Eric W. wrote: http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=7483

Twice in the same day:

Welcome to Star Trek!

I'm skeptical. A touch-sensitive coffee table isn't a practical design to me. Assuming it is both a table and a computer, what happens when people treat it like a table -- i.e. if they put things on it (like six months worth of USA Todays, their muddy feet, or a steaming mug of cocoa) -- how does that affect the touch-sensitive controls?

And who wants to watch a movie hunched over a 30" table? Not me. You also need to be particular about where you place this thing, because light reflections will certainly interefere with trying to view its highly reflective surface.

I think I'll wait for Apple's next innovation (which Microsoft will innevitably try to copy anyway).

Paul MacLean wrote:

Eric W. wrote: http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=7483

Twice in the same day:

Welcome to Star Trek!

I'm skeptical. A touch-sensitive coffee table isn't a practical design to me. Assuming it is both a table and a computer, what happens when people treat it like a table -- i.e. if they put things on it (like six months worth of USA Todays, their muddy feet, or a steaming mug of cocoa) -- how does that affect the touch-sensitive controls?

And who wants to watch a movie hunched over a 30" table? Not me. You also need to be particular about where you place this thing, because light reflections will certainly interefere with trying to view its highly reflective surface.

I think I'll wait for Apple's next innovation (which Microsoft will innevitably try to copy anyway).

Definitely agreed!


http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=7510

^^ Wow! This is again something that can/could affect a lot of people.

If this doesn't make you a bit cynical and want to chuck it all out the window, then I don't know what does.

No, I'm not surprised. Just disgusted.

Amazon has a Buy 2, Get 1 Free Blu Ray promo from Sony.

Not a tremendous amount of selection there, but I picked up a few guilty pleasures. 3 for $40 shipped is not bad.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/r ... =193640011

I was going to buy KUNG FU HUSTLE but I read the audio is all screwed up on it (synch issues, no 5.1 Cantonese unless you have a PCM capable receiver, etc.)

Same with SILENT HILL, which I read apparently wasn't too good either as a Blu Ray disc?

AndyDursin wrote:Amazon has a Buy 2, Get 1 Free Blu Ray promo from Sony.

Not a tremendous amount of selection there, but I picked up a few guilty pleasures. 3 for $40 shipped is not bad.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/r ... =193640011

That ain't bad.

I was going to buy KUNG FU HUSTLE but I read the audio is all screwed up on it (synch issues, no 5.1 Cantonese unless you have a PCM capable receiver, etc.)

Meh, I don't know anything about that disc. Wouldn't surprise me. *shrugs*

I see that Sony is finally going to be putting out a $499 MSRP standalone player in the near future.

Press release via source blu-ray.com

Sony Electronics has confirmed what we reported this weekend: the new MSRP for the Sony BDP-S300 is $499. At only half the price of Sony's initial player offering, the BDP-S1, this marks one of the fastest price reductions in company history. The player will have all the features of the BDP-S1, but in a smaller form factor.

It is worth noting that the original BDP-S1 was developed and produced by Pioneer for Sony (which is why Pioneer's own BDP-HD1 is so similar to Sony's player). No word on if Sony will be producing this player themselves, or if Pioneer will continue to support player production while Sony concentrates on the PS3.

Crutchfield and a few other places already have a preorder slot ready for it.

Like I said somewhere else, even I have to give the format war credit for this one thing: Price drops happening across the boards much faster than they would have otherwise.


EDIT add:

http://www.techdepot.com/product.asp?pr ... d=10000485

Sony BDP-S300 for $434.95

Already an early example of what legit street prices are looking like on this thing. Some online discount retailers will be selling the Sony for under $410 but that's when you start going into gray market territory so be careful.

^^ Things like this have really added new fuel to the fire about the idea of the PS3 having its price dropped to $499 for the 60 giger for the holidays.

If this is any indicator...why not do it? They certainly should do it ASAP.

It'll be interesting to see how Sony spins this story...

Those April sales numbers versus the Wii and the 360 aren't surprising -- they're absolutely unbelievable at this point (And just imagine if Nintendo had some really compelling new games released last month too! )

Even a sales cut for the PS3 has gotta hurt since the machine is so inherently pricey to build to begin with. I know they found a way to reduce manufacturing costs, but goodness, that Blu Ray "trojan horse" has certainly come at a price as of right now.

Sony’s game unit plans to cut jobs in U.S.
Electronics giant fighting to keep up with industry rival Nintendo

TOKYO - Sony Corp.’s game unit said on Thursday it planned to cut jobs in the United States and was eyeing restructuring steps in Japan as it struggles to keep up with industry rival Nintendo Co. Ltd.

Sony Computer Entertainment, which makes video games and the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console, announced plans in April to cut up to 160 jobs in Europe, or 8 percent of its work force there, and said it would look to streamline its U.S. and Japan operations.

Sony’s game division posted an operating loss of 232 billion yen ($1.91 billion) in the year ended March 31 due to hefty start-up costs for the PS3, a spec-heavy console that has been losing out to Nintendo’s simpler but wildly popular Wii.
Story continues below ↓advertisement


The game division’s woes are well known to the market and have done little to dent Sony’s share price, which hit a five-year high last month and is up 33 percent so far in 2007, handily beating the benchmark Nikkei average’s 5 percent gain.

Investors are still banking on Sony to regain its footing in the game market to recoup its investment and balance out a recovery that has largely been driven by cost cuts in its core electronics division and robust sales of flat screen TVs.

