Apple's MacBook Air hits the shelves

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Apple has started shipping its super-thin MacBook Air notebook in the UK.

The device measures an unprecedented 0.16in at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 0.76in is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks.

The MacBook Air boasts a 13.3in LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size backlit keyboard, built-in iSight video camera and a trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so that users can pinch, rotate and swipe. The unit is powered by a 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes 2GB of Ram as standard, an 80GB 1.8in hard drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1. The Air is available now through Apple Stores and resellers at a suggested retail price of US$1,799.

However, Apple also announced that the new Apple TV software update, which allows users to rent high-definition movies directly from their widescreen TVs, is not quite finished. Apple now plans to make the free software download available to existing Apple TV customers in another week or two.

The Apple TV software update will allow users to rent movies on the iTunes Store directly from their TV. A catalogue of over 1,000 titles will be available by the end of February, including over 100 titles in HD with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. DVD-quality iTunes Movie Rentals are US$2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are just $1 more.

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PocketDish Is A Better Portable Video Device

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As computers get better and better at providing entertainment it should make sense that computer based technology is producing devices that are more and more convenient for taking entertainment with us wherever we go. While there are a variety of computer based devices like laptop computers and portable DVD players, only one type of computer device does a really good job of combining all of the best parts of a home entertainment system into a package that's compact and easy to afford. This is the portable media device.

As computers get better and better at providing entertainment it should make sense that computer based technology is producing devices that are more and more convenient for taking entertainment with us wherever we go. While there are a variety of computer based devices like laptop computers and portable DVD players, only one type of computer device does a really good job of combining all of the best parts of a home entertainment system into a package that's compact and easy to afford. This is the portable media device.

Portable media devices come in a variety of different models and are made by a variety of different companies, but they all have several things in common. They all have built in color LCD screens that can display video and digital photos. They also all have the ability to play digital music, either over headphones, or- if so equipped- speakers. Many of them can also be used as platforms for portable video games and many can also display their visual elements onto full sized TV screens.

One thing that most portable media devices also do that can be something of a liability is rely on video downloads from the Internet for any video content. While there's nothing inherently wrong with downloading video from the Internet, there are a lot of inconveniences associated with it. For instance, before you can download video from the Internet, you first have to find it. This can mean spending time sifting through all of the online content of online video stores, and because online video stores are still in their infancy, you might not find the TV show or movie you're looking for if it's even a little bit obscure. Even if you do find what you're looking for, you probably won't be able to download it for less than about two dollars, and then unless you have a broadband cable Internet connection- or something faster- you'll probably have to wait an inconvenient amount of time for it to download. This will be especially true if you're trying to download a full length movie.

There is one portable media device that sidesteps this problem though. It's the PocketDish and it's made by Dish Network. The PocketDish is capable of downloading videos that are stored on Dish Network digital video recorders. The videos that are stored on Dish Network's digital video recorders are each stored as individual video files in MPEG-2 format. Since these videos are stored in distinct files, it's easy to pick and choose which files to download to the PocketDish. The download time is fast- at about an hour of video for every five minutes of time spent downloading- and best of all the downloads are free.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of downloading video from Dish Network's digital video recorders to the PocketDish is that it's possible to get the programming that you want to watch. That's because all of the programming that's available from Dish Network is also available to record and download (with the exception of High Definition Television which current PocketDish models can't handle). This makes concerns about finding what you want from an online video store a thing of the past.

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Cable Television Unable To Keep Up With Dish Network's Low Prices

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A great measure of a company's efficiency is how low they can keep their prices while still doing okay as a business. Companies like WalMart proved to the world that keeping prices extremely low while making large profits and being able to grow was possible. When it comes to the world of television, Dish Network is the company that is proving this fact. Cable television companies might be upgrading their level of channel selection and starting to offer some digital television channels, but nobody would ever associate cable television with low prices. However, when given the phrases low prices and television service, most people would think of satellite television. This is one of the reasons that Dish Network is doing so well. Everybody loves a bargain, especially when the product is even better than the one that costs more. And this is the case with satellite television. Cable television has a product that offers fewer channels, poorer customer service, and less advanced technology for high prices. Dish Network, however offers a product that has a huge array of channels, award-winning customer service, and extremely advanced technology.
A great measure of a company's efficiency is how low they can keep their prices while still doing okay as a business. Companies like WalMart proved to the world that keeping prices extremely low while making large profits and being able to grow was possible. When it comes to the world of television, Dish Network is the company that is proving this fact. Cable television companies might be upgrading their level of channel selection and starting to offer some digital television channels, but nobody would ever associate cable television with low prices. However, when given the phrases low prices and television service, most people would think of satellite television. This is one of the reasons that Dish Network is doing so well. Everybody loves a bargain, especially when the product is even better than the one that costs more. And this is the case with satellite television. Cable television has a product that offers fewer channels, poorer customer service, and less advanced technology for high prices. Dish Network, however offers a product that has a huge array of channels, award-winning customer service, and extremely advanced technology.

