Disney Distributor Does Downloadable DVD Deal

Disney's home-video distribution arm, Buena Vista Home Entertainment -- BVHE to its friends -- just inked a deal with CinemaNow so that it joins the ranks of other major Hollywood studios offering downloadable movies that will be available on the same day as their DVD release.

The official press release talked about transferring movies to portable devices but was otherwise a little sketchy on details, so I spoke to one of the people at the PR firm repping CinemaNow. She confirmed that, as with the other Hollywood heavy-hitters, these are Windows Media downloads that aren't playable on a regular DVD player; however, you can play a file on up to three devices. Oh, and that whole portable player thing? That won't be available until summer, when compatible devices are announced.

Minor irony alert here: I first read the news about the BVHE/CinemaNow deal in The Hollywood Reporter right after I read Diane Mermigas's column on how things like the Nike-Apple deal work because the companies listen to what customers want, even if it runs counter to what they know, or think they know. Now if only the studios could do the same.

Hitachi Introduces First 42-inch 1080-line Plasma TV

A few months ago I wrote about the numerical one-upmanship the various HDTV manufacturers have been engaging in. You know, biggest LCD, biggest plasma, that kind of thing.

Hitachi has gone after a different kind of numerical supremacy, having just announced the 42HDS69, the first plasma screen capable of delivering 1080 lines of resolution.

Because things that sound too good to be true usually are, here are two caveats: (1) that's 1080i, not 1080p, and (2) horizontal resolution is 1024 pixels, not the proportional 1920.

Griffin Provides In-Flight (or In-Car) PSP Viewing

Do you love watching movies on your PSP but dread holding the thing during long flights or car rides? Griffin's solution is the RoadDock, a nylon strap that mounts on the back of the seat in front of you for hands-free viewing. The RoadDock provides tilt and rotation so you can get the angle that works best for you.

But, um... a 4.3'' screen held two feet away from your face? I figure what you save in arm discomfort will be more than made up for with eyestrain.

Control Your Robot Telepathically

Usually when I hear the words "robot" and "mind control" together, that's my cue to put on my tinfoil hat, grab a baseball bat and hide in the shed. But this news seems a little less apocalyptic: Honda Research Institute Japan and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have teamed up to create a system where a person can direct an Asimo robot's hand movements using nothing but the power of thought and a handly MRI machine to lie in.

In future, the researchers would like to reduce the size of the control unit, which would certainly be more convenient. I imagine that eventually one could propagate the signal so that one technology writer could control an army of robot minions. Hypothetically, of course.

Watch Ads, Get Free Cellphone Minutes

Here's a new spin on time management: according to today's New York Times, Virgin Mobile USA, the mobile phone company that largely targets teens and, I presume, the maturity-challenged, is offering a plan where customers can earn free minutes by watching ads.

I suspect Virgin is hoping that teenagers are as terrible at math as studies claim: to get one free minute of airtime, you'd have to watch a thirty-second ad then answer a question or two to prove you watched the ad. And all this to save, what, a dime? Howard Handler, chief marketing officer for the company, says that these ads would be "funny and provocative," which I suppose means that people will be glad to watch these commercials and get some airtime out of it to boot -- but frankly, unless we're talking about those Mexican tourism ads from a few years back that featured a 360-degree spin around Salma Hayek, I don't think they could hold my attention long enough to bank time for a decent conversation.

Saitek World Cup Mice

One of the great things about the World Cup (for soccer, that is) is the (usually) good-natured patriotism it inspires. That isn't lost on peripheral maker Saitek: they're releasing seven optical mice done up in the country colors for Germany, England, France, Mexico, Brazil, Holland and Italy.

Maybe they're a bit low on the drama, but it's probably less expensive (and a bit safer) than driving around waving a big ol' flag. Not that I'm complaining, you understand, but I'm just sayin'.

Surprise! HD DVD to Get Region Coding

A few months back I mentioned in passing that the DVD Forum, the folks behind the HD DVD spec, had graciously decided not to include region coding on HD DVDs, though by all accounts they gracelessly allowed that they might add the "feature" later if they, you know, felt like it.

Apparently, it's later.

Engadget reports that at the 34th DVD Forum Steering Committee meeting earlier this week, the committee called for the development of a spec for -- drum roll, please -- region encoding.

I'm sure it'll be some time before we see anything concrete, but it's nice to know that the DVD Forum is actively removing one of the best selling points of the format for those of us who like foreign movies.

Sony's Vaio UMPC: The Good and the Bad

I'm kind of lukewarm on the whole UMPC concept, and I'll confess that I've yet to meet a Vaio laptop that I'd actually want to own. But over on Digital World Tokyo, J. Mark Lytle reviews the Sony UX50a, announced in Japan last week and due in the USA in July.

As expected, you'll pay a price for portability -- the 520 g, approximately 15 cm x 9.5 cm x 3.5 cm (5.9'' x 3.7'' x 1.4'') unit will start at $1800 -- but it performs acceptably for everyday tasks and wakes up quickly from standby. Unfortunately, it's weak point seems to be a cramped, not-so-tactile sliding keyboard.

I don't know about you, but my curiosity is piqued. It may be worth keeping an eye on this category after all.

Lost: The Game

ABC News announced recently that corporate parent ABC has struck a deal with Ubisoft's Montreal studio to make a video game adaptation of Lost (aka: Why you can't phone Emru on a Wednesday night). Hmmm, maybe it's time for me to hang out with my friends at Ubi a little more often.

Show creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof will be executive producers on the game. No word on platforms yet: that graphic is just me having a little Photoshop fun, and remembering the days before Michael went astray.

