Apple has announced that it has updated its iPhone and iPod Touch lineup by adding new models with double the memory capacity.
The new iPhone will feature 16GB of memory and will retail for $499 USD. The current 8GB version costs $399 USD and has been available since Q4 2007.
The new iPod Touch will have 32GB of memory and will retail for $499 USD. The current 8GB and 16GB models cost $299 and $399 USD respectively.
Apple said the new devices will be available in Apple’s retail stores and online through various e-tailers. The new capacity iPhone will also be available through AT&T’s online and retail stores. The new models will come with the latest firmware pre-installed meaning users will be able to rent movies from the iTunes movie rental service.
Result for: Mov
With the now available New Xbox Experience update, Xbox 360 owners have access to Netflix’s large “Watch Instantly” streaming service. However, some users will be disappointed when they see that there are a few films listed as “not available on Xbox.”
The movies not available are from Sony Columbia Pictures, and despite rumors, it is not because Sony happens to have a rival gaming console. It turns out that Netlix did not get a licensing deal completed in time, and the Netflix team admits to the snafu.
Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, added that movie titles “come in and out of licensing all the time.” He said he hopes the missing movies will only be temporary.
“Today, titles regularly come in and out of license and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time,” he explained. “In the case of Xbox 360, a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox game console. Those titles are still available to be watched on subscribers’ computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they’ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly.”
Result for: Mov
According to Motorola, the upcoming 4G/LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard should allow HD video to finally be available on cellular networks. Motorola promises to prove its theory next week at the Mobile World Congress.
The company also stated that they will demo the standard and show examples of HD video moving in both directions including something they call “HD blogging”. Motorola will use LTE to stream live HD video to a set top box so that viewers can follow mobile phone footage in real-time. From the opposite direction, the standard will be shown Streaming an HDTV feed from home straight to the handset, cutting out the need for re-encoding.
Motorola also added that the very low lag times of LTE will make real-time actions finally possible. To demo their statement, the company will show off a racing game played online against other players. They will also show VoIP calls made using LTE.
The company did not say how long until the technologies would be commercially available but LTE should launch in some areas by early 2009.
