Two great formats with one common purpose. To bring High Definition 1080P and above to our homes. Well, this world is two big for two formats and one had to go. This time it was HD-DVDs turn to go. Today Walmart announced that they will too drop HD-DVD to carry only Blu-Ray in the future. Industry experts are now claiming that Toshiba will phase out HD-DVD without too much fuss and admit it has lost the format war II. Of course in a consumer driven economy, there will always be a format war (often ones that consumers don’t win). But I am glad we all can now focus on Blu-Ray for the next few years before the next great format comes out. By the way, that PS3 investment now seems to have been justified

If you haven’t heard of Amazon Kindle, it’s the hottest gadget out there, and it is one gadget that tries to make you smarter rather than lending you a hand like a GPS would do. Kindle is the ultimate e-book reader, and with its wireless connection, you always have access to books and wikipedia at all times. It’s a great innovative gadget, and many have called it a huge step forward for the eBook industry.

The Kindle using electronic paper display that makes it easy on the eye. Besides, you can change font size and resolution (which unfortunately can’t be done with a simple physical book). Best of all, you don’t really need a computer or syncing nor you need to have any kind of cable or anything of that sort. You can buy books online from Amazon’s wireless book store, and they will be available in less than one minute! You can get magazine subscriptions and even blogs on this device, which makes it absolutely a necessity for avid book/magazine readers. There are just so many good things about this device and you can find out more about it at Amazon.

Now the bad part: a lot of people wanted to get this device, and it turned out Amazon did not have enough for everyone. As such many, including yours truly, had to wait a while to get their hands on Kindle. But the good news is that the lead time is now getting closer to 30 days whereas a couple weeks back, it was 45 days. This means that Amazon will be producing Kindle and have it in your hands sooner than later. But if you really want to get this thing, don’t wait! That’s what I did, and as a result had to wait quite a while to get my Kindle!

P.S. feel free to share your Amazon Kindle story if you have ordererd it and have not received it yet.

Warner Bros. studio has just announced that they are dumping HD-DVD format in favor of Blu-Ray giving Blu-Ray and Sony a huge lead over Toshiba’s High definition format. Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD offer 1080p and highly crisp pictures, but Blu-Ray has outsold HD-DVD in Europe and the U.S. Of course, HD-DVD is not done as companies such as Microsoft are still supporting it, but it would be a disaster for Microsoft if HD-DVD format is defeated by Sony’s Blu-Ray. I do however agree that deciding on one format will allow the movie industry to move forward and achieve bigger better things!

We all do dumb things especially come holiday times. But is it dumb or what to put I am legend (full movie) on YouTube? Well, it seems someone did that last night, and some people actually got to see it. The guy is still putting some other movies on YouTube (e.g. Rush Hour 3). But in an era where MPAA will sue everyone and anyone who infringes on their copyright claims, you should be really dumb to attempt such stunt. Sure, a lot of people who probably didn’t want to pay $10 to see the movies got to see it as an early Christmas present, but you are technically putting the whole community in danger by putting these full movies online. YouTube could potentially get sued heavily for this, and I am sure even Google has a threshold on how many lawsuits they can handle. People who have used eMule, and Kazaa know how community brings down community, and that could certainly apply to YouTube. Do I wish I had seen the movie while it was online? Absolutely! Am I jealous of people who got to see it? Darn sure I am! But I feel bad for the movie industry. They are so hopeless in figuring out how to better the experience of movie-goers that they are losing some to YouTube (with its low-quality, cam version movies). I wonder how many people who saw the movie last night will buy the DVD as well –I doubt that many!

A few months ago one of the largest pure VOIP service providers in the nation decided to take people’s money and disappear into the night. SunRocket promised cheap monthly charges and a bunch of exciting features that made their offer irresistible to some, especially small businesses. So for us who lost their SunRocket connections, there is ooma. Ooma is a new service that allows you to make unlimited calls within the U.S. without signing up for a contract. Of course, you pay an upfront fee but that is it. You won’t pay a penny or that is what is advertised. So I decided to investigate how true this P2P VoIP offer from ooma is

» Continue reading “VoIP Innovation: Should You Go ooma?”

