Rocketfish Adapter with WirelessHD

Best Buy announced today the release of its Rocketfish WirelessHD Adapter. Available on bestbuy.com, the affordable high-speed wireless adapter set provides consumers with the freedom and flexibility to place their HDTV anywhere in their room without unsightly cables.

The Rocketfish WirelessHD Adapter is compatible with most existing equipment with HDMI ports such as a DVR and HDTV, creating a seamless and wireless home entertainment experience. It features an intuitive and simple setup right out of the box. The box includes the Wireless HD transmitter, WirelessHD receiver, two four-foot HDMI cables, two AC Adapters, two mounting brackets and Quick Start Guide.

“We asked our customers about their ideal home entertainment experience, and used these insights to create the new Rocketfish WirelessHD adapter, which responds to their desire to transmit high definition video wirelessly in the same room,” said Nigel Waites, CTO of Rocketfish. “This new product not only complements our existing suite of Rocketfish products but also allows consumers to easily integrate this new technology with their existing home theater equipment, regardless of the brand.”

The device wirelessly connects favorite home theater products such as Blu-ray players, A/V receivers, video-game consoles, and set-top boxes to HDTVs and projectors, transmitting lossless high-definition 1080p True Cinema picture resolution. This new solution significantly expands Home Theater setup options, allowing the customer to place the TV/Projector virtually anywhere in the room, while still delivering full HD 1080p just the same as if it were actually connected with an HDMI cable.

Key features

• Operates in the open and interference-free 60GHz radio band
• Sends full 1080p/60fps HD content up to 10 meters
• Supports Deep Color, 7.1 surround sound, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Audio
• Compatible with HDMI CEC control functionality

The Rocketfish products utilize WirelessHD technology, the standard for 60GHz wireless connections for consumer electronic, personal computing and portable devices.

Rocketfish WirelessHD adapters are now available on bestbuy.com for $599.99.

Technorati Tags: 1080P, HD, Rocketfish, TV, Wireless, WirelessHD

SouthPeak to Publish TNA Wrestling Video Games

SouthPeak announced today it has pinned a new deal to the mat to publish games based on the popular professional wrestling brand Total Nonstop Action and its flagship weekly television program TNA iMPACT!. The new game, TNA iMPACT!: Cross the Line, will be available for PSP ann PSP Go Plus the Nintendo DS later this winter.

“Their unique take on professional wrestling has captivated a continually growing fan base of millions of people across the world,” said Richard Iggo, VP of Marketing for SouthPeak. “We look forward to giving those fans the opportunity to go head to head with all their favorite TNA superstars on the go, on either the PSP system or Nintendo DS.”

“We are very excited to partner with SouthPeak to release these games for the handheld systems,” said Steve Allison, Chief Marketing Officer for TNA Entertainment. “They have a great team that instantly impressed us with their passion and determination to work with us on these titles.”

Through an agreement with TNA, SouthPeak now has the rights to publish the handheld titles that were in development by Midway Games. TNA iMPACT! Cross the Line features the organization’s signature six-sided ring, wrestlers old and new for players to grapple with, action in and outside of the ring, wireless head to head play and much more. It is scheduled for release later this winter.

Technorati Tags: Midway Games

Call for Entries to 2010 Adobe Design Achievement Awards

Adobe today announced the call for entries for the tenth annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA). This premier competition honors the best student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from accredited higher education institutions worldwide. For the second consecutive year, Icograda (International Council of Graphic Design Associations) is endorsing and supporting these prestigious student awards. Adobe will host the awards ceremony during the Adobe MAX conference being held in Los Angeles in late October 2010.

“Each year, we see an increase in the quality and creativity of the student projects submitted to the Adobe Design Achievement Awards,” said Ann Lewnes, senior vice president of global marketing at Adobe. “As technology developments advance at a rapid pace, we anticipate that the entries for 2010 will push the envelope in design, particularly interactive — showcasing the tremendous talent coming out of the world’s accredited higher education institutions.”

“Next year marks the 10 year anniversary of Icograda’s Education Manifesto, as well as that of the prestigious Adobe Design Achievement Awards. Partnering with Adobe on such a special occasion strengthens our commitment to advancing design education through the global collaboration between both our educational networks,” said Russell Kennedy, president of Icograda.

As demand increases for talented designers and developers in the interactive design and development fields, the Adobe Design Achievement Awards spotlight the talented work of students in three categories: Interactive Media, Motion Media, and Traditional Media.

• Interactive Media categories include Browser-Based Design, Non-Browser Based Design, Application Development, Installation Design and Mobile Design.
• Motion Media categories include Animation, Live Action and Motion Graphics.
• Traditional Media categories include Illustration, Packaging, Photography and Print Communications.

