Aching to ditch your cable box, but can’t bear to let go of that sweet, commercial-skipping DVR? If the folks behind PlayOn get their way, you won’t have to. MediaMall launched the beta for PlayLater this week, a service it’s calling “the world’s first DVR for online video.” The idea of a DVR for the internet sounds a little wonky at first, but it is an accurate description of the program’s facilities — pick a network (Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc.), a show, and an episode, and PlayLater downloads your selection to your computer’s hard drive for belated enjoyment. Simple? Sure, but not without a catch — anything PlayLater pulls down it wraps in a neat layer of DRM, locking that content to the PC that downloaded it. Time-shifting Hulu will set you back $5 a month, but beta testers (the first 5,000, at least) can score a free month just for trying it out. Hit the break for a press release and additional details.

Continue reading MediaMall’s PlayLater brings DVR to internet video

MediaMall’s PlayLater brings DVR to internet video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The town of Cornelius, CO has found that a new pilot program replacing paper with iPads is saving the administration money, time and helping the environment along with increasing government transparency, according to the Huntersville Herald. Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte and the town’s five commissioners recently each were issued an iPad 2, paid for by the town, which they premiered at the town’s board meeting on Monday June 20.

The iPads all plug into the town’s NovusAgenda software, providing commissioners with all necessary meeting materials, including budget worksheets, zoning maps and PowerPoint presentations, which once comprised 210 pages of printed materials each. These packages used to be distributed in paper form to 19 members, which meant a whole lot of time spent copying, and money spent leasing and maintaing copy equipment, in addition to the cost of supplies.

Town Manager Anthony Roberts says he’s amazed with how much sense it makes to use iPads and digital material instead of paper. “It’s just a no brainer,” he told the Huntersville Herald. “We used to print all those agenda packets and people threw them in the recycling bin after the meeting.” Plus, Roberts says, going digital helps transparency, since “the beauty of this system is you have everything online. It’s there forever and a day, and the general public sees everything.”

There’s an initial expense associated with the system, but the NovusAgenda software is a one-time fee that should last years, and the iPad 2′s are actually relatively cheap, since only the 16 GB Wi-Fi versions are required. Roberts says the city spent between $700 and $800 on each laptop it was purchasing anyways, so the iPad is a much more economical solution. With a gradual rollout, there’s no reason to think the savings wouldn’t scale for larger cities, too.

The iPad is winning fans in government, business and education because it’s easy to use for almost anyone, and because it’s very flexible thanks to its support of custom apps that plug into third-party systems and server software. Cornelius is a good example of how it can have an impact at the municipal level, and Roberts points out a very good reason why we might see other cities (many of which are facing budget crunches) follow suit: “People ask why? To save money. They’re cheaper. That’s why.”

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He loved Ron, yeah yeah yeah…

That’s right – peace and love uber hippie John Lennon was a closeted Reagan Republican at the time of his death, according to the Beatle’s last personal assistant.

Fred Seaman, who worked for Lennon from 1979 until he was gunned down in the street outside his apartment in 1980, said the singer admired Reagan, who was running for president against Jimmy Carter at the time.

“John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on Jimmy Carter,” Seaman says in a new Beatles documentary. “He’d met Reagan back, I think, in the 70s at some sporting event.”

“I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who’s an old-time communist,” Seaman said. “It was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism.”

“He was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he’d been when he wrote ‘Imagine,’ Seaman said. “By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy’s naivete.”

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There is to be an eternal debate on what is actually the worst miss, sitter or otherwise, in football history, but there is to be little debate on just what is the worst, most hilarious reaction to a missed goal in history:

That guy.

The goals of Equatorial Guinea are apparently very important to him – let’s hope he’s not a River Plate fan too.

