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Convert movies for your iPhone (or iPod)

I'm not sure how you people can watch movies and TV shows on those little screens, but you sure are doing it! Every time I turn around on the bus or in the airport, somebody is watching video on her iPod. (If she's supercool, she's watching it on her new iPhone.)

It's easy to buy videos designed to view on those little screens, of course, but if you want to get your own DVDs and Web movies onto your iPod or iPhone, you'll have to dive into the wide world of video converters.… Read more

Toshiba upgrades Qosmio laptop line with HD DVD recording

The oddly named Qosmio series of laptops from Toshiba has always been a favorite of high-end home theater types, combining big, bright screens with HD DVD drives and Harman Kardon speakers.

The latest update, the Qosmio G45-AV680, adds a recordable HD DVD drive (not as common as recordable Blu-ray drives) and keeps the line's built-in Dolby surround-sound technology and high-resolution 1,920x1,200 display. The G45 returns to Toshiba's glossy white "piano finish," unlike the recent G35's matte gray look, and has both a large, circular volume wheel and an AV control wheel.

Other highlights … Read more

Enough with the HD DVD, Blu-ray battle. Bring on downloads!

I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of people in the HD DVD camp telling the world that its format is winning the high-definition DVD battle and the people in the Blu-ray DVD camp claiming that their format is taking hold of the industry. If you ask me, both sides are just fooling themselves.

For years, we have been under the impression that the only way to get movies into our homes is to use hardware. And while that may have been true years ago, that idea is a bunch of hogwash now.

For a … Read more

iLoad now rips DVDs direct to iPod. iPhone incompatible.

I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard of the Wingspan iLoad. Until recently, the product's only claim to fame was that it enabled you to rip CDs directly to your iPod without having to involve your computer. It was a handy tool for iTunes-haters and Luddites, but at $300 it wasn't a terribly compelling product. Just this past month, however, Wingspan published a firmware update that allows the iLoad to rip any DVD movie directly to an iPod. We've tested it, and it works (although not with the iPhone). In fact the video quality … Read more

Report: DVD ripping less a threat than file sharing

At last, news that Hollywood studios and file sharers can both celebrate.

Researchers at the NPD Group have found that, contrary to popular belief, far fewer consumers copy, or "rip" DVDs as a means of obtaining movies and TV shows. DVD ripping is far less prevalent than sharing files via peer-to-peer services, according to the report.

"There is an urban myth or feeling," said Russ Crupnick, an NPD senior analyst, "that people are using services such as Netflix to borrow and burn. We're not seeing any evidence of that."

Ripping CDs, which some … Read more

Pie charts indicate Blu-ray victory over HD DVD assured

If a picture's worth a thousand words, a pie chart has to be worth at least 500. Well, Ken Pierce over at Pixel Perfect Productions has cooked up five pie charts' worth of data on why the HD DVD/Blu-ray war is over--and as James Carville would say, it's all about the content, stupid.

To give credit where credit is due, I first noticed this link in Bill Hunt's "My Two Cents" column on Digital Bits. (Sorry, the item was from a couple of days ago, but I've been on vacation). Says Hunt: "… Read more

iPhone hack enables wireless without AT&T

Norwegian researcher Jon Lech Johansen, aka DVD Jon, has found a way to activate the iPhone via Windows without subscribing to an AT&T wireless plan. After using the hack, some Internet features, such as YouTube, may still not work. What you do get is use of the wide-screen iPod and Internet access through the Safari browser.

Details can be found on Johansen's So sue me blog. There, Johansen lists several values and offsets that he says must be entered in the itunes.exe file. This requires the use of a hex editor. A new host entry must … Read more

Toshiba adds a boatload of new laptops

With all the excitement over the new color-coordinated Dell Inspiron laptops (and the groovy 13-inch XPS m1330) last week, the guys over at Toshiba must have been kicking themselves. Instead of just giving their laptop lineup a new paintjob and some upgraded processors, they've got a whole stack of new and revamped systems, emphasizing the company's commitment to the HD DVD format (which may or may not be the best long-term plan, but that's another story).

We've always liked the Qosimo line of high-end media center laptops, and the new 15.4-inch Qosimo F45 is no … Read more

Warner Bros.' dual-format disc delayed

Total HD, the Warner Bros. solution to the Blu-ray/HD DVD face off for high-def home video supremacy, won't be rolled out in late 2007 as promised at CES, a Warner Bros. official said Wednesday.

The first discs, which will feature Blu-ray on one side and HD DVD on the other, will not appear until early 2008, according to Dan Miron, the studio's vice president of sales and planning, who made the comments at an entertainment business conference in Los Angeles.

The studio didn't provide further details, other than to say that it wants to avoid confusing … Read more