But that’s not ambitious enough for SpaceX, oh no. They want to use powered recovery. They plan to use aerodynamic lift and the rockets to fly the boosters back to the launch site and make a vertical landing. They’ve released the following video of a simulation of the process.

The rocket in the video looks like an updated version of the Falcon 9 with three larger main stage engines instead of the nine on the current design. Since the first stage never leaves the atmosphere, and is travelling at a much lower speed when its job is complete, it doesn’t need much thermal protection.

The first stage flips end for end and uses thrust to arrest the motion and then fly back to the launch point. That’s similar to the Return To Lauch Site abort profile for the Space Shuttle, which would’ve used the main engines to return to the cape once the solid rocket boosters burned out. There have also been similar concepts such as fly back boosters using wings and jets, but that adds a lot of weight.

The second stage does continue to orbit with the payload. So it continues around the earth and performs a de-orbit burn to reenter. The nose of the stage is a heat shield, I’d guess based on the one they’re using on the Dragon capsule. The stage decelerates using aerobraking and flies back to the launch site primary as a lifting body. Once most of the way there it uses the engine thrust for the final braking and controlled flight to a vertical landing.

The Dragon capsule discards its service stage in orbit, leaving it to burn up on reentry as the one major expendable component. Then it reenters and lands much like the second stage. The thrusters used for landing double as the emergency abort system for launch.

Yes, this means carrying more fuel to launch a given payload than you need with an expendable booster because you need a reserve used for landing. It also means that for a given thrust level you have a lower throw weight, or payload to orbit, because you’re carrying the extra fuel mass. Conversely to place the same payload in orbit you need a larger booster.

So, that’s bad right? Not really. Rockets are expensive. Very, very expensive. A Falcon 9, which is one of the least expensive rockets in its class, costs $50-60 million dollars. Fuel is cheap. The cost of RP1 (basically kerosene) and LOX or a Falcon 9 launch is approximately $200,000. (Figures from the C-Span video below, about 21 minutes in.) $200,000 may not sound ‘cheap’, but compared to the hardware it is nothing. If you can reuse the hardware repeatedly the savings add up and justify the increased fuel costs.

It might sound like a crazy idea, but remember that vertical powered landings have been used many times for landing on other bodies. A number of planetary and lunar probes have used a powered landing, and, of course, all of the moon missions used a lunar lander that made a powered descent and landing. On Earth the McDonnell Douglas DC-X developed the vertical launch & landing concept before it was cancelled. The concept lives in and vertical launch & landing designs have been created and flown by Blue Origin, Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, and others.

It is certainly possible to do. It isn’t simple, but it isn’t unfeasible. And if anyone can pull it off, it is probably SpaceX. I think they’ve the most exciting company to watch in the rocket industry at the moment.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk talks a bit about their plans in the following C-Span video, starting around 20 minutes in. Note that he says the video above is not a completely accurate representation of their concept. This is partly due to the concept evolving and the video not representing the latest evolution, and partly due to deliberately hiding some of their technical points for competitive reasons. So take it as an example of the concept and not an exactly depiction.

Picked up via Gizmodo.

Do I want a tablet that’s more like a PC? No. Especially not when “more like a PC” includes pre-loading my device with piles of bloatware that I’ll never use, proprietary crapps that I can’t delete. I do not want to visit your App Place, Toshiba, or your Book Place or any Place you want to take me. I don’t get in cars with strangers. The display? Your scan lines are showing. Do I mention its fatty, awkward size and the shape? Thrive feels like you’re holding a GoKart steering wheel. If this is what it takes to get MiniUSB on a tablet, I’ll pass on the MiniUSB.

I think they’re overly harsh, frankly, and the other reviews are more balanced. But it doesn’t matter too much to me, I’ve pretty much decided to go with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. I’d already decided to go with that when the Thrive caught my eye, but I think the Transformer is what I really want.

Now DIGITIMES has spotted the disc being exhibited at the IT Month fair currently taking place in Taipei, Taiwan. As before it is a 16-layer read-only disc, 25GB per layer just like Blu-ray. And they’re working on a 500GB, 20-layer version, with a 1TB target by 2013. The current version is targeted for 2008-2010, with rewritable discs in 2010-2012.