[SBNation]

View full post on International Football News – World Cup Blog

As the world runs short on snarky phone titles (and in fact, starts using a couple of the gems on more than one occasion), we’re left to overlook the moniker here while focusing on what’s important: that display. In fact, the 4.7-inch WVGA Super LCD shown here actually does seem to extend on for Eternity, and if HTC Inside’s leak pans out, we could be looking at the world’s next WP7 superphone. It’s bruited that this fellow will be shipping with a single-core 1.5GHz processor, 8 megapixel camera (autofocus, dual LED flash), a 720p movie mode, front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera, 16GB of storage, DLNA support, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS and a 1,650mAh battery. That’s a pretty startling list of features, and savvy Windows Phone followers will recognize that the Mango update will indeed be necessary before that front-facing shooter becomes useful. Needless to say, we’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for more, as essentials like price and release have thus far eluded us.

HTC Eternity leaked: 1.5GHz processor, 4.7-inch display, front-facing camera originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The official unveiling of the Audi Limited Edition TT-RS is likely at the Australian International Motor Show. Audi had made about 45 units of this automobile for Australian customers.

The limited version would equips 7-speed S-tronic transmission and also claims to have made many value additions  to the car.

The seven-speed dual clutch transmission will allow the Audi TT-RS to race to a speed from zero to 100 km/h in just about 4.3 seconds. If you didn’t know, this is 0.3 seconds faster than the 6-speed model. For the highway speeds, the TT-RS has seventh gear designed as a high-geared overdrive that cuts down on fuel consumption by just reducing engine speed.

The S-tronic transmission is integrated with a built-in launch control function. The company has limited the peak speed electronically to 250 km/h.

A look at the power department would bring to light that it has been left unaltered. The 2.5-litre five-cylinder TFSI engine returns 250 kW (340 PS / 335 bhp) and 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) of torque.

View full post on Car Blog | Breaking Motoring News Daily

The new Apple Thunderbolt cable comes with a $49 price tag, which is a bit pricey, and the first Thunderbolt accessories available require you to buy one separately. Teardown company, iFixit took a peek inside one of the new cables, and came up with a good reason why Thunderbolt costs so much.

Each cable has a controller at either end, which is used to regulate the speed of data transfer and boost the signal to make Thunderbolt’s extremely low-latency transmission possible. Each end contains six chips, including two Gennum GN2033s and four smaller ones, making for a total of 12 chips in each cable. This makes the Thunderbolt cable an “Active” cable, which has its own internal firmware and allows it to managed the high two-channel independent 10 Gbps transmission speeds.

But it also isn’t cheap. And for right now, Apple is the only game in town when it comes to Thunderbolt cable suppliers. As Ars Technica points out, the situation bears some similarity to the early days of FireWire, which was initially very costly and limited to Apple because of unfavorable costs when compared with USB. Apple didn’t help things by initially requiring licensing fees for use of the FireWire trademark and logo. Ars argues that the similar high costs of Thunderbolt could limit its ability to gain a real foothold.

I see the similarities between Thunderbolt and FireWire, but I think it’s too early to assign them the same ultimate fate. For one thing, Apple is well aware of how the FireWire situation panned out. The Mac maker isn’t likely to repeat the same missteps with Thunderbolt if it really does intend for the tech to have wide applicability. Second, Thunderbolt is like FireWire, but they also can’t really be compared in terms of what they allow a user to potentially do. Display connectivity, along with speeds that basically allow Thunderbolt to act as an external PCI connector give it a much broader scope in terms of applicability. Want to set up a server with upwards of 50 terabytes of storage running through a Mac mini? Easy (and relatively cheap using the new Pegasus RAID drives), once an updated Mac hits the market. Plus there’s always the scenario of the computer-on-a-drive that can be booted from any Mac, apps, files and settings intact.

Apple is also in a much different position than it was when it introduced FireWire. It’s share of the PC market has never been stronger, and it continues to experience growth in that sector. It also has a huge chunk of the rapidly expanding mobile industry, thanks to the iPhone, iPod and iPad. While Thunderbolt tech hasn’t yet made an appearance on the mobile side of Apple’s business, I think it’s only a matter of time before it does, and then it doesn’t matter who else embraces it.

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A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video will save you even more typing. There are lots of video chat options out there now for both Mac and iOS, and the field is growing more competitive. Which is your go-to client on either platform, and why?

