Disney to shut down its Online streaming site

Ever heard of Disney Movies Online? Apparently not many have, as Disney announced it'll be shutting down the online movie streaming service at the end of the year. It isn't a shock that a movie streaming site that only offers flicks from one studio and no integration with something like UltraViolet (Disney remains the only major studio avoiding that kludge) wasn't a success. People who were actually using it can use the same redeem code that came bundled with their discs, in iTunes or Windows Media Player. Those few who actually paid for access have until the end of February of next year to request a refund. There's talk of a replacement "Disney Movies Anywhere" solution on the way -- possibly based on its KeyChest system -- but joining UltraViolet, in its current form, doesn't seem much better then Disney Movies Online was.

[Source: Engadget]

Skype launches gift cards, lets parents drop hints to distant kids

Many empty-nester parents would like nothing more than to hear from their kids every now and then. For them, Skype's new gift cards might be the perfect not-so-subtle clue: both digital and physical cards are going on sale today that offer $10 or more in credit, either for the company's time-honored VoIP calling or (if need be) some Skype WiFi at the airport. Only online versions are customizable, although Americans who want something tangible can swing by the Microsoft Store, OfficeMax or Target. Skype's already brought prepaid credit to Mexico and the UK, but the cards should be more than welcome gift options for anyone who would otherwise have to spring for a prepaid phone card -- just be prepared for more heart-to-heart chats than usual if you're on the receiving end.

[Source: Engadget]

Western Digital ships 4TB WD Black hard drive, melds speed with space for $339

The 4TB hard drives that we've seen gradually filter into the marketplace have come with a few snags for desktop users; they're usually either external drives we'd never boot from or pokey internal models not meant for anything speed-intensive. Western Digital doesn't want us settling. It's shipping a 4TB version of its WD Black desktop drive that holds nothing back for the sake of the extra storage, spinning at a healthy 7,200RPM while packing 64MB of cache, dual processing and a two-stage actuator that together keep the drive working at full burn. At $339, the SATA 6Gbps drive undoubtedly carries a premium in trying to be the best of all worlds; it may be worth the expense for performance-minded types who've been out of options (and capacity) for awhile.

[Source: Engadget]

Wahoo Fitness launches a Bluetooth smart scale for $99

With its new Balance Smartphone Scale, Wahoo Fitness clearly has designs on Withings' corner of the fitness gadget market. There's no phone dongles or shoe clips here -- simply step on the scale and your weight will be recorded and synced to the companion iOS app. The Balance can record up to 130 weigh-ins before needing to push the information to your iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth, which you can then share with the usual cloud services (should you need further reason to feel ashamed). The scale can manage the profiles of up to 16 different users and keep tabs on everyone's weight and BMI goals. Unlike its competition, there's no WiFi option, which means you can't sync your shame directly to the web. But, having to take the intermediary step of pulling out your phone presumably has helped the company shave the price down to $99. You can pre-order the Balance now for delivery the first week of December.

[Source: Engadget]

IBM supercomputer simulates 530 billion neurons and a whole lot of synapses

IBM Research, in collaboration with DARPA's Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) program, has reached another brain simulation milestone. Powered by its new TrueNorth system on the world's second faster supercomputer, IBM was capable of crafting a 2.084 billion neurosynaptic cores and 100 trillion synapses -- all at a speed "only" 1,542 times slower than real life. The abstract explains that this isn't a biologically realistic simulation of the human brain, but rather mathematically abstracted -- and little more dour -- versions steered towards maximizing function and minimizing cost. DARPA's SyNAPSE project aims to tie together supercomputing, neuroscience and neurotech for a future cognitive computing architecture far beyond what's running behind your PC screen at the moment.

[Source: Engadget]

Intel CEO Paul Otellini to step down in May, leaves a legacy of x86 dominance

Intel has just announced that CEO Paul Otellini will be stepping down in May of 2013. The long time executive will be retiring from the company and industry that he has dedicated the last 40 years of his life to, leaving behind a legacy that has seen Intel's dominance in the x86 field grow to almost unapproachable levels. As the fifth chief executive in the company's history he's overseen not only the processor reboot that followed the inefficient Pentium 4, but also played a roll in Apple's famous transition from PowerPC to Intel. Otellini and the board of directors will work together over the next six months to ensure a seamless transition of power, however a successor has yet to be chosen.

