I don’t know about you, but I have a stack of vinyl records in my attic that I haven’t touched for more than 25 years. Yep, they have been sitting there collecting dust as I moved on to digital media such as CD’s and now MP3’s.
It’s kind of funny how much space you require to store a few albums of music on records.For instance, I have a huge trunk holding about 50 albums. Today, with MP3 digital compression, every single one of those albums can fit in the palm of my hand.
While I love my iPod and the MP3 format, I do wish I could sometimes play my records and more important, transfer them from vinyl into digital. Well, now it is possible with the new ION USB turntable.Why didn’t they think of this sooner? This has to be the coolest turntable I have ever seen!
The ION USB turntable allows you to convert your old vinyl records into MP3 by simply connecting the turntable to your computer with a USB cable and playing your vinyl records. The turntable comes with recording software that makes it a breeze to record all your vinyl records simply and easily. I should mention that the ION USB turntable took some design and styling tips from Apple, and that this turntable looks magnificent.
The ION USB turntable can play 33-1/3 and 45 RPMrecords.In addition, there is a model that can play old 78 RPM records. The ION USB turntable even offers a top-of- the-line model that features a built-in iPod dock for easy listening and transfer.
The ION USB turntable is available at most large electronics stores.Prices range from about $120 to $300.
Alienware released their media server platform as a response to Sony’s Home Entertainment Server. But unlike Sony who offers a meager 500GB of storage, Alienware gives you 4TB to store your favorite movies, songs, etc.
And not only that but the HD Media Server offers a HDMI output, Dolby Digital 7.1 preamplified output, wireless connection with other devices like computers or mobile devices. Besides it can provide automation for many functions around the house like lighting, air conditioning, or room music.
What Alienware is trying to do with this new Media Server, is not only beat Sony, but conquer a new market of centralized home entertainment. A Media Server that not only takes care of your movies and music, records TV-shows or downloads media content from the web, but also centralize other house functions into one media core. It sounds good but I don’t know for sure if this trend for centralization is leading us in the right direction.
I’ve stumbled upon the following e-mail that was sent by a disgruntled webmaster. Enjoy it
I must say, I’m quite upset. I have been using images from your website on my website for a long time now and suddenly they are gone, and I am concerned. I am using my website to build up my business which is not easy and you changed the location or deleted them or something.
My concern is that if you do not upload the images again, I might have to contact my lawyer as I am using these images for the purpose of advertising and this sudden change without warning means I have to find where you moved them and to get them working again.
Why would you do such a thing? I am an honest business man and small businesses like mine never get respect. I hope you realize it took me a long time to find images I liked. Now I have to find your images again. Please put them back right away. I don’t think you want me to call my lawyer about this.
You all know that Nintendo made some improvements the other day regarding the Firmware of our Wii consoles. That created a few new ways for browsing the most popular game titles available. To spare you the trouble, I’m attaching the photo below.
Take Two released today a financial update for the remaining of 2007 and the major events in 2008. So we hereby find out that the most expected GTA IV is now planned for the second quarter of 2008 (most probably April).
Take-Two is reducing its fiscal 2007 guidance primarily to reflect the movement of the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2008, due to additional development time required to complete the title. The title is now planned for release in the Company’s second quarter of fiscal 2008. Additionally, Take-Two is updating third quarter and fiscal year 2007 guidance to reflect the movement of Manhunt 2 for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and the Wii™ out of the third quarter and the fiscal year.
Originally, GTA IV was scheduled for release this October. Take Two Interactive refused to say the exact issue that caused this delay, but they said it was an “almost strictly technological challenge”. Furthermore, they assure the impatient gamers that this delay will be just the spare time they needed to fix any issues that would arise further and provide the market with a high quality game.
Even though buying YouTube was a good move for Google, the copyright issue was from the start an issue. Google had numerous lawsuits regarding copyrighted material posted on YouTube. And even though they tried to manage it by making deals with big media corporations, piracy is still a big problem.
It seems that the new lawsuit with Viacom has put some pressure on Google, as they declared the work is very intense on finishing their video recognition technology “hopefully in September”.
“We hope to have the testing completed and technology available by some time in the fall, but this is one of the most technologically complicated tasks that we have ever undertaken, and as always with cutting-edge technologies, it’s difficult to forecast specific launch dates,”
The idea behind the technology in development by Google, is that copyright owners will provide a digital fingerprint that will be checked on YouTube after a movie is uploaded. It all sounds simple but the technology used is quite complex, Google representatives declaring it’s one of the most challenging technical problems they were confronted with.
For now the developers say they are happy with the progress and that tests are underway with big copyright owners in the media industry. If the system is ready this fall it could save Google a lot of money and trouble in the near future.
With all the devices we have now to make our lives as comfortable as possible I wonder why wasn’t this invented earlier. We have universal remote controls for entertainment systems around the house, we have remotes to open our lights, garage doors and so on. Of course we have remotes to play our games with, but along with the Wii something changed in the way we see gaming input devices.
And it seems it’s not only gaming devices we’re talking about, some researchers in Australia came up with this device that will allow you to control your TV set using only hand gestures. The device will have a receiver that must have a clear site to both owner and TV, and it is said it will be able to distinguish unintentional gestures from commands. All you’ll have to do is learn the seven simple hand gestures in order to power on, change channels and even power off your TV.
Frankly I really don’t think we need this, I mean we already spend enough time in front of the PC or TV, the last thing we need is less things to be done. Anyway don’t hold your breath as producers say it’ll be ready somewhere around 2010.
Sony finally decided it’s time to lower the price for their 60GB PS3. Although that ought to be good news, even with the $100 price cut Sony’s gaming console is still the most expensive on the market. Sure it’s the most advanced console out there if we’re to stick purely to technical specs, but it seems that people are not ready to pay good money for features they’ll use very rare or don’t use at all.
So even with the problems Xbox is facing with all the broken consoles that need to be repaired or replaced, and with all the Wii shortage in retail stores it seems Sony had to cut down prices. And even though some say it’s just for a little while, by the look of things the new $500 price is here to stay.
So these are not good times at all for Sony, not to mention they’ve picked the worst moment to make the announcement. They announced the price cut on the last day of E3, so no one really noticed it, the bulk of the media remained with the old $600 price.
Although it might not happen as in the video below Google is sure to be an important factor in media development in the future. I’m saying that so you won’t get too worried after you watch the movie ( which I recommend you do, all 6 minutes of it).
It’s really about Davide Casaleggio’s (marketing and media specialist) view of the future (the next 50 years). For short Google will buy Microsoft, Amazon will buy Yahoo! and Second Life becomes the biggest virtual world. After that Agav is developed ( some sort of virtual avatar concept), Google launches Prometeus (a interface to use with Agav), Amazon creates Place (a replica of reality) and Second life morphs into Spirit (where people can become whoever they want). In the end Prometeus buys Place and Spirit thus becoming the only media giant. As I was saying I really recommend watching this movie.
