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Surreal DVD Subtitles Turn The Queen into Flight of the Conchords
Posted by Addy Dugdale at 11:57 PM on February 26, 2008
A screening of The Queen for the hard of hearing turned into a farce after the movie was captioned with some of the most surreal subtitles ever seen. Viewers at the event, organised by Ryde Council in Australia, heard Prince Philip, the monarch's husband, claim that "people removed their heads" as he drove past and, my personal favourite, that "every newspaper proprietor has blown in his hands today." Now, while you may think that the British press is run by necrophilia-obsessed onanists, the script said something else:
Taliban rebels in Afghanistan have issued an ultimatum to the country's mobile network operators to shut down mobile coverage at night—or else. The reason for this is not because of a desire by the medieval revivalists/"moral" "guardians"/warmongering nutcases/nasty little freedom-killing, women-bashing, beard-obsessed terrorists —call 'em what you want—to put a stop to potential mobile naughtiness, but for military reasons.
It's starting. From New Zealand to Spain to the US, the Apple Store is down throughout the world. We will see if the 
Much as I think all lawn ornaments should be heaped into a pile and blown to kingdom come, I think I could spare a corner of my garden for these tiny chaps and their crashed spaceship. Disappointingly not made from exotic metals recovered from the Roswell crash site, they are instead made of weatherproof resin. The 9-inch space ship and two 7-inch aliens are available for US$49.95, or 3000 Flanian Pobble beads. [
The designers of this naff gadget followed an interesting recipe: take one 3800mAh rechargeable battery, a solar cell, digital watch, analog thermometer, compass and LED torch light and jam them haphazardly into the nearest scratchy plastic box. Add in 12 connectors for mobile phones and USB gadgets, and serve up for around US$33. Yuckity-yuck yuck. Ok, we know: we'll be laughing on the other side of our faces when this actually saves someone's life. [
The Celrun TV multimedia player comes equipped to the back teeth. The HD multimedia player totes Ethernet, WiFi b/g for basic, network accessible storage; digital and analog TV tuners, IPTV support, DVR functionality, 320GB HDD, two USB ports, as well as RGB, S-VIDEO and HDMI outputs. Add to that the ability to playback H.264, WMV, AVI, Xvid, MOV, VOB, MPEG1/2/4 and a whole host of other supported codecs in between, the Celrun TV is certainly a souped up performer on paper. No idea as yet whether we'll see it Stateside, but if it does make an appearance, we'll be sure to let you know. [
Check out the new Sungjut TangoX Nano UMPC, which will have a VIA CPU C7-M ULV at 1.2GHz, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 40 or 80GB HDD, HD Audio, 7" WVGA (800x480) touch screen, 4 in 1 Card reader, Ethernet Port , WiFi a/b/g, USB 2.0 (2 ports), DVI output and a detachable, integrated Skye handset. Do you hear the Eee PC running a little scared? Jump to the gallery for some more tasty images. Update: Could this be a mass-produced edition of the 
Sony's PFR-V1 personal field speakers actually are headphones. But instead of cupping or inserting the drivers over or in your ears, they dangle down and in front of your ears. You know, like a set of home theater stereo speakers. Except attached to you via a headgear like the one you wore with your braces. (Worst junior high experience ever, next to scoliosis back brace.) 
This is the Sony NHS-130C, a monolithic black rack that offers high-end HD video and audio through an entire house, from home theaters to a master bedroom. In fact, Sony says the NHS-130C offers multi-room "control of movies, audio, lighting, temperature, security systems," and by the look of it, probably 
Sony's latest STR-DG920 receiver looks nice (it's got a similar look to my cheap-o Sony receiver in a box and other Sony receivers), but has plenty of functionality as well. There's the 7.1 channel support, 1080p + 60/24Hz, four HDMI ports (woo!), Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, dts High Resolution Audio, dts HD Master Audio, xvyCC, Deep Color, Sony's Digital Media Port (networking and connectivity with iPods and other stuff), is XM Connect-and-Play ready (5.1) and has 20-30 second auto-setup. It'll be available in June for US$600. 
Sony's MDR-AS100W are their flagship sports/outdoor headphones, water resistant, and fit with a two-foot cord best used with arm-mounted MP3 players. US$100 is a lot of money for a headset you plan to sweat on in your Tae Bo classes. So, Sony's spammed us with cool submodels, too, each with a unique flavour of ear-fitting yoga and price points unexplainably positioned from US$20 to US$100:
Sony's NWZ-A720, A820 and A820K Walkman players all look alike, but the 8-series has added Bluetooth to sweeten the deal. It's quite similar to their 
The updated Sony MDR-EX700LP earbud headphones sport new 16mm drivers to give you ear-drum-shattering action (108dB) with "more precise sound" (4-28KHz) than before. Sony says the magnesium-housed MDR-EX700LP earbuds have a new "multi-layer diaphragm for reproducing high resolution sound." For US$300, that better be a lot of layers and a lot of high-res sounds.
