Hi Everybody? Do you like Bears?

Yes Bears, but not the ferocious land mammals or the cuddly cartoon bears. No "Care Bear Stare" here. The Asian economies are entering hibernation. Without funds from the U.S. Mortgage Industry to finance foreign spending, most Asian Economies are going into a "Bear Market," meaning trading in their economies, overall buying and selling of stocks will slow down. Daniel M. Harrison at theStreet.com has written a fact filled analysis of the oncoming Bear Market.

But George what does this mean for us? I thought this was gift blog? It means cheaper electronics! Vendors are going to try to make you spend money by providing deep discounts on normally high priced electronics manufactured primarily in Asia.

This Just In: Starbucks make you fat!

Black Coffee is only 9 calories per 16 oz serving. A walk through a parking lot can burn that off. A fortified Sugar Free White Mocha is still 300 calories. There is a great blog about it on the New York Times. GIRLS! Lay off the Starbucks, embrace McDonalds, its actually healthier.

Mac Love @ Macworld SF 2008

This space is reserved for some totally awesome news. Until then we have a live feed at Engadget.

To quote Steve Jobs, "I'd like to say all of us have tried. We have, MSFT, Amazon, TiVo, VuDu, Netflix, Blockbuster -- we've all tried to figure out how to get movies over the net onto the TV. We've ALL missed. No one's succeeded yet. We tried with Apple TV -- it was designed to be an accessory for iTunes and your computer. But that's not what people wanted."

So Video Streaming and HD Rentals on Apple Hardware is a Reality Now. No new iPhones or iPods. Macs are still expensive, $1799 for an underpowered Super Thin MacBook Air. But you can play Warcraft on it. The Dell XPS M1530, 15.4" is bigger, faster and only $1299.

Blu-ray HD Downloadable Content

Blu-ray HD Downloadable Content will be available in the summer of 2008. Available only on Blu-ray Branded Appliances, yes your Playstaion 3 is a Blu-ray Applicance. Here is a picture of Veronica Belmont, from Mahalo Daily, the full story and the details are available on Engadget. It looks a lot like iTunes.

Best Little Thing @ CES 2008

I am going back to my Gift Giving Ways. The best little thing at CES 2008 was the SONY HDR-SR12 Camera, it is not a Video Camera because it records directly to a 15GB Hard Drive, there is no Analog Conversion, so there is no Video, just a pure Digital Recording in High Definition. Yes you can now have the your own home movies in HD on that HDTV you bought at Christmastime. Engadget has the full product line up. I am goign to get one for my kid brother soon. You should too.

**HD Recording at Home is going to be the hot item in 2008.

New Hampshire Primary: Thrall in 2nd Place.

Obama is Thrall! The big story however is the collapse and resurrection of the Hillary Clinton campaign. They had $100 in the bank. According to MSNBC, "'...The Clinton campaign has raised over $100 million, but has "only" $15 to $20 million left. It faces donor reluctance to give more in the face of the Iowa defeat and the prospect of a second loss in New Hampshire today. Even worse, the campaign fears defections among those fundraisers who want to be with a winner and who might be easily persuaded to support Barack Obama." On to Neveda.

Remember Obama is Thrall! The US needs a Thrall right now.

What Girl's need to know about their geek Boyfriend

Yes I play World of Warcraft. So what? Ralph is our modern-day Everyman.

CES Day 2: Leaving Las Vegas

But Daily Mahalo is still there. Veronica Belmont reports from the floor. We are packing it up and going home for some good burritos.

The War is Over; in HD

Q. What if Toshiba, Universal and Paramount don't go blu. How do you convince consumers the war is over?

A. The market will decide.

January 7, 2008 will be remembered as the day that the "The Format War Ended." Blu-ray dominates, they have more movies and their hardware is getting cheaper. Read the full story of the conquest here at Engadget.

Mr. Gates and How I learned to Love Blu-ray.

The biggest problem I had with Blu-ray was their price point. Well over $400 for the most basic of players. HD-DVD had Blu-ray beat on that for over 2 years. However after CES 2008 most future content will be available on Blu-ray. Warner Bros., New Line Cinema both announced they would go Blu-ray exclusive. Sony also finally announced a $200 Blu-ray/DVD-RW Drive for your PC. Apple is also going Blu-ray but thats no surprise, Steve Jobs, sits on Disney's Board of Directors, and the Studio is Blu-ray exclusive, so it makes sense that all new Apple Macs will ship with at least a Blu-ray Reader. Apple is saving this announcement for Macworld San Francisco, next week.

To wrap up CES 2008 I can say this. You're a mean one Mister Gates. You will never wow the audience like Steve Jobs can at Macworld. Bill Gates gave his last keynote as Chairman of Microsoft last night. The audience was underwhelmed by his announcent about the new Windows Mobile. Seriously Bill people will never give up their Blackberries for an underperforming version of Microsoft Outlook on thier phones.

