Heading to Cisco Live Networkers 2008
June 21, 2008
Hello fellow Joost, Apple, Hulu, WebTV followers. Just a uick one to let you know that I am heading south tomorrow to attend the Cisco Live Networkers conference in Orlando.
Leave me a comment if you are attending too. Maybe we will have a chance to meet and greet over there.
I will keep updating my blog as much as possible during the conference.
Cheers
GM closes 4 North American plants in shift from trucks toward cars
June 3, 2008
Image via Wikipedia
Responding to a consumer shift toward more fuel-efficient vehicles, General Motors said Tuesday that it would stop making pickup trucks and big sport utility vehicles at four North American assembly plants and would consider selling its Hummer brand.
The moves, announced Tuesday by the company chairman and chief executive, Rick Wagoner, will slash 500,000 units from the automaker’s overall production, and pave the way for increased investment in smaller cars and passenger vehicles.
Wagoner said that rising gasoline prices had forced a “structural shift” by U.S. consumers away from truck-based vehicles built by GM. Read more
Multi-Touch coming to a device near you
June 3, 2008
Microsoft recently announced the new user interface for Windows 7 and it will support multi-touch. HP TouchSmart desktop and their somewhat similar touch-screen laptop is already making Multi-Touch (and touch in general) a Windows reality.
Where touch works best is when you are manipulating objects or navigating through items. If we weren’t already used to using a mouse and the fact that touch-screens have traditionally been too expensive and suffered in terms of brightness and resolution, historically we’d likely all have touch-screens today. Read more
Rumors indicate Eee Box will be called EBOX, coming June 3
May 25, 2008
What we have been calling the Asus Eee Box looks to finally have an official name. Based on unnamed sources, the Inquirer is reporting that the desktop PC will be called the Asus EBOX. As already speculated, they are saying it will be revealed on June 3 at Computex. Specs also look to be what we’ve been told already: 160GB HDD, 2GB RAM, and a Linux OS. Nothing much more to see here, but we’re hoping Asus will give this thing a competitive price for those looking to tinker with a slick open-source box.
(Via Engadget.)
Adobe set to test new Flash Player
May 15, 2008
Adobe on Thursday is expected to launch a beta test program for the latest version of its Flash Player software.
Flash Player 10, developed under the code name Astro, includes better support for 3D animation and video hardware acceleration, among other improvements.
Adobe said that Flash Player 10 will now support custom visual effects, created with Adobe’s free Pixel Bender tools. Developers can write code to create effects that can be rendered by Flash Player at runtime. Read more
Warner Bros. Entertainment going exclusively Blu-ray
January 4, 2008
(January 4, 2008 – Burbank, CA) – In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.
“Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” said Meyer. “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.”
Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008.
“Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices,” said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. “Today’s decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner.”
“A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,” said Tsujihara. “Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience. Warner Bros. has worked very closely with the Toshiba Corporation in promoting high definition media and we have enormous respect for their efforts. We look forward to working with them on other projects in the future.”
DVD War Over High Definition, Most Buyers Are Sitting It Out
December 31, 2007
What if nobody wins the high-definition DVD format wars? Blu-ray discs sit alongside the competing HD DVD format.
According to data from Adams Media Research, 578,000 HD DVD and 370,000 Blu-ray machines will be sold by the end of this year.
Studios allied with the Blu-ray camp include Columbia, Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, Miramax, New Line and Sony.
In the HD DVD camp are DreamWorks, Paramount, Universal, the Weinstein Company, and several smaller TV and motion picture companies. High-definition DVDs of both formats provide superior picture and sound quality compared with standard DVDs.
Only high-definition sets can display high-definition DVD images. “Today, an HDTV owner hooks up a standard DVD and it looks good,” said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of HD Strategic Marketing at Universal, and co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group. According to research by NPD Group, only 11 percent of HDTV set owners strongly intend to buy a Blu-ray or HD DVD player by next spring. Blu-ray and HD DVD proponents are doing what they can to change that attitude. HD DVD players, the vast majority of which are made by Toshiba, still have the price advantage. Blu-ray units are also made by Panasonic, Philips, Sony and others.
