Showing posts with label blu-ray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blu-ray. Show all posts

January 10, 2009

CES: More cool stuff

There's always some fantasy that turns into reality everyday. Those fantasies usually come first in a movie, and with passion do tech companies turn them into something that simply seems second nature. Today, we have yet another iconic gadget turned reality, and it's the Watch Phone, courtesy of LG.

While there have been watch phones in the past, they've been big and bulky and clearly have drowned from the public consciousness. With this watch phone, it's all different. It's sleek, it looks cool, and it just looks awesome.

I mean, I'm not gonna be first in line because simply putting a wristwatch onto your ear would look damn silly, but the features are simply as brilliant as Dick Tracy's. I mean, first you get a touch screen based interface, and then there's the phone part, of course, then there's the music player and hell, a camera (with megapixels that have yet to be determined)!
Additionally, for your text messages, the watch will read them out loud for you. It's not yet known whether there'll be a speakerphone, but I suggest getting a Bluetooth headset because it has a feature that even the iPhone doesn't even have: stereo Bluetooth!

That is awesome, but impractical.

So let's see some more practical stuff then- like the Samsung P3.

OK, maybe it's just a music player that is reminiscent of the iPod touch. It plays movies, music, and shows photos. But here are some things the iPod touch can't even have because it's in the iPhone (oh wait, the iPhone doesn't even have them either): stereo Bluetooth, FM radio, built-in voice recording, haptic feedback (the thing vibrates when you touch it), a great customizable widgets interface and wait for it- a frigging phone.
Technically, the P3 is not a phone. But here's the thing: if you go through a few menus and select Mobile Phone Bluetooth syncing, you don't even have to use your phone anymore. Instead, you can receive text messages and receive calls because the P3 has a built-in speaker and microphone. It's like the surrogate of your phone! But don't take my word for it, watch it in action.


Interested? Well, like the iPod touch, it'll max out with 32 GB of capacity with 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB capacities to choose from. Prices unknown as of now, though.

Not practical enough? Already have an iPod? Well, then I don't know... Let's just throw practicality out the window, and say hello to glasses-powered 3D gaming by nVidia.

The glasses aren't as geeky as the red-blue glasses of the 50's, and the feature is already compatible with several current-gen games. All you need, however, is a special monitor, I think. Just shell out for that and $199 for the nVidia kit, and you're all set for that 3D LAN party.

There are sliders everywhere so you can adjust several settings, too, but if you're interested in this, just remember the Virtual Boy.

Surprisingly enough, 199 US dollars is kind of inexpensive, but my hearing may be wrong.

Perhaps that thing is too cheap for you, and you want to hear something outrageous. Fine. I'll give it to you.
What's this? A picture frame? Nope, it's a portable Blu-ray player- the world's first.

You can swivel the screen to make it look like a frame or a laptop, and... there are connections on the side.

Panasonic managed to fit the power of Blu-ray into this thing, and it'll sell for 799 US dollars- equivalent to about 37627 Philippine pesos. OK, perhaps it's not THAT outrageous when you consider that it's a Blu-ray player, but think about it like this: it defeats the purpose of Blu-ray.

How? Well, it's like this: High-definition is made for big screen TV's, so being able to experience high definition is next to impossible in a portable device. In short, you're better off buying a significantly cheaper portable DVD player, as it's more practical, and you won't notice the difference at all.

That is unless the device can output to a TV. That changes everything.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*If you've been tracking CES, you may ask: Where's the Sony VAIO Lifestyle PC? Well, that netbook is pretty lame in my eyes. Stylish, but lame, like the MacBook Air, only significantly harder to use. Seriously, would you like to squint while using Windows Vista AND get used to that really small joystick in replacement to the touchpad? I don't think so.

February 21, 2008

BLU-RAY vs HD-DVD: The War Is Finally Over

Yup folks, it's true. Blu-ray has won the High Definition battle and Sony has had its revenge (for the failed Betamax).