Wii's Wee Price

Remember those days when game consoles didn't come with hard drives, Blu-ray drives, and mini-fridges, and kids who saved enough from their paper route could aspire to buy one with their own, hard-earned cash? I do, and so, apparently does Nintendo. The company announced that it plans to release its next-gen Wii console for less than 25,000 yen in Japan, and less than $250 in the U.S. With Microsoft's Xbox 360 selling for at least $300 (but really, $400 if you want the hard drive and wireless controller), and Sony announcing that its upcoming PlayStation 3 will cost either $499 or $599 (depending on which configuration you want), $250 sounds like chump change. Plus, where else am I, uh, the kids going to play Animal Crossing?

The MP3s of Your Dreams

I'm as much a believer in ubiquitous music as anyone, but I certainly didn't see this coming: Generation MP3 tells us about a pillow (four, actually, each in a different color) that has an audio jack for whatever you want to plug into it. Of course, the first thing I can think of is practical-joke potential: say, sneaking up on your sleeping little sister and putting on a little Rammstein for some truly disturbing dreams. Not that I'd advocate such a thing, of course.

(Not up to reading Generation MP3's French-language site? Try Gizmodo or the Linens 'n Things website.)

Sprint's Music Mobile

Sprint's got a new music phone, and it's all about making you (or at least hoping that you) buy music from the company's music service. The FUSIC by LG lets you access the Sprint Music Store for over-the-air downloads, and it also comes with an FM transmitter for playing music through a car stereo, as well as the ability to store up to a gig of music via a microSD card (a 64MB card is included). The FUSIC also comes with four colored faceplates (blue, green, pink, and black) for fickle phoners.

Songs cost $2.50 a pop from Sprint's Music Store, and users get two copies--one for their phone, one for their PC. According to Sprint, more than three million songs have been downloaded so far since the music store went up last fall.

The FUSIC, which also includes Bluetooth and a 1.3 megapixel camera, will be ready May 28, for $330 or $180 (after rebate) with--natch--a two-year service contract.

Hands On: MobiBlu's B153 MP3 Player

The first thing I did when I got my hands on the MobiBlu B153 was charge it up via my PC's USB port. Then I loaded it up with a few CDs' worth of Pizzicato Five, set it to repeat endlessly, and made a note of the time and date. The player was not only still playing at the claimed 153-hour running time, it kept going for another nine -- just four hours short of a week.

I can hear you asking: why, in the name of all that is good and just, would anyone want to listen to six days' worth of nonstop music? Practically speaking, you wouldn't (unless you really liked Shibuya pop), but the fact that you could means that you can go for weeks without having to recharge the player, if not longer. A quick calculation revealed that with my listening habits, I could conceivably charge a B153 in May and only get around to recharging it in August.

But beyond this much-appreciated gimmick, the B153 is actually a fairly decent flash player, if a bit no-frills. Though the player reads ID3 tags, there's no searching or organizing by artist or album -- it's strictly folder navigation. And don't even think about PlaysForSure or Janus.

Available in 512 MB, 1 GB and 2 GB versions (at the entirely reasonable prices of $89, $99 and $129), the B153 is a Universal Mass Storage (UMS) device, so it's recognized as an external drive on any recent version of Windows, MacOS or Linux. Its interface is a little quirky, but I found it easy to adapt to -- especially since the little thumb joystick is so responsive. (Lefties, take note: there's an option to flip the OLED screen's display text upside down, which should make things easier for you.)

The built-in voice and line-in recorders are decent, though they only top out at 128 and 192 kbps, respectively, in the MP3 format. The audio is clear enough that every instrument on my universal test track -- Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" -- was discernible without using any of the audio-boost or EQ functions. Activating SRS at its default setting brought a nice richness to the sound, though.

Also included and pre-installed is Podcast Ready's myPodder, which I gushed about in March (and continue to gush about -- I use it all the time, and am pleased to note that the software seems to be out of beta).

There are a few flaws: the B153 only plays MP3 and WMA (up to version 9, and I confess I did not test it with lossless), and there's no gapless playback, though gaps are small enough that you won't notice except on mixed or live CDs. The player's also a little sluggish when it comes to skipping tracks, and I'm not too keen on the non-standard USB connector. But overall this is a keeper, especially considering its price.

Upgrade Your iRiver U10 to a Clix, Almost

You know, if I'd dropped $249 for an iRiver U10 a few months ago I'd be pretty peeved if I found out that MP3-come-lately Clix owners got all the same goodness as me plus other features for $50 less. Perhaps to keep from being stormed by hordes of outraged earbud-wearing music fans, iRiver has released a fix that lets the U10 in on some of that Windows Media 11/Urge action. DAPReview has the linkage.

Nike and Apple Create iPod-Compatible Running Shoes

I know what you've been thinking. "If Maxwell Smart could make phone calls on his shoe in 1965, why are my 2006 shoes so low-tech?" Fret no more, because it looks like we're on our way. Nike and Apple have teamed up to create Nike+iPod (seems kind of obvious, doesn't it?), a system where sensors in your Nike+ sneakers communicate with the iPod you presumably use to listen to your workout music. Voice feedback then keeps you updated on things like how far and long you've been running. When you get back home, you can upload your data to the nikeplus.com website, which will allow you to keep track of progress and share data with your friends. The Nike+iPod Sport Kit -- the sensors for the shoes and the iPod receiver -- will retail for $29.

Samsung Introduces Laptops with Solid-state Hard Drives

Over on sister site Digital World Tokyo, Martyn Williams writes that Samsung will be launching two portable computers using flash memory rather than hard disks. Right now that means there'll be a significant premium for these quieter, faster, more shock-resistant (and cooler?) machines, but, like Grass Valley's flash-based camcorder, this is most interesting as an indicator of future tech. How long before our hard disk-based 40 GB digital audio players seem clunky and old-fashioned?

Good-to-Go Video, Part 5

So far the most remarkable conversion software I've tried is PQ DVD's PSP Movie Creator, which is identical to its sibling PQ DVD to iPod Video Converter (both are $34.95). They're marginally more complicated than InterVideo's iVideoToGo, in that the interface is a bit more cluttered. But that's a good thing: with so much more finessing available, it's easier to achieve a balance between quality and file size, especially since there's a constantly updated gauge to let you know how big the resulting file is going to be.

