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Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

We've seen some fairly fascinating things at CEATEC this year, but this one could be the biggest game-changer of 'em all, if you'll allow us just one buzzword. The LED-backlit 52-incher you see above comes attached to a not-at-all convenient solar floor panel which presumably provides at least some of the energy required to power this thing. We've no clue how close the design is to being viable for the commercial realm, but we'd say Sharp's definitely headed in the right direction here.

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The upcoming This Is Spinal Tap Blu-ray is of course exciting to me. After all, it's been what, like seven years since I last hurled money at Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest and the rest of the lot for their well-deservedly best-selling DVD special edition. But while the Blu-ray will come with an intriguing-sounding game, this latest repackaging of the classic, due out January 20, 2009, could easily be dead on arrival, having choked on not necessarily its own vomit. For starters, it's not recorded in Dubbly.

Nope, according to the press release, it's got a 5.1 DTS HD Lossless Audio track, which is all well and good if this were, say, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or Rob Reiner's other masterpiece, A Few Good Men. But this is Spinal Tap—er, that is, This Is Spinal Tap! No Dubbly, no dice.

I'm actually not convinced that a 1080p transfer will change the emotional tone of the movie. This is supposed to be a handheld, herky-jerky film, not some sweeping epic. How can high-def do more for those intimate moments—Fran Drescher almost not annoying, the late Bruno Kirby explaining the joy of Frank, Harry Shearer, aka Derek Smalls, trapped in his body-snatcher pod. Those don't improve with resolution.

While most of the Blu-ray's special features are identical to those from the seriously awesome DVD, the addition of a BD-Live “Create Your Own Band” game does raise an eyebrow or two. The press release provides very little about the game except that you use it to "create and customize your very own rock-star avatars," and that it will "send those other rock games back to the high-school auditorium." Bold words, MGM Home Entertainment—my only hope is that Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer are on your ass right now, making sure it's the most intentionally funny thing ever to come to BD-Live.

Press release topped with the requisite "11" joke:

THE HIGH-DEF EQUIVALENT OF ELEVEN ROCKS OUT WITH THE BLU-RAY DEBUT OF THIS IS SPINAL TAP

MGM Home Entertainment Releases Rob Reiner’s Hilarious Rockumentary Starring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer Debuts on Blu-ray Disc January 20th

Brand New BD Exclusive Game, “Create Your Own Band” Sends Those Other Rock Games Back To The High School Auditorium

CENTURY CITY, Calif. – Ring in the New Year with the revolutionary UK rock band as This is Spinal Tap screams its way to Blu-ray Disc January 20th from MGM Home Entertainment. Directed by Academy AwardÒ nominee* Rob Reiner (A Few Good Men), This is Spinal Tap is Reiner’s directorial debut and is the “…absolutely inspired film” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times) responsible for introducing mock documentaries to mainstream American audiences. Renowned comedy director Christopher Guest (Best in Show), Academy AwardÒ nominee** Michael McKean (A Mighty Wind) and Emmy AwardÒ nominee *** Harry Shearer (“Saturday Night Live”) star as the three members of the fictional heavy-metal/hard rock band Spinal Tap. Satirizing the wild personal behavior and musical pretensions of hard-rock and heavy-metal bands, This is Spinal Tap presents a second-rate band made up of aging band members who are desperately trying to cling onto what little fame they used to have. This is Spinal Tap also includes cameo appearances by renowned actors such as Billy Crystal (When Harry Met Sally), Anjelica Houston (The Addams Family) and Ed Begley, Jr. (Pineapple Express). Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2002, This is Spinal Tap has left an indelible mark on pop culture as evidenced by its numerous imitators and its esteemed spot at number one atop Entertainment Weekly’s “Top 50 Cult Movies of All Time.”

For the first time fans can own all of the special features included on the previous standard-def as well as Laserdisc versions with a brand new BD-exclusive game, “Create Your Own Band.”

This is Spinal Tap Blu-ray Disc will be available for the suggested retail price of $34.99 U.S. / $37.99 Canada.

* 1993: Best Picture (A Few Good Men)
** 2004: Best Music, Original Score (A Mighty Wind)
***1980: Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program (“Saturday Night Live”)

Synopsis:

In 1982 legendary British heavy metal band Spinal Tap attempt an American comeback tour accompanied by a fan who is also a film-maker. The resulting documentary, combined with powerful performances of Spinal Tap's pivotal music and profound lyrics, candidly follows a rock group heading towards crisis, culminating in the infamous affair of the eighteen-inch-high Stonehenge stage prop surrounded by dancing midgets.

Special Features:

The This is Spinal Tap BD release will be authored in BD-Java presented in widescreen format (1.78:1 aspect ratio) with English 5.1 DTS HD Lossless Audio.

Bonus features include:

· NEW Create Your Own Band Game – Create and customize your very own rock star avatars

· Commentary by Spinal Tap

· Commentary by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer

· Commentary by Director Rob Reiner, Producer Karen Murphy and Editors Robert Leighton

and Kent Beyda

· Deleted Scenes

· Flower People Press Conference

· Spinal Tap appearance on “The Joe Franklin Show”

· Music Videos

o Gimme Some Money

o (Listed to the) Flower People

o Hell Hole

o Big Bottom

· Theatrical Trailer

· Cheese Rolling Trailer

· Rock and Rolls Commercials

About Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., through its operating subsidiaries, is actively engaged in the worldwide production and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, home video, interactive media, music and licensed merchandise. The company owns the world's largest library of modern films, comprising around 4,100 titles. Operating units include Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc., United Artists Films Inc., Ventanazul, MGM Television Entertainment Inc., MGM Networks Inc., MGM Domestic Networks LLC, MGM Distribution Co., MGM International Television Distribution Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment LLC, MGM ON STAGE, MGM Music, MGM Worldwide Digital Media, MGM Consumer Products and MGM Interactive. In addition, MGM has ownership interests in international TV channels reaching nearly 120 countries. MGM ownership is as follows: Providence Equity Partners (29%), TPG (21%), Sony Corporation of America (20%), Comcast (20%), DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (7%) and Quadrangle Group (3%). For more information, visit www.mgm.com.

