Panasonic's Next-Generation DMP-BD30 Blu-ray Player Is Here! - With all the bells and whistles of the Final Standard Profile

The next-generation format war is far from over, each of the sides bringing about some new technological developments in order to make their products more attractive for the possible customers. And that's exactly what Panasonic's trying to do with its latest product, the DMP-BD30 Blu-ray player, which is compliant with the Final Standard Profile, the latest Blu-ray standard to be made available, but also provides a wide variety of advanced playback functions. The Final Standard Profile is an advanced function added to the Blu-ray standard, which opens the door to new functions such as Picture-in-Picture (which displays a second image in a sub window) and Audio Mixing (allows the consumer to switch the sound between the main and sub windows), thus enhancing the user's multimedia

experience. Additionally, the player provides Deep Color Compatibility, and HDMI 1.3B, that bumps the step gradation from 8-bit 256 all the way up to 12-bit, 4,096 step gradation. To further enhance the viewing experience, the DMP-BD30 also provides 1080/24p playback, so the consumer can enjoy the same 24-fps (frames per second) reproduction as the original movie. This eliminates the need to utilize 3.2 pull down, a process to convert 24-fps images to 60-fps, resulting in a smoother picture.The inclusion of a multi-function SD Card slot is another new addition to the Panasonic Blu-ray player. Coupled with the AVCHD codec, the DMP-BD30 allows for images recorded on a high capacity HD SD card to be outputted directly from the player's HDMI terminal in their original 1080p form.Moreover, like its predecessor, the DMP-DB30 features the EZ-Sync HDAVI Control that allows the consumer to operate their Panasonic home theater system with one remote. "The DMP-BD30 will contribute greatly to Blu-ray's mounting lead over the competing format," said Gene Kelsey, Vice President, Panasonic Entertainment Group. "Panasonic's adoption of the Final Standard Profile adds a whole new dimension to the entertainment experience. For example, when the added value features inherent to the Final Standard Profile are incorporated into a Blu- ray movie, the viewer could have a myriad of entertainment options. One of the more intriguing aspects of the Final Standard Profile is the Picture-in- Picture feature that would allow the movie fan to access a variety of entertainment enhancements, such as having the director or an actor pop up to discuss a scene you are watching, or with an animated movie, you might see the actor performing their character's voice over, all while still watching the movie. Not only do these features give Panasonic a strong advantage in the high definition market, but they provide the movie community with numerous opportunities to embellish the viewing experience with additional creative elements."Panasonic's DMP-BD30 has a suggested retail price of around 500 US dollars, which is not exactly a very small price to pay, but it's kinda worth it, especially taking into account the fact that the device is compatible with the Blu-ray Final Standard Profile.

DirectX 10.1 in Windows Vista SP1 – The Evolution - Under the hood

As Windows Vista brought to the table the exclusive DirectX 10, the first service pack for the operating system will evolve Microsoft's graphics technology to version 10.1. DirectX 10.1 is already available to over 12,000 testers via the first beta of Vista Service Pack 1, concomitantly with the official release of Build 6001.16659. Although the testing milestones of Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP SP3 Beta, are officially limited in terms of access, a hack is available designed to permit the download of Windows Vista SP1 Beta Build 6001.16659 straight from

Microsoft, and simultaneously test drive DirectX 10.1. However, Vista users have to understand that DirectX 10.1, as well as DirectX 10 is a technology intimately connected with the underlying graphics card, such as the upcoming ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series. According to an AMD whitepaper focused on the implementation of DirectX 10.1 in the ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series, the latest application programming interface from Microsoft, manages to "unlock the state of the art in GPU technology." "DirectX 10.1 maintains the overall structure and programming model of DirectX 10, while providing numerous enhancements. The vertex, geometry, and pixel shader instruction sets have been updated to Shader Model 4.1. The new features of DirectX 10.1 can be divided into three general categories: new shading and texturing capabilities, anti-aliasing improvements, and tighter specifications. The following table highlights some of the key features in each of these categories, as well as some of the benefits they provide," states an excerpt of the ATI whitepaper on DirectX 10.1, via TeamATI.There is little doubt over at AMD on the evolution represented by the move from DirectX 10 to DirectX 10.1. The fact of the matter is that, Vista SP1 in combination with DirectX 10.1 will bring to the table the next generation of interactive 3D graphics. Vista SP1 is currently planned for availability in the first quarter of 2008, following the launch of Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn. Still, one relevant aspect of DirectX 10.1 is the fact that, in order to enjoy the enhanced shader model, anti-aliasing support, and the increased flexibility of data access, Vista users will not only have to deploy SP1 but also upgrade to DirectX 10.1 ready graphics cards, even though they have moved for less than a year to DirectX 10 compatible hardware. "DirectX 10.1 offers incremental improvements to the programming interface that address limitations of DirectX 10, and unlock new graphical techniques that will take the quality of 3D graphics to the next level in 2008 and beyond. Advantages include global illumination delivering lighting and shadow quality in real-time that matches the ray tracing techniques used in CG films, improved anti-aliasing techniques to clean up distracting shimmering artifacts, and tighter specifications for improved compatibility", reads the conclusion of the ATI whitepaper.

