cost efficient for the customers.  Starting October 1st, all of their DVD rentals will be only $1, and this price will extend to some of their Blu-Ray titles as well for a limited time.

Plenty more on the DVD kiosk business after the jump.

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Finishing up it’s two-day convention in San Fransisco yesterday, YPulse National Mashup is a yearly event that brings together youth media and marketing professionals from brands, agencies, and the non-profit sector to share practices for reaching today’s totally wired youth. And this year’s findings were a rather obvious one for anyone walking around any school, mall, or other teen gathering place. Teens are becoming more and more mobile and cell companies, advertisers, and other media companies plan to be sure to capitalize on this.

And capitalize on it they will indeed be able to.  It’s estimated that teens wield a whopping $200 billion annually in discretionary spending. Yep, you read that correctly, and it wasn’t a typo. Two-hundred BILLION. Today’s kids must be charging much more for lawn-mowing services than back in the day, or else get one heck of an allowance.

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If certain video and computer games are proving to have better stories, characters and production design than a lot of movies and TV shows, then the Sci Fi Channel’s latest announcement subscribes to the Don Corleone theory of business: keep your friends close but your enemies closer. The channel is joining with gaming company Trion to develop something that’s both a TV show and an online game. The as-yet-untitled show is expected to premiere on your TV and PC in 2010.

There have been many movie and TV-based games but the consensus among gamers is that most of them have sucked. And movies or TV shows based on video games have generally suffered the same fate (see Boll, Uwe.) But Sci Fi Channel officials are quoted as saying that their writers will work side-by-side with gaming designers from day one in the hopes of achieving what many industry observers have hoped would be the next chapter in interactive entertainment. As Sam Howe, Sci Fi Channel president, told the L.A. Times:

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The case of the missing NBC video on Windows Vista Media Center PC’s in DVR mode reminds me of Bill Murray’s classic line from “Ghostbusters.” When tempted by a demonically-possessed Sigourney Weaver, Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman says, “I make it a rule never to get involved with possessed people.”

After she nuzzles his neck, he sheepishly adds, “Actually it’s more of a guideline than a rule.”

CNET News reported that Vista PC’s won’t record certain NBC prime-time programming. (We’ll ignore the larger question for now as to why someone would actually want to record “American Gladiators.") When its reporter questioned Microsoft, the software company released a statement saying that it is honoring broadcast flags - technology that disables attempts at recording - as set forth by Federal Communications Commission “rules.” But those “rules” have no force of law behind them. The networks wanted them a couple of years ago, but federal courts shot them down. Optional installation? Sure. But there’s nothing mandated by governmental agency or Congress.

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It’s a different kind of web that has snared Indiana Jones in his latest cinematic adventure. In his first three films, he was always lurking through some spiderweb-draped cavern of one sort or another, and he managed to survive each one. But now (cue John Williams music)...will he live through the danger that is the World Wide Web?

Its US premiere is May 22nd, but “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is screened at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend and the high-speed lines will be on fire as soon as the last credit rolls on the screen at the Salle Lumiere Palais. It’s the latest example of media conglomerates vs. the 21st century as they find themselves once again at the mercy of anonymous bloggers and web-based critics. Already there have been several traditional-media stories about negative early reviews of “Indy 4” at Harry Knowles’ Ain’t It Cool News website - the pioneer in Internet influence on the media - and how those reviews may have influenced Paramount’s Cannes plans for its Steven Spielberg blockbuster. 

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May 5 is a very crucial date for AT&T, as the company will begin offering their mobile TV service to 58 markets in the US, which include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, DC and more. To prepare for this new service, AT&T is also introducing two mobile handsets, the LG Vu and Samsung Access specifically to serve the purpose of providing AT&T customers a great experience when watching TV programs on their mobile phones. This service will be made available by AT&T in partnership with Qualcomm’s Media FLO subsidiary.

For its opening salvo on live mobile TV programming, AT&T will be offering TV programs produced by leading US news and entertainment brands including CBS Mobile, ESPN Mobile, Fox Mobile, NBC 2Go and more. What’s so interesting about these TV programs is that most of them are either news or entertainment programs.This was a result of an AT&T study which showed that these two genres are the most popular type of programs that users would want to watch on their mobile phones.

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I am not really sure how to explain this. No it isn’t that it is so techie that it doesn’t make sense, rather I am speechless.  For those of you who watched Minority Report and were drooling over the glooves Tom Cruise wore to control the computer, this is a must see.

Jeff Han is a research scientist for New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Here he demonstrates—for the first time publicly—his intuitive, “interface-free,” touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 09:32)

View it or download [TED]

Yahoo! has beaten Google to the punch by offering users a preview of their newly designed homepage. The new yahoo.com page lets users get things done quickly and stay up-to-date on the latest news, trends and buzz about what’s going on in the world by combining frequently news and entertainment with useful tools for searching, connecting, sharing and communicating online.

Additionally, the new yahoo.com page delivers a dynamic, interactive and easy-to-use consumer experience via AJAX and DHTML technologies. New and enhanced features include:

• Personal Assistant: personalized information such as your mail, news, forecasts, weather, traffic, messages, etc.
• Yahoo! Pulse: discover what is hot online such as the most popular searches, as well as the latest trends, music, videos, photos, people and opinions.


• Expanded Content: Thought-provoking feature stories, fresh entertainment, sports and finance content, as well as national, world and video news picked by editors.


• Enhanced Search Box: A newly designed and positioned Yahoo! Search box as well as Yahoo! Answers just below.


• Simple Navigation: Buttons near the top of the page link to Yahoo!’s other popular starting points, My Yahoo! and Yahoo! Mail.


• More Control: Colors are easily tailored to fit a person’s preferences with only a click of the mouse.

The new home page is now available in the US, with localized preview versions in the UK & Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.  More enhancements to the page will be added over the coming months, and it will be made generally available in all global markets later this summer. We will give you our Gadgetell first impression over the weekend.

[Press Release]
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