Technology

Toshiba may have taken itself out of the running for the high-def disc war - but that doesn’t mean that they will cease to produce top notch DVD players. They revealed their new XD-E500 up converting DVD player - which claims to be one of the best on the market.

The AP uses the phrase “subtle but noticeable” to describe how the new $150 XD-E500 looks in comparison to another, unnamed upconverting player. “Subtle but noticeable” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, it must be said. Great words - but is this new DVD player worth it?

Nintendo will be releasing several USB devices for their Wii console. They have released advertisements on their websites asking for a hardware/software tester that can will work out of the company’s Redmond offices in Washington State.

Among the successful applicants duties will be: “creating and executing a test plan for Wii’s USB devices.” Our first thoughts were a USB hard drive, but Nintendo has repeatedly denied claims it was even considering one. Earlier today, we reported that Nintendo of Europe’s managing director had dismissed the hard drive space as an issue only “geeks” were interested in.

A team of Japanese scientists were able to give a paralyzed man the feeling of how it would be if he could walk again. The man – who has not walked over 30 years – volunteered for an experiment at the Keio University in Japan.

In the experiment the man put on headgear that had the ability to sense brainwaves that were connected to his legs and arms. He was able to ‘walk’ again by imagining it as a character in Second Life – a very popular virtual world.

Millions of people watch cable television through the use of their set-top box. They are the only things that are able to connect us to our favorite shows. However all of that might be changing sometime in the near future.

Sony and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association stated this week that they have signed an agreement that will allow users to be rid of the annoying and bulky set-top boxes – while at the same time still having the ability to receive ‘two-way’ cable services.

Samsung stated this week that they are working on creating a 2.5 inch 256GB solid state drive (SSD) while at the fifth annual Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in Taiwan. According to the reports the SSD will be the highest speed and largest capacity that has been created.

Many of the basic solid state drives that are placed in laptops have a storage capacity of 64GB only. With a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second and sequential write speed of 160MBps, Samsung is claiming some of the fastest SSD data transfer rates to date.

Microsoft and Kia Automotive Group have created an agreement with each other to put Microsoft’s Automotive Platform into Kia and Hyundai 2010 models. Microsoft’s Platform is the technology that is used for the system of the Ford Sync.

For anyone who is not familiar; the Ford Sync allows drivers to incorporate cell phones and MP3 players with their vehicles. This gives them the ability to use hands-free calling and voice command to find the song they want.

Who is on top right now? On a report from NPD Group for Blu-ray player sales the report stated that their was a forty percent fall in sales in February. The Blu-ray player sales didn’t not increase, when HD DVD player production slowed.

Even though it seems the public opinion of the Xbox 360’s quality of hardware isn’t the best, Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, they still showed profit for their 3rd quarter. The division obtained operating profit of $89 million, and there was a growth of 68% revenue for the quarter over same period last year. This was due to the high call for Xbox 360 consoles. In addition to the extra console sales, video game sales, and Xbox Live sales, Xbox platform and PC game revenue grew 85% that’s $418 million.

Apple iTunes has sold more than 4 billion songs and has accounts for more than 70% of the digital music that is sold all around the world. For only being open five years they have come a long way and it will be interesting to see how far it will go in the next five years. As digital music becomes more popular will there be enough competition out there to bring its sales down?

There are many of us who would love to get our hands on a Mac – but do not want to pay the heavy tax that comes with it. Pystar is making things a bit easier by creating their own version of the Mac PC. The company – based out in Miami, Florida – will offer the computers pre-installed with Leopard and can be had for only $554.

OpenMac computers have been equipped with: