• Facebook remains in the news for its terms of service.
  • National Academy of Sciences says USA forensics stinks.
  • Flash on iPhone still a controversy.
  • What’s a Selphy printer?
  • MSFT kills it’s EQUIPT program. Never heard of it in the first place.
  • Coming soon, the $100 Netbook.
  • Judge throws out privacy suit against Google.
  • Average age of first phone owners in UK is eight-years-old. Cripes!

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  1. deowll says:

    MS has a truly staggering ability to waste money. All to often it doesn’t even look like they are trying to win. To many people drawing big pay checks who aren’t producing jack.

    Face book has laid down the rules for using their “free” service; agree or walk.

  2. RBG says:

    I almost commented on the 1080p cell resolution in another DU thread. At first glance it seemed absurd. But then I quickly realized 1080P rez can be used for quality cell picture zoom instead of a honking big piece of moving glass or plastic lens. Also, the purpose may not actually be for in-cell viewing, but rather at home on your expensive 1080P HD monitor. Or HD internet uploads.

    Clearly 1080P is going to be the standard for video (forget 1080i, 720P), so the faster we get used to it and get on board, the better.

    Related is the interesting question of High Def on small, portable Blu-ray DVD-type players. I sure don’t know of any. Seems a waste of resolution there too. And, I think, HD-DVD missed a marketing opportunity when they offered both Standard Def and HD movies on the sane disc – perfect for these little portable DVD players we’re always going to need for the car, etc. Now we’ll have to buy them all over again, this time for big $$, even though, like the cell phone, a resolution increase is pretty pointless.

    John’s Panasonic lecture is incomplete. Naturally the perception of HD will also depend upon how big the screen appears to you; how far the screen is away from you.

    So a 50″ screen offers no advantage if it is way the hell across the room, whereas 1080P on 42″ is fine if it is close enough.

    Check out this chart:
    Viewing distance when resolution becomes important: Screen size vs. Viewing distance

    http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

    RBG

  3. GregA says:

    #2,

    BD is dead in the water. HD was DOA when it was released way back whenever that was. People can see the difference, they just don’t care about TV shows and movies that much that they are gonna pay extra for it. Sure… Some people want the best possible experience, but not most people. For most people they are going to go with the least expensive option.

    When the HD options become cheap enough that no one sees a price differnence between the two, then it will take off, and not a moment earlier.

    The current financial funk the world is in will probably kill off Blu-ray later this year(main financial backer is hemoraging money).

    People like HDTV’s because of the form factor, it has been that way since release.

    No amount of argument or anecdotal evidence will change that fundamental reality of HDTV.

  4. moss says:

    HD is DOA? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. People still watching B&W TV might think so, I guess.

    John – why are there so many cellphone press releases?

    Could it be that the world cellphone congress has been meeting in Barcelone this week – with booths from everyone at all related to the building, distribution and marketing of cellphones?

  5. Mr Diesel says:

    #2 RBG

    Thanks for the chart. I always wondered if there was some special formula to help pick an HDTV for the room.

  6. jescott418 says:

    Clarity in video only goes so far. Content is more important. Unfortunately content is getting pushed aside because of the cost of HD production.TV producers don’t produce 4:3 digital tv’s much because they know most people would buy them and skip the HD 16:9 format. Digital could have beeen implemented much sooner if we did not try and force a format change to screens too.

  7. GregA says:

    #4,

    How many years has it been available, and of last fall half of the people whith HDTV’s still thought they had HD even though they had no HD source???

    What maybe 15 million bd players in the US market, even though there are about 200 million tvs? How many years on is that?

    1/3 of households even have a hdtv, even fewer have 1080p. 1080p has been available for 3 years, how long have 720p and 1080i been around?

    You can argue the merits of HD all you want, but still a decade after HD broadcast started, the Simpsons just started broadcasting in HD.

    There has been some mild uptake in HD, but its not like it is replacing POTV any time soon… or at all.