Both programs read DivX/XviD, AVI, WMV, MPEG (my MPEG-2 files converted beautifully), Real Media and QuickTime, and they also handle commercial DVDs. From the looks of things, it doesn't appear to be a case of cracking CSS, but rather working with one of your installed DVD-playing engines. Clever.

The PQ DVD website touts these programs' speed and video quality and it's no lie: they both powered through conversions in record time, and the resulting images were breathtakingly crisp, even though I hadn't cranked the quality settings to the maximum.

Both programs clearly present multiple framing options that show you exactly how your image will be cropped or sized to fit the iPod or PSP screen. There are also two nice touches for PSP owners: the ability to select a movie file's image thumbnail and change the display name, and to transfer the movie directly from the software to a USB-connected PSP.

The only thing missing? A batch conversion option. But considering the speed with which these programs work and the results they generate, I'm willing to overlook that for now.

Good-to-Go Video, Part 4

For our second to last stop on the mobile video express, I figured I should stop and look at Apple and Sony's offerings for their own products. It turns out that both are surprisingly weak.

Sony's $19.95 PSP Media Manager (pictured left), designed to manage your images, podcasts, audio, video and game files using the included USB cable, makes it easy to drag a video from a folder into the PSP window. A column on the right side tells you how big a given file will be using the current conversion method. Unfortunately, PSP Media Manager only has two conversion options: AVC Low and AVC High. There's also no way to select only part of a video. You can't crop video images to fill the PSP screen, either -- while movies encoded as 16:9 convert flawlessly, letterboxed videos in 4:3 will come out unbearably small.

Meanwhile, Apple's $29.95 QuickTime Pro is just... well, clunky. QuickTime can only open a small handful of file types (QuickTime, AVI and MPEG -- but not MPEG-2), and the "Save to iPod" preset spits out 320x240 files with no options. The more intrepid can save as MPEG-4 and fiddle with settings, but compared to other programs it's surprisingly unfriendly. The only advantage to QuickTime Pro is that there's nothing new to install: if you already have the QuickTime player installed, buying the license simply allows you to unlock the Pro features. And unlike PSP Media Manager, at least you can trim your clips.

Apple Meets Disney (Again)

Ever since a friend sent me an expired Japanese bank card featuring Snoopy and Woodstock, I've marveled at the stylish way that the Japanese marry corporate imagery to all kinds of objects. So how come, in the intervening twenty years, I still haven't seen anything here even remotely as cool as Runat's Mickey Mouse accessories for the iPod Nano? Given that companies like Disney love to talk about branding, I'm surprised they don't license more of their images for things like these over here. At the very least, how hard can it be to make some laptop skins?

Good-to-Go Video, Part 3

InterVideo's $29.95 iVideoToGo offers the same simplicity as their more expensive DVD Copy 4 Platinum, but, somewhat curiously, it simultaneously does more and less.

More: Like DVD Copy 4, iVideoToGo converts unprotected DVDs (including subtitles and alternate audio tracks, if you want) quickly and easily, using the same presets and a near-identical interface. However, it also converts MPEG, AVI, QuickTime, WMA, ASF, and DivX files, and can output to either MPEG-4 or H.264. (Note: I couldn't get MPEG-2 files to convert properly at all.) You can also convert Internet videos by simply providing the URL of the video itself.

Less: Unlike DVD COpy 4, you have to buy a separate version of iVideoToGo for iPod or PSP, so if you've got both devices in your household, you might be out of luck -- especially since you can't have both installed on the same system.

Clarion Offers Automotive MP3 Convenience

Anything But iPod highlights another way you can listen to your MP3s in the car: Clarion's DB365USB, a car stereo that not only reads CD-R/CD-RW discs with MP3 and WMA files, it has a USB port in the front panel where you can plug in your MP3 player or USB drive.

The $259 stereo has a few limitations, though: it can only handle up to 255 files, with file and folder names topping out at 28 and 16 characters, respectively. So Peter Gabriel's So is in, while This Is the Day... This Is the Hour... This Is This! is out. Sorry, Poppies.

CEA to Music Biz: Enough With the Lawsuits, Already

You might have noticed that the Consumer Electronics Association (the folks behind CES) fired a volley at the music industry yesterday. Here's why: the day before, nine labels filed a 33-page lawsuit against XM Radio for damages because the new XM receivers can -- wait for it -- record music. This, of course, is bad.

I was going to launch into a whole tirade about how this is just part of the industry's continuing twin "sue, don't innovate" and "ignore the existing laws we helped shape" strategies, but Fred von Lohmann did it for me over on the EFF website, which also includes a link to the complaint itself.

I will, however, say this: XM Radio and the satellite radio industry as a whole should take this as a good sign. Pretty much every time the music and movie industries go to court on some new technology (audio cassettes, VCRs, MP3 players) the industries behind that technology make a ton of money. And so, coincidentally, do the music and movie industries. You'd think they'd learn.

Good-to-Go Video, Part 2

Show someone a personal media player for the first time and I guarantee they'll ask, "Can you get DVDs on that?" Well, yes -- with caveats.

InterVideo's $79.95 DVDCopy 4 Platinum H.264 Edition makes it incredibly simple to get DVD content onto your iPod or PSP. InterVideo says it's as easy as 1-2-3, and the clean interface even reflects that: pick the source disc, pick the target file, pick the output format (aside from MPEG-4, you can also output to 3GPP for LG, Nokia or Motorola cell phones), and away you go. Of course, it might be a good idea to add an extra two steps and select one of six output settings (three quality settings for for 4:3, three for widescreen), and pick which specific sections of the DVD you want to convert. Cool feature: you can specify audio and subtitle tracks if you're so inclined.

So what's the catch? Well, DVD Copy 4 can't handle DVDs that use CSS encryption, which rules out most commercial releases. There are ways around that, of course, but I'm not getting into that.

