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Sky launching HD service, MySky HD DVR in New Zealand
How's this for keeping a promise? Nearly two years back, Sky revealed plans to roll out HD service in New Zealand during the early part of 2008, and sure enough, all systems are go. The pay-TV operator is putting the finishing touches on its new high-definition satellite service, which it will use to beam out Sky Sport 1, Sky Sport 2, Sky Movies and Sky Movies Greats in HD this July. Users will also be able to rent the all new MySky HD DVR, which was "developed in conjunction with Sky's Australian sister company Foxtel, which will sell the same box under the iQ2 banner." It's noted that the timing of the two launches is purely coincidental, and the unit itself will boast a 320GB hard drive, four tuners, an HDMI output and an Ethernet port for a "possible video-on-demand service over broadband." Pricing information has yet to be divulged, but that tidbit should be surfacing real soon.
Meade intros mySKY Personal Planetarium
It may not let you take deep space photographs, but Meade's new mySKY Personal Planetarium should help to give you a better sense of your cosmic environs, and also double as a suitable ray gun prop in your next no-budget sci-fi movie. To keep things simple, Meade's thankfully packed some GPS capabilities into the device, which should keep it properly aligned at all times with no input needed from you. Those GPS capabilities can also be extended to any Meade AutoStar-enabled telescope, with the mySKY doubling as a control unit for the telescope. In either configuartion, the device will let you find and identify more than 30,000 astronomical objects, displaying all the relevant information on its 480 x 234 LCD. You'll need to be fairly serious about your backyard astronomy to consider one of these though, with it set to demand a hefty $400 when it's released next month.
