Nov/091
3D Broadcast in HD from Korea within weeks
With LG predicting a 3D television market in excess of 30 million units by 2012 and Samsung busily promoting its related world’s firsts, you’d better believe that these powerful South Korean “chaebols” have their government’s full support when it comes to delivering 3D content. Just today the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced its drive to start beaming 3D broadcasts in Full HD quality sometime in 2010 — licensing begins in January with first broadcasts expected mid-year. Unlike those 3D satellite broadcasts tested in Japan and the UK, Korea will deliver its 3D content through its terrestrial networks. Of course, Korea’s pay-TV providers want in on the action too, with CJ HelloVision set to offer 3D content through its video-on-demand offerings in the next “week or two.” CJ HelloVision will initially target about 300 households with plans to extend the service to 1,000 homes by 2012. Viewers will need yet another set-top box to view 3D content likely limited to “cartoons” at first. Pricing has not been set and it’s entirely possible that 3D VoD titles will be free at first in order to build momentum and to ensure viewer lock-in of the all important child demographic.
Nov/090
iBUYPOWER Unleashes 5 New Gaming Systems
No rest for the weary seems to be iBUYPOWER’s motto, because, yet again, it has announced not one, not two, but five new systems featuring Intel Core i7 or AMD Phenom II processors, as well as an ASETEK CPU liquid cooling solution. The five systems do not only have very interesting specifications, but also adequate pricing for most gamer categories and their pockets alike.
First of all, the Gamer Supreme 979 SLC. It comes with an Intel Core i7 975 running at 3.33GHz, with 12GB of DDR3 memory, two NVIDIA GTX295 graphics cards, 128GB of SSD storage and also a 1.5TB hard drive. Add a Blu-ray HD DVDRW Combo Drive and the 240mm ASETEK liquid cooling solution and I think you will understand why the system costs… USD3,999. What a bummer, right?
If you’re on a budget but also want something that is good enough to run every game on the market at the highest of settings, you could opt for the 922SLC, which offers an NVIDIA GeForce GT220 graphics card, as well as an Intel Core i7 860 processor running at 2.8GHz and 4GB of DDR3 system memory. Regarding storage, there’s a 500GB hard drive just waiting to be filled.
Or, of course, you could go for the Gamer Supreme 919SLC, which comes with 8GB of DDR3, 1GB of storage, a Core i7 870 (2.93 GHz) processor and the ATI Radeon HD4890 graphics card. Along the same line is the 559 Gamer Supreme that comes with a Phenom II X4 965, running at a speed of 3.4GHz and uses NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX295 GPU. Memory and storage are the same as in the case of the 919 Supreme.
Last but not least is the Gamer Supreme 929 SLC that costs 2,499.99 dollars and sports dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 graphics cards, an Intel Core i7 975 processor and 8GB of DDR3 memory. Don’t you hate not saving some extra cash just about now?