[Source: Engadget]

Amazon Kindle celebrates five e-inked years

Can you imagine a holiday season without Amazon's e-reader series? The Kindle celebrates its fifth birthday today -- a device that, since its debut, has added bigger screens, slimmer builds, and even some damn decent backlighting. Back at the start, Amazon's first hardware was just a little chunky, covered in buttons, and housed a 6-inch 800 x 600 e-ink display. However, the online bookseller went on to dominate the then-nascent e-reader market, with no shortage of rivals now wanting claim their own slice of the book-loving crowd. Five years goes pretty fast -- we just wonder how many still have their DRM-protected Mobipocket e-books to hand.

[Source: Engadget]

Formula 1's on-board cameras may switch to HD next season

As we enjoy our first F1 action in the US since 2007 we're glad that it's in HD this time, however it still falling short in one area -- in-car camera shots. Although the racing series belatedly made the jump to high definition broadcasts last year, protests from the teams over weight and space issues caused it to stick with standard-definition cameras for the on-board shots. Now that a couple of years have passed and presumably the technology has improved, that may be addressed next year, at the same time US broadcasts of the series move from Speed/Fox to NBC Sports. Formula One Supporters Associationcaught up to F1 journalist Christian Sylt who got a peek at future plans that include the possibility of HD in-car cameras, multi-channel formats offering different views of the track and an interactive 3D replay feature. We'll have to wait and see how much -- if any -- of that is actually implemented any time soon, but if you'd like to check out the technology in use today, Speed TV has a live stream from several of the cars currently racing around the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.

[Source: Engadget]

Facebook rolls out Gifts to millions of new users, but data shows they aren't buying… yet

At a party last night at FAO Schwarz in New York, Facebook made one thing clear: it's all in on Gifts, a new feature that lets you buy friends chocolates, gift cards, and other stuff right from their Timeline on mobile or desktop. What makes sending Gifts nicer than simply dropping someone an Amazon package is that your friend instantly gets a push notification on their phone when you send one. He or she also gets to choose the size, flavor, or color of the gift if you allow them to. Also, if you don't have somebody's address, the recipient has the option to type it in, which is convenient.

Facebook last night unveiled several new partners for Gifts — which is essentially a catalog of items hand-picked by retailers like Warby Parker, Starbucks, GUND, and as of last night, Dean & DeLuca, Rdio, Lindt Chocolates, Brookstone, Fab, Hulu Plus, and others. Gifts launched in beta late September to a select group of people (like most new Facebook features), and last night rolled out to "tens of millions more," Gifts boss Lee Linden said.

[Source: The Verge]

Google updates Maps and Earth with more high-res and 45-degree images, encourages wanderlust

Google has expanded its high-res Maps and Earth offerings to cover a whopping 164 cities and 108 countries / regions, while its brand new 45-degree imagery is now available for 60 cities (40 in the US and 20 abroad) -- the list is long, so check out the source to discover all the locations. The photos are pretty stunning; highlights include a live look at the Space Needle's orange paint job for its 50th anniversary, an overhead look at Austrian bridges and an angled view of the Thun Castle in Switzerland. Now, excuse us as we stare longingly at these gorgeous vistas -- it is Friday, right?

[Source: Engadget]

'Tis the season: Amazon now offering customizable video gift cards from JibJab

Amazon announced a partnership with digital media company JibJab on Friday that will introduce free, personalized video gift cards to its customers. This new feature gives you the option to attach pictures to over 50 pre-themed videos, which includes holidays, birthdays and other special occasions. Customers can load up to $2,000 on a video gift card, which can be sent instantly or at a scheduled date and time via email or a Facebook wall post. The cards never expire and recipients can share their videos through Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or email, while keeping the gift's cash value private. So, if gift cards from the people with the smile on the box rank high on your holiday wish list, get ready to have your inbox hit with a barrage of disco grannies and snowball-throwing elf cat videos.

[Source: Engadget]

Netflix finally comes to Linux! (Sort of...)

Netflix's reluctance to support playback on Linux computers is infamous notorious ridiculous well documented. Well, while the company isn't ready to officially start streaming to your Ubuntu box, youcan gain access to its vast library with a specially patched version of Wine. For those of you that don't know, Wine is a compatibility layer that allows Windows apps to run under Linux. Fire up the Windows version of Firefox with this version of the software, install Microsoft's Silverlight and voilà -- Netflix on Linux. Unfortunately, that makes the whole ordeal sound a lot simpler than it is. For the moment you'll need to download Wine from its Git repository, then download and apply five different patches. Then you'll have to download and install Firefox 14.0.1 and Silverlight 4, neither of which are the current (read: easy to find) versions. So far the hack is only confirmed to work on the 32-bit version of Ubuntu 12.10, but we imagine getting it up and running on other distros shouldn't be too difficult. The work around should get easier once the crafty devs get a PPA up and running that will streamline installation. If you're the impatient type you can hit up the source link to get complete instructions.

[Source: Engadget]