A Fistful of Smart Media Dollars

The rise of smart, multi-screen streaming media is fundamentally changing the TV experience. This year, for the first time ever, Americans will watch more movies over the Internet than on physical media like DVD and Blu-ray. Ooyala?s Video Index Report found that non-desktop video plays doubled in the fourth quarter of 2011. Tablet sales continue to explode. People now spend more time on Xbox Live streaming movies and TV shows than playing video games. And consumer electronics manufacturers are gearing up to ship 125 million Smart TVs in 2014. Simply put, TV is no longer constrained to a single box, a single screen, or a single UI. Smart networks, broadcasters, studios and service providers recognize that there?s real money to be made as TV moves into the information age. People are not only watching more movies and TV shows online, they are paying for access to premium video content. Recent studies reveal that over half of American tablet owners paid to watch a movie in Q4 2011 and more than 40% paid for TV content. These are strong signs that we?ve come a long way from Jeff Zucker?s ?digital pennies? remark back in 2008.

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This "That's What She Said" Receipt Is Funnier Than Any Stupid April Fools [Meme]

Gizmodo reader Cameron Halter said he was eating at Taco Mac in Atlanta, Georgia, when they noticed this note in their receipt. "I think it speaks for itself," he says in his email. Truth. [Thanks Cameron!] More »

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 132 - 03.31.2012

It was a relatively slow news week. So what? We'll make those lemons into podcast lemonade any day, and you, friend, are invited to our lemonade stand. We take credit cards.

Hosts: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen, Joseph Volpe
Guest: Andrew Munchbach
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Tycho - Coastal Brake (Ghostly International)

00:01:48 - RIM announces Q4 2012 earnings, Jim Balsillie resigns from board, company plans to refocus on enterprise
00:04:30 - RIM CEO Thorsten Heins reportedly 'clearing house,' laying off numerous executives
00:10:00 - RIM sticking with consumer goods, just 'refocusing' on enterprise
00:18:55 - Android 4.0.4 rolls out to HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus and GSM Nexus S
00:40:47 - Samsung ships five million Galaxy Notes in just five months
00:54:04 - Conversion kit lets you push your RAZR to the Maxx for $110
00:55:30 - LG Lucid becomes official on Verizon, can be yours March 29th for $80
01:02:05 - Nano-SIM standard vote postponed while RIM accuses Apple of cheating
01:05:55 - T-Mobile's next MyTouch: Huawei Ascend G312 QWERTY hands-on
01:17:05 - Nokia Lumia 900 to hit AT&T on April 8th with $100 price tag in tow (video)
01:18:55 - AT&T confirms HTC Titan II to join Lumia 900 on April 8th for $200 (video)
01:33:37 - Samsung Galaxy S ICS-like 'value pack' upgrade officially released in Korea

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 132 - 03.31.2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google holds back on open-sourcing Honeycomb, heralds massive shift for Android

Google, in an interesting but not entirely unexpected twist, will not be open-sourcing Android 3.0 Honeycomb for the foreseeable future.

Historically, Android is usually open-sourced via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) a few days or weeks after the code is finalized. While this departure from the norm won't affect OEMs like HTC and Motorola that have access to internal builds of Android, small-time developers will likely have to wait months before rolling their own distributions.

As to why Google is holding back Honeycomb, its reasons are actually rather rational. Honeycomb, while originally intended to run on all mobile form factors, is only ready for deployment on tablets. "To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design tradeoffs," says Andy Rubin, the head of Google's Android group. "We didn't want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut."

In other words, Google wants to prevent OEMs and homebrew developers like Cyanogen from rolling their own smartphone versions of Honeycomb -- it doesn't want to see the same bitter-tasting tabletified bastardization that occurred with Android 2.1 and 2.2 last year.

Continue reading Google holds back on open-sourcing Honeycomb, heralds massive shift for Android

Google holds back on open-sourcing Honeycomb, heralds massive shift for Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Clean Bottle Runner ? Store Your Phone and Keys in Your Water Bottle

Well, you don’t exactly store them in the water bottle – more with the Clean Bottle.� A while ago, Julie told us about the Clean Bottle, a 22-ounce plastic water bottle with a leak-proof screw-off bottom for easy cleaning.� The Clean Bottle Runner includes a jacket that has a clear, play-though plastic pocket for your [...]

