Verizon finally aired their first ever commercial for their upcoming LTE network during last night’s Sunday Night Football. The Stephen Spielberg-esque ad ad features a lightning bolt delivered by snail mail, and confirms rumors that the network is “coming in December.” As previously noted, Verizon’s initial launch next month will be fairly significant, the 5-12 Mbps service covering 38 markets (roughly one third of the population) and 60 airports right out of the gate. We’re still waiting on Verizon to reveal their pricing for the speedier service, which as of last week the company still claimed they weren’t sure of.

Link to the original article…

Netflix’s streaming video application for the iPhone allows users to access their streaming instant queue from anywhere and works surprisingly well whether the user is connected via Wi-Fi or AT&T’s 3G network. The same application was recently announced for Windows 7 Phones, and according to a post on the Netflix blog, it will also launch on Android devices early next year.

The hold up according to Netflix? DRM. The delay was due to “the lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android.” “The same security issues that have led to piracy concerns on the Android platform have made it difficult for us to secure a common Digital Rights Management (DRM) system on these devices,” says the company.

Link to the original article…

I love gadgets almost as much as I like saving money and finding deals. Got word about Bradsdeals launching Black Friday 2010, a website dedicated to bring together all of the upcoming November 26th Black Friday Deals.

Brad Wilson, Founder of BradsDeals.com is proud to announce the launch of BlackFriday2010.com, the leading website devoted to researching, planning and executing a fun and successful Black Friday shopping strategy.

BlackFriday2010.com is the source for pre-released Black Friday ads for major stores. Visitors will find the latest holiday shopping news and tips, plus printable coupons and Brad’s handpicked deals, many of which are provided on an exclusive basis by retailers to BlackFriday2010.com.

“Black Friday is more than great deals and it is more than shopping,” said Wilson. “It’s a social event. Mothers and daughters, cousins, friends – they all research for weeks, scouring through our leaked Black Friday Ads, planning the timing and tactics they need to get the best deals.”

Last year, more than 10 Million shoppers saved money using the Black Friday site. The average consumer saved nearly 25% on their purchase.

In order to make shopping as simple as possible, Wilson will provide a free Black Friday iPhone app that allows shoppers to take all the store ads and information on the go.

So the site combined with the free Apple iPhone app makes for a killer way to save a lot of money this Black Friday. Oh… and Brad’s Deals isn’t just a one or two trick pony. Immediately after Black Friday, Brad’s Deals will unveil CyberMonday2010.com to help you save even more online.

Be smart, use BradsDeals.com and BlackFriday2010.com and don’t miss out on the savings this year.

[ Links: Brads Deals, Black Friday 2010, Cyber Monday 2010 ]

Back in June Hulu announced Hulu Plus, a $10 a month broadband video subscription service that is supposed to allow users to access entire back catalogs of TV shows above and beyond what’s available on free Hulu, albeit still with commercials. In August, a scathing study showed that the service really wasn’t worth much with 88% of the content already available for free via normal Hulu.

After significant criticism, Hulu is now considering reducing Hulu Plus to $5 a month according to Peter Kafka at AllThingsD:

Hulu is considering cutting the price of Hulu Plus, the subscription service it began testing in June, sources tell me. I’m told the video site is talking about slashing its $9.95 per-month fee in half, to $4.95… a price cut would indicate that consumers haven’t bought in to the pitch. That shouldn’t be a shock, considering the other video options that consumers have, and the limits that Hulu’s content providers have placed on the service.

As we noted earlier this week, Hulu’s made it very clear they don’t want to truly disrupt and reach their full Internet video potential for fear of upsetting their broadcast owners and that’s before they become part of an even larger Comcast media empire. Like other recent decisions, charging and paywalling first and considering whether you’re offering real value later falls right in line with typical broadcast/cable thinking.

It’s not clear if $5 a month would be any more compelling, though if you act now, Hulu will buckle to the most ridiculous demands of broadcasters at no additional cost.

Link to the original article…

Logitech this week fully unveiled their GoogleTV-based broadband video device over at the company blog, and began pre-orders via their website. The skinny: the $300 Logitech Revue with Google TV comes with a wireless keyboard and directional pad, a flurry of Google apps (including Netflix support) and broadband streaming capabilities.

There’s also a slew of accessories, including a $150 HD video chat camera, a $100 larger keyboard, and $130 mini controller.

Dish Network meanwhile says they’re going to sell the device for $179 instead of $300 but charge an ongoing yet to be determined monthly fee.

