StewtopiaLooks like we finally have some shipping dates for HD-DVD players. Coming in March, Toshiba will ship both the HD-XA1($799) and the HD-A1($499) with the XA1 coming with better stabilization and quad DSP decoders for better audio. Both have audio decoders for an alphabet soup of audio standards and only HDMI for video output. Looks like you early adopting, component video only early adopters will be shelling out cash for a new TV as well. Oy, at least these things are under a grand…
(Via I4u.)
OK, so a whole bunch of movies were announced today for the not yet shipping soon Blu-Ray HD players. Here are some of the worst of them.
- Hitch
- A Knight’s Tale
- Resident Evil: Apocalypse
- Species
- SWAT
- Fantastic Four
- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
This craptastic lineup makes me wanna run right out and spend 1000 clams on a new player. Seriously studios, can’t we do a little better than this? Even the “A-list” contains tired movies like Terminator 2.
(Via HDBlog.net.)
XM Radio has announced a variety of new equipment today. First up, from Samsung, 2 new portable players, the Helix XM2go that will play live XM, up to 50 hours of recorded XM and MP3 files and second, the Nexus, which will play live XM while docked and record XM and MP3 files on the go.
Next up, the suspiciously similarly looking Pioneer Inno XM2go, has all the bells and whistles of the Nexus and the same price of $399. All of these units should ship this quarter.
Lastly, and perhaps most interesting, is XM Passport. XM passport is a tiny, half dollar sized XM tuner designed to go from device to device so that users will only need one subscription for many devices.
Jason O’Grady, longtime Mac prognosticator and blogger, has posted his predictions for the upcoming Macworld Expo. I don’t really know how good Jason’s prediction track record is, but he’s been doing this for years.
His verdict – no OS X.5 or Intel Powerbook, but an Intel Mac Mini and iBook seem most likely.
(Via diggdot.us.)
I’m making the trek out to Las Vegas this Thursday through Saturday for the annual CES convention. If you’ve never been to a a CES, it is the largest technology show in the US attracting over 100,000 people to the city. I’ve heard it best described as a “museum of the next 18 months,” although many of the products seen at CES don’t ship for even longer than that (large format OLEDs, anyone?)
I haven’t been to CES in a couple of years, but the show rarely disappoints. I’ll be blogging the event and keeping folks up to date about announcements at the show.
If you are going to CES, drop me a line.
Well, at least a summary of the first season and a half, but as far as I know, this is the first free video that Apple has posted. Seems like this might be a way to get folks hooked on BG and/or the concept of video downloads.
So, if you wanna catch up on Battlestar or just want some free content to show off your shiny new iPod, check it out.
Looks like you can download NBC/Universal programming from iTMS, including the Office, Surface, Law and Order and others. With ABC and NBC on board the iTunes train, how soon for CBS?
(Via eHomeUpgrade.)
Not sure what to get the nerd in your life? Here’s a pretty decent list of places to start.
Most Unique
Gifts (mostly) under $100 – Make Magazine
Scientific American
General Geeks
Gizmodo
Engadget
Ultimate Geek Gift Guide – Wired Magazine
CNET
Ars Technica
PC Magazine
CNN Money
Den Guru – part of Tom’s Hardware.
DesignTechnica
ExtremeTech
Washington Post
Mac Geeks
Macworld
Gamers
Gamespot
Kotaku
Gamespy’s Holiday Gift Guide
Treo Lovers
Treonauts
Everything Treo
Let me know if I’ve missed your favorite Holiday gift guide.
Zatz Not Funny has some exclusive pics of some new HME
features.
TiVo is beefing up their HME offerings by centrally hosting applications and partnering with Yahoo! Yahoo! weather, traffic, and photos are available by entering your account info on the TiVo box. Also being previewed are Internet radio (Live365), the podcaster application I saw at Digital Life, Fandango movie tickets, and some various games.
Looks pretty sweet, but criminey pete, just give me the CableCard model so I can dump my craptastic Comcast PVR.