PS3 aside, the Blu-ray players Sony sold up until now are worthy of only your garbage can. Now that HD DVD is dead like a doornail, the 300kg gorilla is getting serious. The US$400 BDP-S350 will feature an Ethernet port, USB port for connecting external storage and 
Sony figured out two reasons people don't buy flagship noise-cancelling headphones—whether Bose or Sony or others: they're awfully expensive and freakin' huuuuge. The MDR-NC40 coming out in March costs US$100, and is both cheaper and slimmer than the 
Sony's latest venture into wireless home-theater-in-a-box 5.1 systems includes options for wireless rear speakers and a new system called S-AIR that can transmit audio from your home theater to smaller clock-radio receivers in other rooms, up to a precise-sounding 164 feet away (50 metres). They all have five-disc 1080p-upconverting HDMI DVD players and an included TDM-iP10 iPod dock. (Tellingly, the dock for Sony Network Walkmans is sold separately.) Here's the product breakdown:
Either Sony's trying to tell us that vinyl will never die, or that vinyl is finally dead. After years of quietly selling regular old turntables, Sony is now offering what some niche brands already sell: a USB-connected turntable for converting records to MP3s. We don't have a lot of detail on the PS-LX300USB, except for the fact that it comes with Sound Forge Audio Studio and will cost US$150, placing it performance-wise somewhere between the $100 LX250 and $150 LX350 non-USB players. I don't know—it almost makes more sense for Sony to have gone whole hog like Teac, and built an all-in-one vinyl-to-CD machine.
If Sony exists for anything, it's synergy, so its latest quickie home theaters are made to match its Blu-ray players—you'll notice only one of this fourfer has an upscaling DVD player—you've gotta bring the vid (Blu-ray) goods (Blu-ray) yourself. The US$400 5.1 HT-SS2300 is the top audio-only, which pumps out 1000W and has three HDMI ports. Its lesser bro, the 3.1 HT-CT100 is a puny 250W soundbar setup that'll go for US$300, and finally the 5.1 surround HT-DDWG rocks 800W and an iPod dock for US$200. The sole do-it-all, the 5.1 surround, 900W HT-7200DH, has a 1080p-upscaling DVD player and three HDMI ports—it'll go for US$500.
The DRC-BT815 (love them truly unique product names) is a little US$130 stereo Bluetooth receiver that you plug your headphones into—bam, instant Bluetooth headset. The mic's onboard the dongle, which has a clippy to attach it to your shirt (or earlobe). The sucky part is that battery life is only six hours, and it's, you know, 130 bucks. 
Goldmund has just announced the Eidos 20 BD, a device that they claim is the first Blu-ray player from a high-end AV manufacturer. So, naturally, that makes it all right to slap a US$16,000 price tag on it. Apparently, that premium price will score you an AC-Curator power supply circuit for improved picture and sound, a Mechanical Grounding construction that eliminates vibrations that can blur video and a Magnetic Damper that lowers reading errors. Sounds great, but I'll be saving that money to buy a car or put a down payment on a house, thank you very much. Press release after the break.
If you have ever had the privilege of viewing a work by artist Mike Rea, chances are you were instantly captivated by his amazing geek-inspired wood sculptures. The folks at Fecal Face managed to catch up with him and ask a few questions—and the brief peek inside his mind that resulted is interesting to say the least. For those who want to check out his stuff in person, Rea has a solo exhibition coming up at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia from April 3-June 15, 2008. [
Not surprisingly, Amazon is looking to dump a whole mess of HD DVD titles to clear out more space for Blu-ray. Rather than dump the whole lot in the desert, they are passing the savings on to you in the form of a 50% discount on most titles. Get em' before they are gone for good. [
Remember those rumours that AppleInsider was 
As you might have guessed, the NXMP324 from Neux Corp is not what I would call a "serious" product, but those looking for something a little different may find its support for MP3, WMA, WMV, WAV and ASF file formats, built-in USB 2.0 port, FM radio, and 128MB to 4GB capacities mildly interesting. Not me though—I'm still holding out for the MP4 shaped like a bottle of Thunderbird in a paper bag. Pricing info available upon request. [
The "Softphone" concept phone from designer Quian Jiang utilises a series of discs with electronically wired cotton fabric stretched in between. The benefit to a phone like this would be that one could fold up the keyboard to save space while the bulk of the electronics are housed inside a tiny clip made out of silica—which would also be soft. Another potential benefit is that the phone could be squeezed to engage actions like ending a call. 
You may only be vaguely aware of DivX's Stage 6 video site (which probably explains why it wasn't successful) but it's going to be shut down entirely at the end of February. Stage 6 was DivX's YouTube-like video site meant to provide a bunch of streamable content for living room and mobile DivX players. The fact that it's being canned speaks to how successful the effort was. Most of you won't miss it, but we'll have a special place in our hearts for the handful of nudie clips we found on it that one time. [
