For those who may be new readers to ybpguide, one of the first posts I made back in October of 2006 was about the high-definition format war between Toshiba’s HD-DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray. Basically, the two companies decided to take visual and audio home entertainment into a new realm and create a medium that would allow richer, digital audio, more-interactive movies, and expanded storage for optical media.
I sided with the HD DVD camp thinking that the average consumer would identify more with the term ‘HD DVD’, ultimately recognizing that the next step up with your HDTV and HD audio would be (naturally) HD DVD. Well, I was wrong. The decisive factor when these two formats squared off was all about content. HD DVD had the upper-hand in price, but Blu-ray was able to secure more movie studios and more commercial outlets to back their technology. For awhile, some movie studios agreed to produce their films in both formats, trying not to choose sides.
Another Trojan horse that proved to be very effective in ultimately winning the war was Sony’s clever decision to make their video game console, the Playstation 3, a default Blu-ray player. Since most avid gamers tend to pick up the latest and greatest anyway, having the additional feature of being able to play Blu-ray movies proved to be a hot commodity. With the rival Microsoft Xbox 360, you had to purchase a HD DVD add-on.
Well, now my HD DVD player will soon run out of HD DVD movies to play. The only consolation is I only paid $100 bucks for it on Amazon and that it can still up-convert my regular DVD’s. It may stay in the bedroom and be confined to ‘the bedroom tv’, but alas, Blu-ray and Sony are here to stay.
sorry for the lack of post last week. these last few days have been hectic. i had to go ahead and quit the job to pursue my passion (more on that topic in another post), so the brain waves were slowly being fried as i completed a few projects i was working on. but, man…do i have a surprise for you!
ironman preview! woohoo! (shouts to dame and truthandopinion.net)
there has been a lot of underground buzz as the holidays approach, so i figured i’d try and cover as much of the relevant information as possible.
verizon is launching their iphone killer, the voyager. it has two screens (one on the inside and outside of the phone), a 2 megapixel camera, and a micro SD slot for up to 8gb worth of storage. what do you think? will the iphone slowly die this thanksgiving? (pic via engadget)
sony has decided to play nice and debut a 40gb PS3 for under $400 (with blu-ray). will this finally be the answer to consumers actually picking up a ps3? i won’t lie. i’ve seen blu-ray in person on a gigantic sony t.v. and it is simply nothing short of amazing.
we’re almost there! a flying car is still in the works through the geniuses over at MIT, but the concept is pretty simple. they’ve managed to combine the aspect of driving to a short landing strip, wings folding out, and taking off to another small landing strip only to fold your wings up and go! aimed at business travelers and pilots, this may be the next step! (article and image via technology review)
microsoft is shipping a new quiter, cooler xbox 360’s just in time for all of their holiday bundles. the newer units are suppose to house a new 65nm chipset that is superior to the current 90nm chipset in all models. i think the barrage of complaints about the xbox 360’s reliability have finally caused gates and crew to get off their ass and provide a quality product. my 360 hasn’t broken yet, but i’m at least comforted by the fact that if it did, i could send it in for free for a shiny new one!
yep. you read that right. today, before they are all sold out, you can get a free slurpee at 7-11. thanks to james for the tip on that one.
and to the news…so much to tell, so little space and time to tell it in.
keeping this tidbit brief, sony has slashed its playstation price from a wallet-breaking $599 to a more suitable car payment of $499. get them while they are still on the shelf collecting dust!
e3 is currently going on right now and nintendo has announced a lot of goodies for people with wii’s and those considering selling their right arm for one. i’ll leave the expansive details to engadget, but the essential goodies are as follows:
the wii will now feature a new blaster accessory to play shooting games, the wii zapper, and a new steering wheel for the upcoming, sure-to-be-ridiculous mario kart game.
wii fit will be debuting soon allowing people to get their intended exercise on via a wireless balance board that will come with the game. think 2.0 version of the old school nintendo track and field pad.
the wii will also allow users to go online and finally play against each other in upcoming titles like madden 08 and the aforementioned mario kart.
check out more information as well as the full debriefing of the nintendo press announcements over at engadget.
and not to forget the xbox, the 360 has been in a heap of trouble lately. folks have officially filed a class action lawsuit against microsoft claiming the device scratches the dvd’s it plays. it has also been estimated that the frequent overheating issues that plague the 360, which microsoft begrudgingly repairs for free, will cost them at least $1 billion dollars. get it together bill gates and crew. the bright side is that they’ve finally made nice with disney and will release at least 35 disney films through its online downloading service. (via yahoo tech news)
last, but not least, time has unveiled their top 5 worst websites ever. the top five are:
eHarmony
evite
meez
myspace
second life
most of these i have heard of, but i think it’s really funny how they detail their rationalization for each. (via time.com)
I sided with the HD DVD camp thinking that the average consumer would identify more with the term ‘HD DVD’, ultimately recognizing that the next step up with your HDTV and HD audio would be (naturally) HD DVD. Well, I was wrong. The decisive factor when these two formats squared off was all about content. HD DVD had the upper-hand in price, but Blu-ray was able to secure more movie studios and more commercial outlets to back their technology. For awhile, some movie studios agreed to produce their films in both formats, trying not to choose sides.
verizon is launching their iphone killer, the voyager. it has two screens (one on the inside and outside of the phone), a 2 megapixel camera, and a micro SD slot for up to 8gb worth of storage. what do you think? will the iphone slowly die this thanksgiving? (pic via engadget)
we’re almost there! a flying car is still in the works through the geniuses over at MIT, but the concept is pretty simple. they’ve managed to combine the aspect of driving to a short landing strip, wings folding out, and taking off to another small landing strip only to fold your wings up and go! aimed at business travelers and pilots, this may be the next step! (article and image via 
yep. you read that right. today, before they are all sold out, you can get a free slurpee at 7-11. thanks to james for the tip on that one.
the wii will now feature a new blaster accessory to play shooting games, the wii zapper, and a new steering wheel for the upcoming, sure-to-be-ridiculous mario kart game.
the wii will also allow users to go online and finally play against each other in upcoming titles like madden 08 and the aforementioned mario kart.