2006 December « Tech-Me – Blogging my thoughts on gadgets, techology and web based media

Archive for December, 2006

Vista Stop Gap

December 31, 2006

“Over-promise, under-deliver. The Microsoft Way®”

Vista isn’t even out on the shelves yet for home users and there’s speculation of service packs and operating systems that will be released after Vista. Vista didn’t fulfil the promises that Microsoft said that it would, more likely because they wanted it released as soon as possible. That way they can make more money by selling you more with another upgrade. Microsoft didn’t become the most successful company in the world by writing a load of cheques. Though Gates has turned his hand to more charitible ventures, I can’t see Microsoft falling quite yet. But maybe with a brand new interface and the loss of the task bar, people who stuck with Windows over the past decade for the familiarity might just go elsewhere. The thought of long time users having to re-learn even the basics of their operating system of choice isn’t a pleasent one.
Most features have been lifted from the Mac OSX anyway and appear in the Windows OS around four years later. The loss of the task bar will be the final step for Microsoft to be almost identical to the Mac. At least Apple innovates, Microsoft churns out more operating systems periodically to make more money.
Less than a year after Vista is available in stores, the first service pack, Fiji, will be available as a free upgrade. As well as the minor, expected updates (interface), the major fixes that couldn’t be squeezed into the initial release of Vista such as reappearance of WinFS , which will integrate with the NTFS file system, a more full-featured sidebar app, tight Windows Live integration (especially when it comes to media) and built-in playback of HD-DVD (if HD-DVD still exists by then!) And possibly a replication of GarageBand for audio editing, does this mean that Windows users will be spurred on to create their own podcasts and eclectic taste in music?
Vienna is something special though but maybe not in a good way. Where Vista added a little sparkle to your desktop, Microsoft is ready to send the Start Menu concept to the recycle bin after around 15years since its debut in Windows 95 (it will be by the time this is released). So how will Microsoft “Vienna” revolutionise your computer and more importantly how you will interact with it. Well it’s not really such a big surprise when you hear that it’s going to be similar to the dock currently used in Mac OSX. This is one of the ideas that should allow you to move between your documents. Interestingly whilst the Vista OS claims that it has improved security, it doesn’t have a sandbox. This, if you don’t know what a sandbox concept is, is a protected area where you can try things out, a little like a bomb disposal area which is cleared to protect the surrounding entities. Like people should be protected from the bomb, your files should be safe if you open a malicious application in the sandbox. Another interesting but possibly irritating feature of Vienna could be a pervasive typing line that tries to guess what you’re going to enter next much in the same way that a search engine might try and guess the end of the search criteria to save you time. Apparently it’d also be able to guess the commands that should be issued next. This is the beginning of the revolution – the revolution of tech taking over the world and controlling you. I like tech but I don’t think that I’d like it to try and second guess what I want to do. What next, a computer that tells you what to wear based on the clothes in your wardrobe or the food that you can make with ingredients in your fridge, oh yeah they exist. So maybe the computer performing commands by itself and guessing what you want to type in could be a good thing to get things done quicker. It’d certainly remove the excuse that your dog ate your homework. Just how are we going to distinguish between what’s been done by a human and the computer?
Windows Mobile will be released this year as the successor to Windows Mobile 5 with better compatibility with Office 2007, VoIP support (which would be good if phone operators didn’t like to block those ports, still you could use wi-fi and laugh in the face of your operator as you jump between hotspots or use the upcoming HSDPA) and Windows Live integration.

