Hulu headed to UK by September?
The popular streaming online video site Hulu may be headed to the UK before September, according to sources, marking the first time the site will be available to users outside of the United States.
The report, from UK-based The Telegraph, says Hulu, owned by Disney, Fox and NBCU, is currently in negotiations with ITV, the BBC, and Channel 4 for content partners.
It is believed that the UK version of the site will allow users to watch TV episodes the day after they are broadcasted and each episode will be available for 30 days following its launch.
There is one snag however. Hulu wants to have full control over ad sales based on the content of Channel 4 and ITV.
“Hulu is proposing a model that works in the American marketplace – however Channel 4 and ITV will not consent to that,” says the report citing an insider source. “Both parties always retain the commercial rights and sell their own ad inventory.”
Vista Media Center users to get Netflix streaming content
Microsoft has announced today that it will be bringing all 12,000 Netflix “Watch Instantly” streaming content videos to Windows Media Player in Vista.
Unfortunately for XP users, the on-demand service will not work with XP Media Center.
To use the content, you must be running Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate and be a monthly subscriber to Netflix. The videos are available through the Netflix app in Windows Media Player, under the “TV + Movies” category.
First time users will be asked to log in using their Netflix username and password and from there you can arrange your queue as well as search the vast library. You will also need Microsoft’s Silverlight video/animation plug-in to run the app if you do not already have it installed.
The move also allows Xbox 360 users to playback movies via streaming.
Adds Ben Reed, senior product marketing manager for Windows Media Center:
“The [lack of] of familiar controls, of pause, fast forward, rewind, that’s one of the pain points we hear from consumers about the myriad ways you can consume TV shows and movies online. Each one has a different search and discovery experience; each one has a different player; some work great full screen, some don’t.”
Researchers create optical media with 1.6 terabyte capacity
A team of researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have announced today they have created a “five-dimensional” optical media that can hold up to 1.6 terabytes of data, and that could easily be on the market within 10 years.
The researchers used ‘nanoparticles and a “polarization” dimension’ to create the massive storage capacity. The team has already signed a deal with Samsung, who says the disc could potentially hold up to 10 terabytes.
“We were able to show how nanostructured material can be incorporated onto a disc in order to increase data capacity, without increasing the physical size of the disc,” adds Min Gu, part of the team.
“These extra dimensions are the key to creating ultra-high capacity discs.”
The Reuters report explains that “DVDs currently have three spatial dimensions but using nanoparticles the researchers said they were able to introduce a spectral — or color — dimension as well as a polarization dimension.”
Mininova trial gets postponed
The civil trial against Mininova, brought forward by the Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, has been postponed one month today.
The outcome of the case will determine whether the torrent indexing site will have to “actively filter” torrents from its index daily. If BREIN is triumphant, Mininova will be forced to remove all .torrent files that lead to unauthorized content such as pirated movies, music or TV shows.
“The reason for this postponement is solely due to personal circumstances of our attorney and has explicitly nothing to do with the content of the case,” says Mininova’s staff.
Additionally, Mininova President Erik Dubbelboer notes:
“The case wont say much about the legality of torrent sites, but it will give more insight into what measures BitTorrent indexers and similar services have to take in order to make sure that they don’t link to illegal content. In particular, it deals with the question of whether or not website owners have to actively filter content. In other words, is a notice and takedown policy sufficient or not.”
Judge rejects experts employed by RIAA
A Federal judge has shot down a RIAA request to have their usual team of forensic experts, whose actual expertise is questionable at best, examine Joel Tenenbaum’s computer. Instead Judge Nancy Gertner ordered the RIAA to use a third party investigator, who will be required to provide her with a detailed description of their methods.
Although RIAA lawyers will be allowed to select their own forensic expert, the instructions they give to that individual will also be passed on to the judge, and their findings will be disclosed directly only to Mr. Tenenbaum’s legal team. They will then be required to share the report with the RIAA.
In the past RIAA experts have shown a great deal of bias, even going so far as to claim a defendant in another case must have a second computer because the one she turned over for examination showed no evidence of file sharing software or even MP3 files.
