Toshiba has seen the future of television: A 55-inch, liquid-crystal display jacked into a three-terabyte set-top box capable of displaying eight high-definition broadcasts at once. What is this TV among TVs, this holy grail of couch potatoans called? The Cell Regza 55X1. And it costs $11,115.
Microsoft brought it’s not-so-anxiously-awaited Zune HD to market today. With its touchscreen, Wi-Fi capability and high-definition video output, the device is intended as an answer to the iPod touch, though it lacks the application marketplace that helped make Apple’s device so popular. And it’s not going to be getting one anytime soon, either.
2009 may prove to be the year that Blu-ray caught on. Sales of the high-definition DVD players, sluggish throughout 2008, are surging in 2009. According to the latest metrics from the NPD Group, sales of standalone Blu-ray disc players in the United States rose 72 percent from the first quarter of 2008, driven by an increasing awareness of the technology.
OK. So maybe there’s something to these Apple/Verizon rumors after all. Shadowy “people familiar with the matter” tell BusinessWeek the two companies are discussing a distribution deal that would see two new devices added to Verizon’s mobile devices line-up: the first, a sort of “iPhone lite” handset, the second a hi-definition media tablet.
Promises, promises, promises … When Apple debuted iTunes Movie Rentals this past January, the company pledged to offer “over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high-definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound.” Well, today’s March 4 and, as best I can tell, Apple hasn’t kept its promise.
Amazon (AMZN) is so far ahead of the curve it’s actually behind it. Today, the online retailer declared its support for Sony’s Blu-ray DVD format–nearly a full 24 hours after Toshiba (6502.TO) officially discontinued its rival HD DVD.
“The high-definition landscape is rapidly changing, and consumers are looking for guidance on how to make the best [...]
Best Buy (BBY) has added insult to the injury Netflix gave HD DVD this morning, announcing plans to endorse Blu-ray over HD DVD. “Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format,” said Brian Dunn, Best Buy’s president and chief operating officer. “Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray [...]
Lot of good that $2.7 million HD DVD Super Bowl ad did. This morning, online DVD rental pioneer Netflix, which has stocked both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats since they first came to market in early 2006, said it is dropping HD DVD. Quite a blow to the HD DVD camp–which, after a number of [...]
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
Spectacular in the bellowing Russian sailor sense of the word …
“If you spell something wrong on your insurance claim, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so …”
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