OnLive is a company that has been claiming to do the seemingly impossible -- they plan to set up a sort of "cloud gaming" console, where instead of hardware in individual houses (like we have now; you buy a console for your home), they'll have hardware over the Internet, and stream your game to you like watching television. All of the processing and coding will be done on a remote server, but with signals flowing from your controller, it'll seem like you're just playing Xbox at home. It all works in theory, but in practice, Internet connections aren't solid or stable enough to send commands and full HD video back and forth without enough lag to make things unplayable.

Still, without actually releasing a product so far, OnLive claims they can do it, and now they're claiming to do it on the iPhone as well. AppleInsider reports that at a recent event in New York, OnLive showed off the same game service running on "2 iPhones, a tv, and a computer" simultaneously, with gamers on all the devices able to communicate and watch each others' gameplay. CEO Steve Perlman admits it's a "tech demo," but doesn't go into detail on what that means (it could simply be a demo running separately on the devices, to show what it would be like, or I've heard of OnLive events where the server is sitting in the room next door). And of course, there's no date or information on an actual release yet.

OnLive's service definitely sounds possible someday -- as Internet connections get faster and hardware gets even cheaper, it's not a stretch to think we'll eventually move the heavy processor lifting to another location, leaving much tinier consoles and PCs taking up space on our desks and TV stands at home. But so far all it seems they've got is an idea (and the money that excited financiers have put into the project). We'll have to believe it works when we see it.

Apple has added many new HD movie titles to iTunes, according to former TUAWian David Chartier's post for Macworld. David, who is an HD-aficionado, noticed that the iTunes Store just recently stocked both classic and new release HD movies, bringing the HD movie collection to nearly 300 titles.

The new HD content is sold at a premium price (typically $20), and as far as we can tell that pricing stands regardless of whether or not the movies offer iTunes Extras. A few titles, mostly items that were already available on iTunes, sell for less -- such as Terminator 2 [iTunes link] for just $13.

Until now, Apple has offered some of its HD content as exclusive Apple TV rentals. Items could be rented from Apple TV units that were not available to rent from the normal iTunes Store. It's unclear at this time whether Apple will continue this policy of exclusive Apple TV rentals, or will expand the iTunes store-based rental system to match the Apple TV offerings.

If the rumors are to be believed, then cameras and the iPod are getting it on lately, because in about nine months (or whatever the gestation period is for gadgets -- you're welcome for that mental image) we'll be seeing lots of iPods with lenses in them. First up is the fine folks at iLounge, who claim they've seen the newest iPod nano, and it's got a camera right where your finger usually is. They also say the new version has a lower click wheel and a smaller action button. You may laugh (it does look pretty silly), but on the other hand, I just saw the nanos during a trip to the Apple Store the other day, and I held it by its corners... while I was watching video. Add that to the rumor that Apple is adding in video recording to the iPod lines, and it becomes slightly more credible.

In fact, we're not the only people who've seen that line of reasoning: Computerworld's Seth Weintraub follows the same path, speculating that not only is Apple beefing up the camera capabilities on their iPod lines, but they're set to branch the iPod touch off into a digital HD camera/"photography computer": "Imagine an iPod Touch with a good camera and lens. That's about it." All rumors, of course, but he says it's very easy to see happening, and we have to agree.

If you're looking for a significant performance boost for your middle-aged laptop, replacing your aging hard disk with a solid state disk (SSD) could give your computer a new lease on life.

Solid-state disks (pictured, bottom) differ from traditional hard disks (top) in that they're not constructed with platters and heads. Instead, they're more like giant thumb drives, containing memory chips designed to be written and re-written without wearing out. The upside to this is that SSDs are much, much faster to read and write to, making booting and starting applications lightning-quick.

I recently installed an Intel X25-M SSD, a 160GB drive, as a replacement for a 120GB Toshiba hard disk for my 2006-vintage black MacBook. Spendy, for sure, but for the performance increase and the extra life it adds to my MacBook, well worth it. Plus, I had my state tax refund burning a hole in my pocket.

The performance is phenomenal. The old disk booted in a respectable one minute, 49 seconds. The new disk booted in a blazing 31 seconds. Ridiculous. Windows also boots in less than half the time it took before. Photoshop CS3 launches in five seconds, Illustrator CS3 in nine seconds.

Getting the drive was simple: It's moving the data that takes time. Read on to see how you can migrate your data like I did -- including a Boot Camp partition -- with little fuss.

Check the old Software Update, folks: there's a 68 MB iTunes 8.1.1 upgrade awaiting, or you can get it direct from Apple's site. The notes on the new version are as follows:

iTunes 8.1.1 adds support for renting HD movies and provides a number of bug fixes, including addressing issues with VoiceOver and syncing with iPhone or iPod touch.

