It looks like the US is set to become a Blu-ray nation sooner than expected as HD DVD gets dumped again, this time by a major retailer.
Best Buy, with almost 1,300 outlets in the US and Canada, has announced that it’s plumping for Blu-ray over HD DVD from now on. The move comes just days after US online rental service Netflix decided to drop HD DVD. The move is expected to spark more HD DVD desertions. Best Buy’s president and chief operating officer, Brian Dunn, commented:
“Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way. We’ve listened to our customers, and we are responding. Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format. Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray products is a strong signal to our customers that we believe Blu-ray is the right format choice for them.”
“Best Buy has always believed that the customer will benefit from a widely-accepted single format that would offer advantages such as product compatibility and expanded content choices.”
Best Buy will still stock 'some HD DVD' products but will be aggressively pushing all things Blu-ray in its stores and online from March.
The spotlight now falls on Paramount and Universal – the only major Hollywood studios still supporting HD DVD. As more key retailers – Woolworths in the UK – back Blu-ray, can they afford to keep backing HD DVD?-Martin Lynch
HD DVD blu-ray movies
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Whether it's pigs, UFOs or beer kegs, there’s a Miidio Vibro speaker for you and, for £50-£80, you too can turn any household surface into a speaker. That’s the claim, anyhow.
Hook it up via 3.5mm jack to any MP3 player and place your vibro speaker on any solid surface like a table, shelf or window ledge and watch it do its thing. The inner core and base plate drive sound waves downwards causing the surface of whatever it's sitting on to vibrate and amplify the sound. The three on offer are the:
Miidio Keg - Slick, sophisticated and stylish in matt silver or matt black, this ultra-compact barrel-shaped speaker is made of high quality machined metal and comes with an integrated volume control. RRP £79.99
Miidio UFO - Funky, retro and chic, this speaker is shaped to look like a classic UFO in high-shine metal-look red, white or black and comes with an integrated volume control. RRP £69.99
Miidio Piggy - Perfect for the child within you, this speaker is comically formed in the shape of a pig with a brightly coloured nose and detailing in green, pink or blue. RRP £49.99
They’re certainly a novel take on speaker technology and, if you want to see one in action versus the speakers in a notebook, jump now.-Martin Lynch
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We covered Texas Instruments’ (TI's) phone-based DLP Pico projector last year, including this cool, short video of it in action, but until now it’s been a prototype. That’s all changed now as TI announced production availability of its miniature DLP Pico chipset at the 2008 Mobile World Congress Show in Barcelona.
The chipset will go on sale this summer and will herald the arrival - most likely in 2009 - of mobile phones with fully-functioning DLP-based projectors.
"Texas Instruments is making headway in an untapped market and appears to be forging a leadership position. We expect projection within handset devices to start appearing in 2009, in a market where significant volumes are expected over the next five years." said Bill Coggshall, founder of independent projector market research experts Pacific Media Associates. "This is an exciting time for the projection industry and TI is leading the way.”
Not only will these things be handy for the odd, impromptu business presentation but couple this with a decent multimedia phone crammed with movies or music videos, Wi-Fi and – like the new Nokia N96 – in-built TV receiver, and you’re looking at a whole cinema and more in your pocket.-Martin Lynch
[DLP]
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HANNspree makes a point of making unusual displays and TVs so this new one, the 22in ‘Verona’, comes as somewhat of a disappointment since it looks, well, pretty normal.
That however shouldn’t detract from the fact that this is a big, piano-black 22in display that’s HD Ready and sporting a price tag that should prove somewhat tempting, even if your current 17in display works just fine. The name and launch timing of the display are designed to cash-in on the Valentine’s Day nonsense so, all you blokes with monitor-loving girlfriends, consider yourselves sorted.
Still, it does look good, with its stylish stand the features aren’t bad either.
It’s a 1680 x 1050 resolution panel with a 2ms response time and horizontal and vertical viewing angles of 170º and 160º. Contrast is rated at 1000:1, brightness at 300cd/m2 and support for up to 16.2m colours. There are 2x2Watt internal speakers. The connections, alongside the handy HDMI input, include VGA and audio.
The HANNSG Verona XM Monitor – to give it its full name – is shipping now from Misco for £174 and comes with a 3-year onsite swap-out warranty.-Martin Lynch
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Sony Ericsson has unveiled the first in its Xperia family of phones, the X1, which is also its first phone based on Windows Mobile.
The X1, following hot on the heels of the new Nokia N96, is meant to herald Sony Ericsson’s solution for the “converged mobile experience”, which means it has lots of features and won’t be cheap. It’s an ‘arc-slider’ phone concealing a full QWERTY keyboard and sports a 3in touchscreen display with a good 800 x 480 resolution. Some might grumble over the display’s ability to only support 65K colours and that the camera is only 3.2MP, especially with rivals now cramming 5MP cameras into their newer models. The marketing blurb reads:
"Our vision for the XPERIA X1 is to deliver a seamless blend of mobile Web communication and multimedia entertainment within a distinctive design," said Rikko Sakaguchi, Head of Portfolio and Propositions, Sony Ericsson. "XPERIA is our promise to think foremost of user experience and to deliver the premium experience – anytime, anywhere, anything, with anyone."
Customising your ‘experience’ is all the rage now so there’s 9 desktop layouts to choose from and they can be laid out in whatever fashion suits you. There’s support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and HSDPA connectivity as well as Assisted GPS (aGPS) for location-tagging your snaps. There’s a micro-USB port and inside is 400Mb of memory with, thankfully, a micro-SD slot for adding some decent storage space.
The X1 measures 110 x 53 x 16.7mm and weighs in at 145g. No prices yet but it’s out this summer.-Martin Lynch
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