TV Networks Feeling the Advertising Hurt, Thanks to DVRs

One of the funny things about the TV industry is that while us plebeians are winding up this TV season, the networks are feverishly working on getting the next one underway. The first part of that process is getting next year's lineup in order; the second part comes soon during the upfronts, which is when network and advertising execs get together to negotiate over ad rates.

A BusinessWeek article points out that this year, the increasing presence of DVRs might make things more complicated. Now that Neilsen has started tracking DVR usage and has a few statistics under its belt, advertisers are expected to press harder for reduced rates as data on ad-skipping comes in. Networks, of course, would rather it not come to this.

All of this has already started to affect what we see on TV. This season saw more product placement in TV shows, as well as ads that borrow elements from the current TV show so that ad skippers stop skipping, thinking they're back to their show. (Both of which, frankly, are practices that irritate me more than anything else.) And of course this affects the TV shows we watch elsewhere -- this is why you can't skip past the embedded ads on CBS and ABC's online reruns.

But here's the rub: all this fuss, yet less than 3% of ads are being skipped by DVR owners -- fewer than those that are ignored every day by non-DVR owners.

Sony Announces Blu-ray Vaio

And the high-def DVD battle continues: Sony has announced that their AR Digital Studio series of Viao notebooks, the first laptops with Blu-ray capability, will come out in Japan in mid-June. There's one crucial factor here, though -- these laptops can burn BD discs, whereas Toshiba's competing Qosmio G30, the first HD DVD laptop, can only read HD DVD discs.

NBC Gets Into Broadband TV

NBC is the latest of the major networks to get into the online TV thing, launching several broadband "channels" this summer.

As its name implies, Dotcomedy.com will be the net's comedy channel, containing content from Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and David Letterman's NBC years.

A little more interesting is the series of Web sites under the "First Look" banner that will show the first four episodes of new shows on its various networks, including USA, Sci-Fi and Bravo. Hey, maybe they can start a "Second Chance" brand, with a series of websites for showing series that get axed early. I wouldn't mind seeing the rest of Heist.

Good-to-Go Video, Part 1

About a month ago a friend and I were talking about the whole personal media player thing. He liked the idea of watching video on an iPod or PSP, and in all innocence asked me a killer question:

"So how would I get last week's Smallville on an iPod?"

Good question. I don't worry about those things because I've already got an assortment of video capture devices and conversion software. But how would someone like him -- no technophobe, but no fan of overly expensive or complicated solutions -- get video from any source and get it onto either of these popular portable gadgets? I decided to see what was out there.

One option for those that want to grab content from a video source and don't have a capture card is Neuros's MPEG-4 Recorder 2, which I mentioned in January. Slightly bigger (but lighter) than a PDA, you plug the MPEG-4 Recorder 2 between your video source and your TV, and pop a Memory Stick Pro Duo or Compact Flash card into one of the front slots. Once you turn it on (everything is done through a credit card-size remote) you can navigate the fairly intuitive interface on your TV screen to record, play back and manage video and audio.

Video can be captured at VGA (640x480), QVGA (320x200) or WQVGA (368x240) at a variety of quality settings. You can also set recording timers as you would on a VCR. Getting video onto the PSP or iPod isn't quite as painless as recording, though; video files have to be moved to the correct folder on the Memory Stick Duo for the PSP to recognize them, and files destined for the iPod have to be copied from the memory card to iTunes and then synchronized.

Capture quality was pretty good. I got a fair amount of detail from Kakurenbo, a moody anime horror film, and a high-contrast, fast-moving short also played back without visible artifacts. Bonus feature: playing the video back directly from the MPEG-4 Recorder 2 at full VGA, the image was good enough on my TV that I could see using the recorder as a sort of mini-VCR. Pretty cool for such a small gadget.

UK Study: Women Driving Digital Music Downloads

Guardian Unlimited reports on a study that reveals that the "fifty-quid bloke" -- the older male who buys tons of CDs at a time -- isn't leading the digital download revolution, as previously thought. Turns out that honor goes to tech-savvy women who were tired of putting up with "snobbish, list-obsessed record shop assistants."

Whether you agree with that asserted motivation or not -- I'm not sure I do, though it certainly mirrors the comic-book store argument -- the article also mentions that women (in the UK, at any rate) read as much or more of the music press as men, and spend more time listening to music than men.

What I find interesting about this is that it comes on the heels of reports that women are the prime consumers of "casual games" (like Bejeweled, Lumines and the maddeningly addictive Zuma) -- a category now being seriously pursued by companies trying to exploit the mobile market or drive people to ad-driven websites like MSN, Yahoo and AOL. And it's been observed for years that women are driving cell phone usage, to the point where a woman in Northern Virginia robbed four banks while chatting last November.

So what happens when the consumer electronics and gaming industries realize how much money is to be made by catering to women? (I mean, aside from making gadgets more fashionable.) I'm curious to see how this develops over the next few years.

Sneak Peek: WMP 11 and MTV's Urge

Our sister site PCWorld.com has a first look at Windows Media Player 11 and its newly integrated music service, MTV's Urge. According to the reviewer, the application's "streamlined look and improved performance" are impressive, and you can manage downloads and subscription tracks from the same interface you use for dealing with your own music. One of the biggest changes is Instant Search, which dynamically searches for an artist, song, or album as you type. As for the Urge music store, MTV is offering custom playlists associated with some of its channels and shows, as well as ones from well-known music bloggers.

You can own tracks from Urge for the standard nine-nine-cent, or pay $14.95 a month for the rest of your life to download tracks endlessly (to supported players, of course--iPod not included--and you won't be able to keep the tunes if you drop the subscription). The beta version of WMP 11 will be available for download on Wednesday.

Meet iRiver's Clix: Say, Haven't We Met Before?

So iRiver has made its Clix media player available on its website, and I'm left asking one question: how exactly is it different from the U10, to which it bears more than a passing resemblance (and by "more than a passing resemblance" I mean "exactly the same")?

