Looks like Yahoo! Movies just posted the trailer for "Terminator Salvation", the prequel starring Christian Bale coming out next summer.  Finally, the Terminator franchise is going to do more than dance around the apocalyptic future, rather send Christian in to de-fibrillate it much like he's done with Batman.  Star Trek and Terminator prequels?  Summer 2009 can't get here fast enough.

Check out the trailers here:

• SD Format
• HD Format

Tip o' the hat to Dave Zatz for details on the new TiVo update being rolled out. Reportedly all boxes are being updated by the end of the month. Here are the details:

• Play or Delete a Folder
  Play or delete an entire folder of programs with a single button press (including kids shows, music videos ext). Highlight a folder and press PLAY to play all the shows in sequence. Pres CLEAR to delete the entire folder.
• Browse the Guide Any Time
  Press the GUIDE button to display the program guide over what you’re watching: live TV, a previously recorded program, or even a video download.
• Jump Forward in the Guide
  When the Guide is on-screen, press the ADVANCE to jump 24 hours ahead. Press INSTANT REPLAY to go back 24 hours.
• Find a Station in the Guide
  Now you can search for a station “call sign” within the Guide, e.g. KQED, WPIX, MSNBC. When viewing the program guide, press ENTER to bring up Guide Options, then SELECT Find by call sign.
• Toggle Closed Captioning On and Off
  The Closed Captioning icon in the Channel Banner now toggles closed captioning on and off.
• Review Thumb Ratings
  To display a list of all programs that you have rated, select Find Programs, then TiVo Suggestions. Press ENTER to bring up the Review Thumbs screen

Dave notes this is probably a prep update for the SDV Tuning Adapter a # of us are sure to need soon. I completely agree with Dave's assessment - it would be good to get an updated roadmap on HD support and additional service offerings in the future.  Music, Photos etc. is looking pretty stale these days.  If the iPhone can deliver such a anexperience in a small package, certainly TiVo could do some pretty amazing things.

Lots of reports of issues with battery life on the 3G in the Meme the past few days.  Adding insult to injury comes confirmation that most 3rd party adapters can't charge the power-hungry thing. I got bit by this yesterday for the first time when I plugged my iPhone 3G into my VAISTech SoundLinQ adapter in my Toyota Prius.  As soon as I did, I got a wacky message on the device that it would not charge.

Firmware problem?  Not likely. Reports are trickling in that the original iPhone charged via Firewire pin-out while the new 3G only supports USB 2.0, breaking compatibility with many devices including Apple's on pricey and discontinued HiFi sound system. This is most disappointing given I depend on my daily commute to charge my phone up on days when I'm using the iPhone instead of my BlackJack II.  A visit to the VAISTech forums and subsequent iLounge extensive review notes:

Another difference Apple snuck into the iPhone 3G is the latest change to its ever-shifting definition of Dock Connector accessory compatibility. 
This time, Apple has quietly discontinued support for certain types of charging accessories, namely ones that used the FireWire standard rather than USB. Unlike the video accessory change, developers should have known that this one was coming for a long while, so you’re less likely to be affected if you’ve made a recent purchase.
Because of this change, in addition to old accessories such as Belkin’s Auto Kit and Bose’s original SoundDock—identified by one of Apple’s hand-selected reviewers as no longer capable of charging the iPhone 3G—you’ll find that more recent accessories such as XtremeMac’s RoadShow have also stopped working in any way. They’ll bring up a passive screen that says “Charging is not supported by this accessory,” then a new nag screen that says “This accessory is not made to work with iPhone - Charging is not supported.” For RoadShow, which only did two things—AV-out and charging—this change kills any last vestige of utility the old accessory might have had, requiring the purchase of at least a new charger.

So I can't listen to my iPhone via the integrated system and charge it at the same time and doing so at the office isn't really an option since I'm in meetings most of the day. WOW.  Adding insult, the in-car adapter cost more than the iPhone 3G!  Talk about forcing an upgrade cycle. 

Apparently others are having issues with this as well:

• Apple Gazette
• InformationWeek
• StuffTV
• AT&T Forums 
• MacRumors Forums
• USA Today
• Tim Heuer

At that cost, I might as well sell my SoundLinq on eBay and use my Zune all the time in the car.  At least then I can sync and charge from my garage and get the benefit of a ZunePass Subscription for years of music at a cost still cheaper than buying a new in-car adapter.

