AirMail

A manilla envelope noteook sleeve for your MacBook Air.

I suddenly want a Macbook Air.

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Save My HD DVDs!

With the seemingly impending doom of HD DVD, I am considering other options. The Samsung BD-UP5000 1080p HD-DVD Blu-Ray Disc Combo Player looks like the perfect fit. The only problem is that is costs $799. Paypal donations accepted. Thanks!

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Toshiba HD-A2

When I bought my Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player in August, here is what I had to say...

This is my entry into the HD disc format war. I have chosen a side and I am putting my money and support behind HD DVD. No matter the outcome of the war, I now have an excellent DVD player with HD capabilities.

Previously, I had my standard DVD player hooked up to the component inputs with no upscaling. When I received this HD DVD player, I hooked it up to the HDMI input and set it to scale to 1080i on my 720p-capable Samsung 56 inch DLP (According to various forums, upscaling to 1080i via the player and downscaling to 720p via the TV provides a better quality picture than running everything at 720p).

WOW! Standard DVDs look phenomenal upscaled with this player. This player has made an upscaling believer out of me. HD DVDs look even better, if only slightly so. I was more impressed with the sound quality than the video. I am using the optical output to my Onkyo receiver.

The internet firmware update took approximately 30 minutes.

Overall, this is an incredible value and awesome upgrade to a standard DVD player. The upscaler alone makes it better than most standard DVD players (Oppo may be better) and will make you want to watch all of your standard DVDs all over again. The 5 free HD DVD offer from Toshiba makes the deal even sweeter.

So you see, even if the HD format war ends in favor of Blu-ray, I still have an excellent DVD player, which is all I really wanted in the first place.

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This is NOT the end.

So CNET is abandoning any support it had for HD DVD. Amazon suddenly slashed prices on HD DVDs. Some misinformed consumers are spreading FUD about HD DVD only supporting 720p...

Here is what CNET has to say:

"Editor's note, January 5, 2008: Because of the recent news that Warner Bros. Entertainment will be exclusively supporting Blu-ray, CNET recommends refraining from purchasing an HD DVD player in the near future. Exclusive support of Warner Bros. Entertainment gives Blu-ray a large advantage in terms of studio backing, leaving only Paramount and Universal as major studios releasing movies exclusively on the HD DVD format. This guide will be overhauled after CES to reflect this and any other news announced at the show."

This is not the end of the "war." HD DVD still has Paramount and Universal. Yes, Blu-ray currently has the momentum in its favor at the moment, but this is only one battle victory. The war is not lost yet.

This presents a perfect opportunity for those with HD DVD players to show their support for the format by taking advantage of the steep price cuts.

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More Free Online Storage

Jungle Disk is front-end application to Amazon's S3 storage offering. Jungle Disk costs a one-time fee of $20. Monthly costs are charged to you by Amazon at a rate of $.15 per gb per month. Yes, that is 15 cents.

Jungle disk is available for Macs, PCs running Windows, and PCs running Linux.

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Free Online Storage

Mozy Home Free offers 2 gb of storage for free. Unlimited storage costs $4.95 a month.

What do you think of EMC's Mozy? At least one person doesn't like it.

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