instant

Netflix and the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) have come to an agreement about captions for the company's streaming videos: 100 percent must be captioned by 2014.

The agreement comes by way of a class action lawsuit filed by NAD in 2010 that alleged the streaming service was "failing to provide adequate closed captioning on 'Watch Instantly' streaming video programming," and therefore was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

After back-and-forth between the lawyers -- and Netflix working to get the case thrown out -- the two sides finally settled this week.

"We … Read more

iPhone owners eager to trade in their existing devices have kept eBay busy over the past week.

In the five days following last Wednesday's unveiling of the iPhone 5, trade-in offers through eBay's Instant Sale service climbed 265 percent compared with the same period the previous week.

Of the total surge in offers, iOS device owners accounted for 69 out of every 100, Android owners for 16 of every 100, BlackBerry owners 11 out of every 100, and users of other mobile operating systems 4 out of every 100.

Drilling down to the total iPhone offers themselves, 46 … Read more

Polaroid cameras used to be the coolest things. You'd huddle around a little square of weird photographic paper, waiting for the image to magically appear out of nothing. You just don't get the same thrill from capturing a photo on your smartphone. Until now.

I'm at the Kickstarter page for the Impossible Instant Lab, watching the pledge numbers rise in real time. Backers are jumping in on the $149 early-bird price (regularly a $229 pledge) for a device that turns photos from an iPhone into Polaroid pictures.… Read more

When I was a tot, I learned my ABCs with pictures and words printed on sliced-up trees. I also watched "Sesame Street." These days, many kids are learning to spell with tablet computers. What will Google teach them?

Rolled out two years ago this week, Google Instant shows suggested queries as you type. It was billed as a time saver, shaving two to five seconds off each search.

Google figured that Instant would improve searches because it takes people 300 milliseconds between each keystroke, but only 30 milliseconds to glace at suggested results. Before Instant, it took people more than nine seconds on average to enter a term, according to the search engine.

Some love the feature, some hate it. Some claim their reputation has suffered because of it and have sought redress in court.

But one of the most intriguing things about Google Instant is how it presents a list of queries when a single letter is typed. This autocomplete alphabet, as it's known, changes frequently according to the most popular searches. Here's the latest snapshot of the alphabet, in halves: … Read more

Mobile phone users across the country may one day be able to text 911 call centers.

AT&T has been given the go-ahead by the state of Tennessee to kick off a trial of a Text-to-911 service across the state. Using the state's new Emergency Service IP Network (ESInet), the test will let AT&T subscribers send text messages to Tennessee 911 call centers.

Dialing 911 by phone is still the preferred way to get help as quickly and easily as possible. But the trial phase would try to add texting to the 911 system as another … Read more

Yahoo Messenger (Classic) for Mac is the Mac version of the popular Windows YM, a communication app for anyone with has a Yahoo account. Considering that its Windows-based version is one of the most-used messaging apps, we were eager to see how the app performed. What we found were some nice features but nothing that really stands out over other messaging apps.

The application's user interface is well-designed and has all the control buttons available at a glance. What we liked is that the platform is finally opening its doors by adding support for MSN, Lotus Samtime, and LCS … Read more

Nimbuzz combines a flexible messaging app with the Internet and social media to turn your smartphone into a mobile communications center. With Nimbuzz, you can make unlimited free video and voice calls; chat via video, audio, or text; share files; and more. Nimbuzz is compatible with nearly every device out there. It not only accesses the Nimbuzz network but also Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, and Gtalk. Got platforms? Nimbus does: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Java. A chat buddy feature lets you tweet, too. Updates include contact blocking and file forwarding.

We installed the Nimbuzz client on our … Read more

Friday's tech news roundup can ease symptoms of Gadget News Overload:

Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer currency that's been gaining in popularity, appears to be getting ready to take the leap from the digital world to the real world.

Exchange service BitInstant is creating a Bitcoin-funded card that would function as a standard debit/credit card and would be honored where ever MasterCard is accepted, according to the transcript of an interview allegedly conducted wth BitInstant co-founder Charlie Shrem. During the interview, published by Coding in My Sleep, Shrem says the card might launch within the next six to eight weeks.

The cards would be issued by a "major international bank&… Read more