The Studios Must Be Having Conniptions

TIVO's with Integrated DVD Recorders Due out this Summer

The San Jose, Calif.-based company will unveil a Series2 recorder with a new look in mid-August, and licensing partners Toshiba and Humax are expected to release DVRs with DVD-burning capabilities...The combination DVR and DVD boxes will allow consumers to record television programming and then burn it to DVD-R or DVD-RW discs

This is great for consumers since it makes downloading and recording movies and shows from cable and satellite incredibly easy. The studios, on the other hand, must be incredibly pissed since this makes distribution of digital video that much easier (if anyone wants DVDs of Barnie or Caillou for their kids, instead of spending $10 at Wallmart they just give their friend with one of these gizmos a $2 disk to record it for them).

Japan Outsources to U.S.

Outsourcing seems to have diminished as an election year issue, but here's an example of outsourcing politicians of both stripes can support

Sony to Set Up Next Generation DVD Pilot Plant in U.S.
Sony is going to set up a pilot plant for manufacturing the Blu-ray Disc, a next generation DVD format promoted by Sony, in the U.S., Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on July 14, 2004. Sony wants to partner with the U.S. movie industry, which will be the primary customers for the new DVD standard. Taking input from the movie companies and incorporating the information into the disc production process and specifications, Sony hopes that Blu-ray Disc will be adopted as media for movie storage.

Sony will install manufacturing lines for producing 25GB one-sided discs and 50GB double-sided discs in its DVD manufacturing facility in Indiana. The 50GB disc has more than 10 times the capacity of an existing DVD disc. It can store about four and half hours of high definition video or over 30 two-hour long movies recorded in normal mode.

Source: Portelligent (no direct link to article)

Being Bourne Rules

Saw Bourne Supremacy this afternoon, and it's just a great action-adventure flick. I would even put it a tad above the first Bourne Identity since I think the acting was better this time around. I'm not going to give an in-depth review or spoilers, but if you like action movies, just go see it.

As a side note, the trailer for National Treasure looked interesting: Nicolas Cage as an Indiana Jones type character hunting down lost treasures. It comes out this Thanksgiving and - from the trailer at least - looks pretty good.

This Seems True to Me - Especially for Transactions Under $2

One of my pet peeves are people who make micro-transactions using plastic - like $2 at Starbucks or $4 for milk (in the cash-only line). These people always seem to do this when there is a long line behind them, and they pull out their credit card after they have been rung up - and they were already standing in line for 5 minutes. My main beef is that these people are totally oblivious of the time they are taking up of those around them - these small transactions take several minutes to swipe the plastic, get the receipt, sign, get their copy of the receipt, and put it in their wallet (these people rarely get out of the way while they stand there putting up their receipt). Forking over a $5 and getting $3 change takes a few seconds. As I sit there and wait, I always want to shout, "You don't have TWO DOLLARS on you?!?"

I understand everyone runs out of cash from time to time, so I would understand this happening every once in a while. But it seems to happen all the time: a whole line of people using plastic for $3 lattes. Turns out this hasn't been my imagination: Card Transactions Hold Majority in U.S.(no direct link to article)

For the first time, Americans used cards -- credit, debit and others -- to buy retail goods and services more often than they used cash or check in 2003.

The article does point out that some fast-food outlets, like McDonalds, have waived the signature requirement, speeding up the transaction, but it is still much slower than cash. The coming use of cellphones for an electronic purchase, however, does seem be the right model since in this case the transaction would be more immediate and take the same time as a cash purchase.

I'm one of those people who usually has a ready supply of cash on me for my day-to-day purchases, but I am definitely becoming a minority.

A Good Canadian Beer Plus a Watery American Beer Equals???

Sort of interesting for us beer drinkers: Coors and Molson to Merge in $6B Deal

It's no secret that I am not a fan of the "Big 3" American beers - Bud, Miller, Coors - but of the three, I do consider Coors the least watery. My regular beer is American - Sam Adams - but I do enjoy Molson when I want a pilsner. This deal is not likely to bring any new products to the market, so this is just an interesting move as the alcoholic beverage market continues consolidation.

The article notes that this is a "merger of equals", a phrase I always find interesting. If business history teaches us anything about mergers, it's that one company will always gain supremacy in a "merger of equals". Eventually one side's management team will gain all the top spots, putting their company's managers in the primo positions while forcing the other side's managers into crummy spots or out of the company.