GOOGLE FLIES YOU TO THE MOON, GATEWAY ANNOUNCES A NETBOOK, AND YAHOO
LAUNCHES A NEW HOME PAGE. WHY YOU SHOULD CARE. ITS TUESDAY, JULY 21ST. I'M
NATALI DEL CONTE, BACK IN NEW YORK THIS WEEK. IT'S TIME TO GET LOADED.
[*]
MONDAY WAS THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF NEIL ARMSTRONG��S WALK ON THE MOON. YOU
PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW THAT. IT WAS PRETTY MUCH THE ONLY NEWS WE GOT FROM THE
MAJOR NETWORKS YESTERDAY. TO COMMEMORATE THIS EVENT, GOOGLE REVEALED MOON IN
GOOGLE EARTH. IT IS AN EXTENSION OF THE PROGRAM THAT ALLOWS USERS TO VIEW
3-D FLYOVER IMAGES OF THE MOON IN THE SAME WAY YOU CAN FLY OVER YOUR OWN
HOUSE. THIS PRODUCT IS FROM A COLLABORATION BETWEEN GOOGLE AND NASA.
[*]
YAHOO IS STARTING TO ROLL OUT A NEW FRONT PAGE TODAY. BELIEVE IT OR NOT,
YAHOO'S HOME PAGE IS STILL ONE OF THE MOST HEAVILY TRAFFICKED DESTINATIONS
ONLINE. THE NEW PAGE LETS USERS SELECT BASIC APPLICATIONS FROM YAHOO
SERVICES, AS WELL AS THIRD PARTY SITES AND SERVICES LIKE EBAY, FACEBOOK,
TWITTER AND MORE. THIS IS PART OF YAHOO'S EFFORT TO REMAIN A HOME PORTAL FOR
THE AVERAGE USER. AND OF COURSE THEY WANT YOU TO USE THEIR SEARCH TOO.
[*]
BARNES AND NOBLE ANNOUNCED A NEW DIGITAL BOOK STORE WITH OVER 700 THOUSAND
BOOKS FOR SALE. OF COURSE THIS WILL BE A DIRECT COMPETITOR WITH AMAZON AND
THE KINDLE BOOK STORE. BOOKS WILL HOVER AROUND $9.99, JUST LIKE THEY DO ON
KINDLE. THEY WILL BE READABLE ON MULTIPLE DEVICES THOUGH INCLUDING THE
IPHONE, THE BLACKBERRY, ANY PC, AND BARNES AND NOBLE WILL BE THE EXCLUSIVE
PROVIDER OF BOOKS FOR THE PLASTIC LOGIC EREADER. THE COMPANY SAYS THAT IT
SHOULD HIT 1 MILLION TITLES WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR, WHILE AMAZON ONLY HAS
AROUND 300 THOUSAND NOW. BUT AMAZON STILL HAS THE WIRELESS DOWNLOADING
SERVICE. I THINK BARNES AND NOBLE WILL HAVE TO FIND ITSELF A WIRELESS
CARRIER TO DELIVER BOOKS IF IT WANTS TO BE A SERIOUS CONTENDER IN THIS
SPACE. TITLES ALONE CAN'T BE THE ONLY ADVANTAGE.
[*]
RESEARCH IN MOTION ANNOUNCED A PLAN TO RELEASE BLACKBERRY DESKTOP SOFTWARE
FOR THE MAC IN SEPTEMBER. THE SOFTWARE FOR MAC WILL LET USERS SYNCHRONIZE
ITUNES PLAYLISTS, CALENDARS, CONTACTS, ��NOTES AND TASKS. IT WILL ALSO ALLOW
USERS TO MANAGE THEIR BLACKBERRY APPLICATIONS BY ADDING OR REMOVING THEM
FROM THEIR DEVICE ON THEIR MAC.
[*]
YOUTUBE IS EXPERIMENTING WITH 3D VIDEOS. ACCORDING TO A DEVELOPER ON THE
PROJECT LABELED "YOUTUBE PETE," IT'S STILL IN THE VERY EARLY STAGES AND
THERE ARE SOME BUGS TO BE WORKED OUT. HE CALLS THE 3D VIEWING FEATURE A
STEREOSCOPIC PLAYER. CNET'S OWN ERICA OGG TESTED THE SAMPLE VIDEO. SHE FOUND
IT TO BE ��DARK AND GRAINY, BUT HONESTLY, I'M NOT SURE IF I WANT TO DIG OUT
MY 3D GLASSES JUST FOR A YOUTUBE VIDEO.
