The process of converting your HD DVDs to Blu-ray is time-consuming, potentially costly and sucks balls. Really, there’s almost no reason to, since you can bet most everything on HD DVD will be released on Blu, and if you have a million HD DVDs you don’t wanna rebuy, you should just buy a dual format player. But if you revel in pain, here’s how to do it, thanks to the crazy video guys at Doom9.
Sony’s latest additions to its E series range of MP3 players come with interchangeable jackets, and have a USB plug for direct connection to your computer. The player itself comes in black or white, and there are twenty different designs of the outer “Style-Up” panels available. In 1GB, 2GB and 4GB versions, the NW-E023F, -025F and -026F play ATRAC, MP3, WMA and AAC and have a 3-line LCD display and FM radio function. Measuring 3.2 x 0.9 x 0.6 inches, they’re out in March in Japan for between $100 and $180. Style-Up jackets will be around $15 each. [AV Watch]
If you just got an N95, are drooling over its successor, the N96—or any Nokia E or N series phone—GigaOm has a great list of apps you should load up to the get the most out of Symbian. Here’s a few: Gmail for Mobile (mercifually designed for numeric keypads); GooSync to bring your Google and Symbian Cal together; Fring does AIM, Skype, Yahoo, MSN, GTalk and Twitter, including file transfers; and Shozu lets you tag and categorise stuff for easy Flickr and YouTube uploads. What’s missing? [GigaOM]
The US Giz guys have already given you a bit of a cheat sheet to deal with the end of the format war. I’m going to say that in a lot of cases, I disagree with their advice (especially if you’re an HD DVD owner). Here’s what Giz AU reckons you should think about now that Blu-ray rules the roost.
Firstly, HD DVD owners – don’t give up your HD DVD players. Sure, there are a lot of people out there who know next to nothing about this that you might be able to convince it’s worth the sale. But consider this: the HD DVD player you already own is a pretty impressive upscaling DVD player. Plus, considering that less than 1 million HD DVD players were sold worldwide prior to Toshiba’s decision, you are probably a bit of an early adopter. Which means you probably have a collection of HD DVDs at home that you’re either going to have to a) buy again on Blu-ray, although without some of the interactive features because the Blu-ray spec isn’t up to scratch just yet; or b) try and sell on ebay, which few people are going to buy because – guess what – HD DVD is dead.
What you should consider is using this announcement as an opportunity to grow your collection. There are over 1000 region-free HD DVD discs available worldwide at the moment, and I bet you they’re going cheap right about now. Why not create an awesome master collection of every HD DVD ever made? You’ll get hours of playback pleasure, plus you’ll be able to sell it all on ebay in 20 years and make a mint.
This is a cheap, quick way to make a small remote shutter trigger for Canon Digital entry-level DSLRs. Basically, you just need a $5 hands-free phone headset with a 2.5mm plug (NOT 3.5mm). Pop open the case and cut the wire leading to the ear piece, tie it off, then close it back up. Plug into the camera and you’re good to go. [Instructables]
The Alter-G treadmill has been given the greenlight by the FDA for classification as a medical device. The powers that be were no doubt swept away by the treadmills ability to reduce the weight of the user by as much as 80% (In 1% increments) using a NASA designed air pressure regulation system.
ASUS’s P22 Nova is a small (9x7x2 in, under 4 lbs.), attractive PC designed for the living room. Like we’ve mentioned before, It has a 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 160 GB HDD, Slot Loading DVD Burner, Bluetooth, 1 GB RAM and 802.11n WLAN. The cool thing is it has built in Hi-Fi Speakers, providing something more than TV speakers if you lack a 5.1 setup. Now it’s available in North America for US$899. [ASUS]
In an attempt to revitalise Thunderbird in version 3.0, Mozilla has announced “Mozilla Messaging” which promises significant improvements to the email client—like calendar integration, better search, and a chat app. While the core focus will still be on email, Mozilla seems committed to developing a product that will offer a broader range of communications tools. Whether or not it will be good enough to get Thunderbird back on track remains to be seen. [Mozilla Messaging via Lifehacker]
Have trouble waking up in the morning? You could use a really loud alarm, or an alarm that forces you to engage what little hand-eye coordination you have in the morning—but for real torture, you will have to step up to the squirt gun alarm clock. The only problem is that you have to build it yourself.
According to a new Amazon product page, the 8G Asus Eee PC is once again up for sale. The 8G was recently delayed after “minor hardware issues”, which explains the three to six weeks ship estimate. Amazon appears to be the only site giving a ship date, so if you’ve been waiting for a 8 GB Eee, it’s US$542.99 with black as the only colour option and your gonna have to wait a month to get it. [Amazon via EeeUser]
