Tech Musings

We both love our technology, where would we be without it? Well…certainly not on the internet writing a geek blog I suppose. So this is where we talk about the tech we love, or the tech we hate, and how that affects us.

Netflix cancels Qwikster (Flixster is likely happy)

Just noticed over at Engadget that Netflix has reversed it’s decision to seperate out it’s DVD rental service into the company Qwikster. Qwikster is dead.

When Qwikster was first announced, I actually thought it was kind of a good idea. The new company looked like it was basically set up to take the declining DVD rentals, tuck them into the corner where they could slowly die, and let Netflix proper focus solely on building it’s streaming service. DVD’s are gonna go away anyways eventually, cut that bit out now and put your energy into the part that will grow and make more money.

Sounds great from a business perspective. Not so great from the user perspective however. My thoughts and such after the break.

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An idea I’ve had regarding the Kindle

Every once in a great while, I have something similar to a thought float about my head. One thing that’s always bugged me about the Kindle was the price of the books themselves. They seem to be barely discounted off the price of paper books. That just doesn’t quite seem right to me. Another thing,…

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The Next Generation of The Next Generation

Yes, I pulled the title straight out of the trailer, sue me. (No really, please don’t. I was just joking. Not trying to tempt fate here or anything. Crap, I’m screwed.)

So it’s finally official, after months, no, years of rumors, we finally have official confirmation of Star Trek: The Next Generation coming to Blu-Ray. I have to say I am very excited. We’re talking a full restoration from the original film negatives. Because of how tv was edited back then, they are actually scanning that original film and re-editing the entire series. All the visual effects will be recompositioned from the filmed elements available. I’d bet we may also see a few CGI touch ups here or there, but it sounds like this is to be an authentic restoration of the actual footage from the day.

We’ll also be getting a 7.1 DTS Master Audio soundtrack to go with our shiny HD picture. Now how is that for freaking awesome!

More thoughts and the trailer after the break.

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Kindle(r) Thoughts

Yes, I went there with the title. Never pass up a bad pun I say.

So hey, guess what today was. Go on, guess. That’s right, it’s Kindle Day! Or it should be anyways. Amazon made their big announcements about the Kindle line-up, and boy was it an exciting day. So here’s my thoughts on the whole thing.

$79 Kindle

Yes, you read that right, the base model Kindle clocks in at $79. If this doesn’t make you buy, nothing will. Now, there have been some sacrifices to hit this price point. This version is sans touchscreen, and thus has physical buttons for turning pages, menu, home screen and such.

I think it’s awesome that Amazon has not only dropped below the $100 price point, but really blown by it full force with this entry level Kindle. I was seriously considering just going for this cheapest model, but the geek in me objected to a couple things.

One, I really like touchscreens. Two, and sorta related, is that without a physical keyboard or a touchscreen, the keyboard entry is most like what you have with your game console, in that you have to use the arrow keys to select individual letters from the onscreen keyboard. Bleh.

Now really, I’m sure I could have gotten around that, but the extra features on the next level up pulled me in, and so we go to…

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What a Blockbuster (hah!)

Blockbuster has been making me laugh my ass off lately. I’m so sorry that things have been so crap for them recently, but it feels like it’s their own fault so much. I’ve had this real sense that they are just completely reluctant to wake up to the 21st century, and instead never want to…

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3D…Phone?!

Ok, so maybe I’m way off base, but this is the first 3D phone I’ve ever seen. Say hi to the upcoming HTC EVO 3D. Yes, I’m especially interested because it’s an HTC EVO, of which I have the original. I likely won’t be getting this new one, simply because, well, money. I am not…

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