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OPINION

Learning From Contrasts

Last week I was in Japan doing a deep dive on Panasonic, a firm I've observed for decades but never really got to know until recently. I've studied Apple in depth since the '80s and I find the contrasts between the firms and their key founders Konosuke Matsushita -- for whom Panasonic was originally...

Microsoft and HP are teaming up to develop the high-tech home of the future. The two companies revealed their Innoventions Dream Home at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., this week. The home features some of the newest developments in communications technology and is now open for public tours. Located ...

HP has a new way to bring all your home media together in one central place. The company introduced the HP MediaSmart Connect system Tuesday. MediaSmart Connect is essentially a wireless server that aggregates content from various sources around your home and makes it all accessible via your high-de...

STARTUP TO WATCH

ZeeVee Builds New Bridge From PC to TV

When startup ZeeVee launched its ZvBox last month, it entered a fray in which high-profile contenders have already found success elusive. The ZvBox aims to let consumers watch any Internet TV, online video or computer content on their home high-definition TVs, and it marks one of the latest attempts...

The Netflix Player by Roku, a television set-top box that streams play-on-demand videos and movies from mail order DVD rental titan Netflix, launched late last month to generally wide acclaim. In fact, Roku reportedly sold out two weeks after its launch, though the company has said it has shipments ...

What is a high-end entertainment system? That question can be answered in a variety of ways. For some people, "high-end" means systems bought at a specialty retailer, e.g., Bang & Olufsen, Tweeter or Ultimate Electronics. For others, price determines a high-end entertainment system -- $5,000, $1...

Is Blu-ray Worth It?

When HD-DVD maker Toshiba conceded the high-definition DVD format war in February, Blu-ray's backers may have hoped that sales of the Sony-championed format would see a big boost. However, while Blu-ray may have triumphed over HD-DVD, sales for the device have not exactly skyrocketed. An April 30 re...

Sony Electronics and the six largest U.S. cable companies have signed an agreement that paves the way toward allowing consumers to view interactive digital and high-definition video services on "two-way" devices without a set-top box, the companies announced Tuesday. The agreement lays the groundwor...

Netflix has launched a new set-top TV box that may usher in a new generation for the company's movie distribution model -- online streaming downloads directly to a consumer's television. To get the job done, Netflix has teamed with Roku to build the new box, called "The Netflix Player by Roku." The ...

INSIGHTS

Bringing High-Def Into Focus

It seems as if everywhere I look these days, HD is there. An increasing number of TV programs come with an "available in HD" logo at the bottom of the screen, and it looks as though every consumer store that sells any form of electronics has photos of widescreen televisions plastered all over the ad...

PlayStation 3 owners may soon be able to watch movies without ever leaving their living rooms. In an official PlayStation blog entry dated April 15, the game maker hinted at plans for the PlayStation Network in 2008 and a recent revamp of the PlayStation Store. A senior marketing executive also ment...

OPINION

Making Progress by Making Peace

Too many of us -- and I include myself -- are too willing to go to war and not willing enough to find harder, but often more successful, collaborative ways to solve problems. I often look at both the U.S. and Microsoft as similar entities in their respective spaces, and I'm often fascinated by how e...

Sony won the high-definition DVD format war with Blu-ray. Now, Blu-ray is becoming more mainstream by edging into a budget-friendly Dell laptop. Dell is now offering a Blu-ray-equipped laptop -- the Inspiron 1525 model -- starting at $879. The 1525 features a 15.4-inch high-definition wide-aspect di...

Flush from its high-definition DVD format war victory over Toshiba, Sony is beginning to enhance its Blu-ray platform with new interactive features and discs that take advantage of them. The company's movie division, Sony Pictures, plans to release its first two Blu-ray discs April 8, enabled with n...

A small company based on the tiny Caribbean island of Antigua in the West Indies has broken the highly vaunted BD+ copy protection scheme for Blu-ray discs. The company, SlySoft, produces software that helps customers rip DVDs, HD DVDs, and now, of course, Blu-ray discs into a digital format that's ...

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