Update: VAIS Technology rapidly responded to my email inquiry noting they will be offering compatible cables for SL2i in about two weeks.  VAIS will also have an adapter available in about a month for SLi and SL2Vi owners. No word yet on pricing.  Thanks Eugene!

A few weeks ago, I was asked if wanted an opportunity to review a new software app under embargo that is designed to solve one of the great remaining problems with any music library - fixing album art and metadata.  Over the years between WMP/Zune/iTunes conversions of my library, converting all of my tracks into 160kbps MP3, migrating between HDDs and just plain idiosyncracies with ID3 tags and where album art gets stored, my library has become a severe mess.  TuneUp promised to fix it and I have to say aside from a few minor nits, it does a commendable job and is now available for download in two versions: TuneUp and TuneUp Gold but more on that later.

Around the UI
TuneUp is a companion app to iTunes for Windows (Mac coming this Fall) - it rides shotgun, snapping to the right-hand side of iTunes and listens into your library via iTunes' scripting engine. The UI offers four options - Clean, Cover Art, Now Playing, and Concerts.  The first two options - Clean and Cover Art are the meat of the app.  The second two options- Now Playing and Concerts are similar to other solutions offer links to YouTube, Stubhub, Amazon, Google, and eBay searches for artist information and concert listings in your area (via Ticketmaster/Stubhub).  But what sets TuneUp apart is the cleaning feature. My library started off with about 40% accurate information (horrible!) and by running through TuneUp's algorithm, was able to successfully match the majority of my songs. 

Taking it for a Spin
After backing up my music library, I did a series of ad-hoc tests to determine the accuracy of the service. TuneUp representatives tell me it works by applying a heuristic evaluating ID3 tags, filename, and even samples the audio of the song to create a fingerprint of the content. From there, it's matched against Gracenote's massive library of songs.   Gracenote is now a subsidiary of Sony and they've been making great strides in accuracy since their grass-roots efforts as user-supported CDDB so many years ago.

TuneUp correctly found a large # of U2 songs in my library that had missing album art or inaccurate media information, mostly a mix-match of Genre information.  Results are listed in one of three categories - Matches, Likely Matches, and Processing.  All display by album and can drill down to You can then choose to save each track. 

Not Perfect, But Closing in on the Target
Most of my issues with TuneUp are easily solvable.  First the UI has layout issues with the progress bar often colliding with text.  Here is a good example:

Another issue is accuracy on Live Sets or rare tracks.  The library does a good enough job of identifying the songs, but normally matches them to studio recordings.  As of right now, I wouldn't recommend TuneUp for eclectic music libraries. 

Also, I've noticed the Genre naming is quite a bit different across the industry - U2 suddenly went from a mix of Pop and Rock to Adult Alternative.  I don't know if that's a bad thing though I'm not sure Bono would agree.  Sheryl Crow's "Good is Good" genre became, "Singer-Songwriter".  Huh?! I actually started using it as an indicator for when content had been cleaned in my library.

Then there's the pricing.  The app appears to be ad-supported, with an American Apparel banner ad at the bottom of the screen.

Pricing and Advertisements
TuneUp is free to evaluate with over 500 song clean-ups and 50 album covers.  This is  a commendable # for testing and the price of $11.95 for an unlimited version is reasonable.  What I don't see noted here however is whether the Gold version removes the advertisements at the bottom.  I'd like to see more details about how TuneUp intends to use this space and exactly what information is shared with advertisers. Right now this appears to be limited to American Apparel - I don't see much of a fit between the ad and the content though, it would be less annoying if they did some frequency capping and targeted the ads to my interests.  I suspect this is to come in a later release.