Spotted via Gizmodo.

The currently available SDK was last updated over a year ago, on 10/2/2007, and that’s an experimental release. The last official release was over three years ago, on 10/31/2005. The SDK is woefully out of date, even the experimental release has iffy HD support and there is no support for recently added features, like streaming video, which are possible as the hacker community has reverse engineered how to do it. I do hope the Australian developers will get an updated SDK so they can create some great applications, and they won’t be hobbled by the same lack of support as US developers. The good news is any application developed for Australia will probably work on US TiVos as well, so hopefully we’ll see some cool new applications.

Picked up from Gizmodo Australia.

Press release:

TiVo® media device opens up to local developers
Amateur and professional developers invited to expand the free games and services available on the Australian TiVo media device

iDEF, Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, 13 November 2008 – Today at the International Digital Entertainment Festival, Hybrid Television Services (ANZ) Pty Ltd, the exclusive licensee of TiVo® products in Australia and New Zealand issued an invitation to anyone interested in building games and broadband applications for the media device to get involved with TiVo.

The Australian roadmap for the media device includes enhancements to the free Games and Services Packs in coming months. Today, local developers are invited to submit concepts for both games and services for distribution on the TiVo platform in Australia.

The media device’s open Home Media Engine (HME) platform uses Java programming, making it easy for developers to reach a growing audience of TiVo fans with their games and applications. Both amateur and professional developers who attend the breakout sessions at the eGames Expo (www.idef.com.au/egames_home.php) this week will be able to learn more about the product roadmap and revenue model in addition to understanding what is required to develop for the TiVo platform.

Hybrid TV CEO, Robbee Minicola, commented: “Every TiVo media device in Australia comes with a free Games Pack, with Sudoko joining the list in the coming weeks, and our Services Pack recently launched with the new Sunrise Weather application.”

“Our goal is to continue to add advertiser-funded services and games for our customers to enjoy without a pay-per-use or subscription cost. The games we have are traditional, low-to-mid skill based, nostalgic games that the whole family will enjoy. Australia has some of the most talented developers in the world and the opportunity to work with local talent and showcase their work through the TiVo media device will achieve the trifecta: great experiences for our customers; advertiser sponsorship in a viewer-engaged environment; and a revenue opportunity for our partner developers.”

Developers who are unable to attend the eGames breakout session can register their interest in developing for TiVo in Australia by emailing developers@tivo.com.au.

From PS3 Fanboy by way of Gizmodo.

The codes:

DVDTALK
GREEN
SUPERSALE
USATODAY
NYTIMES
LATIMES
SOUTHSIDE
PRICEGRABBER
SAVE
DD1109
PRICESEARCH
SUMMERSALE
ESPN
YAHOO
JIM
WGN

Picked up from Gizmodo Australia.

Sling Community – Blog
Sling Community – Review
Sling Community – Review: SlingPlayer for TV
Sling Community – Review: MyMedia
Sling Community – Review: SlingProjector
ZatzNotFunny
Engadget
EngadgetHD
Gizmodo
CNET – Crave
CED Magazine
Obsessable
SlashGear
NewsFactor Network
HD Update
SFGate
Wired
Register Hardware
TG Daily
Stuff.tv
TechWhack
Electronista
Silicon Alley Insider
Electronic House
Pocket-lint
PC World
BLORGE
BroadcastNewsroom
Sci-Tech Today
Gearlog
TrustedReviews
Coolest Gadgets

Both the Slingbox PRO-HD and SlingCatcher MSRP at USD$299.99, but the best deals I’ve seen on both are from PROVANTAGE – currently Slingbox PRO-HD for $241.70 and SlingCatcher for $240.47.

EDIT: And more coverage:
The Gadgetress
Engadget
EngadgetHD
jkOnTheRun
Gizmodo
Obsessable
TG Daily
TWICE
Silicon Alley Insider
TVPredictions
TechSpot
SlashGear
Multichannel News
ZDNet – The Mobile Gadgeteer
TheStreet.com
Electronista
Electronic House
Boy Genius Report
eHomeUpgrade
ZDNet – The Toybox
Obsessable – Product Page

Well, OK, no, I’m not even mildly surprised.

