Spend That Rebate - NOW!

No sooner than the government gives you a break from the doom and gloom of the dismal economy, Circuit City has great news! Come in before Saturday, and spend your tax rebate! Now, of course, the government wanted the rebates to be an economic stimulus, so what better way to stimulate the economy than shiny new gadgets? Forget about paying off debt, saving for the kids' college funds, or fending off foreclosures—go shopping instead!

Putting the Squeeze to Sirius

Squeezebox just got bigger! One of the easiest ways to listen to streaming media throughout your house just got better. Sirius is going to make over 80 of its channels available to all versions of Squeezebox. These channels will include their commercial-free music, along with Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, COSMO Radio, MAXIM Radio, Playboy Radio, Sirius NFL Radio, and four different comedy channels.

Big Screen to the Extreme

Think you've got the biggest TV on the block? In the neighborhood? Not so fast there, buddy. Big Moving Pictures (BMP) is announcing a plan to produce the world's first mobile LED screen that's going to dwarf anything currently out there. Working with Strongbase USA, these MEGASCREENS are going to be amazing. At just  under 40 feet wide by 22 feet high (more than 40 percent larger than current screens) MEGASCREENS will be the first LED displays to ever provide full HDTV resolution in daytime outdoor environments.  And just think, Sony was super-proud of their 11-inch OLED display. 

DTS-HD Master Audio Sets the Standard

Universal Studios has leaked news that's music to the ears of anyone with, well, ears. Following their commitment to Blu-ray, they're also making a commitment to use one of the best audio formats available for home consumers. Their first Blu-ray DVDs, The Mummy and its sequels are due to be released on July 22nd, complete with DTS-HD Master Audio sound - a lossless format. From the DTS website, "DTS-HD Master Audio™ delivers sound that is bit-for-bit identical to the studio master. DTS-HD Master Audio can provide up to 7.1 audio channels at a 96 kHz sampling frequency / 24-bit depth, or 5.1 audio channels at 192 kHz. The DTS-HD Master Audio bit stream also contains the DTS 1.5 Mbps core for backwards compatibility with existing DTS-enabled home theater systems, and delivery of 5.1 channels of sound at more than twice the resolution found on most standard DVDs." The expanded storage capacities of Blu-ray discs allows room for this lossless format. Dolby Digital and standard DTS are both lossy compressed formats, and when Universal was using HD DVD, it used Dolby's TrueHD which took up less space on the smaller 30GB HD DVD real estate. What does this mean for you?

Apple's iTunes: Movies The Same Day as DVD

iTune's users rejoice! No longer will you have to wait to download movies to your iPod! Just announced:  Apple has signed agreements with many major studios to allow simultaneous availability of their movies on the same day that the DVDs hit the retail/rental shelves. Studios include 20th Century Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studio, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment, and First Look Studios. Compatible formats include video iPod, iPhone, Macs and PCs, or TVs with Apple TV.  New releases are available right now.

Warner Green Lights Speedy VOD

Don't look now, but one of the windows just got a little smaller. You know - the windows. The time lag between the theatrical release of a movie, and its other releases. How many times have you heard Uncle Ernie say, "Why the heck should I shell out thirty bucks for a movie and popcorn, when I can wait four months and rent it for ten?" Why indeed? Asking the same question, Warner Brothers has decided to release movies for video-on-demand on the same day as their DVD/BD release. Good news for you. Bad news for Blockbuster.

12 Angry Men

Without question, the Internet has made life better. It is much easier to look at satellite photos of your neighbor's pool, buy drugs without a prescription, and send checks for $25,000 so the bank in Nigeria will send you a check for $55 million. On the downside, the Internet has badly blurred our already fuzzy (damn photocopy machines) copyright laws. For example, downloading music seems as free and easy as, well - downloading movies. While efforts by the RIAA to curb file sharing attracted much interest in the early days of Napster, they have largely fallen off the radar screen. Unless you are Mr. Jeffrey Howell and Mrs. Pamela Howell.

Blu-ray Won!!! Yay???

The consumer electronics industry breathed a collective sigh of relief when the war between HD DVD and Blu-ray was won by Blu-ray. Another surrender ceremony was recently completed as Paramount announced that they are abandoning the HD DVD format once and for all. In fact, almost everyone is jumping ship. Best Buy has cleared out HD DVD discs to make more room for standard DVD and Blu-ray. Most manufactures have announced that that they will no longer produce HD DVD or even universal players beyond 2008. The entire industry hoped that in a single format world, sales would soar, prices would drop, and hummingbirds would sing songs of joy and happiness. But the question remains: did the war end too soon?

Sharp: Thin, Wireless and X-rated!

Think you can’t have a flat-panel TV because you can’t get the wiring from your components to your TV? Is lack of running an HDMI cable keeping your Blu-ray player blue? Today, Sharp announced, “Yes!” or probably more accurately, “Hai!” to wireless HD video transmission. With their forthcoming X-series line-up of LCD sets, Sharp teamed with AMIMON to wirelessly beam 2-million glorious pixels through thin air. 

No more sick touchpanels!

Don’t you hate it when people come over to your house and they get their grubby hands all over your perfectly clean touchscreens? Or if they grab your brand new iTouch and start. . . touching!!! I mean, you don’t know where their hands have been! At some point, they have gone to the bathroom, and do you want to face the bacterial Russian roulette of whether they did or didn’t wash? And let’s face it, no one want to catch Mad Cow from browsing their music collection.

Before you lock yourself away and start collecting jars of urine like Howard Hughes, invest in a bottle of Monster's newly formulated ScreenClean!