Why does cable television cost so much? Some of it is business practices. Let's face it, cable television is composed of an array of providers that each service a region of the country. This means each provider has a relatively small segment of the population and cannot save money by using economies of scale. This term refers to saving money by increasing a consumer base because it is almost always possible to produce a product or service for less per customer when you are offering it to millions of customers. With satellite television, however, the companies can take advantage of economies of scale because of the national base of satellite television. By using satellites to deliver programming, satellite TV companies can offer programming to people all over the country and not be confined to a certain region. This also saves on administrative costs. One well-run, efficient company can offer lower prices that a multitude of disjointed and inefficient companies spread throughout the country.

Of course, business practices aren't the only reason that cable companies charge more than satellite TV companies. Another big reason is that the infrastructure of cable is not as flexible as that of satellite TV. With Dish Network's system, making upgrades to allow for higher tech programming or other advances can be as simple as sending another satellite into orbit or offering higher tech satellite dishes for customers to use. Even though sending a satellite into orbit requires a lot of planning and a fairly large investment, it is nowhere near as complicated as trying to replace or upgrade an entire underground system of cables. When cable companies need to upgrade their infrastructure, they have to rip up entire roads in order to lay down new lines. The amount of manpower and other costs necessary to make these upgrades is staggering. Of course, the price increases for cable service in the past years have also been staggering. And, with future technologies the process will have to be repeated again at even greater cost.

The saying you get what you pay for does not apply to television service. This is the rare case where paying less for satellite TV service will get you a lot better service and more options. Cable television needs to charge a lot to pay for inefficient business practices and an inflexible infrastructure, but Dish Network has the advantage of more advanced technology

www.1staudiovisual.com.au

Is the future in modular computing?

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The Dell XCS Concept - The future?

This week ASUS announced the first dedicated external graphics card, designed to be used with laptops. Interestingly enough the product - dubbed the XG Station - is not likely to cause much excitement in the mobile computer community, as much as it will for desktop fans. Why? The answer is simple enough.

While it may not look like it on the surface, the XG Station seems to be a step towards modular computing, a concept that has been contemplated over the years, but never seen fruition. Modular computing is essentially the idea that the desktop PC as we know it will eventually disappear, to be replaced by something which is not confined to the dimensions of a conventional PC case, but rather something which is designed around the idea that the computer's separate parts can easily be replaced by other components over a standardised communications system. Of course the modern PC is easily upgradable, but it is still based on dozens of different input systems, from PCIe to 5.5" ATA to CPU sockets. Rather, modular computing would see a more streamlined way for the different computer parts to communicate with each other, allowing for a better PC.

The XG Station is one step toward this ultimate goal, along with the external power supply, something which is gaining speed in a world where internal video cards are demanding more and more power. The arrival of the external graphics card could also make the external power supply rather redundant, should the XG Station see a desktop counterpart, however the concept of modular computing continues to lie underneath it all. Unfortunately, the idea is decades off at the best, so until then it seems like external graphics cards are the new market to watch out for.

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Technology Could Ease Transition To Digital TV

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The over the air digital TV transition is less than two years away and that doesn't really mean anything to most Americans. This transition will mean the ceasing of over the air analog TV broadcasts in favor of digital over the air TV broadcasts. This means that after the cut off date of February 17, 2009, TV sets without digital tuners (which account for a lot of the TV sets out there) won't be able to display over the air TV anymore- at least not without an adapter. This presents a serious problem for a number of people who rely on over the air TV signals as their only source of TV programming.

The over the air digital TV transition is less than two years away and that doesn't really mean anything to most Americans. This transition will mean the ceasing of over the air analog TV broadcasts in favor of digital over the air TV broadcasts. This means that after the cut off date of February 17, 2009, TV sets without digital tuners (which account for a lot of the TV sets out there) won't be able to display over the air TV anymore- at least not without an adapter. This presents a serious problem for a number of people who rely on over the air TV signals as their only source of TV programming.

People who do rely on over the air TV signals for their TV programming, and who don't have digital TV sets, do have some options though. The most obvious thing to do would be to buy a new TV set. All TV sets sold in the United States are now required by law to have the digital tuner that will allow them to pick up digital TV signals over the air. While this may be the obvious solution, it certainly isn't very realistic to expect people who can't afford to subscribe to satellite TV or a cable TV service to scrape together the money to buy a new TV set.