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This Week's Top Web Comedy Video: Downton Arby's [Video]

Downton Abbey has many charms: deliberate pacing, gorgeous backdrops, top-rate acting. In fact, just about the only thing it's been missing these first two phenomenal seasons? Roast beef. And maybe curly fries. Fixed! More »

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Color vulnerable to simple GPS hack, lets you spy on anyone, anywhere

Color, the $41-million-in-funding location-oriented photo sharing startup, is susceptible to simple GPS spoofing. With nothing more than a jailbroken iPad or iPhone, you can use FakeLocation to trick Color into thinking you're somewhere else. Within seconds you can be browsing photos that were snapped thousands of miles away. With a little digging, you can pore through photos not intended for your eyes.

Of course, such a hack isn't illegal as such -- every photo you take with Color is public. With FakeLocation you are simply circumventing Color's very limited location-oriented security mechanism. It does undermine Color's usefulness (and uniqueness), though -- if nefarious types can sit in their bedroom or basement and eavesdrop on classy dinner parties and wild night club soirees, people might be less inclined to share personal photos with those around them.

Fortunately, both for Color and its users, this is an easy security hole to plug -- at least in the short term. The app (or server-side) code simply checks to see if the user has 'teleported' an impossibly large distance, without any intermediate steps in between. In the long term, though, Color's users must be aware that its social graph is completely public. Color's users must realize that every photo they upload is visible by anyone, from any place.

After the break, just to elucidate a little on Color's actual business model and ultimate intention, we have two amazing quotes from Bill Nguyen, Color's founder.

Continue reading Color vulnerable to simple GPS hack, lets you spy on anyone, anywhere

Color vulnerable to simple GPS hack, lets you spy on anyone, anywhere originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DoubleTwist adds Google Music support, gets an alarm clock app

DoubleTwist is certainly still one of the better music management options for Android, and it just keeps improving. Two days ago the player app got an update and now it can hook into Google Music, though, it only recognizes songs that you've checked for offline access from within the Google app. An unfortunate restriction, but at least your tracks don't disappear into the ether if you prefer to play back your tunes via DoubleTwist. There's also new functionality coming to what is now less an app than an ecosystem, thanks to the just released DoubleTwist Alarm Clock. The functionality is pretty much what you'd expect -- set a time and pick a song from your DoubleTwist library to gently rouse you from your slumber (or kick your butt out of bed). The Alarm Clock is just $0.99 in the Play Market right now for the first 10,000 customers. After that it'll go up to $1.99. So don't waste any time, go download it now.

Gallery: DoubleTwist Alarm Clock

DoubleTwist adds Google Music support, gets an alarm clock app originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CrunchGear Week In Review: Nook Dome Edition

Here are some highlights of the past week on CrunchGear: Review: L.A. Noire (And Giveaway) DIY Geodesic Dome On Kickstarter Review: The Barnes & Noble Nook Post-Apple Palate Cleanser: More Swiss Army Axes! Player 1 Start: The Wii U Vs. The Playstation Vita (Fly Or Die)

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Sony outlines Xperia ICS update plans - manual upgrade only, starting mid-April

Sony Mobile (or Sony Ericsson, as it was known back then) was one of the first Android manufacturers to step forward with a a definitive upgrade plan for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. We've even seen public beta ROMs released for a couple of devices by Sony devs, and active engagement with the community to track down bugs.

Today Sony's offering up more details about exactly when each of its 2011 (and 2012) Xperia handsets will be getting the latest version of Android. The manufacturer had previously promised updates during Q1, but with just two days of the current quarter remaining, it should come as no surprise that things haven taken a little longer than anticipated.

The first Sony devices to get ICS will be the Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and Xperia Ray, starting mid-April. Next up it's the Xperia Arc, Xperia Play, Xperia Neo, Xperia Mini, Xperia Mini Pro, Xperia Pro, Xperia Active and SE Live with Walkman, which will get ICS from "the end of May/early June."

If you've just bought a brand new Xperia S, though, you'll be in for a much longer wait. Sony's new European flagship isn't expected to get ICS until late Q2. As we said in our review, the Xperia S is a phone which sorely needs that ICS update, and early adopters will no doubt be frustrated to find themselves at the back of the line.

Sony also revealed that for 2011 Xperia phones, ICS will be an optional upgrade rather (through the PC Companion app) than a automatic over-the-air update. This is similar to the strategy adopted by Sony Ericsson with the Xperia X10's Gingerbread update. Writing on its Developer World Blog, Sony explains that ICS may actually degrade performance for some users due to increased memory use, and changes to the way SQL databases are handled, so it's not forcing the update on anyone in an OTA.

