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As rumored, Hulu Plus is now officially available on the TiVo Premiere, and according to TiVo, this "further extends its lead as the only one-box solution that integrates in one easy-to-use user interface." We supposed this is technically true, but it depends on your definition of "integrates" -- we'll discuss why after the jump. Hulu Plus of course comes at a monthly premium, but the other news is that new TiVo Premiere owners will get the privilege gratis for six months, while existing Premiere owners get what is described as a "free trial" which we assume is the standard one month risk trial -- as opposed to the variety that doesn't require a credit card. Hulu Plus on TiVo Premiere Love it or not, TiVo's interface has helped make it the best consumer DVR for over 10 years -- although much of the interface looks as old as the company itself -- so last September when we heard TiVo was integrating Hulu Plus, we obviously had high expectation...

We generally prefer to do our movie viewing in our own home theaters, but when we succumb to the temptation of public moviehouses we often choose digital projection hoping for a flawless viewing experience. Unfortunately, this report by  The Boston Globe  indicates that may not be the case. It is alleged by unnamed theater employees that theaters are leaving the 3D lens adapters on their Sony 4K digital projectors even when showing 2D. Just like viewing 3D, this cuts the light output and it's worse for 2D films not made with that in mind, but theaters do it because removing the lenses is overly complex and many moviegoers don't seem to notice or complain.  The Globe  suggests checking the digital projector yourself -- if you see two beams of light from on high at a 2D flick then something is rotten in Denmark. Check the article at the source link for a rundown of many of the chains using these types of projectors and why that's the case (money), ...

DigiTimes  has been canvassing its manufacturing industry sources again, and today it's managed to extract some intel regarding Apple's typically secretive supply chain. Steve Jobs' team are said to have purchased between 200 and 300 glass-cutting machines, specifically in order to use them to slice up curved glass display covers for the iPhone 5. This move has apparently been in an effort to accelerate production, with glass makers reportedly showing a reluctance to buy the machinery themselves due to its prohibitive cost. Lest you think this sense of urgency might accelerate the iPhone 5 from its earlier-rumored September launch,  DigiTimes  also reports that yields of curved glass are not yet good enough to start using said fancy machines. So the iPhone may be headed for the same curvacious look as we've already seen on Dell's Venue and HTC's Sensation (or maybe even the concavity of the Nexus S), but as is Apple's wont, it looks lik...

HTC brought in the 4.3-inch craze, but now that that form factor has gone mainstream, it's looking to even larger dimensions. A 4.5-inch HTC Holiday has been dug up by none other than 911sniper, which is said to pack a qHD resolution (960 x 540), a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660, 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, and the very latest version of Android Gingerbread (2.3.4). That comes on the heels of  Pocketnow  unearthing a supposed image of the AT&T-bound smartphone, showing a predictably uncomplicated design framing a vast display. Let's just hope the Holiday codename doesn't mean we'll have to wait till the holidays to see this overpowered new beast in action.   Phone Arena 911sniper

HP's expectations for its new TouchPad tablet are running pretty high -- so high, in fact, that they can only be expressed with a make-believe number. During a recent press conference in Cannes, HP's Eric Cador boldly declared that his company's new slate won't just be the best on the market, it'll be the bestest . Cador explained: "In the PC world, with fewer ways of differentiating HP's products from our competitors, we became number one; in the tablet world we're going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus." A spokesman later confirmed that the device will launch in the UK with apps from the  Guardian , Sky and Last.fm, but promised that "thousands" of other apps are on the way. The metrics might sound a bit optimistic, but the message is clear: HP thinks the TouchPad will annihilate the iPad and blow our minds to smithereens. We'll just have to wait and see whether it's as explosive as advertised. Th...

As much as you love your PSP, we suspect that its low graphics definition is starting to bug even the most devoted fans. Sure, you can wait for the almighty NGP, but for the time being, Sony's offering the next best thing for you game connoisseurs: the  PSP Remaster  series for PlayStation 3. As the name says for itself, Sony will be porting select portable game titles to the PS3 in high-def Blu-ray flavor, and some may even come with new add-on content plus stereoscopic 3D support. But that's not all: gamers will also be able to share game save data between the two platforms, meaning you can pick up where you left offon your preferred device. Pretty neat, though it'll be interesting to see how much Sony and the studios wants to charge for what are essentially the same games you already own. The first  PSP Remaster  title announced is  Monster Hunter Portable 3rd , but this is only heading to Japan at an unknown date -- gamers in other countries will...

