Sony Brings the Bling with Swarovski Photoframe

Tag Archive: Live

Sony’s movieIQ to Inject Live Movie Info into Blu-ray Titles

Sony

Sony has been promising to open up a whole new world in home entertainment with BD Live, the capability for applications on Blu-ray players to bring in additional content and information from the Internet to supplement Blu-ray titles, whether as bonus content or add-ons and overlays to the material burned to the disk. However, so far BD Live has largely failed to ignite the marketplace, mostly because a good portion of BD Live content amounts to little more than the sorts of extras one finds crammed around the edges of typical movie releases: not very great, and mostly of interest to hardcore fans. Now Sony is looking to change that with movieIQ, a new application that can be burned into Blu-ray titles to enable users to pull up cast, crew, production information, and other details live from the Internet—all tied to specific scenes within a movie.

Now on Sale at Amazon: Downloadable Xbox Live Games

Now on Sale at Amazon: Downloadable Xbox Live Games

Online retailer Amazon.com is well-known for offering just anything and everything for sale through its extensive Web-based store: now, the company is propelling itself into the world of Xbox Live games with the launch of its Xbox Live Store beta, enabling customers to purchase (or make gifts of) Microsoft Points cards, Xbox Live subscription cards, and digital access codes for downloading Xbox Live games. Available titles include favorites like Castle Crashers and Braid, and the move makes Amazon the first retailer outside the Microsoft ecosystem to offer downloadable Xbox Live games for sale.

Windows Live Adding Social Features

Windows Live Adding Social Features

Microsoft has announced the latest iteration of its Windows Live services will update existing Windows Live services (like photo sharing, email, and instant messaging), present Windows Live services as an integrated offering, and work with services from third parties (like Flickr, LinkedIn, Pandora, PhotoBucket, and more) to make it easier for Windows Live users to communicate with their friends and families…and have fun doing it. The goal of the Windows Live makeover is to present Windows Live services as one-stop location—or, ahem, portal—where users can centrally access and manage their online activities. And, of course, if users base their online lives around Windows Live, that increases the number of eyeballs on Microsoft services…which increases Microsoft’s profile in the eyes of online advertisers.

EA to Host Live Need for Speed Event

EA to Host Live Need for Speed Event

Having already entwined the Need for Speed series closely with the real-life automotive scene last week with the launch of the Nissan 370Z in Need for Speed, EA edged even closer on Wednesday by announcing a real-life race event to bear the NFS name. Need for Speed Live will take place near London and feature racers from around the world.

The company envisions the event as part festival and part competition, with a dash of gasoline thrown in for good measure. It should take place (pending negotiations) at Brands Hatch Circuit on June 26, 27, and 28.

Microsoft Sends Suite Magellan to Portugal

Microsoft Sends Suite Magellan to Portugal

Microsoft has announced an agreement with Portugal to put WIndows XP, Microsoft Office 2007, and a selection of educational products onto Portugal’s “Magellan” laptops, based on Intel’s Clasmate PC design. The notebooks cost school children just €50, and are aimed at accelerating technology adoption in Portuguese schools.

“For the first time a whole generation will grow up to have strong English and ICT skills,” said Portugal’s prime minister Jose Socrates, in a statement. “This new generation will be better prepared and able to contribute more to the modernization and development of Portugal. Furthermore, with the Magellan initiative, a PC will be introduced in many homes for the first time, thus also strongly contributing to overcoming info-exclusion in general.”

Microsoft Wooing Users with SearchPerks

Microsoft Wooing Users with SearchPerks

Earlier this year, Redmond software giant Microsoft introduced a cashback program that rewarded users of its Live Search service by offering an opportunity to get a discount on purchases made from partners via Live Search. But you know what they say: money can’t buy you love. So now Microsoft is hoping to bolster usage of its Live Search service by offering…prizes! Under a new SearchPerks program, users accumulate awards “tickets” as they use Live Search, and those tickets can be redeemed for prizes and merchandise when the promotion wraps up April 15, 2009. Participants must sign up by December 31, 2008.

Live Mesh Expands To Three More Countries

CNET reports that Microsoft has expanded its open invitation to join its Live Mesh service to people in Ireland, India and Canada, joining those in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand who already have access to Live Mesh without an invitation.
However, there’s still a cap of the numbers allowed from India, Canada and Ireland.

So what does Live Mesh do? At the moment it stands as a way to synchronize data among a number of computers, but the eventual aim is to move desktop apps to cloud computing and vice versa, as well as synchronizing among multiple devices.

Microsoft Details Games Changes

Microsoft Details Games Changes

At Gamefest 2008, Microsoft has announced it’s making changes to its Games for Windows Live and Xbox Live services, according to a TechNewsWorld report.

All members of Games for Windows Live will be able to play all games, as games fees have been removed. The company is also set to bring in a Games for Windows Live Marketplace.

The Xbox Live service changes will be a boon to independent developers, as the brand-new “Xbox Live Community Games” marketplace will offer games created by members of the XNA Creators Club at a price between $2.50 and $10.00 per game (users will pay in Microsoft points). Developers, however, will have to pay to join the XNA Creators Club – $99 a year – and will receive up to 70% of the revenue on their games.

Microsoft Opens Live Mesh To All

Got a Windows Live ID? Then that’s all you need to enjoy Microsoft’s new Windows Live Mesh service, according to CNET.

First announced in April, Live Mesh allows users to share data across many Windows computers and on the Web.

But Live Mesh is also taking a broader view for the future, with data to be shared between PCs, Macs and handhelds, as well as desktop and web apps, some of which might well be added by the time Microsoft hosts its Professional Developer Conference in October.

The site Liveside.net spotted the Live Mesh announcement:

Xbox Live Revamp

At E3, Microsoft has announced a revamp for its Xbox Live service, with a strong emphasis on the idea of creating communities, and making the games console the heart of a home’s entertainment system.

In many ways they’re chasing the incredibly successful Nintendo Wii, which has diven the casual games market and drawn in millions who would never normally consider gaming – and it shows.

Xbox Live will have avatars to represent gamers – shades of Wii. It will also boast a new social karaoke game, Lips, that would appear to be inspired by Playstation’s Singstar.

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