Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Six Ways to Catch Your Favorite TV Shows

With the fall television schedule in full swing, many of us are back in the habit of plopping down in front of the tube at night to catch the latest installment of our favorite show when it's scheduled to air. That means clearing your schedule to watch the show and then sitting in front of the TV for a whole hour just for 43 minutes' worth of programming. That doesn't seem very productive, does it? Luckily, this viewing season there are more ways than ever to catch the latest episodes of your best-loved shows without becoming a slave to the prime-time television schedule. So forget the fall lineup as you know it, because this year you're going to watch TV on your terms.

Six Ways to Catch Your Favorite TV Shows

Monday, April 21, 2008

HD enthusiasts crying foul over cable TV's crunched signals

As cable TV companies pack ever more HD channels into limited bandwidth, some owners of pricey plasma, projector and LCD TVs are complaining that they're not getting the high-def quality they paid for. They blame the increased signal compression being used to squeeze three digital HD signals into the bandwidth of one analog station.

HD enthusiasts crying foul over cable TV's crunched signals - Yahoo! News

Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists

Ben Stein's extraordinary presentation documents how the worlds of science and academia not only crush debate on the origins of life, but also crush the careers of professors who dare to question the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution and natural selection.

Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists - Yahoo! News

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Joint Nokia research project to capture traffic data using GPS-enabled cell phones

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Nokia today (Friday, Feb. 8) tested technology that could soon transform the way drivers navigate through congested highways and obtain information about road conditions. In the unprecedented field experiment, transportation researchers tested the feasibility of using GPS-enabled mobile phones to monitor real-time traffic flow while preserving the privacy of the phones' users.

02.08.2008 - Joint Nokia research project to capture traffic data using GPS-enabled cell phones

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Back Up and Reorder Your iGoogle Page

Google doesn't offer a drag-and-drop method of reordering the tabs on your personalized iGoogle page, but you can manually move the tabs using an XML backup tool provided on the settings page. The basic trick should be pretty simple to anyone who's edited web code before, but Google Blogoscoped has a thorough explanation of what you're looking for and what to move. It's also worth a spin just to grab a copy of your iGoogle XML data, which you can restore at any time if that new experimental gadget takes over your whole page (which has been known to happen on occasion).

Back Up and Reorder Your iGoogle Page

PlayStation 3 Firmware Update 2.30 Brings DTS-HD Master Audio

Today, SCEA announced that the latest PS3 update, 2.30, would bring the ability to decode DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio tracks, that is to say, Blu-ray audio at variable bit rates up to 24.5Mbps, and 7.1 streaming of 96K/24-bit tracks. Does this make PS3 the best Blu-ray player ever? If you've got a receiver that can take an uncompressed audio stream of that magnitude via HDMI, then we think it does. The upgrade also contains new PlayStation store functionality—more details after the jump.

PS3: PlayStation 3 Firmware Update 2.30 Brings DTS-HD Master Audio:

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

'God particle' expected to be found soon - Yahoo! News

The father of a theoretical subatomic particle dubbed "the God particle" says he's almost sure it will be confirmed in the next year in a race between powerful research equipment in the United States and Europe.

'God particle' expected to be found soon - Yahoo! News

Friday, April 04, 2008

Verizon announces 700MHz LTE plans -- can you wait 3 years? - Engadget

Verizon just announced its plans for the "C block" chunk of 700MHz spectrum it purchased from the FCC for almost $10B. As expected, it's going to provide high speed, 4G services in the form of LTE in the newly acquired spectrum. Of course, the 2010 launch is the same target stated by AT&T. Verizon also claims to have increased its spectrum inventory by about 60%. Before and after auction coverage shots in the gallery below

Verizon announces 700MHz LTE plans -- can you wait 3 years? - Engadget

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

You Might Want to Wait on that DTV Converter Voucher

As you're probably aware, with analog TV signals being killed off next year, you'll need a converter for old and crappy TVs. The government is offering up DTV converter vouchers worth $40 towards the devices, which you can get now. You should be running for yours now, right? Wrong! CNET gave us a few reasons to wait, and they're good ones.

You Might Want to Wait on that DTV Converter Voucher

Comcast Compressing HDTV Signals to Fit Three Shows into Two Shows' Bandwidth

Comcast has begun compressing HDTV shows in order to deliver more HD channels to you while using the same amount of bandwidth. They didn't use to do this before, but now, when compared to Verizon FiOS, the channels are grainy and blocky and full of artifacts—a result of shoving three channels into a space where only two previously occupied. A guy at AVSForum measured how the new bitrate stacks up against Verizon.

Comcast Compressing HDTV Signals to Fit Three Shows into Two Shows' Bandwidth