Posted in Computing, Microsoft | Leave a Comment »

Look to the future now, it’s only just begun

December 28, 2006

The ever changing world of tech constantly makes me want more and its definitely coming. Over the past few years, technology has developed more than in the past few decades. We’re getting there and I’m now gonna let you have a sneak peek into my thoughts about the technology that will be hitting stores in the not too distant future. Christmas, meh, this is the most wonderful time of the year, looking forward to see what’s predicted to come.
2007 and Beyond!
Audio Visual
“Remember high definition?”is a phrase that you’ll hear an awful lot when 3DTV is launched. And I mean without the need to wear dorky looking, headache inducing glasses. At least that’s what the new Philips 20 incher will be anyway. Toshiba and Samsung are stuck with the IMAX style of last century. Sure IMAX is good but without the glasses it would be sooooo much better. Look out for them around May; it will make HDTV look boring. See it to believe it.
Maybe you don’t want 3DTV and don’t like the blocky standard definition resolution of plasma or LCD. You need an SEDTV (surface-conduction electron-emitter) it gives the quality of CRT for high def and could be hitting shelves from Toshiba in late summer 2007. Imagine a CRT quality display but the size of a plasma in high def and you’ve got a SED TV in your head, or maybe check here. Laser TV could also prove to be a viable successor to DLP (digital light processing) TVs as they will be much lighter than DLP or Plasma due to their plastic screen rather than glass and provide a brighter and better picture.
The Ambilight technology from Philips made TV viewing look that much better with colourful lighting that graced the frame of the TV to make the screen look a little bigger but this was simply a glimpse of what was to come. AMBX (also from Philips) is a full on entertainment system that won’t make you feel like you’re in the cinema watching the movie, it’ll be more like you’re inside the movie; just without the dangerous bits. Fans and vibrating vests will immerse you in the action. This can only be a good thing that might just make you like movies and games a little better. AMBX could surface as soon as January at least for those lucky bunch of PC gamers. Movie fans will have to wait a little longer for producers to encode the necessary detailing into their works. Feel it
Blu-ray players are already in stores but did you know that the first VHS machines could only play, fast forward, rewind and stop? The same is true for blu-ray, those money grabbing companies. Get your high-def recording finger ready for April when the Philips BD recorder should be available. Also in April the BT vision IPTV system should be up and running properly, it’s basically a freeview box with a BT Internet connection meaning that you’ll need to be a BT broadband subscriber too. Theres no subscription for the Vision itself but you’ll be paying for the downloads that you want. It’s like PPV on demand with 40 free channels. Think I’ll stick with Telewest which already offers a library of on demand movies, music videos and TV oh and the bonus of a free weekly archive of selected BBC and a few other channels programming.
Before freeview even has its chance to get high definition, super high def will be available in late 2007 in the form of quad HDTV. Yeah throw that budget HDTV you got yourself for Christmas in the skip now then eh? Resolutions of 3840×2160 is certainly going to look more real than reality if that’s even possible.
By the end of 2007 the format war WILL be over, and neither BRD or HD-DVD will have won. In fact they’ll be joined in the same box. The NEC and LG dual chip systems might connect to your PC but connect your PC to your HDTV and you’ve got a HD-DVD-BD disc spinner that’ll play anything you throw at it. Warner are also working on discs that can be read by both HD-DVD and BD players, this could mean an end to HD-DVD anyway as only Universal and Paramount pictures would be left with HD-DVD. Could this be a sign of a Sony format actually succeeding on UK and American shores?
Shiny new OS
As you can see by the counter over > somehwere, Vista will be launching to the public this January. Better security, yawn, as I’ve already said, when you tell someone that something is “unbreakable” it becomes a challenge. Tell the same to everyone in the world and a band of hackers will already be ready to get their teeth into the new operating system. It’s not a question of “IF” its a question of “WHEN” they will hack into the system. It’s already got flaws as people across the globe who’ve wangled an Enterprise copy have tinkered to remove the 30 day trial period. Good luck Microsoft you’re gonna need it! Around 6 different versions and updates from XP with capable machines already being sold with computers it’ll be interesting to see people’s reactions once they’ve got past the shiny appearance of the new OS and question if there really is anything better about it? We’ll see at its release in January. And soon after that a third service pack for XP, surely that’s the wrong way round for the Microsoft we know and love who try and grab as much of your hard earned cash as possible.
Superphone
Yes the Nokia N series was born out of the terrible gaming phone the N-Gage but now phones are parading around as mini computers. Nokia are now saying that the Nokia N95 can do so much that its no humble mobile phone. I’d almost go as far as say that this is the best thing ever so far but a mobile, handheld computer? It does have GPS, 5MP cam with the ability to link snaps to their GPS location, high res screen, media player (audio and video you know), ability to upload pics to the web on the move, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, Bluetooth and 3G. And it’ll make the occasional phone call if you want it to. Maybe it is a computer in disguise or maybe this is the ultimate weapon of convergence, will it muti-task as well as it promises, we’ll find out in February.
