Recent Comments:
Samsung develops 8GB microSD card {Engadget}
May 17th 2007 1:10AM "Alas" means unfortunately, regrettably, etc. Kinda weird to bemoan Samsung's development of 8GB micro SD cards and then get all excited about them.
NFL shuts down church's Super Bowl Bash, ratings to blame {Engadget}
Feb 1st 2007 6:08PM I really wish that, when people posted articles like this, they'd do a tiny bit of research so they could post in an educated manner about the real issues.
Here's the deal: normal broadcasts of any cable or satellite or OTA company are licensed for personal use only. You can watch it on a 200" screen, for all anyone cares. You can invite your closest 50 friends over, for all anyone cares.
However, if you want to go commercial, you need a commercial license. Ask your local bar how much they pay for Sunday Ticket. It's significantly more than you pay for your own subscription. This is the nature of a commercial license.
Now, I don't know the details of the church issue, but odds are they somehow got caught up in the NFL's protection of its commercial licensees. Right, wrong, I don't know.
However, I do know that it's pretty idiotic to toss of snide remarks about bars being exempt from this issue when that's simply not true, and 30 seconds on google would have made for a much more accurate and topical post.
$300,000 worth of Hynix DDR RAM modules hijacked {Engadget}
Dec 30th 2006 2:26AM I think you meant "sweat" rather than "drool". Drool implies something that you want, and insurance companies are generally against theft.
Speaking of which, I can only envy the Engadget editor who has just discovered that some people *steal* things. I know, it's shocking and hard to believe, but this really isn't some shocking new development in culture and commerce.
Cisco -- not apple -- announces iPhone branded VoIP phones {Engadget}
Dec 18th 2006 1:34AM Um, why would Apple dilute the iPod brand.
I always figured it was going to be officially branded as the iPod Phone. You know, Nano, Video, Phone.
Blu-ray / HD DVD stalemate boosting interest in combo player? {Engadget}
Dec 17th 2006 12:21AM It's funny how everyone is such an expert on this subject, but nobody's mentioned that Sony's license terms for Blu-ray expressly forbid any Blu-ray player from also playing a competing format (ie, HDDVD).
A combo player can't happen unless 1) Blu-ray is reverse engineered, or 2) Sony decides that a ubiquitous commodity product is better than a proprietary failed product. So far, 1) seems a lot more likely... and it's pretty darned unlikely.
PS3 to get upscaled DVDs, 1080p/24 {Engadget}
Dec 2nd 2006 6:11AM Why is it that the misinformed people are the most vehement in their opinions?
Tom, MPG: you as mistaking upscaling a movie with upscaling a digital photograph. You are correct that when upscaling a picture, no new information can be added. However, movies are essentially a bunch of pictures in a row, and on SD DVD's, each frame has different information. Modern upscaling technology *can* add more (accurate) detail to any given frame by using info from the frames before and after to recover detail that was lost due to the capture resolution. Imagine that you had three separate photographs of the same scene, taken quickly in a row. Each one might have some element of detail that the others lack. By combining the most detailed pieces of each one, you can get more detail than any single picture has. Same goes for movies, though of course the digital tech has to compensate for motion, etc. But the principle holds, and that's why upscaling DVD players can look a lot better than standard DVD players.
cwm9: 1080p/24 refers to a transport, not a display frequency. Worse, when you go to a theater, that is 24 FPS; does it give you headaches? Even worse: LCD / DLP / Plasma do not have refreshes, and therefore don't flicker, so there is no difference at all between 1080p/24 and 1080p/72 for 24 FPS source material (which 99.9% of movies are). Got that? There will be no physical difference in the display of 24FPS material at 72FPS on any non-refreshing display tech (that is, everything except CRT).
1080p/60 *is* what people mean by 1080p, and it is an interpolated version of the original 24FPS source using 3:2 to duplicate some frames to turn 24FPS (as encoded on the BluRay disc) into 60FPS, which is why everyone is so excited to move to 1080p/24 (the transport will no longer muck about with duplicating frames). No movies are 30FPS (except made-for-TV movies). At this point I am starting to doubt that you can get your name right. Please get educated on this stuff before spouting off!
HD Movies on Marketplace? It could happen {Joystiq Xbox}
Nov 3rd 2006 6:38PM 20 gigs is just about enough space for *one* HD movie, as long as you delete all your games and demos and trailers first.
I think it's dramatically more likely that any such downloads will be for Windows MCE / Vista, and will be stored on a PC and then streamed to the 360 as needed. Even the rumored 100GB drive would be useless for purchased content (any given user could buy five movies before having to buy another 100GB drive).
RR of the Day: LS6-powered Porsche 914 {Autoblog}
Oct 25th 2006 3:36PM #8, some people are more concerned with going fast than looking pretty. The 914 is incredibly light, and with this kind of power it will drive circles around fancier (but heavier!) Porsches.
TSA Thief Red-Handed and Arrested {Gadling}
Oct 20th 2006 4:15PM I don't think you're clear on what bail is. It is not the same as paying a fine; it is money you put up when you promise to appear in court at a later date; if you don't show, you forfeit the money. The $200 figure probably means that some judge found her to be a very very unlikely flight risk (har), which probably makes sense given the crime.
With $235 stolen, she's most likely facing charges of petty larceny, though being TSA it's possible that a prosecutor could tack on "under color of authority," or something similar. Me, I hope she at least serves some jail time and sees a stiff fine. All this pretend security stuff is bad enough; the people employed in the charade should be well and clearly on notice that abuse of their power will be punished harshly.
The Challenges with World Phones {Gadling}
Oct 20th 2006 2:49PM It's a good article you link to, but a fairly ignorant attitude you have regarding staying in touch. Not all of us have the luxury of being able to travel at will while leaving the phone at home.
I am one of the many people who basically have a choice of being available by phone/email, or not traveling. Sure, I can be totally disconnected for a week or two a year, but I would much rather travel 10-20 weeks a year if all it means is carrying a phone and being available at odd hours local time.
So, as the article condescendingly notes, the world *wouldn't* fall apart if I didn't take a phone. I'd just be out of a job and would no longer have the funds to be able to travel in the first place.
It's really not nearly as complicated as the article makes it out to be. Short answer: get an unlocked quad-band GSM phone, and learn how to acquire SIM cards where you're travelling (as easy as any news agent in the UK, as difficult as having them shipped to your hotel in some countries).
