Sony's Betamax Redux: Betaray

Sony has announced that on March 23 they are going to roll out the entertainment industry's next medium, Blueray. (Here is more info on Blueray and HD-DVD). Sony will release Blueray players with 8 blueray titles: "50 First Dates," "The Fifth Element," "Hitch" and "House of Flying Daggers." The real question is why? The fifth element was filmed (not in high definition "HD") in 1997, is the quality of the original source worth bringing to blueray's HD standards?. And how bad to you want to watch 50 first dates in HD? Most think that there needs to be a new medium other then dvd that can hold HD quality data to be played on the growing market of HD LCD and HD Plasma monitors. Making the consumer pick between Blueray and HD-DVD complicates the market, no one wants to go out and spend $350 on a sony Blueray player only to find out that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is only going to be released on HD-DVD. Lets hope sony does not create another Betamax.

Punked by Apple

At 10 o'clock PST all eyes were on the Apple HQ in Cupertino California, everyone was anticipating the new "it" gadget of 2006 to be released.... the new iPod video.... the Mac Tablet... so what does Apple release....

1) New Mac mini which is 2.5x - 3.2x faster than current Mac mini in two new versions, single and dual-processor chip.
2) iPod Hi-Fi (iPod Boombox) @ $349
3) New iPod case made out of leather for both 5G iPods and iPod Nanos @ $99

pfft ...

Intel P4 Uber overclocking

These guys (russian or french its hard to tell), thought it would be cool to overclock their Intel P4 processor and take the heat sink off.. this only can mean one thing, processer vaporizing. (watch here.)

Apple Update *02.23.06*

• Apple computers iTunes online store has hit the one billion tracks sold mark, average track cost = 99 cents x one billion + iPod sales, do the math Apple is in the money.

• Pictures have leaked of the new true iPod video or the Apple tablet PC, sources are still not sure, yet they are sure the pictures are real. (take a look at it for yourself.) *new info on the iPod, look at this posts comments*
  

• Apple is holding a "new product event" February 28th, this is where this new product the "True iPod Video" or "Tablet PC" will be unveiled.

Halo 3 and the 2nd wave of xbox 360 games

Shane Kim from Microsoft Studios talks with Next-Gen about the 2nd wave of xbox 360 games to hit the market, Kim also talks about Halo 3 and a "mythical" launch date to be set this year. Kim later goes on to comment on sony's ps3. (Read more here.)

VLC Media Player / K-Lite Codec Pack

• VLC media player is the most versatile media player out there right now. VLC can play VCDs DVDs DviX XviD Mpeg2 Mpeg3 Mpeg4 the list goes on.

• Download Here

• K-Lite Codec Pack is one of the webs best known codec packs. This package contains every codec that anyone could ask for, yet the K-Lite Codec Pack doesn't stop there it also includes GSpot Codec version AVI fix, and many other nice video apps.

• Download Here

Yes, Cheney shot his friend... lets hear what he has to say...

Here is the full transcript of the Dick Cheney Interview that was on FOX. And for those who have been in a cave for the last week, here is the full story.

The "True" iPod Video

Rumors have been floating around that apple is going to release a new iPod. This iPod is supposably going to be made of one 3.5 inch screen and look something like this. No more click wheel, and hopefully no more scratches... These rumors have been floating around due to a flurry of patient filling by apple in the last couple of weeks.

More info:
In depth info on the "True video iPod" @ thinksecret.com
Info on apple's "new smart touch screen" @ ipodwizard.net
Tablet Mac info @ engadget.com
True iPod video info @ engadet.com

Songbird

A team led by ex-Winamp-er Rob Lord today released a preview edition of Songbird, a desktop media player that offers an open source alternative to services like Apple's iTunes and the Windows Media Player. Instead of connecting to one locked store full of DRMmed goods, it can connect to any and all available music (and video) on the internet (...more) (Download Here)
-boingboing.net

*UPDATE* their site is back up @ http://www.songbirdnest.com/

Why the time to get a gmail account is now!

Google has announced that in the upcoming weeks they will be making some big improvements with gmail, like including Google talk features within gmail. Some clues to what they are going to be doing can be found here. It looks like instant messaging on the same web page that you are composing an email on will become reality in your future.

Super Bowl XL Commercials

Google Video has all the Super Bowl XL Commercials on their site for your viewing pleasure. Watch here!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Trailer)

The first couple of trailers have been released for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie which is due out July 7th.

Be on the watch this Friday for the Kama Sutra worm.

Many sources are reporting that there is a new computer virus spreading around, called the "Kama Sutra Worm" which is downloaded on your computer when you except to download things from shady emails. This worm sits on you computer until the 3rd of every month where it then over writes data of common files such as .doc , and .pdf. Here is some more insight in to this developing story: eWeek article , CNN article, washingtonpost.com, lurhq.org
Updates on this will be posted ASAP, smartest thing to do is update your virus scan software, backup your important documents and most of all do not open emails from strange sources.

Firefox 1.5.0.1 (02.01.06)

The people at mozilla recommend that you upgrade your firefox to this fabulous new version so you can enjoy stability and security that the firefox browser brings to the table. Download Here

This is whats new:
Improved stability.Improved support for Mac OS X.International Domain Name support for Iceland (.is) is now enabled. Fixes for several memory leaks.Several security enhancements. The Burning Edge has more detailed lists of notable bug fixes.

-mozilla.org