If you get a Nokia N95 by July you might want to take full advantage of the Vodafone – Tom Tom partnership for more accurate sat-nav via mobile, especially for finding those jams or maybe even avoiding them. Maybe 2007 will be the year when people wake up and realise that when they’re sat-nav tells them to make a U turn, it doesn’t mean right away and comedians will need to find more material that actually makes sense. To quote Paul O Grady, “Mine told me to turn around on Tower Bridge” – it means when you can not instantly. Though I did like Ben Elton’s joke about his telling him about traffic problems, “They’re f*****g everywhere.” Before we advance in technology any further maybe we need to teach people how to use their common sense and fix their general ignorance.
Gaming
The only next gen console unreleased up to now in the UK (the Wii is technically out now even though its sold out) yeah the PS3 will casually stroll onto UK shelves come March. Remember its gonna be the cheapest blu-ray spinner too at a charming HD-DVD spinning price of £425. It’s like a next gen movie player with free games console or the other way round, I still can’t decide.
Networking / Connectivity
Wi-Fi will be maxing out in 2007 with 802.11n. This could be around 4 times faster than current wireless speeds but due to the delay, most routers probably won’t be able to support it, shame. Also WiMAX could be zooming along soon to extend the reach of current broadband ISP services or maybe the odd city or two. Norwich has it for free, I want it here, even with a small cost it would be quite good. Paying multiple companies for a fixed amount of time then being able to use it for around a quarter before going somewhere else to pay someone else is such a hastle. Could we have WiMAX for XMAS?
UWB (Ultra Wide Band) will change things in 2007, streaming HD video maybe or other data up to around 2GB/sec (no really gigabytes!)
Wibree could be the next best Bluetooth, at least with Nokia phones. It uses much less power than Bluetooth so smaller devices can be made such as the headsets that used to make you look like an alien will now make you look like you’re talking to yourself. It’s gonna get much harder to distinguish the loons from the crowd in 2007. Speeds of 1mbps are OK but for short distances and the kind of stuff that you use Bluetooth for right now, is 1mbps really too little? It’s proposed to work alongside the standard wireless connection of choice rather than contest it, in which a wise move I think as a snipe at Bluetooth probably wouldn’t do Nokia any favours.
Books are for losers
Nobody likes to read books do they, those terrible paper cuts and black ink rub offs from news papers. The trees can breathe a sigh of relief come springtime (May) as the UK gets e-ink. Another technology that America has had for some time already. The units only require energy to “turn the page” or in other words refresh the screens content and have proven to be as readable as text in those things made from dead trees. A battery should allow around 7500 pages to be reloaded, that should be a few epics shouldn’t it or maybe a years worth of this blog. Around 80 of the e-Books can be stored on the Sony reader and downloaded from the Sony site.
Microsoft copies again
Google docs has been around for a while allowing registered users (free) to create new and modify existing documents in their online word processor and spreadsheet packages. They’re fairly basic at the moment but are certainly the way of the future. No more flash drives or forgetting to mail your work to and from work. They’d be accessible anywhere in the world with a net connection. Well this is already done with Google docs but Microsoft Office is getting in on the act. Think smaller versions of the current Office applications where the processing is done elsewhere relying only on your Internet connection. This could be perfect if paired with WiMax as currently you might lose your work if you wandered out of range but WiMax would pretty much guarantee you the ability to keep working as you move through towns and countries on your commute.
Mobile PCs
The first codename for the UMPC was Origami but the new version of the UMPC (due in July) is much more like the folding paper variety. It has a full keyboard that surprisingly looks usable, perhaps more so than the graphical one of the previous generation. First goes are never a success right, maybe there is actually someone, somewhere that wants a laptop thats a little bigger than a mobile phone but falls short of the most portable lappy around. Lower power consumption should allow the new evolving UMPC to stake a place in the gadget hall of fame for 2007.
Thought laptops were hot now, with exploding batteries from Sony and general worries among men about why they can’t use their laptop on their lap, things are gonna get a lot more hotter if something isn’t done about the 600 degrees celsius fuel cell batteries.
Mere Speculation
All of the above is estmated speculation but heres where I go out on a limb and say that I think that the Zune from Microsoft has little chance of hitting UK shores til 2008 as without a download store or even a retailer prepared to sell it in the UK it’s going nowhere fast. At least for the moment. 2007 might also be the year when the BBC actually gives its content away on P2P file sharing networks. In other words, us TV toting Brits are going to be paying for the world to watch re-runs of Little Britain and the like. Zudeo will be the platform that the BBC will use but it is unknown how much programmes will cost. Surely though the shows will be coated in arms of DRM that prevent you from passing on to your mates.
The future looks bright, I’m looking forward to it, are you?
Happy New Year!
Dates listed are probably going to change.