More technical details are available at the source link, but the upshot is that Sony's giving customers a choice between sticking with the familiar and stable Gingerbread experience, or living life on the edge with ICS. As far as we're concerned, that's got to be a good thing.

Source: Sony Mobile Blog; Sony Developer World

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Cloud Girlfriend will use a swarm of females to satisfy men

Cloud Girlfriend, despite what it sounds like, doesn't really have anything to do with cloud computing. Rather, it uses a cloud of women to pose as your girlfriend on Facebook, or your favorite social network of choice. The service is scheduled to launch 'soon,' and there's no indication of how much it will cost.

With the tagline 'The easiest way to get a girlfriend is to already have one,' Cloud Girlfriend promises to be a very interesting startup indeed. The brains of the operation, David Fuhriman, speaking to CNET, says it's all about fulfilling Maslow's hierarchy of needs. "CloudGirlfriend.com can fulfill Maslow's higher needs, even though the users know that the interaction is virtual. They will interact with a real person and see real profile images of the girl with whom they interact. This interaction can build confidence and esteem as well as provide real training experiences in navigating a friendship and a relationship."

Our concern, of course, is that it's very nearly April 1. We're also worried by the fact that Fuhriman has a name that sounds ominously like a social subculture that we've grown strangely attracted to here in the Download Squad bunker.

Finally, just stop and think about it for a second. Because your cloud girlfriend will be entirely virtual, she could be based anywhere. She could be underage -- or overage -- or she might be someone who you know in real life. She could even be a relative of yours, and you'd never know.

Let's not forget this is the Internet we're talking about, folks. Worst case scenario, she could turn out to be a hairy, male truck driver from Texas. Such as... your dad, perhaps?

Cloud Girlfriend will use a swarm of females to satisfy men originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A "Big Data" Problem Could Be Starving Artists of Revenue [Music]

For nearly 100 years, performing rights organizations have tracked the music played on the radio, then the television, and now the internet. Their goal: to figure out who should get paid. More »

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Scrabble Helper helps you improve your Words With Friends gameplay

If you play Scrabble (or a scrabble-like game) from time to time, you may want to check out Scrabble Helper. This simple website is a godsend when you're at a loss for words. Simply enter whatever letters you have, and the word you'd like to connect with. Scrabble helper comes up with a whole bunch of suggestions sorted by score.

The site lets you select one of five dictionaries - Scrabble International/US, Lexulous International/US, and Words With Friends. Some people might say this constitutes cheating -- I think if the other side knows you're doing it, it's definitely not cheating. And it doesn't take the challenge out of the game, because implementing Scrabble Helper's suggestions and deciding which words you'd like to connect with still takes a fair bit of thought.

Very handy, though perhaps not one for the Scrabble puritans in the crowd.

Scrabble Helper helps you improve your Words With Friends gameplay originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Win an Oberon Design Leather Cover for your new iPad!

You just purchasesd a shiny new iPad and need a snazzy�way to protect it. We’re here to help with a chance to a leather cover from Oberon Design. If you win, you’ll have your choice of 12 different designs and several colors. Contest details after the jump. Prize: Your choice of one iPad 3 leather [...]

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Iran Still Stuck With Stuxnet

Iran apparently has developed an antivirus program to neutralize the notorious Stuxnet virus that put a kink in the country's nuclear development program in June 2010. Iran has vowed to distribute the antivirus program for free in about a month, according to Trend, a publication that describes itself as a private media outlet in Azerbaijan.

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ShopAndroid Daily Giveaway #37: Droid Charge Hard Shell Case, Atrix 2 Barely There Case & more!

Today's ShopAndroid.com Daily Giveaway will feature the Mobi Hard Shell Case for Samsung Droid Charge, Case-Mate Barely There Case for Atrix 2, Seidio Spring Clip Holster for Motorola Droid 2, and the HTC TPU Skin Case for HTC Droid Incredible 2/S.

To become eligible to win one of our featured accessories today, leave a comment below stating which item you'd like to have for your Android device. One lucky winner will be randomly selected and announced next Monday.

Mobi Hard Shell Case for Samsung Droid Charge

Help keep your Samsung Droid Charge protected with the Mobi Hard Shell Case while not sacrificing the slim look of your device.  This hard shell case is designed specifically for the Droid Charge and has precision cutouts for all the device's features, including the screen.  The case is a two-piece design and is easy to install and remove.

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