Software / Web Services

Hulu may be the face of the TV-on-the-Web movement, but the one aspect of  service that’s severely lacking is the movie selection. Sure, you can watch cult classics like the unintentionally hilarious Troll 2, but if you’re looking for Hollywood’s finest selections, Hulu’s a wasteland.

Enter Epix, a new premium cable TV movie channel (available to FIOS customers)  that’s a joint venture between Lionsgate, MGM Studios, and Viacom. The channel will also be accompanied by a web portal that will allow those subscribers to view content online. Epix will offer over 300 movies when it launches this weekend (including recent hits like Iron Man and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull), which will scale up to 720p resolution depending on a subscriber’s connection speed.

Having such close Hollywood ties means Epix will receive content faster than rival channels; you can expect movies to show up 9 months after their theatrical runs, as opposed to a year with HBO. Epix will also include behind the scenes interviews and features, as well as original content.

One of Epix’ coolest features is the  ability for a FIOS subscriber to watch a movie with up to five other friends, even if they aren’t FIOS customers. The host has the ability to control the video playback.

Intrigued? You can sample Epix by requesting a three-day pass here. It’s not quite cutting the cable cord, but service does present more options that traditional movie channels.

[Hat Tip: Read Write Web]

If streaming media is in your blood, Roku has announced two new products that may grab your interest: The Roku SD and Roku HD-XR. Both players deliver content from Amazon, MLB.TV, and Netflix, but contain subtle differentiators.

The Roku SD player ($79.99) connects to your TV using composite cables for enjoying DVD-quality visuals. The box also includes 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and an Ethernet port.

The Roku HD-XR ($129) has a dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi radio that enables it to stream high-definition content, as well as HDMI, component, composite, and S-Video connections. It also includes a USB port (Roku hasn’t stated the port’s exact purpose, but we suspect that it will eventually allow you to plug in an external drive so you can playback your own media).

The original Roku player ($99.99) still lives on, and it’s virtually identical to the Roku HD-XR except that it has 802.11g Wi-Fi, and lacks the USB port. Roku also announced that it will launch the Roku Channel Store this fall, which will allow customers to add new content channels.

With so many options available for receiving streaming video content, do you think it’s time to cut the cord?

Apple posted a small support document yesterday informing users that Snow Leopard’s Boot Camp will support Windows 7 ($75.99) before year’s end. However, not all Macs will be invited to the launch party. Nine iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro models from 2006 aren’t supported. Click here to see the list.

If you own one of the Macs listed and really want to run Windows 7 on it, you can give VMware Fusion 3.0 a try. Touted by VMware as “the best way to run Windows on the Mac,” the new version will ship next week and is available for pre-order now.

If you missed out on the pre-order discounts for Windows 7 there are still ways you can get Microsoft’s new OS for less than the retail price. You may have to get creative or at least be willing to hunt for bargains.

Method 1:  Get an OEM version. Get Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate for $90, $124 and $160 by going for the OEM versions of the OS. OEM versions are made for manufacturers or people who build their own computers, but there’s no reason the average consumer can’t buy them. It isn’t any more difficult to install the OEM version, but you won’t be able to upgrade your Vista installation — only the full install is available. This won’t be as much of an an issue for Windows XP users, though. You also won’t get phone support and you’ll only be able to install on one computer. You’ll need a new copy if you want to move your windows to another PC later.

Method 2: Get the Family Pack. Buy the Family Pack and upgrade 3 computers for $150 or less, depending on the retailer. Newegg currently has the Family Pack Home Premium upgrade for $149.99.

Method 3: Get the student version. If you’re a student (or just have an .edu email address), you can get Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional for just $30.

Keep an eye on sites like TechBargains and major discount sites for coupons and discounts coming up through the holiday season.

Microsoft announced Wednesday that they will no longer bundle the Microsoft Works suite with new PCs. Instead,  they will come with MS Office 2010 Starter Edition, a still free but now ad-supported basic version of Office. Instead of getting a 60-day trial plus MS Works with new PCs, users will just get this one suite/experience. Starter will only come with Word and Excel, but if users want to upgrade to a full-fledged version of Office they need only purchase a Product Key Card to activate it.

While I agree with Barbara Krasnoff of Computer World that Works is a “badly conceived and badly managed home applications suite.” However, I don’t know that getting rid of it altogether is the best idea for Microsoft. Or rather, I don’t think Starter Edition is the right replacement for it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who uses Twitter knows that its Web interface, though improved over the last year, still isn’t the best means of using the service. Twitter has no problem with this, and neither do users, thanks to an API that allows for third-parties to craft software (think TweetDeck, Digsby, Seismic) that builds on the information Twitter has to offer, making it easier and more fun to use the micro-blogger in the process.

Add Brizzly.com to the long list of programs and Web sites capitalizing on Twitter’s API. Developed by a software house of ideas started by Jason Shellen, a former Googler who worked on the Google Reader, Brizzly adds a lot of common-sense functionality and simplicity to Twitter.