Oh ASUS, what are you up to now? The company that brought us the wildly popular Eee Pad Transformer has another new tablet brewing in its design labs, which we're promised we'll get to witness for the first time at Computex 2011. Until then, we've been provided with a trio of images to pore over and get the guessing games going. The slate device, whose size and software remain unspecified, is said to feature a bump (above left) and a clip (above right), though there are no explanations given about the function of either. You may see both images in their full size after the break, along with a teaser image from ASUS' Facebook page with the slogan "break the rules: pad or phone?" stood in front of a tablet silhouette. That provides plenty of clues for aspiring Sherlocks out there, but little concrete knowledge. Ah well, Computex  is  just a week away. Notebook Italia TechinStyle.tv

We'd pretty much given up waiting for broadcast 1080p, since other than some video on-demand services you'll generally need to stick to Blu-ray to tick that box, but around the end of March BBC HD changed all that. It's taking advantage of a part of the Freeview HD spec that allows the broadcaster to dynamically select between 1080p / 25fps and 1080i / 25fps transmission and the boxes are mandated to be able to output 1080p / 50fps. The reasoning for the decision is to provide better picture quality on material that was shot that way, unfortunately it's coming to light now because some HDTVs are having trouble handling the switch and causing an audio dropout when the format shifts, as mentioned by UK buyers guide  What Hi-Fi . As if Sony didn't have enough to deal with, the overwhelming majority of complaints appear to center around its TVs and the company has promised more information in the next 7 - 10 days about a fix that will take care of the problem....

The thinnest 15-inch laptop "on the planet" is coming tomorrow, costing a measly $999, according to the Wall Street Journal . In a profile of Dell's recent history and forthcoming plans in the consumer electronics market, the financial paper twice makes reference to an ultrathin, $999 laptop that is set to launch on Tuesday of this week. Pairing that intel with the abundance of leaks surrounding the slinky15.6-inch XPS 15z -- including a Michael Dell tweet promising it's "coming soon" -- leads us to the conclusion that we've finally gotten ahold of the price and date for Dell's next big thing. Interestingly enough, the  WSJ  article goes on to say that Dell had canned a similar set of slim laptops earlier in the year, which might give us greater hope for the quality of the 15z -- it survived where others didn't. Other disclosures in the piece include a quote from Michael Dell, saying that he "didn't completely see" the tablet boo...

Remember Dimenco? A four-man splinter group of former Philips employees, the company has been hard at work refining its glasses-free 3D display tech and today some of the earliest fruit of its labor is going on sale. Nissho Electronics in Japan is beginning sales of a 52-inch LCD panel that can pump out full 1080p of 3D vision without requiring any headgear from the viewer. Initially, this big lenticular display will target businesses, who'll be among the few to be able to afford the ¥1.7 million ($20,820) asking price. Other specs include a 2,000:1 contrast ratio, 8ms response time, 700 nits of brightness, and a 60Hz refresh rate. The 3D on this TV is actually described as a unique "2D + depth" implementation, which can also be used to convert 2D images in real time. Great, now take a zero out of that price, ship it westwards, and watch the sales really take off. Impress Watch Nissho Electronics

Pen pushers who took a chance on Livescribe's note-recording smartpen have benefited from some niceapps, hacks and upgrades along the way. Now the company's latest productivity-booster is a software update called Connect, which lets you share your scribbles via Email, Google Docs, Facebook and Evernote, as well as through Livescribe's own Pencast platform. Some of these sharing options were already available but Connect tries to speed things in an interesting way: by letting you set sharing instructions even as you jot down a note. Simply draw a double line and write, say, 'Facebook' or 'Google Docs' somewhere on the page, and the sharing will take place automatically the next time you sync to your Mac or PC. Most of the sharing options are free, but if you own an older Pulse model or the new entry-level $99.95 2GB Echo you'll need to buy a $15 upgrade before you can share via Email or Google Docs. Heck, we'd pay  way  more than that if only Live...

Just how big of an upgrade will the Mango release of Windows Phone be? Try "500 new features" big. Steve Ballmer revealed that seductively round number in a speech over in Japan today, where he also said that additional information about "who's going to be building Windows Phones" will be forthcoming at tomorrow's preview event as well. Combine that with an otherwise unsubstantiated rumor (more coverage link below) about Microsoft showing nine new Windows Phone handsets tomorrow, and it does seem like there'll be fresh hardware to go with the ripening software. Neither the Mango release nor any devices on show will be coming to market any time soon, mind you, but it's nice to think we'll get to see what the future of Windows Phone will look like in physical as well as digital form. Update : We have confirmation from a reliable source that tomorrow's event will be entirely focused on the software, not the hardware. So, anybody looking for a...

