There’s an another interesting show on at Las Vegas at the same time as the CES 2007 show and that’s the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE). It’s interesting this year for the less obvious reason that porn film producers say that they are being blocked from moving their content to the high definition Blu-ray format. Why is this important?
Anyone old enough or have read a little about the early [and current] success of the Net will know that porn funded pretty much all of it. Porn was also a deciding factor in making VHS the format of choice against Betamax in the video tape format/player wars of the late 1970s and 1980s. Ironically, Betamax was also developed by Sony.
Digital Playground, a porn production house has said that it is being forced to opt for HD DVD because Blu-ray disc manufacturers are refusing to print the movies because Sony has told them ‘do it and you lose your licence’. Allegedly.
Others in the porn industry like Bangbros. and Pink Visual have already standardised on HD DVD, citing cheaper costs, and many others are expected to follow.
So, what do you think? Is banning porn from Blu-ray going to hurt the format?-Martin Lynch
news technology gadgets movies porn blu-ray
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/98187
Before anyone starts yelling that 'we knew about the iPhone for months and months', I should point out that Apple & Co. managed to keep a lid on its development for two and a half years.
Not a bad bit of secrecy in an industry rife with whistle-blowers, industrial espionage and general skulduggery. In an interesting piece by Fortune's Peter H. Lewis, there's a quick look at how Apple managed to keep things quiet internally [floggings, sleep deprivation and Chinese water torture - joking] but also how it managed to keep its partners, Cingular, Yahoo and Google hushed up too.
What emerges is a tale of teasers, misdirection, press bullying and compartmentalisation within Apple.
Senior Apple execs admit that they first saw the iPhone at MacWorld while head of marketing, Phil Schiller says he had to keep it a secret from his wife and kids for two and a half years. He’s quoted as saying that when he left for the official launch his son asked:
“Dad, can you finally tell us now what you've been working on?"
You’ll be able be to see what all the iPhone fuss is about later this year, not 2008, thanks to revised launch info -[thanks Trovster]. - Martin Lynch
[More]
news technology gadgets iphone apple phone
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/98186
Sandisk makes some nice MP3 players but has decided, somewhat late in the game, that there's money to be made in the growing portable video market as well. The result is its “first pocketable video player”, Sansa View. This Flash-based player comes with a 4in widescreen display, 8GB of internal storage and a Flash memory extension slot than can handle SD or SDHC cards. That means it can store up to 33 hours of video or 2,000 songs, as well as thousands of photographs.
The company is touting it as one of the thinnest out there, measuring 78.5mm x 123mm x 16.9mm, and it also comes - unusually - with an integrated speaker so that you don’t have to keep swapping earphones with friends when you want to show them a clip. The lithium-ion battery is good for four hours of video and 10 hours of music [could be a lot better] and the unit is compatible with Windows Vista.
Sansa View will ship in Europe in Q2 with a price tag ranging from £180-200. For detailed specs jump now.-Martin Lynch
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/98185
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
