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Tid-bits
1/4 - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released the names of the first twenty movies to be released on Blu-ray Disc. There's something for almost everyone. Titles are: The Fifth Element, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Desperado, For a Few Dollars More, The Guns of Navarone, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight's Tale, Kung Fu Hustle, The Last Waltz, Legends of the Fall, Resident Evil Apocalypse, Robocop, Sense and Sensibility, Stealth, Species, SWAT, XXX, Black Hawk Down and The Bridge on the River Kwai. Resolution shall be 1920x1080p master quality. New feature films are to be released in both Blue-ray format and in DVD at the same time. Most of the 20 new titles should be released in the Spring. The slate of titles "will be released in conjunction with hardware manufacturers' delivery of the first Blu-ray Disc products at retail".
LoveHappens.com is a service designed for matchmakers: not necessarily those seeking a match for themselves. It's a social networking site, a community that largely depends on word of mouth for growth. "The approach is turning the traditional online dating model upside down".
Texas Instruments' Hollywood digital TV chip is currently shipping to mobile phone handset manufacturers, with the result that mobile phones should be able to receive broadcast digital TV by late 2006. Third generation (3G) cellular networks are still having a hard time catching on. The Hollywood chip, however, should help. "Mobile TV is expected to boost 3G adoption, much like camera phones did for the 2.5G market".
Intel is launching Viiv this week. AMD consequently is announcing its own digital media vision entitled AMD LIVE! Not only are companies like NVIDIA and ATI announcing support for AMD's vision, at least one movie director is too. Robert Rodriguez, who made Spy Kids, El Mariachi, and a whole host of other films, said that he used to wag the tail of technology but that since he started using AMD64 "the technology is now wagging me".
According to NVIDIA, products based upon the AMD LIVE! brand should be available "in mid-2006".
Intel does not include 64-bit extensions to its mobile processors just yet. EM64T will not hit Intel's notebook processors until the arrival of Merom in the second half of 2006. The company has dual-core Yonah CPUs but not 64-bit Yonah CPUs (Intel's new notebook chips). 64-bit processing was one of the tradeoffs in its mobile processors that Intel had to give up in order to have longer battery life. AMD, on the other hand, offers 64 bits on the mobile platform with its Turion 64 mobile technology processor family. These processors fill a need for 64-bit computing in notebook PCs. In fact, AMD has just added another processor to this family, the ML-44, and HP already has a notebook that contains the chip, the Pavilion dv8000 Media Center Notebook PC. The notebook PC could be lighter since it contains dual hard drives. AMD provides "a smart investment optimized to take advantage of the features, security and performance of 64-bit operating systems".
The third largest computer manufacturer in China will sell computers with AMD processors: "commercial and consumer PC models".
Toshiba has added a line to its Satellite family of notebook computers, the A105 series. The series has serial ATA hard drives that spin at 5400 RPM. The DDR2 memory (533MHz) means that the CPU has to be Intel's. The Satellite A105 series updates the M45 series, though M45s are still listed on Toshiba's website. The series comes in three basic configurations. value, a couple of mainstream models, and multimedia, with the multimedia being the most powerful model. One cool feature is the Express Media Player, which "lets users instantly access DVDs or CDs with the push of a button without having to boot the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) operating system".
Many of the technologies demo-ed at the Consumer Electronics Show are half-baked in that they are not shipping products yet. Not so three new devices from Linksys. The WMB54G—that's wireless music bridge 54G—transfers audio output from a PC to existing stereo equipment. The WRTSL54GS (wireless router storage link 54G with speed booster) is a network storage device and all-in-one Internet sharing router, access point, and network storage link. It allows external hard drives with USB ports to connect to a network. The 802.11g wireless video camera in a compact form factor (WVC54GC) is a security surveillance device that can monior remote locations over the Internet from a web browser. It can send email alerts with attached video clips when it detects motion within a field of view. These devices address "some of the hottest trends in networking".
FileMaker Server 8 Advanced is an upgrade from FileMaker Server 8 and successor to FileMaker Server 7 Advanced. "FileMaker Server Advanced is an “All-in-One” server solution for sharing FileMaker databases among teams of any size".