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The next five years of the X Prize

At a gala charity event Saturday night featuring "Avatar" director James Cameron, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and a who's who of tech industry luminaries, the X Prize Foundation laid out its vision for the next five years.

Already in 2004, the foundation has paid out $10 million in prize money for the winner of the Ansari X Prize, which in 2004 went to the first non-governmental team to launch a vehicle into space twice in two weeks. The prize winners were Burt Rutan and the Paul Allen-backed team that built SpaceShipOne.

The foundation offers … Read more

Glorious Avatar graphics on the iPad

Editors' take: We liked the movie, but didn't bother with the tie-in game that debuted on the iPhone late last year. Why? We find most action titles a bit too claustrophobic on the small screen. But if it's on an iPad and features updated HD graphics, just show us where to sign up. This combat-packed trip to Na'vi will cost you $9.99.

The 404 573: Where seriously, whose iPhone 4G prototype is this? (podcast)

We're all wondering what's going on with the story of the Apple iPhone 4G prototype found in a Redwood City, Calif., bar and its subsequent sale to Gizmodo. CNET News Senior Writer Greg Sandoval drops by the studio to fill us in on all the latest developments, including who exactly found the phone, how it eventually got into the hands of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, and why it's never a good idea to purchase anything you know for a fact is stolen! Unfortunately, "finders keepers, losers weepers" only holds water on the playground.

Wired published an article last week outing Brian J. Hogan as the person who found and sold the iPhone prototype to Gizmodo, but CNET also learned that he had help finding a buyer for the device from Sage Wallower, a UC Berkeley student who attended Santa Barbara City College with Hogan.

The investigation is still ongoing (San Mateo County police still have Chen's computers), but Greg tells us felony criminal charges are still a very serious possibility since a California law specifically states that "any person who knowingly receives property that has been obtained illegally can be imprisoned for up to one year."

We also have a collection of silly stories to even out the show in the second half, including a very discomforting story about an unlikely pairing between a 59-year-old Chinese man and a 20-inch long eel. We can't go into much detail, but there's a very important lesson to take away from it all, and that is to never, ever pass out in front of your friends.

Finally, Roger Ebert has written an open letter to the public decrying the concept of 3D movies as a way of life. His points are direct and address many of the issues we've already discussed with David Katzmaier, senior editor of TVs and home theater for CNET.

Ebert claims that the 3D element, even in popular movies like "Avatar," add nothing essential to the moviegoing experience. It also doesn't help that these movies often cause nausea and headaches for people who just want to be entertained for two hours, not to mention the inflated surcharges that theaters tack onto already expensive tickets. Listen in to hear our take on the future of 3D movies and home theater.

Big thanks to Greg for taking time out of his schedule to join us on today's show. If you have a question for us or simply want to comment on the show, give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET or e-mail the404(at)cnet(dot)com. Thanks for listening!

EPISODE 573 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video

The 404 567: Where we get caught playing with our toys (podcast)

Today's episode of The 404 Podcast resurrects our love for action figures and other toys from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jeff's a little older than Wilson and me, but we can still bond over our mutual love for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures and our mutual hatred for picking up all those foam Nerd darts.

There's also a lot to learn about each other based on our toys. For example, Wilson's mom used to yell at him for unscrewing and tinkering with all his figures, which explains why he eventually grew up building his own computers.

Unfortunately, we're too old to play with children's toys now so we've all graduated to big-boy toys, and it's with great sadness that we have to announce the death of the floppy disk. After three decades of production, Sony announced Friday that it would end all floppy-disk sales before the end of March 2011.

Many are unaware that Sony actually pioneered the first 3.5-inch floppy disk in 1981, although the 1.44MB disks were quickly rendered obsolete by other types of removable media like Zip disks, USB flash drives, and of course rewriteable CDs and DVDs. Stay tuned as we deliver a heartfelt "eugoogly" to the floppy disk--a close friend that saved kilobytes of data and served as the basis for way too many nerdy pickup lines.

It's no surprise that Internet privacy is a thing of the past, but a few Blippy users are still finding that out the hard way. If you've never heard of the site before, Blippy is a new company that lets you share your online purchases with everyone on a social network. The service gleans financial data, including what you bought and where you got it, and lets you compare your purchases with others at a granular level, all with the hopes of saving you a few bucks on future purchases.

Unfortunately, five Blippy users found their credit card information published in Google's search engine cache over the weekend. A rep from the company claims that a breach in two banks' security systems caused the problem and they've asked Google to reindex the entire site to fix it, but none of us really understand the appeal of Blippy- feel free to chime in if you're a user and let us know if you've stopped using the service after hearing about this breach in security.

EPISODE 567 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Game character gets real-life birthday parties

Though not quite as bonkers fantastical as tying the knot with a video game girl, it's suddenly fashionable to treat virtual avatars as the real deal. Including, in this case, holding a real birthday party complete with cake and presents that no one will eat or open, for a Nintendo DS dating sim character in Konami's Love Plus called Anegasaki Nene.

Her birth date's listed as April 20, though being just pixels, this senior high school student in her third year remains ageless, of course.

