GadgetReview

Would you pay $30 a month for access to TV programming on your computer?  Apple hopes so, or that’s how the rumor goes.

According to an industry insider, Apple is in talks with many of the networks to deliver an all you can eat TV service via their iTunes software.  Users would pay $30 a month and be able to stream shows from an assortment of channels as long as they had Internet access.

While it would be difficult to supplant the cable companies over night due to their relationships and contracts with the networks, it is a feasible proposition since more and more channels are looking to take their content online.  Many news sources are pointing to Disney as the ginny pig since they already have close ties with Apple, but at this point it’s all just speculation.

Keep in mind that a rumor recently emerged stating that Hulu might be switching some of their content to a pay model, which actually throws this Apple rumor a curve ball because I doubt those two (Fox and NBC) would want to share revenue when they could be selling it direct.  Then again, since Apple’s iTunes has an install base of 65 million, it might just be feasible.

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And there’s yet another competitor throwing its hat into the steadily crowding e-reader arena (we get any more hats in there and we could open up a millenery shop!), but it’s not exactly from a source you’d expect.

Creative Labs is taking a run at the market, with a unit they’re calling the Zii MediaBook.  Now, this actually has some pretty choice add-ons with it, like a touchscreen, text to speech functionality (it will READ you a book) and an SD slot, plus, it will be “Internet-enabled”, though no one’s sure if it means 3G or WiFi.

Also on the unsure list are the Zii’s release date, its price structure and any content delivery methods, (pictures of the device were also in short supply) though word is Creative’s in talks with several different providers, and not just for books, either.  This could be one to watch…or Creative Labs could think better of it and stay out altogether.

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It looks like Nintendo is feeling the pressure from the iPhone.  So much so, that the company’s President, Satoru Iwata, is perhaps considering an Amazon Kindle like wireless model to deliver games to the portable gaming unit.

I’m interested because it’s a new business model in which the user doesn’t bear the communications cost.

Currently Nintendo DSi users can access the Nintendo store to download a variety of content via WiFi, but that requires that the user be within proximity of a signal and seriously hinders the purchase anytime, anywhere impulse.  Of course, this kind of delivery system would be implemented in the next generation of Nintendo DSes and would add some significant cost to the handheld device, something Nintendo may not be willing to do.

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Once again, Apple has blown us all away with its relentless flood of gadgetry, as a new patent has emerged.

It’s about what you’d get if you managed to combine an iPod Shuffle with a Bluetooth headset, and what it’s being called right now is a headset MP3 player.

You can see one of the patent design figures at left, but where this is amazing is that it can function on its own.  Yes, it functions as a wireless headset to a device it’s linked to, like a Bluetooth, but it also has the capability of storing its own MP3s within the headset itself.  And, as if that weren’t enough, your headset could also become a recording device at the touch of a button, allowing you to make your own MP3s of conversations you’re having.

These are all still somewhat speculative points, being as it’s still in the patent stages, but it’ll likely be another market-buster when it comes out.

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Does the Apple tablet PC actually exist?  The current answer is, no one’s really sure except possibly for New York Times executive editor Bill Killer.

His recent referral to an “impending Apple slate” has captured the imaginations of the gadget world, and gadget blogs all over began trumpeting what Apple buffs had figured was coming for some time now, the official announcement of the Apple Tablet PC.

Needless to say, that announcement has not hit, and Bill Keller is keeping mum about the whole business in general.  This isn’t the first time Apple gadget news has left someone with egg on their face–the Financial Times was convinced that the Apple tablet would hit in September.  And with Bill Keller stonewalling (when asked if he had more information, all he would say was “I’m not sayin’.”), who knows what anybody knows or doesn’t know any more?

But that’s half the fun of rumors, isn’t it?

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Talk about counting your chickens.  Assassin’s Creed 2 hasn’t even seen release and we are already hearing about a 3rd installment.  Will that many people blindly purchase this game like the did 2 years ago?

Not to be a naysayer, I want Ass2 to be a quality game but I won’t believe it until I play it.  A German gaming show named PLAYD had Ubisoft’s Philippe Bergeron on the program who said in regards to a possible Assassin’s Creed 3 setting:

There are two things that come to mind: There is medieval Europe, which would be very interesting trying to play a King Arthur story line. Another one that is a personal favorite of a lot of people on the floor is feudal Japan, which is something that would be very interesting just culturally to discover and I think also to make players discover as well.

Huh.  I don’t know which one would be cooler.  What do you think?

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If the Xbox 360 is going to make it to 2015, Microsoft better have definite plans to get Blu-Ray compatibility on board on the ASAP.  In a recent interview with Gizmodo, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer is quoted saying that we will “soon” be able to watch Blu-Ray movies on the Xbox 360.

The CEO had expressed that an external Blu-Ray drive would be the best way to get the format on the 360.  I bet it looks identical to ill fated HD DVD drive from a few years back.

At the moment however, Ballmer seems to think that there is enough HD content via streaming sources (NetFlix and the upcoming Zune Video) to keep the masses happy.  Are we happy?

How about that web browser?

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A new rumor has burst onto the scene out of the Kodak company, and everyone’s frantically trying to figure out just what exactly it is.  A “highly placed source” has promised that Kodak’s got something really big planned for the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show this January in Las Vegas, but what exactly it is, no one’s sure.

In fact, the only piece of solid data involved is that it’ll be bowing right alongside the successor to the current Kodak Zi8 pocket camcorder.

Possibilities at this point could be most anything–a storage device, a new DVD burner that works with the Zi8’s successor, anything.  In fact, this could be little more than a giant pot of smoke and mirrors designed to give Kodak free publicity by having gadget bloggers like us endlessly try to play guessing games about what it’ll actually be until CES hits.

I guess either way, we’ll have to wait for CES to find out how this one finally boils out.

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Rumors are creeping around that the best part about Microsoft’s upcoming Project Natal will be its price point.  Right now we are hearing that it will go on sale for $50.  Sounds oddly cheap to me.

Will it be bundled with any Natal-style launch titles?

In other related motion controlled gaming rumors, Sony’s “Sphere” is rumored to be priced at $100.  Industry analysts predict that while the Natal is more of an ancillary peripheral in Microsoft’s mind, the Sphere is being looked at as more of a Wii challenger.

In either case, time will tell the true price points soon enough.

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Well folks, a new bit of data has emerged about the idea of cell phones and brain tumors.

Seems that Environmental Working Group released data just recently that detailed just how much radiation you’re sucking up when you’re on the phone.  And then the Los Angeles Times followed that up with a strange study.  Check this out:  when the data from 23 studies was pooled together, there was no conclusive link between brain tumors and cell phone use.  This by itself would be interesting if not necessarily newsworthy, but when the Times jiggered the evidence a bit, comparing data from the “eight strongest studies”, they found out that cell phone users had between a 10 and 30 percent higher chance of getting tumors, with the more time spent on the phone being higher risk than those who spent less.

And then, here’s the weirdest point: seven out of eight of those “strongest studies” were all conducted by the SAME GUY IN SWEDEN.

So it’s not really time to freak out yet, but it’s probably a good idea to get that hands-free gear out, just in case.

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