At least we got to see Slash on stage playing 'Welcome to the Jungle.' Which reminds me I need to play more Guitar Hero III.

**Remember Thin is In and 720p is Dead. Take that Nietzsche.

Thin is In and the End of 720p

So Toshiba and LG had their press conferences this morning. The results are two fold. The new LCDs and Plasmas are bigger and thnner in 2008. Some are no thicker than a hardback book at Barnes and Noble. I can also safetly say that 720p is dead. All the new models have a minimum of 1080i to 1080p (interlaced vs. progressive), 1080p being better. So if you want a big LCD go out to your local Shiny Stuff Store there will be deep discounts for 720p TVs this Spring.

Girl Spotted @ CES 2008!

Alert the Internets! There is a cute girl at CES and she is not a Booth Babe! Progress my peeps. Veronica Bemont. She has a Blog at Mahalo Daily. Check it out, she filmed the CES Unveiled event. This is the best report on CES available on the internets. Take that CNET!

**Notice the fat guy in Cargo Shorts.

Best Little Keychain in the World @ CES

Engadget has a feature story on a little keychain viewfinder. Just like the kind we rocked in the 1990's in High School. "The 1.5-incher sports a 128 x 128 resolution display, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio and 32MB of internal memory, while the 2.8-inch iteration (shown after the jump) packs a 320 x 240 resolution screen, 10,000:1 contrast ratio and a currently undisclosed amount of storage." Check out the story here.

Barack Obama is Thrall!

I started a group on Facebook. Yes Peeps, The George is on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6794363009

Here is the description:

So I was trying to convince my brother to support Barack Obama. I used every bit of political knowledge I had. Finally I settled on an analogy. Barack Obama is Thrall! You see my brother and I play World of Warcraft, and Thrall is the the most charismatic and popular personality in the game. Even members of the opposing faction admire Thrall. No one says a bad thing about him and everyone admires him for his courage, honor and personality.

Why does Thrall get so much respect? Well he unified and restored the scattered nations of the Horde. Transforming this disorganized faction (Democrats) into a capable, unified and determined faction by giving them leadership and something to believe in, something greater than themselves. He defeated the Burning Legion, the bad guys, and brought peace to the world.

If you know someone under the age of 25 and they play World of Warcraft and you want to capture their imagination then use this analogy. Barack Obama is Thrall!

The US needs a Thrall right now.

Warner Bros goes Blu-ray Exclusive

Owners of Playstation 3 rejoice. You can now play Warner Bros. movies on your overpriced gaming system. Warner Bros goes Blu-ray Exclusive on the eve of CES Las Vegas 2008. Driving the HD DVD group to drink and cancel its presentation and press conference tomorrow.

Movies you won't get on HD-DVD:

1. I am Legend (Will Smith)
2. . . . Jesse James (Brad Pitt)
3. all the other movies are already available on HD-DVD or Blu-ray so it doesn't matter.
   
   The George laughs at you early adopters and is going to play more Guitar Hero III.

Ford Sells Jaguar to India

One of the best stories of 2008 so far. Ford needs money. So they are selling their assets. The Jaguar/ Land Rover Group is one of their best assets. Now the what makes this story so great is that the buyer is India's Tata Motors. India a former British Colony will now employ Englishmen and Scotsman as the owners of the Jaguar/ Land Rover Group. What irony!

Apple News at CES

Apple will distribute Movie Rentals online. Just like Netflix. It is only a matter of time before Television Stations like ABC, NBC and Food Network do this too. Live reaction on G4TV today.

Xbox 360 ULTIMATE!!

1080p HDMI output
built in Wi-Fi
hi-def audio ouput
cooler hardware
extremely quiet fan
built in HD-DVD drive.
320GB hard disk

CRY MORE SONY!!!

HD Content: Direct Download in 2008 (Part 2)

Netflix! Just announced a direct download service. HD content won't be far behind. Read the SF Gate Story.

Gadget Time! CES 2008

Yes Christmas has passed, so has New Years and the overrated and over matched College Bowl Games. The Patriots have gone undefeated and the holiday ham has all been eaten. But wait boys and girls, the best is yet to come. The most awe inspiring event in the Western World is upon us . . . CES 2008. The largest most spectacular electronics and entertainment expo, no its not E3 (where are my Booth Babes) but it is as close as we may ever get to an electronic wonderland. New products will be announced by Dell, HP, Samsung, Sony, Hitachi and Microsoft. Apple decides to hold back any public announcement of its products until MacWorld Expo, a week after CES, so no Apple news for you.

Here is the link to the main page for CES. G4 TV will be covering the show non stop on DirecTV next week. The internet is already a buzz with news from the show and new model releases from Dell and HP. New notebook model starting at $500 and new Media Center PC's.

There is also news on WirelessHD, soon my prediction will be proven true, no more duplicate versions of movies you already have. Just download and broadcast the HD version from your PC to the flat-screen LCD you bought at Christmas time.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.