  8. GregA says:

    #9,

    I don’t know… Apple has to be worrying, just a few months of consumer oriented iPhone knockoffs on the market and iPhone sales are getting crushed.

    Verizon has invited me to come back, and at a price that makes paying the $150 ATT default fee seem reasonable. ($30 a month less, you do the math)

    You can bet that as soon as the Storm loses its early adopter price I may just ditch the iPhone and head back to Verizon.

    Man, I hope Rim licenses the Zune client, because if the sync software is the Zune media center, I am there. I have really grown to hate iTunes (I mean Hate with a capital H)

    Just a couple of months ago, I would have ditched windows for a Mac… if only iTunes didn’t suck just as bad on the Mac…

    I just don’t think Apple wants me as a customer…

    But, yeah, the growth of Apple the last couple of years seems to be cratering all over the place… On top of that, the fosstard’o’sphere seems to be turning on Apple.

  9. RBG says:

    17 GregA

    First of all HD for all practical purposes has been mandated to replace standard def TV. So that’s the end of it.

    Go to a TV store and, surprise, no standard def TVs to be had. The sets brag 1080P, not 720P.

    Soon that will be ditto for home movie cameras.

    I’m now renting Blu-ray for the same price as regular DVDs.

    All corporate video work is now switching to HD.

    According to Singulus Technologies AG, Blu-ray is being adopted faster than the DVD format was at the same period of its development. Keep in mind, the HD format war only ended last year.

    Soon you will be the only one watching standard def.

    Blu-ray may be replaced someday by solid state RAM memory, but not anytime soon because of the expense of the electronic devices vs. stamping a piece of plastic.

    Downloads will certainly change things but not soon, there’s too much info in a 1080P DTS-HD movie to make it feasible.

    Standard def DVDs didn’t really even make it to its full promise of double sided, double layered discs before HD made it obsolete. So if you want to be cynical, wait until everyone has purchased Blu-ray everything before immediately killing it with the next required techology.

    But for those who have experienced it, once they have a movie theater in their homes, there’s no going back. The rest laugh like people laughed at the need for color movies and color TV.

    RBG

  10. GregA says:

    #11,

    “But for those who have experienced it, once they have a movie theater in their homes, there’s no going back. The rest laugh like people laughed at the need for color movies and color TV.”

    I said the exact same thing about satelite radio…

  11. brendal says:

    John, I want a Gaudi cell phone!

  12. RBG says:

    12. Video killed the radio star.

    RBG

  13. The0ne says:

    #7

    Add to your statement the percentage of those BD players that are PS3’s and not standalone then it gets bleaker. Not all PS3 owners use console to play movies.

    While I don’t think it’ll die soon, it’s not going to pick up due to the high cost of manufacturing and sales. It just won’t work if prices are high.

    And yes there are still families out there that really don’t care as long as they have something going on in the tube. I’ve bought HD tv’s for the family and they still don’t have HD cable. Now matter how many times I tell them and make comparisons, they’re not going to move an inch if they don’t care in the first place.

    And then you have people like me who like having HD but there’s only like 10 HD channels, including the locals, to watch. How pathetic is that. Sure you can add more but that will cost $$$. And sure, you can watch movies instead of TV channels, but how often will you watch your collection over and over and how often do you go off and purchase those expensive BD movies?

    BD doesn’t have a bright future if you really take things into consideration. It won’t die anytime soon but it surely isn’t going anywhere at all and that’s the killer there…a matter of time before a new technology comes out to replace it.

  14. RBG says:

    What if you could get your movies for free? Like at a public library like I do. Could you, would you? With a $150 Blu-ray?
    http://tinyurl.com/aw6ju3
    Could you, would you, with a goat?

    RBG

  15. GregA says:

    #16,

    For me it isn’t even about the money… Later this evening, I will pay my two dollars, download Lost and enjoy it commercial free…

    A buck fifty sounds expensive. Maybe when it gets to $50-$75? For $150 I would rather get a second xbox, and be downloading stuff on my bedroom tv…


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