A recognized global industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC (TCFHE) is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming on DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD) and Digital Copy as well as acquisitions and original productions. The company also releases all products around the globe for MGM Home Entertainment. Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets — from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce - throughout the world. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC is a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company.

# # #

This is Spinal Tap Blu-ray Disc
Street Date: January 20, 2009

Pre-book Date: December 10, 2008

BD Price: $34.99 U.S. / $37.99 Canada

Catalog #: M113258

Total Running Time: 83 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

Closed Captioned: Yes

Filed under: Displays

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Wow. Just wow. Call me a cultural elitist, but who considers it socially acceptable to hang a glowing pair of balls from your rear bumper? I don't care if they're connected to your brake lighting, they're just wrong. I never thought it possible for LEDs to be horrifically misappropriated, but BrakeNutz just rewrote the script on that. Check out the video over on Jalopnik. [BrakeNutz via Jalopnik]

After today's reveal that RIM will launch an official app store in the near future, TechCrunch reports on BerryStore, which not only promises to provide apps for the Storm, but the rest of the Blackberry line as well, including the old phones. What makes this a legitimate challenger to the official app store is that BerryStore's content will be available to everyone, regardless of the carrier (the official app store will make different apps available to different carriers...apparently).

Currently, the selection in BerryStore is thin, consisting mostly of location based services, Google related apps and bookmark icons for news services, but they're accepting submissions for more apps. The service also plans to incorporate paid apps in the future, though everything available now is free. BerryStore uses a standalone client on the Blackberry to search and browse apps, then connects to the Blackberry browser when its time to download. BerryStore is available now. [BerryStore via TechCrunch]

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Let's be honest here -- you skimped by snagging the 40GB PlayStation 3 back in the day, and now you're in need of a few extra USB ports and a multicard reader. Thankfully, your fortunes have changed since the days of your original purchase, primarily due to your drunken decision to bet the farm on Seth Petruzelli over the weekend. Whatever the case, Nyko's unsightly Media Hub+ -- which adds a trio of USB sockets and a multicard reader to the 40GB PS3 -- is finally available, and it's just $19.99 for those with no shame in adding it to the face of their console. So, who's tossing a brown grocery bag over their head and picking one of these up?

[Via IGN]

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newVideoPlayer("/virtualplanes_giz.flv", 476, 286,""); Sky Challenge wants to create a new massive sport, one that would allow you to race against real stunt airplanes, flying through virtual doughnuts and gates up in the real sky. To do that, they are using a mix of technologies that that allow real planes to be precisely tracked, as well as letting real world pilots see the course and the computer planes around them. Here's how it works:

• The real world scenario is introduced in the computer and a race course is programmed.
• The real planes use a Global Positioning System combined with an Inertial Navigation System, which is needed to compensate for the lack of accuracy in the GPS. This is critical while doing acrobatic maneuvers because the GPS can't get a clear signal at that time.
• The tracking information is then relayed to the servers, where it gets integrated in the virtual gaming grid.
• Simultaneously, the virtual planes position is sent to the real airplanes, where the pilots can see where the other planes and obstacles are located.

In the future, the company wants to make these races a major televised event, where everyone can participate from home using their computers. [Air Sports Live via BBC News]

Apparently, a simple blog post about getting Windows 7 early by attending Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in October or the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in November wasn't enough. No, Microsoft had to drive the point home by getting a fake boy band to sing a song about PDC, and the free 160GB HDD—containing the earliest release of Win7—that will be handed to attendees. Yep, they recorded an intentionally bad yet catchy late-90s-flavored pop song that includes the rhyme "Windows 7 my love is true/Now let me use Direct3D to unlock your GPU." Don't believe that kind of lyrical mastery still exists on this our earth? Well then press play, buster. [YouTube]

Math geeks may recognize the iconic device pictured above. Before electronic calculators became available in the 70's, the Curta Calculator was considered to be the most efficient portable calculator available. The device boasts 605 intricate parts and it can perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and even square roots without electricity. Despite its complexity, the Curta was so well constructed that it made a pleasing purring sound when the parts moved. It also happens to be one beautiful piece of machinery in general. However, the most interesting thing about the Curta may not be the design itself, but the story behind its creation. galleryPost('curtacalculator', 3, '');

Curt Herzstark, the brilliant mind behind the calculator, completed the first prototypes in 1938, but he was imprisoned by the Nazis in the Buchenwald concentration camp shortly thereafter. His captors were aware of his work on the calculator, and ordered him to make a detailed drawing of the device so that the finished product could be delivered to Hitler as a gift after the end of the war. By liberation in 1945, Herzstark had successfully completed the drawing from memory, and his diligent work over the years undoubtedly helped keep him stay alive long enough to regain his freedom. [vcalc and Dark Roasted Blend via Core77]

newVideoPlayer("/offgrid_jez_512K.flv", 475, 376,""); If you've ever had suspicions about the kind of people that totally shun technology (aside from the Amish), it turns out that your stereotyping was in the right: They're absolute freaks. MTV profiled some of these Luddites in an episode of True Life, "I Live Off the Grid," and they make even the weirdest, most obsessed geeks around seem normal. Besides smelling like crap (for various reasons), living outside, and never, ever getting to do anything awesome, you have to respect old clams. Don't they make you feel so much better about reading Giz? [Jezebel]