The Longest-Lived Animal Ever: 410 Years Old!

When we talk about longevity, our minds think about giant tortoises and crocodiles, elephants and other animals.Indeed, crocodiles can live as much as human beings and elephants do, also reaching the sixties. Giant tortoises are proved to live more than 200 years. And some ravens and parrots indeed live longer than other birds the same size (but reject that crap information about 100 years and so on!) do. Baobabs are said to live till 3,000 years. Sequoia (redwoods), the largest trees in the world, are at the same time amongst the most long-lived. But the oldest still living individuals belong to two pine species from the mountains of southwestern USA: Great Basin Bristlecone

Pine (Pinus longaeva) and Rocky Mountains Bristlecone Pine (Pinus arista). The oldest Pinus longaeva has 4,900 years! The Egyptian civilization was in its cradle when these pines were seedlings! When thinking about animals, elephants can live up to 60 years, crocodiles over 80 and recent information says that large whales can outlive 150 years old. Large tortoises have been found to round about two centuries. A radiated tortoise (Geochelone radiata) from Madagascar died at the age of 188. But now forget all these: a clam recovered off the Iceland coast seems to be the longest-lived animal ever found: it is an ocean quahog clam aged 405 to 410. The animal's age was assessed by counting its shell rings, as the clam adds a new one each year. Guinness Book of Records states that the longest-lived animal was also a clam discovered in 1982 and aged 220. Unofficially, another clam located in an Icelandic museum was spotted to be 374-years-old, being 31 years younger than the newly found one. The new "grandmother" of all animals was dubbed Ming after the dynasty ruling in China when it was just a larva, during the times of Queen Elizabeth I and the foundation of the first English colonies in America. "The growth-increments themselves provide a record of how the animal has varied in its growth-rate from year to year, and that varies according to climate, sea-water temperature and food supply. And so by looking at these mollusks we can reconstruct the environment the animals grew in. They are like tiny tape-recorders, in effect, sitting on the sea-bed and integrating signals about water temperature and food over time." Professor Chris Richardson, from Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences, Wales, told the BBC. "The clam's discovery could help shed light on how some animals can live to extraordinary ages. What's intriguing the Bangor group is how these animals have actually managed, in effect, to escape senescence [growing old]. One of the reasons we think is that the animals have got some difference in cell turnover rates that we would associate with much shorter-lived animals.", added Richardson.

Vista Slowly Killing XP - And right on track for the 100 million milestone by the end of the year

Enlarge pictureWindows Vista is slowly but surely eroding the grip that Windows XP has over the operating system market. Microsoft's latest platform, made available to businesses in November 2006, and to the general public in January 2007, experienced a steady growth throughout the period of nine months since it hit the shelves. XP is going down in the Windows asphyxiated market, in order to make room for Vista, although the last operating system to come out of Redmond has had a rough ride since the launch. This is the natural conclusion that follows

Microsoft's revenue report for Q1 2008, the Fastest First Quarter Since 1999.In this regard, Vista has managed to establish itself as the Redmond company's main cash cow, driving a revenue of $4.14 billion and an operating income of $3.36 billion for the client division. "Microsoft announced revenue of $13.76 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, a 27% increase over the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.92 billion, $4.29 billion and $0.45, respectively. Microsoft’s businesses of Client, Microsoft Business Division, and Server and Tools grew combined revenue in excess of 20%, and experienced robust demand for Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows Server, and SQL Server," Microsoft revealed. In fact, Kevin Johnson, president of the Platform and Services Division at Microsoft, stated that Vista continues to enjoy strong, double digit growth as far as the adoption rate is concerned. Since the operating system became available, Microsoft pushed in excess of 88 million licenses worldwide. Of course that the figure is largely a matter of semantics, as Microsoft counts the entire volume of Vista copies shipped into the channel as "sold," and not the actual number of licenses actually purchased by end users or businesses. Statistics made available by Net Applications at the end of September 2007, paint a picture that comes to confirm Microsoft's own perspective over the consistent growth in Vista uptake. XP is credited with 79% of the operating system market, down from 85% in January, while Vista increased its foothold from 0.18% in the first month of 2007 to 7.38% at the end of September. While the share on the operating system market is not correlated with the sales of the product point for point, the discrepancy between the 7.38% and 88 million licenses shipped is a testimony of the fact that Microsoft takes into consideration the entire mass of Vista copies delivered, rather than counting just the sold copies. But still, at the current pace, with two more months until 2008, and with the holiday season looming, Vista is right on track to hit the 100 million shipped licenses by the end of December, an important milestone for Microsoft.

