Sony uses movie studio to press ultra-HD advantage

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai speaks during a news conference at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. The 2013 International CES gadget show, the biggest trade show in the Americas, is taking place in Las Vegas this week. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai speaks during a news conference at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. The 2013 International CES gadget show, the biggest trade show in the Americas, is taking place in Las Vegas this week. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Sony Corp. is finally pressing its advantage as a conglomerate that owns both high-tech gadgets and the content that plays on them by being the only electronics maker to offer ultra-HD TVs ? and a way to get movies to the new super clear screens.

Ultra-high definition TVs, which quadruple the number of pixels of current high definition technology, have been the talk of the International CES gadget show so far. But only Sony has offered a content solution to go with them.

With 84-inch ultra-HD set it launched in November, Sony threw in a tablet and computer server that has 10 movies preloaded on the device ? for $25,000. The movies came from the library of Sony Pictures or its subsidiary Columbia Pictures, like "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Karate Kid."

On Monday, Sony unveiled 55-inch and 65-inch ultra-HD sets that will sell this spring for an undisclosed price believed to be below $10,000. The Japanese electronics maker said it would launch a download service this summer in the U.S. so buyers of the smaller sets would have access to movies in the clearer format.

For now, it will offer the same 10 movies from its library for download.

After unveiling the service, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai told reporters that the ultra-HD movies could be made available to other makers like Samsung or LG later. The company is eyeing coordination with other movie studios, but not immediately.

"That's a key differentiator from a Sony perspective that really speaks to the advantage of what we have in terms of both the electronics business and the content business," he said. "For the time being, that's something we bring exclusively to our customers."

Sony is betting big on ultra-HD, and is a leading supplier of a high-end cameras that shoot in the format, which renders moving images at a resolution of 3,840 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels tall. That is twice the length and width of high definition, resulting in four times as many pixels, or more than 8 million.

The company also makes projectors that show movies in so-called 4K, and Hirai said that anyone who has been to the movies lately has probably experienced it firsthand without realizing it.

Getting these higher resolution files to home televisions is no small matter. A Blu-ray disc format has not been created yet and broadcasters are years away from offering TV signals at the higher resolution.

Sony representatives said that buyers of its 55-inch and 65-inch TVs may be asked to buy an ultra-HD server separately, although a final decision hadn't been made. It is also unclear how much downloadable movies will cost.

The company said it would offer Blu-ray discs that are mastered in 4K but compressed to fit on a current Blu-ray disc. The TV's embedded technology presents the compressed movie at close to 4K resolution, but not quite as good as when they are played from the 4K media player.

But with all new technologies, there were glitches.

Hirai had an embarrassing moment Monday when he introduced the world's first ultra-HD TV using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), only to see the screen go blank as the computer running it had an error.

"This revolutionary TV combines the world's largest OLED display with dazzling 4K resolution, including this beautiful ... interface screen," he said, then turned to see a blank screen as chuckles rippled through the crowd.

Later, Hirai looked back at the 56-inch display only to see the error continue.

"Excellent," he said.

A Sony staffer rolled the TV further away and Hirai carried on his presentation. He later appeared to be good-natured with journalists.

Hirai said the ultra-HD OLED set is a prototype and didn't announce price or availability.

In the Sony booth after the presentation, other ultra-HD OLED screens played without a problem.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-01-08-US-TEC-Gadget%20Show-Sony/id-be90ff92c96747dfb7cbb6a15762abbe

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Chevy's Siri and TuneIn in-car apps hit 2013 Sonics and Sparks, we go hands-on

Not enough Siri in you life? Hop into a 2013 Chevy Spark. Those vehicles rocking a MyLink radio are eligible to upgrade to Apple's friendly iPhone 4S / 5 helper. Using the Bluetooth button on the steering wheel, you can access the assistant. We got a demo from a GM rep, who showed us how to access messages, read back to you through the car stereo.

If you're feeling vocal, you can also dictate responses and Siri'll shoot them back off, all without ever having to take your hands off the wheel. You can also ask for things like recommendations for local businesses, but those won't play through the display. Siri also won't answer your philosophic questions, as GM doesn't want to display Wikipedia pages on the screen while you're driving. From the demo, the whole thing seemed pretty straightforward for anyone who's ever used an in-car Bluetooth system, checking things like stock prices and sports scores, if you're so inclined.

