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Bluedot rolls out cheaper but still not cheap BBDP-10 Blu-ray player in Japan
Cut rate Blu-ray players seem to be popping up every week in the U.S. while a demand for more features has kept prices higher in Japan, but Bluedot is turning around that trend with the ¥35,000 ($378) BBDP-10 Blu-ray player. Launching this month, buyers can find Dolby TrueHD, 1080p24, Profile 1.1 and 7.1 audio out in a 5cm high package. It's really too bad that this passes for "value priced" in Japan, but honestly, if we had the option to buy 1TB DVRs with Blu-ray playing / backup capabilities built in, we might not be rushing to the low end of the lineup either.[Via Akihabara News]
Bluedot's 4-inch portable TV with 1Seg and a whole bunch of slim
While the new BTV-400K from Bluedot might lack the common accouterments of its peers, like an SD card reader, GPS or other such functions, the player does seems to do the whole 1Seg thing quite well. The 4-inch display rocks 480 x 272 pixels, and the whole unit is a mere 0.43-inches thick. The three hour battery life is a little on the weak end, but there's also a bulkier option that can offer up 10 hours of juice. With that complete lack of he player won't have much to do with your PC, but you can charge it via USB. This one should be hitting Japan in February for around 30,000 yen ($253 US). Peep another pic after the break.
Digital Cube says "me too" with Bluedot BMP-1430 PMP
Nothing like another indistinct PMP offering to get us started in the morning. Korea's Digital Cube is making this BMP-1430 PMP for Japan's Bluedot, and they've packed in the usual goodies: 480 x 272 4.3-inch LCD, 30GB HDD, crazy-silly-fresh codec support (MPEG, XviD, WMV, WMA, MP3 and OGG), and an FM tuner. Everything fits nicely into a 1-inch thick case, but since it's outside Korea, Digital Cube left out the usual DMB tuner. We're not sure why Digital Cube can't do us the same favor -- but it's not like we're bitter or anything.
Toronto's "Art of Xbox 360" pics and consideration
Geoff Martin heeded our call for pics from the "Art of Xbox 360" gallery show being held in Toronto's Blue Dot Gallery, except he did one better. He linked us to a piece he wrote for canada.com, slideshow included! He writes, "Wil Overton, an artist from UK-based Rare Games, and the lead concept artist for the Xbox 360’s Perfect Dark Zero, also doesn’t have much time for quibbling over definitions, or debates on what should or shouldn’t be considered 'art.' He said at the opening of "Play: The Art of the Xbox 360" on Thursday that he's thrilled to see his work hung on the walls of an art gallery."On the other side of the net, Tony Walsh from Clickable Culture says, "If you happen to be at the Distillery this weekend, it couldn't hurt to drop by the Blue Dot Gallery to have a look, but I wouldn't recommend making a special trip just for the show. I think what we have here is a classic "post-release attention-span" grabber, geared towards retaining a semblance of public interest in the Xbox 360--in other words, this event isn't so much about art as it is about commerce."Having not seen the show, I can only speculate, but I think Walsh's take sounds about right, but was their any doubt? All the games are published by Microsoft, and the show was advertised as being "Xbox 360" specific. We could also get into an argument about semantics--aren't many gallery shows about commerce and art?--though, this case takes that observation to an extreme, replacing enterprising artists with a Fortune 500 company. Also found another gallery of images from photojunkie (via Flickr): Play: The Next Level of Gaming.[Thanks, Geoff]UPDATE: 360 Fanboy reader Zoltan posted his own review of the "Art of Xbox 360 exhibit", complete with pictures at YYZTech.ca. Thanks!
