fox

Amazon announcement on Wednesday

Google News adds tags for exclusive or investigative content, Amazon and Netflix add more streaming video content from Fox and DreamWorks, respectively, and Amazon is set to make a big product announcement in two days.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Amazon launching a new device Amazon adds FOX movies and TV shows Netflix gets DreamWorks movies ...in 2013 Google adding featured stories Tumblr gets $85 million in funding Free Facebook ads for small businesses Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320x180) | iTunes (HD) | RSS (MP3) | RSS (320x180) | RSS HD

Buzz Out Loud 1555: Netflix to Qwikster to Regretflix? (Podcast)

Netflix rocks our world with the news that they're splitting up into two separate companies: Netflix for streaming and embedded media delivery, and Qwikster (yeah, seriously) for DVD delivery. Best part? Two Websites, two accounts, two queues! What's not to love? Also, Google Wallet and AT&T LTE arrive, Molly tees off on the Droid X again, and be warned, mateys: we do talk like pirates.

Which mini-speaker annoys the neighbors most?

The mission is simple: gather three brands of popular mini-speakers and see which is powerful enough to annoy a grumpy building superintendent.

The briefing: I reside in a quiet, courtyard complex in Studio City, Calif. On most Sundays, the residents gather around the pool for a casual barbecue. Such an event recently presented the perfect opportunity to test three mini-speakers: an X-mini Capsule Speaker from ThinkGeek, a Soundmatters foxL Bluetooth Soundbar, and a Cyber Snipa Sonar Portable Mini Speaker to see which could produce enough quality sound to prod our cranky 60-plus-year-old supe to leave his recliner and tell us to knock off the hubbub. Join us, won't you?

To expedite the outstandingly unscientific experiment, I chose Dubstep, which is electronica in the extreme. In fairness, some wouldn't call it music as much as well-organized static. When the uninitiated listen to Dubstep, they're often uncertain if the CD might be skipping. As a bleeding goat will draw the hungry, Dubstep pouring from my iPhone will attract the crotchety handyman if we can get the racket loud enough. … Read more

Fox kills Alec Baldwin's Emmys phone-hacking joke

I had hoped that, after Ricky Gervais said whatever he felt like at the 2010 Golden Globes, award show hosts could joke about anything.

It appears not.

After a revelation by Deadline, "30 Rock" actor Alec Baldwin tweeted today that Fox (aka News Corp) had, indeed, removed a little joke that he had created with the writers specially for the occasion.

No, it wasn't a joke about Tom Cruise's height, James Franco's presentational skills, or Brad Pitt's exciting personal life.

It was a joke about the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. You might … Read more

Star Fox 64 3D on the 3DS: No system-seller

The Nintendo 3DS is in a state of crisis. You could argue that's the case for all of Nintendo, too, especially this holiday season.

Handheld games are no longer a domain dominated by Nintendo, not with phones offering so many alternatives for less. The 3DS needs top-notch software to help it prove its worth, and while other games are no doubt on the way, titles like Star Fox 64 3D, Nintendo's latest franchise rerelease, just don't do enough for a software-starved 3DS holiday lineup.

Scott: Nintendo fans will rejoice: much like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, released earlier this summer, Star Fox 64 3D is a pitch-perfect and graphically remastered version of a beloved N64 console game. The only problem with Star Fox is that a rails-based shooter has less to offer than a well-developed adventure game like Zelda. I loved Star Fox on my N64; its 3D graphics were unprecedented for a Nintendo console, and the sci-fi effects were a kick. Now, games like Galaxy on Fire for the iPhone can offer many of the same thrills for a few bucks.

Newly added gyro controls add motion control to the classic Star Fox, using the 3DS' internal gyroscope to tilt-steer. Unless you turn off 3D, don't bother, as 3D effects are bound to break up due to line-of-sight shifts when continually tilting. It only took one try to convince me to turn gyro off for good. You can have 3D or motion, but not both.… Read more

Facebook bumps up privacy controls

The new iPhone may land on Sprint by mid-October, developers can start submitting apps for Windows Phone 7 "Mango" due out next month, and Facebook has announced new privacy controls.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

New BlackBerry Curve arrives

RankMyHack.com lets hackers brag about their latest endeavors, the iPhone 5 is rumored to be a dual-mode device, and Research In Motion has released a new BlackBerry Curve.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Illegal downloads of Fox TV shows rise after delay

Illegal downloads of some Fox Networks TV shows have increased since the company established an eight-day delay before its TV shows are made available on Hulu and Fox.com, according to TorrentFreak.

The torrent news Web site tracked several popular Fox shows--including Hell's Kitchen and MasterChef--on BitTorrent over the last week to see if there had been an increase in illegal download activity. The results are alarming.

"During the first five days, the number of downloads from the U.S. for the latest episode of Hell's Kitchen increased by 114 percent compared to the previous three episodes,&… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1533: Happy 8,000,000th patent! (Podcast)

We celebrate the patent wars with Zynga while Google's stock gets downgraded. TV Studios think its a good idea to pull back their content on the Web and if you've ever faked a phone call on your cell phone, you're not the only one.

Rapid-release takes hold in Firefox 6

The bottom line: Firefox 6 is a worthy expression of Mozilla's ideals. The browser is competitively fast, sports a new minimalist look, and includes some excellently executed features. Unfortunately, that describes most of Firefox's competition, too.

Review: The second version of Firefox to come under the new rapid-release aegis, Firefox 6 follows in the footsteps of Google Chrome, which adopted the rapid-release cycle a while ago and is now up to version 13 (at the time this review was written) despite having its first release only in 2008.

Firefox 4 had a massive impact on Firefox 5 and … Read more