We also received a quick demo of TuneIn, an iPhone app that pulls in radio stations around the world, featuring recommendation features like a Favorites button, local trending and a Jump button, which uses an algorithm to pull songs and the like based on your listening habits.

Jon Fingas contributed to this report.

Gallery: Chevy MyLink Siri and TuneIn hands-on

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Delphi and Verizon launch new connectivity system: track and monitor your vehicle through your smartphone

Delphi has allied itself with Verizon to launch a new Vehicle Diagnostics service. It works through a cloud system that connects your four-wheeler to your smartphone (or internet browser), showing precisely where your car is, as well as options to secure it and check its vitals. Delphi promises the new system will work in most vehicles sold in the US since 1996 and users can pick up alerts for driving and vehicle performance issues, as well as setup geo-fences to monitor if your car goes outside specified zones. Connecting your phone to the car is done through Bluetooth and adds access to key fob commands including remote door control. The compatible smartphone app will arrive on devices running Android 2.2 or later and iOS 5.0 onwards, while the Delphi Web portal works on Internet Explorer 7, with Firefox, Chrome and Safari versions still in the works.

Continue reading Delphi and Verizon launch new connectivity system: track and monitor your vehicle through your smartphone

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Jillian Michaels: Motherhood Has Not Melted My Heart

"I was surprised. People were pretty supportive. We've got it all going on in our household -- two moms and a black daughter -- so I thought we were going to get it from every angle," Michaels says.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/lOQq04hqiuI/

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Guest Blogger: Commander David A Thompson, CHC, USNR, Ret ...

Today, I welcome a guest blogger, retired navy Chaplain David A Thompson. He is researching the 1918 Influenza epidemic.?

Since starting this research, I have had a lot of living relatives of WW I vets come out of? the woodwork to tell their stories of their loved one?s death or survival of the flu in the military in 1918: One 85 year old woman shared with me her dad served with my dad at Camp? Dodge?and was, as a admin NCO [administrative non-commissioned officer, ed.], directed to order over 700 coffins for the dead and had to? help contact families of? dead and dying soldiers. Another clergy friend shared his mother?s dad died of the flu in the Army, meanwhile at home his mother lost her mother, three brothers and a sister to the flu ?and was orphaned?all in two weeks in the Fall of 1918! Another Army chaplain friend shared how his dad was with fledgling Army Air Corps in France and was tasked by the CO [commanding officer, ed.] in ministering to dying soldiers due to the flu and ghost writing letters of condolences to families for the CO in lieu of lack of a chaplain. All these children/grandchildren of WW I vets, are now in their later 60?s-80?s like me (I?m a young 66).

A typical letter was shared by a writer friend in St. Paul about an Uncle? who was in the Navy who died of the flu pandemic in World War I :

?Dave, thank you very much for your email.?I?hope you do tell that important story. It reminds me of?one?from my own family. My father was a?World?War?II navy veteran. His oldest brother, a gifted athlete, had enlisted in the navy in?World?War?I?at 18. He was sent to a naval station in South Carolina where he was assigned to train marksmen while preparing to ship overseas. You probably know what?s coming. Flu swept through his barracks and he came down with it. A telegram was sent to the family in Illinois, but by the time my grandfather, who worked for the railroad as the salvage yard manager, had boarded the train to go East, he was traveling not to see an ill son but to claim his body. He accompanied the coffin and, at?one?point on the trip back, realized the car it was in was being decoupled. He immediately got off the train and waited with the car for a day until he could see it was safely joined to another train headed to Illinois and that he was with it. My aunts always said that the family never really recovered from Ted?s death. When?I?was going through my father?s things after his own death,?I?found his mother?s gold star and a pipe in a leather case with Ted?s initials scratched into it.?I?felt it was a legacy that needed a special home and?one?day realized it should go to my cousin?s daughter, who was serving as an officer in the navy and had grown up a mile from that South Carolina barracks and whose grandmother was Ted?s closest sibling.?I?also put copies of the clippings about Ted together for my children and niece and nephew so that he could stay part of the family life and heritage.?

