Yesterday we told you about NVIDIA's new mobile platform, Tegra, and today, we've got some videos from the company showing off the system, and giving you a good impression of just how much less juice this architecture uses compared to the competition. Check the videos after the break demonstrating the systems' lean energy needs, HDMI output capabilities, blazing fast gaming, and that fancy UI we keep telling you about.

Oh, shoplifters of the world -- you're not going to unite and take over with these kinds of tactics. A Kirksville, MO. man was arrested on Thursday for trying to boost a $517 Viore (yeah) LCD television by swapping the UPC tag with one from a $3.16 bottle of water. Apparently, cashiers weren't fooled by the admittedly paper-thin maneuver, and after four swipe attempts, a replaced paper spool, and one PA announcement for a store manager to come to register 14, they had the super-genius switcher thrown in the big house. If convicted, the man faces up to seven years in prison plus a hefty fine... and the lifelong shame of having tried to pull this stunt off.

[Via Fark]

Remember that Sony Internet Video Link for Bravia TVs that we told you about way back in February of 2007? Well apparently the $299.99 units have hit stores, and are now available for your purchasing pleasure. If you'll recall, the pricey boxes allow you to stream internet video, music, and light content (like weather and traffic) into your television via the company's familiar Xross Media Bar interface. Of course, you'll be dropping a pretty big chunk of change on something with fairly limited use, but hey... it's your money.

[Via Zatz Not Funny!]

At long, long last, we've finally picked a winner for our biggest (and most time consuming) HD contest ever. It took us a while, but after poring over almost 3,000 entries we believe we've finally unearthed our favorite sad setup around. The honor (or dishonor?) goes to reader Samuel Goldstein -- congrats! We know it's hard to imagine that our + $5,000 worth of gear will match up to his 19-inch Zenith Space Command TV, RCA VCR from 1995, recycled car speakers, or the "picture-in-picture" that is a Citizen portable television, but we think he'll manage. Watch the video "tour" of the winner's "system" after the break, and be sure to check out all the other painful entrants in the gallery below.

When you're not heading to work in your space car or programming your robot maid to make dinner for the family, you'll probably want to catch American Idol 3017 on this Humax LCD TV concept. Designed by London's Tej Chauhan, the future-retro model manages to look old while seeming completely fresh, recalling the "World of Tomorrow" depicted in Cold War-era renderings of the "future." There's no word on whether this is going to get turned into an honest-to-goodness consumer product (please?), but you can check it out if you live in Italy at the Zona Tortona design show, running April 16th to the 21st.

[Via Tech Digest]

As unlikely as this sounds, rivals Time Warner Cable and Comcast are apparently in talks with Sprint and Clearwire over establishing a nationwide WiMAX network. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the companies are scrambling to get a deal wrapped up by CTIA -- which takes place at the beginning of April -- and could see an influx of cash from both Google and Intel in excess of $1 billion. It seems the odd-couple partners are keen to cut into heavyweights Verizon and AT&T's ever-expanding range of at-home and mobile services by offering their own take on a high-speed data and voice system to consumers. Clearly this combination would deflate AT&T and Verizon's big FCC bandwidth-nabs a little (and it explains why the cable players weren't interested in the 700MHz auction), but it's questionable whether this rag-tag team of wild card players would seriously court the public's eye. They say America loves an underdog -- even if it's a gigantic, super-rich, corporate underdog.

[Via mocoNews]

Hot on the heels of that Apple TV patent which included broadcast viewing functions, we're getting a peek at a new application which suggests a possible DVR future for the folks from Cupertino. The concept breaks from standard TiVo-like solutions by making extensive use of a handheld component, which would be used to program and control the recordings, and could periodically download batches of shows for iPod-esque portability. On the set-top side, the box would function largely the way most DVRs do now, though Apple seems to be interested in infusing the process with its typical gloss, and part of the application is concerned with the possibility of gesture-based control for the unit (no surprise there). Of course, this isn't the freshest patent filing in the world, and it's possible Steve has already moved on to a more intuitive, telepathically controlled system by now.