According to Register Hardware, Palm is delaying Palm OS II, aka Nova, again. Palm OS II was originally expected on phones in 2007, then delayed until 2008, then late 2008. Now they say it’ll be ‘finished’ by the end of 2008, but we won’t be seeing any handsets using it until the first half of 2008. And, frankly, I wouldn’t place any bets on it. I’ve been a Palm OS user since 1998, but I’m not sure Palm is really relevant as an OS vendor anymore. They make some great Windows Mobile based devices, if I were in the market for WinMob the Treo Pro would be a top contender, but the existing Palm OS is terribly out of date. And now they’re going to be launching a new OS into a market full of WinMob, iPhone, Symbian, and two major Linux platforms – LiMo and Android. As a third Linux platform I don’t know that they’ll be able to garner developer mindshare. I really would rather see Palm take Android and work their magic on it as they’ve done to WinMob.

On the bright side for Palm, one of their major competitors, Windows Mobile, is also facing a delay. CNET reports that Windows Mobile 7 will be delayed from early 2009 to the second half of the year. That could be good news for Palm as WinMob 6 is starting to age and WinMob 7 promises a number of significant improvements. The delay means Palm’s Nova won’t be going directly against WinMob7 – unless it is further delayed, of course. The delay is also good news for Android, which, unless you’ve been under a rock, you’re probably aware launched today with T-Mobile’s G1. We should be seeing more Android phones and the WinMob delay gives Android more time to grab market share.

Picked up via Gizmodo.

I’ve been swamped with work so I haven’t been able to do more than skim most of today’s coverage of the Android launch and read a few of the reports in full. I have mixed feelings. The platform itself looks solid to me, but I think I’ll wait to see some more phones using it. I don’t like the G1′s lack of 3.5mm headphone jack, I can’t believe they left that off after the backlash against other phones. But that’s HTC and not Google or Android. And some of the features I’d need, like Exchange support for work, are being left to 3rd parties. I am 100% sure the hole will be filled, and can actually appreciate that approach – no native app makes the market more attractive to developers – but I’ll have to give it time. Still, I like what I see and think that with a little polish (this is the 1.0 release after all) it will probably be my next phone OS.

We need an HD DVD and Betamax combo deck just for the Epic Fail factor that would represent. (This system supports Digital Audio Tape, Digital Compact Cassette, and MiniDisc – it can’t fail!)

Picked up via Gizmodo.

Sony will also reportedly introduce the previously announced BDP-S550 with an MSRP of $399, instead of the expected $499 price point, in mid-October.

The price reductions will certainly result in competitive pressure on other vendors.

In fact, HD Guru reports that Funai will cut the MSRP of their NB500 from $299 to $249 to remain competitive. The NB500 is a Profile 1.1 / BonusView player sold in the US under the brands Philips, Magnavox, Sylvania, Insignia, and others.

Since these are the MSRP prices the players will almost certainly be available for less online, and even at retail. While the NB500′s MSRP has been $299, it has been selling normally at stores such as Wal*Mart and Best Buy (under the other brands) for $280 or less. So the cut to MSRP will likely result in a further reduction in retail pricing.

I expect that this is just the beginning of price cuts for the holidays. With the inevitable sales, there should be some good deals on Blu-ray players. And the price cuts on BD-Live units will finally make them competitive with the PS3, unless Sony also cuts the pricing on those. While an entry-level PS3 remains $400, with the BDP-S350 at $300 (and less online) it becomes an option to consider.

From HD Guru via Gizmodo.

9.4 enables native H.264 decoding on the S3 & HD, required for YouTube support. What is not known is if there decoding support has been extended to other areas as well, such as video podcasts. If so, it could eliminate transcoding on a PC via TiVo Web Video, at least for video podcasts in H.264 – which is many, if not most, of them. I’m hoping the H.264 support does apply to other video sources, it would make life much easier. TiVo Web Video is OK, but not ideal.

