Daily Marauder

TECHNOLOGY

Saying it delivers “the most realistic home theater performance in the world,” Meridian has unveiled its new 810 Reference Video System, a video-projector and scaler combo that produces a resolution of 10 megapixels. The 810 Reference Video System costs $185,000. ElectronicHouse.com (7/30)

A company is now selling what it calls the “world’s cheapest laptop,” which at $130, is not a bad deal if you can bear some hardware limitations. (http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/07/28/Worlds_cheapest_laptop_now_available_1.html?source=NLC-MOBILEHARDWARE&cgd=2008-07-30 7/28)

Not since Sam Raimi strapped a camera to a flying eyeball in Evil Dead have we seen such technical innovation with cameras. NBC camera guru Garrett Brown and colleagues have come up with a few whiz-bang inventions to enhance coverage of the Summer Olympics, reports The AP. (Cynopsis 7/30)

• Tiny HD “lipstick cams” will be placed on the athletes themselves to provide POV shots
• The submerged “Dive Cam” will shoot down a plastic tube to capture the point of impact from the high dive
• The “Sky Cam” will capture rowers and kayakers from far above the water course
• GPS and digital course maps will be deployed to help viewers keep track of athletes progress on longer events

Shanghai United Optical Disc has completed the initial production run of a disc that the company hopes can compete against the now-entrenched Blu-ray technology. The so-called China Blue High-definition Disc is based on Toshiba’s HD-DVD format and is expected to be cheaper to manufacture than Blu-ray discs. The Hollywood Reporter (7/29)