Love Plus, which you probably won't be surprised to hear is … Read more

Producer Jon Landau introduces 'Avatar' on Blu-ray

Jon Landau, executive producer of James Cameron's phenomenally successful film Avatar and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, recently hosted a press day introducing the April 22 release of Avatar on Blu-ray--participating in one-on-one interviews with selected members of the press, as well as roundtable discussions. Although, there wasn't much in the way of food, they did have a bar where the Avatar blue martini was the house special. The following is a snippet of the roundtable conversation as well as discussions I had with James Finn of Twentieth Century Fox.

Q: Do you think 3D is here to stay, and should everything be made in 3D? Landau: Moving forward, Jim (James Cameron) wants to do everything in 3D. Had digital 3D been available a dozen or so years ago when he shot Titanic, he'd have used it, but he didn't have it at the time. And now that we have the technology we intend to do Titanic in 3D. It will take one year to 18 months and Jim will be involved in it. We see in 3D everyday--we've always seen in 3D, we just never knew how to (theatrically) capture it until now.

And should everything be made in 3D? Depends. Remaking classics, we'll use Citizen Kane for example, I would not support that because Orson Wells isn't here. Now if you want to go and do ET and have Steven [Spielberg] involved in it. I think that would be great. I think if you want to do Star Wars and I think George [Lucas] is interested in doing it. Lord of the Rings... Again, to have someone come in and interpret what [the director] wants, I think that's where we get into trouble. It becomes exploitative and not creative. Right now the desire to make movies in 3D must come from the filmmaker and not the studios.

What can we expect to find on the Blu-ray release of Avatar on the 22? Landau:The way we've approached this initial release is all about the quality of the presentation. So there is no additional content on the disc. There are no trailers, no commercials, and no director's commentary because that takes away from the bit-rate that you can apply to the movie. We went with very simplistic menus again because [to elaborate on the menu] meant you have to do nine different versions and you have to do it in French, in Spanish, and do all this different branching. It [would have taken] up enough space that you'd have lost something off of the picture quality. Jim Cameron spent a week with our color timer, who did the movie doing a special color grading for the home entertainment release. Normally, the quote-encoding process takes two weeks. We spent five weeks doing it. We had people involved from Lightstorm throughout, where we made sure everything was right. We think the quality that we are going to present on the Blu-ray is pretty remarkable.

So this is just the movie with no frills. How much of the Blu-ray disc are you using then for the movie? Landau: Well, I wouldn't say "no frills" [chuckles]... We are actually using 100 percent of the disc.… Read more

Comparison: 'Avatar' across HD formats

Ah, Earth Day. Known for bicycling, recycling, and celebrating cycles of life. On Earth Day 2010 the cycle of the year's most anticipated home video release began with the availability of "Avatar" on Blu-ray and DVD, in addition to the major pay-per-view video services. Vudu and Sony's PlayStation Network are the only major streaming/download services to carry the HD version at launch (sorry, Amazon VOD and QRIOCITY), so if you want to watch "Avatar" in HD at home, you'll have to buy one of those two futuristic files or risk being branded a Luddite to actually get the physical Blu-ray.

We scoped all three HD versions of the film in our test lab with an eye toward picture quality. Better yet, since the Blu-ray won't be available in 3D until next year, we thought this would be a good chance to give the 2D-to-3D conversion system on Samsung's 3DTV another shot. Short of creating our own version post-production, it's the closest we'll come for now to seeing Neytiri leap off the screen and onto our laps.

Biodegradable 3D glasses coming to theaters?

Though some moviegoers' powerful identification with "Avatar" may have inspired them to ponder the planet and rethink their carbon footprint, they likely missed the irony: millions of nonbiodegradable, plastic 3D glasses were reportedly distributed for the movie.

Luckily, cinemas may be on their way to adopting a more sustainable technology. Cereplast, an L.A.-based maker of bioplastics, has partnered with Oculus3D to create what appear to be the first biodegradable 3D glasses. Unlike current 3D glasses that are made using petroleum-based plastic, these will be manufactured with plastic derived from plant materials.

Cereplast and Oculus3D say they'… Read more

James Cameron: Innovation trumps digital piracy

LAS VEGAS- Oscar-winning director James Cameron says the key to combating digital piracy in the movie industry is to use technology to create an experience that is unmatched anywhere other than the theater.

While "Avatar," Cameron's blockbuster 3D-film, has made more money than any other movie in history topping $2.6 billion at the box office worldwide, it is also the most pirated movie. This is despite the fact that the movie was shot in bandwidth hungry high-definition 3D video and is more than three hours long, which should make it harder to distribute via the Net. … Read more

Don't laugh, Venuegen's virtual meetings can work

My co-workers will attest to the fact that when I started reading the materials about Venuegen's virtual-meeting-room service, I audibly groaned. I've had enough of companies trying to make meetings work in Second Life-ish virtual worlds. It's too cute an idea for too serious a need. Or so I've always thought.

A demo of the service, which is being unveiled at the Demo conference Monday, opened my eyes a bit. Built on a gaming platform but decidedly not a game or "virtual world," like Second Life or There, Venuegen is a world of 3D … Read more