The US$99 HD-DVD addon was only after the writing was on the wall for HD-DVD and it even dropped to US$50 when the crunch came. I would expect a Xbox360 BD addon to be between US$99 and US$149 but Microsoft is going to take a hit on them.
With regard to PC's the BD(25GB)/DVD/CD reader/writer is approx AU$350 (approx US$360) in Australia for a PC addon and in the US it would be cheaper again, however the media is still expensive although if you compare the price to the DVD in 2001 it is much cheaper per Giga Byte. Actually companies like HP are selling laptops with BD (read-only) DVD/CD reader/writers at a price not much dearer than one with a DVD/CD reader/writer.
Hmm... for those not in the know, what are the tricks for a $230 PS3? I got my Australian 60GB PS3 just over a year ago for the equivalent of US$420 (AU$499 at the time) when I traded in my working 5 year old PS2 and 10 games that I would consider pathetic. Even so I found that only about 85% of most PS2 games are backwards compatible but for me that is fine since the up-scaling of working PS2 games to HDTV (720p and 1080p) is very good.
Even today if you are willing to look around you can find gaming places willing to do deals. Just before Christmas 2007 in Australia Sony had a special deal of a free 40GB PS3 with any X Bravia HDTV from 40" to 50" at 1080p and the price for the HDTV's were very competitive at the time. Many gaming places are still offering deals however I would be very wary of trading your PS2 in since the 40GB PS3 is not backwards compatible for PS2 games (PS1 games still work). Still the choice is yours.
If you want a good deal many companies will drop their prices if you are going to buy a HDTV and/or Stereo system plus a PS3. You do need to do some homework though. Of course you want to consider paying cash.
Personally I find I am playing more PS2 games on my PS3 than native PS3 games, since there are just so many good games at almost bargain bin prices, so I am saving quite a lot of money. PS3 games do appear to hold their price longer than the Xbox360 games but that is only normal since in Australia the PS3 has only been out 14 months, however I can get 3 to 4 good PS2 games for the price of one good PS3 game. The games for the Wii (Out for over 18 months) are not that much cheaper than an equivalent Xbox360 or PS3 game and hold their price even longer and you only get Standard Definition and in many cases substandard graphics. Still IMHO if you don't have a HDTV (minimum 32") it is rather pointless getting a PS3 or Xbox360.
What will the cost be? TFA doesn't say anything. Also, can you hook it up to your 360 simultaneously with your HD-DVD drive? You can now buy laptops with inbuilt Bluray reader and DVD/CD read/write drive for not much more than that same laptop without the Bluray reader. The reason why it is relatively cheap to do this is the actual Bluray diode is right next to the DVD/CD diode and the mechanics and electronics are fully integrated to share/decode the two diodes. Go to your local computer store and eject the BD/DVD/CD drive and you can plainly see both diodes.
If Microsoft produces a Bluray add-on like they did with HD-DVD drive it is going to be about the same price as the original HD drive and this would possibly be attractive to Xbox360 owners although like the HD-DVD drive it would be not be that popular especially when the total costs are greater than that of a PS3. This is up to the customer since they do have a choice.
If Microsoft brought out an Xbox360 with inbuilt BD/DVD/CD drive they are going to alienate many millions of people who already own an Xbox360, especially if game companies start to bring out games on Bluray disk. Personally I don't think this will happen but you never know, it would be interesting to see how Microsoft could spin this. Of course you get people who like to buy the latest thing and something like this would not bother them.
It must be noted that while the PS3 went through some changes the fundamental configuration which consists of a BD/DVD/CD player, wireless/blutooth, USB (4 to 2 but still there) and hard disk (20GB,60GB and 80GB and whatever you feel like adding) was never changed. The only things that got dropped were the SD/MS/CF readers (nice but not critical) and backwards compatibility which personally I feel was not a good move but it may be possible that software compatibility will be brought back. If the Xbox360 came out with an in-built BD/DVD/CD player this will be a radical change that could seriously undermine their credibility, still only time will tell.
Small businesses consist of anything from one to one hundred plus people (over 1000 people is not what I would call a small business) and most of the computing costs actually go into the management of the computing system. This covers hopefully decent computing management and viable backups viewed with regard to computing disaster recovery and for some business this is a ticking bomb because they don't plan for this.
Overall software costs are fairly minimal compared to the other factors however if a business can get away from proprietary software solutions they can save money and can be much more flexible in they way they do business. In many cases small business don't need expensive proprietary software solutions.
Like anything a business must do their homework and the majority of small business have the same attitude to computing as the average home user does in that a Microsoft solution is the only way they can envisage. This is actually changing in some parts of the world especially when Governments start to push for open solutions (Microsoft is spending enormous amounts of money fighting this) but until that happens proprietary solutions will dominate.
