Apple yesterday introduced new members and colors of the iPod. Almost completely doing away with plastic cases, Apple recolored the Shuffle, shortened the height and enlarged the screen of the nano, expanded the capacity of the classic iPod to an amazing 160 GB, and introduced the iPhone-less iPhone, called the iPod Touch.
Clearly the biggest news is the iPod Touch, and I’ll go into detail about what’s great and what’s not in my next article. But for me, my greatest joy was in seeing a new 160 GB iPod classic with a new interface and non-scratching metal case. My iPod is as much a tool as a portable hard drive, as it is as a entertainment device.
While the Pros clearly out weigh the cons, there are some changes that many will not like to the new products. Specifically, while they added video output playback ability to every iPod but the shuffle, it can no longer be accomplished without a dock. So long impromptu showings of television shows, movies, or even slide shows. Now you have more to carry with you if you expect to be entertaining from your iPod.
In general, Apple should be cheered for this well overdue update. It’s about time…
My only real complaint? I want a 160 GB iPod Touch. I doubt that will happen until RAM prices considerably drop.
The nightmare continues… and I don’t mean that John Carpenter’s masterpiece “Halloween” has been remade by Rob Zombie; the remake joins the ranks of films lost to the internet before theatrical release.
The new Rob Zombie film that opens this weekend has been leaked in DVD quality to the internet. Stereo sound, and all of the gore you’d expect. This isn’t good news.
When you have a film as expected as this one, this leak could be disastrous to the film’s release. Especially the opening weekend. Given the fact that this is a work print, it could also be destructive to the DVD release if the key deleted scenes are included in the work cut. From reports, this cut is a widely commented July cut of the film that didn’t test as well as the studio would have liked, and therefore there were many edits and the ending was supposedly reshot.
More and more films are showing up on the internet in the highest quality, and these leaks are leaving a major wake in their path. “Highlander: The Source,” “Hostel: Part II”, “Sicko” are just a few that have suffered.
Given the huge investment made by the studios, you can expect that the whole studio system will begin to lock up and lock down all outside production. Folks, with film industry strikes on the horizon, leaks of films on the net, and an overall eight-hundred-pound-gorilla mentality, you can expect to see the studio system of internal production departments increase in the near future with Fort Knox security being employed. Just wait and see…
(Okay, well maybe they were given the hero treatment in Malaysia, and not so much at home, but that photo is priceless and very reminiscent to New York Ticker-tape parades…)
Paramount recently announced the most expensive single season of a show ever placed on home video. Star Trek: The Original Series: Season 1: Remastered, exclusively on HD-DVD for $218.
Joining Universal Pictures, Paramount and Dreamworks Animation have chosen a side in the High Definition disc war; HD-DVD. Privacy of sales figures have always been a major focus for all of the studios. This is one of the biggest reasons that the studios are high on the DVD format. Distribution is direct from the studio, and all records stay within the company.
While the Dreamworks SKG films are not exclusive to either format, it was reported today at Yahoo News that the studios have definitively chosen HD-DVD over Blu-ray.
Sony, the most major player in the Blu-ray camp; and receives royalty payments for every Blu-ray disc sold, in essence receives the sales statistics for all Blu-ray releases. This is incredibly powerful information when you want to negotiate a deal with another studio for anything from sequel rights, co-production deals, and could easily be used to sway talent by sharing ‘true’ figures as a lure to Sony.
Knowledge is power in Hollywood, and with accurate figures going to Sony, they are ideally poised to be ‘The Godfather’ of the industry, making offers that the other studios couldn’t refuse.
Whenever its reported that Blu-ray is leading the HD disc competition, I return back to the blackmail aspects of the battle. Remember, this is the beginning of a next stage in movie sales; with looming strikes over disc royalties, information such as these verifiable figures could easily set a negative precedent.
While most figures are generic, and would be reported as ‘Paramount pressed 5000 discs today’ and not by title, the fact that Blu-ray plants are being carefully monitored by Sony at the moment due to the many problems they have been having with their first generation discs, it’s clear that this title monitoring could easily, and are likely occurring.
While I personally feel that Blu-ray has the better technical format, I expect HD-DVD to win in the long run for political reasons. Stay tuned for further updates…
It is every Producer’s biggest nightmare. Your film is released in full quality, stereo mix, etc. on the internet almost a year before it is supposed to be released. Late last year this EXACT event happened. Anyone who truly wanted to see the film, obtained a copy, and did. While the Producers claimed that the film wasn’t finished, reports are that every aspect of the film was polished, and overall, it was an enjoyable film. However, when no theatrical release date was set, the question of what was going to happen with the film came up. It’s reported by the Adrian Paul Newswire blog that the film is now destined for it’s premiere as a television movie for the SciFi Channel on September 15th at 9 PM followed by an encore showing at 1AM.
This is a shame, and something to seriously appreciate when you’re making a picture. Often events such as these happen when someone involved ‘burns’ someone else. As a fellow Producer, I truly hope that they catch the individual who leaked the film. As for the picture itself? I recommend that you take the time on September 15th to see it!
Have the Blockbuster Online guys hacked Netflix???
Last night I went to log in to Netflix to watch a streaming episode of Masters of Horror only to find their website down with a promise of restoration by 8PM. I came back at 8, and it said 11PM, I came back at 11, it said 2AM. This morning I returned to the site, at 8AM, and it wait ‘be back up at 9AM… 9 AM said 11AM, and now it simply reads “temporarily unavailable.
It’s reported that Netflix shares are now at an all time low, and that the company recently reduced the price of all of their plans by roughly $1. What they didn’t expect was the site to go down.
