Obama’s BlackBerry: No Wonder He Couldn’t Let Go [Humor]

Kasper Hauser, the brilliant minds behind the SkyMaul parody, have tackled another delicate tech subject: President Obama’s beloved BlackBerry. When you see the First Dude staring at his handheld and snickering, this is what’s going on.

The book Obama’s BlackBerry is on sale now, $11 at Amazon, and is consistently hilarious, as you can see from the (authorized) excerpts below. [Kasper Hauser]

Share This

If The FF8 Gunblade Were a Mouse, It Would Probably Look Something Like This [Peripherals]

By the looks of things, designer Andrey Chirkov is a big fan of Final Fantasy. His concept mouse seems to take its design cues from the FF8 Gunblade—or a hoof (I’m not really sure).

At any rate, whereas the gunblade looks tough and menacing, this mouse looks as though it would snap apart with a single click from a fat finger frantically firing in a FPS. [Project Page via Gizmowatch via Coolest Gadgets via Newlaunches]

Share This

Wow, That Nyko Type Pad Pro Is Huge In Person, Too [E3 2009]

If it were just a few feet wider, the Nyko Type Pad Pro could pass as a spaceship.

The thing is, as ridiculous as the peripheral may be, it felt pretty great in my hands. The back is shaped similar to an Xbox 360 controller (complete with triggers for the Wii’s A & B buttons), so you can type on the large, split QWERTY with relative ease. I’m not sure the I’d use it to browse the web on the Wii, but then again, I’d probably never browse the web on the Wii in the first place. No word yet on pricing or availability.

Share This

CinemaNow Showing Up On BestBuy.com, “Select Devices at Best Buy” [CinemaNow]

CinemaNow, the subscription-less, on-demand streaming movie service, is partnering up with Best Buy. What does that mean? CinemaNow will stream from their website, and we’ll see more supported hardware in their stores.

Nobody’s overly excited about Best Buy rebranding an existing service and building it into their website, because, well, it’s just not very exciting. That said, it is interesting to see one of the biggest sellers of physical media, i.e. DVDs, throwing their considerable weight behind digital distribution. Those aforementioned “select devices?” Probably just be a few LG web-connected Blu-ray players, and maybe a new marketing pitch for the Xbox, which already supports it.

Sonic Provides Broader Access to Digital Hollywood Hits
Roxio CinemaNow, Available on LG Blu-ray Disc Players, Launching Soon at BestBuy.com

Novato, CA (June 5, 2009) - Consumers will soon have more ways to conveniently access premium digital video content, including new releases from major Hollywood studios often on the same day the DVD is available in stores.

On the heels of the announcement that its Roxio CinemaNow® service is live on Blu-ray Disc players from LG Electronics - providing consumers instant access to digital entertainment in the living room - Sonic Solutions® (NASDAQ: SNIC), today revealed that Roxio CinemaNow will be available on select devices at Best Buy and instantly accessible through Bestbuy.com. These latest initiatives are part of a broader strategy to increase awareness for Roxio CinemaNow, build a compelling digital entertainment ecosystem and expand its reach onto a broad range of home and mobile electronics.

“The exposure Roxio CinemaNow gains through leading CE device manufacturers like LG and top retailers like Best Buy will help educate millions of consumers about the convenience and flexibility of digitally delivered video entertainment,” said Dave Habiger, president and CEO, Sonic Solutions. “Consumers will be captivated once they discover just how easy it is to stream their favorite movies to their CE device or PC.”

Roxio CinemaNow offers a broad selection of regularly updated premium content, including new releases from major Hollywood studios for rent or purchase. As well as providing access to Hollywood hits, Roxio CinemaNow offers a rapidly expanding ecosystem of compatible devices that provides consumers a more flexible digital entertainment experience through extended multi-device access and playback capabilities. Sonic’s device ecosystem, powered by its new Roxio CinemaNow SDK (software development kit), is helping streamline the integration of turnkey premium entertainment delivery, management and sell-through services in next-generation digital home devices including portable media players, Blu-ray Disc players, set-top boxes, mobile phones, Web-connected television sets and PCs equipped with Roxio Venue™ software.

