TechToyz: The Intersection of Technology and Life

Geek Holiday Part Two

Macworld Expo opens today too. The Keynote is tomorrow, so we have to wait another day to see which of the rumors are true. The iTV rumor is pretty interesting if it support HD content.

Is it VHS vs. BetaMax Again?

Well, the High Definition DVD battle appears to still be going strong. HD DVD in one corner and Blu-Ray in the other corner. I watched HD DVD movie trailers in the Toshiba booth .

WOW. The quality was amazing. I love my HD TV and hate to watch SD content, but I rarely watch DVD's on it. HD DVD's might make me change my mind about watching movies. It really was an incredible picture.

Sony ( Yes, the evil DRM issue company) had the Blu-Ray on display. It also looked amazing. It looks like a number of companies will have their equipment on the street by March or April. Price points for the DVD's players seemed to be in the $400-$500 price range.

Syntax Olevia LCD's

I stopped by the Syntax booth to see their new LCD TV offerings. Their Olevia LCD TV's have a great price point/feature ratio. They are fairly new to the US scene. Their booth this year is much bigger and has more units in it than last year.

The big complaint about Olevia is that they reduce their price via rebates. I talked with a guy from their headquarters about the significant delays in receiving a rebate check. He admitted that they grew "faster than expected" and mishandled rebate checks. Their current plan is to issue immediate rebate checks for all new purchases. They have almost completed the backlog of rebates for TV's bought as long ago as last year.

It took 11 months for my brother to get his rebate check of $300. Syntax assured me that that were embarrassed by their delays and had already addressed speedy rebates for new customers. These are really good LCD's for the price.

Episode 17 is Here

Leo, Patrick, Kevin and other Tech stars are back! This Week in Tech or TWIT is a great way to keep up with what's coming on in the tech world. Looks like I need to go see them the next time I'm in the Bay area.

Episode 17 is Here:

Sorry about the sound quality - but there are only four more hybrid TWiTcasts then all of us will be together and the audio quality should be markedly better. We'll taping before a live audience (that's you!) at Noonan's Bar and Grill in Larkspur California just a couple of blocks from the SF-Larkspur Ferry every Sunday at 4p starting September 18.

The Torrents are seeded, or use the Dijjer link for P2P (let me know if that works for you - we may keep using it, it's easier than BitTorrent). The main feed link through AOL Radio is also up.

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin "TV Makes You Smarter" Rose, Roger Chang, Robert Heron, Steve Gibson, and John C. Dvorak

Yoshi at CES

While looking through the Samsung booth yesterday at CES, I bumped into Yoshi from TechTV fame. Yoshi did all the cool stuff on the show, including all the Mods. His buddies laughed and said something like " oh no, now he'll have a big head from being recognized by a fan". He seemed cool, just like on TV. I doubt that he has an ego at all.

It's a shame most of the good people from TechTV got let go by G4TechTV . I still enjoy seeing Kevin Rose , but the change in staff and direction make it a marginally useful channel for me now.