Another option that people who rely on over the air TV signals have is to get a set top box that contains a digital tuner and can display the digital TV programming on an existing analog TV set. There are a few different ways to do this. One is to buy a set top box that's designed to do this conversion with over the air TV programming. The other possibility is to subscribe to a satellite or cable TV service, because they will provide the equipment needed to translate their digital signals into analog signals.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it's not clear right now whether or not cable TV companies will be forced to deliver their programming in digital format. One of the main motivators of making the switch to digital programming for over the air transmissions is that sending out just digital transmissions will take up a lot less of the on air bandwidth than the digital and analog transmissions that are being used now. But because cable TV isn't broadcast over the air, it shouldn't necessarily have to convert to digital. Although there are a number of arguments that point out that it would be a good idea for cable TV companies to make the switch, considering that many haven't done so yet, makes it doubtful that it's really as simple as it seems. In any case, the status of cable TV's use of digital versus analog transmissions should be irrelevant to the conversion.

While there are a lot of different ideas floating around about what should be done to educate the public about the coming transition, there is one easy solution- simply run public service announcements about the coming transition on the stations that supply over the air TV and stop worrying about it.

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Blu-Ray Technology Faces Opportunity For Format Supremacy

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The format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray for supremacy in the High Definition DVD market has produced a story with a lot of convoluted twists and turns. There have been a considerable number of extremely good strategies waged along with a considerable number of mistakes as well. One great example of this was the introduction of the Play Station 3 by Sony which is also able to function as a Blu-ray player. Sony recognized this opportunity and provided a free movie title on Blu-ray disc along with the first couple hundred thousand units purchased. The idea was that video gaming fans would by the Play Station 3 for its video gaming capabilities (which take advantage of HDTV technology and render incredibly realistic graphics) and then try out the movie that came with those units. The idea was that once the owners of those devices saw the movie, they would go out and buy more movie titles on Blu-ray disc to watch on their Play Station 3's. The sales of Blu-ray titles would increase, and therefore win more confidence from movie studios and other consumers. Once the consumers were won over, the format war would be won.

The format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray for supremacy in the High Definition DVD market has produced a story with a lot of convoluted twists and turns. There have been a considerable number of extremely good strategies waged along with a considerable number of mistakes as well. One great example of this was the introduction of the Play Station 3 by Sony which is also able to function as a Blu-ray player. Sony recognized this opportunity and provided a free movie title on Blu-ray disc along with the first couple hundred thousand units purchased. The idea was that video gaming fans would by the Play Station 3 for its video gaming capabilities (which take advantage of HDTV technology and render incredibly realistic graphics) and then try out the movie that came with those units. The idea was that once the owners of those devices saw the movie, they would go out and buy more movie titles on Blu-ray disc to watch on their Play Station 3's. The sales of Blu-ray titles would increase, and therefore win more confidence from movie studios and other consumers. Once the consumers were won over, the format war would be won.

This strategy largely worked and the success of the strategy is reflected in the fact that Blu-ray discs have recently outsold HD-DVD discs by a margin of two to one, and there are now substantially more Blu-ray players (including Play Station 3's) in American homes than there are HD-DVD players.

The success of the Blu-ray format is even more impressive when you look at all of the bungles and mistakes that Sony has made in bringing the Play Station 3 to market. The first obvious mistake came with the fact that Sony priced its Blu-ray players so that they were almost twice the cost of Toshiba's HD-DVD players. Then, when the Play Station 3's were released, there weren't enough units to go around. This was a real misstep because of the fact that the Play Station 3, while expensive for a video gaming platform, is cheap for a Blu-ray player. This should have made it the obvious choice for anyone wanting a Blu-ray player. After all, why buy a Blu-ray player when you could get a video gaming platform that happens to play Blu-ray discs for substantially less than the Blu-ray player? Another bungle came from failing to make the public aware that new Play Station 3's were available when the supply caught up to the demand. (There's some debate about the veracity of this. The media were reporting that Play Station 3's were sitting on store shelves months ago, and Sony blasted the media for being quick to report the shortage and then slow to report the surplus. Then, only recently, Sony officials stated that the company would be able to catch up with demand for devices over the next few months. Clearly, someone is confused.)

Now though, despite all of these missteps and two campaigns from Toshiba to provide five free HD-DVD titles with the purchase of an HD-DVD player, Sony's Blu-ray format is poised to win the war. The real question is whether or not Sony will be able to heed the advice of analysts and take advantage of its current position to dominate the market.

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Acer announces worlds first 50000:1 contrast ratio LCD monitor

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Acer has introduced the world's first LCD monitor offering a 50000:1 contrast ratio.

Aimed at high-end PC gamers, the Acer G24 features a stylish copper bezel and supports high-definition graphics.

The 24in 1920x1200 resolution widescreen LCD also features Acer OD (overdrive) technology. Acer claims this significantly improves grey-to-grey levels by reducing deviation in transition time.

The G24 has Acer CrystalBrite technology with 400-nit brightness. According to Acer, this technology promotes clearer images and sharper edges while minimising ambient light reflection.

The monitor is optimised for Windows Vista and supports HDMI for instant connectivity to DVD players, set-top boxes and high-definition consoles. It has been designed to match the Aspire Predator desktop gaming PC, in order to provide a complete gaming package.

Acer has not yet announced pricing or launch details.

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