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Blu-ray camp fires back at latest HD DVD announcements

Ah, the emails and voice mails were flying fast and furious yesterday after Paramount and DreamWorks made their little announcement about going HD DVD exclusive. At just after 4 p.m. in New York, Fox and MGM put out a press release saying they were unveiling "an aggressive global Blu-ray Disc release strategy, including 29 new release and 'must-have' catalog titles that runs through the end of the 2007 calendar year."

The release went on to say that Fox intends to put out "at least one state-of-the-art title per month featuring numerous BD 'firsts'" and highlighted the fact that "Blu-ray was out-performing HD DVD 2-to-1 at retail in 2007." Among the 29 new releases, my eye was drawn to Master & Commander, Ronin, Cast Away, Independence Day, A Bridge Too Far, 28 Days Later, The Day After Tomorrow, and the Die Hard trilogy.

After the email went out, the phone started ringing: All the CNET the home-theater editors were contacted, so the PR folks at GCI Group in LA were working overtime, trying to do a little damage control. The basic message was, they may have this, but we have a whole more of that. And, did you hear that the Paramount deal doesn't include any of Spielberg's movies and that the deal only ran for 18 months? Tit for tat. Tat for tit. The war was raging.

Then, thanks to a New York Times article, word got out this morning that indeed (as I suspected), someone was getting paid off. The article noted that, "Paramount and DreamWorks Animation together will receive about $150 million in financial incentives for their commitment to HD DVD, according to two Viacom executives with knowledge of the deal but who asked not to be identified." Microsoft denied paying anything, but wouldn't rule it out as a tactic in the future. There was no word on who might be paying Universal for its exclusive HD DVD agreement, but you gotta think there's a pretty sweet deal in place there, too.

Paramount and DreamWorks give HD DVD a boost

Just when you thought the next-gen DVD war was on the verge of being over, a couple of studios decide to muck things up even further. Today, Paramount and DreamWorks Animation announced that they will exclusively support HD DVD on a worldwide basis.

According to the press release, "The exclusive HD DVD commitment will include all movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, as well as movies from DreamWorks Animation, which are distributed exclusively by Paramount Home Entertainment."

"The companies each said that the decision to distribute exclusively in the HD DVD format resulted from an extensive evaluation of current market offerings, which confirmed the clear benefits of HD DVD, particularly its market-ready technology and lower manufacturing costs. Paramount Home Entertainment will launch its exclusive HD DVD program with the release of the blockbuster comedy hit 'Blades of Glory' on August 28th and follow with two of the biggest grossing movies of the year 'Transformers' and 'Shrek the Third'."

Until today, Paramount was putting out movies on both Blu-ray and HD DVD, so needless to say, the announcement came as a surprise. Also, all of this comes in the face of reports that on the software front, Blu-ray was outselling HD DVD by a 2-1 margin, and that both Blockbuster and Target would be pushing the Blu-ray format in stores. (Note HD DVD fans: Yes, Target will continue to carry the XBox 360's add-on HD DVD player). Consensus was that things were looking pretty bleak for HD DVD. Is this a game changer?

Productivity the Mac way

Among the announcements at Apple's press event on Tuesday, Steve Jobs talked about the many improvements to Apple's iWork office software. iWork, not unlike Microsoft Office for Windows users, provides a suite of programs designed around productivity. Though the names are different than their Office counterparts, it's pretty easy to tell what each program is for by their names, which include Pages for word processing, KeyNote for presentations, and Numbers for spreadsheets. Mac users who use iWork already love Pages and Keynote, and the newly released Numbers is a welcome addition to iWork '08.

I'm not just here to tell you about each of the updates, however. I'm here to let you know you can download and try it out for yourself! Wednesday, Apple released a 30-day trial for iWork '08, which lets you download and check out each of the programs and their updated features.… Read more

Apple unveils new iMacs, updated apps

Editor's note: This is a blog that was posted live from Tuesday's Apple event. For a complete article with more information about the products announced today, click here.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced two new iMacs at the start of an event held Tuesday at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.