Students are invited to submit projects through the Adobe Design Achievement Awards web site at adaa.adobe.com through June 4, 2010. Finalists will be invited to attend the awards ceremony at Adobe MAX in Los Angeles and awarded software and cash prizes. From the web site, visitors can access ADAA Live!, an interactive web site that lets them view previous entries and currently submitted student projects in real-time.

For more information regarding the 2010 Adobe Design Achievement Awards, visit adaa.adobe.com.

Technorati Tags: Adobe Design Achievement Awards, Adobe MAX

EA Launches Foto Face

Electronic Arts today announced the launch of Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes, a new Nintendo DSiWare title that gives players the ability to put themselves into the game and sends them on a wild, adventurous quest to reclaim their own stolen identity. Leveraging the unique features of the Nintendo DSi system, players use the camera and microphone to capture their face and voice to become an in-game character. Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes will be available on the DSiWare store in North America from today, November 30^th, and in the rest of the world from Friday, December 4^th.

“Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes is a great example of how EA is pushing the boundaries of innovative and creative gameplay,” said Harvey Elliott, Vice President and General Manager Casual, EA Play Label. “By using Nintendo DSi features such as the camera, we’ve significantly deepened the experience by allowing players to personalize the adventure in fun and quirky ways that will deliver hours of entertainment.”

After capturing their picture and recording their voice, players can choose to switch between the eight hero costumes throughout the game, from a muscle-bound barbarian to a slick spy or a sneaky ninja. The adventure unfolds as players discover that their identity has been stolen by the arch villain, The Professor. They will need to track him down across 15 action-packed levels, each loaded with memorable characters– both friend and foe. Players will face many challenges along the way as they try to clear their name including battling baddies across the Haunted Hills, collecting stars throughout the Frantic Frontier and solving platforming puzzles in the Mystic East.

Adding to the fun is the ability to capture the expressions and voices of more than 20 friends, family, pets or literally anything – players will be limited only by their imagination – all of which become part of the in-game world. Players can also share their Foto Face antics by uploading in-game snapshots directly onto Facebook from the Nintendo DSi Camera.

“Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes is not a traditional gaming experience,” continued Elliott. “We believe there are two key viral components, firstly the enormous fun that people will have putting their friends’ faces into the game, and secondly going to Facebook to check out all what other people have done with the character creation tool.”

Foto Face: The Face Stealer Strikes was developed by EA Bright Light, the same studio responsible for the creation of EA’s blockbuster Harry Potter  videogame series. It will be available for download on the Nintendo DSi Shop for 800 Nintendo DSi Points from November 30^th in North America and December 4^th in the rest of the world.

Technorati Tags: DSiWare, Facebook

On Black Friday Leading Retail Web Sites Slow Way Down

Keynote Systems today announced the top level results of its annual study tracking the speed and reliability of the nation’s most popular retail Web sites beginning Black Friday and continuing throughout the holiday shopping season. Online holiday shoppers experienced a mixed bag from a performance perspective on Black Friday, as almost all of the sites on Keynote’s online retail shopping index showed slowdowns on this very busy online shopping day. Overall, most of them weathered the storm very well, but there were a few sites (as there seems to be every year) that crumbled under the pressure. This continues to surprise Keynote during this extremely critical consumer shopping period and in the current economy in which every dollar counts.

“Overall the quality of the sites tracked on Black Friday improved this year over last, with fewer showing major outages and issues impacting a large number of users,” said Ben Rushlo, director of competitive Research at Keynote. “The best performing sites overall were Wal-Mart, Sears and Barnes & Noble. Each of these sites did very well during the Black Friday period (6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST). Overall, Wal-Mart was the most stable site, showing not a single error (100% availability for the day) and very little slowdown. Wal-Mart has struggled in the past with Black Friday traffic, but this year they got it right, offering their customers a consistently fast and reliable experience. Wal-Mart and the other good quality sites prove that with proper planning, load testing and focus it is possible to offer customers a pleasant online experience even when customer volume is the highest.”

Of the pure online sites (sites that do not have physical stores), Newegg was very good as was Overstock.com. Other pure online sites struggled. Interestingly, they seemed to have more issues later in the afternoon, likely when shoppers shifted their focus from “brick and mortar” to these ‘online only’ sites.

Several sites had issues very early in the morning (5:00 a.m. EST), likely as shoppers were looking for “door buster” deals. Others struggled more in the afternoon hours as the continued pressure on the site began to build and cause problems.

Rushlo continued, “This year, there were a few sites that had major issues. Keynote noted more issues in the apparel vertical than in other verticals. This is consistent with our findings in years prior. The best site on Keynote’s apparel index was Victoria’s Secret, as it did not report a single error and virtually no slowdown during the critical Black Friday shopping period.”

Keynote’s reporting is comprised of leading online shopping sites across apparel, electronics, and books and music Web sites and establishes a standard for retailers to measure acceptable performance against. The Keynote Retail Transaction Performance Index benchmarks the performance for an online shopping transaction for each leading retail site, including product search, shopping cart and checkout process performance.