Speaking of, allow me a small digression…

I realize I never did pull together a review of TiVo Desktop 2.6 as I’d said I would. I’ve been pretty busy and it got away from me. And, honestly, I’ve had so many problems with it that each time I think about writing it up I just get upset again. I recently had TiVo Web Video forget all of the podcasts I’d subscribed to, twice in two days! I noticed it wasn’t transferring anything after a couple of days, and when I checked the config file it was back to default – all the subscriptions gone. So I restored them and it started transferring again, so I went to bed. The next day it had stopped, and the file was wiped out, again! I wiped everything and started from scratch and it has been working for over a week now. And this isn’t the first time this happened, early on it lost all the subscriptions too. Of course, since TiVo Web Video, unlike TiVoCast, doesn’t just start with the most recent recording and move forward, but insists on downloading and transcoding back episodes as well (default is 5), it would re-download and re-transfer everything. It literally takes a few days for my PC to suck down all the backlog (I subscribe to a number of podcasts) and transfer it. So when this happens it is a major pain in the posterior.

And it doesn’t clean up after itself, I found over ten gigabytes of abandoned downloaded recordings sitting the the Downloads directory. Recordings it should’ve deleted after transferring to the TiVo. It just slowly uses up the drive. The leaking seems to vary – right now there are two files from back on 7/8 totally about 50MB. But all it takes is a few long-form HD podcasts to be missed and it adds up fast. Those are just a couple of the problems with it. Don’t get me wrong, having it is better than not having it at all, but it is far from a stable solution, let alone ideal. But I digress, I really should make myself write up all the issues and such.

Back to the topic at hand..,

So anyway, I would really love to see TiVo allow the S3/HD to download H.264 podcasts directly, bypassing the PC. Heck, as an interim even if they downloaded to the PC but skipped transcoding and just transferred to the TiVo as-is it would speed things up a great deal. Transcoding really slows things down.

Dave got a look at what is apparently a pre-release version of the software, so the final release could vary, but probably won’t. YouTube is added as another option under the TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video menu item. It looks like the screen has been retitled from ‘Video Downloads’ to ‘Broadband Video’, which may be a reflection of the fact that TiVo is now streaming video and not just downloading it. The ‘Movies & TiVo from Amazon Unbox’ link has been changed to ‘Amazon Unbox TV & Movies’, which I think sounds better. And just below that, slotting in above ‘Brows Other Videos’ is a new link entitled, simply, ‘YouTube’.

The only sub-option at this time is ‘Watch YouTube Videos’, and once you select that you get into the YouTube HME application interface proper. The color scheme reminds me of the current Music Choice application. Within the application you can select Featured Videos, Most Recent, Search, Top Favorites, Most Viewed, or Top Rated. Each selection then has sub-selections. The interface looks pretty good, and you can even rate the videos 1-5 stars, just as you can online.

From Dave’s video I don’t see a way to link this application with your YouTube account, which would be nice. I’d like to be able to pull up the subscriptions I have on YouTube from my TiVo. And to have ratings from one location be reflected in the other. Being able to subscribe or favorite a video on the TiVo and having it show up online would be nice. But this is the first release, and from what I can see it looks good. This could always be a future enhancement.

UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this I was looking over some other blogs and over at Gizmodo I saw that TiVo will indeed be adding the ability to login to your YouTube account, in an update due eight weeks out.

Dave also tacked a quick look at the Tuning Adapter and Network Remote Control screens at the end of the video. He says we can expect the official press release later today, and the application may start showing up on TiVos with 9.4 as early as today (Thursday) as well. TiVo has a new page on their site as well: http://www.tivo.com/youtube

Now that TiVo has support for H.264 and streaming video, I’m hopeful we’ll see more features using them. Aside from the aforementioned video podcast support, TiVo could support Amazon’s upcoming video streaming service, HD video downloads (most HD downloads use H.264), perhaps even streaming video between TiVo units, or from a PC to a TiVo.

I’m still waiting to receive 9.4 myself, can’t wait to play with this.

