With HD-DVD all but dead in the water, the Big M is going to need to turn its attentions to Video Marketplace in a big way. And it doesn’t get much bigger than getting Paramount on board for the online store.

The new deal will see us HD starved UK punters get Paramount flicks in standard and hi-def, costing the same price to rent as other films on the service: 250 points for you standard version, 380 for the HD one.

Movies in the initial round of releases include Transformers, A Mighty Heart and, er, 1408.

Okay, the selection is a bit pony at the moment, but it could be worse, right? You could have loads of obsolete HD-DVDs knocking around.

With iTunes bringing full-on movie rentals to the UK later this year, Microsoft is going to need to up its game when it comes to hi-def. still, more movies on Video Marketplace does keep us pretty happy. For now.

It’s looking increasingly like HD-DVD will be imminently laid to rest after a weekend of crushing developments in the bloody Hi-Def war with Blu-ray.

Shock news emerged over the weekend that Toshiba are preparing to halt production on disks and drives and, in the ensuing scramble, share prices at the company rose.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were already striding over a fiery horizon when the mighty Wal-Mart (Asda) dropped HD-DVD in favour of Blu-Ray on Friday eve.

That telling blow came in a week when US rental service Netflix and retail giant Best Buy abandoned the format in its utmost hour of need. “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me.”

The official line from Tosh is that they are “examining the business,” but everything points to a pending white flag flying high above HD DVD headquarters within days.

It has indeed been an agonising month since that CES humiliation in Las Vegas, but the sheer speed of their looming surrender remains a surprise. They’ve barely lasted longer than Sam Allardyce’s hilarious Newcastle tenure.

The implications of this are huge and as soon as we hear for sure that Tosh have switched off the life support machine of their experiment, we’ll be examining the future of Hi-Definition, so stay tuned. The war is coming to an abrupt end.

Filed under: Desktops, Handhelds, Laptops

Think you’ve mastered Intel speak? Impressive, it’s no easy task keeping Intel’s brand names and in-house silicon language straight. Now rumor has it that Intel’s Montevina will carry a new Centrino 2 branding in hopes of clearing up any confusing amongst consumers. Probably a good idea what with Centrino providing the catch-all since the launch of those Carmel, Sonoma, Napa, and Santa Rosa platforms running Pentium M, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo branded Banisa, Donthan, Yonah/Merom and Merom/Penryn processors. If true, a Centrino 2 sticker would indicate 5th generation, Montevina-class Centrino with support for 45-nm, Core 2 Duo Penryn CPUs, a 1066MHz FSB, DDR3 memory, and mobile WiMax. Still not clear? No worries, try the handy table after break.

Continue reading Intel branding Montevina platform Centrino 2?

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We know it looks like HD DVD’s death is a foregone conclusion at this point, but it isn’t official until Toshiba says it is, and Ars is reporting that a number of their sources have pegged the impending announcement for within the next few days — not weeks. Apparently HD DVD’s future was in serious jeopardy even before Netflix dropped ’em, and the holdup on Toshiba’s part now comes from the company’s need to formulate its plans to shut down production — which is no small task given the volume of hardware and media they were geared up to move.

Of course, out Tokyo way the party line’s all the same. Our Japanese bureau checked in with Toshiba HQ, which was obviously on PR red alert since they responded to our query in nine minutes, and well well before business hours. The boilerplate response is about what you’d expect, though: “We are considering our future business policies and plans, and studying the market response [to recent developments].” Let’s just get this thing over with already, okay Toshiba?

[Thanks, Max]

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Filed under: Desktops

You know, we’re normally not very into the whole case mod scene, but every once in a while some whack job with way too much free time and talen comes along and completely blows our minds. In this case it’s rendermandan’s Motorized Madness, a vaguely steampunk reinterpretation of the PC replete with the usual complement of colored lamps and fans, as well as a full outfit of unnecessary rotating, extending, and moving external displays, switches, and toggles. Oh, and that thing up top is a turbine water cooler. Videos after the break — you won’t be disappointed.

Continue reading Motorized Madness is, in fact, just that

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