HOT: Kim Kardashian Playboy Spread Leaked - Ladies and gentlemen, take your time, sit back and enjoy

It's not something for the fain of heart to behold...but since it's about the hottest piece of news that could come up on a Saturday morning, I think you should risk a heart attack and have a look at it. I'm kidding. It's actually the hottest set of naked photos I saw in a while, and I have a shrewd suspicion many of you have been gritting your teeth and pulling your hair waiting for

Kim Kardashian's Playboy naked photo spread. And because we're generous like that, we decided to share the goodies (read that leaked photos) with you – just think of it as an early Christmas present. A very big, gold-wrapped Christmas present, ribbon and all.
Enlarge pictureKim, it seems, has finally decided to stop acting shy and make the most of her genetic gift of...well, I was going to say beauty, but that would read as some sort of understatement. The fact is, in a world ruled by slim blonds with no boobs, Kim makes for a nice change. Her entire body language screams self-confidence, but in a moderately annoying way – it's something along the lines of "I know I'm hot, now can we move on to how sexy my a*s is"? Plus, now we have plenty of...ahem...reading material in order to embark on secondary controversies like "I wonder how they managed to fit her booty into the photos and still manage to show the rest of her body
Enlarge picturealong with it" or "did she get a boob job or not?".I'm not sure which part of Kim's body deserves the most attention – and no, I'm not mocking you with that question. Yes, of course I'm familiar with the "rotundus a*s that distracts our attention from everything else" theory, but the fact is – I think she's one hot package altogether, boobs and all. As you can see for yourself, she really has the moves, the look and the attitude that allow her to be ideal Playboy material. I'm thinking of starting a poll – how long will it be before she graces the magazine pages again? I'll give it six months, tops. Until then, sit back and enjoy the view – it's really something to put the smile back on your face at the end of a long hard week of all work and no play.
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Record Breaking Birth Weight in Twins - In Britain

An average baby has at birth around 3.2 kg (7 pounds, 1 ounce). The heaviest baby ever was born in the US in 1879: 23 pounds, 12 ounces (10.7 kg), but he died 11 hours after being born, as too much or too little above/below the average value decreases fitness. The heaviest baby also to survive was born in 1955 in Italy: 22 pounds, 8 ounces (10.15 kg) at

birth. In September this year a woman from southern Russia gave birth to a 17-pound, 1 ounce (7.7 kg) girl. But in the case of the twins there is another story: twins deplete severely the mother's organism, so you can imagine that they rarely reach the average weight for a newborn.Now the British Beth Ryder, 35, of Mount Pleasant, Rawtenstall, Lancashire, has just given born to a pair of twins weighing 19lb (8.55 kg). The boy, Theo, weighs 10lb9oz (4.8 kg) while the girl, Millie, has "just" 8lb 3oz (3.7 kg), being the heaviest mixed sex twins ever born in UK and the pair was born at Burnley General Hospital in Lancashire last week. The previous holders of the title were Thomas and Grace Houghton-Burnett, weighing 10lb1oz (4.5 kg) and 8lb2oz (3.6 kg), born in 2002. Ryder has another four children and all had over 9lb (4.05 kg) at birth. Ruder, a student nurse, had herself 11lb13oz (5.4 kg) at birth and her sister Claire 12lb2oz (5.5 kg). "Large babies run in the family so I knew that they were going to be pretty big. But none of us expected them to be quite so large." she said. Such a pregnancy was a real burden for Ryder. "I was absolutely enormous in the weeks running up to the birth and it was so uncomfortable," she said. Her other children weighed at birth as follows: Emma (17) 9lb9oz (4.1 kg), Leah (8) 10lb11oz (4.8 kg), Lauren (5) 9lb11oz (4.1 kg) and Callum (3) at 12lb1oz (5.4 kg). But, as scientists explained before, weight at birth is not correlated with weight of the adult individual: Ryder's children are average sized.