Posted in Computing, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Portable Media, future | Leave a Comment »

RFID Passports

December 27, 2006

Surely you’ve heard of RFID or maybe Radio Frequency Identification. If not I’m sure that you will have heard about the forthcoming e-passports and in America they’re being issued as soon as early 2007. RFIDs are gonna be everywhere from passports to shops. Paying with cash will be a thing of the past or even credit cards for that matter as you simply go into the store, choose what you want and walk away. The RFID, the size of a grain of rice will be tucked into the item and money will be deducted from your account as you leave the store. That’s the theory anyway and e-passports are supposed to be more secure than the conventional ones as the RFID chip would store all of your details to speed up those long waits. But implementation, in my opinion, is being undertaken way too early. RFID isn’t secure and I have seen an e-passport being cloned. Basically because the information (about you or the item that it is embedded in) is digital, it can be duplicated into exact copies, much in the same way that a digital photograph can be copied over and over without deterioration. That would make ID theft easier right?
So if you’re scared that anyone can have instant access to your personal details on the spot with a readily available reader and appropriate software then you might want to damage the chip of the soon to be mandatory e-passport. Well “accidentally” washing it won’t work, it won’t do the passport much good for looks but the RFID chip will still be readable. How about microwaving it? Apart from the fact that if you did this then you clearly don’t know anything about microwaves (microwave + metal = explosion) but also the traces from the explosion would show the remains of your deadly sin. Thirdly you could get a blunt hard object, say a hammer, and smashy smashy! That would probably disable the chip and for now the dysfunctional chip won’t invalidate the passport. Yay hollidays without fear of ID theft but with a little concern about the next 25 years of porridge.

I do not endorse any of the above methods and if caught you could end up in prison for the next 25years.

I for one would like the pay by touch system to be rolled out to every shop and maybe as an alternative to RFID passports for now anyway. Pay by touch doesn’t use your fingerprint, instead using around 40 points of interest on your finger which are scanned and used in a complex formula to relate information to your bank account.