Well, let's see: a capacity of 2 GB, slightly reduced battery life, $199 versus $249 and, ummmm, that's it. Kind of anticlimactic really,

Okay, people, as you were.

Update: Ask and you shall receive. DAPReview points to a significant difference: the Clix works with Windows Media Player and URGE.

Giving Props to a Download-to-DVD Pioneer

I've been remiss -- lately I've been talking about various movie-downloading initiatives (here, here and here) but I've never mentioned EZTakes, which has been doing the download-to-DVD thing for at least half a year now. And this is the real deal: you download, you burn, you watch in your living room. I've done only one quality test, on a public-domain animated Superman short from the 1940s (The Mechanical Monsters -- anime fans who've never seen it should download it right now); it compared favorably to my commercial DVD of the same short from a different company.

EZTakes' selection is a little on the eclectic side -- Bollywood movies, low-budget films, animation, and little-known titles featuring today's well-known actors paying their dues -- but then we all need a break from Hollywood's A-list every now and then, right?

Scent of a Dog

The Motion Picture Association of America is whipping out the big guns. Lucky and Flo, two black Labs, have been employed by the MPAA to try to put the kibosh on the exportation of pirated DVDs. Apparently, these dogs are able to sniff out the chemicals used to manufacture discs, and they can even smell through several layers of wrapping. They'll be staking out customs points and other locales where suspicious packages might be located. Unfortunately, Lucky and Flo can't distinguish between discs from a legit factory and ones burned in a basement--you still need people to open up the packages and check whether the discs are legal.

Sony Ericsson W300 Walkman Phone Knows How to Accessorize

The last phone I saw on Tuesday was the W300, which is being targeted to those students that are budget-conscious and have a penchant for music. (That is to say, pretty much all of them.)

With its clamshell design and VGA camera, the quad-band EDGE W300 isn't quite as gosh-wow as the K790 and W810, but it's still a Walkman phone with a Memory Stick Micro slot and support for USB Mass Storage, making it easy to get MP3 or AAC music onto it. But the most interesting feature is in the add-ons: the Sony Ericsson reps showed off the MPS-60 portable speakers -- small enough that I could carry them both in one hand, but with surprisingly rich sound. Instant party!

Another Way to Buy Stuff Using Your Mobile Phone

Because there just aren't enough ways to buy stuff these days, Evolution Robotics has come up with another: take a picture. It was announced today that Evolution and Bandai Networks have teamed up to provide the ER Search service, where you can get product information (and, of course, buy stuff) by taking a picture of the item in question. The service will soon be available in Japan, and I don't doubt it will materialize on these shores eventually.

Nintendo's Unexpected Cheerleader

Nintendo's got a great spokesperson: in the form of a Microsoft executive. Peter Moore, VP at Microsoft's Game Studios, told Reuters that people are going to take the money that they would have spent on a PS3 ($599) to purchase two game machines: the Wii and the Xbox 360. He then goes on to tout the Wii as being competitively priced (at least, he assumes it will be), while offering an innovative design and great games like Mario and Zelda. Moore wonders who's going to spend $600 on one game machine when they can buy two. But here's my question: Why spend $1,000 on a Blu-ray drive in June when you can get one built into a PS3 in November? I'm just sayin'?

Sony Ericsson's 3.2 MP K790 Blogging Camera Phone

The K790 is the first phone that Sony has deigned to bless with the Cyber-shot brand, and after my quick once-over it's easy to see why. Where the W810 is a music phone that takes pictures, the tri-band EDGE K790 is a camera phone that plays music.

The 3.2-megapixel camera has a couple of nifty features. One is BestPic, which provides you with nine photos when you take a picture -- four from the moments leading up to the photo you took and four are from after. Another is the built-in connection to Blogger, for getting those photos on your site right away. Writing the blog entry should be pretty quick and easy with the ridiculously simple T9 text entry system.

The K790 is slated for a Q4 launch.

Opera on Wii

Because the trip from the couch to the computer can sometimes be so oh-so-long and tedious, Nintendo has announced that it will include the Opera Web browser on its new Wii console. According to Opera, the browser will be full-featured; plus you'll be able to browse the Web using the Wii's motion-sensing controller. Cool, although I can already hear the sound of our nation's children getting fatter.

Warner Bros. to Distribute Movies, TV via BitTorrent

For years I've been saying it should happen. I think I've even said it was inevitable. But now that I've read about it, I don't believe it.

Warner Bros.' home entertainment arm has inked a deal to use BitTorrent to distribute its movies and television programs, including releases that are day-and-date with their related DVDs. Perhaps most astonishing is Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group prez Kevin Tsujihara acknowledging that while BitTorrent can reduce pirated material through filtering, they can't expect 100% success: "BitTorrent has shown us that they have very good filtering technology. But nothing's perfect, and we know that."

So, um... who's next?

And Now...Microsoft

An HD-DVD drive, a new online service, and a slew of games. Even though the Redmond-ites already released their next-generation game console last year, they still had plenty to say. The main news was the announcement of Live Anywhere, which is another way of having Microsoft pervade every aspect of your life. No, really, it means that Microsoft is extending its Xbox Live service to PCs and cell phones, so you can, for instance, pit PC gamer against Xbox gamer in a fight to the virtual death.

Also announced were a few pieces of hardware, including an HD-DVD player, a camera for videoconferencing over Xbox Live, a wireless headset, and a racing wheel. The company also showed off a bunch of games, including a video teaser to the much-anticipated, now-officially-announced Halo 3.

Personally, though, I'm more psyched about getting Lumines on Xbox Live Arcade. Today Microsoft announced that it is working with Warner Music to integrate music videos into the Lumines gameplay, although honestly, I could do without having Madonna mug at me while I'm trying to drop blocks. Earlier in the week, Lumines II for PSP and Lumines Plus for PS2 were announced. Whoop whoop! Lumines party!

