GAJIZMO

Media Point player and On-Demand videos puts Blue and Gold back into the game

Blockbuster is now officially the "battle of the boxes" with the introduction of its Media Point digital video player. The box will stream movies to TVs over the Internet and will go head-to-head against Netflix's set-top box solutions (Xbox, Roku, and Tivo). Blockbuster's MediaPoint box allows users to watch thousands of movies without the need of a monthly subscription.

To get the MediaPoint player, Blockbuster subscribers will have to pay a one-time $99 fee, which also bundles 25 movie streams. Users pay between $1.99 and $3.99 for each DVD rented, without a monthly subscription fee. Netflix's box also costs $99 in addition to the monthly subscription. Netflix holds an edge at  this time because it offers subscribers its whole 10,000 DVD collection for rental through its box. Blockbuster, at this time, offers 2,500 of the best and the latest with its on-demand service.

NEW YORK — YouTube, the largest video-sharing Website, has started to run full-length TV shows from CBS Corp's archive, in its latest step to boost advertising revenue by adding professional programming.

The site, owned by Google Inc, said on Friday it was talking to other TV networks to sign similar deals to CBS. Many TV networks already run short clips on YouTube, which also offers millions of home videos uploaded by users.

A mix of archive CBS shows, including Star Trek, Young and the Restless and Beverly Hills 90210, will now be available in full-length episodes of 20 minutes to 48 minutes. Follow this Reuters story at The Globe and Mail.

Back by popular demand, it's the Walmart DRM servers!  You heard right — just days after Wally World announced its plans to turn the screw on its digital rights management servers, we're now being shown a big “just kidding.” Follow this story by Darren Murph / Engadget:

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So, who's really cool now, Mac or PC?

Microsoft aired two new TV spots as part of its big ad campaign to promote Windows and defend the image of PC users.

The premise: I'm a PC, I'm a real person. I'm into cool things, not hype but really important things.

Yahoo brings instant music gratification to web surfers

Starting today  Yahoo!, is offering full-song playback, directly within its search pages, so finding and listening to your favorite music easier. Yahoo! Music intends to "make the Web playable by removing the barriers that prevent people from clicking play and hearing music online," writes Michael Spiegelman in a Yahoo Blog post today.

Web surfers can check out Yahoo's new feature by doing an audio search of their favorite artist and simply listening on the results. It’s also refresh way to integrate Yahoo's  FoxyPlayer — its browser-based media player — to its search engine, seamless and requires no user action.

The music behind this new feature is provided by Yahoo partner Rhapsody.

Campaign moves to new phase – I’m a PC.

Microsoft has abruptly ended its much ballyhooed ad campaign starring comic Jerry Seinfeld who appeared in two teaser spots with company chairman Bill Gates. A company spokesman said the end of the Seinfeld ads had been planned all along and that Microsoft is now moving to a new phase in its Windows advertising campaign.

The New York Times wrote that “the campaign, which begins Thursday and carries the theme ‘Windows. Life without walls,’ will move away from the enigmatic teaser commercials that featured Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in offbeat conversations about shopping, shoes, suburbia and the potential of computing to improve life.” The Gates-Seinfeld ads generated a lot of discussions, bewilderment and mostly lukewarm reactions since they started airing earlier this month.

According to the same NYT story, the next phase will be “an audacious embrace of the disdainful label that Apple, Microsoft’s rival, has gleefully — and successfully — affixed onto users of Microsoft products: ‘I’m a PC.’”

Follow the complete NYT story here.