Today at CES, I met with Steven Sinofsky, Windows 7 development chief, and asked about the unprecedented free-for-all Windows 7 Beta available tomorrow to anyone who’s interested. Is this the “free upgrade” people wanted? When I asked him if it was an unprecedented move, passing out the whole operating system to anyone and everyone who wants it, he said that technology limited previous rollouts.

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Windows 7 Open Beta: Why It Is (and Isn’t) a Free Vista Upgrade [Ces 2009]

One very patient Netgear rep took us through the interface of the new Digital Entertainer Elite while we feverishly snapped images of every menu blade. Not every one was a keeper — expect a few gaps here or there — but this should provide you ample impressions on how you’ll be cruising around on this thing. Gallery: Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite menu at CES 2009 Gallery: Netgear Internet TV Player, Digital Entertainer Elite hands-on at CES 2009 Filed under: CES , HDTV , Home Entertainment Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite interface hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read  |  Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

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Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite interface hands-on

LAS VEGAS — The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem announced six new members at the Consumer Electronics Show here, taking one more (small) step toward its goal of creating a standard way for consumers to acquire movies and other types of entertainment online. With the additions of two major consumer-electronics makers (Panasonic and Samsung), the initiative now has the support of five of the largest TV manufacturers, six Hollywood studios, five powerhouse tech companies, and an assortment of players in other segments of the industry’s value chain.

The group has lots of heavy lifting still to do. Among other things, the companies have to settle on formats for streamed or downloaded media, a method to limit sharing and technical requirements for devices, said Mitch Singer, a Sony Pictures executive who serves as the DECE’s president. A bigger challenge, though, will be getting the public to buy into what amounts to a very slick system of electronic locks.

As befits an initiative that began in Hollywood, the DECE is about making DRM systems work better for both consumers and content providers. It tries to remove the complexities and incompatibilities associated with DRM-wrapped files — for instance, the inability to play a Bruce Springsteen video bought from iTunes on a Sony Ericsson music phone. It would do so by creating and operating a database of the music and movies people buy, as well as the devices they’ve registered. Under the DECE system, you’d be able to watch that Spingsteen video on your phone without having to buy it again or convert it into a different format.

Of course, files that have no DRM, such as the ones traded freely online through file-sharing networks, can be used on virtually any device and passed from one to the next. Singer argues that the DECE system will offer consumers something better than they can get for free (illegally): more convenient access to their media. By making it easier to watch and hear the content they buy on a wide range of devices, DECE will make that content seem more valuable to consumers, he said. It also could spur innovation by online retailers and media services.

Maybe. Hollywood isn’t about to give up on DRM, and DECE’s approach is much more user-friendly than the locks used on downloadable movies today. Still, it’s hard to imagine the studios, which for years have pushed their customers to buy multiple copies of the media they own, embracing a system that enables consumers to buy a title once and play it everywhere they’d like. This is, after all, an industry that doesn’t want to give people the right to make back-up copies of their DVDs.

It’s also an open question whether consumers will consider any kind of DRM system a feature worth having. Would the DECE seal of approval make a Nokia phone more appealing than an Apple iPhone without it? Apple, which has a proprietary DRM, is notably absent from this initiative, just as it has stayed away from other efforts to make dueling DRM systems compatible. If the DECE system doesn’t work with iPods, iTunes and iPhones, won’t that make it a non-starter for millions of consumers?

– Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times’ Opinion Manufacturing Division.

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CES: A friendly DRM?

It was at last year’s CES that we first got our hands on iRobot’s Looj , and while easy gutter cleaning is something most homeowners can appreciate, the thing did have some issues that left many users tossing the things out with the decomposing crud it was supposed to fling. Enter the Looj second generation, which includes a flexible auger that should keep the thing from flipping itself over, a tool-free battery door, and a faster reverse speed to get the thing back to your ladder in half the time. Nothing revolutionary, but some much-needed updates that will be available this spring for $129, and we were impressed with the sheer spite the thing displayed against a mock gutter full of faux leaves. Video below — user discretion advised. Gallery: iRiver Looj Second Generation Continue reading Video: iRobot Looj hands on shows improved leaf carnage Filed under: CES , Household Video: iRobot Looj hands on shows improved leaf carnage originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:16:00 EST.

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Video: iRobot Looj hands on shows improved leaf carnage

We just got a nice look at the beastly Brother Quattro 6000D sewing machine here at CES. We’ve done a fair amount of embroidery in our day, and we have to say, seeing this machine in action is pretty impressive. Disappointing Disney branding aside (yup, that’s Mickey Mouse beneath the giant 4.5 x 7-inch Sharp HD LCD), the Quattro boasts a 50 square inch workspace that is probably any quilter’s dream, and it’s also got 3 USB ports. Sadly, the purchase price (”about $9,000″) is probably prohibitive for most of us casual stitchers

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Brother Quattro 6000D hands-on

It looks like the plush gray carpet in the Coby booth at CES isn’t the only thing that might make you stumble. Coby’s flagship PMP here at CES is the MP836, and it’s safe to say it rubbed us the wrong way

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Coby’s MP836 hands-on: when ‘not quite ready for primetime’ is a gross understatement

Remember those sub-$100 Coby netbooks that we deemed a hoax? Well, it looks like they might not be as hoax-y as we originally thought. Here at CES , Coby has a bunch of base models on the show floor in a myriad of color combos. The rep who showed us around made it clear that this was a “market research project” but that the ‘books would ring in at under $200. There were a bunch of different configurations, but nothing too different from the usual Atom setup

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Coby’s sub-$200 netbooks handled at CES

Well, what have we here? While waltzing about the CES floor today, we stumbled upon a conceptual Mio MID that looks suspiciously like Sony’s VAIO P . The currently unnamed device was actually lookin’ pretty sharp, as it boasted a 7-inch WVGA (800 x 480) resolution display, integrated WiFi, a non-removable battery good for eight hours or so and a full QWERTY keyboard

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Mio’s Windows Mobile-powered concept MID hands-on

Remember Skyla’s scanning digiframe ? This company has managed to market a $219 piece of technology that does something that people have been doing for a hundred years without scanners, screen resolution, RAM or any of that good stuff. And you know what

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Skyla Memoir scanning digiframe caught on video

After some demo time with WirelessHD and founder John Marshall , it appears 2009 will finally be the year cable-free TV connections roll out in a big way. Expect products to launch towards the end of Q2, according to the Gefen rep on hand, their adapter will go into production towards the end of Q1 and hit shelves for about $700, while WirelessHD tech could add as much/little as 10% to the cost of a new TV like the demo units from LG and Panasonic. How well does it work for the money? Pretty well, with no untoward effects on the picture, and easily switching from source to source automatically

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Wireless HD hands on & recklessly-interfering