The Gadget Geek

Netflix raising rates for Blu-ray subscribers by around 20 percent

Ruh roh. In a move that will undoubtedly cause an incredibly raucous stir, only to fade away as movie renters realize that Netflix is still the best deal going, America’s most adored by-mail rental service is hiking the price of Blu-ray rentals once again. If you’ll recall, Netflix already implemented a $1 per month fee for Blu-ray customers back in October, and now it’s looking to push that premium higher by around 20 percent across its pricing tiers. The company asserts that the increase (slated to hit April 27th and only applicable to BD customers) is due to it buying more titles on BD to “accommodate the increasing number of Netflix members who prefer renting movies on Blu-ray.” In fact, nearly 10 percent of all Netflix customers are choosing BD now, and obviously these platters cost quite a bit more for anyone (even Netflix) to procure. Head past the break to see how big of a hardship this will be on you.

Continue reading Netflix raising rates for Blu-ray subscribers by around 20 percent

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Netflix raising rates for Blu-ray subscribers by around 20 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Games that Push Boundaries
Games that Push Boundaries

The winners of the 2008 Engadget Awards!

You nominated, everybody voted, and the results are in. The winners of the 2008 Engadget Awards are…

Note: There are two sets of awards below. The first are the picks chosen by our readers. The second set are the Engadget editors’ picks.

Continue reading The winners of the 2008 Engadget Awards!

Filed under: Announcements

The winners of the 2008 Engadget Awards! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Games that Push Boundaries
Games that Push Boundaries
California Proposes Ban on Energy-Hogging HDTVs Starting in 2011
The California Energy Commission is proceeding with a proposal this summer to ban the sale of TV sets that do not meet new efficiency standards when they are turned on and displaying a picture a measure of power consumption…
Robots Are Now Precision Surgical Assistants
Robots doing nip, tuck, snip are not new to the medical industry; therefore one would wonder what the agile MIRO is doing here. Well it s here coz it s a light-weight, versatile precision surgical assistant that will probably redefine open surgery as well as minimally invasive surgical procedures like endoscopic heart …

NVIDIA sues Intel right back over Nehalem chipset licensing

Looks like the NVIDIA and Intel’s lawsuit over Nehalem chipset licensing is heating up — NVIDIA’s filed a countersuit seeking to terminate Intel’s licenses to its patents. This little bit of nyah-nyah is just the latest in the recent feud between these two: we’ve got a month-long argument about Atom chips and NVIDIA’s Ion netbook platform going on, and don’t even get anyone started on whether GPUs or CPUs are the wave of the future, it’s freaking endless. Of course, this will all likely end in a settlement agreement and the these two realizing that they’re actually in love, but until then we’re just going have to put up with it. Video after the break.

Continue reading NVIDIA sues Intel right back over Nehalem chipset licensing

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

NVIDIA sues Intel right back over Nehalem chipset licensing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iriver P35 interface caught on video, where it titillates and amuses

Kids of all ages holding tight for an exhaustive look at the new iriver P35 GUI need wait no longer. Caught on video, the interface recalls that of the P7, and seems quite responsive. Widgets are accessed through a scrolling task bar, and — we’re sorry to tell you this — that Big Bang Theory show seems to be just as unfunny on the 4.3-inch WQVGA touchscreen as it is on our family TV set. That said, we’re really looking forward to putting one of these bad boys through its paces. It’s still unavailable in the US and Europe, but for lucky folks in Korea they’re available in one of three versions: 8GB (DMB digital TV), 16GB (DMB digital TV), or 16GB (both DMB and WiFi). Prices start at $286. But that ain’t all — be sure to check out the video for yourself after the break. Music by our Weather Report cover band, Mr. Gone.

[Via SlashGear]

Continue reading iriver P35 interface caught on video, where it titillates and amuses

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

iriver P35 interface caught on video, where it titillates and amuses originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES 2009: Sony Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC
CES 2009: Sony Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC
$35,000 Ice Cream Machine Pumps Liquid Nitrogen
Want to save a little money and have a little scientific fun by making your own ice cream? If you normally spend more than $35,000 on a tub, then you could do both with the N2-G4 NitroCream, a rather startlingly…
Its Either ME OR The Remote
Hey YDers, this NVISIBLE TOUCH IT Universal Remote Control concept is a very tricky proposition. If something like this were to hit the stands, then either we women would lose our who owns the remote control battle to our men OR we could use it effectively to get chores done. …

Mentor-branded 5-inch e-reader surfaces alongside PocketBook collection

Ah, the lovely world of rebadged e-readers. If you’ll recall, we saw a nice trio of Astak Mentor e-book readers way back in May of last year, and now we’re seeing a smaller, more curvaceous version pictured alongside those very devices. Early assumptions were that this new 5-inch model would also belong to PocketBook, but those rumors have already been laid to rest. What we’re left with is a few solid images, a Mentor label and a mind full of mystery. It’s almost like reading a Danielle Steel novel, but only in the emotional sense.