True, not all 360's have hard drives. However, there have been 3 times more 360's sold than PS3's and approximately 80% of 360's do have hard drives, so there are still more 360's with hard drives out there than there are PS3's I suggest you do some more homework. The Xbox360 is currently about 11.53M in the US compared to the 4.65M for the PS3 (approx 2.5 to 1). However the US is not the world and if you take the rest (including Japan) overall Xbox360 sales are lagging behind the PS3. Basically at the moment the Xbox has sold 18.35M world wide to the PS3's 11.92M (check it out here and since the Xbox360 has been out a year longer this does not look good for the console.
People may prefer watching shows on their TV to their PC. I don't disagree on that however many more people like to watch a show on their TV as a group or family (a PC does not offer that) and since HDTV is taking off in first world counties people won't put up with a picture which can look fine on a small TV or a PC with a 20" to 22" screen but not a 40" and above HDTV even with upscaling.
I have said before and will say it again that video downloads (aka "video on demand") are not going to take off world wide since the bandwidth is just not there and even if it was it would be highly wasteful of bandwidth. Like it or not we are talking about DRM and control to stop piracy and I cannot see this changing any time soon. The alternative and most effective way of viewing movies is "video on availability" which is something that companies like Foxtel offer. Sure there are going to be some places where downloads are viable although I think you will find it won't be cheap.
It is going to be interesting to see what the price difference between the Linux version and the MS XP version (with mouse and extra storage). Personally I don't think there will be any difference since Microsoft appears determined to kill off Linux on all fronts even if it means giving away MS XP (at least the cut down version) for fee. I wonder how much it cost to get this version of XP running on this PC, still Microsoft has deep pockets.
Actually from the article it appears that the XP Windows menus are in place and this is going to make navigating a pain on such a small screen (I think that is why the external mouse is needed). My son's girlfriend has one of these machines and for her it does everything she wants, in fact the average user probably would not know or care what the OS is except that it works. This could highlight the fact to the general populace that there is a viable alternative to the MS Windows monopoly.
On a lighter note, I thought Microsoft was pushing MS Vista now over XP, I guess that this will send a clear message to people that XP is great until we kill off Linux on the Eee PC when the deadline for the discontinuance of XP arrives in a few more months;-)
I've been watching people using Windows and most of the time they dont even realise when it crashes.
Its just automatic for them to reboot/restart the program and they edit what happened out of their memory.
I've actually had to tell someone that their computer crashed because they didnt notice.
They have been taught that all computers are like that and they just accept it. I struck the same situation over 20 years ago when the organisation I was working for got a flood of PC's when we could get full colour 17" SUN, Appollo Domain or SGI workstations at half the price of a PC with a 12" monochrome monitor. Even people (many were engineers) who should have known better were actually proud of "their" PC which could boot in seconds (MSDOS 5) and did not need a password compared to the inconvenience of a workstation which required a password even though all user data was backed up on a daily basis and was available privately to the user as well as shareable if required on any workstation that we setup anywhere in the building.
What was so amazing especially when Windows 3.1 came out was the viruses and crashes on the PC's which people found a "minor inconvenience" and yet if any Unix machine crashed which was a very rare occurrence people would remember that but never the times they lost the document they were preparing on "their" PC. The IT group I was in were constantly bemused by this weird ability of the PC user to forget the inconveniences they suffered using PC's.
Note I used the word "their" in quotes since I think that a person can think of a PC as theirs and will put up with the inconvenience of crashes, viruses, etc, while a Workstation or X Terminal is (as far as they are concerned) even though much more reliable and flexible is not perceived as theirs.
Whenever I make Windows crash (very often with Explorer) I get really pissed.
Which is why I make a point on not using Windows unless absolutely necessary. That is why I only have Linux (Fedora 8) on my home laptop and I really don't miss MS Windows, especially when I have my work laptop running MS XP Windows (Vista is not allowed) which was setup by our Windows IT department to wind me up.
Goddammit, I want my flying cars! Pre-flying car running out of fuel after driver ignores all warnings. Car comes to a halt and hopefully at the side of the road. Driver thinks "Damn I am going to have to walk to the nearest fuel station"
Flying car runs out of fuel over 100m above the ground after the driver ignores all warnings. Driver does not think ever again.
Flying car starts to run out of fuel and it's auto pilot takes control and lands the car so it gently touches down in the middle of the ocean because the driver thought it would be a good idea to fly to Hawaii. If the driver is lucky he may survive, although this may not work very well if he had the same problems in the mountains.
Now a personal jet pack on the other hand??? - err forget it.
We should soon start to see see how they will try to stall Blu-ray on Windows as the devices start moving to PCs. You can buy laptops now (some not that expensive) with Bluray readers as standard (some even have HDMI output), so like it or not Microsoft does not really have much of a choice since the vendors provide the drivers. To drop support or hinder Bluray adoption on the PC would be a massive loss of credibility, not to mention a very costly law suite.