David McCullough illustrates problems with the flu on the home front, that worried WW I servicemen, in his book?Truman. He wrote that Captain Harry Truman (later President Truman) serving as an Army Field Artillery Officer in the 35th Division in France with the AEF [American Expeditionary Force, ed.], hearing of the influenza epidemic in his home town in Missouri, ?became so alarmed he hardly could contain himself.??His sweet-heart Bess, her brother Frank, and two friends all had the flu. Truman wrote home, ?everyday someone of my outfit will hear that his mother, sister, or sweet-heart is dead. It is heartbreaking almost to think we are so safe and so well over here and the?one?s we?d like to protect more than all the?world?have been more exposed to death than we.?

It was a terrible time for deployed soldiers and sailors, as well as those in training camps in the US, who were? filled with anxiety and concern for family and friends back home who were ill with the flu (25.8 % of the civilian populations) and thousands (675,000) dying back home.

Since there were no ?footprints? in VA hospitals of wounded warriors from this terrible flu epidemic in WW I (you either got well in 6 weeks or you were very quickly dead), only mute testimony of these flu deaths related to the military (as well as civilian population) is found in US civilian cemeteries or ABMC military cemeteries in France and England (see:?http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/su.php?) and Brookwood American Cemetery, 35 miles southwest of? London, England (see:http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/bk.php?). The Meuse Argonne American Cemetery (see:?http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ma.php?) located 150 miles northeast of Paris, France with 14,000 graves, also has many flu casualties buried there. It was during the Meuse Argonne Campaign when the pandemic hit the AEF in full force in October-November 1918 during this battle (over 20,000 + AEF troops died of the flu in this 6 week period of this campaign), while? 30,000 died in CONUS [Continental United States, ed.].

Military flu casualties in the US were buried in VA or thousands of community cemeteries in the US, like the one in Texas noted here (see website:? ?WW I Casualties from Fayette County?? from a county in Texas that documented so many flu victims among WW I veterans in its county cemeteries?http://www.fayettecountyhistory.org/deceased_WWI_veterans.htm?). Most CONUS Navy flu casuloaties were buried in this matter?bodies shipped home by train for quick 15 minute graveside services with only immediate family and clergy without military honors, due to quarantine.

In discussing the WW I Centennial Commemoration of WW I with the American Legion National HQ, there may be an interest in mobilizing American Legion Posts in every county across our nation to dig into county WW I records (like they did in Fayette County, TX) to find veterans who died in the Great ?War due to combat or to the flu and tell their story during the WW I Centennial Commemoration in 2018. Such an excavation of WW I veteran records with photos and cause of death will bring to life for the public the sacrifices of WW I veterans and the impact upon our forces of the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918.

?2013 David A Thompson

Source: http://ofshipssurgeons.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/guest-blogger-commander-david-a-thompson-chc-usnr-ret-on-the-great-flu-epidemic-of-1918/

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AKKA Ski Retriever detects where you lost your skiing gear with waterproof radio tags

AKKA wants you to find your snowsports gear, minus hours lost digging in the snow. Its Ski Retriever project, being pitched on Kickstarter, pairs a handheld 1-inch OLED display with multiple tags, with audio and visual feedback delivered as you get closer to your lost property and visible notification for both distance and direction. The tags can be connected into the base plate of your skis, through a cold-weather adhesive mount, or simply lashed to your equipment through lanyard loops. The creators have even have a list of wants they're hoping to add to the Ski Retriever if they get the necessary funding, including security geo-tagging, and certification to be used in search efforts after an avalanche. Kickstarter preorder customers will pick up a handset and two tags to start with -- the founders are hoping to raise $100,000.

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Notre Dame women shock No. 1 UConn 73-72

Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, right, is guarded by Connecticut's Moriah Jefferson, left, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Storrs, Conn., Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, right, is guarded by Connecticut's Moriah Jefferson, left, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Storrs, Conn., Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins (4) high-fives teammates Ariel Braker (44) and Kayla McBride (21) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Connecticut in Storrs, Conn., Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Notre Dame's Natalie Achonwa, right, blocks a shot by Connecticut's Kelly Faris during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Storrs, Conn., Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

STORRS, Conn. (AP) ? Skylar Diggins and Notre Dame just seem to have Connecticut's number.

The Irish have turned one of the best rivalries in women's basketball into a one-sided affair lately, winning five of the past six meetings.

The senior All-American scored 19 points hitting big shot after big shot in the second half to lift fifth-ranked Notre Dame to a 73-72 victory over the top-ranked Huskies on Saturday.

This was the latest victory for the Irish (12-1, 1-0 Big East), who also ended UConn's season the past two years by beating the Huskies in past two Final Fours.

