A quick roundup of what's important

Tempest Fugit.

Wow, I just keep getting busier. So let's get down to business:

CE PRo: Microsoft announces HD movie and tv downloads via XBOX 360

Holy cow, this is huge. Who would have ever thought that XBOX would be a contender as a vehicle for video downloading? How well it works remains to be seen, but this is one small step for entertainment, to be sure.

One potential casualty of XBOX360's newfound utility is TiVo, who has been losing traction over the past year to media centers from HP, Compaq and, well, everybody. From a CanCon perspective, TiVo has not managed to end-run the CRTC, and has yet to tap any other market than the U.S. So if they're losing ground at home, and not building market share elsewhere, what have they got?

CE Pro: Both Sony and Pioneer announce delays to their Blu-ray players.
Sony can't ship because their software doesn't work, and Pioneer can't built a unit that passes the Quality Assurance testing.

In the case of Pioneer, I think that's a shame, because their Blu-ray demo was the only one that I saw at CEDIA Expo that actually looked fantastic.

So far the "format war" touted in the industry press has amounted to nothing more than sabre rattling, given manufacturer's inability to put products in front of customers. What if they gave a war, and nobody came?

TWICE: Panasonic Q2 Net Income up 156%

TWICE: Sony Q2 Net Income down 94%

Compare and contrast: Panasonic delivered $672 million in net income on $19.1 billion in sales. Sony's $15.6 billion in sales would have still looked like a spanking in comparision, even if their net income line hadn't had $429 million dollar erased from it to pay for the recall of 9.6 million laptop batteries, leaving behind an embarrasing $14 million. That butcher's bill is what keen PR flacks like to call "one-time costs."

Lesson learned: Panasonic has a firm grasp on two key business principles: Sell more stuff, and don't try to blow up your customers.

AP: Seven tech firms head up Wireless HD consortium
LG, Matsushita (parent of Panasonic), Samsung, NEC, Sony, and Toshiba are partnering with wireless tech startup SiBEAM Inc to develup broadband wireless High Definition distribution.

Bring it on!

Bloomberg, via Dealbreaker: Kodak posts 8 straight lost Quarters in row, and is dropping factories and jobs like the proverbial hot potato. So far, the former master of the film world has completely failed to parlay their Brand into anything resembling dominance of digital recording media. Why? Maybe because they're still focused on products that print photos, rather than devices that take photos. In a world in which fewer and fewer people actually print their digital images, that could be interpreted as a bad strategy.

In other news, your humble blogger has finally learned that I've passed the accreditation exam from CEDIA that I wrote in Denver last September. I am now a CEDIA Certified Professional Designer.

What does that mean? It means you can trust me to create a quarter-million dollar+ project and carry it through from design to execution to fullfillment, with the help of our crack team of CEDIA Certified Professional Installers.

Believe me when I say that there are few firms in our market that can deliver projects of the scope we are working on.

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