Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Trying to lure in customers to replace their DVDs or HD DVDs with Blu-rays, Paramount is offering ten bucks per title to do just that. Although Paramount and Dreamwork titles are involved in the offer, it isn’t good for just any Paramount movie.

According to HighDefDigest, the promotion will start with the release of Transformers on Blu-ray coming in just a few days on September 2nd. Hopefully you won’t mind messing up those boxes a bit though, since you need to include the proof-of-purchase tabs from both the DVD and the Blu-ray disk, along with the promotional certificate from inside eligible Blu-ray movies.  You also have to buy your Blu-rays before December 31, 2009 and have your rebate envelope postmarked before January 31, 2010.

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Despite previous statements declaring that their online service would be offering live video streaming some time this year, a source inside now states that YouTube won’t be going live after all. There goes the business plans of several planning to make a buck off the live streaming idea, like the somewhat cult-popular lifecast justin.tv. Some outsiders have thought this was the next expected step for YouTube, being that they make a killing in the market for pre-recorded Web video. Even Steve Chen, Co-Founder of YouTube, lent plausibility to the leap to live streaming when the idea first hit the public’s ear by telling Pop 17’s Sarah Meyer’s “Live video is something we always wanted to do but haven’t had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to launch something this year.” Well, that was in February, and it isn’t happening, and sources say it won’t be happening next year either.

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There can’t be many people who have been on the internet, and not also been on YouTube, and the home video craze has really caught on. This is both good and bad: it makes videos more accessible but leaves the door open for happy slapping idiots trying to make a name for themselves. And recently another problem has arisen, it’s starting to get a bit too big.

With a reported 13 hours of video being uploaded every minute it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the video that you want, however specific you are. So new techniques are needed, and there are plans to use voice recognition to automatically convert the words into metadata which in turn is embedded in the video meaning key words can be searched for with increased effectiveness. It also means, if you know what video you are looking for, you can directly quote from the video and thus find it easily.

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So far we have seen a leaked image, and a brief video, and now another video has surfaced showing off some cool looking interchangeable colored lids for the Amilo netbook, however we are still severely lacking any information on specs.

This latest video offers just another brief glimpse, and still does not offer any new details, aside from the colored covers.

Just to recap what we do have so far, the Amilo netbook is expected to feature an 8.9-inch display, retail for somewhere around €300 to €400 (around $475 to $635 US) and is rumored to be officially unveiled during IFA this August.

If nothing else it does look cool, hopefully it will offer a decent set of specs also. Keep reading to check out the video…

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So, we saw the hands-on review come in for RIM’s first venture into the clamshell market and things continue to seem to be pretty promising, that is assuming the price is close to the rumored $49. Now to add a little more tease, the team over at CrackBerry have released a nice (and thorough) 9-minute video of the Kickstart 8220 in action.

Of course caught in the action is the heart of the handset, the OS 4.6, but they also demonstrate some other goodies to include the web browsing, trackball, display, and the large SureType keyboard. Initially, I was not all that excited to see RIM venture into the clameshell style market, but after seeing this in action and shown next to the Pearl, all I can say is that the Pearl had better watch out, because the Kickstart looks very nice.

Continue on to check out the video…

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Just recently we showed off an image (pictured right) of what was reported to be the upcoming Amilo netbook from Fujitsu Siemens and it looks like it has since been caught on video.

Overall the video is nothing overly exciting, it simply offers a quick overview, but still, it somehow seems a little nicer to see a video as opposed to just a picture.

If nothing else this video certainly does show off the small size, at least when compared to the 17-inch notebook that its sitting on top of.

The Amilo netbook is expected to be officially unveiled during IFA in Berlin this August and retail in the ballpark of €300 to €400 (around $475 to $635 US).

Keep reading to check out the video…

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Google’s new online virtual world program “Lively” is causing a bit of a stir for some users. It seems it has become a tad too lively in some of it’s rooms. Apparently there have been some “sex rooms” created in the virtual world, and a few users are complaining. Complaints which Google isn’t taking lightly. 

“Our community standards prohibit sexually explicit images and rooms intended for sexual activity, even if virtual. When we become aware of ‘sex rooms’ that violate our Terms of Service, we’ll work to remove them.”

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In an attempt to be more proactive rather than simply reactive, the MPAA has recently approved the DreamStream system and its 2048-bit “military strength” anti-piracy encryption technology to protect content streamed to viewers online.

First introduced to the MPAA in March of 2008 by Laura Tunberg, MGM’s former vice president of intellectual property enforcement, it was since reviewed by the MPAA and found it to be a viable means for securing digital content. Chief development officer for DreamStream, Ulf Diebel, is excited by this acknowledgment of their product.

“We are very excited to have the MPAA stand behind our technology.”

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Your right to privacy is no longer as private as you once thought or hoped. By court order, Google is being forced to hand over all the records of every video watched by YouTube users. This information will include users’ names as well as IP addresses, and the request has Google lawyers arguing invasion of privacy.  The judge in his ruling, however, found this argument “speculative” and ordered them to turn over the logs on a set of four terabyte hard drives.

The purpose behind the lawsuit is that Viacom intends to prove that infringing material is more prominent than user-created videos. This would most likely increase Google’s liability if they are found guilty of contributory infringement. The suit was originally filed in March of 2007, with Viacom seeking over $1 billion in damages. Google tried to argue that the law provides a “safe harbor for online services so long as they comply with copyright take-down requests.” Apparently Judge Louis L. Stanton, the senior judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who issued the opinion and order, wasn’t buying it, since the order also requires Google to supply copies of any video that was taken down for any reason.

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Vudu first began showing up in Best Buy locations back in late-March and at the time it was just 24 locations, all of which were located in California. The limited availability was thought to be a testing period to make sure the devices would be able to sell as expected.

Well, jump forward a little over a month and it looks like it must have been successful because Vudu and Best Buy have just announced a little more widespread availability, however it is still not nationwide.

They have remained in California, but also expanded to Arizona and Illinois, all in all it looks like they are now available in almost 70 Best Buy locations. In addition to the move into Best Buy locations in other states, Vudu has also recently added 35 new movies to own and 30 new movies to rent.

Via [CrunchGear]

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/02/vudu-continues-to-infiltrate-best-buy/