Amazon tells me that the incoming data indicates the game is being pre-ordered at such a pace that it has overtaken other big media items, including Halo: Reach and Red Dead Redemption. It’s even outpacing the DVD release of Michael Jackson: This Is It.
Call of Duty: Black Ops will be available on the 9th of November. It is available on Amazon for US$54.44 with free shipping. Pre-order through this Amazon
Joanna Stern at Engadget:
… the ExoPC’s 11.6-inch screen is extremely glossy, and though the company claims it has a fingerprint resistant coating, the panel still picked up our prints faster than Sherlock Holmes.
Glossy has got to go and there must be an easy way to make displays fingerprint resistant.
… the display itself is sufficiently bright, and its 1366 x 768- resolution makes a huge difference… Not only is it great for watching 720p content, but it’s the optimal resolution for surfing the web in horizontal mode. Speaking of screen orientation, we did find the accelerometer to be slower to adjust than other Atom-powered tablets like the Tega v2 — it does that quick black flicker thing like all the others, but stalls for about a second longer.
Most websites are designed with a width of 768 pixels in mind, probably because when the worldwide web started to gain traction the displays were mostly 1024×768.
The tardy re-orientation could get annoying rather quickly.
… colors are quick to fade when the screen is tilted off axis to about a 120-degree angle and vertical angles are narrower than we’d like. We were still able to share the screen with a friend while sitting in a small train seat, but clearly the iPad’s IPS display has set the bar very high in terms of tablet screens.
A tablet with terrible viewing angles. I guess that could be good for those who deal with sensitive information. For blokes like me a bad display is a deal breaker and the ExoPC doesn’t make the cut.
54% of web video is now available for playback in HTML5. Double in 5 months.
Flash remains the dominant player within desktop environments.
Mobile is driving HTML5 video adoption. HTML5 compatible (H.264 mostly) video is the most common format for mobiles (inc. iPhone, iPad and Android).
It goes without saying: Apple has influence.
HP: The HP Envy 17 3D sports a 17.3-inch 3D Ultra BrightView LCD and comes with active shutter 3D glasses. The LCD packs a 1920×1080 pixel format and graphics is powered by the 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850. Price starts at US$1599. I’m not too wild about 3D especially the kind that requires the use of active shutter glasses, or any glasses for that matter. Why? Read Dvorak: 3D Bad For Your Eyes.
CrunchGear: The Samsung Galaxy Tab will be available everywhere, including T-Mobile for $399.99 on the 10th of November. This is cheaper than at Verizon ($599.99) and is the same price at Sprint.
Cult of Mac‘s David Martin on the 13.3-inch MacBook Air:
The screen is every bit of what I’d expect from an Apple notebook. No surprises here except for the fact that the 13-inch MacBook Air has the same resolution as the 15-inch MacBook Pro. It’s glossy, which many people don’t like, but I’ve gotten used to it.
The new 13.3-inch MacBook Air has a pixel format of 1440×900. The 15.4-inch MacBook Pro can be equipped with either 1440×900 or 1680×1050. Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky (read Engadget: 2010 MacBook Air) mentioned an anti-reflective coating that helps with the gloss and makes the new MacBook Air notebooks more like the Air of old.
Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber on the B&N Nook Color:
Just watched the demo video in this post (Flash required, alas). The Nook Color is so painfully slow it makes me embarrassed for Barnes and Noble. Horrendous scrolling and zooming and touch responsiveness. Just horrendous.
The video in question can be viewed at CrunchGear. I agree with Gruber: the UI is extremely laggy.
Trusted Reviews on the Samsung SF310:
… the SF310′s 13.3in screen is generally good enough. It sports a standard 1,366 x 768 resolution and features a glossy coating that causes distracting reflections, but also lends colours extra vibrancy and enhances perceived contrast. You get decent dark detailing in films despite the display’s inability to distinguish between the closest dark shades, though this leads to less detail in lighter shades. Backlighting isn’t even but there’s no sign of bleed, sharpness is good and banding almost unnoticeable. While vertical viewing angles are almost inevitably weak, horizontal ones are above par.
I wonder when the display industry will realize glossy reflections are hated. From what I can tell the LCD in the Samsung SF310 seems mediocre. The 13.3-inch LCD might be a 6-bit panel if it isn’t able to distinguish close dark shades. You really do want an 8-bit LCD for millions of colors. And the uneven backlighting isn’t good.
Apple’s online store in China features free shipping, free personalized engraving on any iPod® or iPad, and the ability to custom configure any Mac® with just a few clicks. The online Apple Store also offers a wide selection of third-party products and is the only place online to buy the iPod nano® (PRODUCT) RED.
That’s not all: Apple’s App Store is now in Simplified Chinese.
John Paczkowski at All Things D got this from Apple:
We’re sorry to disappoint customers waiting for the white iPhone yet again, but we’ve decided to delay its release until this Spring.
We all know Steve Jobs is a perfectionist, so we’re not going to get the white iPhone 4 until the white is perfect. 2011 is just two months away.
DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim. Subscribe via RSS.