| Bing's two new 'death to print, death to retail' features get detailed Feb 21st 2012, 18:16 | Ever felt like Bing wasn't for retail stores or print journalism? The two latest Windows Phone updates won't dispel that fantasy, sadly. Bing Vision been update so it can read Barcodes, CD, DVD and Book Covers so you can find out how much cheaper the item in your hand is if ordered online. Image Matching for Newspapers won't arrive until March, but you'll be able to snap a photo of an article you've seen in a local rag and, if its in Microsoft's database, you'll be linked directly to the original version of the article online. That's brick and mortar retail and newspapers taken care of, we'll be waiting around to see what's next on Bing's hit-list -- orphanages, probably. Bing's two new 'death to print, death to retail' features get detailed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  Bing | Email this | Comments | | Comcast to launch Xfinity Streampix streaming video service, challenge Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon (update) Feb 21st 2012, 17:54 |  It was only a matter of time, right? The Wall Street Journal reports that Comcast is rolling out a VOD competitor for Amazon, Netflix and Hulu so it can grab a slice of the streaming video pie. Called Xfinity Streampix, it brings shows from NBC and ABC, along with movies from Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. Scheduled to launch this Thursday, the service will be rolled in for free with some existing cable packages and available on its own for $4.99 a month. For your five bucks, you get access to a back catalog of shows and movies on any internet-capable device, though, naturally we don't know exactly how much content will be available when it goes live. What we do know is that price point puts Streampix well beneath the $7.99 asking price of its competition, so here's hoping a VOD price war ensues.
Update: Check out the official PR after the break for more details, including a list of the content coming to Streampix and Comcast's plans to bring VOD to the Xbox 360 and Android.
Continue reading Comcast to launch Xfinity Streampix streaming video service, challenge Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon (update) Comcast to launch Xfinity Streampix streaming video service, challenge Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Wall Street Journal | Email this | Comments | | Pulse Surface Controller System: bangs the drum, desk, window Feb 21st 2012, 17:36 | The Pulse Surface Controller is a vibration-based musical instrument that finally puts those years of air drumming to use. It's a small, piezo-based MIDI controller that lets you turn pretty much any surface into a musical instrument. The device has a built-in suction cup, comes with velcro straps and plugs into your computer's microphone port. The fun really starts with the dedicated controller software, that converts your percussive punches to your virtual instrument of choice. You're not limited to drums either, as you can map your taps to a velocity sensitive melodic generator to create musical tones and scales. Luckily you won't have to sit on your hands to get one of these either, as the Pulse Surface Controller System is available now for $59, or you can tap-tap-tap the video after the break for a demo. Continue reading Pulse Surface Controller System: bangs the drum, desk, window Pulse Surface Controller System: bangs the drum, desk, window originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  SlashGear | Pulse Controller | Email this | Comments | | Ubuntu's full desktop OS coming to multi-core Android devices Feb 21st 2012, 17:11 | What the Atrix 4G first promised, it looks like the folks at Canonical may deliver. Think back to CES 2011, when Motorola showed us a future where our phone was the only computing device we would need -- only to leave us wanting when its webtop app didn't deliver the requisite functionality for such a future. Well, it turns out Ubuntu now runs on multi-core Android devices and your handset can grant a full desktop experience when docked with a display and a keyboard. It's a customized version of Ubuntu that plays nice with Android, the two OS's sharing data and services while running simultaneously. So, you can still access telephony and texts from the Ubuntu environment while enjoying all the computing capabilities it has to offer, including: Ubuntu TV, virtualization tools for running Windows applications, desktop web browsers, and Ubuntu apps built for ARM. It isn't clear exactly what hardware you'll need to run Ubuntu on a handset, but Canonical has said it works on multi-core devices with HDMI and USB connections. We'll get more info next week when it's shown off at MWC, but until then you'll have to settle for the source below and PR after the break. Continue reading Ubuntu's full desktop OS coming to multi-core Android devices Ubuntu's full desktop OS coming to multi-core Android devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Ubuntu | Email this | Comments | |