The recent influx of HD movies onto the iTunes store (full list of titles here) promised but did not deliver rentals for HD titles; this update should take care of that detail. Let us know your mileage if you update.

Thanks Bruce!

Got $20US and a hankering for lots and lots of pixels? iTunes has a deal for you: Apple announced earlier today that it is launching HD movie sales and rentals in the iTunes Store, beginning with a small selection of titles (Transporter 3, W. and more) and with a couple of big-ticket films up for pre-order: vamp-rom-teen thriller Twilight drops on 3/21 and James Bond in Quantum of Solace on 3/24. Sales will be $19.99US and rentals will cost $4.99.

Up until now, HD movies had to be purchased rented directly on the Apple TV, although HD television content has been in iTunes since late last year. This is a big step forward for iTunes users and a big 'pptthhbbttt' to the Blu-Ray business model. Keep in mind a few caveats: you'll need iTunes 8.1, and you may want to test your video output path if you've got a DisplayPort-equipped machine and a large external screen (these files are going to be HDCP-enabled, bet on it). Playback quality may not be what you've come to expect from HD media, as the files will still be 720p with H.264 compression -- but be sure to keep plenty of open hard drive space and a clean ISP connection, since they'll weigh in at four GB or more per movie. No word yet on whether the movies will include Dolby Surround audio instead of simple stereo. Looks like Twilight and Quantum will carry the Dolby audio option, though other HD movies may not -- check the rental page for individual titles to be certain.

I'm continually impressed with the quality of streamed and purchased HD video that I play back from my previous-generation MacBook Pro over VGA to a flat-panel 720p TV -- it's not dramatically different from satellite or broadcast HD, at least to my verging-on-middle-aged eyes. The opportunity to buy or rent HD movies might make the Mac mini media center even more appealing.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Back to Part I: losing all the data on a hard disk, and Part II: the trials and tribulations of paying to get it back. Now we find out what happened, and what you can expect from a data recovery specialist.

Greg, the technician from Iomega Data Recovery, sent back two documents two days later: One was a Word document containing a list of files that were recovered from the disk.

The document had most of my files in it, but some were missing. Many of the files were grouped by file type in an "orphans" folder, meaning that the files were on the disk, but their place in the disk's directory structure was lost. Some files were only named according to their file type, such as "m4p-00195.m4p" and "InDesignCS-00003.indd" because their filenames were gone. I would find out later that some files were copied several times (sometimes as many as six times): once as part of the directory structure, and again in the "orphans" folder. Still: many copies are better than no copies.

They offered to return the data on a new hard disk, but the cost of it is not included in the recovery fee. The second attachment to the tech's email was a price list. I chose the cheapest bare hard disk at the necessary capacity, since I had an enclosure to put it in. They offered (more expensive) USB and FireWire hard disks as options for return as well. So add another $55 to the total price.

Greg also asked for a list of the 20 most critical files that could be used as a test for successful recovery. I emailed him a list of mostly files for work I had in progress during the failure, a brochure for a client of mine that manufactures propellers. He called the next day, walking me through the contents of the InDesign document and its support files. "This one appears to be a picture of a propeller blade. This one has a big headline that says 'simply the best.'" Relief. I was satisfied that everything was recovered, approved the recovery, and thanked Greg.

The next part was the hardest: Paying the invoice. The grand total wasn't as bad as I thought: I was prepared to pay tax on all $1,500, but (in California at least) services aren't taxable. So the only tax I had to pay was $4.54 on the replacement hard disk. The grand total was $1,559.54. I'm writing that off my taxes this year.

Once my payment was processed, which took a day, two drives were overnighted to me: the original (failed) drive, and the new replacement drive. I popped the replacement went into my enclosure, and -- tah dah! -- there were my files.

The most significant casualty of the data recovery, however, was the loss of 10 years of painstakingly collected Mystery Science Theater 3000 videos. Many were videos I had recorded originally on VHS, some had been, uh, acquired by other means -- as youthful indiscretions, shall we say. Thankfully, all my project data and purchased music was safe and sound. Everything that was lost could be replaced.

Files on the replacement disk were painfully disorganized, though, which gave me an idea of just how logically corrupted the volume was. Files that were added to the drive after it had been connected via the AirPort Base Station were mostly in the Orphans folder, apparently scattered hither and yon across the disk's platters. I spent the better part of a day copying files, reorganizing everything, and preparing my new backup strategy that included a brand-new, 1.5TB external disk to use with Time Machine.

I learned my lesson the hard way. I had a good experience, but paid dearly for it.

If this story saves anyone any amount of money for data recovery, then it's done its job. Please: Back up your data. The money you spend on a hard disk for backup is far less than what you'd spend on data recovery.

