noinput.net | plug it in

A few days ago Amazon.com launched their new VOD service.  It’s quite nice and a quick to par competitor for iTunes.  Lets say you missed the Pilot episode to Fringe and wanted to see what the hype is about.  They offer a semi-fullscreen browser 2 minute preview (quality hot swappable based on your bandwidth) and you can watch/buy it in the same screen for continuous viewing.

Seems amazon only offers standard def 640×480 video for now (on my 20M FIOS line the best streaming I could get was at 480p) however it still looks quite good and the stream comes through fantastic.  I havn’t yet found an HD option, so for now iTunes still takes the win with the $1 HD upgrade proce @ $2.99 if you’re so inclined to buy an episode.

As for their movie purchase/watch on demand, the selection seems decent.  Yet on average $12-$14 for a digital download is still quite annoying, especially not in High Definition. Oh well, I give it time to see how Amazon VOD pans out.  I have quite a bit respect for how they rose their game on their music service.  These days I’ll buy from Amazon MP3 before before I would from iTunes for the simple NO-DRM policy.  Since every track I buy off iTunes I still burn to CD-RW, re-rip, apply artwork and strip DRM for safe keeping, this is much more convenient and works just as quick.  I’m a fan of simplicity, and amazon has always done that with finesse in my book.

The new Android phone has has so much coverage this year it’s crazy.  The idea of the “Google Phone” has sort of kept everyone on their toes wondering what to expect, but I’m really not sold yet.  Tomorrow they’re holding a press conference in NY to officially introduce it and tonight they leaked the specs.  Aside from the fact it looks great, I expected more.

In-store, immediate sales only available in stores within 5 miles of a 3G covered area. If a store is beyond that range, representatives will walk customers through a T-mobile.com purchase

One touch access to: Search, Maps, Gmail, Youtube, Calendar, and Google Talk

Gmail account and data plan required

GPS

3.1 mp camera, no video recording

No stereo bluetooth (A2DP)

Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in

Weighs 5.6 ounces

480×320 65K color screen

5 hour talk time, 130 hour talk time

Expandable up to 8GB

I guess we’ll see what happens tomorrow, go T-Mobile. T-Mobile G1 specs leaked prior to announcement .

For any developer who’s working on optimizing their site for the iPhone/touch, iPhoney is a really awesome little mac must have app.  Lightweight and does the job well.  Not to mention it a lot easier than waiting for a full site to load on the little guy.

By the way, if anyone is so inclined to look, I’m using the WPtouch iPhone theme on my blog here and it makes for a really nice mobile version.

Getting really tired of re-enabling this every few days, anyone else getting this?

Who do I blame here, Twitter or ATT?

 

Regardless of what the “ohh, and one more thing” may bring at Job’s WWDC keynote tomorrow morning (possibly most likely the new phone), take a minute to appreciate the awesomeness of the original iPhone.  I don’t care who you are and even if you hate it, you can’t deny it’s an amazing piece of technology.

For the heck of it I added an always updating RSS feed to the right sidebar from summize for some WWDC talk.

Techcrunch is reporting live from a Gmail conference at Google HQ.  We get 13 new labs features, tonight!  How awesome does that sound for a start.

Names of some: quick links, superstars, pictures in chat, fixed width font, custom keyboard shortcuts, mouse gestures.

 

Quick Links: adds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable url in Gmail. You can use it for saving recent searches, important individual messages, and more

 

Superstars: adds additional star icons

 

Pictures in Chat: see your friends’ profile pictures when you chat with them

 

Fixed Width Font: adds an option to the reply dropdown menu that lets you view a message in fixed width font

 

Custom Keyboard Shortcuts: lets you customize keyboard shortcut mappings. Adds a new settings tab from which you can remap keys to various actions

 

Users can enable or disable these modules.

 

The description on the top of the Labs tab in settings: Gmail engineers come up with new ideas all the time. Gmail Labs is our place to try them out and get your feedback. None of these features are really ready for prime time yet, so they might change, break, or disappear at any time. If (when) a labs feature breaks, and you’re having trouble getting into your account, there’s an escape hatch — just go to http://www.mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0 and Labs with be temporarily disabled.

 

Mouse gestures: Use your mouse to navigate with gestures. Hold right click and move the mouse left to go to a previous conversation, move right to go to the next conversation, and move up to go back to the inbox view. It works best on Windows.

 

Signature tweaks: Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply

 

Random signature and Photos in Chat are others.

 

“Take A Break” link locks you out of your Gmail for 15 minutes (you can refresh to get out of it). When it locks you out it says, “Break time! Take a walk, get some real work done, or have a snack. We’ll be back in 14 minutes!”

 

The most popular will be built into Gmail eventually.

What a nice treat after the lakers win tonight

hat tip -> curtis