(And no Dave, you’re not the only one still waiting for Tekzilla. )

But the best bit, the bit that made me stop my TiVo to catch my breath from laughing, was that they, without explanation, flashed the (in)famous picture of Gizmodo’s Brian Lam reclining on a sofa, wearing TiVo antennae and cuddling his TiVo Series 3. The BLam pops up just before the 32 minute mark, for just a couple of seconds. Priceless.

I’m interested in the future design possibilities mentioned in the article, such as a QWERTY keyboard or a touchscreen. Personally I would very much not like to see TiVo drop buttons to go to a touchscreen. I’ve found touchscreens difficult to use without looking, because there is no tactile feedback from the button layout or shapes. (Crappy remotes with a grid layout of identical buttons are almost as bad.) And while I would very much like to see QWERTY keyboard support, I think it might be better to have that in an adjunct remote, a dedicated thumb-board design. I’ve seen some remotes with hidden QWERTY keypads – under sliding/flipping covers, etc – but either the remote is bloated to make it large enough, or the keypad is terribly cramped – smaller than what you get on a smartphone. I’d rather see TiVo add generic IR keyboard support (one of the things ReplayTV had, you could use a WebTV keyboard with) and/or support for wireless RF keyboards via USB. TiVo could still offer their own TiVo-designed remote for this, of course.

In any case, definitely check out the article, it is an interesting history.

And I’m sure there others that I haven’t spotted.

Dave Zatz posted this video to YouTube:

Note that this is a proof of concept, a technology demonstrator, and not the SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone that will eventually be released. This was an engineering project written for jail-broken iPhones to characterize the performance of the platform and ensure that Sling could deliver a high quality customer experience on the iPhone & iPod Touch platforms. This allowed Sling to gain experience with the platform while waiting for the SDK to be released. The official SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone will be written using the SDK and sold through the iTunes App store like other official iPhone/iPod Touch applications. At least that is currently the intent.

If you’re attending the Apple WWDC this week you can get a look at the proof of concept application first hand. Sling Media Product Manager Vicky Shum will be at the Starbucks at 120 4th Street, San Francisco (across from the Metreon) between 10:00 and 16:00 (10am and 4pm) on Monday, June 9th running demos.

Disclaimer: I am currently employed by Sling Media.

And, if you’re not in the market for an HDTV, you can get the TiVo HD for $230.13.

Thanks to reader Kevin for the tip. He got it from WatchingTiVo at InvestorVillage, who spotted it at Gizmodo.

CNET is reporting on the Netflix Player by Roku. It is a very simple device that allows you to stream Netflix’s ‘Watch Now’ content right to your TV, via the box, over your broadband connection. No PC required. It is very basic, that’s all it does – allows you to stream Watch Now content you’ve already placed into your queue. But they did get something major right – it retails for $100, which means it will almost certainly be available for less. And the Watch Now content is available ‘free’ as part of a standard Netflix membership, so there is no pay-per-view pricing to deal with.

The biggest issues are the lack of content, there aren’t many first tier titles available via Watch Now, and the quality – no HD here, it is all 480i. This is all about convenience. As CNET put it:

We watched video on TVs ranging in size from 19 inches to 50 inches. While there wasn’t a huge difference in sharpness on any of the sets, the picture did look a little better on the smaller TV. Still, as long as you sit far enough away from a larger TV, the picture will seem OK. Just don’t expect the same kind of sharpness you’d get from a high-quality DVD. Think in terms of watching programming on one of the stations that your cable company doesn’t devote quite enough bandwidth to, and that’s the sort of picture you’ll be looking at.

The box is very simple. It has a wired Ethernet connection and built-in 802.11g WiFi. Output includes HDMI, component video, S-Video, composite video, optical digital audio, and stereo audio. So it should work with pretty much any TV shy of an ancient one with only coax RF input. CNet does say that you want a broadband connection that can sustain 1Mbps at a minimum, and ideally 2.2Mbps. So those with slow connections need not apply. The streams use the VC-1 codec, same as used when streaming to a PC. (Interestingly, the TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD have a decoder that can handle VC-1… I’m just sayin’.)

