The War Goes On

22/8/2007

People thought the present day VHS vs Betamax war was coming to end. Now that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have both been on the shelves for some months, it was time to draw some conclusions as to what is the stronger horse.

When looking from sales figures, Blu-Ray is out in front, selling more than 2-1 compared with HD-DVD. So that would be a good indicator as to which way the market was going. But Paramount and DreamWorks Animation have gone and pulled out a right clanger – they have decided to release all future productions exclusively on HD-DVD.

Until now, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films have all released productions on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray simultaneously.

The move apparently is based on good old economics; the companies have said that the decision is in response to market research on the current market offering which confirmed benefits of the move include lower manufacturing costs and market ready technology. Look out for ‘Blades of Glory’, ‘Transformers’ and ‘Shrek the Third’ coming soon exclusively on HD-DVD.

Along with this, we’re sure will follow many more surprises before the ultimate hi-def format is crowned king.

Over-Blinged

20/8/2007

How far do you have to go before you ruin a good thing? Some changes are taken for granted whilst others stop us in our tracks and make us go ‘Whoa fella!’. That sort of reaction can be double-edged though. Initially, we may mean it like a ‘Whoa fella! Neat!’, but on closer inspection can turn into a “Whoa fella! What the…!’

Take the latest iPod Shuffle. It is small, discreet, and as functional as can be. Then German company Xexoo got their hands on it, and went to the trouble of overloading it with as many diamonds as they could find.

It sounds like every WAG’s chance to be in front, but when you take a real hard look at the player, you’ll see that it really is just another poor excuse to throw away yet another wedge of £50 notes given the $20k price tag.

Nope, you’re much better off buying one of the new monitors from ViewSonic monitors which are encrusted with Swarovski diamonds.

Actually, on second thoughts, that’s a pants idea too…

Cool Stuff

16/8/2007

Conventional methods of cooling microprocessors involve fans blowing cool air over the gadgetry. But given that everything in our brave new world is shrinking, building fans small enough and capable enough is itself becoming a challenge.

US researches have developed an altogether new way of cooling the insides of our electronics. The technology is based on creating ‘ionic wind’ that moves over the microprocessors creating a film of constantly moving air.

The new idea involves applying a charge to an ‘ionic engine’ which produces positively charged particles (ions). Through the laws of physics, these are then dragged towards a negatively charged wire (a cathode), thus creating the breeze.

This form of cooling is more efficient than fans because in fans, dead spots can occur whereby air molecules get stuck between air currents and so are not able to move on. This means the specific area is no being cooled optimally, and hence there is a possibility of overheating.

Given we are trying to shrink every electronic piece of kit in the world, this new direction must be a breath of fresh air.