The Format War Continues

Yesterday, Engadget reported that Toshiba was finally becoming vocal about the format war. For a while now there’s been news that the Blu-ray Disc Association (members include Sony, Samsung, Apple, as well as a bunch of others) has been claiming victory in the war. It has seemed, however, that their claims weren’t exactly definite. And finally Toshiba Deputy General manager of HD DVD, Olivier Van Wynendaele, has come out saying that the Blu-ray claims are “propaganda.” He also disputed the figures that the Blu-ray camp tout, that Blu-ray discs are out selling HD DVD 3:1.

I for one am pretty happy that someone is finally taking a stand against these fairly outrageous claims. As the news of these figures has been coming out, it has been a question all along, if the numbers are valid. Lots of speculation says that the count of Blu-ray players is being augmented by the sales of Sony’s PS3. This is understandable, as the PS3 is indeed a Blu-ray player, however, it has also been speculated that the Blu-ray Disc Association is counting PS3 BRD pack-in Taladega Nights, as part of the disc sales. In addition to this, it even sounds like they’re counting BRD vouchers that are also included in PS3 sales. These vouchers don’t even guarantee that the consumer is going to go out and get a movie, although it seems pretty likely. But, the question here is: without these vouchers would most PS3 owners be clamoring to get movies on Blu-ray just yet?

Wynendaele also brings up some rather damning figures about standalone player sales. He points out that Toshiba has sold 200,000 HD DVD players in the US, while there have only been 30,000 standalone Blu-ray players sold. It’s pretty hard to deny that in this case, HD DVD is absolutely stomping the competition.

Even further, Wynendaele asserts, that in order to thwart the competition, Toshiba is planning to undercut Blu-ray player prices. Last month I posted that Sony had just announced a low-end Blu-ray player, which would go for only $600, in comparison to the original $999. Well, just today, Toshiba announced price cuts for their HD DVD players (as reported by Engadget). The least expensive player will now carry an MSRP of only $399, a $100 price cut. Also, the higher end models the A20 and XA2, will be going for $499 and $799 respectively. This price cut seems to fall right into place with what the Toshiba representative had to say.

It’s hard for me to say just which format I prefer. I seem to be learning towards HD DVD, but my computer manufacturer of choice, Apple, is behind the competition. I just find it hard to get behind the format, especially when it seems that the backing companies are constantly making press releases claiming victory, when the war is far from over.

New! Watch Low Quality Video on Your HDTV!

Today Engadget reported on a WiFi media player, the DVX-700, from TransTechnology, which supports playback of Google Video. Overall the box has a lot going for it. It has high definition outputs and can stream media in a variety of formats, it also has a hard drive built in, so you can store media, not to mention it’s also got a DVD player as part of the package. Coming in at $237 for the wired version and $264 for the wireless, it’s really a pretty good deal, that is, if you’re in Japan.

My only gripe with the machine isn’t even with the machine itself, really. One of it’s more unique features is that it allows you to browse Google Video, and stream it right to your set. The problem I have is with Google Video (and YouTube). The video quality is terrible. I understand that for them to have all of their videos streaming to millions and millions of viewers at high resolution would cost a lot. But, just watching a video in your browser at something like 300 x 200, looks terrible. Could you possibly imagine what it’s going to look like when it gets stretched to fit onto your HDTV with resolution up to 1920 x 1080?

I guess I just don’t see YouTube the way many millions of people do. There’s tons of people out there content to watch clips of television shows (and sometimes full episodes) at low resolutions filled with jagged lines and video artifacts. I just can’t deal with forcing myself to watch something like that, unless it’s under a few minutes, and entails amateurs doing something stupid, particularly something that gets them hurt. I guess it’s kind of like how I hate listening to MP3 music that’s encoded at low bit rates and sounds tinny.

Vonia BCT Sports Headband

Last month I blogged about the bone-conducting Vonia headphones from Thanko. My conclusion was that the idea was interesting but the 80’s look wasn’t exactly doing the intriguing technology justice. Well, yesterday Engadget reported on a new headband that makes use of the bone-phones.

