Gearfuse

Today is the day, baby. Most of you who reserved a PS3 Instant Stream disc will be receiving yours today. I happened to be one of the lucky ones who got their hands on a disc a littler earlier in the day so I’ve taken the liberty of reviewing the disc for those of you who were still on the fence about going through the trouble of reserving your own copy.

The whole process is pretty seamless. The first time you pop in the disc you’re required to go through a very simple activation process, but after that you’re home free. The cover flow UI is easy to navigate after you get used to the slightly clumsy square-button led navigation. The quality is MUCH better than I expected, almost reaching DVD quality and definitely out pacing both my PC and my Mac.

Enough of my pandering. Check out the video and see for yourself!

So, yeah, that big music service we were talking about earlier that Google was supposed to be launching? Turns out the truth of the the matter is slightly more anticlimactic than we had hoped. As it turns out, the Google Music service is actually going to be the One Box search engine, a search engine that will blend results from the likes of iLike and lala, allowing you to stream, sample and buy music directly from the search page.

So, are we looking at a Spotify killer? No. Could Google pull something like that off in the future? They’ve maintained on numerous occasions that their business is search, so that seems to be where they’re sticking for now.

With the iPhone 3.0 OS officially dropping today (though some of us have had ours for a week and have since hacked it for tethering!), MLB.com is pulling all punches with its new iPhone App, At Bat. While the app itself isn’t new, the 3.0 update will give owners the chance to stream live baseball games at no additional cost. The first game to be streamed will be tomorrows Sox vs Cubs matchup at 2:20pm. For $10, you seriously can’t beat this deal.

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For a small fee each month, you can get Netflix to not only send DVDs to your house, but you can also stream thousands of movies via its online movie service. The Xbox 360 currently supports this feature, which no doubt pisses off most Playstation 3 owners like myself. But now, there’s a glimmer of hope.

According to the Netflix job listings, there’s a position for “Engineering Leader – Gaming Platforms.” Yeah, I know. Take it with a grain of salt, but some websites believe that this is a sign that Netflix will bring streaming video to PS3 and the Wii. The PS3 already supports Flash, though. Has anyone tried Netflix’s movie service via the web browser on the PS3?

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If you’re a football fan with a broadband Internet connection, your weekend just got a whole lot better. The NFL has launched a service called “Game Rewind” that will retail for $19.99 for the season or $4.99 a week. The service lets you watch all the football games you can handle in HD quality with no commercials. Awesome, right? It doesn’t end there.

You’ll also get the ability to watch four games at once, chat with other fans and complete DVR functionality. Want to rewind to see that interception Drew Brees threw? You got it, champ. Keep in mind, this is a web-based service so you’ll need a way to bring out the picture if you plan on watching the games with your boys.

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I have to come clean for a minute. I haven’t purchased any Mac or PC software in well over three years. I’m a pirating machine and I’d like to think I do it very well. However, I recently got a demo of some software called MediaLink from Nullriver Software. It essentially links my Macs to my Playstation 3 out in the living room of my apartment. This allows me to stream all those pirated TV shows and movies to the big screen TV out in the other room. I can also stream all my iPhoto photos and iTunes music as well. Think of it as a godsend.

Well after using the demo, I said “Fuck it.” and plunked down the $20 for MediaLink. It feels nice to support a company making a utility that is indispensable to me. My roommates and I have been ghetto-hacking our TV for months, trying to get out movies and such to stream or playback. Now my PS3 does everything I’ve ever wanted: Next-gen gaming, Blu-ray playback, classic gaming, streaming audio, video and photos and Internet browsing.

If you have a Playstation 3, I highly recommend checking out MediaLink. You won’t regret it. Nullriver also makes a piece of software for the Xbox 360 called Connect360 that does the same sort of thing.

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Step aside Microsoft, there’s a new Netflix streamer in town. Today, Netflix announced that it has added TiVo to its growing list of streaming partners. Being that TiVo’s subscriber base hasn’t grown much since 2005, we’re thinking TiVo needs this partnership more than Netflix; considering Netflix has already partnered with LG, Microsoft and Samsung.

Netflix will be available to TiVo Series3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL owners. The two companies will begin testing the new service today in “several thousand” U.S. households, and it’s expected to be widely available in early December. Whether or not this will keep TiVo in the business of DVR remains to be seen. For TiVo’s sake, this partnership should keep them in the running for a few more years.

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Ever wanted to stream video live from your favorite ball game? Say, perhaps, a game where the Philadelphia Phillies are absolutely killing that other team. Perfect. We all know you’re a business power user with a Blackberry Bold or Curve. Hell, maybe your wife even has the Pearl. Either way, you should head over to Qik’s website and get the just-released alpha version of the Qik application for your Blackberry. You’ll be able to stream live video right from your Blackberry, ensuring that your cousin in St. Petersburg, Florida has to suffer more than usual.

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Seems NBC and SNL creator Lorne Michaels want to start a streaming video site that will feature only SNL content. Schmitt’s Gay, The Rapists for 500 and Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, all in one place. No wonder it’s so chilly. Hell froze over!

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Title says it all. Read the official Netflix blog post below.

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