Tigerprince Radio

If tomorrow, when the New Xbox Experience launches, you can’t get certain movies from Netflix to stream on your Xbox 360, don’t blame Microsoft; blame Sony.

Steve Swasey, Netflix’s Director of Corporate Communications, confirmed this rumor with the following PR-friendly explanation: Today, titles regularly come in and out of license and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time. In the case of Xbox 360, a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox game console.

What the Netflix spokesperson didn’t say is that there’s a common pattern with these “temporarily unavailable” movies; they all seem to be films from Sony’s subsidiaries (Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, etc.). Although the Netflix spokesman won’t confirm such pattern, users who got the NXE earlier claim so. An additional comment from the Netflix representative suggests this is indeed a problem exclusive to the Xbox 360 platform:

Those titles are still available to be watched on subscribers’ computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they’ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly.

Time will tell if Sony is indeed blocking its films from streaming on the Xbox 360, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Social networking on the World Wide Web is no longer the exclusive domain of techies or members of Generation Y. American military troops, their families and supporters now also have their own version of YouTube as the U.S. Defense Department launched on Tuesday TroopTube.

The military opened the video sharing portal with the help of Delve Networks, a Seattle-based start-up IT company. The launch came 15 months after the department restricted access of YouTube and other video sites to the military. The Defense Department banned in May 2007 employees and troops from accessing YouTube and MySpace using the agency’s computer system due to issues concerning security and bandwidth. With TroopTube, techie soldiers who lug their laptops with their firearms on the front line will stay connected, said Delve chief executive Alex Castro.

Tune into 1 Man and a Mic on Friday to hear Hank’s take on this one.

The Apple / Microsoft ad war keeps escalating while Apple continues to insist that John Hodgman is the human representation of all PCs, Microsoft is taking its populist approach to the streets. Very specific streets, actually it’s placing “I’m a PC” recording booths outside of Apple stores, like the one pictured here in Birmingham, England. The booth is staffed with three ‘Softies who’ll try to sell you on the latest in Windows tech while making nyah-nyah faces at Apple store patrons, and guests are invited to make a short video explaining why they, too, are PCs.

Xbox 360 owners got a double-dose of news today, both firmware and hardware-related. First up is word that the forthcoming New Xbox Experience will be offering Netflix video streaming in high-definition at the same time as other media-delivery platforms.

Unfortunately, the HD Netflix streaming will require a robust high-speed Internet connection with about 8-10 Mbps of bandwidth. It also won’t be available to PCs and Macs which use the service.

Two weeks before the NXE launches, Microsoft will begin offering a long-rumored stand-alone hard drive bundle for the 360. Inventively called the Xbox 360 Hard Drive 60GB Live Pack, the package comes with a 60GB HDD, a 3-month Xbox Live Gold subscription, a wired Xbox Live headset and an ethernet cable.

The European Union already initiated a Battery Directive in 2006 that aimed to make it easier to dispose of and recycle old batteries, but it looks like it’s now taking things one big step further with its “New Battery Directive,” which proposes that batteries in all electronic devices should be able to be “readily removed” for replacement or disposal. New Electronics’ Gary Nevison further adds that “the requirement is clearly intended to ensure that users can remove batteries by opening a cover by hand or after removal of one or two screws”.

To celebrate the launch of Gears of War 2, Microsoft is introducing a new special edition Zune that has been emblazoned with the Crimson Omen etched on the back. The player is already available for pre-order at Amazon.com and it will be released on November 7, 2008.

Based on the new 120GB model, this Zune Gears of War 2 Special Edition comes loaded with a special Gears of War 2 media collection–the Gears of War Original Game Soundtrack, plus 9 Gears of War videos, including gameplay, trailers, and behind-the-scenes moments with Epic Games and 244 different images, including game concept art, team photos, and custom Zune backgrounds.

Gears of War 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the 5 million-selling blockbuster action game and one of the most popular Xbox games in history.

Microsoft continued to make its case on Tuesday that it is a friend to open source, listing a number of efforts it has undertaken in spaces ranging from Linux to virtualization and rich Internet application technology.

Traditionally, Microsoft has been viewed as the commercial counterpoint to the open-source movement. But the company’s presentation on Tuesday at the ZendCon 2008 conference in Santa, Clara, Calif. reiterated accommodations for open source

“We are trying to drive interoperability and integration with open source into the Windows platform by design,” said Tom Hanrahan, director of the Microsoft Open Source Technology Center.

RIIIIIGGGGHHHHHTTTT………………………….

The first cell phone running Google Inc.’s mobile software looks something like Apple Inc.’s iPhone and has a large touch screen, but it also packs a trackball, a slide-out keyboard and easy access to Google’s e-mail and mapping programs.

Google made its debut as a cell phone software provider Tuesday at an event where wireless carrier T-Mobile said it will begin selling the G1 phone for $179 with a two-year contract. The device hits U.S. stores Oct. 22 and heads to Britain in November and other European countries early next year.

The phone will be sold in T-Mobile stores only in the U.S. cities where the company has rolled out its faster, third-generation wireless data network. By launch, that will be 21 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Miami.

Google Inc has halved the amount of time it stores personal data gathered from its users’ Web surfing habits, a move aimed at improving its privacy policies, a company official said.

Google used to store such data for 18 months, but has now trimmed that duration to nine months.

Nicole Wong, Google’s deputy general counsel, told a meeting of computer industry privacy experts at Microsoft Corp’s Silicon Valley offices that her company planned to “anonymize” the computer addresses of its users more quickly.

“We’re significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users,” Google officials said in a blog post released Monday night.

Peter Cullen, chief privacy strategist for Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), said Google’s move was done in response to pressure from European regulators and by industry rivals.

Cullen, who was taking part in panel discussion with Wong, said that until a year-and-a-half ago, Google had kept personally identifiable information about its Web users on company computers for an indefinite amount of time.

Latest rumors:
- Revamp of entire iPod line.
- Small cosmetic changes to Touch, Nano to see significant redesign (see pic).
- iPods to see fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.
- iPod touch 2.1 software, iPhone to get update very soon after.
- iTunes 8.0 (”it’s a big update w/new features”).
- All of this coming in the next 2-3 weeks.