Culver City (CA) - Sony will be the first to release a Blu-ray Disc movie title using new technical specifications, including a feature that memorizes all the content that has already been accessed on the disc.
Resident Evil: Extinction on Blu-ray will hit store shelves on January 2, 2008, bringing with it a handful of brand new special features. Among those are a picture-in-picture video commentary and "Blu-Wizard 2.0". The latter feature is an updated version of the menu organization and layout, which has been underwhelming up to this point.
The new feature also will allow the player to remember every scene and every special feature that has been watched, even after the disc is ejected. The new technology is based on Profile 1.1.
Cupertino (CA) - Version 1.1.2 of the iPod Touch software is now available, adding among other things the ability to create and edit events directly from the device.
The main part of the update is that users no longer need to update their schedule from a computer and sync that information to the iPod. It can now all be done through the device's updated software. This is much more plausible with the iPod Touch because of the direct interaction possible with the screen.
Additional updates for the widescreen touch-screen iPod include a new battery icon that shows up when the device is connected to iTunes, and it plugs up a hack that allowed the installation of unauthorized third-party applications.
Additionally, as with almost all firmware updates it patches a few random bugs, none of which were reported as critical.
The update is available through iTunes, and will be prompted when users plug sync their iPod Touch to the music store. It is also available from Apple.com.
Pittsburgh (PA) - Penn State University professor of electrical engineering, Mohsen Kavehrad, has been researching the possibility of transmitting extremely high speed data over copper. He's looking at 100 Gigabits per second on Category-7 wire at distances in excess of 100 meters. Imagine a home or office network using inexpensive copper, one that could transmit over twelve complete Encyclopedia Britannicas per second.
While 70 meters is possible today, it's that last 30 meters which is just outside the reach of theoretical modern technology. Future modems, which are not the boxes we think of, but are the equivalent of on-board chips modulating and demodulating the high speed signals, will be required before practical applications can be built which push copper so far.
