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The deciding factor in HD format war? Porn, of course

With competing high-definition DVD standards HD DVD and Blu-ray, a clear line has been drawn in the sand. Major technology companies are beginning to line up with their support for one side or the other. But it won't necessarily be the Sonys or Microsofts of the world that determine the winner in this standards war. In the end, it may come down to an often overlooked technology influencer: the porn industry.

Adult film producers have a long history of being early adopters of new technology. When the porn industry pushed hard for VHS in the 1980s, Sony took a … Read more

Camcorder built into a tie--that's right

So you've found the perfect spying device, a pinhole camera built into a tie that's "virtually impossible to detect with the naked eye." Its high-resolution video can also be seen on a 2.4-inch LCD screen that fits neatly on its cigarette-pack-sized recorder that holds up to 4GB of data, complete with remote control. All this doesn't come cheap--nearly $1,300, actually--but it's worth it because no one will ever suspect a thing, right? There's just one problem: You never wear a tie.

What do you want to know about Joost?

Plenty of blogs have recently been buzzing about Joost, the new online video site devised by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, which was formerly known as the "Venice Project." I've been beta testing it too, but rather than posting a basic walkthrough, I'd like to know specifically what kinds of questions you have about it. So, post your Joost inquiries in the comments of this thread, and I'll answer each one in an upcoming thread about my experience with the beta.

You can be as general as you want ("Is it really going … Read more

Spymac gets less Mac-centric, aims for mainstream

My first run-in with Spymac was a completely accidental encounter a few years ago. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a site that had its own visual style and appeal. It pulled in some design cues from Apple but kept its own sense of personality. This week Spymac has relaunched itself as Leapfrog, a portal for user-generated media.

The old Spymac featured a variety of user services, including e-mail, blogs, and user forums. It was a community-driven site. The new Spymac Leapfrog is all about media. Think YouTube with Google's pastel color palete. Users can browse popular videos, pictures, … Read more

LG's Super Multi Blue HD Player spotted in CompUSA

A member over at AVS Forum has posted pics of LG's Super Multi Blue HD Player apparently on sale at a CompUSA in Texas. In case you hadn't heard, the Super Multi Blue HD Player is LG's answer to detente in the next-gen DVD format war: playback capabilities for both formats bundled in a single player, the LG BH100 ($1,200 list). The player won our Best of CES award this year. The AVS Forum member confirms what Senior Editor David Katzmaier reported in an earlier Crave post--namely, that the player doesn't offer playback support … Read more

Acrobat Connect: An excellent online meeting service, but overpriced

Adobe has launched Acrobat Connect (formerly known as Breeze); a very slick, Flash-based, screen sharing and videoconferencing tool. We've had a few experimental meetings using the product here in the Webware labs and came away impressed. And if anything deserves to be impressive, it's a Web app that costs as much as this one does: $40 a month.

It's really good, though, and you can sign up for a 15-day trial to give it a spin. Unlike Webex and GoToMeeting, Connect does all its magic in Flash. (Connect also doesn't demand your credit card number before … Read more

Guided tour of Netflix Watch Now service

Netflix has fleshed out some details of its newly announced movie download service. The Watch Now instant viewing service is scheduled to become available to all Netflix subscribers by June. It will launch with just 1,000 titles (movies and TV shows), but the selection will expand thereafter--slowly but surely--to encompass as many of the 70,000-plus titles in the Netflix database as possible. The online viewing feature will be a free addition to existing accounts, with subscribers getting a monthly allotment of online viewing time based on their subscription level. For instance, an $18-per-month plan (three DVDs out at … Read more

Netflix to launch movie download service

Netflix is set to launch its long-awaited movie download service over the next six months. The new service, which will be sold separately and also as part of the regular Netflix subscription plans, bills movies on time, not on amount. For instance, plans will have various tiers of movie times, and each streaming movie counts against that time. Think of it as an allowance.

Netflix is also launching a new service called Program which lets users watch portions of movies as opposed to the whole thing, in essence, turning Netflix into a YouTube for movie clips.

There will be about … Read more