Foo Fighters. Live streamed Concert. Facebook. Tonight.

Last weekend, U2 took a very rare chance to open up to this world of technology that celebrities and the content owners world continue to decry or ignore. It was an awesome experience, a good show, and a perfect display of modern technology at it’s finest. Since the interwebs were pretty busy chatting up the event, you could imagine that at least a couple other people heard of it. If U2 wasn’t quite your style, or your looking for more live concert streaming goodness, the Foo Fighters have got a treat in store for you.

Tonight via Facebook, the Foo Fighters are live streaming their very own concert. You can ensure a digital seat by sending in a digital RSVP or you make a grand appearance sans RSVP here, at 7pm (PST)/10pm (EST).

U2 wasn’t the first and the Foo Fighters won’t be the last. Hopefully this “cool” image that is starting to surround streaming live concerts continues. It brings the fans closer to the artists and vice versa. It’s good for everyone fans and artists alike. You going?

Gear Diary > TechCrunch

No tethering on Sprint smartphones w/ everything plans?

After looking over some spec’s for Sprint’s 2010 lineup over at BGR, upon arriving at the very last bullet point my train of thought gets stopped dead in it’s tracks. It simply states

“No tethering for phones that require “Everything Plans”.

Essentially, that puts the kibosh on all smartphones. Pardon me if I’m over reacting, but a smartphone in supposed to be um…you know…smart, plans included. If I’m paying for these falsely advertised “Everything/Unlimited” plans, I better sure as hell be able to use it as I see fit. Not to mention, more and more smartphones being released are going to be required by Sprint to have some sort of everything plan.

If I’m missing something please point it out so that my blood pressure can return to normal. Is tethering an option that I can to an Everything plan for an extra fee? This push to make tethering such a forbidden fruit is ridiculous really. If the case simply is that there is no possible way for me to tether on Sprint, then I’m not going to ever use Sprint. For those who tether their phones, are you in the least bit irritated?

For a company that has been bleeding customers quarter after quarter and still can’t manager to actually have a net growth, maybe they should take a good, hard look at their plans and policies. Just a thought. Also, not pissing off the few customers that can actually stand you is another good thing to try. I don’t expect much from Sprint so I’m sort of unsurprised. They’ve done stuff like this for years, hence they’re never going to change. And the red ink flows…

All under one roof: JVC announces the video lovers trifecta — VHS/DVD/Blue-ray

No this isn’t some sly Pizza Hut advertisement or reference as JVC’s latest player to get announced literally has everything under one roof — VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. I stopped watching VHS movies a long, long time ago. Heck, getting spoiled day in and day out with 1080p HD means whenever I do happen to stumble upon a VHS viewing I’m left wanting so much more. But not everyone loves all HD or simply loves those golden oldies that have never made the crossover to digital. For that, VHS is still your medium of choice. Since pretty much all major manufacturers abandon VHS players recently, thrift stores and refurbs were the only channels left to pick up such a player. Not wanting to miss a marketing opportunity nor alienate a fairly large customer base that JVC realizes still exists, the JVC Trifecta player was born. While not the real name (which is the DR-BH250 — see, mine is better), it’s fitting as this new mashup from JVC features the three main physical video formats in use today, again, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. No matter what type of movie you have in your collection, if you have this player, you should be set.

I’ve been playing on this whole trifecta thing (hey, I like the word) but there’s one more gem tucked away inside. A 250GB hard drive comes as back up giving you umpteen options to defy movie labels and make every kind of physical and digital copy of your movies that you want. Whether you want to go from VHS -> HDD or DVD -> to Blu-ray etc. your options are covered. Other specs that might tickle your fancy include 1080/60p/24p HD support, BD-Live w/ BONUSVIEW, and AVCHD support. As far as actually connecting all of this tom foolery to your display, you’re presented with a few options: 1 USB port, HDMI CEC interface, and an SD/SDHC card slot. Whataya think? $1,400 + the cost of traveling to Japan to purchase one too much? Ooooh yeah. About that. Release in Japan is scheduled for next month, Novermber. Other countries are left out in the cold as for now there aren’t any exporting plans. Bummer. Better start booking those tickets.

CrunchGear

Next China bound iPhone to get WiFi

Penetrating and actually turning a buck in the lucrative and downright massive mobile user market in China has been the dream of many cellphone manufacturers. Given the Chinese government’s tight control however, such dreams have stayed at just that as stiff regulations and often odd rules make entering the market so difficult some manufacturers simply stay away. One such manufacturer who is trying their luck is Apple. As many of you know, they’re been trying to tap the Chinese market for some time now but have so fare been unsuccessful. We all also know that Apple recently struck a deal with China Unicom to sell the iPhone 3GS in China, a big win for Apple. But is it really that much of a win for Chinese customers?