The surprisingly stylish headband holds a newly designed pair of Vonia headphones. They have a short set of wires that then plug into an iPod Shuffle. You could technically plug them into any MP3 player, but the headband only really has space to fit the diminutive new Shuffle. The Vonia BCT Sports Headband is actually quite a good idea for people who like to run, and listen to their tunes at the same time, especially in the colder months.

From the sounds of the Thanko page, they’re also marketing this headband to swimmers. It is, however, hard to tell exactly what they’re saying with bad Google translation.

Because “VONIA Sports HeadBand” being waterproofed and being designed, it is possible to remove the “bone conduction speaker”, to utilize at underwater.

If you prepare the MP3 prayer being waterproofed and being processed and install the bone conduction speaker inside the rubber screen, it can enjoy music at underwater!

At the gym and the like, swimming silently, rather than forging, while inquiring favorite about music, if you swim, it is efficient rise!!

I just don’t see how putting an iPod in a rubberized headband is going to protect it from water. However, I’m glad to see that they’ve done something that’s actually practical with their bone-conducting headphones.

Nintendo’s Online Solution to Suck?

Nintendo Wii Fanboy just reported that it sounds that the upcoming online service for Nintendo’s new console, is going to have game specific friend lists. Their information comes from an interview from Go Nintendo.

According to Go Nintendo, the interviewer, Falafelkid, is trustworthy.

Falafelkid: Just one last question to make absolutely sure I have got this right, please. If I have a friend roster in one game, that roster will not be available to me in any other game. I have to build up an entirely new list for each title, right?

GameSpy: The answer to your question is yes, for the Wii friend lists are game-specific.

Why? Why!? I just can’t fathom why they would decide to do something like this. I’m no coder, but it can’t be that hard to have a unified friend list, as opposed to individual ones for each game. In fact, having all of that information stored in a single place, seems like it would just be easier.

The only good thing about this interview is that it isn’t exactly to be taken as fact. Go Nintendo is reputable, but the word of Falafelkid is not exactly the same as it coming from the likes of Reggie. We can only hope that Nintendo is smart enough to know that individual friend lists is only going to be a hassle. I will say though, if this is true, I am completely under whelmed by Nintendo’s online strategy. The whole friend code thing is a debacle in itself. Why would you ever make everyone try to memorize a (12 digit? 15 digit?) number, when it would be much smarter to allow everyone to create a screen name, just like every other service out there?

I just hope it all gets sorted out and Nintendo makes some good decisions.

The Legendary Optimus Keyboard, Still Not Ready

Today Engadget reported that the infamous Optimus Keyboard, will not be making its debut at the upcoming CeBIT show. For those of you who may not be familiar with the legendary keyboard, it’s been making news for quite a while. The concept is a keyboard with small displays built into every key. They keys were to be customizable, to the point where you could put the logos of different programs onto each key, and pressing one would launch the specified program. Another example of how they would work: each letter key would appear in lowercase. However, holding down the shift key, would turn them all to uppercase.

The very concept of this keyboard, designed by Art Lebedev Studios, has had tech junkies, like myself, yearning for its release for years. And finally over the past few months it’s been making news, that it is no longer a concept, but that it was going into production soon and that it would be shown in person. However, with this news came some details about the keyboard that dissuaded many people, also including myself.

One of these revelations was that the keys would not be colored. What good is having a pretty iTunes or Internet Explorer logo on your keyboard if it’s going to be grayscale? Then that was taken back, and they decided that the keys would use OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology. This was taken back at one point, but is again the plan for the keyboard. However, this means that the LEDs in the keyboard will have a lifespan. Yes, you can expect to have your keys die eventually. With the latest update, they revealed that the lifespan is expected to be five years.


