Its Electronica

Toshiba may have thrown in the towel on its HD DVD standard, but the company seems to have forgotten something. It still have an exclusive deal with DreamWorks to have its movies only distributed in HD DVD. That means that Toshiba may be admitting defeat and that the Blu-ray standard will become the only high-definition DVD standard, but DreamWorks is in a “catch 22.”

Reuters is reporting that DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures signed exclusive deals to offer movies only in the HD DVD format over the next 18 months. That deal is still on the books, so the “Bee Movie,” due out from DreamWorks next month, may come out in HD DVD, since it may mean more money for DreamWorks from Toshiba than switching to the Blu-ray standard so soon. Of course, DreamWorks would like the issue settled before this year’s holiday season.

Clearly, it seems that though Toshiba was brave enough to pull the plug on HD DVD, the company seems to have forgotten about the exclusive deals it signed picture studios up for. You would imagine that Toshiba will simply settle with these picture studios, so that those studios could move forward on the Blu-ray format without the loss of revenue promised from Toshiba in agreeing to the exclusive deals. I’m sure at this point Toshiba is wishing it would have simply come to an agreement with Sony on a single standard that combined the best of Blu-ray and HD DVD, because it seems Toshiba still has some more money to lose on the hd dvd deal even after quitting the fight.

Read more from the Reuters article.

Posted Feb 28th 2008 9:12AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: cellphones

We’re not sure what took them so long, but Sprint finally has joined its fellow major carriers in offering an unlimited plan for a flat rate — the now industry standard $99 — only this time it’s for all the marbles. Instead of just the unlimited voice offered by AT&T and Verizon, or the voice + SMS that T-Mobile has on offer, Sprint is undercutting the competition with a $99 plan that includes voice, data, text, Sprint TV, GPS and more. “Simply Everything” is available today to both CDMA and iDEN customers, and is open to existing and new subscribers. If you’ve got a family plan, it’s $5 less for every line you add ($99 + $94 + $89 and so on). While those with the gift of gab but no desire to surf the mobile webs might be disappointed that the rumored $60 unlimited voice plan didn’t materialize, this certainly undercuts the competition by healthy margin for the smartphone crowd, which is exactly what we were hoping for out of Sprint.

Go figure, the Nuviphone is a popular name.  Reminiscent of the iphone name dispute between Apple and Cisco, Nuvio an internet telephone provider is suing Garmin over trademark infringement.

Nuvio isn’t stopping there, seems they’ve just noticed Garmin is making a bundle off the Nuvi name and are claiming that as part of the infringement as well.  They seek past revenue compensation on just the Nuvi name.

“While we would have preferred to settle this without resorting to a lawsuit, we felt it was important to ensure that our customers and potential customers are not confused by someone abusing our legally protected trademark,” said Jason P. Talley, the company’s chief executive officer. “Our customers commonly refer to our service as the Nuvio phone.”

Read [Yahoo!]

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LG looks set to roll out yet another lcd monitor, but this time their offering comes with a caveat - it is said to offer an abnormally high contrast ratio of 10,000 to 1, which is a higher ratio compared to some dedicated HDTVs currently have on offer. I suppose the reason for this is because the LCD monitor has been targeted for watching movies in addition to doing work, but there is no word on its diagonal viewing area as at press time, let alone pricing and availability details. All we know is, this LCD monitor will feature LG’s Digital Fine Contrast technology and utilize highly stylized aesthetics.

Posted Feb 28th 2008 12:48PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Features, Laptops

We just got our 2.5GHz Penryn / 4GB fourth-gen MacBook Pro. Plenty of power under that hood, but the outward differences are few: it’s got the new, reorganized F-key layout (which we’re not all that fond of), and the trackpad physically the same (with the addition of multi-touch, which works just as well as it did on the macbook air). It’s definitely an anticipated upgrade to the flagship, but whether you think the form factor’s still got the longevity necessary to keep you coming back after, what, more than two years on the market with no major changes — well, we’ll leave that to you. We’ll have some updated benchmarks shortly.