As prices drop, high-definition DVD drives will find their way into other devices. The 400 movies available in each format are a fraction of the 90,000 movies and TV programs that the video rental company Netflix offers. Increasingly, high-definition DVDs are being issued simultaneously with the standard definition DVD release.
Of Blockbuster’s 5,000 physical stores, 250 offer both high-definition DVD formats, while 1,450 rent only Blu-ray; the rest offer none. As more consumers buy HDTVs, and the price of dual format players drop, an uneasy truce may descend. “When high-definition DVD reaches its tipping point, studios will have to release their movies in both HD DVD and Blu-ray,” Mr. Adams said.
Source: NYTimes
Microsoft secretly hope both HD DVD and Blue Disk fail?
December 4, 2007
Engadget HD is reporting on a story about Michael Bay claiming that Microsoft does not want either HD format to succeed. What Microsoft want is downloadable HD:
It’s no secret that Michael “Transformers” Bay prefers his high definition optical discs in the Blu variety, but what we didn’t know was how convinced the man is that the whole format war is nothing but a stalling tactic, with Microsoft pulling all the strings. Responding to a commenter angry over Paramount’s decision to burn Optimus and friends onto HD DVD only, Bay claims to have the inside track on the “corporate politics” at play here, suggesting that “Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads.” He goes on to claim that Redmond has only been financially backing HD DVD over “superior Blu-ray” to create “confusion in the market” until such time as high def digital downloading goes prime time. In other words, if you believe Bay, Microsoft is backing a known loser in order to prolong a war it doesn’t want anyone to win. Pretty wild theory, if you ask us — hey, this guy should make movies.
Hulu testing HD video streaming
December 4, 2007
Hulu, the joint online video venture between NBC and News Corp, has given private beta testers a sneak peak at the high definition video that should soon be available on the net more ubiquitously now that Flash supports the H.264 video codec. Hulu HD content is in 720p (1280×720) format.
Hulu currently provides only nine trailers in high definition as a sampler, including ones for Jumper, 27 Dresses, Hitman, American Gangster, and Definitely, Maybe. Playback requires a connection of 2,400 kbps or higher, Flash Player 9.0.115.0, and a fast computer (at least 3 GHz for PCs and 1.83 GHz for Macs).
No word yet on when the rest of Hulu’s collection might become available in high definition.
Source: techcrunch
A direct link to the HD gallery can be found here.
I think it is time for Joost to start to get worried now. When will we see HD streaming content on Joost?
Adobe Delivers Flash Player 9 With H.264 Video Support
December 4, 2007
Adobe has announced the immediate availability of Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3 software, previously code named Moviestar.
Adobe Flash Player 9 now includes H.264 standard video support, the same standard deployed in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD high definition video players, and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio capabilities.
The combination of Adobe Flash Player 9 and Adobe Flash Media Server 3 (also announced today) enables the delivery of HD quality video to the broadest online audience. Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3 is available immediately at http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer.
H.264 support is an encoding option in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects software and is now integrated across the Adobe Flash family of products. Expected to be available in early 2008, Adobe Media Player, the first application from Adobe built on Adobe AIR, will leverage both H.264 video and HE-AAC audio support. Adobe Media Player takes Flash streaming video experiences outside the Web browser delivering more viewing options, such as watching videos anytime, anywhere.
With H.264 and HE-AAC support in Adobe Flash Player 9 and Adobe Flash Media Server 3, content providers can now deliver HDTV-quality streaming video on the Web.
“Together with Adobe, we will provide a best-in-class, high definition video experience.”
“The inclusion of industry standard H.264 support in Adobe Flash Player, Adobe AIR, the Adobe Creative Suite product line and Adobe Flash Media Server 3 brings new HD capabilities to millions of Flash developers and a new generation of viewers who are turning to the Web as the place to find their favorite shows and video content.”
Adobe Flash Player 9 is immediately available as a free download for Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms from http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer . To learn more about Adobe Flash Player 9, please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/ .
