The free Netflix streaming discs for the Wii console is now shipping for all users that have asked to receive one, two weeks or so after a lucky few got their discs in the mail.

Says the Netflix blog:

"Jessie Becker here from Marketing and we're thrilled to let you know that we are now shipping instant streaming discs for the Wii to ALL members who want one today! If you didn't reserve a disc already, click here and we will ship you an instant streaming disc so you can instantly watch TV episodes and movies streamed from Netflix via your Wii console. All you need is a Netflix unlimited plan starting at $8.99 a month, a Wii console and a broadband Internet connection. What is the first movie you are going to instantly watch via Wii?"

If anyone has tried the service, feel free to comment on the quality in the comments section.

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Sharp has announced today that it will begin selling 3D HDTVs in the U.S., China, Europe and Japan starting this summer, in an effort to play catchup with rivals Sony, Samsung and Panasonic.

The company had originally played down 3D TVs, calling them little more than gimmicks, but with 3D becoming the new trend, they have quickly switched gears.

Japan will get the first displays, starting in July, with the other markets getting them in the Q1 2011.

There was no word on pricing or other details as of yet, but they did say the displays will use Quatron technology, which adds yellow to the standard R'G'B (red, green, blue) to make tons of new vivid colors.

Says Shigeaki Mizushima, group general manager: "Our product shows a far brighter image. The difference is going to be clear to anyone. Brightness is just so easy to understand."

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Microsoft has finally launched their formerly dubbed 'Pink' phones today, the Kin One and Kin Two, aimed at the teenager set.


Kin One:


- Has a compact full QWERTY keypad
- Multitouch screen
- 5MP camera with LED flash
- 4GB memory
- "Media player powered by Zune."

Kin Two:


- Full QWERTY keypad
- Multitouch screen
- 8MP camera with LED flash, HD video recording
- 8GB memory
- "Media player powered by Zune."

They both go on sale via Verizon in the near future. No price tag as of yet.

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The Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader will sell at Best Buy, says the retailer, expanding distribution of the popular device as it faces off against the Kindle and the iPad.

Best Buy has over 1000 brick-and-mortar retail stores, and the Nook will be available in all starting on April 18th, with the same price of $260 USD. Until now, the device was only at sale at B&N stores and online.

As part of the deal, Best Buy will also add BN eReader software to some of the laptops it sells.

Apple has already sold over 450,000 iPads and the Kindle remains the clear leader in the e-reader market.

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Opera browsers, in all variations, are now being used by 100 million people globally, says the company, with 50 million using it on Windows, Macs and Linux computers, with the other 50 using Opera Mini on their mobile phones.

Thanks to the popularity of the mobile version, as well as the new "ballot box" on new Windows computers in the EU, Opera says year-on-year growth is 30 percent.

Additionally, more users access the Web using Opera through their gaming consoles and set-top boxes.

"Our focus on speed, security, innovation and usability continues to yield results. We always listen to the needs and wants of our users, and they reward us by choosing Opera," added Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software.

"Opera's record growth shows that we are on the right track, and that as user needs grow, we are growing right along with them," says Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. "Opera for Desktop delivers the fastest browsing experience on the planet, with a visionary approach to features and a user-friendly design."

You can download Opera here at AfterDawn: Opera v10.x

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Palm, the struggling smartphone maker, has said today that the company is up for sale, and already seeking bids.

It is still unclear who would be willing to purchase the company, but HTC and Lenovo are expected to at least bid. Goldman Sachs will be doing the underwriting.

Palm's shares, which had fallen over 60 percent since February, have rebounded in the last two days, with shares now back over $6, from a low of $3.65 in March.

"Palm still has quite a good brand in the U.S. market, and some strong technology, so you can do something with it," adds Frank He, a technology analyst at BOC International Holdings Ltd. "The shares have gone down a lot and the company may become attractive to anyone looking for a turnaround play."

Despite having arguably the best smartphone OS on the market, Palm can barely even give away their Pre and Pixi (and Plus models) phones, with Verizon and Spint needing to slash prices to almost free to get them off shelves.

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According to the latest comScore figures, Bing has increased its search market share for the 10th straight month in March, moving to 11.7 percent, a slight increase from 11.5 percent in February.

Yahoo moved up slightly as well, to 16.9 percent from 16.8 percent in February.

Despite seeing a decrease in March, Google remained the clear leader, at 65.1 percent. The search giant held 65.5 percent in February.

In fourth place was Ask which increased again, to 3.8 percent from 3.7 percent.