Posted in future | Leave a Comment »

Sign of the times

December 23, 2006

Merry Christmas!
Cast your minds back two or three years and you’ll remember a world with little resemblence to the world of today. Technology is changing at a faster rate than ever before and chances are it won’t be slowing down anytime soon. At least for 2007 and promises of more exciting tech from 2008 as the old school analogue signals such as DVB-H, sure the Lobster has TV via DAB (yeah the radio one) but radio seems to be all the phone is good for as the quality seems to be of little quality. DVB-H (digital video broadcast – handheld) should change all this as it will be freeview for the mobile of the future but with better bandwidth, therefore better quality or more channels, hopefully the former in the form of High Definition (obviously not the first mobile incarnations).
Talking of mobiles, consider the mobile of around five years ago. It made phone calls, sent SMS and maybe an in built game or two. Now if you use your phone for only calling people you’re in a very small minority and more than likely don’t understand that much about technology anyway. OK MMS built on SMS to allow you to send and receive multimedia content but then along came the camera phone. There we go, convergence begun. Very low quality VGA snaps were the order of the day but look at them now. Some are almost if not the same quality of standalone cameras around two years ago. 1, 2, 3, 5 and even 10 megapixels have been squeezed into the phones (10 might be limited to far flung shores but it exists) but can they really cut it against a real camera? Well if it has a Xenon flash (like in the Sony Ericcson K800i) it is really getting there. I also liked the addition of the lens covers, as the quality increased, the need to protect the lens became more important. Digital cameras have also improved with many chasing the megapixels when this isn’t the only significant factor in choosing a camera. Of course it helps but what about the lens and ISO for example for how the sensor captures the image? Digital picture frames and photo printers have made it much easier for people to use technology even if (in this day of age) still don’t have a computer or know how to use one. Camcorders too have become better changing formats from digital video tape to DVDs, SD cards and HDD. DVD allows people to instantly insert their footage into any DVD spinner but reduces the ability to edit the footage. Camcorders have also increased the resolutions to allow regular people to capture high definition footage of their own, priceless antics in glorious 720 or even 1080 flavours.
This brings me nicely to the format war between HD-DVD and blu ray. Some mightn’t even know that it’s begun as availability in shops is extremely limited but it is already extremely heated in the online market place. 7 out of the 8 major movie companies already have selected blu-ray, presumably due to the capacious storage compared to HD-DVD. This surprised me as the use of stale DVD technology provided better copy protection. Portable media players have made it much easier for people to listen to music and now watch their movies and see their photos on small pocketable, and increasingly capacious storage and battery lives.
Connection speeds to the Internet have increased dramatically over the last few years too. Most, if not all, of you reading this right now, will be using a connection of 1mbps or more. This allowed the development of Web 2.0 (or user generated content) in the form of videos, photographs, satellite imagery and even this very blog. Watching videos, downloading high resolution images and long audio tracks and pod/vidcasts in a matter of seconds would have been nothing but a pipe dream only two years ago when most people were using dial up connections at around 56kbps. Hey higher speeds can be achieved wirelessly now by wi-fi, 3G and HSDPA. This page and many others can be browsed using various devices including the aforementioned mobile phone via WAP or other connection whilst on the move. I downloaded Opera Mini to my Sony Ericcson K700i, not the newest of phones and it works a dream to scale the pages to the mini screen of the phone. Slowly but surely YouTube is also signing deals with some network providers to allow people to watch short video clips on the move to friends close by. This is the best way to use video sites like YouTube in my opinion, its the Social but not the way that Microsoft saw it. I’m not gonna discuss the Zune as it is so anti-social its not worth the free promotion, 3 plays or 3 days, right, oh and no UK launch, that’s a good strategy!
Tech has also become apparently easier to use. The term silver surfer springs to mind as some older people manage to do the simplest things such as browse the web and send e-mails but also the more “difficult” things such as Video-Blogging and using digital cameras and printers. Well done to those who can but it makes me wonder why some still can’t (or perhaps won’t) embrace the modern world.

I could go on, but you already know about what has happened. In a soon to be published entry I will be discussing my thoughts on the forthcoming tech of the future. Check back soon!

