Filed under: Laptops, Portable Video, Transportation, Wireless

In another mostly positive step for in-flight entertainment options, Continental Airlines will be rolling out DirecTV along with email and IM service on 225 of its planes starting next January -- the majority of its domestic fleet, according to Reuters -- although watching some tube will reportedly cost economy passengers six bucks-a-pop. Continental is teaming up with LiveTV on the venture, a subsidiary of JetBlue which also provides that airline with DirecTV, XM, and, more recently, limited Yahoo email and IM services courtesy of its 800MHz bandwidth acquisition. LiveTV will both provide and install a majority of the in-plane hardware in exchange for most of the revenue from economy section TV viewers; the 36 DirecTV channels will be free to first class passengers, and anyone with compatible devices and a Yahoo account can connect to the flying hotspots.

[Via Reuters]

 

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

According to the latest NPD group report, during the month of December Blu-ray players held 60 percent of the HD media player market -- despite the fact that HD DVD players were considerably cheaper. While that might've helped Warner in its decision to go Blu, the move has definitely had a dramatic effect on player sales since. According to the same study the week after the announcement, Blu-ray players were able to grab 93 percent of the market, which puts the year to date (short, we know) share for Blu-ray players at 70 percent. Granted, it's hard to put too much stock in just a week or two of data, but if this and the recent media sales numbers (85 percent) becomes a trend, maybe this won't be such a slow death for HD DVD after all.

[Via Blu-ray.com]

 

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

This time, it's Nikon dishing out the pre-PMA madness. The Coolpix P60 is designed for the consumer looking for "creative control" in their digital shooter. This 8.1 megapixel camera features both programmed auto (including 15 scene-optimized modes) and manual controls, a 5x Zoom-NIKKOR lens and Vibration Reduction (VR) image stabilization. It also packs an electronic viewfinder in addition to that LCD and Nikon's EXPEEDTM image processing to keep noise to a minimum even when shooting at a max ISO 2,000 sensitivity. The kit is powered by a pair of AA-batteries and should pop in March for $230.

 

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

Remember Nokia's Comes with Music (CWM) service? The service which includes a full year of free DRM'd music downloads with the purchase of a CWM cellphone. Up to this point, Nokia has refused to comment on the financial details of the service. Important since "free" is expected to be anything but free with those music costs tucked neatly into the price of the handset, the carrier's data plan, or both. In an interview published by Bloomberg, Tero Ojanpera, Nokia Executive VP, discussed CWM and says that, "In those cases where we cooperate with operators, there will be an arrangement so they can get a piece." Something previously hinted at by Nokia's CEO back in December. Still no word on who, beyond Universal, will offer their music on the new service or how much the new bundled handsets will cost. Ojanpera did repeat that CWM won't be available on existing Nokia devices. For its part, Universal says that DRM is a definite component of the service -- a possible deal-breaker if that DRM limits your CWM downloads to a single handset and PC for eternity.

 

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

Remember Nokia's Comes with Music (CWM) service? The service which includes a full year of free DRM'd music downloads with the purchase of a CWM cellphone. Up to this point, Nokia has refused to comment on the financial details of the service. Important since "free" is expected to be anything but free with those music costs tucked neatly into the price of the handset, the carrier's data plan, or both. In an interview published by Bloomberg, Tero Ojanpera, Nokia Executive VP, discussed CWM and says that, "In those cases where we cooperate with operators, there will be an arrangement so they can get a piece." Something previously hinted at by Nokia's CEO back in December. Still no word on who, beyond Universal, will offer their music on the new service or how much the new bundled handsets will cost. Ojanpera did repeat that CWM won't be available on existing Nokia devices. For its part, Universal says that DRM is a definite component of the service -- a possible deal-breaker if that DRM limits your CWM downloads to a single handset and PC for eternity.