Features I'd like to see
TuneUp isn't perfect- but it's pretty darn close.  Here are a few features I'd like to see included:

• View ID3 Tags and Fix.  iTunes will offer, but I can only see all of TuneUps changes after they're applied.
• Duplicate finder.  Yes, iTunes has a similar feature but is largely dependent on you as the user to go through and find
• Lyrics finder. Gracenote offers the service, would be good to see here.
• Offer to Remove Missing Songs from iTunes. WMP and Zune talk directly to the file system and know when files are removed.  iTunes tries to play and then gives you the dreaded "bang".  Nuke em all as an option.
• Zune/WMP Media Bridge.  Ensure media info is correctly set in the places Zune & WMP look, and offer a sync option for playlists, playcount, and ratings.  (Check out MusicBridge as a good proxy)
• Genre Mapper. Ability to rename a Gracenote genre (e.g. Adult Alternative) to Pop or whatever you wish.  It's a highly contentious and subjective topic.
• Faster indexing and better notification. TuneUp normally works well with ~50 tracks loaded but I decided to try and break it load in over 1000 tracks at a time.  It actually held up remarkably well but the UI updates started getting slow and I wasn't sure if it died or not.  A countdown time or est. time remaining option would be a big help.

Summary
TuneUp solves a major problem of most music enthusiasts, though if you're fastidious about your ID3 tagging, have invested hours in genre matching and the like, you may find continuing to manually update to be right for you.  Also, if you wear a tin foil hat and are concerned about personally identifiable information such as track names, playcounts and personal ratings being uploaded to TuneUp, you may want to scrub through the privacy statement. TuneUp assures us this is used for improvements to the service and personalization features such as concert listings (e.g. they won't give you a suggested concert for a one-star rated artist you hate).  For the mainstream music lover, TuneUp is a worthy addition to your toolkit, even in this first release with one caveat- back up your library before you try.  It's not perfect, but it's major improvement over in-app solutions.  Be sure to tell us how your experiences are going in the comments below.

Here's a roundup of announcements today.  I was off playing with the family on Bainbridge Island otherwise I would have posted earlier.

• Xbox 360 is getting a totally new Dashboard (Engadget) complete with Avatars. This is one of the many cool things being cooked up but haven't been announced/released yet.  The funny thing is a few months ago, having James Cameron on stage at the Advance conference talking about his upcoming movie project, "Avatar" caused a few heart palpitations in
• Xbox Live gold members to get NetFlix on-demand, complete with shared viewing experience with your friends.  Now if only you could record your own RiffTrax ala MST3K.  There's an idea Lance!
• Xbox Live Party System.  Friends stick with you- watch a movie together, share a slideshow, go from game to game etc.   Finally- make it a game night with your buddies!
• Improvements to how Xbox 360 works overall.  Improvements include running games from HDD - no more whirring during games, 16:10 output via VGA or HDMI for those of us connected to 16:10 displays (vs. 16:9) and you'll be able to make Xbox 360 purchases over the Web.
• Mark Whitten details it all in an email that went around our group like wildfire later today. 

More details and video at www.gamerscoreblog.com and www.majornelson.com.  There's even more goodness waiting in the wings which I can't talk about.  But for now, off to go play with new package that just arrived under embargo. More on that later ;)

If you've been holding off to get an Xbox 360 for the price to come down, now just may be the time while supplies last. 
On the heels of E3, this AM the Xbox team announced a signficant price drop to $299 for the 20GB box.  For the media enthused, a new 60GB version is also on the way.

Here's the skinny:

• Microsoft today dropped the price of its 20GB Xbox 360 console in the U.S. and Canada to just $299 (U.S.) (ERP) while supplies last, a savings of $50.
• Available in retail stores in the U.S. and Canada starting in early August, the upgraded Xbox 360 will include a 60GB hard drive for storing the growing wealth of digital entertainment available for the console, including music, movies, television shows, and game content.

More details in the press release.

Unfortunately it's in closed beta.  Ping me here for an invite.

Update:  Sorry all, this was a bad joke on my part but I think underscores ludicrous names that are popping up.  I used the Web 2.0 logo maker and ran a Mary Poppins reference through it, all Web 2.0 style.

I've been trying to use MobileMe for the better part of two days and had intermittent success with half-loaded apps, pinwheels to infinity, and missing apps.  Apparently there's now an explanation on www.mac.com (right).

Tough day for some friends in Cupertino today but I'm sure everything will be worked out by next week. I'm just hoping my tongue in cheek joke wasn't too close to the mark.

