Give it a few more years and we’ll all wonder why this was newsworthy. The Belgian newspaper De Tijd, based in Antwerp, is going to begin testing an e-ink edition of their newspaper. Starting in April 2006 200 subscribers will be able to receive their subscription on a reader using technology by E Ink Corporation.
Story with more details at Monsters and Critics
via MAKE: Blog
“Why are you such a bunch of big girls?” asked Birch. “Why don’t you tell the content owners to just get stuffed?” He continued unabated: “You’re too seduced by the content industry, Hollywood is not even a $10 billion industry. Hollywood is small compared to the telecom industry. Why don’t you take a stronger line? Consumers don’t want DRM at all. You can’t sell DRM.”
I think that speaks for itself.
via Ars Technica
Apparently the first episode of Conviction, the new show from Dick Wolf about young assistant district attorneys, has shown up on iTunes as a free download-the show premieres on NBC in March. Perhaps the folks at Bravo has explained to NBC execs the viral nature of free content on the Internet. This is however the same NBC that freaked out when they found out that YouTube was giving them free publicity and risking making Saturday Night Live relevant again.
It took several years before TV networks figured out that they could make money by releasing seasons on DVD at a reasonable price. Perhaps in a few years HBO’s crying about the broadcast flag will be but a distant memory and we can all watch our Hi-Def television on our portable media players with the roll-out 17 inch electronic paper display.
via Gizmodo
The exchange quickly escalated after Mr. McClellan told Mr. Gregory, “The cameras aren’t on right now” and “you can do this later.” Mr. Gregory retorted, “Don’t be a jerk to me personally.” Mr. McClellan then said, “Calm down, David,” and Mr. Gregory shot back, “I’ll calm down when I feel like calming down.”
The New York Times has a story about the media coverage surrounding Vice President Cheney’s hunting accident that includes the quoted exchange. Currently in the world we have multiple wars, millions dying from disease, protests that the media is too scared to cover, concerns about nuclear proliferation, terrorism, etc. and the US media is obsessed with the fact that THEY didn’t get a call earlier about a hunting accident. I don’t care if you support the president or not, there’s got to be more important stories than the press getting their feelings hurt.
Maybe someone should tell the press to quit being jerks.
Update (2006/02/15 14:45):
CNN offers a defense of why this should be a story.
Tony Blankley offers his opinion of why it’s not and why the media thinks it is.
Eggo and LEGOs….it seems so obvious now. The Eggo breaks into LEGO blocks that you can build with, or eat if you’re into such things. I guess you’re Mom can’t tell you not to play with your food anymore.
via Junk Food Blog
One of the first complaints I’ve heard from a lot of people with Hi-Definition TVs is just how bad most television looks. It only gets worse if you choose lower quality recording on your DVR or, even worse, you have to view a video tape (unlikely, I know).
Engadget has an article on how to build your own low-cost video scaler to make your viewing a little prettier.
Microsoft has announced that the PC version of Halo 2 will only work on the new version of Windows called Vista.
The Vista edition of Halo 2 will offer single and multi-player versions of the game, extra maps from add-on packs as well as software tools to create new places to play.
via BBC News
Update:
Here is a link to the news on xbox.com.
I’m sure that this is the first of many Internet-based DVR products.
The Aeon Digital DIVA DV220 is a DVR that can record 200 hours of video on its 80GB hard drive. When the drive is full it can archive content to your PC. It streams video and music from your PC or from the Internet.The unit has a built-in 3 port Ethernet swith or a optional 802.11b/g to update your free subscription to the Aeon Network Electronic Program Guide.
On their product page, they list WMV as the only supported video format. MP3, WAV, and WMA audio are supported as well as JPEG images.
The NBC Universal deal will make movies and television events from NBC Universal available on the Aeon Digital Network. On demand titles will only be available for 24 hours after purchase.
“Welcome to true convergence”, said Giovanni D’Andrea, CEO of Aeon Digital. Our network will provide consumers with access to thousand’s of movies, millions of songs and radio stations from around the world including live and specialty channels. The addition of NBC Universal content is a total home run for our subscribers. We can offer them Universal’s new releases as well as a large number of hit library films.
If companies can make some good IPTV products that are good quality and allow consumers freedom to view and perhaps archive at a reasonable cost, I beleive this could end the era of broadcast and cable network. In the future the NBC Network could be a actual computer network, not a broadcast television network. Consumers would have the option to purchase individual shows or a series from the shows producer, or could subscribe to the NBC Network to get all of the shows they program.
I’ve wanted to be a fan of e-paper and flexible displays for year, but since nobody every actually released one, it was hard. While this is only an artists rendering of what could be possible, Universal Display Corporation has created a prototype using the technology. The prototype is four-inch diagonal, Full Color, 100 dpi, and is capable of full motion video, while being approximately 0.1 mm thick.
This kind of technology has been within 2 years of release for the last 5-10 year, but I’m still gullible.
via Gizmodo
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