In a move that could start a new wave in PC sales, Dell and Paramount Pictures today announced that they have signed a joint venture that will see “Iron Man” come pre-loaded on Dell computers for anyone who wishes to order the unit.
So far, the details of the deal are a bit disappointing. Paramount is the only studio that has signed on and “Iron Man” is the only film being offered. Dell claims that more titles will eventually be offered during the purchase process, but for now, it looks like Dell and the studios have a “wait and see” attitude to decide if they want to move forward with a broader strategy. → Read More
Apple is facing quite the legal challenge in Norway because you can’t play DRM’d, iTunes-purchased songs on devices other than the iPod. The law in Norway is such that, here, consumers have the right to play music on any device of their choosing. Since Apple’s DRM prevents this from happening, it’s being dragged into court. It has until November 3 to respond to the lawsuit. The suit has been brought by Norway’s Consumer Ombudsman. Now, we can sit here and hem and haw over the fact that, yes, you technically can play your DRM’d, iTunes-purchased music on any device in the whole wide world by simply burning them to a CD, but that doesn’t fall under the realm of “easy,” which is another clause of the Norwegian law. That is, songs have to be “easily” playable on any device, not just “technically” feasible. → Read More
Hey Targus! Welcome to the Macintosh party. It’s nice here and full of well designed products that just work. Anyway, Targus’ new line includes two new wireless mice, a USB hub, wireless presenter, USB file transfer device, privacy screen and finally, a cool mat. The mice are up for pre-order with the 2.4GHz model going for $50 and the Bluetooth-powered for $70. The wireless presenter is currently available with a price tag of $80 with the chill mat carrying a $50 price tag. Really, there isn’t anything special ’bout these new items, just the repackaging in Macintosh complementary style. PR → Read More
If it feels like you’ve seen the u430 before, it’s because you probably have. You’ve seen them at parties, on co-workers desks at work, and in the hands of the soccer mom in front of you in line at the store. Well, not this exact model, but ones just like it. The u430 is yet another flip-and-forget-it phone. Seeing as it wont cost you a cent out the door, you shouldn’t expect too much under the hood. It doesn’t have 3G EV-DO, but it does have Bluetooth and dual displays. Its got a camera (with “Nite Shot” capabilities), but it’s 0.3 megapixels. No one’s going to break down Verizon’s door for this one, but it’s probably just sleek enough for those of us who don’t sleep with our phones under the pillow. → Read More
Earlier this month both AOL and Yahoo redesigned their home pages to include more links to outside services. The new AOL homepage features prominent links to Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail, as well as to bookmarks leading elsewhere, and integration with Facebook and MySpace. Yahoo’s new home page, which it is still bucket testing selectively, also includes more directlinkstoother e-mail providers, social networks, and a new left-hand channel strip that can be modeified by suers to include links to their favorite Web services. For YAhoo, it is part of its strategy to become the preimier starting point on the Web, no matter where people wan to go. But in an era when the destination site is quickly dying, if not already dead (with information pushed and personalized to you via services like Facebook, FriendFeed, and Twitter), will these redesigns be enough?
In a note today, Wall Street analyst Douglas Anmuth (formerly of Lehman Brothers, now of Barclays Capital) is not so sure. → Read More
Fujifilm has shown (will show, rather, if this technique works) that there’s still a lot of play on the lowest levels of sensor design. With all the new facilities cameras enjoy such as face detection and touchscreen interfaces, it’s easy to forget that we haven’t peaked in terms of the underlying technology, in many cases CCDs. The way photodiode arrays are laid out seems like something that should stay out of the limelight, but as we’ve seen with NVIDIA’s choice of solder and its consequences, changes on the ground floor tend to be felt higher up. Read on for news on how Fujifilm might be shaking the foundations today. → Read More
Sony is giving the all-in-one PC concept the ‘ol college try with yet another series: the JS1. The 20.1-inch widescreen LCD should show off Vista’s eye candy or a Blu-ray disc nicely, while a Core 2 Duo, 3GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive provides the backbone for the PC. Sony really wants this all-in-one to provide entertainment while chilling on your Pottery Barn-style digs so the company threw in its Sound Reality signal processor that can handle all sorts of audio including recording, editing, and playback of SA-CDs. No word on pricing or availability, but chances are if this Sony all-in-one doesn’t hit your market, another similar one will. → Read More
If you’re a regular reader of MobileCrunch, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve got a bit of a thing for mobile. Maybe hardware leaks make your heart pitter-patter – or perhaps its the services that swoon you? Either way, Nokia wants to hear from you. Right as the sun cracked over the Western hills this morning, Nokia opened registration to their new Nokia Pilots test program. If you’re chosen for the gig, you might be given the opportunity to spend some time with devices before anyone else in exchange for a bit of feedback. According to the FAQ, Pilots won’t be paid (which probably means you don’t get to keep the toys, either), and they do mention that you might need to go under NDA at some point – if neither of those are deal breakers, here’s the sign up page. [Via Symbian-Guru] → Read More
At CEATEC 2008, Fujitsu and NTT Docomo are showcasing a concept phone that can be split into two pieces, a screen and a keyboard segment. The so-called Separeeto Keitai, separate handset, is supposed to enable users to make a phone call and write emails at the same time. → Read More
Samba de Amigo for the Wii is already pretty immersive (I guess that’s the word you’d use), but once you add these little plastic maraca things, oh man! Great Depression Party! A cool $15 will net you the accessory, which comes to us by way of Brando. You know, there’s a long line of these questionable Wii accessories, the first (to my knowledge) was those Wii Sports plastic toys. → Read More
For the sake of making sure employees are up to speed on the coming-any-day-now BlackBerry Bold (and likely as an excuse to booze and schmooze), AT&T is throwing a series of parties for employees in a few major cities around the country. The invite doesn’t shed any information we’re not already well aware of, but worthy of some note is the date of the final party: October 30th. It’s not likely AT&T would bother holding these things after the handset is already out and about on their shelves, so this further cements the early November launch. The invite also says “Mingle, eat, relax and enjoy as you discover What Makes You Bold.” You know what makes AT&T Bold? Cheesy marketing videos. That’s the kind of kitsch that only internal marketing videos can provide. → Read More
As the concept of the “social graph” began to gain focus and attention, a buzz around the notion of multi-player social games began to grow as well. How cool would it be to play a game of pong between two users of a social network, right? And yet most multi-player games are limited to Chess, Checkers, and Poker. It’s not that there’s a shortage of companies developing casual games—in fact, money is being poured into the space in truck loads. Yet the multi-player games we were teased about have failed to materialize so far. Don’t despair though because salvation is upon us and it comes in the form of Come2Play’s multi-player API.
In my initial review of Come2Play I dubbed them the “Ning of social gaming networks“. Today they are upping the ante by putting out an open source multi-player API aimed at allowing Flash game developers to create real multi-player games. → Read More
Some clumsy Briton at MI6 has lost a Nikon digital camera that’s filled to the brim with all sorts of sensitive information, including info on al-Qaeda. What’s worse, not that losing the camera isn’t bad enough, but that it was sold on eBay. Yup, the missing Nikon is loaded with info on al-Qaeda, including names, finger prints and academic records. Oh, and the camera was sold for the low, low price of £17, or just under $31. At right, the only James Bond that matters. → Read More
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