Gizmodo has detailed the official AT&T response to what is happening right now with what's being called, "The iPocalypse".  Basically it appears the hordes are trying to update iTunes and iPhone 1.x devices to the 2.0 firmware which requires re-authentication at the same time all AT&T stores are trying to do the same.   Friends in NYC reported 1.5-2hrs to activate in AT&T stores per person before they scrapped plans for in-store activation and are sending users home with promises you'll be able to activate at home.  But unfortunately, the dialog box at right is what all of we purchasers worldwide are being greeted with instead.

To add insult to injury, if you're upgrading an existing line to the new iPhone, your old SIM card is deactivated before you leave the store.  Normally this whole thing would just be a minor nuisance but now I'm without a functioning mobile phone with no idea when it will be back.  So I paid ~$300 plus giving AT&T a free day's worth of my monthly fees due to service outage.  If this keeps up, AT&T better credit my account for lack of available service. 

I'm really surprised there's been no official response from Apple after hours since this issue arose.  Perhaps they're hoping the Apple PR halo effect will enact a cone of silence and this too will be forgotten/ignored.  A couple of sarcastic comments about enterprise scalability are sure to be made, Apple will tout unprecedented demand and the populist press will note only a few minor issues

Chris, you were right to stay home.  Meh.

Update: Authorization servers appear to be working now.  Updating now.

Update2: Andru Edwards and the crew at GearLive detail their snafus with activation.  Looks like my issues were small in comparison.

In what's sure to be the "Killer app" for iPhone's release, Apple's App store showcases a free download from Apple titled, "Remote".  The marketing speak says:

Be a mobile DJ. With Remote, you can control music on you Computer or Apple TV from your iPod touch or iPhone.

Play, pause, skip, shuffle. See your songs, playlists, and album art, on your iPod touch or iPhone as if you were in front of your computer.

Remote works with your Wi-Fi network, so you control playback from anywhere in and around your home.

 

Features

- Control the music on iTunes or Apple TV

- See the album artwork on your Remote

- Search the whole iTunes library

- Control your AirTunes speakers

Looks like there may be a function for multi-zone music playback with this feature- something I'll have to investigate.  More screens below:

Update: I've successfully tested the app with both an Apple TV and a massive iTunes library and report that the performance is snappy overall. When the Apple TV was powered off, a notification appeared on the iPhone which was also a nice touch.  Apps like this have existed for years for Windows Mobile-based devices, and most recently percolating to a solution for Windows Sideshow so that's now what's new- what's new is that this is the first time Apple has intimated the iPhone as a control device vs. consumption of media.

As for the Sonos comparison, it's readily apparent that Remote (and iTunes in general) is missing a critical feature IMO - synchronized audio playback.  Sonos' wireless mesh network delivers sync'd playback so flawlessly that I'm hard pressed to think of another CE-device in my stable that has worked so well.  This is a key feature for multi-room audio as we regularly fill the house and yard with music when cleaning, entertaining, celebrating the holidays.  I will say the iPhone fits in my pocket a sight better than the Sonos controller - a complete comparison to come in the future.

Lots of first takes coming out on the Apple App Store that just went live. Overall it appears cleanly laid out with sections for, "New", "What's Hot", "Staff Favorites", and two top ten lists, "Top Apps" and "Top Free Apps".  I'm pleased to see the latter, though you will need to log into your account to download as they count all free apps as "Purchases" as well.  The devil will be in the details on whether Apple releases a stat in the weeks to come that they've had over N purchases from the store when most will likely be free.

Here are my three takeaways:

Apps want to be shared
In order for the app store to take off, they're going to need users to visit, and often.  Apps aren't like music - music is innately more viral a medium than, "Hey I just got this cool weather app". So the "Tell a Friend" feature while basic today, I would expect to start expanding out.  Who knows, perhaps legions of Facebook developers are working on a "Apps on my iPhone" app for Facebook profiles today...

I still can't run any of these apps (yet)
Perhaps the 2.0 software release is imminent, but I can't seem to find it yet.  So I'm happily downloading the software but can't do anything with it. Sure to remedied soon, but goes against the traditional Apple grain of release it all at once.

Apple thinks my four-year old is old enough for an iPhone, shuns ESRB
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a standardized rating system for determining the age-appropriateness of video games.  Virtually everyone in the industry is a member and supports ESRB but it appears Apple's app store is opting for a 4+, 9+, 12+, 17+ age rating system which also hints that Apple thinks your iPhone/iPod Touch is age-appropriate for a preschooler.  Suuuure.