If you want to spend a few hundred dollars you can even buy a Bluray burner for single sided (the cheapest) and double sided media for any tower PC. Actually this is much cheaper (less than half price) than what it cost for a DVD burner back in 2000. Even Bluray media has dropped in price that Gigabyte wise a Bluray disk is actually not much more than a comparable set of DVD's (buy in bulk and the Bluray media is actually cheaper) and this is early days.
I actually purchased a HP laptop last May and I can now buy a similar HP laptop that is AU$100 cheaper with a faster dual core processor, larger disk and a Bluray reader/DVD/CD burner.
You are right if Nintendo ended the Wii they will have made a profit but as for long term viability I think Nintendo would have lost the confidence of over 20 million people who would not consider buying a another Nintendo machine, still you never know since even though the Gamecube had about a four year life the Wii can still read Gamecube software and Wii has done exceptionally well. This IMHO was a very good plan by Nintendo, however backwards compatibility is only important to some gamers although not catering for High Definition TV's may be a short sightedness on Nintendo's part but if the monochrome Gameboy is any measurement then maybe they can do no wrong.
Actually with the exception of Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have always made a profit on their machines although in the initial phases (PS2) Sony has sold at a small loss, the PS3 was a larger loss which is now approaching break even. Microsoft made a huge loss on it's original Xbox and never made that back, although it now seems to be making a small profit on it's Xbox360 (it took over two years to do so). All this is very difficult to prove since the respective companies are not detailing their cost breakdowns.
Having superconductivity at room temperature or even a few 10's of degrees C below zero would be a significant breakthrough especially in the field of DC linear motors (think mag-lev) and DC power transmission. All superconductivity does is make the resistance of the particular conductor as near as possible to zero however it does not reduce capacitive or inductive effects and for long distance power transmission you can still get significant losses with AC, in fact the higher the transmission frequency the greater the losses, so DC (I guess Edison may have the last laugh) power transmission becomes viable providing the so called room temperature superconductor is on a price parity with copper cable.
If you have any circuit that has an AC component superconductivity will only remove the resistive component and this may not be desirable, however you are still going to get capacitive and inductive losses.
I actually do agree with you on this but for different reasons. Basically there is a big difference between Bluray (BD) movies and DVD movie on a HDTV especially if that HDTV is 32" and above and the bigger that HDTV is the more you can pick the difference especially if the HDTV is 1080p. As for prices the difference between a BD (even HD-DVD for that matter) movie and the same DVD movie could be as much as 50% although I have noticed that a few (not that many though) BD movies have actually dropped to within 15% of the same DVD movie.
Still it is rare for me to buy movies on BD or even DVD since I prefer to rent if I really want to watch that movie and since our Blockbuster rents BD and DVD at the same price I would rather rent a BD movie over the same movie on DVD. My son on the other hand does buy TV series on DVD and if the show does not have that must have detail then I don't think it is worth it to buy that same show on BD disk when the DVD is just as entertaining.
Some of the problems I find with people who say they can't see the difference between a BD movie and a up-converted DVD movie is they have a small HDTV or even a SDTV and for some who do have a large HDTV they use AV or composite cables instead of component or HDMI cables which do make quite a significant difference. Actually some of the complaints from som is that AV (composite) cables come with the player or TV and that is good enough especially if they have no technical knowledge and are "conned" by their department store into buying expensive cables. "Monster Cables" are IMHO a rip-off although they do work well.
Of course for people who still can't tell the difference between a BD movie and the same movie on DVD with a reasonable sized HDTV with correct cables I suggest getting their eyes tested or a "seeing eye dog".:-)
I use torrents (pirate bay included) to download some TV shows which I have missed although I don't download movies since you could be waiting hours for a 1 GB file to download if not months. It really depends on how popular the show is and how many people are seeding. This is not what I would call downloading on a massive scale. Some of the shows I download look fine on a small screen (15" to 22") but look awful on a 32" and above HDTV. Surprisingly if I play the file (I normally download "avi" or "divx") via my PS3 the output on my HDTV looks reasonably good due to the PS3 upscaling but it is not as good as a DVD or normal Standard Definition TV show.
I personally find it better to just go to my video store and rent the movie I want rather than attempt to download it. The Blockbuster store I go to (2 minute drive or 10 minute walk) has Bluray movie rentals at the same price as DVD rentals, so why would I want to download HD movies (even though it is illegal) which could take many hours or even months on a torrent just to save $5.00?
You are forgetting the equipment to _copy_ the media and the _blank_ media. Basically with 100% sony stuff you can make a copy of a DVD you buy from sony pictures and still hear them complain about piracy and them not getting enough money. That equipment is a DVD burner/player and software. Just because a DVD burner/player may be integrated in a Sony PC does not mean that it is anything special in that it's firmware is more DRM laden than any other DVD device. What really allows you to copy or play DVD's is not the hardware but the Software and I think you need to ask were does that software come from and what is the main OS that software runs on.
