With its eye-catching design and seamless integration with the iTunes Music Store download service, Apple's iPod has taken the portable-music market by storm. But once you get beyond the iPod's distinctive, sexy styling and crack open its case, you'll find a collection of off-the-shelf components not all that different from those used in other personal media players.
Just a week before the May 9 release of their two-CD set Stadium Arcadium, the Red Hot Chili Peppers found that the whole album had been leaked to the Internet, letting fans download it free from file-sharing sites. These days, of course, leaks are hardly novel - but the reaction of the band's bass player, Flea, was.
1. I'm happy with DVD. Why should I care about high-definition discs?
While both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc offer a number of improvements over DVD, the most obvious one is picture quality. DVD was a huge leap in both convenience and performance over VHS, but its 480i resolution is well below the 720p, 1080i, and 1080p images both high-def disc formats can produce.
Bob Chapek President, Buena Vista Home Entertainment Because of his position at Buena Vista, which is responsible for the home-video products for the various Walt Disney companies, Bob Chapek has been a tireless advocate for Blu-ray Disc.
Remember when the DVD was introduced? Remember how all the hardware companies and Hollywood studios played nice together, bringing out a steady flow of players and movies? Well, you can forget about that when the HD DVD and Blu-ray high-def disc formats debut over the next few months.
Jarring juxtapositions of technology and design might work for the sets in a Tim Burton movie, but they usually don't for someone's home. Many custom installers find that adding high-tech gear to an older house with a well-defined architectural style can be daunting because the technology can clash with or overpower the traditional design.
