The Best Walmart Thanksgiving Day Fight Videos
According to a Walmart press release, Thanksgiving was a day of record-breaking sales, sales that were "bigger, better, faster, cheaper and safer than ever."
The Kennedys Killed The Kennedys
The canceled miniseries may have been canceled due to family pressure. Also today: Glee will not be saluting Justin Bieber, your favorite shows have been renewed, and Wicked heads to the small screen. No, not that Wicked. Not really.
Hot Dudes in Martial Arts Film: Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas
Hunka hunka burnin' Hiiii-ya! Now that that is out of our system we bring you good news: All three of these guys will be starring in "Knockout," a spy movie starring Gina Carano, a freaking mixed martial artist.
Earth to Blu-ray: Come back next decade
A new survey found that more than half of 1,000 consumers polled have no plans to buy a Blu-ray player. About one in four claimed they'll probably buy one in 2009, but you know how that goes. It's not hard to spot what stops them: $300 or more for a player and more than $20 per disc for most popular movies.…
Neil Young versus the bloggers at JavaOne
As part of Neil Young's appearance at Sun's JavaOne conference, groups of hacks were herded into a conference room to ask questions of the aging rock legend, presumably about how awesome Java is, but I think the plan is that Java is just awesome because Young says so, and he trotted out an expansive interactive…
The value of Blu-ray to Sony? At least $400 million. That's the amount Sony supposedly paid Warner Bros. to drop rival HD-DVD and go Blu-ray only for its high-definition movie releases. [The Globe and Mail]
Toshiba has finally said what everyone else has known for a while: HD-DVD is dead. The company will quit making players and recorders for its high-def disc format by the end of March. This was a foregone conclusion once major video vendors Wal-Mart, Netflix and Best Buy dropped their support for HD-DVD. No word on…
Wal-Mart crowns Blu-ray the disc that matters
The high-definition disc battle is over, and Blu-ray has won. We can now move on to more productive matters. Why am I declaring victory? Not because of Warner's switch to the format, and certainly not because of Netflix's. Retailing is not a democracy. There is one vote that matters. No, it's not the consumer's —…
Give up already, HD-DVD
Toshiba is insisting that its HD-DVD disc format is doing well, despite Warner's defection to the Blu-ray side. Citing strong fourth-quarter sales of HD-DVD players, Toshiba's going ahead with the fight. Which has to give Steve Jobs a chuckle. The continuing war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD just redounds to his…
Sony Has Seen The Future, And The Future Is Godzilla Ringtones
Drunk on power after slaying the HD-DVD dragon, Sony rolled into CES `08 with more confidence than Colin Farrell after a couple of key bumps. Eager to gloat but unwilling to pay huge appearance fees, they trotted out Leonard Maltin (the poor man's Roger Ebert) and Dean Devlin (the homeless man's Jerry Bruckheimer)…
Sony wins Blu-ray, loses online-video war
I'm as ready as anyone to declare Sony the victor in the epic high-definition disc battle. Its Blu-ray, now supported by Warner Bros., looks set to best Toshiba's HD-DVD. In Hollywood, where they still care about the industrial process of shipping plastic discs by the millions to retail stores, this matters. In the…
The porn industry is taking a back seat in the high-def format wars. Unlike the VHS-Betamax battles of the early '80s, where porn fans helped VHS win, the industry has released very few X-rated HD titles. The reason? "Porn is a fantasy and the added resolution sometimes detracts from that fantasy." [Investor's…
Make discs, not war, Sony says
Extending an olive branch in the midst of the high-definition movie-format wars, Sony has cordially invited HD-DVD rivals Microsoft and Toshiba to join the Blu-ray Disc Association. It is pretending HD-DVD backers didn't just shell out a ton of cash to get Paramount (and Michael Bay) on board.
World shocked, shocked by Sony's download move
OMG! Sony is challenging Apple to a video-download service duel! Howard Stringer, Sony's CEO, has a novel plan to use the PlayStation 3 as a trojan horse into the living rooms of America — supplanting the struggling Apple TV. Please. The only thing shocking about Sony's service is that it took the company this long…
Paramount fails to put HD-DVD out of our misery
Paramount and Dreamworks, you best think about what you've done. There's a war on in the high-definition movie world, and you just picked sides. Signing up with the HD-DVD faction for the pittance of $150 million in cash and promotions only prolongs a format skirmish that's in need of a good snuffing. Target and…
Blu-Ray backed site responds to criticism, now less deceptive
Although fans of high-definition video had already been deriding the Hollywood in Hi-Def site, created by backers of the Blu-ray disc format, for days, it appears our Friday post may have helped provoke a response. The site's masthead now clearly states "Built for Blu-Ray, Powered by Blu-Ray Supporters" and the …
Blu-ray backers launch deceptive "Hi-Def News" site
There is a new web site focused on unbiased coverage of high-definition entertainment. The only problem: it's a Blu-Ray promotional campaign — exclusively covering Blu-Ray — created by its backers: Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, and others. Hi-def fans spotted the campaign immediately and…
Valleyspeak: "When the time is right" and three more ways to not say a thing
"At Blu-ray backer LG's annual dealer show, a previously announced LG Blu-ray player was nowhere to be found. LG product development director Tim Alessi had this to say: 'we will provide an announcement when the time is right.'" — Slashdot