P.S. -It includes the same model 60Wh battery they’ve been selling on these for a while, for those puzzled about the battery life changes made to the Apple’s MBP spec page.

Gallery: Apple MacBook Pro (with Penryn and multi-touch) unboxing

The humble cylindrical shape of the soda can has for many years ‘done what is says on the tin’ (excuse the pun). But fortunately some smart people at Neux Corp have decided that it can now be used to contain the wonder of portable audio. The NXMP324 supports MP3, WMA, WMV, WAV and ASF file formats with ID3 tags and lyrics display.

Other, perhaps unexpected features, as any “feature” would be expected from a tin can, include an FM radio, voice recorder, OLED screen and 7 EQ settings. The device comes with either 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB or 4GB of memory and is available in your choice of blue or red.

Via [PMP Today]

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Asus is launching their ZX1 touch screen phone which will be branded by Lamborghini. It will run the Windows Mobile 6 Pro (probably 6.1) when it arrives and feature a full touch screen which will be a completely flat display integrated in to the housing just like an iphone. On the connectivity side we will see 3G data support, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and it will be powered by a 520MHz Qualcomm processor.

With the ZX1 being branded by Lamborghini this means you will see the regular Lambborghini colours for the casing of the phone which I assume will be yellow and black. However, I do hope that an equivalent of the ZX1 will hit the market with out the Lamborghini brand as it seems that the
famous badge is only there to increase the price for no real reason.

The phone will be launched in Europe during the summer and without a contract it will set you back 650 EUR ($981 USD at today’s exchange rate). With contract you can expect the price to be greatly reduced.

There are no actual picture of the Asus ZX1 yet. The one up above is just a mock up from an older Asus phone.

Via: Unwiredview

Guest post by Matthew of Gadget Venue

High blood pressure is a serious disease that one should always keep a close eye on in order to avoid complications like heart attacks and strokes. The RESPeRATE interactive breathing device claims to lower your blood pressure without the use of drugs as long as it is used for a quarter of an hour a few times a week.

Using a breathing sensor, RESPeRATE automatically analyzes your individual breathing pattern and creates a personalized melody composed of two distinct inhale and exhale guiding tones, delivered through comfortable earphones. Simply listen to the melody through the headphones and synchronize your breathing to the tones. By prolonging the exhalation tone RESPeRATE guides you to slow your breathing and reach the “therapeutic zone” of less than 10 breaths per minute.The physiological result? The muscles surrounding the small blood vessels in your body dilate, and relax. Blood is allowed to flow more freely, and pressure is directly, significantly lowered.

While money can’t buy health, $290 can net you the RESPeRATE which could be more effective than the medicine you’re currently taking.

Shoveling snow off your driveway can be quite a pain during winter, and even worse if you don’t have kids whom you can order around (lovingly). Engineer Kevin decided to literally take things into his own hands, putting together this pedal-powered Snowplow by merging together various parts from a riding lawnmower and a bicycle. The blades are constructed out of two different shovels which have been cut and nestled together to form a ‘V’ shape, making it possible to plow through your yard in record time.

At the Sony Open House, Mike Abary (SVP of Information Technology Products Division) shared his view on the Asus Eee and used the expression “race to the bottom” (in terms of pricing) to describe what would happen if consumers would go for ultra-cheap PCs massively. It is an interesting subject, and here is what we think of it at Ubergizmo: given the success of the Eee, it’s not hard to imagine why PC manufacturers keep an eye on the issue.

“Good enough” is a danger for PC Makers

High-end laptops are not going away but $400 laptops like the Eee could put the other sub-$999 laptops in danger, and the volume is huge in this segment. It is interesting to understand why consumers like the Asus Eee (and the likes) to see why there is a potential for a “race to the bottom”. We call it the “good enough” effect.

“Good enough” is the single scariest thing for all technology companies. They maintain their average selling prices (ASP) by improving functionalities (speed, storage…). Now, what if users’ needs do not evolve as quickly as the hardware? Average selling prices (ASP) would spiral down.