Science and technology news blog

It looks like Apple’s new iPhone has some serious competition…

LG has announced today the launch of the LG KE850 PRADA mobile phone which the company claims to be the first completely touch screen mobile phone.

The same claim was made by Apple last week at MacWorld Expo about the new iPhone and that is not the only similarity. In fact, the new LG KE850 PRADA looks too much like the iPhone to be a coincidence.

The new LG KE850 is the result of the collaboration between LG Electronics and Prada, one of the world’s leading brands in the luxury goods industry and it has been designed to be a truly fashion accessory.

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So LG has announced their dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray player? Fantastic. Time Warner goes so far as to create dual-format discs? Pop open the bubbly. But you know something? It didn’t take long for my initial feeling of elation to give way to 100% certified organic bile.

Absolutely none of this was necessary. Remember DVD, the little media format that could (and turns ten in a few months)? It seems like ancient history now, but it took some time for the various companies to agree on a single format back then. While it’s something of a cliché to mention the Betamax/VHS videocassette format war these days, in the mid-1990s Sony had only just closed up the Betamax shop. I’d like to think that, with Sony still smarting, retailers unhappily clearing out excess Betamax stock and Betamax owners angrily trying to figure out what to do with their machines and tapes, the companies realized things go a lot smoother when everyone agrees at the outset.

It’s hard to argue with the result. The DVD format was adopted pretty quickly and has gone on to remake the movie and home video industries; and we’ve now gotten to the point where DVD utterly dominates the home video landscape.

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LG Electronics said it plans to release a next-gen DVD player that can handle both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats and perhaps finally bring an end to the debate and confusion over the dueling standards.The new player will be formally unveiled at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and will go on sale in the U.S. in early 2007, according to LG. It is expected to be the first commercially available player capable of handling discs in both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats.

The Korean-based consumer electronics giant said more details, including pricing and availability, will be released at the show.

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