The thing is, if MSFT had included a HD-DVD player with the XBox 360, then HD would have had a significant head start (a couple of years) This kind of "what if" never ceases to amaze me.
Ok some facts:
The Xbox360 was released on November 22, 2005, in the United States and Canada; December 2, 2005, in Europe and December 10, 2005, in Japan. See here for more details.
On August 22, 2005, the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum announced that the negotiations to unify their standards had failed, then on March 31, 2006, Toshiba released their first consumer-based HD DVD player in Japan. See here for more details.
If Microsoft had even been contemplating putting a HD-DVD player they would have had only 3 months between the time the Blu-ray HD-DVD talks broke down to actually putting one in their Xbox360. Considering Toshiba actually released a player four months after the Xbox360 launch it is very unlikely Microsoft even thought about putting any HD media player in their Xbox360 until after the first HD-DVD player was released. In fact Microsoft released their HD-DVD add-on to their Xbox360 at the end of November 2006.
I think the bottom line is an Xbox360 with a HD-DVD built in drive was never going to happen and even on an extremely remote chance in an alternate universe it did the Xbox360 only had a 12 month lead on the PS3.
Except that Japan didn't want to wait on DVD and created VCD. Actually the VCD is still doing well in SE Asian countries as well as the Philippines. In fact movies on VCD's are normally 30% to 50% cheaper than the same movie on DVD.
Difference: The PS2 played PS1 games. PS3 does NOT play PS2 games. Well if you had purchased a PS3 with backwards compatibility you can play PS2 and PS1 games with enhanced (read smoothed) and upscale'd capability. This makes a PS2 game appear to have much nicer graphics on a HDTV, the only problem I find with my PS3 which is a PAL one hence software backwards compatibility of approx 85% to 90%, is the fact that I have a large library of PS2 games and while I have some PS3 games I still find myself playing PS2 games which actually saves me money. I am well aware I could use a PS2 but I don't want extra game machines (I do have a Gamecube as well) in my entertainment cabinet.
As far as the 40GB PS3 goes it does not have PS2 backwards compatibility (it can play PS1 games though) which IMHO is a bit short-sighted although it does not affect me. Since the PS3 is a computer in it's own right it is very possible to put back software backwards compatibility for the PS2 since all that may need to be done is translate the PS2 graphics output to that of the PS3's graphics. This is not difficult but it may not be very efficient. At the moment Sony is pushing the PS3 as a general purpose entertainment machine with emphasis on PS3 games and Bluray movies so PS2 backwards compatibility is a fairly low priority. Still only time will tell.
I'll save a few hundred and buy a stand-alone blu-ray. I very much doubt that you are going to save a few hundred on a Bluray player compared to a PS3, still it is your money but personally I would never buy a standalone DVD, Bluray or HD-DVD player, I prefer something that offers more value-add such as a PS3 or even a DVD/HDD (got one of these) or Bluray/HDD player/recorder (expensive now but will come down in price). They do cost more but you get what you pay for. It helps if you think of a player as something you only use to play a movie and in many cases it rarely gets used at least with a PS3 you can play games and with a HDD recorder you can save and time-shift provider movies and shows.
I have read many ill informed or trolling people say that the PS3 is two complex for the average person. To watch a movie or play a game via the PS3 I put the disk into the entry slot (Bluray or DVD) and the PS3 automatically starts, then I press the Playstation logo on my controller (if not already) then I select who I want to login as or just press "X" then press "X" again and the movie plays. Not exactly rocket science:-)
It should go without saying if you don't have a HDTV connected to your HD player or game machine via component or HDMI (composite or "AV" cables are not appropriate) then you won't see any difference in screen resolution over SDTV. Of course if you don't have a HDTV then a HD player (PS3, Bluray, HD-DVD or even an Xbox360) is rather pointless.
What we need now is for the 3.9TB HVD's to come to the party;-) And do what? (Yes I saw your smiley)
The DVD market won't be going away any time soon and movies on DVD are very well suited to small screens using Standard Definition (I am aware of upscaling DVD players I have one myself). For High Definition movies Bluray will be the defacto standard for the media and anyone with a HDTV of reasonable size will appreciate it (lets keep downloads out of it for now). For HVD the market for this is not really for movies it is aimed directly at the backup market and this market is worth billions of dollars.
If you compare DVD and Bluray or even HD-DVD the hardware is almost the same except for the laser diode, however HVD hardware is different and the cost of a small HVD burner/player is not cheap compared to the few hundred dollars of a Bluray burner/player which is affordable now and is similar in price to what DVD's were around 2000. If you look at he backup market high speed near-line backup systems are essential and at present tapes dominate except they are not a true near-line solution, When HVD media and burner/players become more affordable then the tape backup solution will go the same way VHS went and IMHO that can't come soon enough.
