Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

All around the internet people have been pronouncing HD DVD dead. The past week I’ve seen it on dozens of sites, however, it really hasn’t been official. Until now. Toshiba finally issued a press release announcing the discontinuation of HD DVD business.

I really hoped that HD DVD would pull through, as their pricing was far better than the competition. Alas, it really came down to the movie studios. In the release from Toshiba, they mentioned that they will “reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008.”

You can imagine that glasses are being raised over at the Blu-ray camp as we speak.

VIA [ Press Release ]

It’s that time of the month again, when we decide to thank some of the folk that make this site possible. One company is behind a slew of services, like URLBrief, Blog In Space and the potentially market-disrupting Social Spark.

That company is IZEA.

Thanks for your support, guys.

By Luke Anderson

I finally upgraded my digital camera to a DSLR, so naturally I had to pick up new memory for it. Since my old camera is all but retired, I have a couple of decent-sized SD cards that are just sitting around not being used. I’d like to think I could utilize their storage capacities in a new camcorder, but they’re not that big, or fast. Now if I had one of these new Panasonic 32GB SDHC cards, it would be a whole different story.

The huge card won’t go on sale until April, but it is well worth the wait. The card is labeled a class 6, which has transfer rates of 20MB per second making it the fastest card at this capacity. Unfortunately you’re going to have to pay a hefty premium for that speed, as the card will set you back around $700 when it debuts.

VIA [ CNET ]

By Luke Anderson

Last year we saw a lot of compact PCs that were really overpriced. Take for example the FlipStart which featured a 1.1GHz Pentium processor and 512MB of RAM and a 5.6-inch screen. It ran a full version of Windows XP (now even Vista) which was cool, but the $1,499 price tag was huge turnoff. In a huge surprise move, they have drastically dropped the price down to $699. Now that’s what I’m talking about.

In a world that has the Asus Eee PC, the FlipStart really didn’t have a hope of surviving at its current price, so it was a smart move to bring it down. My favorite feature is the integrated Sprint EV-DO Rev A chipset which lets you get net access almost anywhere (for a fee of course). It might not be as comfortable to type on as the Eee PC, but it may give it a run for its money now.

[ FlipStart ] VIA [ RegHardware ]

By Luke Anderson

If you’ve been paying careful attention to the world of tech news, then you may have caught the quiet launch of Apple’s latest addition to the MacBook line dubbed the Air. So maybe quiet isn’t exactly the best word to use when talking about any product launch from Apple, but I digress. One of the issues that I noticed right off the bat was that much like Apple’s iPods and iPhones, you can’t actually replace the battery yourself. This is a major turnoff for most mobile users.

So what is it going to take to get yourself a spanking-new battery when your old one stops holding a decent charge? The magic number is $129 and the best part is that Apple is more than happy to install it for you for free. That’s about on-par with other notebook batteries, so I think most people will be more or less pleased with the cost.

[ Apple ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

It’s time to thank one of our sponsors, a company that is behind a slew of services, like URLBrief, Blog In Space and the potentially market-disrupting Social Spark.

That company is IZEA.

Thanks for your support, guys.

By Luke Anderson

Have you ever been expecting someone to show up for a date, and they call right before they’re supposed to pick you up to tell you that they will be a bit late? That’s pretty annoying, but at least they called right? Well what if they just keep calling and telling you that it’ll be just a bit longer? Well that’s sort of how it feels with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Mario just called, he’s running a little late…..again.

For those keeping track at home, the game was due to be released way back in October of last year. The new March 9th date puts the game a good five months away from its originally planned launch. Sure, plenty of games get delayed, and five months is nothing compared to Duke Nukem (Delayed) Forever, but it’s always disappointing just the same.

VIA [ IGN ]

By Luke Anderson

While I haven’t picked sides of the HD format war (see: haven’t actually bought a player), I have been silently rooting for HD DVD. Sure, I’m rooting for the underdog, but when you’re a Bears fan for so long, you get used to it. The reason that I think HD DVD could still snag a victory is the price. Toshiba broke the $200-mark late last year, which was a huge milestone. Now according to a new announcement, they’ve chopped another $50 from the low-end of their offerings.

That’s right, you can now pick up a Toshiba HD-A3 player for just $149. Unfortunately this still doesn’t make up for the fact that most of the studios have jumped ship to the Blu-ray camp. I’m greatly saddened by this, as Sony has priced their players much higher than the competition, and when (if?) HD DVD goes under, I don’t see them lowering them for the fun of it. Just look at the PS3, they kept the prices as high as they could for some time, despite poor sales.

Either way you look at it, the war is nearly over. I still think HD DVD has a chance, although it’s not much of one. I wouldn’t’ be surprised if the next six months was enough to give us a clear victor.

[ Toshiba ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Evan Ackerman

It’s just about 2am, and in a scant 6 hours, I’m leaving for Las Vegas to throw myself on the mercy of the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show. I’ll be there through Wednesday night, checking out the 2,700 exhibitors (not to mention the keynotes, press conferences, and special events), and I’m going to do my level best to visit every last one of them and take a bazillion pictures. But, what do YOU want to see? Leave a comment and let me know, whether it’s something specific or just a general category of tech or products.

For the CES Exhibitor Directory, click here.

[ CES08 ]

By David Ponce

Boys and girls, this side of the continent, it’s 2008. And by the time you read this, it may very well be in yours too. So Happy New Year errbody!!