Now why would I raise such a silly question? Chinese mobile users have been able to get unlocked iPhone 3GS’s with WiFi from street side vendors for roughly 5,700 yuan ($835 USD). The new official phones from China Unicom are coming in hot and heavy but lacking WiFi. Yup, pass. Even worse, prices for Unicom’s iPhone are grossly higher — between 4,999 yuan ($730 USD) and 6,999 yuan ($1,025 USD)! Why would anyone want to spend more for less? Beats me. It’s hard to say if China Unicom’s iPhone’s will/won’t be a big hit. I can honestly see both scenarios. (1) It sells well because now every has a legitimate source to get it or (2) it’s so expensive that people flock to street vendors who understandably have limited quantities thereby driving up price. If the latter plays out, maybe rising street prices will limit the sting from picking up China Unicom’s neutered version. After getting this far in, I’m sure you’re wondering why the iPhone 3GS from China Unicom doesn’t have WiFi.

It’s simple really. At the time, Beijing banned WiFi because they were working on their own version. That’s it. That has since been abandoned (please correct me if I’m wrong) and as such the ban has been lifted. By the time the ban was lifted however, China Unicom’s iPhones had already started production. Bummer I know. It’s just a reason to wait for the next version of the iPhone which Unicom spokesman, Yi Difei, stated “We hope to have WiFi in the next version”. Some comfort I guess.

Cellular-News

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Concept: Waterdrop “Shower Room”

Who hasn’t at one point or another wanted to soak in a nice warm tub for multiple hours? For some, they simply don’t have the patience to just lay there which is understandable. Given our tech background and ever changing landscape, we want stuff happening all the time and fast fast fast. While I don’t think I could spend any more than 30-40 minutes in a normal tub today without getting board out of my mind, if I had the Waterdrop Shower Room in my house and hooked up to an Xbox 360/PS3 you wouldn’t see me for days! Everything you can thing of is inside this little cocoon including a sliding/moving TV, controls for temperature, audio, video, and jet intensities and of course a shower. Now I just mentioned a shower and have so far been talking about soaking in a bath tub. Since this shower concept separates in the middle and judging by the pictures, I don’t see why it couldn’t hold at least some water for a nice soaking/gaming session. Still, this thing is cool and whenever it does come out will surely give you and rubber ducky a whole new chance to get reacquainted.

Ubergizmo > YenkoDesign

Flammable Ice

Ya I know. Ice isn’t a gadget. Neither is fire. What about if you combine them? Still a no. You have to admit though, just the sound “flammable ice” is freakin’ cool.

The Geekery to “flammable ice”:

Ice is added to a dry Pyrex bowl. When the Ice melts the water reacts with the calcium carbide (place on the bottom) to produce acetylene gas and calcium hydroxide. The acetylene gas then explodes into flames when a match is place on top. It will continue to burn even as the ice melts because it keeps producing acetylene until the calcium carbide runs out.

Ya you want to try it out now. Admit it. It’s ok, I’m already writing the ingredients down…

Neatorama > Urlesque

Fix for BB Storm OS 5.0 theme glitches.

BlackBerry Storm users distraught over the OS 5.0 theme problems can breathe a sight of relief tonight. Leave it to the persistent and determined CrackBerry community to find a solution. I know your short on patience and tired of staring at glitchy themes or *gasp* even worse, the stock BlackBerry Precision theme. Some fixes:

• Via BlackBerry Cool reader Jon:

  This issue can be resolved, as posted on crackberry.com forums by wiseguy77:
  “step1: obviously load the theme step2: do not use the theme wall paper change it! this is where the issue lies. step3: after changing your wall paper to something other than the theme default go to options>themes>open the little blue box to the right of the active theme. now select the layou option and change the row settings from 2 rows to one row then back to two with out leaving the theme screen, and wala your theme will not longer show the white borders when in landscape mode only bummer is that you have to repeat step 3 each time you change themes or reboot you phone as long as the wallpaper is not the theme default i guarantee you this will work.”

• Via BlackBerry Cool reader Nathan:

  1. In landscape mode, hit blackberry button, select options and change wallpaper from the theme default
  2. Back in options, select layout, change to Today mode, save and close out.
  3. Go back to options, select layout and change back to 2 rows.

  Theme should now work properly until next reboot

So there ya have it. Happy?

BlackBerry Cool