The interfaces are a little different. Whereas Twitter has one large middle column with most of the navigation you need, Brizzly breaks out into three columns: the right column houses familiar navigation like “Home”, “@tweets”, and “Favorites”, but it adds links to access pictures you’ve uploaded, drafted updates that have yet to be sent, links to grouped list of your buddies, and saved searches; the middle column houses your feed, and the left one has a special box for accessing direct messages and viewing trending topics. There are definitely some differences; here are our favorites.

Read the rest of this entry »

We recently praised TomTom for its speedy, intuitive iPhone app, which takes the phone a step beyond its integrated Google Maps, turning it into a GPS device (mountable on your dashboard, even). Now, MapQuest is at it, too, with its Navigator app for iPhone. Its interface is also slick and full of functionality you won’t get on the iPhone out of the box, although its subscription model might turn some buyers away.

Interface and Features

MapQuest’s app can do a lot of things: give driving directions, perform local searches (MapQuest boasts more than 16 million points of interest), using the iPhone’s GPS to establish a base location, and even speak street names, something we complained that TomTom’s app can’t do. Users can also choose between 2D and 3D  maps.

One of the things that really sold me is the points of interest carousel lining the bottom of the screen. The scrolling, icon-based menu gives users access to common categories of destinations, such as airports. It’s that pretty interface, coupled, with the quicker access to things people often search for, that sold me in my brief hands-on.

Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s cut to the chase: Rock Band for iPhone, announced today, is easily the most entertaining mobile app, for any platform, that I’ve seen so far at this season’s CTIA show. With the exception of the fact that you don’t have any room-swallowing drums, guitar accessories, or the freedom to bellow at the top of your lungs (to each his own), the gaming experience is remarkably similar to what you’d enjoy on a game console. We don’t know yet how much the game will cost, but it will be available within a few weeks, according to EA, the developer.

When you launch the app, you have the option of diving into a single-player game (Quickplay) or creating or joining a multi-player game (more on that later). The game includes 20 songs, whose difficulty levels range from “warmup” (the easiest of the easy) to “challenging.” Users will eventually be able to purchase two-song packs for an undetermined price (think two Aerosmith songs, what a classic rock station would call a “two-for-Tuesday.”)

As a single player, you can play every instrument, since there’s one open circle assigned to each. You can also select the difficult level (not to be confused with the difficulty level of the song itself). As with the console, you’ll see not just open dots, but a moving conveyor belt (okay, guitar frets)  of music, complete with color-coded spots indicating what instrument you’re supposed to play, and when. As with the console versions, you can go into overdrive, and you do this by simply shaking your iphone or iPod Touch. When you flub, and fail to press an instrument’s button in time, that sound (say, drums or bass) disappears from the background music, a nice touch (in a sticking-your-nose-in-your-mediocre-Rock-Band-skills sort of way).

But the fun really starts when you get your friends to join you.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have to admit: after I saw the Motorola Cliq and its social-networking-widget-heavy MOTOBLUR interface for the first time, I was blown away by how useful it was, seeing all of your contacts and their updates in a single stream. Too bad, I thought, that no one but Cliq, and perhaps some future Motorola handset owners, can take advantage of it.

I had just hours earlier seen a demo of MOTOBLUR when I came across Orbit, an app for iPhone and BlackBerry (and, soon, Android) that lists all of your contacts in a phonebook, but alongside each name also lists Facebook and Twitter status updates. Just like MOTOBLUR, you can do everything from call to text someone (or contact them using a social networking platform) from a single and– yes– uncomplicated interface.

I love the idea of an app like this because as we all know, the iPhone doesn’t exactly excel at multi-tasking, although, yes, there is invariably an app for that (including Facebook and countless Twitter ones). What makes Orbit more intelligent than any other social neworking app, however, is the ability to group friends into orbits, or social circles. For each orbit, you can adjust the volume of updates. So, if you can only tolerate constant updates from close friend, Orbit is able to make that distinction.

Bonus: on the iPhone, at least, you adjust these settings using this intuitive (and addictive) onscreen dial. The onscreen colors chane (that is, they become more intense, moving from green to red) as you up the volume for a specific friend group. When you’re searching through friends, too, you can also jump to any letter in the alphabet, just as you can when you’re looking for, say, a song, on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Orbit will be available for free for iPhone and BlackBerry by the end of the year, and for Android in the first quarter of 2010. Check out more screens after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

What do you get when you mix Slacker Radio, one of the premier streaming music sites, with Twitter, one of the premier social networking sites? Hopefully, a truckload of awesome.

Today,  Slacker Radio announced that it has integrated Twitter into its service, which will allow Slacker users with Twitter accounts to tweet their favorite tunes from their Macs, PCs, or smart phones. By tinkering with their account preferences, Slacker fans can automatically (or manually) tweet station changes/plays, favorite songs, banned songs, banned artists, or a mix of the bunch.

What do you think of Slacker’s move? Is it one that you support, or do  you feel that Twitter simply does not need to be part of the site?