If you do not know already, there was a format war brewing between electronic companies and movie studios over the next generation media of audio and video. After almost a decade the Toshiba-led HD-DVD consortium blinked, and Sony’s Blu-ray will now be the standard.

The Blu-ray Disc, also known as the BD is an optical disc storage media format that uses high-definition video and data storage. It gets its name from the blue laser that is used to read and write this type of disc, in contrast to the DVD format that uses a red laser. Data storage capacity is much greater on the Blu-ray Disc than on the DVD format, due to its shorter wavelength. A Blu-ray Disc has storage of almost six times the capacity of a dual layer DVD.

Blu-ray Disc was competing with the HD DVD format in the high definition optical disc format war. Recently Toshiba, the company that supports the HD DVD, announced that it will no longer manufacture or market HD DVD players and recorders, giving way to Blu-ray as the winner of this format war.

While Blu-ray discs are still expensive, they can store 50 GB worth of data in a disc that does not look any different from the regular CD or DVD with the same dimensions. This means, users get movie discs with high definition and enhanced picture over DVDs and awesome sound.

The BDU-X10S, which is a read-only player, has a Serial ATA (SATA) interface and a standard 5.25-inch form-factor that makes installation easy and will slot itself into the Windows XP or Vista enabled contemporary desktop PCs. In case the cost of Blu-ray discs seems high, the good news is that it even reads standard CDs and DVDs.

BDU-X10S comes with CyberLink’s PowerDVD BD-Edition software to playback commercial movies, DVD-ROMs, CD-ROMs and Blu-ray disc home videos as well as recordable/rewritable Blu-ray Discs (BD-R/BD-RE.) It also allows playback of Blu-ray discs in H.264 or MPEG-2 format, the standard DVD-Video discs or recorded DVDs in the MPEG-2 or AVCHD formats. It reads almost any disc, except HD-DVD or DVD RAM.

This BD-ROM, being in the $200 price range offers consumers a viable option to discover and enjoy about 500 high-definition Blu-ray Disc titles that have been released as of now.

The BDU-X10S also supports disc-quality scanning and its tray opens and closes perfectly with no problems and the wide tray bezel can be replaced with a skinny one.

The read speed of this BD-ROM is middling among BD drives, which is CD-ROM:24x, DVD-ROM: 8x and BD-ROM: 2x.

Sony also includes SATA data cable, a Molex-to-SATA power adapter, a tray eject tool and a BD-capable version of the Cyberlink PowerDVD, in the box.

The main reason people would want to buy a BD-ROM as of now is to be able to watch Blu-ray movies on a PC, so this requires a fast system with an HDCP-supported (high-bandwidth digital content protection) graphics card and monitor. The recommended resolution is 1920 x 1080 or higher.

For people who are ready for “the Blu’s,” it is time to let the blue-laser revolution flow, by getting the Sony BDU-X10S, which comes with a one-year warranty.

AOL (America Online) acquires Bebo! This news is all over the place, the last few days. AOL, the online section of Time Warner has acquired Bebo, a big player in the social networking arena for $850 million in cash.

AOL is an American online service provider, bulletin board system and media company operated by Time Warner, which focuses on improving online user experience. In addition to providing internet access, it also offers a wide variety of leading industry features, content and a diverse online community for beginners as well as experts.

Bebo which means “Blog early, blog often,” is an online social media network that is similar to MySpace and Facebook. It is currently ranked the third largest social networking site in the United States and the second most visited site in the UK. This site was founded in January 2005 by Michael and Xochi Birch, a husband and wife team, who still own a big part of Bebo. It is one of the most prominent sites on the net today, with 40 million members who view about 78 pages per day on an average.

Social networking sites are invaluable for online advertisers because of the huge number of members that post their personal information on the sites and can be great targets to sell products and services.
(more…)

For many, the internet has become a primary news source. Televised news takes up to an hour and must be watched in whatever order the items are presented. Internet news is ideal for our fast paced world because you can find anything at anytime without having to wait on commercials or the weather report.

Online News

Online news is available for very local items through global events. Online media outlets exist all over the world, so it is possible to find different viewpoints and different slants on exactly the same story without too much research. In a single trip online, you can find your local weather predication, the score from last night’s game and the latest news from overseas. All of this can take less than five minutes.

Streaming News

If you’re a news junkie, you can appreciate the streaming news feeds now available from many media sources. Breaking news can be delivered to your computer instantly and you are never out of the loop. You can let news items sit while you finish an important paper and then take break and scan the latest headlines in entertainment, world events or sports.

Static News

Online news is not entirely static. Originally, online media sites were simple stories to be read. Now, however, entire broadcasts can come through the internet and video clips and images are all over the sites. News stories are punctuated with images of the scene or a short video clip of the disaster.

Best of all, online news sources are updated almost instantly. The morning’s paper will not change, and even news channels can be a bit behind the times – if you’re fortunate enough to have the television tuned to the right channel at the right time. Online, however, you can glance at updated headlines throughout the day to stay current with anything and everything that matters to you.