The 20-inch and 24-inch iMacs are the latest editions of Apple's all-in-one iMac design. They are made from aluminum and glass, and come with a new keyboard. Both the new keyboard and the iMac itself are thinner than the previous edition.

Three new iMacs will be … Read more

Beware the killer laser printer!

When you think of workplace injuries, you usually think of factories or construction sites. But a new study out of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia shows that emissions (in the form of toner particles) from some laser printers may be high enough to cause respiratory and heart problems. In fact, the university's Air Quality and Health Program compares the emissions from some models to second-hand cigarette smoke. Printers from HP, Ricoh, Canon, and Toshiba were tested; not all showed high levels of emissions, and results weren't consistent by manufacturer.

So the next time you make that … Read more

Work, Life, Vacation. When worlds collide.

The (parent.thesis) blog is coming to you this week from the lakeside woods of Northern Michigan. Family vacations used to mean getting away to what felt like an alternate universe, a place that seemed to materialize only in the summer, and disappeared from consciousness the rest of the year. We used to feel cut off from the rest of the world up here. There was no TV, and if we didn't get the newspaper we could miss out on a whole week of news.

But now the online world has bridged these two universes. I checked the upcoming week's vacation weather from home, before we left. Using the Microsoft Virtual Earth map on Weather.com, I zoomed in down to the level where I could see my family's house. I know we've probably all done search on own houses at some point, but to see the vacation house from home gave me a true though-the-looking-glass-feeling.

We're still not exactly high tech up here. We don't have an internet connection in the house, but we are allowed to connect to the house next door's network. So I am sitting in the woods, on a plastic chair, blogging on my laptop. This experience crystallizes the best and worst of remote connection for me. … Read more

DMGI merges with The Orchard

Last week, Digital Music Group (DMGI) agreed to a merger with The Orchard. Reading through the details--summarized nicely by the New York Times--it appears that this is more of a buyout than a merger, with The Orchard owning 60% of the combined company, which will retain the DMGI name.

I met DMGI founder Mitch Koulouris back in 2004 when he was first raising money for the company, then called Digital Musicworks International (DMI). He and one of his associates (who's since moved on) were very excited about their business plan, which he called the first all-digital record label. … Read more

Coming this fall: Two new Tivoli Wi-Fi radios

Tivoli Audio is well known for its tabletop radios, but the company has always remained somewhat on the conservative side when it comes to features: AM, FM, and CD, plus the occasional iPod dock and satellite radio. But the company is taking a firm step into the 21st century with a new pair of products, the NetWorks Table Radio and NetWorksGo. The models are essentially network-enabled updates of the Model One and the SongBook, respectively, with the Table Radio intended for stationary duty and the NetWorksGo offering space for six rechargeable C batteries (which you have to supply). Both models … Read more

How does the BBB work with ratings on CNET?

We receive lots of comments from customers who want to know what steps they can take to check out a store prior to making their purchase. While we investigate all stores' complaints and performance before rating them, we also check out their rating by the Better Business Bureau to be sure they have a satisfactory rating in order to remain listed on any CNET site.

Remember that you can check out a store's BBB rating prior to making a purchase by going to our Certified Store Program page. Just click on the Better Business Bureau link located under the … Read more

Creative GigaWorks T20 Multimedia PC Speakers

GigaWorks is offering a great deal through Buy.com. Creative GigaWorks T20 Speakers for $59.99 are a hot deal from Buy.com for a limited time. So, you'd better hurry, because the deal ends March 16, 2007. These deals are just another one of the great features you'll find on ShopGrok. You can check out deals offered by CNET Certified Stores and then jump over to see if one of our editors has reviewed your favorite product and then check to see what bloggers are saying about it. It's three features in one. What could be … Read more