Idealty's Domain: Let's Talk Tech

In a surprise announcement yesterday, Paramount (including Dreamworks and other subsidiaries) announced that they will be supporting HD-DVD exclusively effective immediately. At a time when Blu-Ray has been consistently outselling HD-DVD 2:1 throughout 2007 and many people thought that the war was drawing to a close with Blu-Ray pulling away, this announcement has puzzled both fans and industry folks alike. Many fans are upset because this assures that the format war will be prolonged and newer consumers will be even more confused about the HD formats. Here's the news report from HighDefDigest.com: According to a just-issued AP report, Paramount Pictures has announced it will exclusively support HD DVD, dropping its support of the Blu-ray format. It's a move few predicted, and it's a particular surprise given the Blu-ray format's 2-to-1 lead over HD DVD in disc sales over the first half of 2007. According to the AP article, beginning with 'Shrek the Third,' Para...

From both a business as well as a technology perspective, the video game industry is treading in unprecedented waters. For the first time in its short history, the industry has 3 viable systems competing against each other and each one different enough from the others to carve its own audience. Since 1995 with the release of the Playstation, aka PSX, Sony has been the dominant force in the industry. Up until that point, Nintendo had been the prominent company in gaming with the successes of the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Game Boy. However, Nintendo clearly lost its luster in the Playstation era with neither the N64 nor the Gamecube able to compete with the Sony platforms. It may have taken 12 years, but Nintendo is finally back on top dominating the hardware and software sales charts across the globe. The DS is shaping up to be the fastest selling video game system of all time (absolutely dominating Japan where it is perceived similar to a cell phone in America...you just have to ha...

Here are the first scores that Bioshock is getting from the gaming press: 5/5 Stars in Alternative Press 95% in PC Gamer UK 98% in Gamers 10/10 in OXM. It looks like Bioshock could seriously be a contender for Game of the Year. In a year where Halo 3, Crysis, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, and Grand Theft Auto IV are coming out, that will be quite an accomplishment. I will definitely try to get this game, for the PC of course.

I won't even try to hide it...I really enjoyed 1408. No, it's not a terribly original movie and no it isn't the best produced movie I've seen. Yet, the sheer premise and acting make the movie entertaining and probably one of the best horror films I've seen in recent years. The film starts out simple enough. John Cusack plays a horror book author whose popularity is one the decline. Ironically, his inspiration for this stories are from real life haunted house visits which he does in hopes of actually encountering a real-life paranormal phenomenon. However, he is disappointed by the fact that in his many years of trying, he has yet to experience anything resembling a real ghost or an actual hunted house. Later, he hears word of yet another haunted location at a NY hotel in room 1408. After demanding to stay in the room despite being warned not to many times, he will soon realize that 1408 was the real haunting story he has been searching for all those years. Wha...

Here are the latest ratings and box office performances from www.rottentomatoes.com: Theaters-New Releases 95% Ratatouille $47.0M 77% Live Free or Die Hard $33.4M 23% Evan Almighty $15.1M 77% 1408 $10.7M 36% The Fantastic Four:... $9.1M Theaters-Opening This Week 61% Transformers 11% License To Wed 83% Rescue Dawn 64% Joshua 64% Introducing The Dwights Theaters-Coming Soon 86% Harry Potter and the O... 7/11 13% Captivity 7/13 The Strangers 7/13 90% Sunshine 7/20 I Now Pronounce You Ch... 7/20 It looks like Pixar has once again struck gold with this year's Ratatouille. It's not making a tremendous amount of money, but with reviews that good it's sure to have longevity at the box office. Also, it looks like Transformers isn't horrible after all!

www.gamespot.com has posted their annual comprehensive GPU roundup. It gives a great overview of all relevant graphics cards available today seperated into four categories: high-end, performance, mainstream, and budget. The article is located at the following link: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6173135/index.html?tag=topslot;title;2&om_act=convert&om_clk=topslot I'm going to go and start saving up for that Geforce 8800 Ultra SLI system for $1350. Actually, the real savings is going to be for the 900W power supply that I'll need to power them!