Is it that time already? It looks like the speculation has already begun as to what will be announced at Macworld Expo in January. Apple announcement speculation has a special place in my heart. I like to kick back at the end of the year with my nerd kin and come up with what we want Santa Jobs to give us post-Christmas.
Think Secret is reporting that Macworld will deliver us an Intel based Mac Mini PVR. While in my nerdy heart of hearts I want this to be true, I think it’s too soon after the release of Front Row. For the record, I believe that Front Row will be bundled into whatever Apple has cooked up for iLife ’06.
(Via PVRblog.)
We’re excited about the Xbox 360 launch next week like the next guy, but watching the drama on Engadget and Gizmodo was a little exhausting.
Here’s the latest:
Xbox 360 launch list – all the games, accessories and what not.
Xbox launching on Friday at CC? – Ain’t happenin’.
Xbox 360 backwards compatibility list – 200+ Xbox games will work on the 360. Thanks Charlie.
Harmony Xbox 360 Remote released – $129 remote for the ‘other‘ uses of the Xbox.
If that’s not enough for you, check out either Gamespot or IGN’s Xbox launch coverage.
I love researching new products for people. I love learning all the intricacies of new gadgets and why one thing might be better than another. I spend waaaaay too much time thinking about the trade offs between model ‘x’ and model ‘y’. Why do I do this? So when someone asks me “Which x should I buy?,” I have an answer for them.
Most people don’t do this. Often times, they get to their favorite (or least favorite) electronics store and know they want to buy a digital camera (in this case) but don’t know where to start. So naturally, they talk to the salesman whose best interest isn’t always theirs.
“What to Buy?” will tell you the best product to buy in a given product category. Today, we’ll focus on sub compact digital cameras. Sub compacts are the smallest digital cameras available.
Sub Compact Digital Camera
Why? Big LCD, bulletproof build, 5.0 megapixels, SD memory and good picture quality.
Who? Novice-Advanced person who wants a pocket camera with a big LCD and decent picture quality.
How Much? Street prices ~$300
Reviews
CNET – 7.4/10
DPReview – Recommended
Epinions.com – 5/5
Steve’s Digicams – Liked it.
Sony felt like they were falling behind in creating acronyms so their latest, greatest television brings us the latest, greatest in alphabet soup product naming. Sony dubbed the technology behind their KDS-R60XBR1 as SXRD, which is basically a tweaked out version of LCOS.
Bottom line is that this television doesn’t seem to suffer any of the problems that other technologies seem to have (rainbows, screen-door, gigantism) and has a really great picture.
Don’t take my word for it – take a gander over at Home Theater Magazine for the full scoop.
(via HDBeat)
The PowerMac G5 dual core (2.0Ghz and 2.3Ghz, but alas no Quad) got a write up in Macworld yesterday. Looks like Apple’s claims of dual core processors equaling the dual processors were true if you believe the Speedmark numbers. It will be much more interesting to see the numbers on the Quad 2.5 to see if they truly double their processing power.
Verdict – Fast, but the Quad will be faster.
Read
Next up, our pals at Macintouch review the new iMac G5 (isight). The reviews focuses on Front Row and iSight integration which in general, they like. The new iMacs are also thinner and quieter than previous models.
Verdict – Not much faster, but cool new apps and thin profile make a cool package.
Read
Not quite as convenient or portable as Lost or Desperate Housewives, it looks like DirecTV users will get NBC programming and Comcast users will get CBS content on demand for the low, low price of $.99. Programming will be available only to in-house PVR users of the respective companies and not for iPods or other portable media devices.
Now, I don’t know about you, but personally, if I wanted to watch any of those shows, I’d record them on the PVR, rather than pay for them later.
I’m curious as to how DirecTV is planning on offering VOD as they haven’t been able to do this in the past.
Ok, admittedly, I’ve had Kmaps going on my Treo 650 for a few months now, but it looks like the rest of you get it now. You gotta have a Java enabled phone (J2ME, not BREW), but Sprint alone has 25 phones that are capable.
Looks like you get the full deal as well – sat images, driving directions, quick scrolling and the like. I’m a bit skeptical of the speed, so if anyone has tried this out, lemme know. Still, Google Maps on the go is pretty killer.