Goodnight, Sweet Prince: HD-DVD is dead
At last: revenge.
Some might argue that Red still has some fight left in him, but its clear from recent announcements that the entertainment industry has chosen Blu-ray as their champion, leaving HD-DVD on limited life support.
The first blow came on January 4th, when Warner Brothers announced that beginning later this year they would release titles exclusively on the Blu-ray format.
(January 4, 2008 Burbank, CA) In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.
Then two more in rapid succession: both Netflix and Blockbuster will dump HD-DVD for Blu-ray, though they plan to keep HD-DVD on the shelves for around a year before those titles disappear all together.
In a huge blow to Toshiba, Universal, and the rest of the HD DVD devotees, rental giant Blockbuster has decided to stock only Blu-ray discs in the vast majority of its nationwide locations, although HD DVD titles will continue to be offered online and in the 250 (out of 1,450) stores that have been testing both formats since last year.
If that wasnt enough, both Best Buy and Wal-Mart kicked HD-DVD to the curb barely a week ago. And today Universal issued a press release announcing their side in the Hi-Def Format War.
"While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray," said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
"The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear. Universal will continue its aggressive efforts to broaden awareness for hi-def´s unparalleled offerings in interactivity and connectivity, at an increasingly affordable price. The emergence of a single, high-definition format is cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate."
Oh, God, do you still think theres a chance that HD-DVD might overcome? A small sliver of hope? Hope you have a hankie, because youre wrong. HD-DVDs most ardent supporter has also called it quits.
TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
We barely knew him. May he rest in peace.
punk feels sorry for those who couldnt wait to see who came out on top and bought an HD-DVD player. Really, he does. Hat-tip to Bennybum.
Your Laptop Battery Wants To Kill You
In a nutshell, it sucks to be Sony right now.
It began a while back when laptop batteries began to spontaneously catch fire or even explode. In August, Dell issued the largest laptop battery recall ever; over 4.1 million. The fun doesn't end there. Sony, the manufacturer of the defective lithium-ion batteries also supplies most of the large PC makers with their batteries as well...
A couple weeks after Dell's announcement, Apple followed with a giant battery recall of all 1.8 million G4 Powerbook and iBook batteries sold since 2003; the biggest recall in their history. Now Sony's computer division has joined the You might get 3rd degree burns while innocently updating your Flickr page party by recalling their laptop batteries.
At last count, Fujitsu, IBM, Toshiba and Hitachi all joined the battery recall list.
"Sony's brand is severely damaged," said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a market-research firm. "I think it's going to be a question whether they can be in the battery business at all."
This story seems far from over. It might be a good time to check and see if your laptop model is one of those potentially affected. Big companies dont necessarily want you dead, but they also wont go too far out of their way to tell you if your product is dangerous, so be smart and check your gear out for yourself (click the manufacturer links in this article to go to their respective battery recall info pages).
Unless maybe you would rather surf the SuicideGirls News Wire from the burn ward of your local hospital.