Alongside a giant $100 million USD advertising campaign, Microsoft launched Bing last June, revamping its struggling "Live" search engine.

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Microsoft has quietly restructured the MS Points system used for purchases in the Xbox Live Marketplace, changing the increments available for sale, making it so users do not have so many leftover points after purchases.

The increments have been changed to 400 from 500. 400 points is $5, 800 points is $10, 1600 points is $20 and 4000 points is $50.

Most items in the marketplace run on a 400 increment basis, so many gamers should be happy by the change. There will of course be situations that leave you with leftover points, but it's a start.

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In remarks at a Q&A session for the Council on Foreign Relations, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg characterized the entire net neutrality debate as a false dilemma invented by software companies to protect them from competition.

He said, "I think people who... fashioned this Net neutrality argument did it for competitive reasons."

Seidenberg continued, "their view was anything that Verizon, or AT&T, or any of the carriers did was an encroachment on the software business. So the best thing is to come up with a strategy that defines "network" and segments it away from software, and therefore you create a whole argument around Net neutrality."



Net neutrality has become a major issue for broadband internet providers who want a free hand to restrict traffic for third party applications, but often offer competing services of their own.

Last week an FCC ruling against Comcast for their traffic management practices was overturned on appeal. This has lead to speculation internet service could be reclassified as a common carrier service to allow more FCC regulation.

Their lack of regulatory authority is due to the current classification of internet connections and "information services."

In reality net neutrality is mostly about the telecom and cable companies who control most broadband internet markets and their lack of competition. Having just two, or sometimes even one, broadband provider available to most consumers gives those companies a significant competitive advantage in delivering services.

With little choice of which pipe they get data through, consumers could be denied their choice of services by a provider looking to increase profits from their own competing offering.

When asked about how Verizon plans to monetize the "explosion of data" from mobile internet users, he talked about finding the heaviest users and charging them more.

He said, "those are the people we will throttle and we will find them and we will charge them something else." He added, ""we don't want to throttle demand. We don't want to do that."

If, as he seems to suggest at another point in the session, mobile internet has a significant role to play as a primary internet connection for much of the world, it doesn't make much sense to base your business on a model discarded by dialup providers more than a decade ago due to customer demand.

He ignored repeated attempts to clarify if the heavy users he was referring to are using the network for video. Targeting video traffic is a particularly touchy subject among wireless carriers like Verizon who are selling their own mobile video services.

We've already seen AT&T's willingness to restrict Slingbox traffic on their mobile network while simultaneously selling mobile TV across the same connection.

It wasn't Sling who didn't want competition. It was AT&T.

If innovation and growth are key to improving broadband internet in the US competition is perhaps the best tool for the job. Competition would logically result in improved services at lower prices and ultimately benefit both providers and consumers by expanding the market.

It also makes little sense to have significant additional charges for each device you want to connect to the internet. It's also another strategy that has been tried before, in the early days of consumer broadband, and rejected by customers.

At first glance $15 for 250MB of data for a device like an iPad might not seem too bad. But that's on top of whatever you might already be paying to connect your smartphone and possibly a computer. Which is all in addition to whatever you're paying for internet access at home.

If more devices are going to be mobile internet enabled, providers like Verizon are going to have to come up with more reasonable pricing and plan on significantly more traffic.

It would be in the best interest of Verizon and the US broadband market as a whole, for them to concentrate on improving their mobile network and streamlining service offerings to ultimately expand the market and provide service to more customers.

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Paramount Pictures and Seagate have teamed up to pre-load certain films on external HDDs, a first of its kind deal.

Buyers of the new FreeAgent Go 500GB HDD will get 21 movies pre-loaded, although only one will be free, the new Star Trek. The other 20 will be loaded, but you cannot watch unless you buy a passcode for anywhere between $10 and $15 USD.

The movies will only work on Windows-compatible computers, adds Seagate.

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The popular burning software Nero Burning ROM has been updated to version 10. The new version is now available in a bundle with Nero Vision Xtra and Nero BackItUp & Burn. The software package containing the trio is called Nero Multimedia Suite 10.

The bundle makes the software even more compelling and comprehensive with video editing and authoring software Vision Xtra and backup tool BackItUp & Burn. Nero Multimedia Suite 10 is available for a free 15-day trial from our software section. Currently there is no option for downloading the trial versions of the new programs separately.

Unfortunately Nero hasn't released the changelogs so we don't know what kind of updates or new features the Nero Multimedia Suite 10 offers. However, if you want to try it out click the link below.

Download Nero Multimedia Suite 10

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