Wii Coming Late This Year

You know, it's really hard to type that with a straight face. Anyhoo?At today's press conference, Nintendo divulged that its next-gen game console, the Wii, will be available sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. No pricing information, though. Nintendo also offered up a few other tidbits, including the fact that its crazy motion-sensing controller includes a speaker, which should enhance the sound during gameplay. It also announced a number of titles, including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which the company said is "by far the best Zelda game ever made." Well, there you go. You can now rest-assured that it's not the worst Zelda game ever made.

Fox on iTunes

Add "24" to the list of (good) TV shows you can download to your iPod. Fox is the latest network to hand its stuff over to Apple for sale on the iTunes Music Store. Besides "24," the store also features "Prison Break," "Unan1mous," "Stacked" (starring, who else, Pam Anderson?) as well as some 20th Century Fox classics like "Buffy" Season 1 and Joss Whedon's "Firefly."

Sony Ericsson W810 Walkman Phone

I spent time with some of the fine folks from Sony Ericsson today and looked over some of their new phone products for 2006.

The phone that really caught my attention was the W810 Walkman phone, a quad-band EDGE phone that looked nice and felt oh so lovely in my hand. (Officially, its color is "Satin black," which seems appropriate to me given how nice it feels. But I digress.) The W810 packs a 2-megapixel camera, an audio player (MP3/AAC), video recording and playback, and Bluetooth. Storage is on a Memory Stick Duo card and PC connectivity is via a USB 2.0 cable.

Nice features: it's easy to switch between phone, camera and audio player; press the camera shutter to switch to camera mode (you hold the phone sideways, orienting it like any point-and-shoot), or press the Walkman logo for audio functions. And as you'd expect, you can shut the phone functions off when you just want to groove and disconnect from the rest of the world. (Like, say, on an airplane.)

Expect to see the phone in about three weeks.

MiniDV Camcorders on the Decline

Buried in an Associated Press article (here via the Contra Costa Times), an interesting tidbit: tapeless camcorders are quickly gaining ground on their cassette-based cousins. While many of the percentages quoted are predictions (DVD camcorders claiming 27% of the market in 2009, hard-disk camcorders claiming 23% and flash-memory models taking 19%), there's one bit of hard data: MiniDV camcorders accounted for only 54% of those sold last year. Again, convenience trumps better quality -- though in the near future, we may not have to choose between the two.

PS3 Details

The wait is over, the cat's out of the bag. Here's the scoop on the Sony PlayStation 3: The PS3 will be sold in two configs, including a 20GB version for $499 and a 60GB version for $599. It will launch in the U.S. on November 17. The company also showed off its new PS3 controller, which includes Bluetooth and can be controlled via movement. There you have it. Time to start making a pitch for that Thanksgiving bonus.

UPDATE: Latest rumor is that the 20GB PS3 is missing some major features, including HDMI, WiFi, and a media card reader. If that's true, the lack of HDMI is troubling considering the fact that you'll probably want to make full use of that Blu-ray player. Looks like you'll need to save up an extra $100 for the higher-end PS3.

Lumines Moves to a Bigger Screen

Thanks to a certain someone (Leo, I'm talking to you), I was instantly hooked on the PSP after playing Lumines. And to this day I play it whenever I get the chance, despite the extreme hazard it poses to my RSI-afflicted hands. Looks like I'm going to have to invest in more Aleve. Not only was Lumines II (pictured) announced at E3, so was Lumines Plus -- a new version of the original, slated for release on the newly-cheap PlayStation 2.

Watching Ads? That's Why I Have a TiVo

This just in: TiVo is offering a new service called TiVo Product Watch that allows you to find and watch extended commercials you want to see. The ads will range from a minute to an hour in length.

No, really.

The ironies are obvious, but there's some merit to the idea, if it's executed well. The enduring popularity of America's Funniest Commercials, ad-related film festival programming and short-film DVD compilations prove that when ads are entertaining, people are perfectly willing to sit through them. (And, of course, music videos are commercials for CDs and concerts.) So if you hear about a particularly good ad but you don't watch the network it's usually on, you might be able to TiVo it for yourself.

We'll be back with more Digital World after the break.

I Can See iClearly Now

I don't own an iPod, but I have to admit they're awfully pretty. So it's kind of sad that people who care about their iPod's well-being put them in these attractive-yet-concealing cases. (It's kind of like bundling your kid up to survive a Montreal winter -- it protects them, but after a while you forget what they look like because you can only see their eyes.)

Previously only available for the iPod Shuffle and Nano, Griffin has just unveiled a new iClear for fifth-generation iPods. The iClear is a transparent polycarbonate case that snaps into place around your beloved iPod. So now you can have your case and see through it, too.

I Strain, You Strain, We All Strain With Eyestrain

The latest technological-related health scare comes by way of a Wall Street Journal report (reprinted in Monday's Baltimore Sun) that looking at teeny tiny screens on iPods, PDAs, and cell phones for hours on end is leading to an eyestrain epidemic.

While this may cause you to rethink the benefits of downloading and watching the entire season of Lost on your iPod, in some ways this is a cut-and-paste of the same warnings ergonomics experts have long made about staring at computer screens continuously. Similarly, the solution is the same: take a break every once in a while, people!

Stars Wars the Original Coming to DVD

Hey, guess what? Come September 12, you can finally own the original versions of "Star Wars," "Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi" on DVD. George Lucas maintains that the digitally restored "Star Wars" movies that he released in 2004, including inserted scenes and upgraded special effects, are still the definitive versions. But at least now he's offering the chance for fans who don't agree with that assessment to collect the original versions. Each DVD set--the three movies will be sold separately--will include both the original version as well as the digitally restored one. And in Disney style, this offer is only good till December 31, when the DVDs will go off to some impenetrable DVD vault in the sky.