Posted in Cameras, Computing, Home Entertainment, digital media | Leave a Comment »

UMDisappear

December 23, 2006

I’ll be honest, the UMD has lasted a little longer than I expected but this could soon change. There’s talk of limited availability and a lack of new releases on yet another one of Sony’s proprietary formats. The games are fine on UMD for the PSP but movies is always the qualm that I’ve had with the PSP. If I buy a movie, I want to be able to watch it any way that I choose and not limited to one device with such a small screen. The 4.3″ widescreen of the PSP is just about right for gaming and watching movies on the move but when you get home wouldn’t you want to connect it to your big screen to watch it in comfort rather than huddled over a handheld? This is only worsened by the cost of UMD movies, they’re around the same price, if not more than the same title on DVD, yet a DVD can be played on a much larger screen and on more devices. I think Archos got it just right with the ability to transfer DVD movies to the handheld. Sure you can’t then output that content to a larger screen but why would you want to? You already have the DVD (as long as you didn’t just borrow it to put it onto the Archos).
With talk of a download service for the PSP from Sony it sounds like the UMD will be resigned to gadget hell along with maybe MiniDisc (I know thats a calous jibe as MD actually did take off in the middle east and its not only America and the UK). It sounds at the moment like it’ll be download to PC and then transfer to the MSPro to shove into your PSP but wouldn’t it be excellent if Sony could contest the movie download service that Microsoft has with the XBox 360. Perhaps download one copy to PS3 which can then be transferred for on the go watching on the PSP. The relatively low file sizes of around 500mb for feature movies seems to me that they will be scaled to look good on the PSPs smaller sceen in standard def but surely you don’t want hi-def on the move. You do, oh well it’ll come, hopefully.

Posted in Archos, Portable Media, Sony, digital media | 1 Comment »

The minor problem of High Def

December 22, 2006

High Definition broadcasting is upon us now and obviously means a higher and better resolution that makes the subjects look sharper than ever before. This is what got the celebrities scared about their minor blemishes which would appear on screen. I never heard anyone say this exactly but if it was ever said then it would prove how stupid any of them were, especially if they had already appeared in a blockbuster movie. I’ll let TV only stars off as TV has always been less than high def, well duh!, but movie stars have been in super high def on the big screen for their careers. This is the reason why movies that have already been produced can be outputted to high definition. The movie is simply a lower resolution when it is seen on standard def TV or DVD. So the next time someone, other than a TV star complains about the launch of high definition, complains about them appearing on HDTV then you can classify them as a brain dead fruit loop, unless its your auntie’s debut on your new Sanyo Xacti, 720 high definition camcorder.

I saw a Sony HD TV in a local shopping centre with a price tag of around £4500. I wouldn’t normally say that a TV would be worth the price of a small car but this one came very close to being value for money. It was stunning and I defy anyone, at least before seeing the price tag, not to gawp and ogle to screen. OK maybe not worth £4500 but you should have seen it! Head down to a local Sony store now! Or maybe when they reopen, it’s pretty cold outside.

Posted in Home Entertainment, digital media | Leave a Comment »

