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Tag: mac

  • HD Movies Now For Sale on Apple's iTunes Store


    HD movies are now available for purchase from iTunes for playing on Macs and PCs.

    Until now, high def movies had only been available to Apple TV owners.

    HD Movies will be sold for USD $19.99, while HD rentals will be priced at USD $4.99. Both are in H.264 compressed 720p quality and will come with an HD file and an iPod/iPhone SD file.

    Apple said "Transporter 3" and "Punisher: War Zone" are among the titles available immediately.

    Preorders are being taken for "Twilight" (set for a March 21 release) and "Quantum of Solace" (March 24).

    Interestingly, Apple TV has now gone from having exclusive access to all non-podcast HD content from Apple,then HD TV shows were made available generally in September and now that has broadended to include movies.

    Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services, was confident HD movie purchases would be popular.

    "Customers have made HD content on iTunes a hit, with over 50 per cent of TV programming being purchased in HD when available," he said.

  • Celeno Technology Enables Multiple HDTV Streams Around Home


    Technology that delivers multiple HDTV streams from PCs to TVs and other electronic devices around the home could be launched by the summer.

    Israeli-based Celeno Communications is field-testing in-home WiFi networks with backing from Cisco.

    Celeno, which manufactures semiconductors for multimedia WiFi home networking applications, has created technology that upgrades the transmission portion of the WiFi network but works with existing receivers such as set-top boxes.

    The company says the product is almost ready for commercial deployment and would be built into broadband access gateways.

    Celeno’s OptimizAIR technology uses 5 GHz spectrum, not the 2.4 GHz spectrum used in current WiFi data networks.

    It uses standard PHY and MAC layers but adds proprietary algorithms that the company says can double the throughput of standard 802.11 WiFi and increase the range of the signals by as much as eight times.

    Technology additions include Spatial Channel Awareness and Beam-Forming MIMO (multiple inputs, multiple outputs).

    The company said it can stream HD video 120 feet, through four brick walls and more than three floors.

  • WD Readies New My Book World Storage Device


    Western Digital has redesigned its My Book World Edition to target consumers with multiple computers on a home network.

    The company says the new device simplifies the tedious task of backing up an entire household’s files.

    The network storage device comes in 1TB and 2TB capacities and has both DLNA 1.5 and UPnP certification to allow for streaming with a variety of devices.

    It also has a single USB port to let you turn any other USB drive into a network drive.

    Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups, said the My Book World Edition drive simply had to be plugged into a network router, a few buttons had to be clicked and it backed up the files from all the PCs and Macs on the network.

    Any changes to the files are automatically and continuously backed up to the drive.

    The new hard drives are available now in the 1 TB capacity and expected later this month in the 2 TB capacity (USD $230 and $450 or GBP 168.99 and GBP 369.99 respectively).

  • Skype Users To Get Access To Boingo Wi-Fi Network


    Boingo Wireless has agreed a deal that will allow Skype users to access more than 100,000 Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide, and pay using Skype Credit.

    The feature, called Skype Access, will be embedded into Skype as a core feature, first in the Skype for Mac 2.8 Beta software just released and then in versions of Skype for other operating systems sometime in 2009.

    The new application lets users connect to a Boingo Wi-Fi hotspot with a single click and to pay per minute only for what they use.

    Skype Access actively scans for available Boingo hotspots and presents a pop-up dialogue box displaying the price per minute to use the Boingo network using Skype Credit.

    Boingo’s Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy apply and access to all Internet services will be provided on a simple, per minute billing basis.

    Boingo offers Wi-Fi hotspots by combining more than 100,000 locations from more than 150 leading Wi-Fi operators into one worldwide network spanning 90 countries.

    Luis Alfonso Serrano, vice president of network strategy for Boingo Wireless, said the agrrement meant Skype users will be able to access hotspots around the world via the Boingo Network for their Skype calls.

    "Boingo provides digital nomads – no matter where they are in the world – with an easy and fast way to get online," he said.

    By sharing one authentication and enrollment process, one download and one payment method, the Skype-Boingo collaboration clears a path between one of the most popular communications platforms on the Internet with the world’s largest network of Wi-Fi hotspot operators.

    In addition to Skype credit and a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop, users must have Skype for Mac 2.8 Beta installed and running.

    Prices will vary based on location and currency. There are no connection fees or monthly charges for Skype Access.

  • G-Technology Launches Mac-friendly External Hard Drives


    Storage firm G-Technology is to offer a range of Mac-friendly external hard drives cast from aircraft grade aluminium.

    The four HDD models in the fanless G-Drive range come pre-formatted with HFS Plus – the Mac’s native file format – and support Mac OS X’s Time Machine automatic back-up system.

    The 2.5in Mini Combo G-Drive is available in 160GB, 250GB and 320GB capacity options, with USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 support.

    A second 2.5in option is the Mini Triple, which comes as either a 250GB or 320GB drive with USB and FireWire 400/800 connection capability.

    G-Tech’s two 3.5in HDD options, the Combo and the Q, are both available as 500GB or 1TB capacity drives.

    The Combo supports USB and FireWire 400, while the Q supports FireWire 800 and eSATA connections.

    Prices are from USD $170 (€125).

  • Netflix "Watch Instantly" Comes To Macs


    Online movie rental giant Netflix is finally offering Mac users its instant watching service.

    Windows users have been able to watch movies and TV episodes instantly since early 2007.

    The upgraded service will initially only work on Macs with Intel chips – but the Los Gatos, California-based online DVD rental pioneer said that was around 70 per cent of their Mac subscribers.

    It requires Microsoft’s Silverlight software and Mac users will have to download a Silverlight player to access Netflix’s extensive streaming library.

    The deployment is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.

    It is expected that Netflix members who watch content instantly on their computers will enjoy a faster, easier connection and a more robust viewing experience with Silverlight.

    Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding.

    The new Netflix player takes advantage of PlayReady DRM, which is built into Silverlight, for the playback of protected content on both Windows-based PCs and on Macs.

    That had not been possible with previous generation technologies.

  • No Blu-ray For Macs – For Now


    Steve Jobs quashed suggestions that Apple would upgrade its Mac OS X Leopard to allow Blu-ray because of the cost of licensing and drives.

    Speaking at today’s notebook keynote, Jobs said: "Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. I don’t mean from the consumer point of view.

    “It’s great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace before we burden our customers with the cost of the licensing and the cost of the drives."

    Apple was an early backer of Blu-ray, but has been silent about adding Blu-ray drives to its notebooks or desktop computers.

    Other manufactuers, such as Acer and HP , have already been shipping Blu-ray drives with their systems.

    Responding to a question about HDMI, Jobs said the connector interface was "limited in resolution".

    Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president, went on to say that "for typical computer use, DisplayPort is the connector of the future".

    Among the announcements at the special event were a redesigned MacBook Pro built using a new construction process similar to the one for the MacBook Air.