“For Sony to keep growing it really needs the game division to take off,” said HSBC analyst Carlos Dimas.

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) spokeswoman Nanako Kato said it was not yet decided how many of its roughly 1,500 employees in the United States would lose their job as part of the restructuring. The game unit employs about 4,500 worldwide.

News of the layoffs leaked out through gaming Web sites. One, kotaku.com, reported on Wednesday that roughly 80 to 100 employees in the U.S. headquarters were laid off.

SCE is also looking at ways to make its Japan operations more efficient, though no concrete plans have been drawn up.

“We are taking another look at the company as a whole,” Kato said.

Sony ruled the $30 billion global game industry over the past decade with the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2, but demand for the PS3 has been slow so far due to its high price tag and the limited availability of attractive software titles.

Investors are widely expecting Sony to make a sizeable cut to the PS3’s $599 price tag to spur demand.

“There will be no improvement without a price cut,” HSBC’s Dimas said.

Launched late last year, the PS3 sold just 45,321 units in May in Japan, compared with 251,794 units of the Wii. In April, the ratio was four to one in favor of the Wii, according to Japanese game magazine publisher Enterbrain.

Nintendo, known for such game characters as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon, also launched its latest console last year. The Wii features a motion-sensitive controller that allows users to direct on-screen play by swinging it like a tennis racket or wielding it like a sword, opening a new avenue of game playing.

In the United States, the Wii was the top-selling new console for the fourth month in a row in April, with Nintendo selling 360,000 units, while Sony sold 82,000 units of the PS3 and Microsoft Corp. sold 174,000 Xbox 360 machines.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19090812/

^^ They need to bring it down to $499 for the holidays and start getting those games out there.

EDIT add:

Starting to see some very disappointing reviews come out for that Call of Juarez game.

That's too bad. Why can't they make a kick ass Western game?

EDIT add:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6172233.ht ... ws;title;3

Wow, some GOOD PS3 news for a change!

How the news about HD-DVD and Blue Ray is being reported back in the U.K.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6744335.stm

Good link John, though remember it's a Sony-generated PR release the info is being spun out of. Obviously it spins the "bad news" of Toshiba cutting player goals (no surprise really when you see the sales numbers of both formats), while failing to mention all the negative Sony has been through in recent months (all rehashed above).

Toshiba is being fair on cutting player expectations -- if you look at the numbers BOTH formats have moved in terms of software sales, there really is no momentum either way. Sony isn't going to be "realistic" and tell you how badly the PS3 is selling, but the numbers there point to that fact -- it's too expensive and few people care it has a Blu Ray player.

The way I continue to see it, Sony is doing little to push Blu Ray in the U.S. this summer -- exclusive titles are at a minimum, Fox continues to be a no-show -- and Toshiba has cut HD-DVD player prices to push standalone units (which has done extremely well). The effects of the latter aren't going to be felt until later on this year, which is what HD-DVD hopes is going to help in the long run. We'll have to see how it shakes down.

The tepid sales of both PIRATES Blu Ray discs and HD-DVD's MATRIX box again show that neither is ready to breakout at this point. PIRATES sold more copies, but when you consider MATRIX was a box-set at 3X the price, the total money generated by both were pretty much equal. Not to mention that PIRATES 2 is only a year old and had a new sequel out this summer; THE MATRIX is basically a catalog title now. The numbers, no matter how you slice them, are unimpressive.

I am perplexed by the Blu Ray strategy. If Sony truly does have the strangehold on HD, why aren't they "going in for the kill"? The release schedule is not exactly appetizing, and they have 0 new titles due out that were made prior to 10 years ago too. If it's catalog titles you're interested in, Blu Ray isn't the place to go right now. At least Universal is cranking out more vintage titles (and by vintage we're talking pre-1990 here) I'd want to see in HD by comparison so far.

At the moment, I'm not buying either format. Until HD-DVD or Blue Ray sorts themselves out, I'm sticking with standard DVD.

John Johnson wrote:At the moment, I'm not buying either format. Until HD-DVD or Blue Ray sorts themselves out, I'm sticking with standard DVD.

You're in good company: The vast majority out there.

Looks like the Onkyo HD-DVD player is coming after all...

http://www.dvdtown.com/news/onkyo-will- ... -fall/4518

^^ Yup, it's a rebadged Xa2. It's a simillar setup to RCA putting out clones of the A1 last year.

I'll be interested to see what Onkyo's "personal touches" are on it.


The tagline of that article also says: "Onkyo is also working on a universal HD-DVD/Blu-ray player."

I wish them luck on that because thus far, LG's sales on their dual format player are hardly what I would call earth shattering or super inspiring.

Yeah and why would anyone bother with LG's machine when it's super expensive and doesn't work with HD-DVD menus?!? I mean, you can buy 2 players from each format that actually WORK for that price.

AndyDursin wrote:Yeah and why would anyone bother with LG's machine when it's super expensive and doesn't work with HD-DVD menus?!? I mean, you can buy 2 players from each format that actually WORK for that price.

Exactly.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/blockbuster061707.htm

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly ... 74,00.html

LOS ANGELES — Blockbuster Inc. will rent high-definition DVDs only in the Blu-ray format in 1,450 stores when it expands its high-def offerings next month, dealing a major blow to the rival HD DVD format.

See above links for full article.


I guess this is big news although probably not nearly as big as it once could have been, in the age before downloads, Netflix, etc.