TechBytes: HBO Goes Online
In TechBytes, Microsoft Outlook adds social networks, tablet for kids and more.
Feb. 18, 2010— -- The premium cable channel HBO is now online. It is offering its movies and TV shows to subscribers through the new Web site hbogo.com. The service offers more than 600 hours of programming and is available starting today for Verizon FiOS video and Internet customers. The site will eventually expand to other cable companies. Comcast unveiled a similar service for its subscribers in December.
Microsoft is making one of its Office products more social. The company is turning Outlook, its desktop e-mail program, into a hub that can pull in information from popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Microsoft's Social Connector software features a new pane in your e-mail with the sender's most recent social networking activities, such as newly added contacts on LinkedIn. You can download the software from Microsoft's Web site.
Influential technology magazine Wired is showing off what its paperless future will look like. The magazine released a video demonstrating its app for tablet computers. The company says the app moves beyond the idea of ink on a page, offering interactive features such as short films and the ability to rotate items 360 degrees. There are also new ways to get a quick overview of the entire magazine and share and save your favorite articles.
The app will be available this summer.
There's a device that's being called a tablet computer for pre-schoolers. Fisher Price unveiled the iXL Learning System this week. It's a tiny computer that opens like a book and features software for reading books, playing games, painting, listening to music and more. The iXL arrives in July, starting at about $80.