CNet has a full review if you’re interested. Since we know this capability will be coming to other platforms via partners like LG, I think I’d recommend holding off. It’d be a much better value to get an upscaling DVD player, or Blu-ray deck, with Netflix streaming built in. And Netflix hasn’t revealed all of their hardware partners yet – we could yet see Netflix streaming to TiVo, Xbox 360, etc.

EDIT: Gizmodo has also just posted a review which offers some more details.

And the previously discussed Sony PlayTV DVR add-on for the PlayStation3 looks to be hitting Australia in 4Q2008, according to Gizmodo Australia who attended a Sony briefing. Australia is getting it roughly a month after the European market, so they have something to look forward to as well. Giz also got more details from the briefing:

Other interesting tidbits include that there’s only an input for your aerial, no output, which means you won’t be able to connect your antenna to your TV through the PlayTV. And while you can only record TV programs to the PS3′s internal hard drive, you can backup the contents to an external drive. It isn’t finalised, but it looks like the EPG will be supplied by the rumoured FreeView collection of free-to-air networks as well

So it looks like the DVR choices for Australians will be expanding soon with TiVo, PlayTV, and possibly a Freeview DVR.

Due to the reduction in the monthly fee, Seven has had to renegotiate their deal with TiVo. That renegotiation contributed to the slip in the release date. Oddly the article also says“It is also understood Seven will not charge TiVo buyers for software upgrades for the first three years.”, which is strange since TiVo has never changed for software updates and it’d be odd for Seven to charge for them while charging a monthly fee. The original plan of using Internet telephony company Engin to handle distribution of the TiVo appears to have been dropped.

Picked up from Gizmodo Australia.

And now Onkyo, a fairly respected brand, is ‘suspending’ their support for HD DVD. Onkyo is a high-end brand, and they added an HD DVD player to their Integra product line last year. The Onkyo DV-HD805 is basically a re-badged Toshiba HD-XE1, which seems to have run into the same troubles as RCA – selling the same goods at a higher price. Onkyo is suspending sales in the UK, telling Home Cinema Choice:

[G]iven the current, multiple uncertainties surrounding the Blu-ray vs HD DVD issue Onkyo has decided against bringing any further DV-HD805s to the UK

Furthermore, it sounds like Onkyo may be ‘suspending’ their HD DVD support permanently, in light of Toshiba’s aggressive price cuts:

Onkyo brings its talents to bear where it thinks it can add value to a given product category. If a category becomes commoditised – as this sector shows signs of becoming – there’s less reason to commit huge resources to it when they may be better employed elsewhere.

Though they may yet release a new device, and if they do I’d expect it to be Blu-ray or perhaps a combination player, in light of the massive shift in the market to Blu-ray. Onkyo says that they will:

unveil a new HD source later this year, but cannot confirm at this stage whether it will be a HD DVD, Blu-ray or combi device.

Considering Toshiba’s deep price cuts, and Onkyo’s statement about adding value and commoditization, I can’t see them releasing another HD DVD player. Given the diversity in the Blu-ray market I could easily see them releasing a high-end Blu-ray player, say Profile 2.0/BD-Live, and perhaps a combi-player as LG and Samsung have done. Vendors just cannot make money selling HD DVD players with Toshiba’s massive subsidies to their own players. Toshiba may be fighting to buy market share with artificially cheap players, but they’re also driving away any other vendors who might support the format. When vendors can make money selling Blu-ray players, but not HD DVD. Which format are they going to support?

From Home Cinema Choice, via WesleyTech.com, by way of Gizmodo.

This was my fifth CES in a row (and I’m already thinking about next year), so maybe I’m getting a little jaded, but I was a bit disappointed this year. There didn’t seem to be any ‘hot’ item, something that everyone was talking about, some new idea that fired people up. For example, a couple of years ago a lot of people were talking about Sling Media when they launched their first Slingbox. I don’t think it was just me, since I had similar conversations with a number of people on the show floor, the monorail, etc – and it seemed to be a common sentiment. Sure, there was a 150″ TV, which was impressive, but it is really just a bigger TV. You kind of expect bigger TVs each year. Pioneer’s 9mm thick Kuro was also impressive, but it isn’t something we’ll be able to buy for a few years, if ever. So this year seemed to be more evolutionary and predictable. The only real surprise news was Warner’s Blu-ray announcement, which certainly got a lot of buzz throughout the show.