The problem with Microsoft is that they say one thing and mean something else entirely. Opening up the format specifications of their proprietary files sounds fantastic on first reading (great for the CEO and other pointy haired beasties) but what if they withhold vital pieces of of their formats such that only programs by Microsoft can work efficiently? It has happened before and I see no reason why it is not going to happen again.
With regard to OO.org and the Samba team I think Microsoft will play fair for a few years at least until the European Union is distracted by something else.
With Microsoft stating that they have patented open protocols they are basically setting a trap for the unwary. Oh yes they do say they will license them "on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, at low royalty rates" but IMHO that is still a trap.
Actually if Microsoft really wanted to interoperate with the Open Source Community what is to stop them, after all it is not as if the source code and formats are closed to them.
HD-DVD was cheaper for both players and movies Maybe in the US but HD-DVD and BD movies of similar release were exactly the same price in Australia and as for cheaper HD-DVD players you would be hard pressed to find a HD-DVD player and even if you did the price is very close to that of BD players.
I just can't stand the fact that Sony won. Sounds like sour grapes. If you don't like Sony you can buy a non-Sony BD player, however no one is forcing you to buy anything. You do realise that just by buying a CD or DVD you are actually supporting Sony.
Oh well. I'm still not buying a BD player until they get sub-$200. That is your choice but you get what you pay for. Personally I would never buy a DVD or HD-DVD or BD player since they IMHO are too limited. I firmly believe in value-add in that a HDD BVD or HDD BD recorder/player while more expensive is much more useful as is a PS3 which can let you play games however that is a Sony product and probably not worth your consideration.
It is rather pointless getting any Hi-Def player or game machine for that matter if you don't have a HDTV and prices of HDTV's have dropped significantly in the last 12 months and are definately affordable to many people in first world countries. Still if you wait they can only get cheaper, the trouble is how long do you wish to wait?
Most digital cameras don't have a viewfinder, except for SLR's. Maybe the Cannon camera will have one just for capturing your iris details. Still if you are a professional photographer this may be a good thing although it would not stop somebody taking a picture of the scene you have photographed assuming they can go to were the photographer shot the picture. Action or unique event photographs tend to more difficult for someone to duplicate with their own camera, hence the reasoning of watermarking the picture.
One interesting aspect of this is if a watermarked picture is uploaded to the Internet legally or otherwise and people download it then they could be culpable of stealing intellectual property. I am sure lawyers can have a field day with this.
It's also theoretically possible to modify a compiled, closed-source program, you know. It is not just theoretically possible it is actually very easy to do except it would be very difficult to make the binary do anything other than what the binary was supposed to do in the first place. Usually root kits normally just replace system binaries with their own binary, however that means if this has happened you already have a compromised system, hence the reason for backups.
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The US$99 HD-DVD addon was only after the writing was on the wall for HD-DVD and it even dropped to US$50 when the crunch came. I would expect a Xbox360 BD addon to be between US$99 and US$149 but Microsoft is going to take a hit on them.
With regard to PC's the BD(25GB)/DVD/CD reader/writer is approx AU$350 (approx US$360) in Australia for a PC addon and in the US it would be cheaper again, however the media is still expensive although if you compare the price to the DVD in 2001 it is much cheaper per Giga Byte. Actually companies like HP are selling laptops with BD (read-only) DVD/CD reader/writers at a price not much dearer than one with a DVD/CD reader/writer.
Even today if you are willing to look around you can find gaming places willing to do deals. Just before Christmas 2007 in Australia Sony had a special deal of a free 40GB PS3 with any X Bravia HDTV from 40" to 50" at 1080p and the price for the HDTV's were very competitive at the time. Many gaming places are still offering deals however I would be very wary of trading your PS2 in since the 40GB PS3 is not backwards compatible for PS2 games (PS1 games still work). Still the choice is yours.
If you want a good deal many companies will drop their prices if you are going to buy a HDTV and/or Stereo system plus a PS3. You do need to do some homework though. Of course you want to consider paying cash.
Personally I find I am playing more PS2 games on my PS3 than native PS3 games, since there are just so many good games at almost bargain bin prices, so I am saving quite a lot of money. PS3 games do appear to hold their price longer than the Xbox360 games but that is only normal since in Australia the PS3 has only been out 14 months, however I can get 3 to 4 good PS2 games for the price of one good PS3 game. The games for the Wii (Out for over 18 months) are not that much cheaper than an equivalent Xbox360 or PS3 game and hold their price even longer and you only get Standard Definition and in many cases substandard graphics. Still IMHO if you don't have a HDTV (minimum 32") it is rather pointless getting a PS3 or Xbox360.
