Kevin Sexton | The Verge

Lovefilm secures Warner Brothers UK streaming rights deal

2011-11-17T09:09:28-05:00

darkknight

Lovefilm has signed a multi-year deal with Warner Brothers for access to its catalog of movies. The agreement also contains exclusive streaming rights in the UK for a newly created “second pay-TV window,” which means that after the traditional pay-tv window, WB movies will only be available to stream on Lovefilm for four to five years before it enters the free-to-air realm.

Movies like The Dark Knight, The Hangover, and Gran Torino will be available from December onwards. The company also announced that it will be offering streaming on the Xbox 360 for the first time by the end of the year, broadening its list of compatible platforms. The agreement is a step towards countering the deals that Netflix has made with Miramax, Lionsgate, and MGM in preparation for its UK launch. While Lovefilm may have the backing of Amazon, it’s going to need many more steps like this before it can be sure not to be rolled over by the arrival of the American service.

CyanogenMod 9 for Ice Cream Sandwich in the works

2011-11-17T05:48:44-05:00

With Ice Cream Sandwich righting the wrongs of Honeycomb three days ago in terms of source code availability, possibilities for mods and custom versions are blossoming again. CyanogenMod 9 is now under development, with a loose arrival date of January expected. Version 8 had been reserved for Honeycomb, but has now been skipped over due to Google holding on to its source code. Cyanogen also states on Twitter that the Gingerbread-based build (7.2) will continue to receive attention while version 9 is put together. The custom software is being developed on the Galaxy Nexus which launches today in the UK, so if you’re keen to be among the first to install the ROM, you know which smartphone to get.

Bringing CM9 to the TouchPad and Nook Color is in the works, though we’re told it’ll take a bit more time to complete, particularly for the Nook Color.

Salman Rushdie triumphs over Facebook in identity battle

2011-11-15T14:59:01-05:00

Salman rushdie

The multiple Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie was embroiled in a conflict with Facebook over his real name yesterday. The social network deactivated his account and requested that he prove his identity, only to reinstate it under the wrong name. Even though he has always used his middle name, Facebook demanded the account be under Ahmed Rushdie, in accordance with his passport. The story has a happy and ironic ending in that the problem was fixed when Rushdie went to Twitter to seek help. Within two hours of his followers kicking up a storm, Facebook had reinstated the original name and issued an official apology.

While Rushdie has certainly been in more controversial situations than this (unless in today’s world losing a Facebook account is worse than having the Iranian government issue a death warrant for you), the matter raises questions about the value and purpose of online identity. Who really owns or controls our online accounts, and how many followers does it take for that to be a non-issue?

iPhone 4S to launch in India on November 25th

2011-11-15T07:49:54-05:00

iphone 4s big

Indian phone network Aircel announced that it will be carrying the iPhone 4S as of November 25th. Its competitor, Airtel, has also said that it will be launching the phone soon, but has not provided a date as of yet. Pricing hasn’t been confirmed either, but based on the iPhone 4, it’s expected to be between 35,000 and 40,000 Rupees (about $690 – $790) on contract.

Apple promised to make this the fastest iPhone rollout so far, which explains why Indian customers only have to put up with a six week delay instead of facing a repeat of the 11 months it took for the iPhone 4 to come to the subcontinent. The company plans to deploy the 4S in over 70 countries and have deals with over 100 carriers by the end of the year. Having recently launched in 15 other markets, it seems like Apple’s well on the way.

Samsung Captivate Glide, DoubleTime, and Pantech Pocket available on AT&T on November 20th

2011-11-15T05:25:21-05:00

Captivate Glide

AT&T has set a release date for two of the new Samsung phones coming to its network: the QWERTY landscape slider Captivate Glide and the clamshell DoubleTime will both be available on November 20th. In our hands-on we found the entry level phones to be lacking in several ways; the screen on the Captivate Glide isn’t quite up to scratch and the DoubleTime’s use of the antiquated Android 2.2 is somewhat disappointing. Nevertheless, if you’re keen on dipping your toe into Android waters with a physical keyboard, you’ll soon have more options for doing so. Also tagging on to that November 20th date is the Pantech Pocket, which is intended to create a better web browsing experience with its unusually wide portrait 800 x 600 screen, bringing back the almost forgotten 4:3 aspect ratio. No word on pricing for any of the phones yet.

Update: Prices are $49.99 for DoubleTime and $149.99 for Captivate Glide.