How?
Bloggers have been speculating over the weekend about HD-DVD's demise. And it seems to have become official when Toshiba announced its surrender on February 20 (Philippine time). So yeah, they're getting all those cheap 100 dollar players off the shelves and ceasing production of the optical discs and letting Blu-ray fully bask in the limelight. It could have also been affected by several obvious factors such as Warner Bros.' move to exclusively support Blu-ray, as well as the loyalty of the many others before it. From the start I thought Blu-ray would win this, and I was right.

Predictions
It seems that the only future of CD's we'll be going through is blu. PS3's will be flying off the shelves and surpass Wii (it almost did it one time), and price drops are going to be very, very frequent for the players and the discs. So expect to see a 300 dollar PS3 in like, 7 months or so, as well as standalone Blu-ray players that will be dirt-cheap. I just don't know how Filipinos will be able to react to this. I mean, we have no law stating that we should cut out all analog television stations and make the switch to HD or something, and Filipinos don't really care about the HD revolution so... the future is still pretty bleak locally at least. I mean, pirated DVD's are still the rage for Pete's sake!

August 21, 2007

Of Mandy Moore and Umbrellas

As you may have known by now, Mandy Moore has covered Rihanna's monster of a hit- Umbrella. And it has been proven that even wholesome, non-party pop stars have a career slump. Her films License to Wed, which was a funny premise made bad, and the uncomfortable mother-daughter chick flick, Because I Said So, were not really hits here in the Philippines, and she is just plain obscure for many people today when music is the one being talked about. It's a plain shame that she has to cover a song terribly to gain a bit of popularity in the music scene. Is this a view of things to come from Mandy? Or just a little diversion from the usual candy-pop fare we get from her? Who knows?... and maybe for some, who cares?!



Box Office Report
Who knew an R-rated, raunchy sex teen comedy could come out as a big hit? Starring 2 unknowns (Jonah Hill and Michael Sera) along with Seth Rogen (from the critically acclaimed R-rated sex comedy Knocked Up), the film called Superbad is about 2 teens who want to hook up with a girl before going their separate ways in college. But after a mishap while buying alcohol, they end up having to worry more about their separation anxieties than ever! It is believed that strong advertising (esp. in YouTube, as I have noticed) and word-of-mouth helped Sony achieve the top spot at the box office. It even beats Rush Hour 3 and Bourne!

Stardust
What I thought was gonna be a generic teen romance-fantasy affair is actually a novel-based film written by the acclaimed Neil Gaiman! Who knew? I guess I'm gonna read the book first.... It looks splendid to me now. Haha.

His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
I've read a part of this book and even I consider it a great book! Maybe you should try catching the movie if you're not much of an avid reader... heck, I'm not much of an avid reader myself! It opens on December... probably Christmas. And it even has huuge star power to boot! (Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman who just worked together on The Invasion, "reunites" here along with new discovery, Dakota Blue Richards who topbills as the leading lady named Lyra of the trilogy of books by Philip Pullman called His Dark Materials).

Kristen Bell on Heroes
The girl who played detective in Veronica Mars is now going to be a Hero... or if not, a part of its cast for at least 13 episodes as a mysterious girl named Elle. This is probably a significant move for her since Veronica Mars was replaced for yet another season of that useless reality show called Search For The Next Doll. Yes, it has a second season, and they even haven't recorded their second album with the winner (Asia something) of the first season yet!

HD-DVD and Blu-ray: What about the Philippines?

