It’s tough to decide whether Toshiba is being incredibly intelligent or incredibly stubborn in their decision to back upconverting DVD technology instead of Blu-ray. I mean, they were certainly burnt – badly – by Blu-ray with that whole HD DVD format war, but is their decision to stick to DVD smart?
Take their latest DVD player, the XD-E500 DVD upscaler. It’s marketed on the fact that it can take your vanilla old DVDs and upscale them to HD-like quality with 1080p output. That sounds pretty good (although the press release says that standard def DVDs are 480p – not in Australia, Toshiba!). But then there’s the price: $199.
Sure, the Toshy’s got some pretty catchy-sounding tech on board (XDE Technology, anyone?) for upscaling, plus DivX playback, HDMI CEC connectivity and a host of connections, but is it worth $200 bucks? Sony’s latest Blu-ray player has an RRP of $449, but you can pick it up for $380 online, and it will not only upscale your DVDs, but playback Blu-ray movies as well. Even at $150 for the Toshy, don’t most people already own a DVD player?
Still, if the infinite format war takes Blu-ray as its next victim, Toshiba will probably be the company laughing all the way to the bank.
If it hadn’t been leaked so damn much, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 would be something of a surprise. Not simply because it’s the first-ever clamshell BlackBerry, but the fact that RIM went in this direction at all, especially when you look at the rest of its new phones, with their clean, almost aerodynamic lines, and compare them to this beefy slab of a phone. Landing on T-Mobile today, the big-boned Pearl Flip is aimed at people graduating to their first smartphone, and it definitely has its own kind of charm. galleryPost('blackberrypearlflip', 3, '');
Na-na-na-na Na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na Na-na-na-na, Batman! Na-na-na-na Na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na Na-na-na-na, Batman!
With The Dark Knight now officially one of the biggest movies in the history of mankind, Batman has firmly been brought back into public eye. And so what better way to celebrate it than by returning it to its camp, 60s TV show roots and combining it with Lego?
The Lego Batman video game is coming out soon on all the major consoles and handhelds, and considering how much we love both Lego and Batman, this has the opportunity to become the favourite game in Gizmodoland.
While our brothers from Kotaku generally get all the cool gaming stuff, we’ve somehow convinced the guys at Warner Interactive to give us three copies of the game to give away. Not only that, they’ll come with three brand-spanking-new PSPs to play them on.
To enter, we’re going to need a little creativity from you. We want you to write a song chorus which uses the words “Giz”, “Lego” and “Batman” somewhere in the lyrics. It would also help if you can tell us the tune to which your song should be sung.
Pop your entries in comments. The best three entries will be judged next weekend with an announcement made next Monday.
While we have seen glimpses of how the F-35B–the short take-off vertical landing variant of the F-35 Lightning II–works, here’s an amazingly detailed video showing its transforming capabilities in flight, which was posted anonymously in YouTube last week. According to Flight Global, this sophisticated war machine–which is now in its testing phase–won’t see real action any time soon, as its engine is getting redesigned turbine blades. [Flight Global]
Australian hippies and eco-warriors can now enjoy using bittorrent as much as the rest of us. Internode have announced that they are now using 100 percent green power for their offices and data centres around the country, drastically reducing their impact on the environment.
The move to use only renewable energy sources like wind and solar has ensured that their status as a 100% carbon neutral company is maintained. And although there is a 20 percent increase in the cost of Internode’s electricity, they currently have no plans to pass that cost onto consumers.
So now Internode customers can happily know that their hours of reading Giz are not only saving the environment, but doing it for the same price, while making you smarter and more attractive to the opposite sex (well, that’s what we tell people, anyway).
Clue number Four has just gone live in the Quantum Code promotion, so scan the QR code above to start your daily codecracking.
And remember to use our Quantum Central forums to try and collude with other Australians to try and crack the code: Remember, this is a nationwide contest, although the entry computer is located in Sydney. If you are interstate, maybe you could share one of the digits you’ve cracked with a Sydneysider for a percentage of that $15,000 Sony prize pool. $15K is a lot of gear, after all.
I normally wouldn’t post something like this on Giz, but it’s Monday, my mind is still in Sunday mode and I have this press release from Sennheiser sitting in my inbox, waiting to to be filed.
The big news here is that Sennheiser’s premium microphones are available in EA’s Rock Band 2 game (you know, the sequel to the peripheral-based game that still not available in Australia, although it will be very soon). Considering Both Rock Band and Guitar Hero before it used official guitar makes and models (plus amps and other musician’s kit), this isn’t so surprising.
What does make this interesting is that it’s well-worked into the game. Considering Google is making (or planning on making) a big splash into in-game advertising, there’s some concern that ads in games are going to detract from the gaming experience. Considering how demanding gamers are, this can only be a bad thing.
In any case, if (and when) you ever do get Rock Band 2, remember that Sennheiser mics are some pretty high-quality gear, even when they’re just virtual copies of the original.
With the accidental discovery of “black silicon,” Harvard physicists may have very well changed the digital photography, solar power and night vision industries forever. What is black silicon, you say? Well, it’s just as it sounds. Black silicon. It’s what this revolutionary new material does that’s important, starting with light sensitivity. Early indications show black silicon is 100 to 500 times more sensitive to light than a traditional silicon wafer.
In case you needed more, here’s a proof that seems to completely confirm that–as expected–both the MacBook and MacBook Pro will be updated this Tuesday at the Apple MacBook 2008 event in Cupertino, where heads may be rolling after a PDF document referring to the “MacBook/MacBook Pro (Late 2008)” line was accidentally posted today in their support site. The document–now gone from Apple servers–details the full procedure for replacing the display in the new notebooks. [MacRumors]
Toy Modder Extraordinaire Steampunks Return of the Jedi Wow. Kind of makes you wanna watch RotJ again, doesn’t it?
Mitsubishi’s $US7000, 65-Inch LaserVue HDTV Reviewed: (Verdict: Lasers Are Awesome) I hope Mitsubishi finds an Aussie distributor for these screens!
Apple Confirms Failing Nvidia Graphics Cards in MacBook Pros, Offers Free Repairs and Refunds NVIDIA should suck it up like a man and admit to their F$^& up. They can’t be making too many friends in the industry at the moment.
SteelSeries World of Warcraft Mouse Destroys Orcs, Your Last Shreds of Dignity With 15 Buttons Not sure why you’d need 15 buttons, but then again, I don’t play WOW…
Finger Condom Toothbrush Might Be Awkward, but at Least You Won’t Get Cavities Don’t confuse this with your regular condoms – your lady friend won’t be very happy…
Hackers Use Nvidia Graphics Card to Smash Wi-Fi Encryption 10,000 Percent Faster More bad press for NVIDIA… not a good weekend for them, eh? Apple MacBook 2008 Event: All the Information You Need to Know Rumour roundup central…
Drop-Down, Rotating 103-Inch Plasma Screen Video is Pure, Glorious Gadget Porn If only I could afford one of these installs…
