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Guide To Watching Movies On Your Treo 650

There are many ways to put movies on your treo. I believe this one is the easiest and produces really beautiful results. I use a PC running Windows XP and  a Treo650. Complete story...

(thanks MyTreo.net)

Mark Cuban to theater owners rejecting "Bubble" -- get a clue

(Via BoingBoing) Last week, National Association of Theater Owners head John Fithian announced that some member theaters would block Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble" for fear that the simultaneous release on DVD, pay per view, and in theaters would be bad for the theater biz. Mark Cuban, co-founder of the company distributing the movie (2929 Entertainment), responds on his blog:

With the release of Bubble on January 27th in theaters, on DVD and for 2 showings on HDNet Movies, there has been a ton of press and discussion about the future of the movie industry. The most extreme has come from John Fithian, who wins the award for the best ever imitation of Jack Valenti’s famous comparison of the VCR to the Boston Strangler when he was quoted in FastCompany as saying

[Fithian] called Iger’s suggestion this summer a “death threat” against his members. Fithian says that “if [release] windows were eliminated, what you would have would be fewer movies, fewer total dollars for the industry, and less choice for the consumer.” He thinks movies would become little more than commodities and that hundreds or thousands of theaters would close.

But he wasn't done there. He said the same thing to USA Today: It’s the biggest threat to the viability of the cinema industry today,” John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, said of the so-called “day and date” release strategy.

How sad is it when the President of the National Assoc of Theater Owners doesnt think his members can create a better movie going experience than what we can see in our houses and apartments? Guess what John, I can whip up a mean steak, but I still like to go to restaurants. Because I enjoy it. I enjoy getting out of the house with family, friends, who ever.

Link to full text of Mark Cuban's blog entry.

Konica Minolta to Exit Camera Business

E-Commerce Times: Tokyo-based Konica Minolta will cut 3,700 jobs -- or 11 percent of its global work force of 33,000, including early retirements -- by Sept. 30, 2007, the company said in a statement. The company provided no regional breakdown, spokesperson Yuko Ogiso said. Read more...

It's Jerry Time!

This is one of the funniest sites I've seen in a long time, you've got to check out this video blog It's Jerry Time! Which is the creation of two brothers, Jerry and Orrin Zucker.

CES 2006 Home Video Wrap-Up

Designtechnica has posted a new article: CES2006 Home Video Wrap-Up

Excerpt:

"The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was a tough show this year, with two large convention centers to cover, plus all of the manufacturers' suites in hotels. As always, it was a tiring but exciting show. As I noted in my most recent blog ("Post Partum CES"), the two major themes of the show were 1080p displays in all screen technologies and the looming next-generation optical disk format war. Will this format war play out like Red versus Blue states, or will it be a different scenario? (In case you didn't know, HD DVD's packaging is red, and Blu-ray's is blue. How quaint.)

We take a look at the new HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players as well as the newest 1080P TV's."

CES 2006 Camcorder Round-Up

Designtechnica has posted a new article: CES 2006 Camcorder Round-up

Excerpt:

"Although hard to find, there were a ton of new camcorders nestled among the overwhelming forest of flat panel televisions at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in lovely Las Vegas. (Don't laugh, I actually like the town.)


Here are the broad strokes:

*DVD camcorders are more prevalent than ever as almost all manufacturers have jumped onto the disk-based bandwagon.

*Companies have cut back on the number of MiniDV tape models and cut prices.

*A gradual shift is occurring as non-tape formats (DVD, hard disk drive, solid state) become more common and less expensive.

*And since America has gone widescreen TV crazy, more camcorders than ever take true widescreen video rather than stretching it like the old days (three years ago)."

Building a Linux Home Media Center

Linux.com has published an article by Tom Lynema on Building a Linux home media center.

Like a lot of people nowadays, I have a growing collection of digital media. My digital media is stored on a home Linux server. Most of the digital media players available today do not support protocols to connect to a Linux server, which make them unsuitable for my use. I realized the best way to connect my digital media library with my home theatre was to build my own Linux home media center (LHMC)...

Treo 650 vs Treo 700w

PC World has published a comparison review of Treo 650 and Treo 700w.

The unimaginable has finally happened: Palm, once considered the arch-nemesis of Microsoft in the handheld universe, has joined forces with the software behemoth to produce a Windows Mobile-based Treo, the 700w. It's the end of the PDA world as we knew it.

But it's also a real opportunity to compare the Palm and Windows Mobile operating systems on more or less equal hardware, since the Treo 700w looks a lot like the Treo 650.

Play it again, pants: Levi's introduces iPod-compatible jeans

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Jeans giant Levi's is hoping to woo fashionistas and music aficionados alike with its new iPod-compatible RedWire DLX jeans, due out this fall.

With a joystick remote control built into the watch pocket, the new jeans will allow wearers to play, pause, track forward or back and adjust the volume on their iPods without having to take them out of their pockets.

A separate pocket will house and conceal the bulge of the iPod, while a built-in retractable headphone unit is designed to prevent tangled wires.

A red conductive ribbon will keep wearers connected while allowing them to remove the iPod from their pockets to view the screen, the company said.

"The Levi's RedWire DLX jean is the latest extension of the Levi's brand leadership position, by merging fashion and technology that provides consumers with the most innovative way to enhance their portable digital music lifestyle," Robert Hanson, Levi's US brand president, said in a statement.

"In designing the jeans, we considered both function and fashion -- the result is a uniquely functional -- yet stylish -- great-fitting jean."

The high-tech togs will roll out worldwide in the fall, the company said.

Levi's jeans are sold in more than 100 countries.

CNET awards the Creative Zen Vision:M Best in Show for CES 2006

If there's ever an iPod killer, this is it! After testing both of them at this years CES, I was blown away at the clarity and quality of the Zen Vision:M beautiful, bright 2.5 inch screen displaying 262,144 colors which is much more than the 65,000 colors of the iPod. It also supports album art, simultaneous photo viewing and music playback as well as WMV 9, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and Motion-JPEG videos.The Zen Vision:M like most other Creative MP3 players also includes an FM stereo tuner and voice recorder. It also syncs with Microsoft Outlook contacts, calendar, and tasks.

Read more about the CNET Best of CES 2006 Winners