studios

If the $6 million home theater's too steep, how about a 1 percent solution?

Jeremy Kipnis' $6 million home theater caused quite a stir back in February; so much so that he's now proposing guidelines for others to build a dream home theater for a mere 1 percent of his original price. Kipnis didn't recommend much in the way of specific brands or models of equipment, just the design goals for a $60,000 ultimate home theater.

Here's a brief rundown of what you would need to get close to the performance of Kipnis Studio Standard:

All of the speakers must be identical.

The six or seven-channel layout must be completely … Read more

RoboTurk helicopter to aid disaster recovery

Two Turkish engineers have built a prototype of an autonomous rescue helicopter equipped with Microsoft robotics and mapping software so that it can capture video of disaster sites and stream it back to command centers. The engineers Oguz Bayrakdar and Omer Celik began developing the robot, called RoboTurk, last year with the help of the Istanbul municipal government and Microsoft Robotics Group, which makes commercial software for autonomous applications that could range from a child's robotic Lego set to an unmanned helicopter.

It's an independent project from motivated developers, but RoboTurk is a boon for Microsoft's young … Read more

Tom Brokaw kicks off Windows Server launch

LOS ANGELES--Microsoft brought out former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw on Wednesday to kick off the launch of Windows Server 2008.

In explaining his appearance at a server launch, Brokaw said he was trying to redeem himself after his recent Saturday Night Live appearance, in which he was interviewed by Will Farrell as Anchorman character Ron Burgundy.

"I'm not here to write new code, to design new apps," Brokaw told the crowd at the tony Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Instead, Brokaw spoke for several minutes on the radical transformation of society being brought about by … Read more

Microsoft to give students free developer tools

Microsoft wants more students using its software tools and it thinks it has hit on the right business model.

It's going to give away its software.

Starting this week, college students in 10 countries will be able to get Microsoft's Visual Studio and several other programs for free as part of an effort dubbed DreamSpark. Over the next year, Microsoft plans to offer the program worldwide for college and high school students.

In addition to giving away its Visual Studio tools, Microsoft is also providing no-charge access to its Expression Web design tools and its XNA studio for … Read more

Shock and awe: A $6 million home theater

If your typical high-end home theater with rows of plush seats, velvet wallpaper, and popcorn machines offers Cadillac levels of performance and luxury, then Jeremy Kipnis' $6 million ultimate home theater is more like a fire-breathing Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, the fastest production Ferrari ever built.

This home theater is all about aggressively advancing the state of the art of picture and sound presentation. Yes, it's comfortable and beautiful, but its prime directive is a quest for the very best. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is overlooked. Kipnis won't settle for second best. … Read more

Danish ISP blocks The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay continues to come under siege.

The latest blow came on Monday when a Danish court ordered one of that country's Internet service providers to block access to the BitTorrent search engine, according to Danish IT magazine Computerworld.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry brought a civil case against Tele2 Denmark after the ISP refused to filter the Web sites its customers visited.

The Pirate Bay, based in Sweden, is one of the world's most popular piracy tools. The company, founded by three Scandinavians, doesn't host any copyright films or music. Instead, visitors use … Read more

Why did colleges stay mum on MPAA stats?

Correction: This blog initially mischaracterized the statistics that Heidemann commented on. He was referring to claims made about overall P2P use and not specifically about the MPAA's allegations.

John Heidemann was skeptical about what the movie industry was saying about campus piracy.

A researcher in the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, Heidemann had heard the film studios' claim that college students downloading movies on campus were responsible for 44 percent of the industry's domestic losses to piracy.

That added up to about $572 million. So, working with a team of researchers last summer--the famous … Read more

Move over Netflix, VOD services; here comes Apple

Quickly filling up Netflix's rearview mirror is a sight that no tech company wants to see: Apple.

Apple announced on Tuesday that the company has cut licensing deals with every top film studio--deals that will enable iTunes to offer first-run movies a month after they are released on DVD.

This means that Apple has won a major advantage in the Web movie-rental business. One of the biggest complaints customers have with online movie services is that none offer first-run features. The same is true with some of the video-on-demand services operated by the cable companies.

Moreover, Netflix offerings don't work … Read more

Belkin shows off it's Podcasting solution

Belkin have introduced the TuneStudio's little brother, the PodcastStudio (apparently dropping spaces is the new dropping vowels). The two channel recorder that works buy attaching your iPod features two movable built-in microphones as well as combo XLR / 1/4" inputs for other microphones and a built in speaker. It works with all the latest iPods excluding the Touch and the iPhone. It should retail for around $100 when it ships later this year.