While reading  Etan Horowitz's new tech blog for the Olando Sentinel I came across a reader's comment that mentioned another fallout from next year's digital TV conversion and that is all those analog-based TV audio receivers. I've had many multi-band radios that have had a TV band that let you listen to the audio portion of a TV show. All those old radios will stop receiving analog TV signals next year. They'll all have to switch to digital receivers for TV audio. Just in case you want to read more  read more »

Keep your eye out for firesales on HD DVD players. If the price gets low enough these players might still make excellent standard definition DVD players. For example, the Toshiba HD-A30 has an HDMI 1.3 port and upconverts to 1080p. You might even be able to pick up a player that comes bundled with some discs.

Sharper Image filed for bankruptcy on Feb 19th, 2008. What a ride. A brand known for innovation, cool products and great customer service couldn't keep up with the pace of innovation, differentiation and rigor needed to build and market today's sophisticated products. Not only did the company suffer from bad publicity and lawsuits related to their flagship product  read more »

Apparently Wii-motes flying out of peoples' hands and damaging expensive TVs has become a big enough problem that Panasonic announced that some of its new plasma TVs will be strong enough to sustain a blow from a Wii projectile. We imagine that could come in handy for beer cans tossed at ball games too.

Speaking of the Wii-mote, of you haven't been one of the millions of people to watch Johnny Lee's Wii-mote hacks on Youtube and you want to see some clever engineering from a certified wiz kid then check out this video.  read more »

Friends have asked us what's the best way to buy a hard-to-find Nintendo Wii. A quick poll of some expert gamers and shoppers including our own Robb Lewis revealed these tips. Craig Eastman of Gamepro Magazine fame, said it's all about timing a visit to a retailer like Target or Sears so you're there when the shipment comes in. If you're nice to the clerk in the games department, maybe he or she will tip you off. Norman Fong, techbargains deal wizard says, "Gotta get the Sunday ad on Saturday, see who's  read more »

Toshiba has thrown in the towel and it looks like Blu-ray will be the one and only high definition DVD format for the time being. Is it time to buy a Blu-ray player? Maybe not. 

The Blu-ray group has been a little behind on approving the Profiles that provide features like picture in picture commentaries, and intenet connectivity. Since the features haven't in place on the players the studios haven't been including them in the discs. To make matters worse it hasn't been possible to upgrade firmware on older players. All that should change but it should take another couple  read more »