It has not been a good year for Sony, which was affected both by the massive earthquake in March and the PSN outage that spanned from April into May. There couldn't be any doubt that those things would have a drastic impact on the company's bottom-line, and it's now taking the time to give investors an idea of just how big an impact that could be -- even though the financial issues lie largely elsewhere. Sony is set to announce its full financial report for its fiscal year this Thursday and, to soften the blow, estimates have been revised steeply downward. Previously Sony predicted a ¥70 billion ($855 million) profit, but now thinks a ¥260 billion ($3.14 billion)  loss  is rather more accurate -- a ¥360 billion non-cash charge taking the wind out of ¥200 billion in operating income. The earthquake was directly blamed for a loss of ¥22 billion, but that figure could certainly grow as this estimate is only through the end of March. Additionally, Sony has p...

It seems natural selection has finally caught up with the Entourage Edge. When we first reviewed the combination touchscreen/E Ink "dualbook," we wondered whether its neither-fish-nor-fowl design would catch on -- especially priced at $500. That price dropped substantially with its successor, thePocket Edge, but neither device truly found its feet, in part because of a lack of applications and no updates beyond Android 1.6. And now comes word that the Edge store has officially closed, with customers having until May 27 to download any purchased content. It all points to RIP for the Edge family, and  Good E-Reader  claims to have recent confirmation from the company. In its goodbye message Entourage steers users toward the Amazon app store, where it notes "you will now have access to a lot of Android Apps that Google would never give us access to." Obvious bitterness aside, the team reportedly has a new device in the works, this time in the typical slate model. ...

Not too long ago, the invisible iPhone was nothing more than   satirical fodder for the  Onion . Now, Patrick Baudisch and his team of researchers at the Hasso-Plattner Institute have moved closer to making it a reality, with a new interface that can essentially transfer an iPhone touchscreen to the palm of your hand. The device involves an Xbox-like depth camera, mounted on a tripod, that can register the movements of a person's finger across his or her palm. Special software then determines the actions these gestures would execute on a user's iPhone, before transmitting the commands to a physical phone, via WiFi radio. Unlike MIT's motion-based "sixth sense" interface, Baudisch's imaginary phone doesn't require users to learn a new dictionary of gestures, but relies solely on the muscle memory that so many smartphone users have developed. During their research, Baudisch and his colleagues found that iPhone owners could accurately determine the position ...

As rumored, T-Mobile overhauled its individual and family plans today and simplified your options to just three tiers of voice service. Individuals can choose between 500, 1,000 or unlimited minutes, with unlimited text messaging adding $10 and data add-ons ranging from $10 for 200MB to $60 for 10GB. Family plans come in 1,000, 2,000 and unlimited minute varieties while the sharable data and text services cost twice as much as their individual counterparts. There are some odd restrictions, such as the inability to add texting or data to the mid-tier plans and no choice for unlimited voice service without SMS tacked on. We do, however, like the overage-free data options that simply drop to 2G speeds when you reach your plan's threshold instead of shocking you with huge fees at the end of the month. We can also confirm that restocking fees have been bumped from $10 regardless of device to $50 for smartphones, $75 for tablets, and $25 for USB modems and "basic phone devices....

We've pretty much accepted that Amazon will release a proper Android tablet in 2011. The details, however, are still unclear. Enter Silicon Valley analyst, Tim Bajarin, who claims to have some inside information from his sources in Taipei. If correct, then we should see Amazon launch a 10-inch LCD tablet before the holidays. He's also heard of a 7-inch model and plans to use NVIDIA's new quad-core Tegra SoC in order to blaze a path into the crowded tablet market. Interestingly enough, Tim's sources say that Amazon wanted to use a switchable "black and white E Ink-like display and a color LCD" hybrid but the two vendors approached (Qualcomm and Pixel Qi?) won't be ready with a suitable display until 2012 or 2013. Of course, Samsung -- the rumored DNA at the core of Amazon's tablet -- has plenty of experience with 10- and 7-inch Android tablets and the decision to go LCD aligns with those rumors of a Fringe Field Switching display...