A world of change

If I were Neil deGrasse Tyson—host of the Pluto Files and director of the Hayden Planetarium—I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. Not after reading the hate mail from thousands of outraged American kids.

The kids wrote to de Grasse Tyson demanding an explanation about why scientists changed Pluto’s classification from planet into a Kuiper Belt object. The Natural History Museum also retired it from their Solar System model, which logically got a lot of kids reaching for their pellet guns.

Neil, they may sound sweet, but they are vicious, those beasts. [PBS]

Sometimes Wi-Fi just doesn’t do the trick when streaming something to several devices. Zinnet’s Brite-View LinkE system will cover you there by allowing you to stream things over a powerline network to four ethernet devices and at up to 200Mbps.

It’s pretty simple: You plug an ethernet bridge into a wall outlet and connect it to a modem. Then you plug the four-port ethernet switch into another wall outlet and tada! You’re able to stream content.

The kit’s even a pretty decent deal at $90, especially compared to $150-$170 kits. [PR Newswire via Engadget]

We just finished watching Google’s live announcement of the launch of the Google App Marketplace. Keep reading for information on what they’re offering users and developers. Oh, and know that the Marketplace is live today. Updating.

The event is called “Google Campfire One” and it’s all about how easy it will be to create, set up, and install apps using Google’s App Marketplace. It appears that the big focus is on how everything—apps and existing Google products—will work together seamlessly and allow for all your tools and data to sit in the cloud. Right now the appeal is for business applications, but the potential seems incredible.

The first portion of the announcement is about what developers will give and get in this whole deal. Google is offering them access to 25 million users and only asking for a one-time fee of $100 and 20% revenue in exchange—that’s less than what access to Apple’s App Store requires. Of course, Google is providing a solid system with apps being authenticated using OpenID, secured using oAuth, and made available through a universal Google Apps navigation system.

While there are already 50 partners right at launch, we’re hearing that after new apps are submitted, they may take a few days to show up in the Marketplace—mind you, there’s no word on what kind of approval process there is. But once an app is in the Marketplace, it’s easy for users or buyers to add them to their Google accounts: They agree to some terms of service, grant access to data—such as Gmail or GCal, and enable your app. Tada! The app will show up in the new apps drop down.

It looks like apps will be easy to integrate into existing Google products as seen by a demo of a payroll app by Intuit which allows for information to be embedded into Gmail or Google Docs.

Speaking of easy, the development of these apps is so simple that there are apparently 40 developers who are on a bus traveling to an SXSW event and working on apps right now.

Back to the integration though. Remember how there have been some nice previews of YouTube videos in Gmail lately? Prepare to see more of that from these new apps because Google is offering developers the chance to set apps to be triggered by certain emails, events, or specific types of content.

What does all this mean right now? For business users, there are plenty of apps available right now—ones for payroll, data entry, management, and an office suite—and they’ll be able to run everything right from the cloud. For us plain Janes and Joes though, the Marketplace is full of potential right now. Think social media, data management, communication—all the things you already get from Google, just better.

Yes, my head’s already in the cloud. Hopefully everything else will follow and I’ll be able to work and play there.

Some days, it happens two or three times. I bet that you and most of your friends and family find themselves in the same situation too. [Loldwell]

For every time you’ve brought a scooter to the airport and wished it fit into the overhead compartment, I give you the Nexus: a battery-powered scooter that folds into a luggage-sized case. The TSA will love this.

Nexus is a concept designed by Francisco Lupin, and if it were either for a) sale or b) not guaranteed to get me arrested, I’d own one already. Its two electric engines run on four 12V batteries, and can achieve speeds of up to 15 km/h. It’ll last two hours on one charge, though if you make it two minutes before being tackled by bored security personnel you deserve some kind of special award. [Tuvie via Dvice]

As a kid I had a pair of Barbie sneakers that lit up with every step. Sadly those aren’t made in adult shoe sizes, so I’ll have to settle for something like these slinky illuminated heels.

These shoes came from the minds of Rodarte, a two-sister design team, and are a beautiful example of how wearable tech can be integrated into our lives and into our three-inch heels.

gawkerGallery(5489433,3,”);

Now can someone tell me where I can get a pair? [High Snobette via Fashion In Tech]

Wow. The PS3 is getting HD purchases and rentals from all six major studios. A quick search turns up that Xbox is missing Fox and, duh, Sony.

It’s nice that Sony isn’t handicapping the Playstation 3 in order to protect its blu-ray business.

Sony’s got deals with Fox, Disney, Paramount, Itself, Universal and Warner. I’m impressed. Now I just have to remember my login for PS network.

From Movie Theater to Home Theater: PlayStation(R)Network Delivers High Definition Movies From Six Major Movie Studios in the United States

PlayStation(R)3 Computer Entertainment System First to Have High Definition Movies for Purchase from All Major Studios

FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 9 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced that 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution will offer high definition (HD) movies for purchase and rental on the PlayStation®Network video delivery service in the United States. PlayStation Network is the first to offer high definition movies for purchase from all of the major movie studios, further establishing PlayStation®3 (PS3®) as the preeminent home entertainment platform for this year’s most popular and critically acclaimed high definition movies.

“Securing high definition content from these studios is another significant milestone further validating PlayStation Network as a complete entertainment network in the home. PlayStation Network is the first and only service to deliver high definition home entertainment from all six major studios, directly to consumers for download,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president, marketing and PlayStation Network, SCEA. “PlayStation Network continues to offer the most comprehensive catalogue of HD movies to PlayStation Network members that realize the wide-ranging entertainment power of the PS3 system.”

The PS3 system is the most complete home entertainment solution on the market today, enabling consumers to enjoy high-definition games and movies, as well as listen to music, view photos, browse the Internet and more. Today’s announcement joins one of the industry’s strongest home entertainment brands with the major media companies that produce and distribute a substantial number of films. At launch, the content will be available in the U.S. only, with plans to launch soon in the U.K., France, Germany, and Spain.

New titles available today on PlayStation Network include:
· 20th Century Fox – “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, “Jennifer’s Body” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (on March 23)
· Walt Disney Pictures – Disney Pixar’s “Up”, Jerry Bruckheimer’s “G-Force” and Disney’s “Earth”
· Paramount Pictures – “Star Trek”, “Paranormal Activity” and “Zoolander”
· Sony Pictures – “This Is It”, “2012″, “District 9″ and “Zombieland”
· Universal – “Inglourious Basterds”, “Couples Retreat” and “Public Enemies”
· Warner Bros. Digital Distribution – “The Hangover”, “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” and “The Wizard of Oz”