Half Price Matinee

Console Wars Impact Future Media

Curt — Sat, 20 May 2006 04:22:50 +0000

For those of you wondering why I spend so much time talking about the next-gen consoles, it’s because a lot of our future media content will be dictated by who wins. Think I’m wrong? Here’s what a recent Slashdot post had to say on the matter:

“Reuters has a concise but interesting article up about how video games will help decide the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. According to industry analysts “What Sony and Microsoft decide to announce publicly or to dealers at E3 next week will be key.” So this year’s E3 could very well be a deciding factor in how you view your movie library for years to come.”

So who do you think is going to win? And does it matter?

Touch Screens Will Soon ‘Touch Back’

Curt — Thu, 18 May 2006 20:24:40 +0000

Immersion’s new TouchSense Technology for Touch Screens combines vibro feedback with finger-position recognition and interpolation to deliver tactile feedback on standard touch screens. This feedback can register as bumps, low vibrations, ticks, clicks, slides, you name it. All of it is coupled with audible feedback to enhance the experience.

How cool would the Nintendo DS be with this technology? -Curt

Pioneer Selling Blu-Ray Drive

Curt — Thu, 18 May 2006 16:46:27 +0000

Step right up! Get the absolute latest in video technology! Be an early adopter for only ~~$100~~ $1000 dollars!

Well, somebody’s got to be first I guess. Pioneer is selling this internal Blu-Ray drive for your computer, “but what about media?” you say. No problem, TDK has got you covered, that’ll be $24.99 for a 25GB disc or $59.99 for a 50GB disc. CompUSA had 120GB hard drives on sale for $59.99, just for the sake of comparison.

The drive will write Blu-Ray at 2X speeds (anyone want to do the math on how long to write a full disc?), and also burn DVDs at 8X.

I’ll take two please…

Filed under - Definately not half price

Via ExtremeTech

Floating touch screen display

Curt — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:01:06 +0000

Now this would be an interesting addition to my home theater. A touch screen that “floats” in the air. Apparently it’s not holographic, it’s heliographic, which I believe means that it’s not 3-D (correct me if I’m wrong), but so what? I would never have to worry about losing a remote again!

If the creators of this wondrous piece of new technology happen to read this post, I would be more than happy to run your product through a thorough review.

In the meantime, I’m going to go watch Minority Report again…

This product brought to my attention by the fine folks at EverythingUSB