I Google Phone Is Real!

Engadget has a link to the first video of the Google Phone. It's real and it works and it is not on the miserable AT&T network. Link here.

Tonight on CNN: Debate!

The debate, to be held on the campus of the University of Texas, will air live on CNN, CNN International and CNN.com from 8 to 9:30 p.m. ET (5 pm Pacific Peeps). The debate will also air in Spanish on Univision at 11:30 p.m. ET. Should Obama win DKP will be distributed at the conclusion of the raid . . . er debate.

Obama is Thrall!

New Loot Tuesdays!

Barnes & Noble is joining in on the HD-DVD abandoning bandwagon, with a page of HD-DVDs marked 50% off. Many titles are then $13.49 - extra 25% off with coupon code Y4R4K7D = $11.25, with free shipping on $25 orders. Titles include Elizabeth, Apollo 13, Shaun of the Dead, Pride & Prejudice, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, and many more.

HD DVD Players for Cheap!

This weekend marks the begining of the end for HD DVD players, Best Buy and other major retailers like Amazon.com will be offering big discounts on their hardware and movies. I recommend purchasing an HD DVD player, but not HD DVDs. Why? Well the logic is simple, if you have a 720p or 1080p Televsion your regular DVDs will look great on an HD DVD player because of the upscale.

Upscaling is a process that mathematically matches the pixel count of the output of the DVD signal to the physical pixel count on an HDTV, which is typically 1280x720 (720p) or 1920x1080 (1080i - and, some cases, 1080p). - Robert Silva,

This means your regular DVD collection will look better with an HD DVD player on a high definition televsion than without one. There will also be a 2 for 1 bargin bin sale at Best Buy for HD DVDs if you so choose to stock your collection with classics like, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, currently only on HD DVD.

Buying Books Online

MaxMapps says, "To hell with physical media!" Well I won't go that far there is a certain reliability in having DVD's and Books in your hand. There's a reality to them but iTunes does make life easier.

Today for example. If I buy the book I may just read the first two chapters and suddenly get busy with something or someone and leave the book like so many of my other books on the shelf unfinished. Would I ever do that to a good meal? No, not on your life. I know what it's like to go hungry at night just so you can eat the next day.

So I bought Anthony Bourdain's book on iTunes instead. I will listen to it on my iPod for the same reason I watch his shows. He sounds and acts like a guy who knows who he is and what he likes. Beside I don't have time to visit a bookstore.

Apple's new iPhone and iPod Touch

I think I will be using my Economic Stimulus Payment Tax Rebate on a new iPod Touch. The new model is now 32GB and a true alternative to my 30GB iPod. For $499 I can now check my mail, read the NYTIMES, update my blog and listen to my entire Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis Collection at the same time. The $145 billion economic stimulus package represents 1 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product) and just cleared the Senate yesterday. So hurrah! George Bush is getting me an iPod touch!

Oh they also updated the iPhone to 1/2 the capacity of the new iPod Touch, this is lame. The iPhone is now 16GB and includes a $300 upfront fee from AT&T, which still make the cost of ownership to high for me. It also lacks a camera. To quote Gremlin on Engadget, "$500 iPhone should have 24GB, or they should have made it $550 and made 32GB. Either way, it just doesn't make much sense to run out and get this 16GB iPhone."

Peace Can Be Sexy!

I want to live in a world where violence in only a video game. The cost of war is too high to wage. So I support peace. So does George Clooney. "I am the son of a newsman," he said. "The job of messenger comes with the responsibility to deal with facts, not to tell people what they want to hear, but to tell them the truth, unfiltered."

Word!

AT&T Offer Superfast 10Mbps Downloads and ESPN

In one of the best announcements of 2008 so far, AT&T has announced 10Mbps to all its high-speed DSL subscribers. The new service will launch under the AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Max moniker next month, and AT&T will offer it to subscribers of its U-Verse TV-over-IP service for $55 a month.

Currently, the fastest service available to AT&T Yahoo! customers is rated for up to 6Mbps downstream with 1Mbps upstream, allowing respective maximum download and upload speeds of 750KB/s and 125KB/s. The 10Mbps service, by contrast, will allow top download and upload speeds of 1.25MB/s and 188KB/s (1.5Mbps), respectively. With U-Verse, AT&T uses part of the bandwidth of its broadband service to deliver access to as many as 320 TV channels, giving customers the option to bypass cable altogether.

AT&T says it will give subscribers of its DSL services free access to its Wi-Fi network, which counts 10,000 hot spots across the United States. Free, unlimited access will be available to anyone with an AT&T broadband service from the 1.5Mbps plan to the upcoming 10Mbps one.

Maria Sharapova and the MacBook Air

I was too busy watching Maria Sharapova win the Australian Open to blog last week. But there are some incredible pictures of the new MacBook Air I'd like to share with you all. They are both as sexy as their earlier iterations, i.e. the G4 Titatinum PowerBook and Maria at 19. But all things get better with age.