Apple is now putting FaceTime HD cameras in new Macs, which provides better video quality for Mac-to-Mac and Mac-to-iOS calling, but of course, FaceTime has a limited reach because it only works on Apple hardware. iChat, Apple’s IM client, supports video chat with other iChat users, and with those using the AOL Instant Messenger network, too, so it’s actually a little more flexible. Google Talk lets you make video calls from Gmail to other Google users, but it doesn’t have a native Mac app, which might be a problem for some. Skype works across different devices, but the recent Mac overhaul has left some unimpressed. Each has benefits and downsides, but which is usually your first choice?

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You have nearly as many options when it comes to iOS video chat. Skype has a solid iPhone client, and an iPad version is supposed to be arriving in the very near future. Fring just updated its app to allow users to make 4-way group video calls with an iPad-optimized interface, and it also offers group video calling on the iPhone. FaceTime keeps extending its reach, and has the benefit of being pre-loaded on all current generation iOS devices, and requiring very minimal setup. Which are you using to stay in touch?

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(CNN) -  Good news for Nigeria. A wake-up call for South Africa.

That’s my “take-home message” from the headlines emerging from a new Morgan Stanley report, which predicts Nigeria’s economy will overtake South Africa’s as Africa’s largest by 2025.

High oil prices, the “decisive” election of President Goodluck Jonathan and buoyant consumer spending will all push Nigeria’s economy into the front in the next 15 years, says the Morgan Stanley survey.

Critics in South Africa say they are not concerned about the prospect of the country losing its spot as the largest economy on the continent.

Economists brush off this latest report by saying that the Morgan Stanley projections are based on economic models that are contingent on factors that might or might not impact the Nigerian economy.

Whatever the eventual outcome in 2025, the report serves as another sage reminder to Nigerians to manage their oil wealth cleverly ­by pouring investments into infrastructure and making sure that government polices and regulations stimulate growth in the sector.

Of course, oil remains about 80% of Nigeria’s GDP and experts say that is just too much. The country needs to diversify as it strides ahead in the coming decades.

South Africa’s economy is, of course, healthily diversified and not reliant on the variables of oil prices.

However, for Africa’s biggest economy to maintain its lead over its West African competitor, South Africa has to invest and upgrade its education system. Over and over again, the point cannot be understated: For all South Africa’s promise, the country’s future growth is reliant on the next generation of managers, workers and business leaders.

For now, South Africa is failing to educate its youngsters to steer the country’s economy into 2025 and beyond.

The seriousness of the problem was reinforced on the same day the Morgan Stanley report was publicized.

The results of another survey ­- an annual assessment of the country’s literacy and numeracy levels – were confirmed by South Africa's Department of Education.

Both reports made headlines on the front pages of some of the country’s newspapers. The implications of both stories lying side-by-side in print was a stark reminder of the challenges that lie ahead.

The South African education assessment - which a teacher’s union apparently dubbed “dismal” and “sobering” – was a shocking assessment of the level of literacy and numeracy in the country’s primary schools.

Backed up by other international studies, this report confirmed that South Africa’s young school goers are among the worst-performing students in the world. As one outraged newspaper reported, most nine and 12 year olds “can’t count and can’t understand what they were supposed to have been taught.” This is despite a significant financial investment in education by the South African state.

Looking 15 or 20 years ahead, there are critical and immediate choices that need to be made by Nigeria and South Africa. Africa’s powerhouses both need to nurture and protect their country’s most precious resources.

No one wins in the end if South Africa’s children are unemployable when they finish school.

No one wins in the final reckoning if Nigeria squanders its oil wealth on corruption and bad management.

The whole continent can be uplifted if these two countries stride ahead together, and smartly, in the decades to come.

View full post on Business 360

So, you just bought HTC’s EVO 3D for its three dimensional display and delectable dual-stage camera key, and you’re loving its buttery smooth Sense 3.0 software. Yet, you were dismayed to find that the device wasn’t among the chosen few granted access to Netflix for Android. But don’t worry, folks, apparently the Netflix APK for the EVO 4G can get you streaming cinematic masterpieces in no time. Just head on over to the source link to get your download on, then sit back, relax, and enjoy.

HTC EVO 3D gets Netflix under the table courtesy of EVO 4G’s APK originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 03:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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