Sure, there were some cool announcements, and specifically relating to this blog, and my interests, we had TiVo’s web video announcemnt, several Sling Media announcements, etc. But it just wasn’t as big as past years with the TiVo Series3 being unveiled or the initial announcement of the SlingCatcher. Oh well, you can’t have big news every year – there’s always next year.

There was one item that I didn’t expect to inspire my techno-lust to the degree it did – the Optimus Maximus keyboard from Art. Lebedev Studio. I’ve been watching the development of this since it was first shown as a concept several years ago, and it seemed to be perpetual vapor ware. CES was my first chance to see it in person, and I expected it to be nifty, but not to be as cool as it was. Photos just don’t do it justice, the keys look great, and they really ‘pop’. The colors are bright, the graphics are sharp, and if I had $1,500 to spare I’d probably buy one. Of course, since my main personal machine is a laptop, it would be a little silly. But it is just so cool in action. Even simple things like the case of the characters displayed on the keys changing when you press shift inspires my techno-lust. I can see this kind of tech spreading as the parts become cheaper.

But the real highlight of CES for me was getting to meet people I’d only seen online previously. I got to meet Ben Drawbaugh and Steven Kim of Engadget/EngadgetHD, Charlie White and Curtis Walker of Gizmodo, and, of course, Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny (and Sling Media). There were a few people I was hoping to see that I didn’t manage to catch in the chaos, but it is nice to get to meet some folks in person. Maybe one of the years some company (like Sling perhaps?) will throw a little gathering for tech bloggers. I don’t mean a press event, but sponsor a gathering just to get everyone together in one place to finally put faces to the names. (And if someone has done this, damn, I didn’t know about it.)

I’m already looking forward to next year.

They repeat a rumor I’ve seen reported elsewhere, that Fox has been considering switching to HD DVD, and if they did Warner was going to go HD DVD exclusive as well. The studios want the format war to end, and Warner knew that without one of the BD studios defecting to HD DVD that the format wouldn’t have the critical mass to win. The rumor is that Fox was ready to make the jump with Warner, to end the war, but at the last minute the BD camp, likely Sony, paid Fox $120 million to stay with BD. When Fox backed out, Warner recognized that the only option to end the war would be for them to go Blu as well. There are rumors that Warner was paid $400-$500 million to go Blu, but Warner has denied a payoff, saying there was no ‘bidding war’. They point out that the market at stake is worth billions, so any payoff would be a drop in the bucket.

Gizmodo says that, from their contacts, the feeling within the HD DVD camp is that HD DVD is done for. They report that the rumors of Universal’s HD DVD exclusivity contract being expired are false and that it runs into 2009. And that Universal would only be able to release Blu-ray if HD DVD is declared no longer viable, so Universal is hanging on Toshiba’s word. Microsoft has also deferred to Toshiba on the fate of HD DVD. And everyone seems to be watching Paramount & DreamWorks Animation. If they begin releasing Blu-ray again, that could be the final tipping point for Toshiba to throw in the towel.

Gizmodo goes into some of the behind the scenes drama involved with Warner’s pre-CES announcement. One source told Gizmodo that the surprise announcement caused Bill Gates to drop a segment of his CES keynote which was to focus on HD DVD, pledging continued support. And we already know the HD DVD Promotional Group canceled their press release at CES. In fact, HD DVD had almost no presence at CES after Warner’s announcement. Toshiba and the studios pulled all of their planned HD DVD announcements.

Taking a cynical view, the current Toshiba price cuts on players could be a way to clear out existing stock before making any kind of announcement. If the HD DVD camp throws in the towel Toshiba and the studios would be left with a lot of stock. And waiting until the return windows close on holiday sales could avoid a rash of product returns from those with buyers remorse. There have already been reports from users returning their HD DVD gear due to the Warner announcement.