Toshiba Raise Standard-definition DVD, See Market Opportunity

Toshiba on Monday introduced technology that enhances the picture quality of DVDs, Toshiba this year lost the high-definition format war with Sony,

XDE, or extended detail enhancement, will be in Toshiba’s new XD-E500 DVD player, which will ship this month. The player will be priced at $150, about twice as much as regular “up-converting” players.

Toshiba claims the higher price is justified because XDE takes DVD picture quality to a higher level, but not quite as high as Sony’s Blu-ray high-definition format.

Toshiba had tried to rally the industry around the HD DVD format as a better choice than Blu-ray. The latter, however, gained broader support from movie studios, prompting Toshiba to stop making HD DVD players this year. Read more

He edges Liukin great four Olympic medals on uneven bars

China – Beijing —China’s He Kexin won a tiebreaker over all-around champion Nastia Liukin of the United States for the uneven bars gold medal Monday at the Beijing Olympics.

Both scored 16.725, but He got the nod because her execution marks were closer to a perfect 10 than Liukin’s.

Liukin would not criticize the scoring system that does not award dual gold medals.

“It’s nothing I can control, and honestly, I can say it has been very fair to me, and I got the biggest gold medal of them all,” said Liukin, winner of the women’s all-around gymnastics gold.

He, at the center of an age-eligibility controversy throughout the games, was fast and furious on the bars. Her twists and flips went by in the blink of an eye, and she won by about that short a margin. Read more

4-1 : Olympic women’s soccer final for the second time

Cristiane scored twice to lead Brazil to a 4-1 win over Germany on Monday to reach the Olympic women’s soccer final for the second time in a row.

After Birgit Prinz gave world champion Germany a 10th-minute lead—becoming the first player to score in all four Olympics since the introduction of women’s soccer—the Brazilians hit back with goals from Cristiane, Formiga and Marta. Germany had not conceded in 10 previous games in major championships.

In Thursday’s final in Beijing, Brazil will face either defending champion United States or Japan, which meet later Monday. Four years ago, Brazil lost to the Americans in the final.

A blunder by Brazil defender Erika gifted Germany the opening goal. She lost control only 30 meters from her own goal and Prinz was left with just goalkeeper Barbara to beat.
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Students for Free Tibet the Olympic Games

A pro-Tibet group says five activists staged a “peaceful protest” in Tiananmen Square, breaching heavy security that has surrounded the heart of Beijing for the Olympic Games.

Lhadon Thetong, executive director for Students for a Free Tibet, said the protesters draped themselves in Tibetan flags and lay down in the square on Saturday.

It wasn’t immediately clear if they were stopped by authorities.

The action came a day after three Americans from the group were detained while displaying Tibetan flags near the entrance to the National Stadium, where the opening ceremony for the games were held.ap

Islamic group threatens Olympic transport

China – Police shut down the bustling bazaar in the capital of China’s restive Muslim region of Xinjiang on Friday amid threats from an Islamic group that attackers might target buses, trains and planes during the Olympics.

A sign at the entrance of the bazaar in Urumqi did not explain why the area, surrounded by mosques with minarets, was off limits as the country prepared to kick off the Summer Games thousands of miles away in Beijing.

Even a KFC restaurant in the shopping area—filled with touristy shops selling carpets and jade—was closed, and a guard sitting on the steps shooed people away.

The sprawling, far-flung western region of Xinjiang has long been a source of trouble for China’s communist government. The rugged, mineral-rich territory is populated by the Uighurs, a Turkic Read more

Rogers Communications with cell phone new service

the Rogers Communications Inc. is hoping more Canadians cut the cord from its land line phones and pick up a cell phone with the push of a new service released on Wednesday.

The company’s cell phone business, Rogers Wireless, announced that it will begin to roll out a so-called “unlicensed mobile access” (UMA) which will allow users to access unlimited calling in their homes through a connection to the Internet.

While a high-speed connection is required, it does not have to be through Rogers, and the company will cover the initial cost of the router with rebate offering. The service is priced at $15 for unlimited local calling and $20 for unlimited calling across Canada, not including the cost of the cell phone.
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`Dark Knight’ grabs $43.8M more, nears $400M total

The Batman blockbuster “The Dark Knight” hauled in $43.8 million to rank as Hollywood’s top movie for the third-straight weekend, fending off “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which opened a close second with $42.5 million.

“The Dark Knight” has soared to a $394.9 million haul in just 17 days, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Warner Bros. release should sail past the $400 million mark by Monday or Tuesday, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner.

That would be on the film’s 18th or 19th day of release, another record for “The Dark Knight,” which had an all-time high opening weekend of $158.4 million. The previous $400 million record-holder was “Shrek 2,” which hit that mark in 43 days.

“It’s a film that is just rewriting the record books every day and redefining our notions of what a blockbuster can be,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
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