Link to the original article…

For once… I’m speechless. The B.O.N.D. (Built of Notorious Deterrents) bicycle has a bulldozer type track, an ejector seat and a flamethrower. Yep… a flamethrower.

Bicycle designed to combat the things that most annoy the urban cyclist. Handlebar-mounted flamethrower to stop motorists overtaking too close, ejection seat to deal with bike thieves and a caterpillar track to tackle potholes and snow. The B.O.N.D (Built of Notorious Deterrents) bike will be on show at Cycle 2010 on the ilovemybike.co.uk stand

Forget a fixie. I’ll take one of these bad boys.

[ Links: Gadget Review ]

As part of their franchise agreement with New York City, Verizon was required to deploy FiOS services to every home in New York City by 2014 though the agreement allows Verizon lawyers to wiggle over, under and around those obligations should Verizon not see the kind of service uptake they’d like. According to Verizon, they’ve now passed about 1.8 million homes and businesses, or 58% of the roughly 3.1 million households in New York City.

Verizon says they’re ahead of their agreement to pass 54% of NYC premises by the end of this year. Of course while Verizon is moving forward with FiOS deployment in several cities where they’ve signed franchise agreements, they’ve frozen overall FiOS expansion elsewhere.

Link to the original article…

Ooh, looky, looky. Microsoft has a teamed up with SRS to bring SRS 5.1 Surround Sound to their Silverlight platform. What does that mean in layman terms?

SRS views this as a significant step forward in its quest to make top-quality surround sound available anywhere and to anyone. It is also a significant development for the industry as, the largest player in the streaming media segment, Netflix, utilizes Microsoft Silverlight for all the content streamed and downloaded to end-user CE devices for consumption.

Via the new toolkit, it means that enhanced Netflix, web media and video content for not only your computer but also all Silverlight enabled handheld devices.

[ Links: SRS Silverlight ]

With Apple TV and Google TV both vying for our attention from our desktops to our televisions, there’s plenty of more room for other media center devices, right?

The Amino Freedom is designed to support common Internet formats such as Adobe® Flash® and Microsoft® Silverlight® and is powered by the first generation of Intel and Nokia’s MeeGo for the TV – enabling us to innovate at Internet speed and keep you one step ahead of the next big thing.

Cool thing, it’s powered by the Intel/Nokia operating system, MeeGo. Bad part, it’s not due out until 4th quarter of this year. Well that and pricing is also to be announced.

[ Links: Amino Freedom ]

Apple today unveiled their new Apple TV device, which as rumors had suggested costs $99, tops out playback at 720p and is focused on renting TV episodes for a dollar or new films for five dollars.

There’s no hard drive in this incarnation, with everything streamed via either 802.11n Wi-Fi or Ethernet connectivity. The unit also comes with Netflix streaming service embedded. As rumors also suggested, broadcasters are still afraid of cannibalizing their traditional TV cash cow, so Apple scrapped a more interesting subscription-based TV service for this fairly standard rental model, which only features content from ABC and Fox.

Great price, great option if you were looking for one that has no internal storage is basically a “rent only” device; however it is not for me.

Link to the original article…

At the Apple Keynote today, Steve Jobs pulled out the oft-rumored $99 Apple TV (finally) and the long awaited update to the Apple iPod Touch that brings the best parts of the Apple iPhone 4 to the music player. Think about all of the good parts of prior Apple iPhone 4 announcements:

• Facetime – forward facing camera
• Retina Display – 960 x 480 high-density pixel display
• 720p HD Video Recording via improved, 5mp back camera
• Apple A4 SoC chipset for improved performance and battery life
• 40 hours audio playback, 7 hours video playback
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)
• Bluetooth

And the inability to also make phone calls! har har

Showing up at 8, 32 and 64GB sizes, at $229, $299 and $399 respectively, the Apple iPod Touch just upped the ante for the mp3 players with extended abilities. Not bad at all Apple. More on the Apple TV later.

[ Links: Apple, Apple iPod Touch ]

It has been interesting watching Blockbuster video adapt to the broadband age, with the company seemingly not trying very hard, either out of fear of cannibalizing their brick and mortar revenue, or just a general fear of losing control. Early efforts to mirror Netflix’s success at broadband video delivery have seemed relatively lackluster, and the company’s CEO, when announcing such broadband initiatives, seems to almost expect them to fail.

Rumors of an impending bankruptcy have been around for a while, but a Blockbuster filing is now expected in September.

Link to the original article…