Flip4Mac WMV Universal Binary Beta for OS X

Today, a beta of the universal binary of Flip4Mac WMV was released to people who signed up for the beta test. Chances are if you are using an Intel Mac, then have been waiting for the universal binary.

The Flip4Mac WMV component is used to play Windows Media files in the Quicktime player on Mac OS X.

The beta has been publicly posted for download by a beta member.

If you are going to download the beta, be aware that since this is not a final release it might be unstable.

Comcast to begin testing HD TIVO service

Comcast is about to begin beta testing the HD TIVO service on their DVR boxes this month, according to the AVS Forum. The deal between comcast and Tivo was inked back in mid March of 2005.

The TIVO software will be downloaded directly onto existing Comcast HD DVR boxes, without the need to purchase or rent any extra hardware.

Under the terms of the agreement, Comcast and TiVo will work together to develop a version of the TiVo service that will be made available on Comcast’s current primary DVR platform. New software will be developed by TiVo and will be incorporated into Comcast’s existing network platforms. The new service will be marketed with the TiVo brand, and is expected to be available on Comcast’s DVR products in a majority of Comcast markets in mid-to-late 2006.

Although no official statements has been issued yet about the pricing and availability, we expect the pricing for the new service to be at about $5 per month, on top of the current DVR charges. The new Comcast/TIVO DVR service will include the popular TIVO user interface, and features such as the Season Pass and the WishList.

No word yet on which markets Comcast will test the new TIVO service on, or how to sign up. Comcast support was unable to provide us with any useful information when we called.

VIM 7 – Final Beta released.

VIM 7 is on the verge of being released, with many new features and improvements over the current 6.4 version. The last(hopefully) version of VIM 7 Beta has just been released for testing.
Here are some of the bigger improvements:

Spell checking support for about 50 languages
Intelligent completion: Omni completion
Tab pages, each containing multiple windows
Undo branches: never accidentally lose text again
Vim script supports Lists and Dictionaries (similar to Python)
Vim script profiling
Improved Unicode support
Highlighting of matching parens, cursor line and cursor column
Translated manual pages support.
Internal grep; works on all platforms, searches compressed files
Browsing of remote directories, zip and tar archives
Printing multi-byte text

You can view a more complete list at the VIM Announcement Group.