Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Video, Wireless

Well folks, we told you just over three weeks ago about “advanced talks” between Verizon and YouTube, and it looks like as of today, the two lovebirds have just tied the knot officially. with their joint service will launch next month. However, there are a couple of points to take stock of: first, it’s exclusively on Verizon, which means it’s going to run on V CAST — costing you an extra $15 a month, that is, assuming you have a V CAST-capable handset. (According to one analyst, Roger Entner, only about 10 percent of Verizon’s 20 million users with such phones have signed up for the service so far.) Second, Verizon’s exclusivity is only going to be for “a short time,” and it’s more than likely that T-Mobile, Sprint, Cingular and friends have already been knocking at YouTube’s door. Third, as you probably know, YouTube is a two-way street (you know, that whole “user-generated” thing we’ve been hearing so much about) and as such, Reuters is reporting that you’ll be able to post videos directly from your handset with the use of a “five-digit short code instead of an email address.” Finally, the Mercury News points out that you won’t have access to all of YouTube, just what Verizon decides that you’ll want via its proprietary YouTube channel. So that means you can probably forget about catching episodes of “Ask A Ninja” on your bus ride home. Still, diluted YouTube is better than no YouTube; we can almost hear thousands of freshly-bought VX9900s flipping open to check out the content already.

Read – Reuters
Read – San Jose Mercury News

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming

*Price includes Tom Clancy’s G.R.A.W., NHL ’07, Live Arcade Volume 1, three-month Xbox Live Gold membership, 1,250 Microsoft points, a wireless modem, and three years of Sympatico high-speed internet from Bell Canada.

With “next-generation” consoles being released every three to four years nowadays (save for Sony’s PlayStation 3, which has a stated 10-year life span), some people (read: parents and spouses) are a little hesitant to throw down upwards of $300 for a system that will probably be gathering dust in the attic even before the wireless controllers need replacing. Well Canadian children will soon have a new angle to work when begging their folks for an Xbox 360, thanks to a package that Bell Canada will be offering from November 5th through sometime next year which includes Microsoft’s latest console, a handful of games, and broadband service for CAN$59.95 a month (or CAN$54.95 for you lucky Quebecers). The catch here is that you need to sign up for an unusually long three-year commitment; furthermore, it’s unclear if you’ll be able to purchase the nearly-worthless console at the end of the contract or be given the opportunity to upgrade to an Xbox 361 once it hits stores. It’s also not clear what kind of upload / download speeds you’re getting with this offer — an important piece of the puzzle in deciding whether or not this bundle is a good value. Still, if you’re the type who’s already renting your apartment, leasing your car, and paying way too much money to Rent-A-Center each month for your home theater gear, this promotion may be right up your alley.

[Via digg and HappyBeggar]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Some of our older readers may remember using Packard Bell gear all the way back when the consumer electronics industry consisted of just radios and TV sets, and even the younger crowd probably played on a PB or two after the name was sold to a budget computer manufacturer in the mid-80's. Well even though the company withdrew from the US market back in 2000 after being plagued with quality and compatibility issues, it has actually been quite successful overseas under the guidance of NEC as Packard Bell Europe, where it's consistently been one of the top-selling PC manufacturers and even begun branching out to other product lines. Still, NEC seems to think that the tide has turned on old Packard Bell once again, as sources in Asia indicate that the Japanese corporation is looking to sell the Dutch Packard Bell BV PC subsidiary, and that eMachines founder Lap Shun Hui is looking to buy. Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun is claiming that Hui offered around $87 million for the division, probably hoping that he can use his skills to transform the 'Bell into the same type of property that convinced Gateway to shell out over $200 million worth of cash and stock for eMachines a few years back.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Taking yet another step towards integrating the once-anathema AMD processors in its family of products, Dell has begun to sell Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 chips alongside it's own CPUs for Precision Workstations through its online store. You'll probably recall (especially since we just reminded you yesterday) that Dell, once firmly opposed to AMD in favor of keeping Intel inside its machines, has recently been showing the Sunnyvale chip maker decidedly more love, choosing to include the company's Opteron chip in at least one of its high-end servers. Plus, we've heard that Dell is expected to throw even more business AMD's way in September, if rumors predicting an AMD-based consumer desktop turn out to be true. What with its purchase of Alienware and now the availability of those Athlon chips that gamers love to sport, not to mention the growing popularity of its XPS line, Dell really seems to be positioning itself as the safe alternative to many of these upstart distributors hawking cobbled-together gaming rigs.

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A couple of months ago, we let you know about Microsoft’s “Mystery Solved” USB key drives giveaway, with the idea being that included on those drives were lots of fun facts about Windows licensing and how you can avoid being a software pirate.

Well, you can stop trying to get the schwag from Microsoft; apparently the company has given away so many thousands of them that it’s fresh out. Now Microsoft politely invites you to download all that information from its website. Somehow, that doesn’t sound like as much fun. Even though we’re sure you really, really wanted to know all about how to make sure your copy of Windows is genuine and needed multiple copies of all those super-useful documents, it’s not like they were going to have an endless supply of these things, dudes. – Charlie White

“Mystery Solved” Page [Microsoft] Thanks, Erik!

 
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Does your old iBook or PowerBook not have enough USB ports (ours doesn’t)? Grab this free after rebate powered USB hub from i-Rocks. $15.99 at checkout, plus $8.95 ground shipping. It even matches your white MacBook.

4-Port USB 2.0 Hub, White [eCost]

 
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Related: MovieBeam Price Drop

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals

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The folks at Scott E Vest made us a little page offering $30 off any of the featured products. This includes the sexy hoodie shown here with the big target on the back. Perfect for running from authority!

Sale Page [ScottEVest]

 
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Related: Get a Free PocketDock

Amazon has a raft of deals this weekend on electronics, ranging up to 55% off on some items. Most of it amounts to mundane computer peripherals, but there are some distractions, such as the earlier version of Belkin's Nostromo Speedpad and one of those Keyboard Drawers that looks like a perfectly utilitarian space-saver until it breaks.

Amazon electronics deals [Amazon.com]

 
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Related: Deal on Seagate Barracuda 300GB SATA Drives

Always on the lookout for you, dear readers, we point you toward newegg.com, where there's a sale on Seagate Barracuda 300GB SATA drives running at 7200RPM. Normally these drives cost between $125 and $130 at their lowest (and we've seen a few at $145 or $150), but this deal has them at $100. Good price, and no rebate BS. Buy a bunch of them for a big RAID array.

Seagate Barracuda 300GB [digg]

 
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Check out this stud—easily the best dressed blogger out there. And now you can be like him and save some bling while you are at it. This is JB sporting his Scottevest Sev 4.0. Scottevest is celebrating their 5th anniversary by offering a 50% off sale that lasts until this Sunday. Buy, buy, buy!

Scottevest Anniversary Sale
Scottevest [Gizmodo]

 
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