If Microsoft produces a Bluray add-on like they did with HD-DVD drive it is going to be about the same price as the original HD drive and this would possibly be attractive to Xbox360 owners although like the HD-DVD drive it would be not be that popular especially when the total costs are greater than that of a PS3. This is up to the customer since they do have a choice.
If Microsoft brought out an Xbox360 with inbuilt BD/DVD/CD drive they are going to alienate many millions of people who already own an Xbox360, especially if game companies start to bring out games on Bluray disk. Personally I don't think this will happen but you never know, it would be interesting to see how Microsoft could spin this. Of course you get people who like to buy the latest thing and something like this would not bother them.
It must be noted that while the PS3 went through some changes the fundamental configuration which consists of a BD/DVD/CD player, wireless/blutooth, USB (4 to 2 but still there) and hard disk (20GB,60GB and 80GB and whatever you feel like adding) was never changed. The only things that got dropped were the SD/MS/CF readers (nice but not critical) and backwards compatibility which personally I feel was not a good move but it may be possible that software compatibility will be brought back. If the Xbox360 came out with an in-built BD/DVD/CD player this will be a radical change that could seriously undermine their credibility, still only time will tell.
Small businesses consist of anything from one to one hundred plus people (over 1000 people is not what I would call a small business) and most of the computing costs actually go into the management of the computing system. This covers hopefully decent computing management and viable backups viewed with regard to computing disaster recovery and for some business this is a ticking bomb because they don't plan for this.
Overall software costs are fairly minimal compared to the other factors however if a business can get away from proprietary software solutions they can save money and can be much more flexible in they way they do business. In many cases small business don't need expensive proprietary software solutions.
Like anything a business must do their homework and the majority of small business have the same attitude to computing as the average home user does in that a Microsoft solution is the only way they can envisage. This is actually changing in some parts of the world especially when Governments start to push for open solutions (Microsoft is spending enormous amounts of money fighting this) but until that happens proprietary solutions will dominate.
I have said before and will say it again that video downloads (aka "video on demand") are not going to take off world wide since the bandwidth is just not there and even if it was it would be highly wasteful of bandwidth. Like it or not we are talking about DRM and control to stop piracy and I cannot see this changing any time soon. The alternative and most effective way of viewing movies is "video on availability" which is something that companies like Foxtel offer. Sure there are going to be some places where downloads are viable although I think you will find it won't be cheap.
It is going to be interesting to see what the price difference between the Linux version and the MS XP version (with mouse and extra storage). Personally I don't think there will be any difference since Microsoft appears determined to kill off Linux on all fronts even if it means giving away MS XP (at least the cut down version) for fee. I wonder how much it cost to get this version of XP running on this PC, still Microsoft has deep pockets.
;-)
Actually from the article it appears that the XP Windows menus are in place and this is going to make navigating a pain on such a small screen (I think that is why the external mouse is needed). My son's girlfriend has one of these machines and for her it does everything she wants, in fact the average user probably would not know or care what the OS is except that it works. This could highlight the fact to the general populace that there is a viable alternative to the MS Windows monopoly.
On a lighter note, I thought Microsoft was pushing MS Vista now over XP, I guess that this will send a clear message to people that XP is great until we kill off Linux on the Eee PC when the deadline for the discontinuance of XP arrives in a few more months
What was so amazing especially when Windows 3.1 came out was the viruses and crashes on the PC's which people found a "minor inconvenience" and yet if any Unix machine crashed which was a very rare occurrence people would remember that but never the times they lost the document they were preparing on "their" PC. The IT group I was in were constantly bemused by this weird ability of the PC user to forget the inconveniences they suffered using PC's.
Note I used the word "their" in quotes since I think that a person can think of a PC as theirs and will put up with the inconvenience of crashes, viruses, etc, while a Workstation or X Terminal is (as far as they are concerned) even though much more reliable and flexible is not perceived as theirs. Whenever I make Windows crash (very often with Explorer) I get really pissed. Which is why I make a point on not using Windows unless absolutely necessary. That is why I only have Linux (Fedora 8) on my home laptop and I really don't miss MS Windows, especially when I have my work laptop running MS XP Windows (Vista is not allowed) which was setup by our Windows IT department to wind me up.
Flying car runs out of fuel over 100m above the ground after the driver ignores all warnings. Driver does not think ever again.
Flying car starts to run out of fuel and it's auto pilot takes control and lands the car so it gently touches down in the middle of the ocean because the driver thought it would be a good idea to fly to Hawaii. If the driver is lucky he may survive, although this may not work very well if he had the same problems in the mountains.
Now a personal jet pack on the other hand??? - err forget it.
If you want to spend a few hundred dollars you can even buy a Bluray burner for single sided (the cheapest) and double sided media for any tower PC. Actually this is much cheaper (less than half price) than what it cost for a DVD burner back in 2000. Even Bluray media has dropped in price that Gigabyte wise a Bluray disk is actually not much more than a comparable set of DVD's (buy in bulk and the Bluray media is actually cheaper) and this is early days.
