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Freeview HD Availibility
I’ve been looking for a new TV, the Panasonic plasma I have is a fine box but it only has one HDMI slot and it can’t manage full HD, only 720P, plus I swear the streetlights in our road dim when you power it up. I haven’t yet upgraded to a Blu Ray player but intend to do so shortly, this will bring me to three HDMI connections required.
I have my eye on the Panasonic TX-P42G20B Plasma, it supports Freeview HD and Freesat HD has plenty of HDMI slots and despite having an extra 5 inches on the diagonal its overall dimensions are little larger than my current box, and it’s cheaper than that was.
Here’s the rub, Freeview HD is apparently not available in my area until April 2011 which is deeply irritating, the only other way I’m going to join the ranks of those enjoying HD broadcasts is to have a ‘chav lives here dish’ on the side of the house and that’s not going to happen anytime soon.
With the highly likely VAT increase on the way coupled with fact that tv’s are fantastic value at the moment I feel a purchase may be likely anyway.
UK iPad Arrived May 27th
It’s here, a day early, more soon… (oh and I watched the last episode of Lost last night, mmmm)
The opening.
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First Impressions:-
Beautiful, responsive, intuitive.
WiFi signal not as strong as other Mac devices, MacBook, iPhone etc.
Typing on keyboard is quick and easy.
Interminable Wait
I’ve always tried to deny being an Apple Fanboy but the current irrational excitement I’m experiencing in anticipation of the impending arrival of my iPad probably means I must accept my fate.
Ordered on the 10th May at 12.14 AM it was apparently shipped on the 22nd of May.
No estimated delivery time as yet but I dearly hope it is this week, I’d really like to be sitting in the garden typing this on my iPad right now, rather than my slightly tired, albeit trusty MacBook.
I’m already thinking about the new iPhone, what do Apple put in their products to encourage such emacity, is it the same stuff McDonalds put in their Big Mac’s?
And I haven’t even seen the last episode of Lost yet.
Kirk And Spock Are Still At It.
I was a huge fan of the original Star Trek and a huge fan of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley, the latter of course being unfortunately no longer with us.
Shatner and Nimoy however have rekindled their on screen ‘romance’ is a series of adverts for American Company Priceline which we don’t get to see in the UK. I’ve always though Shatner was a great comedic actor, his turn in Boston Legal of which I’ve just watched the last series was fantastic and these adverts are hilarious.
It seems Shatner has a pretty good business head as well, originally hired in 1997 by Priceline he agreed to take part payment for his services in shares. Dipping below $2.00 during the Dotcom boom the shares have now risen to around $300 each making Shatner’s holding reportedly worth around $600 million.
Presumably this has softened the blow of Nimoy muscling in on his new found wealth and popularity.
Finally, a decent MacBook Dock?
Ever since I bought my MacBook I’ve wondered why Apple or anyone else for that matter didn’t make a decent docking station. Given that the MacBook will happily support an additional monitor and will happily work with the lid closed when connected to a power supply it makes perfect sense.
Simply drop the MacBook into the docking station to which you’ve already connected your charger and peripherals and away you go.
Well it seems that we may finally have a decent solution , the Henge Dock. OK, it’s not exactly out of the Jonathan Ives book of design but it’s not pig ugly either. As far as I can tell it’s selling as quickly as Henge can make them with all versions currently sold out. Frankly I’m not surprised, the only mystery is why it’s taken someone so long to get something like this together.
Wouldn’t it be great if Henge got into bed with Twelvesouth who produce the fine looking BookArc and came up with something inbetween. Now that would sell in serious numbers.
As yet I haven’t been able to establish if Henge ship their docks internationally but I’ve signed up to be notified when the model I require is back in stock and will try and order one then, should it arrive in a timely fashion I’ll do a review.
Why 3d films are just a money making gimmick
Well I’d been preparing a long and thoughtful post about why I believe the latest 3d craze in film is just a big con when someone far more erudite, Roger Ebert no less, beat me to it.
I would just add that 3d is in my opinion being pushed by the studios for the following reasons, to increase ticket prices, to combat piracy and to sell the next range of 3d hardware.
In the vast majority of cases it adds nothing to the movie going experience and this latest fad of retro-fitting 3d to films as an afterthought is just nonsense.
With cinemas now populated in the main by air-headed teenagers chatting and playing with their phones these gimmicks and spectacle films are presumably required to grab their attention.
Remember when the story and the characters did that? I’m very much looking forward to Toy Story 3 and trust that Pixar will have the sense to make it available in 2d.
