BBQ, Blu-ray, Cell Phones, WiFi and LOST

A potpourri of topics for your mid-February listening pleasure. Saturday's radio program begins right on time at 11am and we kick it off with a little BBQ. And why not? The world's biggest and greatest BBQ cookoff is next week here in the Reliant parking lot. If you see a big cloud hovering over the Dome late next week you now know why.

No doubt the biggest tech topic of the week is HD-DVD's white flag. But now be the best time to go buy one of these son-to-be-obsolete machines; we'll discuss why.

Lots of confusion is in the air about the digital TV conversion next February. According to a report, Houston will be one of the biggest cities that will be freaking out about receiving analog signals due to the number of people, TVs and lack of knowledge. I will do my best to help with the latter.

Expect an interesting conversation with the local heads of AT&T's home and wireless divisions. I'll get their thoughts on the DTV conversion (no worries with their U-verse service), their new WiFi service at Starbucks and the new $99 all-you-can-talk per month rate on their cell service.

And who's jaw didn't drop during the last scene on Thursday's LOST?

Tune in on The 9-5-0. Log on to watch and be seen. Call in at 713-212-5950.

HD-DVD is OVAH!

Nothing like being woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call telling you that Toshiba officially announced the end of HD-DVD. Thanks KTRH. Now throw away my phone number.

But I did do an interview early this morning with thoughts on why Sony's Blu-ray format outlasted Toshiba's HD-DVD. The Japan electronics maker will end its HD-DVD business by the end of the month.

Not that I preferred either format but it good news for consumers. Instead of waiting to see which format emerged as the last one standing, now everyone can go out and get a Blu-ray player, Blu-ray discs and watch movies until they are blue in the face.

Even Fidel Castro is excited. He up and resigned so he could spend time in his media room.

If you have an HD-DVD player watch out for fire sales on discs for your machine. Best Buy, Amazon.com and other stores will almost be giving them away.

UPDATE: Several readers have asked for more details. Here is the press release from Toshiba. Don't count them out of the industry just yet as they look to be latching their energy and money onto movie downloads. That, as we have discussed before, may be the new and better way of getting movies rather than buying a Blu-ray player and discs.

[In related news, Universal Studios Home Entertainment just announced it will drop its support of HD-DVD. Really? Watch out for that iceberg we just hit, Captain!]

Speaking of downloads, Microsoft and Netflix seem to be snuggling up to each other as the rumors persist of a partnership. Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, was put on Microsoft's Board of Directors last year so you knew something would happen. Look for an announcement at the Game Developers Conference later this week. Could be that movies from Netflix could be downloaded onto an Xbox via Xbox Live.

3 Hours of Radio Love Saturday

No college bball games will interrupt my show this Saturday so tune in for a packed show...a lot of tech news happened this week and we'll yap about it all.

Wal-Mart just announced it will stop selling HD-DVDs this summer. Toshiba and its HD-DVD backers will soon sit shivah for this format which looks pretty much dead.

We are almost exactly one year away when the FCC shuts down the analog TV airwaves. Feb. 17, 2009, is not too far and some politicians say the switch to digital TV may be a cluster **** if more consumers and retailers aren't made aware of the change.

Speaking of analog, this Monday marks the date when AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless shut down their analog networks. If you have an old brick-type cell phone and can't make a call next week, you now know why.

Blackberry service went down for a few hours on Monday. Yahoo turned down $44 billion. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO??!??!

I'll straighten everything out from 11a-2p on The 9-5-0. After that I will head over to Reliant Center for the Texas Home & Garden Show. Come by from 3p-4p when I'm on stage answering your questions and giving away goodies. AT&T will have a booth showing off their U-verse service. I'll probably hang around there after that.

HD-DVD stands for Hovering Death

The referee is standing over HD-DVD and the count is 9. The Toshiba-backed format most likely won't last another round. The heavyweight champ of the high-def format war looks to be Blu-ray.

Lending an assist to this inevitable knockout...movie studios which backed the format and retailers who didn't see the need to stock both formats. Two large movie retailers announced today that they will start carrying only Blu-ray DVDs. And when Netflix and Best Buy make statements like this it maybe time for HD-DVD backers to throw in the towel.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each format but we all knew it was a matter of time until only one player was left standing. When Warner Bros. made the announcement last month - on the eve of the CES show in Las Vegas - that it was backing Blu-ray, all bets were off that HD-DVD would be the victor.

Netflix and Best Buy follow the lead that Blockbuster took last year when it decided to go Blu-ray only.

This isn't the final straw but it could be only a matter of time until HD-DVD players join the list of "wrong product, wrong place, wrong time" objects like the Betamax player, the Ford Edsel, the McDLT and grape-flavored Tang.