Not since LeVar Burton told wonderful stories to me on my television screen have I ever thought of something so dramatic as a “reading revolution.” Actually, PC World describes it as a “revolution in mobile computing,” but based on their support data, reading revolution is more accurate.
News reports from this week and last indicate that the iPad will soon be enriched with a variety of television programming content. The latest report comes from Bloomberg this past Tuesday, indicating that Apple is close to brokering deals that will bring $.99 television shows from several networks including Fox, CBS and ABC to the iTunes Store. The $.99 will reportedly be for a rental of the shows, not a full purchase. The deal with News Corp. (Fox) is said to include 48-hour rentals.
Google’s lightweight operating system Chrome is rumored to be on its way to the tablet market courtesy of HTC, the same manufacturer Google partnered with on the failed Nexus One handset. A report on Downloadsquad citing an anonymous source indicates that the HTC Chrome tablet will hit the market this November.
Originally called Project Natal when it was previewed at E3 in 2009, Microsoft’s motion-based gaming package has finally gotten a price tag. It will cost $150 when it goes on sale this fall, just in time for the holiday season.
Hulu announced this week that it will be launching a paid version of its popular site called Hulu Plus. Before you get upset at the loss of free content, Hulu Plus is complementary to Hulu’s free website, and is not designed to replace it. So you’ll still be able to enjoy the free content that you’ve come to expect on Hulu, but will now have the option of accessing more content via Hulu Plus.
Keeping pace with the light-speed deployment of bigger, newer, faster and all around sexier handsets, Motorola/Verizon have introduced the Droid X, a newer, cuter Droid that will bump the old Droid right off the top of the food chain. Much more than just an extra consonant, the Droid X brings a beefier feature set that will compete with the likes of the HTC EVO, iPhone 4 and other top phones.
There was a lot of hype leading up to this game before E3, and it definitely delivered based on a number of awards it won: Reason to Live – Gamesradar, Peoples Choice winner – Gamespot, Best of E3 – Game Chronicles. Everyone is more anxious than ever for this game to come out! The demo will be available around December 2010 (for people who currently own Splinter Cell: Conviction, or pre-order the game from GameStop) and the game will be out in March 2011.
All in all, the iPhone gets 100 new features, though many of them will be more interesting to Apple than to customers. Some of the more notable changes include an updated design with glass front and back panels and stainless steel edging; thin, 9.3mm profile that Apple says makes the iPhone 4 the “thinnest smartphone ever;” a Retina Display with four times the pixel density and 960 x 640 resolution; and additional antennas for enhanced 3G and Wi-Fi reception.
Microsoft will be announcing a partnership with Hulu, that lovable video site that allows you to watch all your favorite shows and clips whenever you want over the Internet. Microsoft seems to think that Xbox users might enjoy watching Hulu content on an actual TV, rather than hunched over their notebooks.
If you’ve spent any time following tech this year, you know that 2010 is the year of the tablet. E-readers have gotten a lot of press, and smartphones have continued to evolve, but the tablet has gone from 0 to everywhere over the last few months, thanks in large part to the Apple iPad.