I just tried to launch Apple's new Mobile Me service and was surprised by this notfication when launching with Internet Explorer 7.  This is something I haven't seen covered in any of the major trades or even Apple's own site until now which has up until now noted that IE would be supported which I guess is technically true.    It's also interesting the ordering of the buttons below.  Normally I'd expect "Get Safari" to be on the far-right.  When other services don't support Firefox, users get up in arms.  I wonder whether Apple will hear similar complaints (or respond) over this decision.  I suspect not since to get the full benefit of Mobile Me, you have to be willing to move your primary email address to a new @me.com domain. In today's day and age, I don't see a lot of people other than the Apple faithful shelling out $90+ a year for email when you can get it for free in so many places. Is Push email worth that cost?  POP3 works just fine thanks.

All of this will be moot with the release of Internet Explorer 8 I suspect, but will you see a "Get IE8" button at the bottom?  Not likely.

Courtesy of Lifehacker, iTunes 7.7 may not show up via "Check for Updates" yet, but it is available on the interwebs for those of us who aren't sleeping. 

Download here and read up on Lifehacker here.  One thing to note- the "Applications" option for the left-hand sidebar appears to be disabled by default.  To enable, go into Edit, Preferences. 

It also looks like the rumors of the iPhone remote control feature are true - stay tuned for more details.  I suspect Sonos could have a run for their money here if Apple decides to do multi-zone playback.

Update: iTunes non-ceremoniously crashed on me after five minutes of non-use in the background.  No explanation on why but it was syncing my Apple TV and iPhone in the background.

Update2: It looks like the Apple App store is up and running.  Once you've enabled Applications, select it and choose, "Get more Applications" at the bottom of the screen. I've included a screenshot here.  No iPhone software update yet though...

Something about these logo/boxshots looks awfully familiar...

"Better Living in the Digital World" Hmm

As Media Center enthusiasts know, www.thegreenbutton.com is a fantastic resource for all things Media Center.  The good news is that the ads are gone.
I'm going to ping the team and get some details but this is fantastic news as we've always been super-supportive of the site and the contributions of the founders, moderators, developers, and community members over the years.  Perhaps it's time for me to re-up my account during vacation and pop into the site.

The TomTom HD Traffic service uses anonymized cell phone traffic patterns to provide up to 5x resolution on traffic speeds on major roads.  Nice.  Does Garmin have anything like this?

Those who know this site also know I'm a fan of the Data Robotics Drobo.  I've caught some heat from product managers for other comparable products because I just don't think they match the capabilities of this little device.  One area I've been disappointed about however is performance.  The Drobo docks massive amounts of storage in a small, rock-solid little unit but it's S L O W when doing large transfers.  That's why I'm keen on today's announcement of the new Drobo 2.0 with a faster processor, faster USB 2.0 and new Firewire 800 performance options.  I recently moved my home Media Center into a single desktop system with a Quad-core and it's been working without a hiccup using my Drobo as the primary storage for all media except for two things:  1) Hard Drive spinup lag when the drives haven't been used in a while, and 2) that pesky data transfer performance.  I have two  HDTV (OCUR) tuners connected via USB as well as sundry peripherals and haven't seen any perf issues fortunately, though I would

I'm eager to try out the new Drobo 2.0 and may pick one up - but if I have to transfer over all of my existing nearly 2GB of Drobo 1.0 content to the Drobo 2.0 via the original's sluggish USB, that may be a deal-breaker.  I'm hoping I can swap the drives out and the new 2.0 device will pick up where the 1.0 left off.  I have email into the folks at Data Robotics to learn more on that topic and a few other - will report back here.  Thomas Hawk also has an excellent review here.

Starting at $450 up to $700, the Acer x1200 is about the size of a large book complete with 4GB of RAM, an AMD Dual-Core processor, up to 500GB in storage, and even an eSATA port to go along with the nine USB ports. While Nvidia has taken some lumps as of late for their mobile GPU issues, this unit has a GeForce 8200 integrated along with two PCIe slots (looks like half-height only).  The Mac Mini has little in terms of performance on this gem if you can spare an extra inch and some cost savings.  I am curious about power consumption and heat though and an HDMI out would seal the deal.