A five-year life expectancy is only slightly ludicrous, that is, until you hear the price. These days, a high-end keyboard might cost somewhere around $80, with a few exceptions over $200. So if the highest of high-end keyboards cost $200 you might expect the Optimus to cost somewhere around that, maybe even $300. I could even settle with the idea of it costing twice as much, $400 or even $500. However, at that point, I’d have to understand that I would never own one. Well, the price first came out, somewhere around $1,200. At $1,200, as we’ve established in previous posts, you can also get an all-in-one LG Blu-Ray burner, or most of a video conferencing robot. Well, with Engadget’s latest post, they’ve established that the Optimus, now named Optimus Maximus, will cost you $1,490. Honestly, Art, are you kidding? I suppose at $1,490 a pop, selling just five or six, will do a long way in recouping some of the R&D costs.

I just can’t see this keyboard as a justifiable purchase for anyone, except maybe Bill Gates. I understand that a lot of work has gone into making it, but $1,490 is just too much for a keyboard that is going to slowly die over a rather short period of time. You can, however, by replacement keys, for a mere $10. Still, it’s unfortunate to see such a promising project turn out this way. In my eyes, over the years the project has lost it’s shine. Now don’t see an amazing keyboard, one that you would only expect to see in Sci-Fi, now all I see are a few developers who came up with a good idea, and had a few computer generated renders of it made up. And once it became popular they realized that they were going to have to deliver, and in the process they’ve not been able to keep all the promises that they’ve made, and with the price tag, they’ve made it unattainable for almost all average consumers.

LG’s Do-(Just About)-Everything Drive

As Engadget reported, yesterday, LG has finally released a photo of their upcoming GGW-H10N drive, given the slightly friendlier name, “Super Multi Blue.” The drive is set to write to single-layer Blu-Ray discs, which sets the size cap at a mere 25GB. The drive is also slated to read and record a whole slew of other optical media, including HD DVD, DVD±R, and the garden variety of CDs.

One thing is for sure; this disc drive wins the title for the absolute most media logos plastered on its expensive little face. Speaking of expensive, the drive comes in at a demanding $1,200. Heck, that’s most of the way to getting you a way-cool video conferencing robot.

I’d assume that this is just one of the first do-everything drives to come along. I expect that before long these sorts of drives will be touting dual-layer burning for both of the new high-capacity standards, as well as the entire back catalog of DVD and CD burning. Another thing that I can say for sure, is that the price will certainly fall eventually. Back in the birth of the DVD, burners ran somewhere between a commanding $500 and $1,000. Today, you can find one on the Internet for under $30. Still, the question remains, which of these formats will come out on top?

All New, Last-Gen Feature Coming to PS3

Today, Engadget reported on some shaky confirmation, which says that rumble, or force feedback, would be coming to the PS3. They explain that in an interview with 1UP, Cory Barlog, who is the director of God of War, said that the upcoming (and still far off) God of War 3, for PS3 would have rumble. All I have to say is that it’s about time!

I still remember back to the days when Sony first made the announcement of the SIXAXIS controller. First off it seemed like a gimmick, considering that Nintendo had recently let loose the Wiimote design and purpose. But what came as a major shock was that Sony would not be including force feedback in their new controller. The funniest part, was that they claimed that it would interfere with the SIXAXIS technology, even though Nintendo fared fine with their motion sensing controls.

Further, Sony down played the idea of having rumble as a last-gen feature. I would have to say that it was more of a last-gen innovation but a feature that almost every gamer expects to have. Finally, word got out that the lack of rumble was most likely due to legal complications between Sony and Immersion. At this point it was clear to me that Sony was just making excuses in effort to skip paying a hefty sum of money to Immersion to license the technology. Recently, however, Sony and Immersion struck a deal. So, now, Sony is going to have to eat their words, and they will no doubt integrate this last-gen feature into their console.

What bothers me most, is that now, all PS3 owners who want to have this basic feature will have to go out and buy a new controller. What’s more is these controllers run $60 and don’t include a charging cable, last time I saw one purchased. And I would suspect that controllers that are packing rumble technology will use a little bit more power, so controllers will need to be charged more often. What a mess, Sony.