There is no shortage of stories here on TUAW (and elsewhere) that extol the benefits of backing up your data. Apple even makes it ridiculously easy to do so -- with Mac OS X 10.5, Time Machine, a blank drive, and some spare time, you're set.

Nevertheless, despite your best efforts, there are unforeseen circumstances where you might need to utter those dreaded words: "I need to send this for data recovery." Perhaps your airplane landed in the Hudson river, and your waterlogged laptop was stuck with your luggage. Perhaps an external disk is suffering from a manufacturing defect. Perhaps your backup disk is the disk that failed.

Unfortunately, there is no way to sugar-coat this: Data recovery is a painful, patience-trying, and absurdly expensive process. But if it's the only way to recover mission-critical data, it could be your only option.

It was for me.

Back to Part I of Robert's tale of data recovery. It's a typical geek story: Boy gets data, boy loses data, boy tries to get data back.

Because of my former employer's professional relationship with Iomega, I had sent a disk for recovery to Iomega Data Recovery before, and was confident they'd be able to recover the data. I went to their website, and started a quote.

It's worth mentioning that there are many other services besides Iomega Data Recovery that do excellent work. DriveSavers, for example, had a booth at Macworld where people could walk up, physically damage a disk by scratching it, and -- behold! -- they still could recover the data before your eyes. Other services are available from Total Access, as well as from local technicians who can come to your location.

Starting the quote began with asking for my contact information, along with details about the drive. I tried to be as explicit as possible about how the drive was connected, to see if they would be able to isolate the logical failure that happened on the disk, and recover the data accordingly. They also had an area where you could specify specific files or file types to target for recovery.

Submitting the quote generates a document to print include in the box when you send it to them, and tips for packing the drive securely. I wrapped the drive in foam, put it in a snug-fitting box, and sent it to their lab in Santa Clara, California.

Then, the waiting started.

A technician, the supremely helpful and consummate professional Greg Sabanis, emailed me five days later (there was a weekend in there, if I recall correctly) with an analysis of the damaged drive. He said:

The drive has read errors affecting structures and possibly data files. Based upon this evaluation, we feel that a recovery may be possible. We will have to attempt to manually rebuild the corrupted / invalid file system components, mount the recovered volume(s) and finally determine if some / all of the data you require is intact.

That was something of a relief. Then came the sticker shock: The recovery would cost $1,500, plus tax. The good news (I suppose) was that I didn't have to pay it now: I could see the results of their recovery first, and then determine if it was worth it to spend the money for what they recovered. If Greg couldn't recover any data off the disk, there would be no charge.

Speaking with friends, it's clear that Iomega Data Recovery is average in terms of cost for the size of the disk I sent them. Lower-capacity disks, flash media and removable storage costs less. One thing's for sure: they have you by the huevos, and they're gonna charge you for it.

With client work on that drive, the nascent reputation of my freelance business was on the line. I had no choice but to spend the money. So, I signed their evaluation, faxed it back, and hoped for the best.

Part III: The thrilling conclusion.

Elgato's EyeTV Hybrid has long been the standout among the Mac options for HD television tuners, in large part because it comes with the excellent EyeTV software for program guide info, scheduling and recording. This week, the product gets an overhaul with refreshed hardware (including an FM radio tuner) and the new 3.1 version of the application with a bundled copy of Toast Basic for DVD burning; the combo is impressive. The revised software swaps out the TitanTV electronic program guide source for the more detailed (and, after the first free year, $20 paid-subscription) TV Guide data. The new EyeTV Hybrid is immediately available in the USA and Canada for US $149.95 and works on Mac OS X 10.4.11 and higher; decoding HD content requires an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. EyeTV 3.1 will be released as a free update for existing owners in the coming weeks.

Update: Several commenters noted that earlier versions of the hardware allowed for decoding HD content with a Core Duo (as distinct from Core 2 Duo) processor, and questioned whether anything had changed. Per the specifications page for the new unit, a Core 2 Duo chip is indeed required for 720p or 1080i content.

EyeTV's hardware has always packed some impressive functionality into a small USB dongle; however, the previous units (designed and built by OEMs like Pinnacle and Hauppauge for bundling with the EyeTV app) didn't always shine when it came to holding onto weak HDTV signals, and recordings were sometimes plagued with dropouts and jitter when used with borderline-adequate antennas. The new hardware design has been insourced to EyeTV's team and custom-built with a focus on improving signal handling; the results are pretty good.