[Via MobileRead, thanks Nate]

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

Mentor-branded 5-inch e-reader surfaces alongside PocketBook collection originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researcher finds electrical stimulation key to rehabilitating paralyzed limbs
We’ve seen the wonders of electrical stimulation before, so it’s no real shock (ahem) to hear that a University of Florida engineer has figured out a method to combine that very tactic with sophisticated computer learning technology in order to assist Earthlings in regaining “more precise, more life-like control of paralyzed limbs.” Reportedly, the research could help around 700,000 Americans who suffer from strokes and 11,000 from cord injuries each year. Says the university’s Warren Dixon (pictured): “It’s an adaptive scheme to do electrical stimulation more efficiently, with less fatigue and more accuracy.” Eventually, the dream is to build a wearable, pacemaker-sized device that could output the precise amount of stimulation at the perfect time in order to encourage natural movement, and it would also be able to adapt to each individual as it learns their habits and techniques. Not mentioned in the report, however, was just how beneficial this discovery could be to the scads of preposterously lazy Americans, too.

[Via DailyTech]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Science

Researcher finds electrical stimulation key to rehabilitating paralyzed limbs originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Convergence: Music/Movies Meet Games
Convergence: Music/Movies Meet Games

AT&T confirms contract-free $599 / $699 iPhone 3Gs for next week
Just in time to nab your soon-to-be-jailbroken copy of iPhone OS 3.0, AT&T has now confirmed that commitment-free iPhones are going to happen — soon, in fact. As of next Thursday, you’ll be able to waltz into the AT&T store of your choice and pick up an 8GB or 16GB unit for $599 and $699, respectively; that’s a little harder to swallow than the normal $199 / $299, granted, but in exchange, you’re free and clear without two years of your precious life sold off to a wireless carrier like it’s a cheap piece of meat. You’re worth more than that, you know?

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

AT&T confirms contract-free $599 / $699 iPhone 3Gs for next week originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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XtremeMac Luna iPod Clock Radio
XtremeMac Luna iPod Clock Radio
Christ Cookie Cutter Crosses Lines of Taste
Easter will soon be upon us, and what better way to remember the events of 2000 years ago than with this Crucifixion Cookie Cutter, fresh from German cookware supplier Tadenberg? Actually, there are probably many much more tasteful things to…

Iomega NAS gets BitTorrent support, some other stuff

Iomega announced several free upgrades to its StorCenter ix2 NAS yesterday, the most exciting of them being PC-less BitTorrent support and remote access capabilities, enabling uploading / downloading via FTP. As for the other upgrades, the company has added Apple Protocol support, jumbo frames to speed up those large file transfers, and folder quotas. All the upgrades are available through an Iomega update, and while the remote access is free for the first year, it’ll cost you $9.95 every year thereafter. The 1TB ix2 can be yours for around $299, while the 2TB runs about $470.

[Via Gearlog]

Filed under: Storage

Iomega NAS gets BitTorrent support, some other stuff originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NeoDigits Helios X5000
NeoDigits Helios X5000
3D Avatar in Baseball Cards is the New Bubble Gum
The Topps card company is now adding augmented reality features to baseball cards in order to bring the staid (OK, dying) business into the 21st century. Combining a camera tracking system, any webcam, and image processing software from Total Immersion,…
Portable Gardens Can Replace Walking Your Dog
Have a Green Thumb but always rued the lack of space, season or inclination to get your personal green-patch? No worries, the Eden Project is perfectly suited for such situations. It s a scheme where you get to take home your own patch of garden for a while, tend to it …

Axiotron’s Modbook goes and Modbook Pro to get projected capacitive screens

Resistive touch-screens are great when you have a stylus in-hand, capacitive screens offer more finesse when you’re going at it with fingertips, and both are about useless when you’re wearing gloves (for now, anyway). That changes with the projective capacitive screen, able to offer responsiveness to a bare fingertip and also react to non-conductive objects like styli, and it’s that type of screen that Axiotron’s MacBook-based Modbook tablets will be seeing in the near future thanks to a partnership with Touch International. Starting next month, Modbook buyers will be able to add a Synergy Touch screen as an option, while those going for the 15.4-inch Modbook Pro will receive one as standard. No word on what this accessory will cost, but we think it’s a shame the two couldn’t get these things to market before the end of glove season.

[Via Gadgets.TMCNet.com]

Filed under: Displays, Laptops, Tablet PCs

Axiotron’s Modbook goes and Modbook Pro to get projected capacitive screens originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Buffalo’s external 32GB and 64GB SSDs can swap insides with your Eee PC’s original drive

Sure, you could look at it as crass commercialism, but we choose to see the softer, gentler side of Buffalo in this act of kindness: buy a new SSD upgrade for your ASUS Eee PC 901-16G and Buffalo will toss in a free chassis to hold your existing 16GB drive. The 32GB and 64GB drives will run you $129 and $228, respectively, and actually ship inside the external drive — you don’t have to swap SSDs if you don’t want to, but we like the option. We would, anyways, if we lived in Japan.

[Via PortableMonkey]

Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Buffalo’s external 32GB and 64GB SSDs can swap insides with your Eee PC’s original drive originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES 2009 Samsung LED LCD TVs
CES 2009 Samsung LED LCD TVs
Leica Wants to Make a Full Frame Rangefinder
Those of you holding out for a full-frame M series Leica may be in luck, although you’ll still have a while to wait. Up until now, the digital rangefinders have had cropped sensors, making them unable to properly use Leica’s…