[Via AppleInsider]

Look, don't act like you didn't know this was coming. Microsoft has started selling its Xbox 360 HD DVD drive for the ultra-bargain price of $49.99. So now's your chance to get one super-duper cheap. Or you could just throw that $50 into the garbage... same thing.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

With HD DVD, things are just going from bad, to really bad, to worse, to car-crash-you-can't-stop-looking-at. You can file this one under that latter category, as Wal-Mart has officially announced its intentions to stop stocking HD DVD players and movies by June. According to reports, the retailer came to the decision after Netflix and Best Buy made announcements concerning their position in the HD format war. Susan Chronister of Wal-Mart wrote on the company's blog, "By June Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines, and of course standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players." Susan went on to deliver what we consider a total burn by adding, "if you bought the HD [DVD] player like me, I'd retire it to the bedroom, kid's playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard-def movies, and make space for a BD player." Look, we're not gonna say that this is it for HD DVD, but... uh, it doesn't look real great.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Finally, Michael Bay has stepped down from Cheese Mountain to pontificate on the finer points of the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray war. Speaking from the inner-sanctum of his lair -- located equidistant from the Church of Scientology and a gigantic cotton candy stand -- Mr. Bay reminds us that, "Blu-ray's better, and I told everyone," then goes on to further prop himself by adding, "I was very vocal about it. I knew HD [DVD] was not going to make it." We're glad that Bay can sleep at night, safe in the knowledge that the mere "quality" of the formats decided the winner of this battle, rather than massive business partnerships fueled by the desire for marketshare. He wrapped up his message (actually given at an awards ceremony held by the Visual Effects Society) by saying, "Am I thrilled? It really wasn't my fight, but remember what I said in the press? I was kind of saying HD [DVD]'s going to lose... No one believed me." He then slammed a trophy he was receiving to the floor, pointed to the packed room, and yelled, "In your face, HD DVD!"

[Via Blu-ray, thanks Kiwi616]

Attention Wal-Mart shoppers -- you're about to get a sweet deal on a digital-to-analog TV converter box. According to an excited press release from the company, your local stores are now stocked from floor to ceiling with an ultra-cheap Magnavox converter, selling for the shockingly low price of $49.87. Of course, since households across the US are about to get those succulent $40 coupons for converters, this little puppy won't cost much more than about two gallons of gas. We kid, we kid. But seriously, they're pretty cheap.

No stranger to the odd patent filing, Apple has once again delved into the dark waters of the unknown with an application for an Apple TV-like device with iChat-esque functionality, amongst others. In the patent, the company suggests a number of uses for widget overlays during video, including those triggered by content and timing, as well as widgets used for menus and navigation. The patent demonstrates how real-time widget updates may coincide with live broadcast television -- such as a scorecard overlay for a sporting event -- and also showcases a video chat function which can be used simultaneously during the playback or broadcast of content. Additionally, the filing shows a new remote which would have hot buttons for quick access to widgets, navigation, and the automatic milkshake mode (we might have wishfully made up that last one). Sure it looks good, but we'd happily take the latest Apple TV update until this comes along.

The boys and girls at Sony are firing on all (or a few) cylinders today, launching not one, but three new digital photo frames for your digital photo-framing pleasure. All the frames in the new lineup contain 800 x 480 WVGA displays with a Bizarro World aspect ratio of 15:9, and are capable of scaling and display pictures up to 48-megapixels in size -- which we're sure you'll be taking advantage of real soon. The 7-inch DPF-V700 and 9-inch DPF-V900 both sport 512MB of internal storage, can communicate via Bluetooth, and have what appears to be a first in digital frames: HDMI outs. The thriftier, 7-inch DPF-D70 halves the memory and nixes the Bluetooth and HDMI, but all three frames are coupled with a remote, and can utilize Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick PRO Duo, SD, MMC, Compact Flash, Microdrive, and xD-Picture cards. The DPF-V900, DPF-V700 and DPF-V700 digital photo frames will be available for $250, $190 and $140, respectively, and will ship in March.

Recent announcements on iTunes rentals certainly caused a stir amongst the neglected Mac-masses, but it looks like the online rental game is about to get a little more cutthroat for fanboys and fangirls everywhere. According to a new report (and backed up by an earlier blog post), streaming content for Netflix subscribers is headed to Mac screens in 2008 -- if everyone has their way. During the company's Q4 earnings call this week, the snail-mail service hinted that this would be the year that streaming rentals would come to Mac users due to the advent of DRM options that play nice with Apple's gear (namely, Microsoft's Silverlight technology). Combine this with news that the company plans to offer all-you-can-eat online rentals for $8.99 a month, its intentions to bring a STB to market with LG, and a possible game console partnership -- well, it all adds up to stiff competition for Apple and other challengers, despite what they say.

[Via Mac Rumors]

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