Recent Comments:
Hey Hollywood, how about some Blu-ray Disc price cuts? {Engadget HD}
Dec 1st 2008 5:09PM Studios aren't going to surrender their hard fought margin increase to move more units. If they drop margins to DVD levels, this whole blu-ray thing is wasted effort from the studio perspective and they might as well of stuck with DVD and not even considered any HD media.
High (higher than DVD) prices are here to stay on blu-ray. There's really no motivation for studios to lower them to DVD levels.
Peek CEO: buy two Peeks, your next iPhone or G1 bill is on us {Engadget}
Nov 26th 2008 11:59AM They are so close to something neat with this product, but I just can't see the point at the current pricing levels. The ONLY use for it is if you don't have a cell phone at all.
Just about every cell phone out there will give you email access right now and even the King of Fees Verizon offers a $15 /month dataplan for dumbphones which would give you email access on your cell.
So, this would be $20 /month plus the cost of the device. Aside from the qwerty keypad and the larger screen, I just can't see the advantage of this device over adding data to a normal cell phone and accessing your email there. It's not even a matter of hardcore gadget junkie, even your free phones now can access email.
Samsung shows clean lines on 1080p SyncMaster 2494HS LCD {Engadget}
Nov 21st 2008 6:35PM Most of the processing becomes relevant when you are still dealing with SD and analog material. If you are just shoving 1920x1080 video at the screen, a good PC monitor (like this one) is going to be damn near functionally the same as a full blown TV. (In fact, I would argue most of the "processing" capabilities that modern TVs have are a boatload of crap and should be disabled.)
The only potential issue of using it with a cable box is whether or not it can accept 1080i as an input resolution. However, for xbox, ps3, or blu-ray it's a non issue. Just plug in HDMI and away we go.
Samsung shows clean lines on 1080p SyncMaster 2494HS LCD {Engadget}
Nov 21st 2008 12:43PM I think the reason why we are seeing more 16:9 monitors is the manufacturers are realizing that the lines between TV and Monitor are practically non-existent now.
Why would I spend a premium for a 24-30 inch "HDTV" when I can just get a monitor that has speakers and an HDMI input and hook it to a cable box?
These 16:9 monitors are basically their own class of "entertainment monitors" made to hook DVD players, game consoles, and set top boxes to, not really dedicated PC monitors. This class is better suited to a 16:9 1920x1080 resolution to match the content out there.
NXE hitting 360s with red ring, freezing and sorta-sexy-avatar issues? {Engadget}
Nov 20th 2008 12:46PM Consumer electronics die at a set rate. By coincidence, these failures can correspond to other events. Human nature wants to pin the failure on a "cause" and therefore will lash out at the biggest event in recent memory.
Every time an update is release, people claims it RRoDs their console.
Every time a big game hits, people claim it RRoDs their console.
In reality, it's just he fact that these are events that hit a large majority of the ownership population and therefore intersect with more people who were going to have failures regardless.
Microsoft revamps Zune Pass: keep ten tracks per month forever and ever {Engadget}
Nov 20th 2008 1:02AM If you bothered to read the press release, you would see that 90% of the music in the marketplace is available as DRM-free MP3 and these MP3 tracks can be your 10.
Free and clear. No DRM, no servers, can use them anywhere.
Windows commercial gets wrong message across on 4:3 sets {Engadget HD}
Nov 19th 2008 5:08PM I heard one of the sat providers was doing this. They would take the 16:9 HDTV broadcast, crop the sides to make 4:3, and then downconvert it to SD to serve as the SD version of the channel in their lineup. I wouldn't be surprised if other providers are doing this as well. It's a sure fire way to make sure they don't get caught with the their digital pants down when the analog shutoff happens.
i.TV app brings Netflix queue management to iPhone / iPod touch {Engadget HD}
Nov 16th 2008 3:00PM I'm trying to figure out a use for this device other than the obligatory "because we can."
I'm out with friends for the night and I think to myself "OMG! I NEED TO MAKE SURE I HAVE THE GOONIES NEXT IN MY NETFLIX QUEUE!! There's no possible way I can wait until I'm in front of a computer to do it! I mean, it's not as if there's a several day lag before I get this stuff anyways and requires me to send something back before I'll even get the next thing in m Queue."
About the ONLY use I can think of for it is if you can manage your watch instantly queue so it would work as a nice remote of sorts for any of the several STBs that can do netflix streaming.
Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending November 2nd, 2008 {Engadget HD}
Nov 12th 2008 8:26PM Those won't be next week's results, those will be the week after.
DISH Network's DTVPal DVR converter box set to roll out in December {Engadget}
Nov 11th 2008 7:04PM I wonder how easy it will be to pull programming off this device. If it's moddable to that purpose, I could easily see it being worthwhile as a way to record and archive OTA HD stuff. Sure you could do it a bit less with a PC TV tuner, but that would require leaving your whole computer on to make sure you got all the recordings.