CBS Launches Video-Streaming Website

Add CBS to the list of networks that have should have bosses and IT departments across America quaking. The network has launched CBS Innertube, a Website dedicated to streaming video including interviews and behind-the-scenes clips from shows like "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race"; episodes of old or canceled series like this year's ill-fated "Love Monkey"; and original shows such as "Inturn," in which actors compete for a spot on "As the World Turns." CBS also hopes to offer shows in syndication such as "The Brady Bunch," as well as repeat episodes of current shows. Of course, there are ads that you are forced to watch before you can get to the good stuff. As of this morning, there are three video clips on the site--nothing to get too excited about, although the interview with the guy who designs "Survivor" challenges is pretty interesting. You can read more about the announcement here.

Taiwanese LG Phone Good Enough to Eat

I know they're referred to as candy-bar phones, but isn't this taking things a little far? Akihabara News reports that LG's KV5900 is being marketed in Taiwan as the "KG800 Black Label Series" -- with pictures of the phone in a wrapper and playfully being nibbled on by a model. At least she probably doesn't have to worry about trans fats.

Download Directly to (X-Rated) DVD

Last month I gave props to the movie industry for releasing downloadable versions of movies on the same date as the DVD release, but dinged them for punting -- the downloadable movies use Windows Media with DRM added, so they can only be watched on PCs. (That whole "burn to DVD" thing they mention is strictly for backups.)

It turns out that a few weeks later another major Hollywood studio announced that it had inked a deal with CinemaNow, but with no half-measures: as of May 8, adult entertainment powerhouse Vivid Entertainment will start offering movies to download via CinemaNow for $19.95-- but buyers will be able to burn these movies straight to DVD, including, in the words of Vivid co-CEO Bill Asher, "all the things that come along with a standard DVD, like menus, graphics, art."

Now, I don't buy into this notion that porn decided the Beta-VHS war; back in the wild old days my neighbourhood video store didn't have a walled-off adult section, nor did they place them high up out reach of young 'uns -- they were near the counter, presumably so employees could stop any kids from lingering. The store had a simple layout when you walked in: Beta to the left, VHS to the right -- and there was no shortage of blue movies on either side. I'd wager that the porn industry started to shift to VHS when the mainstream studios started to do the same. (And let's not forget that the porn industry released laserdiscs; that medium's popularity certainly didn't jump as a result.) If anything, porn helped home video as a whole gain a foothold that much quicker, but that's a debate for another time and place.

I think the lesson to take away here is that, despite (or because of?) rampant piracy, the adult industry continues to make money hand over fist. How? They've always adapted to new media, from postcards to comics to 8mm film to home video to the Internet, they listen to their customers, and they always adapt to new or alternate distribution streams. Think about it for a minute: the three major retailers for DVDs right now are Blockbuster, Wal-Mart and Amazon, none of which stock porn -- and yet the industry merrily rolls along. Think the other Hollywood studious could learn something from that?

(P.S. It took twice as long to write this with a minimum of unintentional double entendres. Never let it be said we don't put in the extra effort around here.)

Also in June: Blu-ray Titles

Just as Warner Home Video delayed the release of its first HD-DVD movie titles, Sony Pictures is pushing back the launch of its first Blu-ray movies by a month to June 20. The decision was made so that the movies would coincide better with the release of the first Blu-ray player, from Samsung, due out June 25. Titles include "50 First Dates," "The Fifth Element," "Hitch," "House of Flying Daggers," "A Knight's Tale," "The Last Waltz," "Resident Evil Apocalypse," "Underworld Evolution," and "XXX." There's about, uh, one of those movies I'd actually buy. But then again, cheapskates (and chicks) probably aren't the target early-adopter Blu-ray audience.

DS Lite Due in June

If you've been interested in purchasing a Nintendo DS but didn't want the rather hefty device weighing down your cargo pants, circle June 11 on your calendar. That's the day that Nintendo will be releasing the DS Lite in the U.S. It will be available in Polar White for $130. According to Nintendo, the DS Lite is less than two-thirds the size of the DS and more than 20 percent lighter. As a DS owner, I say that any size and weight they can shave off the thing is awesome. Oh, and while you're at the store, make sure to pick up a copy of Tetris DS. Addictive.

What Would You Do for an iPod?

You know that a thing or concept has reached a certain mythical status when people start asking, "What would you do for...?" You can fill in that blank with all kinds of things: a date with your favorite actor/actress, a million dollars, an all-expenses trip around the world, a little peace and quiet or I swear I am turning this car around RIGHT NOW.

You get the idea. What's most interesting about these questions is the insight into human nature when people answer the question. (That's why game shows and reality TV have done so well, right?)

Spymac adds to the list with "What would you do for an iPod?" Once people sign up on their website, they can offer their services for a particular model of iPod, or dangle an iPod in the hopes of getting something done for free.

I think this might be more fun as a spectator sport than anything else. From the home page, you can see that someone is offering a 60 GB video-enabled iPod for anyone who is willing to design three fully loaded websites. For free. Hmmmn, a job worth a few thousand bucks for a gadget worth a few hundred? Then again, there's someone willing to do graphic art for free for a month for a 1 GB Nano. Let the spectacle begin!

MobiBlu B153 Keeps Going, and Going, and Going

MobiBlu, makers of the diminutive Borg-reminiscent Cube and Cube 2 digital audio players, have something else up their sleeve: the B153, which looks innocuous but has some nice surprises under the hood. It's already got pretty decent audio-player goodness (MP3/WMA playback, OLED display, FM tuner, FM/voice/line-in recording, SRS sound enhancement, USB mass storage), and it's also touted as the world's first Podcast Ready-enabled player (which really means it's the first to have Podcast Ready's myPodder pre-installed -- many players can run it).

But its best feature is hidden in its name -- supposedly, the B153's battery packs a whopping 153 hours of use between charges. Not that you'd want to listen to music almost a week straight with no interruptions, but, you know, you could.