I actually purchased a HP laptop last May and I can now buy a similar HP laptop that is AU$100 cheaper with a faster dual core processor, larger disk and a Bluray reader/DVD/CD burner.
You are right if Nintendo ended the Wii they will have made a profit but as for long term viability I think Nintendo would have lost the confidence of over 20 million people who would not consider buying a another Nintendo machine, still you never know since even though the Gamecube had about a four year life the Wii can still read Gamecube software and Wii has done exceptionally well. This IMHO was a very good plan by Nintendo, however backwards compatibility is only important to some gamers although not catering for High Definition TV's may be a short sightedness on Nintendo's part but if the monochrome Gameboy is any measurement then maybe they can do no wrong .
Actually with the exception of Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have always made a profit on their machines although in the initial phases (PS2) Sony has sold at a small loss, the PS3 was a larger loss which is now approaching break even. Microsoft made a huge loss on it's original Xbox and never made that back, although it now seems to be making a small profit on it's Xbox360 (it took over two years to do so). All this is very difficult to prove since the respective companies are not detailing their cost breakdowns.
Having superconductivity at room temperature or even a few 10's of degrees C below zero would be a significant breakthrough especially in the field of DC linear motors (think mag-lev) and DC power transmission. All superconductivity does is make the resistance of the particular conductor as near as possible to zero however it does not reduce capacitive or inductive effects and for long distance power transmission you can still get significant losses with AC, in fact the higher the transmission frequency the greater the losses, so DC (I guess Edison may have the last laugh) power transmission becomes viable providing the so called room temperature superconductor is on a price parity with copper cable.
If you have any circuit that has an AC component superconductivity will only remove the resistive component and this may not be desirable, however you are still going to get capacitive and inductive losses.
I actually do agree with you on this but for different reasons. Basically there is a big difference between Bluray (BD) movies and DVD movie on a HDTV especially if that HDTV is 32" and above and the bigger that HDTV is the more you can pick the difference especially if the HDTV is 1080p. As for prices the difference between a BD (even HD-DVD for that matter) movie and the same DVD movie could be as much as 50% although I have noticed that a few (not that many though) BD movies have actually dropped to within 15% of the same DVD movie.
:-)
Still it is rare for me to buy movies on BD or even DVD since I prefer to rent if I really want to watch that movie and since our Blockbuster rents BD and DVD at the same price I would rather rent a BD movie over the same movie on DVD. My son on the other hand does buy TV series on DVD and if the show does not have that must have detail then I don't think it is worth it to buy that same show on BD disk when the DVD is just as entertaining.
Some of the problems I find with people who say they can't see the difference between a BD movie and a up-converted DVD movie is they have a small HDTV or even a SDTV and for some who do have a large HDTV they use AV or composite cables instead of component or HDMI cables which do make quite a significant difference. Actually some of the complaints from som is that AV (composite) cables come with the player or TV and that is good enough especially if they have no technical knowledge and are "conned" by their department store into buying expensive cables. "Monster Cables" are IMHO a rip-off although they do work well.
Of course for people who still can't tell the difference between a BD movie and the same movie on DVD with a reasonable sized HDTV with correct cables I suggest getting their eyes tested or a "seeing eye dog".
I use torrents (pirate bay included) to download some TV shows which I have missed although I don't download movies since you could be waiting hours for a 1 GB file to download if not months. It really depends on how popular the show is and how many people are seeding. This is not what I would call downloading on a massive scale. Some of the shows I download look fine on a small screen (15" to 22") but look awful on a 32" and above HDTV. Surprisingly if I play the file (I normally download "avi" or "divx") via my PS3 the output on my HDTV looks reasonably good due to the PS3 upscaling but it is not as good as a DVD or normal Standard Definition TV show.
I personally find it better to just go to my video store and rent the movie I want rather than attempt to download it. The Blockbuster store I go to (2 minute drive or 10 minute walk) has Bluray movie rentals at the same price as DVD rentals, so why would I want to download HD movies (even though it is illegal) which could take many hours or even months on a torrent just to save $5.00?
You really have to get rid of your 286 PC. :-)
Ok some facts:
- The Xbox360 was released on November 22, 2005, in the United States and Canada; December 2, 2005, in Europe and December 10, 2005, in Japan. See here for more details.
- On August 22, 2005, the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum announced that the negotiations to unify their standards had failed, then on March 31, 2006, Toshiba released their first consumer-based HD DVD player in Japan. See here for more details.