Early Adoption

December 22, 2006

America and Japan are usually the first to get most things from movies to gadgets but why can’t the UK be the first to get something that’s worth having. British consumers usually have to wait several months to be able to buy what Americans have been playing with for some time. By which time they’ve got the next big thing that we still can only dream of. When Sony promised a worldwide launch of the PS3 did they forget that whilst America takes up a hefty chunk of the world it isn’t the entire world. And why are eBay preventing Americans from selling the PS3 to poeple in Europe, it’s not illegal, although people would be restricted in the games that they can play. And the Zune, whilst Americans seem to be fairly divided between loving it and hating it, most people over here mightn’t even be able to touch one until after the Zune is past its sell by date. This is happening more and more and I can’t help but wonder what we’ve done that was so wrong. At least we’ll get the Wii in time for Christmas as long as you’ve preordered it about a month ago.
Maybe it is a good thing that Britain isn’t always on the front line of new technology. Consider DAB, we receive digital radio now in MPEG2 format and as more channels have squeezed their way into an incredibly tight bandwidth, the quality has been sacrificed. Most stations output at 128kbps with few opting for the higher 192kbps. This would be great were you to simply listen to it on the move through small earphones but when you want to listen to it at home through your hi-fi you’ll get the station in reasonable quality but not any better than when an FM radio has an excellent signal. FM also covers a wider area than DAB allowing you to travel between counties across the UK with decent music. Now a new format AAC+ (a variation of the one adopted for iTunes by Apple) is going to be used for DAB but won’t be compatible with ANY receiver currently available in the UK. The new capable devices will be available for broadcasts in other countries such as Australia. So now we’re stuck with DAB that won’t improve until at least 2012 when all of the analogue TV signals have disappeared from these shores forever.
But it only gets worse when we’re only a year from the beginning of turning off the old signals and the digital video broadcasting (DVB) signals don’t even give everyone the service at a decent quality and some with no signal at all. Hopefully the signals will improve soon as the older space on the spectrum have already been auctioned off by OFCOM to the service providers for HSDPA, Hi-def freeview and possibly UWB (ultra wide band). If/when high def freeview does launch, people will need to buy new STBs (set top box) to be able to send the signal to their TV via a HDMI cable, which your current box won’t have (unless there’s an Eveshem sticker on your DTT PVR or a HD TV with IDT [integrated digital tuner]).
So America might get the “decent” technology first but look at it this way, they get to test the technology first and if/when it becomes a flop it won’t come to the UK. And maybe when the Zune lands here it’ll be in its third generation and you’ll be able to stream tracks for keeps. Yeah, I’ll keep dreaming of the Social.

Posted in Home Entertainment, Microsoft, PS3, Sony, digital media, future | Leave a Comment »

Everybody’s gone to war, and they don’t know what they’re fighting for

December 17, 2006

Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD

Some people might not even know about the format war but its already a few months old now and around 100 titles are available for each platform, in the red corner is HD-DVD and in the blu corner is blu-ray. Each output in similar high def qualities but blu-ray has much more storage capabilities, up to around 100GB in contrast to HD-DVDs meagre 30GB. You can buy some selected players in stores but I’ve yet to see a disc lurking in a shop. Online is definitely the place to go, especially if you want to save money on the hardware too. Curry’s has the BD-P1000 blu-ray player in stores and online and is approximately £60 cheaper online than down your High Street.
I really am beginning to love this format war. I’ve always backed blu-ray, it has the most storage and anyone who knows anything about technology knows that more capacity is better and this has obviously been recognised by the movie companies who decided to adopt blu-ray including Fox and Disney, who seem to be doing pretty well for themselves. HD-DVD can’t store as much therefore in around a years time, people who chose to jump into HD-DVD will be missing out not only on the majority of titles hitting the market but also the number of features that will be available. And by extra features it won’t just be a few meagre interviews, it’ll be entire movies. For example, if you went out and got Back to the Future trilogy now on DVD, you’d need to have three separate discs for the movies and one for the extras and in standard definition. Blu-ray would allow you to chop that number into at least half or maybe even a quarter to fit all of this on to 1 or 2 discs but in high definition. It gets better for TV series too, instead of multiple DVDs, entire series of say, Lost would be able to fit onto fewer discs when available to buy.
Movie distributors will not publish their movies onto both formats. This would cost them more money from the little profit that they currently make and whilst HD-DVD might offer better copy protection, the companies have obviously decided that they want to attract audiences by providing them with movies with plenty of features.
If your argument against what I’ve suggested is that blu-ray costs more then that will matter very little in a years time when the costs have been slashed as the cost of components has decreased and the technology then will have bedded in and be more successful than they are now.
Blu-ray obviously is proving to be more successful to consumers too, as the PS3 sold out in America, which totes the ability to spin the blu-ray discs whilst sales for the HD-DVD drive add-on to the XBox 360 were less. If something sells out, it usually means that it is better than their rivals. When people buy a PS3 they not only get a next gen console but a blu-ray player, they’ll soon forget that there was ever another format.
Basically you get what you pay for, and if you’re a cheapskate now you’re gonna end up regretting it. I’d suggest to ride out the war and force the manufacturers to develop a combi box that’ll spin BDs and HD-DVDs. If you buy either now it’ll be your money that’s fighting the war and chances are you’ll end up with a big, good-for-nothing, plastic box that will spin no more.