[*]
SPEAKING OF 3D, SONIC SOLUTIONS CINEMANOW WILL ADD 3-D MOVIES TO IT'S
LINE-UP. CINEMA NOW IS A DIGITAL VIDEO ��DISTRIBUTION COMPANY. SONIC
SOLUTIONS SAYS THE COMPANY IS WORKING TO BRING 3-D TO PCS AND 3-D CAPABLE
TVS. BLU-RAY WOULD BE THE IDEAL WAY TO DELIVER 3D BUT FOR NOW, IT WILL COME
THROUGH THE SAME METHOD AS THEIR CURRENT CINEMANOW SERVICE. NO EXACT DATE ON
WHEN WE WILL SEE THIS, AND YOU WILL, OF COURSE, STILL NEED TO WEAR GOOFY 3-D
GLASSES.
[*]
WE HAVE A NEW ENTRANT INTO THE NETBOOK CATEGORY: GATEWAY. THE COMPANY
ANNOUNCED A $299 NETBOOK, CALLING IT SLEEK AND COMPACT. ��OKAY. BUT ALL
NETBOOKS ARE SLEEK AND COMPACT. GATEWAY'S VERSION IS 10 INCHES AND WILL BE
AVAILABLE IN RED AND BLACK.
[*]
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HAS SIGNED ON TO THE BD-LIVE FEATURE FOR BLU-RAY DISCS.
THIS MEANS THAT BLU-RAY DISCS OUT OF UNIVERSAL WILL HAVE "LIVE" APPLICATIONS
AND DATA ATTACHED. UNIVERSAL'S LIVE FEATURES WILL START WITH THE JUNE 28
LAUNCH OF "FAST AND FURIOUS." IT WILL LET USERS ACCESS A "VIRTUAL GARAGE" TO
DONWLOAD SPECS OF THE CARS FEATURED IN THE MOVIE USING AN IPHONE OR IPOD
TOUCH APPLICATION THAT YOU GET FROM THE ITUNES APPSTORE. KIND OF COOL I
GUESS IF I WERE INTO CARS. AND WAS WILLING TO PAY ALMOST $40 FOR A BLU-RAY
COPY OF A MOVIE.
[*]
WE HAD SEVERAL VIEWERS WRITE US LAST WEEK ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT TEENAGERS
CARE ABOUT TWITER. THE CONSENSUS IS THAT THEY REALLY DON'T. 19 YEAR OLD
MICHAEL PREFERS FACEBOOK. HE SAID:
"Twitter is neat, but it is not very functional. ��I just forget about using
Twitter because once I update it, I'm done, instead of looking at my
friends' pictures or videos."
17 YEAR-OLD JEAN PAUL WROTE:
"I had tried Twitter a while back, but I used it once, and never used it
again.... ��and YES, the next generation will never care about Twitter."
15 YEAR-OLD BO CALLS IT A "DUMBED DOWN VERSION OF FACEBOOK" AND KYLE CALLS
IT A SOCIAL NETWORK FOR "OLD PEOPLE." OUCH. OF COURSE THERE WERE A FEW TEENS
WHO DISAGREED BUT THEY WERE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN. SO NOW I FEEL OLD. AND
IRRELEVANT. AND UNCOOL. THANKS. WE ALSO HAVE HAD SEVERAL VIEWERS SENDING US
IN-FLIGHT WI-FI SPEEDS. WE WILL CONTINUE TO TABULATE THOSE RESULTS AND BRING
THEM TO YOU SOON. SO STAY TUNED.
[*]
THOSE ARE ALL OF YOUR HEADLINES FOR TODAY. TOMORROW I AM TRAVELING TO SAN
DIEGO FOR COMIC CON 2009. MARK LICEA WILL BE HOSTING LOADED FOR THE
REMAINDER OF THE WEEK. I WILL BE BACK NEXT TUESDAY. MEANWHILE, YOU CAN
FOLLOW MY COMIC CON EXPERIENCE OVER TWITTER. TWITTER.COM/NATALIDELCONTE.
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING. I'M NATALI DEL CONTE WITH CNETTV AND YOU JUST BEEN
LOADED.