The HD-DVD and Blu-ray format wars are still raging on and neither one of them is holding back. At least, that's what the companies that created them, Toshiba and Sony respectively, are saying. But honestly, Blu-ray sales have been doing better than HD-DVD but it seems to be catching up. HD-DVD hasn't been rolled out here in the Philippines but Blu-ray has. Astrovision and Astroplus stores are already selling them at 1700 pesos a piece. Ouch.
So why should you care anyway? it will affect your viewing (Blu-ray has all studios except Universal and HD-DVD has Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures) AND gaming experience (Blu-ray is being applied via the PS3). DVD will be phased out and one of these will become the norm. Though Blu-ray seems to be winning, HD-DVD may be the real winner here. Certain circumstances have led to me to believe this. One example is the piracy and how easy it is with HD-DVD. There hasn't been any reported cases of piracy with Blu-ray but it'll eventually happen. The only use we'll probably have
for Blu-ray is for backing-up files because of its whopping 50GB capacity (double-layered, 120GB for multi-layered). What will be the norm, I dunno. It's just gonna have to be another replay of the Betamax/VHS wars. Who even has an HDTV anyway? 'Coz the experience will just be identical to DVD without a 7ch Surround Sound system and a 1080p HDTV.

Nokia N95 vs. Apple iPhone

An Apple product has never been this much hyped-about since '85 and it seems to hit all the right notes... especially as a music player. But the Nokia N95, which is also an admirable smartphone in its own right, is also a great phone with multimedia capabilities and a great videocam to boot! So who do you think will win this prizefight of the two colossi smartphones of this generation? Well, scroll on to Round one and see. (Judged by a scale of 1-5 and has CNet reviews as a basis.)

Round One: Sexiness
iPhone : 5
The iPhone's obviously sleek, thin and light. Plus, the glass touch screen is to die for. Apple's obviously no slouch to technological design.
Nokia N95: 3
It has a convenient double slider design, but it's chunky and just looks like the ugly stepsister of the iPhone.


WINNER: iPhone

Round Two: Navigation
iPh
one: 3
Being a fully-touch screen operated device, the iPhone navigation will definitely hav
e a learning curve. Plus, the tactileness of real buttons are pretty hard to live without... though Apple still made a good job making menus as user-friendly and appealing as they can.
Nokia N95: 4
Having more than 20 buttons in total, the N95 is definitely a chunky one. B
ut navigation is nonetheless, easier and more familiar. Plus, there are also music-dedicated controls smartly placed at the top, making it easier to switch between different music.

WINNER: Nokia N95

Round Three: Features
iPhone: 3
iPhone is purty, but being purty has a cost. It doesn't MMS, it doesn't have 3G and it can't even send SMS to multiple contacts! Plus, the 2-MP camera is flat compared to the 5MP camera of the Nokia N95... and it even lacks video recording! But, the iPhone excels in its Safari web browser which offers a great web experience as well as its handy music player wherein you can sift through cover art and flip to play.

Nokia N95: 4
The N95 is just the one that can certainly be called a jack-of-all-trades, it has 3G, WiFi, and even GPS that kicks Google Maps ass! Plus, there's also the presence of a 5-megapixel camera and an amazing video recorder! The media player and browser (except for the Flash-enabled feature) isn't as amazing as the iPhone's though.
Round Four: Media Experience
iPhone: 5
The people at Cupertino weren't kidding when they said that the iPhone was the best iPod they ever made. It has clean, rich sound (but the headphones could be better) and the video quality was fantastic. Plus, sifting through cover flow is purely intuitive making it one of the leaders of media-enabled phones in the market.

Nokia N95: 4
Nokia didn't really ace out in the music department, but they did in the video quality department. It is up to par and sometimes, even better than iPhone's video quality. Crappy sound controls mar the experience somewhat.

Final Round: Call Quality
iPhone: 3
It not really much of a winner here but it's still good. It has slight hissing and static but it's still OK, but not dependable.

Nokia N95: 3
There wasn't much difference to discern between the two. Even if the N95 can tie up to more carriers.

WINNER: Tied.

MAIN WINNER: With 19 points is the iPhone. Though the Nokia N95 has a monster-packed feature set, the multimedia functions and eye candy of the iPhone trumps all of them.
The Nokia N95 had 18 points making it a very, very close battle.
 
Elegant de BlogMundi