Sonic is at the forefront of digital video distribution, offering high-quality Hollywood movies, TV shows and music videos to consumers across multiple platforms. Sonic has relationships with more than 250 content providers and a content portfolio of over 14,000 titles that include new releases from major Hollywood studios and entertainment from independent distributors as well as broadcast and cable television networks.

About Sonic Solutions
Sonic Solutions® (NASDAQ: SNIC) is powering the digital media ecosystem through its complete range of Hollywood to Home™ applications, services, and technologies. Sonic’s Roxio® products enable consumers to easily manage and enjoy personal digital media content as well as premium Hollywood entertainment on a broad range of connected devices. A wide array of leading technology firms, professionals, and developers rely on Sonic to bring innovative digital media functionality to next-generation devices and platforms. Sonic Solutions is headquartered in Marin County, California.

Share This

Samsung N310 now available to order in the US

Have you been captivated by the coverage that Samsung’s N310 has been getting — and more than a little eager to get in on the action yourself? Could you at least pretend for the moment? Best Buy has just made the lovable netbook available for ordering online in the States. $479.99 gets you a 10.1-inch netbook with a 6-cell battery, an Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, and all the other good stuff you’ve been reading about. If you order now you can expect to get your device in 1-2 weeks.

[Via Portable Monkey]

Filed under: Laptops

Samsung N310 now available to order in the US originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Gizmodo’s Mission Critical E3 Gear [E3 2009]

Essential to our E3 coverage: Canon’s 5D Mark II’s made our liveblog shots effortless and awesome in any light , Sprint’s 3G network was our crucial lifeline in the bowels of convention centers, and UCC Black powered us.

Share This

First Acer Android netbook will dual-boot Windows

Ha, and you thought that you’d be getting away from the Microsoft tax. Sorry — Acer chairman JT Wang says that the first Android netbooks will ship with Windows in dual-boot configurations. While your first reaction might be to call JT a Microsoft patsy, he’s not, it’s smart to hedge, actually, since Android is unproven as a netbook OS and Wal-mart consumers usually don’t like being surprised by computers that don’t work like the ol’ home computer. Besides, these Android netbooks seem to be targeting carriers as resellers so you’ll like get a big fat discount when you take one home on contract. Happy?

Filed under: Laptops

First Acer Android netbook will dual-boot Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Sony to Offer New Digital Copies Of Your Old UMD Games [Psp Go!]

So what will happen to all of your old UMD games if you buy a PSP Go? You’ll be able to procure digital copies of those discs, maybe even for free.

I asked Sony’s John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing for Sony, what the company planned to do for their most loyal fanbase—those who’d amassed a large collection of UMDs but who’d also like to play these games on the Go. His response:

We’re in the midst of putting together a good will program. We’ll be unveiling that soon [because] we actually think there’s a significant group that will be upgrading from the 1000…In the past, we’ve seen a 20-25% trade-up factor, and I assume that’s going to be the case here. We’ve modeled that. So we’re looking at a good-will program—a short term good-will program that would continue for years afterward.”

Short-term for years afterward? In other words, the program itself will last for years, but these digital game copies will be tied to either when you bought the UMD or the PSP Go—such specifics were not made clear.

Speaking more regarding the technical aspects of the good will program, Koller explained while the distribution model was still in the planning stages, the user’s experience would be similar to Portable Copy—a way in which Blu-ray movies can be ripped and converted from the PS3 to the PSP. However, Koller assured me that users would not be ripping their UMDs. Instead, it sounds like Sony will use a PSN-based digital distribution model will “encourage” users to sign up for the service.

But the neatest thing about Koller’s Portable Copy comparison? Portable Copy is free. So we’re doubting that Sony will charge for the service—though we have no confirmation. Unfortunately, Koller also slipped in that Sony’s “looking at what kind of games will be offered.” In other words, Sony’s good-will program will probably not apply to every title in the PSP’s library, but given that there are only a few that matter anyway, maybe this limitation isn’t such a big deal.

Share This