Further information on the Keynote Retail Performance Indices is available online at: http://www.keynote.com/keynote_competitive_research/performance_indices/retail/retail_index.html

Sites Included on Keynote’s Retail Web Transaction Performance Index–

Electronics sites on Keynote’s retail index include: Amazon, Apple Store, Best Buy, CDW, Dell, HP, Newegg, Office Depot, Office Max, Overstock, Sony Style, Staples, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart.

Apparel sites on Keynote’s retail index include: Abercrombie & Fitch, Eddie Bauer, Foot Locker, J Crew, JC Penney, Kohls, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears, Victoria’s Secret, Zappos.

Books and music sites on Keynote’s retail index include: Abe Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Blockbuster,

Technorati Tags: Black Friday, Retail

Powerful New Macbook Pro Dock Coming

Zemno has introduced what it calls the first portable docking station that supports the internal connection of hard drives, batteries and peripherals. The DeskBook Pro Docking Station uses the company’s ModBay technology that lets users plug in either of the three types of devices. Each ModBay contains either a hard drive, a battery or other peripheral; the dock has two of these. The DeskBook Pro also adds seven USB ports, three FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 Port, one DVI output, one Ethernet Port, one eSATA data connection and one eSATA power connection. Stereo audio input/output and a memeory card reader are in the mix as well.

DeskBook Pro is compatible with any Mac or PC notebook up to 15 inches with FireWire and USB capabilities, though its design is made to match the curved aluminum profile of current-generation MacBook Pros. The DeskBook Pro can now be ordered with deliveries due for January 10th. Its extra features bring the price to $500.

Technorati Tags: Dock, Laptop, Modbay

Microsoft Working on Streaming Silverlight Video for iPhone

Microsoft has demonstrated Silverlight video streaming for the iPhone, according to reports. The technology relies on server-side transcoding and HTML 5’s video tag, but displays Silverlight content in a native MPEG-2 format recognized by the iPhone’s version of QuickTime. “So it’s the same IIS smooth streaming content, the same server, the same point of origin, but now I can get that content to play without any code changes, without any real work, on the iPhone. That’s the critical thing for our customers,” says Microsoft User Experience platform manager Brian Goldfarb.

No version of Flash is allowed on the iPhone as a result of performance concerns, particularly in regards to battery life. The standard is nevertheless available on competing devices via the Open Screen Project.  Adobe has shown tools for the up coming CS 5 version of Flash which  will let produce native IPAs apps.

Technorati Tags: Adobe, Flash, HTML 5, iPhone, iPod Touch, Open Screen Project

Purchase Intent down from 2008 this Holiday Season, HDTVs Still Hot

High Definition Televisions ranked as the most desired consumer electronic product at the holiday season; and it was no different this year. HDTVs remain at the top of respondents’ holiday wish lists in 2009, according to market researcher In-Stat.

Over all, CE products continue to top holiday wish lists, which is good news for retailers, CE manufacturers and suppliers. However, the downside is purchase intent has fallen from 2008. Our 2009 consumer survey reveals that the percentage of respondents who plan to purchase a CE device have declined within each CE market segment,” according to Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat Analyst. “In-Stat believes the economy is continuing to take a toll on consumer spending.”

For the fourth year in a row, In-Stat surveyed its proprietary Technology Adoption Panel about the different CE products they are considering for purchase this holiday season. The top products are:

• HDTVs
• Notebook PCs
• Digital cameras
• Blu-ray players
• Desktop PCs

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• While not in the top five desired CE categories among respondents, the e-reader market is one of the hottest CE market segments right now. Amazon is the leader in the market with its expanding Kindle lineup; and the company has notably picked up its holiday marketing and advertising. With a slew of new market entrants and new e-reader models, e-reader sales could outperform expectations.
• The most desired feature in future e-readers is wireless connectivity.
• Approximately 40% of future PC purchasers state that a need for better performance is the key PC purchase criteria.

Technorati Tags: CE, HDTV

Nielsen Tracking Ratings from the Online Game Show “1 vs. 100.”

Nielsen for the first time is doing analytics on a video game console network. The goal of the new ratings system is to measure how many people were playing the game at a particular time and, therefore, how many saw the included advertisements during “1 vs. 100″.

1 vs. 100 is a game show that anyone with an Xbox Gold account can play. Now in its second season, the game lets people win games, Xbox points and other prizes by answering trivia questions.  The aim is to give the players the true feeling of being on a game show.  Some sessions even have a live host, Chris Cashman. For the last two season Sprint has been the main sponsor of the game.

You can learn more at the Microsoft Advertising blog.

Technorati Tags: 1 vs. 100, Advertising, Chris Cashman, Nielsen, Rating, Xbox Live

Hulu Had 856 Million Views in October

Technorati Tags: Google, Hulu, YouTube

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