 

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Obviously a lot of people cried fake when those screenshots purporting to show Windows 7 Ultimate popped up -- possibly because they looked a lot like rebadged Vista screens -- so the blogger who originally posted the images has followed up with a video for proof. And we do have to say, if this is fake, someone put a hell of a lot of work into pulling it off, from creating a new bootup screen to hacking the source code to adding fresh Media Center options. ThinkNext tells us that this release -- known as Milestone 1 -- expires in May of this year, although if Redmond and its team of crack Enemy of the State-types have anything to say about it, this particular blog will not be getting another preview copy next time around. Video after the break.

[Via Softpedia, image courtesy of ThinkNext, thanks Joshua]

Continue reading This could be the first video footage of Windows 7

 

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Filed under: Desktops

We wouldn't normally get excited about two more random HP enterprise desktops, but you know how we love all things SSD, and if the HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-Slim Desktop with SSD lights a fire in corporate IT departments, sales volumes may actually drive the price of SSD units down. So, uh, wow, check out this hot new HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-Slim Desktop! Man, can you imagine how worker productivity would increase due to its speedy 2.3GHz Core 2 Duo processor? And how many more charts and folders you could fit on a desk thanks to its 46 percent smaller footprint? And let's not even talk about the energy savings due to its compliance with the latest Energy Star guidelines -- just TOO exciting. Truly the progressive, "with-it" large enterprise can't afford NOT to purchase the $1,258 HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-Slim Desktop with SSD in large enough volumes to affect the commodity pricing of SSD storage. No sir!

There is also a $579 HP Compaq dc5800 Business PC that has a regular hard drive, pictured after the break. It's pretty much the same, but instead of productivity apps, it, uh, only runs MySpace. Yeah, that's what we heard for real.

Continue reading HP bumps SSD to business class with new enterprise desktops

 

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Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV

Mmm, you can almost smell all those pixels from your cubical chair, now can't you? JVC's getting our minds in a tizzy today with two new HD camcorders that are compact for carrying and big on resolution. Both the GZ-HD5 (available in black and silver) and the GZ-HD6 (just silver) each capture video at 1,920 x 1,080 and feature Genessa technology, HDMI, component, i.LINK and mini-USB connectors, an SDHC slot and audio in / out to boot. The only major difference between the two is the internal hard drive: with the HD5, you'll get 60GB to store all sorts of antics on, while you can double that with the extra capacious HD6. As predicted, each device is touting that elusive open offer price tag for now, but considering that we've only a fortnight before they hit the streets, we suppose we'll know soon enough.

[Via Impress]

 

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

It's that time again boys and girls -- the time when Sony pours out enough VAIO updates all at once that your head starts throbbing uncontrollably. Without further ado, we'll start by tackling the Type T (pictured), which gets upgraded to a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, goes from 1GB to 2GB of RAM and now comes in a bevy of swank designs. Moving on, we've got the 17-inch Type A, which now sports one of those speedy new Penryn chips (exact model apparently depends on how you CTO it) but otherwise remains similar to the prior iteration. Lastly, we find that the outfit's adorable TP1 now houses a Core 2 Duo T8100 CPU, a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M and a Blu-ray burner to boot. For all the nitty-gritty, put on your patience cap and wade through the links below, but be forewarned, it's a jungle down there.

[Via AkihabaraNews]
Read - VAIO Type T / F / N updates
Read - VAIO Type A, TP1 and Type R Master updates

 

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

While it looked like Mac users couldn't wait to get their hands on the latest version of Apple's operating system, their Windows counterparts seem to have been a little more reticent about picking up Microsoft's oft-delayed Vista upgrade -- so much so that Redmond decided to both extend XP's shelf life by six months as well as offer an unprecedented "downgrade" service on select SKUs. Well with the June 30th cutoff fast approaching, PC World decided to take a look at your options for procuring an XP license after that date, but unfortunately, the picture isn't too pretty. Basically, personal users looking to purchase less than 25 licenses but not a new machine have almost no recourse; your only surefire move is to buy a new box pre-installed with Vista Business or Ultimate from an OEM opting to continue with that downgrade service. Still, caveat emptor: support for consumer versions of XP ends on April 14, 2009, and with it, the end of your Patch Tuesday celebrations.

 

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