If you really can’t wait to splurge then I’d suggest the Samsung BD-P1000, if you shop around or rather run a price comparison (Froogle) you’ll see that the cost of blu ray players are coming down quickly. Alternatively you could get a budget DVD upscaler that’ll upscale your existing library to NEAR high definition quality, the best reason for this is that you already have a huge number of titles that you can watch in better quality. If you really can’t wait and don’t mind being disappointed when you can’t get your favourite movie, try the first HD-DVD payer to hit the UK; the Toshiba HD-E1, again run a price comparison and you’ll see its much cheaper but at a cost, it also won’t output the cream of hi-def – 1080p until a newer box is released. Finally you could subscribe to either Sky or Telewest to get high def movies, Telewest is a VoD service where you pay per movie and can be cheaper than Sky as you rent the box for a tenner a month in contrast to buying the box but get more high definition channels.

I commented on an article over at Engadget about this very subject, read it here.
Engadget: Full Article

Posted in Home Entertainment, digital media | Leave a Comment »

Wi-fi to the MAX, man!

December 14, 2006

HSDPA hasn’t really got it’s big toe in the water of this connectivity pond yet but whether you want to call it souped up 3G, 3.5G or anything else, it doesn’t really matter as it might live a short life if WiMax dives into an already crowded pool. It’s got nothing to do with the massive 3D movies mind, or even 3DTV (which hopefully comes pretty soon). WiMax is a way of forming one very big network, wireless of course.
What does this actually mean? Well hopefully the existing wi-fi hot spots will merge into one to provide an incredibly high speed wireless network across the whole country, or at least most of it anyway to form a large MAN (metropolitan area network). Norwich might not be somewhere that you plan to spend your summer holiday in but if you happen to be wandering through the city centre with your lappy or wi-fi enabled phone you can freely take advantage of WiMax for free NOW! This isn’t one of those illegal ways that involves “borrowing” peoples net access, it’s free and legal, the only minor catch is that the signal is limited to 256kbps to you or me despite having theoretical access to a 40mbps connection. If you’re a pubic sector worker mind, you rise up above the ranks with a 1mbps slice of the action.
The system will work with devices that fall into the category of laptops, smartphones and PCs. Unfortunately not with wireless VoIP handsets though, so you can’t SKYPE IN or OUT without a lappy, but hey if you install SKYPE or Messenger to your phone or want to lug an ultra mobile lappy about town, you can phone to your hearts content without your waller cowering behind your media player.
Can we please roll this out from the white hills of Dover to the tips of the Scottish mountains please?
I’m off to sign the campaign now, why not join me?

Posted in Computing, Mobile Phones, future | Leave a Comment »

Control

December 14, 2006

When you realised that you could pause and maybe even rewind TV did you like it? Yeah that was good, especially for pausing at the beginning, going away and doing something else and then forward the ads or maybe rewind during that “live” game when you just wanted to make sure that the ball did go over the line. I say was because the Finns have taken the level of control to brand new levels.
Say you’re (in Finland) and watching TV and you don’t like how it’s going you can choose to make the characters fall in love or split. It’s like the Sims meets the Y Factor (as in Why is this so long and Why is everybody voting). The control is done via SMS and literally allows the viewer to choose what they want to see happen. It might be funnier for people who hate the show choose.
I doubt very much that this will be done as it is acted out live or it’d end up looking something like the Paul O Grady Show, more likely the viewers might be able to select from a number of preset options, as seen in the Final Destination 3 DVD special feature and the clips inserted at set points. Or maybe it’s a scam to raise more money for the network, either way it sounds like a brilliant scam to get more people to watch what sounds like a daytime TV soap. If you’re over in Finland any time soon, the show is called “Accidental Lovers”.

Posted in Home Entertainment, Online video, digital media, movies | Leave a Comment »