TVSquad

Last night, I did my usual flipping around the late-night landscape, doing what I usually do: checking to see which of the talk shows has the hottest guest in the skimpiest outfit. Last night was a bonanza, with the ever-so-squinty Renée Zellweger chatting with Dave and the oh-so-adorable Jenna Fischer gabbing with Jay.

Something struck me as curious when I watched Leno's talk with Fischer, though. When she mentioned how much she loves getting messages on her BlackBerry, calling the message light the "red light of love," Leno responded with a story about NBC giving him a BB "when I first started this job." Ever straining to be the "regular guy" of the late-night world (he told Fischer that his entire casual wardrobe consists of jean shirts and jeans), he said he'd open the vile device, disable it with a soldering iron and give it back, claiming it stopped working. NBC eventually stopped issuing him BlackBerries, fearing that his magnetic aura or something like that was shorting them out. Thus Jay was able to keep his proud Luddite street cred intact.

One problem... Jay started hosting The Tonight Show full-time in 1992. The first BlackBerry was introduced in 1999. Video of the chat is after the jump.

There's two major announcements out of the Sling Media camp today (can't you just imagine them sitting around the campfire shouting out news about new products?) Sling Media offers two types of products: A slingbox which you can plug into your TV, TiVo, cable box, or other video source to stream video across the internet. And the SlingPlayer client for watching that streaming video.

The first announcement was kind of predictable: SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry. Sling already has mobile clients for Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian phones, so I would have been surprised if we didn't see a BlackBerry client soon. SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry will be available later this year and will set you back the usual $29.99.

The bigger news is that Sling Media is launching a hi-def version of the Slingbox. The Slingbox PRO-HD sports a digital ATSC/QAM tuner, and multiple HD inputs and outputs. It can also stream 1080i video and 5.1 audio over the internet. You're going to need a high speed internet connection in order to get the most out of the PRO-HD. And if you plan to do most of your TV viewing on the go using SlingPlayer Mobile on a device with a low resolution screen, the PRO-HD is probably useless. But if you want the clearest picture on your computer, or if you plan on picking up a SlingCatcher which will let you stream video from one TV to another, the Slingbox PRO-HD's $400 price tag might seem reasonable.

Sling Media is working on a SlingPlayer client for BlackBerry devices. No, we're not particularly surprised either. The company already as a Palm Client, a Windows Mobile client, and this morning officially launched the US version of their Symbian client. So it was really just a matter of time, right?

SlingPlayer Mobile lets anyone with a Slingbox hooked up to their cable/satellite/TiVo/other set-top box stream TV from their home over the internet to a mobile device. We're going to go out on a limb and say that SlingPlayer for BlackBerry is going to run you $30, which is the going rate for Sling Media's other mobile clients.

A Sling spokesperson confirmed that a BlackBerry version is in the works. But he says it can take a long time to port the software to a new platform. It took nearly a year to develop Palm and Symbian versions. In other words, don't expect to Sling anything to your BlackBerry before 2008.

[via Engadget]

Because of recent allegations that she beat someone who works for her, Naomi Campbell had to pull out of her appearance on Celebrity Cooking Showdown. She was supposed to appear in the very first episode and cook against Patti Labelle, but that all changed after her housekeeper accused her of beating her with a jewel-encrusted Blackberry (mmmmmm...jewel-encrusted Blackberry...I think that was going to be the first meal she made on the show).

This is really too bad. I was really looking forward to Campbell BEATING eggs or WHIPPING cake batter.

Oh, regrets. I really shouldn't have turned down the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's request to present an award at the Golden Globes tonight. After all, that's a darn fine goody bag the presenters get:

• Trip for 2 to Antarctica (plus cold weather gear) with Quark Expedition, $22,000
• Trip for 2 to Canada, for a diamond-cutting and polishing experience, $15,000
• Lumineers teeth whitening, $4,000
• One pair of diamond-encrusted blue jeans from Denim for Immortality, $1,200
• Chopard Golden Diamond ring, $2,000
• Saeco USA Italia espresso machine, $695
• Philip Stein Teslar uni-sex watch, worth $585
• Gift certificate to Jackrocketwear, a couture line of doggie duds, $500
• Blackberry 8700c, $500
• Salt Optics sunglasses (1 pair), $375
• VAX USA vacuum, $300
  
• Nintendo Game Boy Micro with Dr. Mario/Puzzle League game, $250

What? No video iPods?

These are just some of the items, the HFPA has the full list here, plus the much shorter list of goodies that each attendee receives. The presenter's bag is worth about $65,000 and it's put together by the fashionistas at In Style magazine.