If Only I Had It

It seems now only those into Blu-ray discs and devices manufacturing are producing the first external Blu-ray drive. This is probably due to they have just won the HD/DVD and Blu-ray format war and now their position in the market is certain. The first external Blu-ray drive is produced by PLDS or Philips and Lite-On Digital Solutions. The drive is a USB connected (USB 2.0) BD-ROM drive that is capable of reading Blu-ray disc media at 4x, single layer DVD at 12x, dual-layer at 8x and CD at 32x maximum.

According to Gizmowatch, the external Blu-ray drive can only play user-recorded high-def content from a digital camcorder, but not commercial movies released under the Blu-ray Drive format. This is due to the copy protection issues and lagging software development. One reason is due to commercial content is encrypted with High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) which can be decrypted using a HDCP-compliant graphics card that offers DVI or HDMI connections. And currently in the market, PCs with graphics chips that support HDCP are not available yet, so making it impossible to play the commercial content. Another reason is the Blu-ray disc playback software that can decrypt HDCP isn’t declared as saleable item yet.

Anyway, there is no word on the price and when it hits the street for this first external USB Blu-rayd drive.

USB credit card launched in South Korea

USB credit card launched in South Korea Shinhan Card, a South Korean company, unveiled a new kind of credit card yesterday. A USB credit card. It functions as a contactless credit card in stores. To use it online, you just insert it into your USB port. It enters your credit card information for you. Added on Dec 28, 2007

Panasonic intros world thinnest Blu-ray Disc drive

Panasonic intros world thinnest Blu-ray Disc drive Panasonic today announced the development of world thinnest (9.5 mm height) internal Blu-ray drives. The firm made such a thin drive by using couple of exclusive technologies such as spherical aberration compensation mechanism, 2-lens actuator, low-profile and an optimized optical design for CD, DVD and Blu-ray disc laser. Added on Dec 28, 2007

Water Powered Calculator Blows My Mind

Water Powered Calculator Blows My Mind How many of you hate changing the battery in your calculator? I know that I would, were they not as a majority, solar-powered. Apparently someone has decided that light is a resource that we are using up far too quickly, and thus designed a calculator that runs off of water. Added on Dec 28, 2007

It’s been a long time coming but finally Microsoft have released movie downloads for the Xbox 360 in the UK.

They are available for 250 marketplace points for the Standard Definition (480p Widescreen) version, which weighs in at approx 1.2Gb for the example I’m looking at (Ocean’s Eleven) or 380 points for the High Definition (720p) version which is a whopping 5.1Gb. So if you are running the 20Gb hard drive you wouldn’t want too many down at once!

You get 14 days after purchase to watch it but be careful, once you have hit the play button you only have 24 hours left to view it. Make sure that your broadband package isn’t too restrictive about download limits - if you have a 2Gb cap then you should be thinking about changing your service to something that offers much larger downloads limits or even unlimited.

The list at the moment, whilst having a good selection of films, doesn’t really set the world alight! Anyone with Sky HD in the UK would be better off choosing something from the Sky Box Office as they are much more up to date.

However if you have a nice HD screen and an Xbox 360 but no other HD content this will be a welcome addition to your viewing pleasures and for that reason alone, I give Mircosoft the thumbs up for finally giving the UK some content.

Lets just hope they keep them coming and they get some newer releases!

The following films are available right now:

300
HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
ZODIAC
MATRIX, THE
MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, THE
MATRIX RELOADED, THE
OCEAN’S ELEVEN
PERFECT STORM, THE
SWORDFISH
THREE KINGS
TRAINING DAY
FUGITIVE, THE
RISKY BUSINESS
SPACE COWBOYS
EYES WIDE SHUT
ANALYZE THIS
DEMOLITION MAN
EXECUTIVE DECISION
LETHAL WEAPON 4
LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION
MARS ATTACKS!
CLASH OF THE TITANS
SUPERMAN III

And coming before January 7th 2008

TMNT
WE ARE MARSHALL
BATMAN & ROBIN
BATMAN FOREVER
BATMAN RETURNS
WILD WILD WEST
US MARSHALS
DEEP BLUE SEA
SPHERE
UNFORGIVEN
MAVERICK
CONTACT
CONSPIRACY THEORY
OUTBREAK
LAST BOY SCOUT
MISS CONGENIALITY
ANALYZE THAT

Hi guys, I might be a bit late in posting this, and maybe some of you must have already read about this cool-looking watch on other famous blogs like engadget or gizmodo. But for those of you who are not so geeky as the others (lucky for me, or you wouldn’t be reading my post here), I am talking about the Brando MP4 wrist watch, which is not just a digital watch, but also an MP4 player.

Yup, it supports videos for both MPEG and Windows Media formats. You can use it to record and listen audio, play video clips and store files. From what I have found, the quality of the MPEG4 recordings is very high, an hour takes about 60 megabytes of storage. It also boasts an FM tuner, voice recorder, photo viewer, “eBook reader,” a 1.8-inch 160 x 128 resolution display, five preset equalizer modes, USB 2.0 connectivity, and yes, even a built-in speaker if you’re not down with headphones. For pictures and detailed reviews, visit here. They have a nice write-up on all the feeatures alongwith user reviews.It comes in a bold orange and a more conventional black color. I actually like the black one with the red dial. Looks sleek! Its available in 1GB and 2GB version (just like the iPod). And it’s attractively priced at $98 and $139 respectively.

Though I’d give Brando credit for being different and coming up with a product much better than their competitors, I am a bit skeptical about how much people would connect to it….After all, some things are best kept simple, right?!