AMD releases the Opteron 6200, the first ever 16-core x86 CPU

2011-11-14T09:32:38-05:00

AMD Opteron

After a long wait, AMD is finally making its high-end Bulldozer Opteron CPUs available. The 6200 (Interlagos) brings a world first to the table, with 16 cores and four memory channels, while the 4200 (Valencia) chip offers eight cores with two memory channels. Both come clocked at speeds of up to 3.3GHz, with an additional 1GHz Turbo Boost available on some models.

You could use these chips to bask in Battlefield 3’s ultra settings, but the Opterons are the kind of CPU that are more likely to be powering supercomputers at the US Department of Defense. The chips offer fine control over power consumption with single-watt adjustments on the TDP Power Cap, and AMD claim that they outperform similarly priced Intel Xeon CPUs by 89 percent. The eight-core 4200 starts at $316 in bulk and prices go all the way up to $1,019 for the most expensive 6200.

SlingPlayer for Facebook demonstrated on video

2011-11-12T10:07:01-05:00

Slingplayer facebook

Sling Media is joining the list of Facebook partners keen to make their product social. The new player allows you to access and control your TV from inside the social network, effectively providing the same service as Sling.com with some sharing features baked in. At the moment that only consists of a status bar which lets you share your thoughts on what you’re watching in the same tab as the video, but Sling says that both the release of the player and the addition of more social and sharing elements will be coming soon. While there may not be much for this particular version of the player to set itself apart from the previous web version, Sling Media says its goal is to simply have its content available in as many places as possible.

Kobo Touch with Offers costs $99.99, adds ads

2011-11-12T05:58:53-05:00

Kobo Touch with Offers

The Kobo Touch e-reader will soon be available for $40 less thanks to a new version with Offers. Just like on Amazon’s Kindle, ads will populate the lock screen and a sliver at the bottom of the homescreen. When it ships, two to three weeks from now, users will have to choose carefully as, unlike the Kindle, there doesn’t seem to be any way of paying to turn off ads. The move comes as yet another development in the race to challenge Amazon’s price points; Barnes & Noble managed to hit the $99.99 mark on the Nook Simple Touch without any advertising just a few days ago, besting both Amazon and this new offer. Kobo still has a lot of work to do if it wants to compete with those two giants, but its recent acquisition by the Japanese e-commerce powerhouse Rakuten should help level the playing field.

Linux Advocates protest ‘Designed for Windows 8’ secure boot policy

2011-11-02T19:18:46-04:00

windows linux

The Linux Foundation, Red Hat, and Canonical have all registered discontent with Microsoft’s new mandate that if OEMs want “Designed for Windows 8” certification, Secure Boot must be turned on by default. Microsoft’s chosen implementation of the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) helps prevent boot loader attacks but also complicates matters for Linux: computers with the sticker will not be able to Secure Boot into the OS without help from OEMs. Microsoft has addressed these concerns by pointing to the Developer Preview tablet given away at the BUILD conference last month, which included the option to disable Secure Boot. However, using the feature in conjunction with Linux instead of having to do away with the security benefits to dual-boot is not yet on the horizon.

Here the Linux Foundation comes in, recommending that PCs be shipped in Setup Mode and that Secure Boot be implemented in a compatible manner with Linux. Meanwhile, Red Hat and Canonical teamed up for a white paper that suggests that hardware manufacturers should include an option to either add a list of approved software or make it easier to turn off Secure Boot entirely. To cap matters off, Dell and HP have made statements saying that they have always been committed to offering users choice in operating systems. If the rest of the major OEMs follow suit this issue will be resolved well before Windows 8 is released, a result that will reassure the Linux community, but might also leave them wondering what all the fuss was about.

Firefox with Bing integration announced by Microsoft and Mozilla

2011-10-27T18:56:01-04:00

Firefox with Bing

Mozilla and Microsoft are launching a new version of Firefox that defaults to Bing for its search options and homepage. The alternate version of the browser isn’t substantially different from the standard build — it just ships with the Bing add-on preinstalled. The stock version of Firefox continues to ship with Google, but that deal runs out in November, when Mozilla says it’ll “reassess” the situation; a change would be a huge boost to Bing and allow Mozilla to diversify its revenue sources.

Mozilla has never been shy about exploring the complicated relationship between open and closed sourced products — the company says it has nearly 20 versions of Firefox including ones made in partnership with Twitter and Yahoo.