dominance

I was not a super early adopter of HDTV but over the last few years of HDTV ownership I've definitely become a big fan and proponent of it. You just have to see the difference in picture quality between standard definition 480i resolution and the high definition resolutions of 720p, 1080i, or 1080p and it'll make you a believer too. Until the last year or so it was still a pretty hefty purchase, but nowadays you can get your feet wet in the HDTV world for less than $1000. I've become a bit of a resolution and picture quality snob ever since I switched to HDTV -- I rarely watch any television programs unless it's available in HD, with maybe Formula 1 racing on Speed TV being the main exception. (It still boggles the mind that NASCAR is available in HD but the world's premier racing series is not.)

Cable or over-the-air HDTV was just the beginning, though. Of course true movie and gaming buffs would want to take full advantage of the high definition resolutions, and sure enough the consumer electronics industry brought the digital goodness to market. The problem was, there was disagreement between the major manufacturers on what high-definition format should be the one to replace the 480i DVD. And so two formats came to the stores to wage battle for the hearts and pocketbooks of the people: Toshiba brought HD-DVD, and Sony had Blu-Ray. In terms of gaming, Microsoft's XBOX360 offered HD-DVD capability as an add-on, and Sony's PlayStation3 came with Blu-Ray playback right out of the box. Well in retrospect, it certainly looks like Sony made the right choice to include that functionality as standard, because it meant that for every gamer who bought a PS3 they also got a Blu-Ray player which leads logically to more Blu-Ray sales. HD-DVD (and the X360) came to market first and took the initial lead, but now, some 2 years later, it appears inevitable that Blu-ray is the outright winner of this battle.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray were neck-and-neck in the race in 2007 with roughly equal numbers of movie studios supporting each format, and many studios committed to supporting both. But the tide suddenly turned earlier this year, when in January the Warner Bros. studio announced it was dropping HD-DVD in favor of Blu-Ray. Last week two more bombshells rocked the HD-DVD camp, when Best Buy announced that they would promote Blu-Ray as their format of choice (although they would still sell HD-DVD players) and Netflix decided to drop HD-DVD and offer Blu-Ray discs exclusively as the preferred high-def format of choice. Both organizations cited the apparent preferences of their customers and the need to eliminate confusion amongst new HDTV buyers as reasons for taking Blu-Ray's side. The names backing Blu-Ray at this point are impressive: Warner, Sony, Fox, Lionsgate, Disney/Pixar, Blockbuster, Netflix, Best Buy, Samsung.

And now, this really has to be the final nail in the coffin for HD-DVD -- national retail giant Wal-Mart has announced they are backing Blu-Ray as well. I think it's game over for Toshiba's HD-DVD at this point. There are already rumors that Toshiba will officially declare the format dead soon.

As a PS3 owner, I'm glad I backed the winning side. Now, I'm waiting to see if Universal and Paramount will finally change their minds and release films like Transformers on Blu-Ray!

From MSN: Wal-Mart dumps HD-DVD in favor of Blu-Ray

challenger

If you follow automotive news and new car designs like I do, then you know that it's really a great time to be a muscle car or pony car fan right now -- it's like a rebirth of the classic American iron block era. Vintage muscle cars are fetching some amazing prices at the auto collector auction houses, and American auto manufacturers have taken notice and quickly moved to introduce new but highly-retro designs. Credit has to go to Ford, who with their 1960s-era inspired 5th generation Mustang redesign in 2005 launched a movement they refer to as "retro-futurism." Classic car style but with modern technology, safety, and reliability. Chevy soon followed suit in a move that echoes the pony car wars of the '60s and '70s, developing their Camaro concept in 2006. But despite appearing in the Transformers movie and showing up at various auto shows in different guises, it has yet to enter production. Chrysler/Dodge came to the party with the Charger, resurrecting an old muscle-car name and some styling cues from the classic car, but ultimately bringing to market a kind of frumpy looking car. Don't get me wrong, it looked positively badass as an evil police cruiser/Decepticon in Transformers, but it's not the kind of car that resonates with me.

Well maybe lots of other car guys and the product design teams at Dodge agreed with me, because they went back to the drawing board, and the old muscle car archives, and came back with the new Challenger which was recently unveiled at this year's Chicago Auto Show. And this time, I feel they really got it right. For their performance SRT8 model, which is the only trim the Charger is available in at launch, they even eschewed the homely Dodge "crosshairs" grille that adorns the rest of the Dodge family right now, including the Charger and the Ram line of trucks. The styling harkens straight back to 1970.

Maybe it's because I spent way too many hours as a kid watching The Dukes of Hazzard on TV, but the sight of that bright orange show car just spoke to me. Die hard Dukes fans will point out that the Duke boys drove a Charger, not a Challenger, but apparently I'm not the only one who would dismiss that discrepancy -- right there on the Dodge site you'll see plenty of photos of this gorgeous car in bright orange, and there's even a few shots of the car flying high in an obvious throwback to the ridiculous jumps and stunts of the '70s and '80s TV shows that we so loved.

In the early '90s my family soured on all American cars as a result of some bad experiences with a Chrysler New Yorker we had. "Never buy an American car again", was the sentiment we all seemed to share. Well there was a time that I didn't think I would ever even consider it, but the Challenger just might be the American car to um, challenge and overcome that prejudice for me. I'll take mine in black, please!

rats

First of all I have to say Gong Hay Fat Choy, that is, Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! It is now the Year of the Rat, which doesn't sound very glorious but rest assured it is a very good time in the Chinese Zodiac calendar.

Speaking of rats, there was a recent study conducted that shows that drinking diet sodas with artificial sweeteners may not help you lose weight; in fact, according to the study you may actually gain weight by drinking one or more diet sodas a day. Diet soda proponents will of course argue that it's still better than drinking a full-on sugar-laden soda instead, but watch this video and give it some thought -- the possible theory for the weight gain in rats (and I guess it somehow correlates to humans) who drank diet sodas is that somehow your mind thinks you're drinking something sweet but you don't actually get the sugar so your body adjusts in a way that leads to weight gain. Well to be fair all this study really means is that if you're a rat (and most of us reading this probably aren't), then the artificial sweetener may mess with your body and mind in ways you might not have expected. The one tidbit of truth that you can take away from all this? You should drink less soda, whether diet or not, and drink more water.

chocoholics

I got a new cell phone this weekend -- the LG Chocolate in Blue Mint. Very slick, and a major improvement over my previous phone which got lousy reception -- I may never buy a Samsung product again. The guy at Circuit City/Verizon was very nice and combined a few offers together so I was able to get the phone for the low low price of $FREE.99! But wait, there's more... he also threw in an BOGO offer, so we got a second Chocolate in Black Cherry for V. and we only had to pay the sales tax on it. So now we have matching his and her's phones, very dorky! Guess you could think of it as an early Valentine's Day gift.

The Chocolate is a slider not a flip phone, but its simplistic design calls to mind the beloved Motorola StarTAC that I gave up for the Samsung. It also doesn't hurt that this new phone is probably 70% thinner than my old phone, and maybe 50% smaller than V's feature-laden but brick-sized LG VX9800. Yes, the Chocolate does has a camera and MP3 music player incorporated into that slim little case but they haven't missed the mark on the most important aspect of a phone -- namely, to be able to make clear phone calls and maintain a good signal. Well let's not unconditionally praise the new phones just yet -- we'll have to play around with them for a bit and see if they live up to their initial positive impressions in the long-term.