Canadian iPhone Leak Turns Out To Be Bust - Or just a publicity stunt...

After the recent contest announcement by Molson Coors Brewing Co. Canadian iPhone enthusiasts were happy, but the company has now backed down and is claiming that the iPhone references were just a mistake.

Molson Dry beer was meant to be giving away iPhones as part of their marketing contest. The company specified that iPhones will only be available as of January 2008 on the wireless network of Rogers Communications Inc, and that while the devices themselves were free, winners will have to pay for the cell phone service themselves. This is all the unofficial confirmation that many need and eager buyers rejoiced, but the company is now backing down and changing its statement.Molson Coors Brewing Co. is no longer offering iPhones as a prize, claiming that it was just a mistake. Furthermore, the company now claims to have no idea whatsoever if and when the iPhone will be launched in Canada. The story is that they only wanted to give their customers a general idea of when the prizes would be available. To make things even more credible, spokeswoman Marie-Hélène Lagacé also corrected an earlier statement that Molson was on the Rogers waiting list for the iPhone, by confirming that there is no such list in existence.The entire thing sounds all too much like school children being caught fibbing, but it could also very well be that Molson Coors Brewing Co. let the cat out of the bag too soon, something that is known to make Steve Jobs very unhappy. Obviously this backtracking is not going to put the cat back in the bag, nor is it likely to make Jobs a happy camper, but they have to at least try.Of course, it might not be completely out of the question for this to have been nothing more than a publicity stunt intended to give the company a free ride on the iPhone train.

Don't Upgrade Your Vista Computer! You Might Become a Windows Pirate! - The weird story of a Windows Vista activation process

We all know that having a genuine version of Windows Vista comes with support from Microsoft, updates and lots of other goodies but sometimes, all you need to become a software pirate is a simple Vista error. At least, this is what happened to James Bannan who described on the APC Magazine website a pretty weird situation which almost blocked his computer. It all started when James

changed his graphics card on the computer equipped with Vista. "There were some new DirectX 10-based titles out and I couldn’t get the benefit on my old DirectX 9 card. The swap-over went well and I went on my merry gaming way," he wrote on the APC Magazine page.After a few days, Windows Vista woke up and asked James to activate the operating system or else the computer would enter the Reduced Functionality Mode which allows the users to browse the web for only 30 minutes. The interesting fact is that he already activated Vista before the hardware upgrade so now he had to re-activate it using the same key."I was able to reactivate easily enough, although as the product key was already in use (by me!) I couldn’t reactivate automatically, but had to speak to a Microsoft customer service representative. I got the code easily enough, but it didn’t explain why Vista had deactivated, so I got in touch with Microsoft about the problem," he noted.After installing several utilities provided by the Redmond-based company, James finally discovered that the deactivation was triggered by the video card change bundled with disk controller modification. "The only problem? I had never changed my disk controller at any point. Apparently because I had upgraded the Intel Matrix Storage Manager application, this was reported as a major hardware change event."This is a serious matter especially for the beginners because they might find this re-activation process pretty difficult since you have to use the same key you entered before while Vista sustains the code 'is in use'. However, you can also contact a Microsoft customer service representative which may help you with your problem. May the activation be with you!

Leaked Info On 32GB Sansa View!!!

Enlarge pictureI am pretty sure some of you have been waiting for the new Sansa View for quite a while. The manufacturing company has shown the first Sansa View prototype at CES in January. But, since then, the View started resembling more and more the

popular e200 series. Too bad it's just not its time, as the market is already overcrowded with all sorts of cool flashPMP with higher capacities, large screen displays and a lot better video capabilities.However, as SanDisk is a big name in the industry, it comes natural to support a number of codecs for a wide range of file formats, such as AAC, H.264 and AVI. Besides that, it can also deal with some other rather common formats, such as MPEG-4, WMV, WAV, non-DRM, WMA and TXT for the audio books reading feature. Extra specs are said to be the integrated FM tuner with 20 presets, as well as the built-in microphone for the audio support. As for its internal memory capacity, the media player was enhanced with various sizes of 8GB and 16GB. To make sure it makes a stand on the PMP market, they have also given it a 32GB brain. And if that proves to be insufficient, there is a built-in microSDHC card slot. The battery life was rated to last up to 4 hours of music media content and 8 hours of video content.