If Microsoft had even been contemplating putting a HD-DVD player they would have had only 3 months between the time the Blu-ray HD-DVD talks broke down to actually putting one in their Xbox360. Considering Toshiba actually released a player four months after the Xbox360 launch it is very unlikely Microsoft even thought about putting any HD media player in their Xbox360 until after the first HD-DVD player was released. In fact Microsoft released their HD-DVD add-on to their Xbox360 at the end of November 2006.I think the bottom line is an Xbox360 with a HD-DVD built in drive was never going to happen and even on an extremely remote chance in an alternate universe it did the Xbox360 only had a 12 month lead on the PS3.
As far as the 40GB PS3 goes it does not have PS2 backwards compatibility (it can play PS1 games though) which IMHO is a bit short-sighted although it does not affect me. Since the PS3 is a computer in it's own right it is very possible to put back software backwards compatibility for the PS2 since all that may need to be done is translate the PS2 graphics output to that of the PS3's graphics. This is not difficult but it may not be very efficient. At the moment Sony is pushing the PS3 as a general purpose entertainment machine with emphasis on PS3 games and Bluray movies so PS2 backwards compatibility is a fairly low priority. Still only time will tell. I'll save a few hundred and buy a stand-alone blu-ray. I very much doubt that you are going to save a few hundred on a Bluray player compared to a PS3, still it is your money but personally I would never buy a standalone DVD, Bluray or HD-DVD player, I prefer something that offers more value-add such as a PS3 or even a DVD/HDD (got one of these) or Bluray/HDD player/recorder (expensive now but will come down in price). They do cost more but you get what you pay for. It helps if you think of a player as something you only use to play a movie and in many cases it rarely gets used at least with a PS3 you can play games and with a HDD recorder you can save and time-shift provider movies and shows.
I have read many ill informed or trolling people say that the PS3 is two complex for the average person. To watch a movie or play a game via the PS3 I put the disk into the entry slot (Bluray or DVD) and the PS3 automatically starts, then I press the Playstation logo on my controller (if not already) then I select who I want to login as or just press "X" then press "X" again and the movie plays. Not exactly rocket science
It should go without saying if you don't have a HDTV connected to your HD player or game machine via component or HDMI (composite or "AV" cables are not appropriate) then you won't see any difference in screen resolution over SDTV. Of course if you don't have a HDTV then a HD player (PS3, Bluray, HD-DVD or even an Xbox360) is rather pointless.
The DVD market won't be going away any time soon and movies on DVD are very well suited to small screens using Standard Definition (I am aware of upscaling DVD players I have one myself). For High Definition movies Bluray will be the defacto standard for the media and anyone with a HDTV of reasonable size will appreciate it (lets keep downloads out of it for now). For HVD the market for this is not really for movies it is aimed directly at the backup market and this market is worth billions of dollars.
If you compare DVD and Bluray or even HD-DVD the hardware is almost the same except for the laser diode, however HVD hardware is different and the cost of a small HVD burner/player is not cheap compared to the few hundred dollars of a Bluray burner/player which is affordable now and is similar in price to what DVD's were around 2000. If you look at he backup market high speed near-line backup systems are essential and at present tapes dominate except they are not a true near-line solution, When HVD media and burner/players become more affordable then the tape backup solution will go the same way VHS went and IMHO that can't come soon enough.
The problem with Microsoft is that they say one thing and mean something else entirely. Opening up the format specifications of their proprietary files sounds fantastic on first reading (great for the CEO and other pointy haired beasties) but what if they withhold vital pieces of of their formats such that only programs by Microsoft can work efficiently? It has happened before and I see no reason why it is not going to happen again.
With regard to OO.org and the Samba team I think Microsoft will play fair for a few years at least until the European Union is distracted by something else.
With Microsoft stating that they have patented open protocols they are basically setting a trap for the unwary. Oh yes they do say they will license them "on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, at low royalty rates" but IMHO that is still a trap.
Actually if Microsoft really wanted to interoperate with the Open Source Community what is to stop them, after all it is not as if the source code and formats are closed to them.
A small Texas company? Now why does this sound familiar?
In Australia NATA stands for "The National Association of Testing Authorities".
Or NATA could also be "The National Athletic Trainers' Association".
Both have web pages.
It is rather pointless getting any Hi-Def player or game machine for that matter if you don't have a HDTV and prices of HDTV's have dropped significantly in the last 12 months and are definately affordable to many people in first world countries. Still if you wait they can only get cheaper, the trouble is how long do you wish to wait?
Most digital cameras don't have a viewfinder, except for SLR's. Maybe the Cannon camera will have one just for capturing your iris details. Still if you are a professional photographer this may be a good thing although it would not stop somebody taking a picture of the scene you have photographed assuming they can go to were the photographer shot the picture. Action or unique event photographs tend to more difficult for someone to duplicate with their own camera, hence the reasoning of watermarking the picture.
One interesting aspect of this is if a watermarked picture is uploaded to the Internet legally or otherwise and people download it then they could be culpable of stealing intellectual property. I am sure lawyers can have a field day with this.