The Boston Herald reports that Netflix claims that they will be back online by 4PM but doesn’t state the reason for the outtage.
You can be sure that some hacker at Blockbuster is getting a huge bonus today. Amazing when you consider the power of a intelligent nerd in a closet… Hail nerds!
I was checking out the new list of the revised 100 greatest films at the AFI’s site and found something interesting.  The way they display the movies is in a flash animation that shows the movies DVD cover, which I find incredibly crass, but that’s another story.  So in the case of Star Wars, you’ll see the 2006 Photoshopped “art” and in the case of Raiders of the Lost Ark you’ll see the pan-and-scan cover for “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark”.ÂÂ
Number 65 on the list is The African Queen, a film that has not been released on DVD yet.  I’m including a picture of what they have displayed on their page.
While Apple’s new iPhone ‘Activation & Sync Video’ has mostly accurate information on their plans, the final review, right in the middle of Apple’s new iPhone Activation & Sync Video you’ll see the following:
Apple announced:
In general this is strange because they also show a $10 upgrade to 1500 SMS minutes in the same video:
It seems that the upgrade for a current AT&T customer to the iPhone data plan is $20 for 200 included SMS text messages, and $30 for 1500. What Apple showed above is a better deal than what is currently being offered for the iPhone so this is likely why it was changed. All of the data plans should have included 1500 SMS text messages.
AT&T’s unlimited plans currently include 1500 SMS text messages, and it looks like the Apple plans were going to include this many as well. But if you look at what is being offered… only 200 SMS text messages, this is shameful. These should be free to begin with, but SMS messages are a profit center for cellphone carriers, and instead of including Apple’s text messaging client ‘iChat’ as part of the unlimited internet plan, they are using the expensive SMS messaging. You only get 200 SMS text messages (incoming or outgoing) on the current plan, and according to an AT&T representative, any additional text messages are $.10 each.
For more information about how SMS text messages, especially only 200 is not only restrictive, but potentially manipulative in causing higher cellphone bills with the iPhone, stay tuned for my next blog to be posted later tonight.
It’s the end of the war! BluRay wins! Hands down! Uhh… That’s what I’ve been reading. I don’t agree. If Walmart said they will no longer carry HD-DVD… well, that would be the nail in the coffin, but Blockbuster just made a poor business decision, and people declare the end of the war. This simply is a business decision.
Why did Blockbuster go BluRay? More than any other reason, I’d have to go with Disney’s films. Blockbuster stores have many sections, and right next to new releases would be family when it comes to most rentals. When you consider the studios exclusive to BluRay, Disney, Sony, Fox, etc. While HD-DVD has Universal exclusively, you have to go where the content is.
While Warner is working on a dual disc format that features both versions on one disc, they have been unsuccessful in convincing me that I need to purchase their dual HD/standard DVD discs. I always felt that the secret to winning this battle would be to release dual discs so while someone is buying a new movie, they are receiving a HD-DVD and DVD version at the same time so that by the time they have a player, they already own the movies. Warner Bros. has jumped onto this concept, and released dual version discs, but for $10 more making their HD-DVD releases COST MORE than their BluRay version. What is the use in this?! Now it’s cheaper for HD-DVD buyers to buy the standard DVD of a film instead of the HD-DVD version. This is not acceptable, and is hurting the HD-DVD market. Blockbuster also knows this, and would never want to invest in a disc that is dual format for additional money when they can get the lessor expensive BluRay discs. Thank you Warner for your dedication to the market, yet poor business decision to raise prices above market acceptability.
As for the studios, Fox is willing to do what it takes to move their products. They discount their discs, and continue with unusually high quality releases. When you consider that the successful movies of the summer, Spider-man 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 will be coming to BluRay exclusively you can again understand Blockbuster’s choice.
Am I happy about the choice? No, but given the fact that there is a war going on at the moment, we have to hold steady until the market decides. At least Xbox 360 owners who have purchased the HD-DVD player attachment know that they didn’t have to make the huge investment into one side or another, and if BluRay does win out, you can bet the Microsoft will quickly release a BluRay attachment for the 360 as well. With the Playstation 3, you have no other choices but BluRay, and Blockbuster knows that as well. Every PS3 game renter is a potential BluRay disc renter, whereas they don’t know for sure who has HD-DVD.
After comparing both formats, my enjoyment in presentation says firmly with HD-DVD while my appreciation of which technology is superior falls on BluRay.
The saddest part of this whole war is that to most people, standard DVD is crisp and clean enough, and they really don’t need a HD disc format at all.
Before DVD, low quality, fuzzy, and full-screen VHS ruled the world. People are just not ready to repurchase their collections over again in HD.
BluRay 1, HD-DVD 0 this round. Let’s see what’s in store next. Cheers!
We fools are game for just about anything Imax ever since watching the Imax film “Flyers” at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC 25 years ago in the first Imax theater in the world. There was nothing like having to turn my head back and forth, as a little tyke, to see everything in a breathtaking experience that was the closest thing to flying like a superhero I could imagine at the time. Since then, Imax films are a big business, bringing the company hundreds of millions of dollars per year as the novelty of the format has a clear, loyal audience (Warners’ “300″ set an attendance record at Imax theaters in its opening weekend in March.) So, without further adieu and if you haven’t heard by now, director Christopher Nolan has made an inventive decision to film four sequences of “The Dark Knight” with Imax cameras. The next installment of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Batman franchise, scheduled for a July 18, 2008, day-and-date theatrical release with Imax theaters. Will mixing up the formats be annoying or friggin’ cool?
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