Have you bought a new iPhone 4 in this weekend? Now Apple today said that it has sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4 handsets through Saturday, June 26, just three days after its launch on June 24. 600,000 pre-orders turned into its 1.7 million iPhone 4 sales through this Saturday. Steve and company look smug! “This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs in an Apple press release. Jobs said. “Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.” Read More
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Apple Sells 1.7 Million iPhone 4 in Opening Weekend
Have you bought a new iPhone 4 in this weekend? Now Apple today said that it has sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4 handsets through Saturday, June 26, just three days after its launch on June 24. 600,000 pre-orders turned into its 1.7 million iPhone 4 sales through this Saturday. Steve and company look smug! “This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs in an Apple press release. Jobs said. “Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.” Read More
Sunday, June 20, 2010
BLU-RAY DVD Player: LG
Price:
BH100 Blu-ray $1,299
Blu-ray and Sort of HD DVD
The BH100 is a Blu-ray player that just happens to play HD DVDs. It doesn’t have full HD DVD support. What it is lacking on that front is the interactivity. So, all the pretty menus that come up over the movie are gone. In their place is a menu that the player creates. If you want to access any special features, you have to scroll through them title by title, and all that is listed is the title number and the length. This is by no means quick or easy. If you don’t watch the extras much, then this isn’t a big deal. If you love extras, this can be tedious.
Obviously, the picture quality is more important, and, on that front, the BH100 is perfectly fine. It looks just the same as the standalone HD DVD and Blu-ray players. The same goes for the audio. It doesn’t output any of the new high-resolution audio formats digitally (nor do any of the current players). Instead, you can get them in their analog form via the six-channel analog outputs.
One oddity is the lack of a 1080p/60 output. You get 1080p/24 and 1080p/30, but you can’t choose between the two or force the output. All you can do is select 1080p in the menu and hope. If the player and the TV decide that the latter can’t accept one of these two rates, then all you get is 1080i. This can be especially frustrating when you know your TV can do one of the other but, for some reason, the player decides it can’t. If your TV correctly deinterlaces 1080i and can detect the 3:2 sequence, then it doesn’t really matter.
Otherwise, the menus are easy to follow, and setup is simple. The remote is a stylish glossy-black affair. The important buttons aren’t backlit, and the similarly shaped, tiny black buttons are hard to use in the dark. It looks pretty when it’s sitting on a table, though. It’s also one of the few remotes that come with a next-generation player that looks like it should come with a product that costs more than $1,000. There are a lot of buttons that have nothing to do with using a disc player. The Resolution button annoyingly only works when the disc is stopped.
The unit itself is quite attractive, as well, which is hard to discern from pictures. The top is brushed metal, and you’ll see it a lot, as all of the buttons are up there, as well. So, there’s no stacking anything on top, except maybe your PS3. When you turn on the BH100, the power button lights up a whitish-blue, then in sequence the Eject, Play, Stop, and Resolution, light up from left to right. I’m not sure why it’s so cool, but it is. These latter buttons (as in not the power button) are also of the no-push capacitance touch sensor variety, which also adds a level of coolness. The screen displays the type of disc inserted, as well as the current resolution and video output type. The BH100 doesn’t have a lot of depth. It is by far the shortest next-gen player.
DVD upconverting isn’t very good. The image is very soft, and the color seems undersaturated. In chapter 2 of the DVD version of The Fifth Element, the professor’s beard is softer than it would look if you let most TVs do the upconversion themselves. Also, it takes approximately one minute and ten seconds to go from off to playing a Blu-ray and about ten seconds more to start an HD DVD.
Blu-ray and Sort of HD DVD
The BH100 is a Blu-ray player that just happens to play HD DVDs. It doesn’t have full HD DVD support. What it is lacking on that front is the interactivity. So, all the pretty menus that come up over the movie are gone. In their place is a menu that the player creates. If you want to access any special features, you have to scroll through them title by title, and all that is listed is the title number and the length. This is by no means quick or easy. If you don’t watch the extras much, then this isn’t a big deal. If you love extras, this can be tedious.
Obviously, the picture quality is more important, and, on that front, the BH100 is perfectly fine. It looks just the same as the standalone HD DVD and Blu-ray players. The same goes for the audio. It doesn’t output any of the new high-resolution audio formats digitally (nor do any of the current players). Instead, you can get them in their analog form via the six-channel analog outputs.
One oddity is the lack of a 1080p/60 output. You get 1080p/24 and 1080p/30, but you can’t choose between the two or force the output. All you can do is select 1080p in the menu and hope. If the player and the TV decide that the latter can’t accept one of these two rates, then all you get is 1080i. This can be especially frustrating when you know your TV can do one of the other but, for some reason, the player decides it can’t. If your TV correctly deinterlaces 1080i and can detect the 3:2 sequence, then it doesn’t really matter.
Otherwise, the menus are easy to follow, and setup is simple. The remote is a stylish glossy-black affair. The important buttons aren’t backlit, and the similarly shaped, tiny black buttons are hard to use in the dark. It looks pretty when it’s sitting on a table, though. It’s also one of the few remotes that come with a next-generation player that looks like it should come with a product that costs more than $1,000. There are a lot of buttons that have nothing to do with using a disc player. The Resolution button annoyingly only works when the disc is stopped.
The unit itself is quite attractive, as well, which is hard to discern from pictures. The top is brushed metal, and you’ll see it a lot, as all of the buttons are up there, as well. So, there’s no stacking anything on top, except maybe your PS3. When you turn on the BH100, the power button lights up a whitish-blue, then in sequence the Eject, Play, Stop, and Resolution, light up from left to right. I’m not sure why it’s so cool, but it is. These latter buttons (as in not the power button) are also of the no-push capacitance touch sensor variety, which also adds a level of coolness. The screen displays the type of disc inserted, as well as the current resolution and video output type. The BH100 doesn’t have a lot of depth. It is by far the shortest next-gen player.
DVD upconverting isn’t very good. The image is very soft, and the color seems undersaturated. In chapter 2 of the DVD version of The Fifth Element, the professor’s beard is softer than it would look if you let most TVs do the upconversion themselves. Also, it takes approximately one minute and ten seconds to go from off to playing a Blu-ray and about ten seconds more to start an HD DVD.
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