An interesting movie out in theatres now:
Read review by Dennis Friesen.
View trailer [FlickOut.com]
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a fictional story that offers a unique perspective on how prejudice, hatred and violence affect innocent people, particularly children, during wartime. Through the lens of an eight-year-old boy largely shielded from the reality of World War II, we witness a forbidden friendship that forms between Bruno, the son of Nazi commandant, and Schmuel, a Jewish boy held captive in a concentration camp. Though the two are separated physically by a barbed wire fence, their lives become inescapably intertwined. The imagined story of Bruno and Shmuel sheds light on the brutality, senselessness and devastating consequences of war from an unusual point of view. Together, their tragic journey helps recall the millions of innocent victims of the Holocaust."
Reuters reports that Toshiba, one of the main backers of the HD-DVD technology, is planning to pull the plug on HD-DVD for good. An anonymous source stated this and also noted that an official announcement could arrive as soon as next week. HD-DVD received it’s first major blow last month, when Warner Bros announced it would seize it’s exclusivity contract and go all-Blu-Ray. HD-DVD’s market share shrunk exorbitantly within days.
On the retail-side, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Netflix recently joined forces with the Blu-Ray camp, too. This totally annihilated Toshiba’s aggressive price cuts on its players. Microsoft also hinted that it was considering on loosening its exclusivity by contemplating Blu-Ray support on its XBOX 360 game console.
While huge losses are apparent, Toshiba insists they’ve learned valuable lessons from the format war that lasted several years and confused consumers greatly along the road.
It’s time to embrace Blu-Ray, until next greatest thing pops up, which could be lurking around the corner as soon as next year. It’s a fast-paced world.
Related Reading
While sifting through some news articles on the format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, I came across an interesting article written by Clint DeBoer over at Audioholics.com. Admittedly, it’s a slightly older piece (and perhaps a bit biased), but still very current. Clint portrays his 10 reasons for the failure of HD media. In a nutshell:
- HD-DVD made a false start by only providing 720/1080i instead of 1080p.
- It’s the movies that sell the players, not the other way around. It was like this with game consoles as well.
- When you look at it, High Definition isn’t such a technological advance, like VHS, CD and DVD were.
- The PS3 failed to jump start the HD indrustry because PS3 will always remain to be a gaming-platform, no matter what.
- The average Joe just doesn’t care how high the resolution is on the disc he’s watching, let alone pay double for something he doesn’t even notice (so to speak).
- Technology enthusiasts used to drive stuff like this, but even they have become more precarious due to the numerous flops of the past.
- Who knows, IPTV might catch on because of the content that’s driving it. It turns out people don’t really mind watching their video podcasts on an HD screen, since it’s the content they’re interested in, not the format.
Article at Audioholics.
As it’s been proven in the past, convenience always wins the hearts of consumers (and money pouches), not the high-standing tech. There are no two ways about it.
John C. Dvorak has started a new podcast called Tech5 and is hosted at PodShow. It’s a daily 5-minute thing in true Dvorak style. From the Tech5 homepage:
“I’ll include special reports, interviews and lots of trend analysis. One or two tidbits alone can make this the most important five minutes of you life.”
Play these online or subscribe it to your iPod via iTunes. You can also add the RSS Feed to your trusty reader.
The XBOX360 is already an attractive media center extender, but it indeed lacks the built-in high-definition player and a more voluminous hard drive. Not having a native wireless interface (instead, one would need to buy a pricey add-on that plugs into the Ethernet port) is also a pain, since more and more people integrate Wi-Fi networks, more than they used to and have come to expect this functionality in everything. Righteously, too. Another thing to look forward to, imho.
| Microsoft is working on a brand new Xbox that will incorporate not only a new HD DVD drive but a large hard drive and new entertainment software |
| the recently launched Xbox 360 HD DVD attach player is not selling well. |
| Microsoft failed to include a HDMI port |
| The new Xbox device, while allowing for extensive gaming capability, will be positioned as an entertainment hub that includes gaming and extensive wireless networking capability as well as 1080p playback. There is also talk of it including a dual HD TV tuner and EPG capability and a docking port for an MP3 player. For Toshiba, the device is critical if it is to be successful in beating Sony and the Blu-ray promoters. |
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I’ve always thought this to be an extremely interesting feature, the ability to interchange online gaming experiences between Windows games and the console based games for the XBOX 360 (provided you’ve got a Gold subscription). More concretely, one can play online regardless of the platform. The current games supporting this is surprisingly small, though, which pretty much nullifies the effect. I’d expected a more spectacular launch/marketing of this (actually) killer-feature for both Vista and XBOX360. Pity.
| As you know, several games have launched under Games for Windows - LIVE that allow PC Games to tap into Xbox Live. |
Major Nelson highlights several changes coming with the 1.2 release:
- Support for offline Achievements (so you can add to your gamerscore when not connected to the internet).
- Ability to see if your friends are “joinable” in games.
- Additional UI features.
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From CNet News:
“Recent weeks have seen a flurry of rumors that the Xbox360 Core is about to be replaced by something called the Xbox 360 Arcade. For the same $280 price tag, the Arcade bundle will include a wireless controller, HDMI output, and a 256MB memory card preloaded with five Xbox Live Arcade titles.
The release date remains fluid, but October 23 seems to be the consensus.”
This is obviously a gaming system for the $$$-conscious gamer, with it barely being more expensive than the Wii, it’s definitely a feasible platform. Fanatics will most definitely dismiss this gig as silly, but I think it’ll convince more people to opt for this console as their main gaming system. Hard-core gamers will unlikely stick with the Elite or the PC, but that’s a different story entirely.