It's Official: High-Def DVD Format Settled

When it comes to the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, forget the Microsofts, Toshibas, and Panasonics of the world. The real decider could be the porn industry. Computerworld is reporting that in the same way the pornies supported VHS and effectively killed Beta, the same could happen in the battle over the next high-def DVD standard. And there's talk that the porn industry is throwing its, uh, weight behind Blu-ray. In fact, according to the article, that's one of the reasons why the E! Entertainment network has chosen Blu-ray as well. Hey, if it's a good enough reason for E!...

This USB Drive Will Self-Destruct in Five Seconds

I don't like to sound like I'm shilling for an upcoming movie (you've probably never heard of it anyway), but how could I not think of Mr. Phelps when I read about this on Gizmodo? msystems -- who I poked fun at for their FlashDisc a while back -- has introduced mTrust Manager, a means for providing corporate IT departments a measure of control over USB flash drive security.

So why am I whistling Lalo Schifrin theme music? Because these flash drives communicate with a central mTrust server when they're plugged in, providing IT people with the means of remotely "terminating" drives after they've been misplaced, lost or read by highly-trained secret agents. I'm not sure what would happen if one of these drives is plugged into a non-networked computer, but I'm sure that Peter Graves is smiling, regardless.

Futuristic Watch

I'm a big fan of crazy watches, especially ones that provide a little challenge in terms of telling time. The futuristic-looking Scope watch from Japan features a scanner that homes in on the correct time--the vertical line represents the hour, the horizontal line the minutes in increments of five. In order to figure out the exact minutes, you then have to add the number of red LEDs that are lit up on the right. So, for instance, if the intersecting lines indicate that it's 5:35, and four LEDs are lit up, then the time is really 5:39. Cool. Tells time and doubles as a math aid to boot.

New Kid on the Cell Block

Move over, Cingular. There's another not-so-cheap cell phone service provider in town. Helio is a brand-new cell phone service aimed at young-en's (that's 20-something year olds to me) who want to surf the Web, send text and picture messages, and access MySpace from their mobile. For $85 a month, you get access to Sprint's 3G network; unlimited Web surfing, data transfer, and domestic video/picture/text messaging; 1,000 minutes of talk time; access to MySpace; and live information fed to your home screen on vital topics like sports and entertainment.

So far, you have a choice of two phones: Pantech's $275 Hero and VK Mobile's $250 Kickflip, both of which feature a two-megapixel camera and support for MP3 and MPEG-4. The company plans to add more phones later this year. If you do a lot more than yammer on your cell phone, you might want to evaluate how much you spend in data and minutes, then compare that to Helio's price. Or just as an exercise in depression.

Sony Expects to Take Loss on PS3

Sometimes news doesn't really feel new, you know? We weren't the only ones to comment on the expense of producing each PlayStation 3 (especially with that expensive Blu-ray drive), and it seems that every new console released in the last decade has been dogged with speculation that the manufacturer will be taking a loss on the hardware.

But this time Sony has fessed up all on its own, sort of. A BusinessWeek article vividly uses the word "hemorrhage" to describe the 100 billion yen ($871.6 million) operating loss it expects to suffer during the business year just in preparing for the PS3 launch (the half-year delay doesn't help, either). Granted, they expect to balance some of this by strong initial sales (they expect to outpace Xbox 360 sales) and cutting manufacturing costs on the PS3 over time as chips and parts get cheaper, but that's still a whole lot of cash -- enough to motivate Standard & Poor's to cut Sony to a "strong sell".

Ouch. That's gotta hurt.

Apple Says .99 Per Track, and So It Stays

Apple announced earlier today that it has renewed its contracts with the music industry's Big Four (EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, Warner), and that they're keeping the cost of a single iTunes track at 99 cents.

If you haven't been following this, then you should know that three of the Big Four have been trying to convince Apple to let them set prices, any they haven't hidden their desire to charge more for premium acts. In the past, Steve Jobs has called the music industry "greedy" in reference to this desire, and it's hard for me to disagree. I just picked a random Big Four album on Amazon, and came up with the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium... at $16.96 for 28 tracks, that works out to 60.57 cents per track. Heck, even at the list price of $21.98, that's 78.5 cents per track. So on a track-by-track basis, iTunes users are being charged more, despite the fact that they get less (no liner notes, for instance) and Warner saves money on the manufacturing and shipping of physical goods.

Drunken Speakers

Anything with the word "sake" in it immediately piques our interest, which is probably why JVC made sure to mention that its new compact home theater system features "sake-soaked wood cone speakers." JVC's new EX-A10 includes laptop-sized stackable receiver and DVD player as well as a pair of wood cone speakers, which sit inside cherry cabinets. Add TV, stir, and you've got a full-on home theater setup.

According to JVC, what makes the EX-A10 unique is the sake-soaked speakers. Apparently, it took 20 years for engineers to figure out that soaking solid sheets of wood in sake allows you to form them into cones without splitting the wood. Who knew sake was useful for more than just chasing raw fish?

Samsung's UMPC on the Way

Samsung officially launched its Q1 Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) today. Featuring a 7-inch touchscreen, and weighing just 1.7 pounds, the Q1 is a cross between a tablet PC and a PDA. You can play movies, look at pix, and play music as well as connect to anything under the sun via WiFi and Bluetooth. The Q1 will cost $1,099, and you can pick one of these up at Best Buy Online starting May 7.

Napster Offers Free Music

Want to listen to music for free? Turns out the place to go is Napster. Catering to those of us that used the original Napster to listen to tracks before buying CDs, the service will now allow people to listen to streamed songs for free, with the reasonable caveat that you can only listen to a given track for free five times; after that you can either subscribe or buy the track outright. Registration for the free service is surprisingly non-intrusive, requiring just a name, e-mail address and password. (The service is currently only available for the US version of Napster, with other territories to follow eventually.)

Capitalizing on the popularity of social networking, Napster also provides the means for people to post links to any of their songs on your web page, blog, or in e-mail. Looks like Napster might have finally got the hang of how this Internet thing works.

Accidental humor postscript: "Napster & free music ... they just go together." Did no one at Napster catch the irony of this phrase in their FAQ?