Paramount Releasing Final HD-DVD Titles Today

The end of the HD-DVD format truly begins today as movie titles 'Things We Lost In The Fire' and 'Into The Wild' will be Paramount's final releases in the format. After that, the studio will be switching over to Blu-ray Disc exclusively for high definition packaged media. The studio has canceled the previously scheduled HD-DVD releases of 'Bee Movie', 'Sweeney Todd', 'There Will Be Blood', 'The Kite Runner' and 'The Jack Ryan Collection'. All remaining scheduled releases from Paramount and DreamWorks Animation are DVD only, with Blu-ray versions of most films expected to be announced soon. In a related note, Universal's final HD-DVD release will be 'Atonement' on March 18. Paramount and Universal were the last two studios supporting the now-defunct HD-DVD format after Warner Bros announced their intent to drop the format on January 4.

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Disney Producing Tron Sequel For 2011

Disney may be booting up the Master Control Program again, if reports are correct about an upcoming sequel to the 1982 film Tron. According to film site Dark Horizons, Disney is also gearing up to release sequels to Cars, National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean for that year.
Tron was one of, if not the first, big studio film to extensively use computer graphics and animation. Tron had only moderate success at the box office in 1982, fighting E.T., Star Trek II, and Blade Runner that summer, and gained more of a following on home video and television airings. The film spawned an arcade game (which I played numerous times in the 80s) and several home computer and console games. The film was snubbed by the Academy Awards that year, they refused to nominate the film for visual effects, reasoning that the filmmakers 'cheated' on the effects by using computers to achieve them. How things have changed.
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Pioneer May Pull Plug On Plasma

In a move sure to freak out plasma TV fans everywhere, industry sources are reporting Pioneer is finalizing plans to stop production of it's own plasma display panels. Known for manufacturing quality, award winning plasma TV panels, Pioneer would have to purchase panels from other manufacturers like Panasonic (Matsushita) or Hitachi if it continues to produce plasma TVs. Pioneer spokesperson Ema Suzuki confirmed the company is reviewing its plasma display business due to sluggish sales, but stressed that no decision had been reached as of today.
Pioneer will unveil its latest business plans at a press conference this Friday.

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NASA Spacecraft Photographs Avalanches on Mars

A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near the Red Planet's north pole. The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down.
The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. It is one of approximately 2,400 HiRISE images being released today. Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who works on targeting the camera and has studied hundreds of HiRISE images, was the first person to notice the avalanches. "It really surprised me," she said. "It's great to see something so dynamic on Mars. A lot of what we see there hasn't changed for millions of years."
"We don't know what set off these landslides," said Patrick Russell of the University of Berne, Switzerland, a HiRISE team collaborator. "We plan to take more images of the site through the changing Martian seasons to see if this kind of avalanche happens all year or is restricted to early spring."

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Man Gets $22,000 Phone Bill For 'Friends' Downloads

Demonstrating how expensive international roaming rates and data fees can be, a British woman used her husband's Vodafone cell phone to download four episodes of 'Friends.' The downloads would have been free had they taken place in Britain. Her husband flew to Germany on business while the download was still in progress and it resumed after he touched down, incurring a whopping £11,000 ($21,828 USD) cell phone bill. Ouch!
This is not the first time something like this has happened, of course. The same article refers to another man who got a £1150 bill for one hour of internet use on his cell phone in Spain. There was Jay Levy who got an iPhone/AT&T bill for $4,800 back in September. Neil Dingman went overseas and got an $852 bill because he didn't deactivate his iPhone's automatic email check function. And Dave Stolte took his iPhone with him to Ireland and England back in July and even though he had a roaming plan, was still charged international roaming data charges amounting to nearly $3000.

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Epic New Iron Man Trailer

Sharper Image Files Bankruptcy

The Sharper Image, the store that hit success in the 1980s selling electronic gadgets of all kinds, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a week after it named its third CEO in 17 months.
Once a bastion of modern looking gadgets like reclining massage chairs, tabletop conference phones and electronic toys that would sometimes be used as movie props in science fiction films, Sharper Image is closing 90 of its 184 stores as it reorganizes under the bankruptcy filing.
Eclipsed in recent years by Amazon, ThinkGeek, and the Apple Store, Sharper Image has difficulty competing in an online world and their sales have dropped 26% in just the last year. They have currently stopped accepting their own gift cards as payment while undergoing reorganization.

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