A few years ago when KaZaa ruled the P2P world, big corporations started dreaming about how they can maximize their profits and stop the bleeding that file sharing had caused them. Fast forward to today, and KaZaa is virtually dead. BitTorrent however is still alive, but barely. Demonoid, perhaps the best torrent file-sharing site, has bit the dust as the Canadian Record Industry has threatened the site’s web host. Come to think of it, it’s a fairly smart strategy. Instead of going after the heart of Demonoid (its users), they have gone after its very soul. Of course, Demonoid owners could actually set up their own servers and host their site privately, but then they will be vulnerable again as these big corporations have smelled the blood and they are going for the kill. P2P will live for a while longer, but I can’t see how the community can sustain these waves of attacks: Attack On Hosts, Owners, and individual users. Certainly doesn’t look good!

Anyone who has to constantly call friends and family members overseas knows that prepaid calling phone cards are a very good option if you want to save some cash while enjoy more talking minutes. A story broke out yesterday that Latino’s in Chicago area were a target of scam prepaid calling card companies. These guys claim that they are given prepaid cards by companies that are simply not ready to deliver their pre-sale promises. Some of these companies even close shop after making enough sales. While this is a black mark for this $4 billion(!) industry, not every company in the prepaid phone business is a scam. I personally use Pingo for international calls to Iran, and I can tell you that they have never taken a minute away from me or cheated me any way. You get what you pay for and companies that are offering crazy rates on international calls are obviously to be avoided. Online prepaid calling cards are still a good way to save money on international calls, but if a rate is too good to be true, it probably is!

In an era where 20 or 30 Web 2.0 companies pop out of nowhere every day, it is rare to find a service that is unique and brings something new to the table. iDeaBlob (ideablob.com) is that service. iDeaBlob is a cool new Web 2.0 service that enables entrepreneur and business owners to share notes and ideas and help each other out in the process. What makes ideablob unique is the $10,000 start up money that the best ideas receive every month. If you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or just someone with  a decent idea, then ideablob is your place. Of course, even if you don’t have an idea or clueless about life, you may be able to find some on ideablob. Either way, I can promise you it’s going to be a fun ride!

So who is Fritz? Well, the better question: What is Fritz? Fritz is one of the most powerful chess engines in the world. In fact, Fritz has won numerous world championships and is the top product offered by ChessBase. I remember when I used to play chess professionally we didn’t have computers that could beat humans consistently. With Fritz, you can rest assured that you have a computer that will try to beat you anyway possible. Playing with Fritz not only will improve your overall chess knowledge, it will make you more experienced in coping with tough situations, as that is what Fritz will put you in.

So let’s take a look at a bunch of features that come with Fritz 10:
• Multi-Language Support
• Training Feature
• Opening Book
• Graphics
• Online Play
• Game Analysis
• Multiple Engine Support
• External Board Capability

Whether you are French or German or you understand only English, you can appreciate Fritz 10 in your own language. Fritz 10 chess also comes with voices in different languages to make playing chess much more fun. Fritz is available in available in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch and German.

While Fritz can be as strong as any master that you have ever faced in your life, Fritz 10 allows you to fine tune it and also make it weaker if you prefer to have close games or beat it. This feature is great as it allows you to set a baseline for your chess knowledge, and overtime you’ll be able to beat Fritz as your game improves. Over all, this feature will allow you to have fun while playing the game of chess. » Continue reading “Fritz 10: Ultimate Chess Playing Program”

If you have been in the job market recently (let’s say monster.com), you probably have seen many companies that are giving identical messages to their potential employees: “We are an innovative company with entrepreneurial spirit and collaborative environment.” The words innovative, entrepreneurial, and collaborative seem to have lost their meetings to some of these companies. Of course, a savvy candidate would not fall for these claims. While so many companies are claiming to have all those goodie characteristics, only a rare few actually do. So, in my opinion, now more than ever it is essential for job seekers to know the companies that they are going for. I understand that some people need to have a job, any job, just to make a living for themselves and their families, but I suppose you it pays if you are in a work environment that you were promised to be in. Otherwise, it will be a whole frustrating job experience.