In my preliminary testing with the new unit I got much better signal on some stations that had previously been on the fringe, and the picture is still crystal-clear (HD sporting events on a 24" iMac screen are a revelation). The only annoying quirk I saw in the EyeTV 3.1 app was a propensity for the video aspect ratio to flop between 16x9 and 4x3 as commercials or other standard-ratio content interrupted a widescreen program. Other than that, it works quite well, even with a $12 pair of Radio Shack rabbit ears.

The new TV Guide program info is quite a bit more detailed than the Titan TV or over-the-air ATSC listings, with full cast and capsule review data available. EyeTV now allows for a 'season pass' preset that will capture all episodes of a particular program, and parental controls are now implemented to allow responsible adults some control over the viewing and recording habits of the household. Recording a show is still just as easy, although you need to maintain a Titan TV account to do remote scheduling; the iPhone and iPod conversion and WiFi sharing capabilities remain as before, and can be supercharged via the turbo.264 outboard compression dongle. As always, be sure to keep plenty of hard drive space available if you want to maintain a library of HD recordings.

We'll be stopping by Elgato's booth at Macworld Expo this week for a video tour of EyeTV 3.1; if you're at the show, you can catch them at booth #2126. See the gallery below for some views of the new hardware and software.

Over at Ars Technica, Chris Foreman dives into yesterday's story that Imagination Technologies Group, developer of the PowerVR chip for mobile device displays, has a licensing agreement with Apple for its chip designs (long suspected by AppleInsider but only just confirmed) and that Apple has picked up a chunk of ITG stock; cnet puts it at $5 million worth for a 3.6% stake. The 'smoking gun' press release from Imagination that was linked yesterday has mysteriously disappeared from the company's press page, which does lead one to wonder if the news wasn't quite ready for prime time -- but the speculation about what future iPhones might be capable of in the video-out department is still quite enticing. (You can see the Google-cached version of the PR blurb here.)

Foreman notes that the ITG chip designs Apple might use (the PowerVR SGX and VXD) would provide a dramatic boost to 3D performance, with Open GL ES 2.0 support, and also allow for HD-quality video out via the dock connector. Adding the playback power of an Apple TV (or better) to a mobile device, while reducing the power consumption required to pull off the trick? Add in a low-power 802.11n chipset for wireless streaming and you've just turned the home theater and set-top box market completely upside down.

If your iPod touch or iPhone could take over all your video playback needs at HD resolutions, would it find a home on your media center shelf? Mine would.

Apple issued a press release today saying over 200 million television episodes have been purchased through the iTunes store, one million of them in high definition.

High definition episodes have been available since Apple's "Let's Rock" event on September 9. That averages out to over 27,000 HD downloads per day.

The press release also said the iTunes store is offering America's four major networks' fall prime-time lineup in HD for the first time.

Apple was a little late to the HD download game, however. The Xbox 360 introduced HD via Xbox Live way back in November of 2006.

[Via IGM.]

Here's the final humiliation for NBC in the whole contest between it and Apple -- while one of NBC's execs claimed that Apple made some concessions to the network to get Peacock content back in the iTunes store (after it was unceremoniously pulled last year over pricing arguments), Apple just plain says that's not true -- there were no concessions, and NBC crawled back on its own.

Sure, it's a little high school of Apple to call NBC out like that, but it's not like NBC has been gracefully handling the whole thing either -- execs have whined and moaned the whole time that they don't like the iTunes model, and even threatened to go to Amazon for good. But in the end, making Apple's money won out over making no money at all. Even though NBC brass are still convinced that Apple is giving them ground on pricing (and on the pricing of DVD movies), Apple says that's not the case -- the pricing structure has been the same all along.

At any rate, it's the consumer that wins -- no matter what Apple's prices are, at least NBC content is back in the iTunes store for those willing to pay for it.

[via Daring Fireball]

Steve Jobs just announced at the "Let's Rock" event in San Francisco that not only was NBC content returning to the iTunes store, but that Apple would start selling HD content on the store, playable both through the new iTunes 8, as well as AppleTV. Shows like Battlestar Galactica and The Office will be available in HD to watch anywhere you'd like.

HD shows will cost $2.99 each, while SD television shows will keep their price of $1.99. Stay tuned to TUAW for more from the event, and you can see news up-to-date in our ongoing liveblog.

If you find yourself looking at your Apple TV every Tuesday to learn what new releases Apple and the movie studios have blessed us with, then you might find Apple TV Junkie really useful. That's because Apple TV Junkie posts all of the new releases of High Definition rentals -- along with other important Apple TV news.

In one glance of the page you can find out:

• The $.99 movie rental of the week
• How many HD movies grace the iTunes shelves
  
• Top 10 movie purchases
  
• Top 10 movie rentals
  

So, if you're always looking for the hotest new movie rentals on the Apple TV and iTunes, you can make Apple TV Junkie your first stop.

[via Tekzilla]