"I think when we play them, there is a lot on the line, whether it is a Big East Championship or them being ranked higher than us or in the Final Four," Diggins said. "This is good for us."

No team has had this kind of success against UConn in the past 20 years.

The last team to beat UConn five out of six times was Miami back in the early 1990s ? before the Huskies started winning national championships.

The Irish were expected to be down this season with three starters graduated. It didn't matter with Diggins still on the team.

With UConn poised to pull away in the second half, Diggins hit back-to-back 3-pointers to keep her team in the game.

Later with the shot clock about to run out, Diggins hit a leaner from the wing.

Finally, with the Irish down by one with 49 seconds left, she got fouled on a drive and calmly sank both free throws. It would be the last points of the game.

"I think Skylar has changed things for us," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "She believed we can win and has the confidence and that is contagious."

The Huskies (12-1, 0-1) had a few chances to pull out the win in the final 30 seconds, but in front of a sellout crowd of 10,127, they fell short.

Breanna Stewart had her shot blocked in the lane. The Huskies maintained possession and then after a timeout, Stewart missed a jumper from the top of the key. Kelly Faris grabbed the rebound giving UConn one more chance, but Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis caught the ball in the corner and her wide-open 3 fell off the rim.

The Irish grabbed the loose ball and Diggins ran out the clock.

"How many times can we put up our defense," McGraw said. "I thought about our football team getting that goal line stand (against Stanford) three times in a row, if they can do it, we can do it."

The Irish women were headed down South after the game to get ready for Tuesday's contest against South Florida. Notre Dame was going to first spend a day in Orlando.

McGraw laughed at the thought that her team would head to Disney World after beating the No. 1 team in the country. She put the victory in perspective.

"It's great to win when they are ranked No. 1," she said. "It's great for our team, but it's still January 5. We're just trying to get better."

The Huskies had come into the game unbeaten and a week earlier had stunned then-No. 1 Stanford 61-35 on the Cardinal's homecourt ending their 82-game home winning streak. They had already beaten five ranked teams by an average of 24 points.

"It's definitely been an up and down week" said Stefanie Dolson, who scored 17 points to lead Connecticut. "We were all extremely excited and on a high when we beat Stanford the way we did. We came into this game and we weren't ready. I don't think we were ready for how hard Notre Dame was going to come at us. They out-toughed us."

UConn trailed by two at the half and took a 48-44 lead on Dolson's layup with 16:18 left in the game. The Huskies led 63-60 with 8 minutes left before Notre Dame scored five quick points. Neither team could get more than a two-point lead the rest of the way.

Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma was OK with the shots his team got in the end.

"You got the best 3-point shooter in the country with a wide open 3 to win it and it doesn't go in," he said. "I'd be more upset if the wrong guy took the wrong shot at the wrong time. We came out of timeout and got the shot we wanted and it didn't go in."

Mosqueda-Lewis finished with 17 points.

Stewart, the high school player of the year last season, scored all 10 of her points in the second half after missing her first five shots. She also had six blocks and nine rebounds.

"She looked out of sorts a little bit, struggled a little bit," Auriemma said. "But then again you think about what she did, 10 points, nine rebounds, six blocks, that's not a bad day. I think that's what we expect from her. Shots she missed we come to expect she'll make all those."

The Irish won both regular-season meetings last year, before being blown out in the Big East championship game. They won the decisive meeting in the Final Four, 83-75, in overtime.

Notre Dame's lone defeat this season came at home to No. 2 Baylor, 73-61, on Dec. 5.

The two teams, who have played 12 times over the past four seasons, will play again in South Bend on March 4, in the final game of the regular season.

It's not certain if the two teams will play again after Notre Dame leaves for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

UConn led 18-15 midway through the first half before Notre Dame went on a 12-2 run sparked by Kayla McBride, who led Notre Dame with 21 points. She had back-to-back jumpers. Michaela Mabrey hit a 3-pointer and Natalie Achonwa a free throw to cap the burst.

Mabrey's second 3-pointer of the half gave the Irish a 34-26 lead with 5 minutes left in the half before UConn closed with a 12-4 burst to make it 38-36 at the break.

___

Follow Doug on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-01-05-BKW-T25-Notre-Dame-Connecticut/id-e39aa67513ea47f6866dc7fc63be16b3

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