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Blu-ray format is getting the attention it deserves, it began with the news of Warner dropping the HD-DVD from the formats they support. This week in the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Sony allegedly said that some Blu-ray titles will include an optimized version of the movie for the PSP, giving Blu-ray a more desirable stake in the HD format war that seem to be getting into an end.

I read a couple articles about this and how some people are questioning why is Sony still using the universal media disk (UMD) format. I’m in the same bandwagon, but at the same time if I was an owner of a PSP and had some UMD games and movies, I would be very upset if Sony decided to quit supporting the UMD format unexpectedly.

The UMD format will face out, every media format does. The question is how is Sony dealing with this in the future, I think they should announce this sooner rather than later. With an announcement like this, they can safely transition to a UMD-free next-generation PSP, at the same time, we all know how Sony likes to stick to their strategies to proprietary formats.

A couple questions rise from this announcement, seems like you need to have a PS3 and a PSP to transfer the movie, will Sony allow this type of transfer over a computer with a Blu-ray drive? What about transferring from Sony Blu-ray players, and lastly is not clear whether the transfer is limited, like for a period of time or limited transfer to your PSP, etc.

Other interesting thoughts are, will other studios including a copy of their movies in iPod/iPhone format. I know there are some rumors about his already, but is not clear, on how the portable format will work on Apple’s products.

Whatever happens I’m happy to see that big companies and movie studios are getting the point where people want to have portability of their content. Leave your comments about this subject and don’t forget to subscribe, thanks for reading.

[Breaking News: Rumors are strong that Fox is including a portable copy for the iPod/iPhone on their DVDs.]

PSP slim is out, the cool thing is that is selling in bundles with a game which makes it an attractive purchase. Stores like Target and Electronic Boutique are carrying the new slimmer PSP at $199, bundled with either Star Wars Battlefront or Daxter, other bundles may become available in the future. The new PSP Slim claim to be 33% lighter and 19% slimmer, it shares much of the specs from previews versions and it comes in 3 different colors.

I own the previews version of the PSP and I’m very happy with the product, the new PSP claims to be faster and have better screen performance. If you travel a lot and have the opportunity of enjoying your media while you travel, the PSP is a great alternative to a Video iPod or even a portable DVD player. The beautiful TFT 4.3 inch display has a resolution of 480 x 272 pix, capable of showing over 16 million colors.

While the PSP is a great consumer device, it doesn’t have the popularity it deserves. With the use of UMD (Universal Media Disc) is not suitable for children, the disc are considered fragile and/or easy to break or damage. Meanwhile, its competitor the Nintendo DS has sold millions of units, the PSP is often advertised for teenagers or young adults.

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The latest news is that Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks has drop Blu-ray in favor of HD-DVD, this move is a one battle victory for the HD-DVD format leaving Blu-ray with one less follower. Would price overcome features? To determine what is going on behind this decision I had to do a lot of reading, they claim and the changes are for the benefit of the consumer, I hightly doubt that. The only benefit the consumer has right now is hybrid players, everything else is a mess. Personally, I wont buy one or the other until one becomes the standard.

So far when I compare specs for both Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD I find myself going for Blu-ray, just the other day I heard someone talking about how Blu-ray supports raw/uncompressed audio yet one feature to go for Blu-ray disc. Add to that the fact that Blu-ray holds more data than the HD-DVD it makes more sense to go with higher capacity discs that will hold whatever other features they want to add in the future. So if these studios decision was monetary, what would stop the HD-DVD from paying off everyone else.

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Just when I was getting ready to publish this post, I received a news item on my feed saying that Sony unveiled a new PSP which will be available on September. The new PSP is not the rumored PSP2 but a revision of the current one, is 19% slimmer, 33% lighter, has better battery performance, faster loading times for games and movies, and audio/video output. I haven’t seen anything else except for suggestions of three color choices; black, white, and gray. I have the current generation, what follows is my review.

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