Xbox 360 Explodes Fueled by the Halo Effect - In terms of sales

The release of what Microsoft referred to as a global entertainment phenomenon has managed to explode sales of its Xbox 360 consoles. The combined market performances of Halo 3 and Nintendo's Wii console have contributed to a 75% jump in sales of video gaming hardware and software in the U.S. According to market research firm NPD, gaming related sales passed the $1.3 billion milestone in September, increasing from $779 million the previous month. NPD indicated

that Microsoft's claims revealing Halo 3's impact as a new standard of interactive entertainment were justified, as the title pushed in excess of 3.3 million copies in its first month. In this context, the following nine games combined, in the top 10 selling titles, account for a little over half of Halo 3's sales. The latest version of the Halo franchise was a catalyst for the sales of Xbox 360. Piggyback riding on the immense success of Halo 3, Microsoft sold approximately 528,000 consoles. The fact of the matter is that the third installment of Microsoft's Halo flagship franchise – Halo 3, put Xbox 360 well ahead of Nintendo's Wii. But Wii, even without a Halo of its own, still managed to sell 501,000 consoles in the U.S. just in September. This means that overall, Nintendo pushed over four million consoles, with Microsoft not far behind at almost 3.5 million and with Sony's PlayStation 3 at just over 1.7 million. In this regard, the truly remarkable results are those of Wii, launched in November 2006, almost concomitantly with the PS3, while Xbox 360 has been available since 2005. PS2 delivered a poor performance in comparison with its rivals selling only 119,000 items in September. Still, Microsoft's official position is that it's not all about Halo 3. In fact, it would be dangerous for Microsoft's Xbox 360 to become associated with a single game, when the content available for the console is much richer. But this does not deny the fact that Xbox 360 is currently ridding the Halo 3 wave to perfection...

Having Sex Before Giving Birth Does Not Trigger Labor! - Just an urban myth

having sex late in pregnancy could trigger labor. But this was found to be just a myth by a team led by Dr Peng Chiong Tan of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. "This study is not the final word on the subject. Further research in this area is needed - particularly in a less 'pressure cooker' situation than where labor induction was already scheduled for shortly ahead. It is possible that regular sex a little earlier on, say from 36-37 weeks onward, might have a different effect.", wrote Tan for Reuters Health. "There are good biological explanations for the widespread belief that having sex can bring on labor," wrote the authors. Amongst the semen's ingredients there’s the hormone prostaglandin, which is released in huge amounts by the woman’s body as it triggers labor. Also, orgasm can induce uterine contractions. Still, there is no scientific proof that sexual intercourse close to the end of pregnancy starts the labor.The team assigned 210 pregnant women randomly into two groups: one in which they were advised to have sex as much as possible 4.7 days before their scheduled induction, while in the control group women were advised not to have sex. 60 % of the 108 women advised to have sex did so, while from the other group just 40 %. 56 % of the women who had sex experienced labor on their own, compared to 52 % of the subjects who didn't have sex, thus practically the same numbers. "We speculate that women very close to spontaneous labor felt changes coming on that might reduce their libido, like pains and vaginal discharge," Tan told Reuters Health. "If correct, this would mean that those women who had sex were the least likely to go into spontaneous labor soon, so they would do less well in terms of spontaneous labor as an outcome in the next few days. We did not have direct data to answer this question satisfactorily, however.""Based on the findings of our study, women scheduled for induction of labor at term should not be given advice to have sex for the purpose of promoting labor onset", the authors also mentioned.

Want an unlocked iPhone? Just go to France. Orange France to sell carrier-unlocked iPhones

Well, well, well. Look what we have here. Carrier-unlocked iPhones, once thought to be an impossibility (given Steve Jobs’ stance on the iPhone’s business model), will be hitting France this holiday shopping season (November 29). Those same wireless regulations that sparked speculation about the iPhone possibly being barred from French soil will require that Apple and Orange offer legit, carrier-unlocked iPhones alongside the locked-to-Orange iPhones.
Word has it that the carrier-unlocked iPhones will be sold for a steep ?999, whereas the locked version will be commanding a much more palatable ?399 (about $580) including VAT. Apple obviously wants to make it as difficult as possible to get your hands on a legitimately unlocked iPhone, and what better way than to make it ridiculously overpriced? Still, if you want an unlocked iPhone that will assuredly survive future iPhone firmware updates without voiding warranty or bricking, then you’ll have to make a quick trip to France. And by quick trip, we mean a trans-Atlantic flight.
[Via: IHT]