The examination of Mr. Tenenbaum’s computer will be limited to looking for music files, meta data about music files, evidence of file sharing activity, and evidence the hard drive has been wiped.
In previous cases secrecy about their investigative methods has been a cornerstone of RIAA cases. With no documentation of what’s being done or peer review from the scientific community to back up claims of its effectiveness you would think it would automatically be suspect.
Yet so far it’s never become much of an issue for judges, making it impossible for defense lawyers to get access to enough information to attack it in court.
[More]>>
Hulu headed to UK by September?
The popular streaming online video site Hulu may be headed to the UK before September, according to sources, marking the first time the site will be available to users outside of the United States.
The report, from UK-based The Telegraph, says Hulu, owned by Disney, Fox and NBCU, is currently in negotiations with ITV, the BBC, and Channel 4 for content partners.
It is believed that the UK version of the site will allow users to watch TV episodes the day after they are broadcasted and each episode will be available for 30 days following its launch.
There is one snag however. Hulu wants to have full control over ad sales based on the content of Channel 4 and ITV.
“Hulu is proposing a model that works in the American marketplace – however Channel 4 and ITV will not consent to that,” says the report citing an insider source. “Both parties always retain the commercial rights and sell their own ad inventory.”
‘Sims 3′ leaked two weeks early to P2P
Following recent blockbuster leaks such as that of Resident Evil 5, Electronic Arts’ Sims 3 game has been leaked to P2P, a full 15 days before its official release date.
The ISO file is 4.94 GB large and the game has had its Securom DRM cracked. The Sims 3 was set to be EA’s flagship game for 2009 but may have some sales hindered by piracy. This is not always true however as despite being leaked, Resident Evil 5 still set sales record for the series.
The game has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times already and is being called the “real deal” with little to no bugs or crashes.
EA has had a bad year so far in terms of piracy and leaks, especially with the debacle that came with the release of the hit game Spore which eventually led to a class action suit against the developer.
Sprint gives Palm Pre a price
Sprint Nextel has announced it will begin selling the hotly anticipated Palm Pre smartphone on June 6th for $200 USD with a new or upgraded two-year contract. The price is equal to that of the lower capacity Apple iPhone, the phone the Pre is most directly rivaling.
Alongside the announcement however, Sprint CEO Dan Heese did admit he expects shortages of the phone during launch week.
“We don’t intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while,” Hesse added. “We won’t be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.”
Despite the high anticipation for the new smartphone, many analysts believe it can be upstaged right from the get-go by a cheaper, updated iPhone expected to be launched on June 8th.
CL King Associates analyst Lawrence Harris notes, “It would’ve been nicer if the device was out in the market for a longer period before any potential iPhone.”
LG begins shipping new BD390 Blu-ray player
LG has begun shipping its high end BD390 Blu-ray player this week, with a price tag of $400 USD.
The player is the first of its kind to playback DivX videos at full 1080p, whether it is burned to a DVD or being played from a flash drive.
Other nice specs the player has is Wi-Fi, 1GB internal storage and Blu-ray BD-Live compatibility. The BD390 also has built-in Netflix and YouTube video streaming features.
The player supports 7.1-channel Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio surround, and includes native 24 fps video without pulldown conversion.
C&D letter sent to Engadget over alleged ‘Slim PS3′ pics
According to a post over at Engadget, the site has received a cease and desist letter over pictures of the alleged ‘Slim PS3′ that show the console with a heavily redesigned body that is completely slim-lined. The move gives the pictures more credibility, but we will not know officially until Sony stops denying.
The message says:
Dear Sir,
We just find that the following web pages on your website contain some confidential document and photos, which were highly possibly illegally
released and posted:
(redacted)
We are investigating this violation and will bring all necessary legal actions regarding this matter. In order to protect the confidential information and prevent you from further legal issues and infringements, please immediately remove those pages and keep our request confidential. If you have any question regarding this issue, please feel free to contact us.
Your cooperation is deeply appreciated.
