The ultimate bling for a PS3 Slim

Why bother with ColorWare's custom painted PS3 Slim when you can get the Sony console draped in 24k solid gold to match your Goldvish luxury mobile phone? Just contact US-based Computer-Choppers to give your game machine the ultimate facelift. In fact, the company also offers other surface treatment and jewelry customization services on almost all computer and electronic devices, according to its Web site. The turnover time for a makeover range from just a day for products carried by Computer-Choppers to almost a month for plating jobs and items not in stock. There's no indication of pricing, though this is obviously not a major concern for its targeted customers.

Via Uber Gizmo

Xbox 360 gets Facebook and Twitter on November 17

We've already had some time with the new Xbox Live Dashboard update, but now we have an official release date. The new firmware, which will bring Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm (not available in Asia) to the console, will be available for download this Tuesday, November 17.

In addition to these services, Microsoft will be rolling out Zune Video, which promises instant-on 1080p video streaming as well as 5.1 surround sound.

We should note that Twitter, Last.fm, and Facebook will require an Xbox Live Gold membership (US$50/year) and both Twitter and Facebook services require all users to be at least 18 years of age.

If you aren't a member of Xbox Live Gold, a free preview weekend will begin November 20, at 12 p.m. ET and run until November 23, at 12 p.m. ET.

Via CNET.com

YouTube going 1080p

SAN FRANCISCO--At the recent NewTeeVee Live conference, YouTube director of product management Hunter Walk announced that the video-streaming service is getting a new high-quality streaming option: Full-HD, or 1080p resolution. The current "high-quality" option, when available on YouTube videos, is 720p, referring to the number of horizontal scan lines that make up the image.

Walk said the new resolution, as well as a new full-screen player, will roll out to all users within days.

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen announced high-quality YouTube viewing at NewTeeVee 2007. He also said, then, that YouTube stores all video it receives at the resolution it's uploaded at. So when YouTube ads a resolution option, as it did then and is doing now, it simply needs to re-encode videos for the new player, not get new raw content.
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Epson goes 4K resolution with its 3LCD technology

Epson has just announced the world's first high-temperature polysilicon TFT LCD panel for 3LCD projectors which boasts 4,096 x 2,160 (4K) pixels. Newly developed in response to future market demands, the 4K panel offers approximately four times better resolution than a full-HD equivalent, while featuring Epson's proprietary C2 Fine technology to deliver smoother picture quality and enhanced contrast performance. A prototype projector based on this solution will be showcased at the International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition taking place at Chiba, Japan, from November 18 to 20.

This new product will compete head on with other 4K offerings. These include Sony's SXRD-based CineAlta range and the upcoming Texas Instruments' DLP alternatives designed for the digital cinema industry. We're expecting more commercially-oriented applications for these ultra-high resolution projection systems initially, though it's just a matter of time before they trickle down to the consumer space. Till then, full-HD will still be the predominant format for the home theater beamers.

Via Akihabara News

New Universal Blu-rays come with iPhone interactivity

Excluding the recent Netflix PS3 disc, BD-Live has been a bust. Still, we give the movie studios credit for not completely abandoning the technology yet, and according to a recent Video Business story, Universal will feature iPhone interactivity on many several releases, "including Bruno, Public Enemies, 9, and Inglourious Basterds".

While it's easy to write it off as a gimmick, the iPhone functionality (called "Pocket Blu") is aimed at overcoming one of the biggest hurdles to interactive content, which is the painful process of entering text using a standard Blu-ray remote. While iPhone functionality won't solve that problem for Blu-ray owners that don't own iPhones, it's probably the easiest workaround at this stage (we would have loved if Blu-ray players included a remote with a built-in keyboard, similar to Vizio's bluetooth remote).
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