stream

Microsoft Live Labs launches political meme tracker

Microsoft's Live Labs team has just released a new way to track political discourse on the Web. Called Political Streams, the tool tracks news stories on both blogs and traditional-news sites, and ranks it based on velocity and overall coverage.

What's really neat is that it also keeps track of mentioned names and places in each story, to show how much coverage that person or part of the world has received within the last 30 days.

Each item can be drilled down into a little further, which is where you can see a small one-paragraph summary and the … Read more

SlingCatcher finally sees light of day--and may get a boost from Sling.com

You can finally remove the SlingCatcher from the vaporware list. Following reports that it was popping up on store shelves around the country, the $300 product officially begins shipping today, ending a wait that began more than 18 months ago when it was first unveiled at CES 2007.

The SlingCatcher is a playback device that's designed to pull digital content from three sources and display them on your TV. It can play a variety of digital video files from an attached USB storage device (anything from a thumbdrive to a hard drive); display anything on your PC screen (including … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 825: Go toward the light...It's got Wi-Fi!

Apologies in advance for the slightly dirty word toward the end of the show. Now you'll all listen, won't you? In other news, Ford wants to make sure your kids don't speed, that they wear their seat belts, and that they intensely hate your guts. And Google wants to make sure you don't send mail when you're too drunk to do math. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 825

A.M.D. to split into two operations http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/technology/07chip.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10059766-92.html

Warner … Read more

Vudu's HDX upgrade delivers the best downloadable video quality to date

Last week, we told you about Vudu adding a new "HDX" video quality tier to its video-on-demand box. Unlike the 1080p HD downloads already available on the box, HDX 1080p significantly ramped up the bitrate, offering considerably better picture quality. We've had a chance to check out portions of three HDX movies--Lord of War, surfing documentary Step into Liquid, and The Chronicles of Riddick--and the result was extraordinary. Simply put, Vudu's HDX represents the best Internet-delivered video we've seen to date. … Read more

Hulu to stream presidential debates live

Update at 5:55 a.m. PDT: Additional TV stations airing the debate live have been added.

Last year, it was all about "remixing" debate footage. But this year, it's about seeing it live.

Video content hub Hulu has secured the rights to stream the remaining two presidential debates live on the Web. The next debate is set for Tuesday night.

The news was first reported by PaidContent that Hulu has launched Election '08 hub for the live debate, as well as past election-related footage. That includes footage from political satire talk shows The Daily Show and … Read more

MySpace Music: 1 billion songs streamed

MySpace says that 1 billion songs have been streamed since the News Corp. social network debuted its MySpace Music service last month.

"We can confirm that we hit a milestone of one billion music streams only a few days after launching the new product," the company said in a statement, and a MySpace PR representative clarified to CNET News that the number only includes songs streamed since MySpace Music's debut. "More importantly, we are still compiling our metrics on engagement and unique users which will tell a much richer story on how positively the community is … Read more

Apple TV update adds high-def TV episodes, Genius playlist support

Apple has added HD television episodes and support for Genius music playlists to the Apple TV.

Firmware 2.2, available now as a free download, adds the ability to purchase TV episodes of select shows in high-def (for $3, versus the $2 price tag for standard-def versions). That makes good on a pledge that Steve Jobs made at the company's September 10 event.

The updated Apple TV now also supports the Genius playlist feature that was introduced on new versions of iTunes and iPods at the same event. Genius is designed to help listeners discover--and buy--new music based on … Read more

Streaming services vs. the DIY approach

Vudu, Amazon's Video on Demand, and Netflix's instant-streaming service--what do they all have in common? They're Internet-based video-streaming services, and they also charge a fee. But, what if you already own an extensive DVD or Blu-ray collection and don't want to "rebuy" them, but want the benefits of streaming, i.e. accessibility, potentially better picture quality, and physical ownership of your movie collection? In this post we'll compare those pay services versus a do-it-yourself streaming media solution.… Read more

Netflix: Coming soon to a Mac near you

With little fanfare, Netflix previewed a feature many Mac users have wanted to see for quite some time.

A little tidbit tucked away at the bottom of a blog entry posted in the wee hours of the morning proclaims that the movie rental company will make its "Watch now" service work on Macs by the end of this year.

Separately, the company announced that it has forged a deal with Starz that adds 2,500 movies and TV shows to its streaming library.

Netflix still has a long way to go before its instant viewing library can compare … Read more