Last week we had a slew of Blu-ray releases that catered to most family members. This week we have another diverse batch of movies: Nicolas Cage action and adventure flicks, comedy films the likes of Blades of Glory and Anger Management, documentaries from Questar about nature and wildlife, and the critically-acclaimed Hugo Weaving-Natalie Portman starrer, V for Vendetta. For a complete list of Blu-ray releases for this week, head on over to the full article.

This week's Blu-ray releases will certainly get you interested if you're into different film genres, or if you just want to sit back, relax, and admire the beauty of the country's landscape. Topics Entertainment provides us with two visual essays, while Warner Bros., Disney, Buena Vista, and other major film companies give us great movies with great storylines to enjoy. Check out the full article to see titles on Blu-ray this week.

 

Good news for those looking for a more diverse selection of Blu-ray releases this week. Movies aren't the only ones being made available to Blu-ray entertainment system owners. The popular TV series Nip/Tuck: The Complete Fourth Season and the live performance of Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at Radio City will also be coming out.

Here's a list of what we'll be seeing this week on Blu-ray:

• Nip/Tuck: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner Bros.)
• Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City (Sony Music)
• Delta Farce (Lionsgate Films)
• Remember the Titans (Disney/Buena Vista)

Lionsgate Films' Delta Farce is a story of three beer-loving buddies mistakenly drafted into the military and accidentally sent somewhere in Mexico. These clueless soldiers end up going against a warlord in their attempt to save a rural village and become heroes... Eh, what are we saying. This comedy flick's better viewed than read about. Disney and Buena Vista's Remember the Titans, on the other hand, is tad more serious than Delta Farce. The movie is based on a true story and follows the struggles of an African-American football coach and his team as they try to win in spite of and live through a racially polarized town in Virginia during the 1970s.

All four will be released on September 4.

The AA043MA01 4.3-inch TFT-LCD display has just been introduced by Mitsubishi Japan. This is being packaged as the ideal display for portable devices because unlike other displays, you can view what's on the screen from almost any angle. That's really cool especially if you're just looking over your bud's shoulder to see the movie or video he's watching on his PMP.

The "viewing via any angle" thing, though, wouldn't be ideal to use when you're, say, in transit and you don't want the person sitting right next to you see what's on the screen. That would be hard to avoid though, given that the AA043MA01 has a brightness of 200cd/m2 and can be visible up to 130 degrees from left or right.

But we agree that this is an amazing product from Mitsubishi Japan which has been made available at the start of the month, though it's going to cost you around $180.

Here's another interesting product from Sony Electronics: the GPS-CS1K. This GPS device will help you map out the places you've been - using the digital photos you yourself took.

How does it work? Using the time stamp from any of Sony's digital cameras or camcorders and the time and location recordings from the GPS-CS1 GPS device, you can create a map to showcase your globe-trotting. You just have to transfer the photos you took to a computer and import the logged data from the GPS device before the GPS Image Tracker software synchronizes the information.

With the help of the Picture Motion Browser software included in the latest Sony digicams, your online map will have your photos as virtual markers of the places you've visited. Cool, huh? Just imagine pictures you've taken with faces of your friends or relatives popping up whenever you click locations like Barcelona or Florida on the map.

The 12-channel GPS device - which weighs two ounces, is 3 1/2-inches long and comes with a carabiner to easily attach to your bag or belt - will cost around $135 and will be available starting September.

We've all heard about how criminal masterminds in jail are still able to give out orders and operate freely from inside their cells. One of the ways these people can do this is through cell phones smuggled into prisons.

Other than contraband mobile phones being used in such a way, these can also be a source of cash (or "credit") in exchange for a few minutes on the phones.

Fortunately, there's a new device that can detect and locate hidden cellphones even when they've been turned off. Manufactured by REI, the ORION Non-Linear Junction Detector (NLJD) is able to detect electronic items even when they aren't transmitting or receiving any data.

Many correctional facilities will find this detector useful if they intend to purge prisons of illegal activies like exchanging phone minutes for cash or favors - among other things.

Bathe in the sun as much as you want without the risk of developing one of the common diseases in humans - skin cancer. How will you be able to protect yourself from the sun's harmful rays? Easy. Just take note of the UV meter built into your bikini.

You read that one right: bikinis with UV meters.

Since the American Cancer Society advises us to avoid too much exposure to any of the various sources of ultraviolet light - one of them being the sun - this contraption developed by Solestrom might help. We can't stay away from beaches and sun-bathing especially during summer, so the UV meter built into the belt of bikinis is a good way to remind us of the risks of staying too long under the sun.

The Canadian company's product is a new bikini that has the UV meter built into the belt. It also has an alarm that beeps in order to tell the wearer to get out of the sun. A level of 3 to 5 on the UV intensity scale is still acceptable for people, with levels 8 to 10 considered very high and dangerous while anything above 11 is considered extreme.

These high-tech bikinis will go on sale starting next month. Hopefully, wearers will heed the UV meter's beep and get out of the sun before they develop skin cancer.

You read that right; I did say fuel cell.

A lot of companies support fuel-cell technology because it seems a perfect solution for recharging batteries of devices like mobile phones, PDAs, laptops and mp3 players. We've only seen products like Toshiba's reported fuel cell prototype (which, by the way, isn't even portable.)

Now we have a company that's already started shipping portable fuel cells in several areas such as mainland China, Europe, Taiwan, US, and Japan. More Energy, a company in Lod, Israel and a subsidiary of Medis Technologies, has developed a disposable fuel cell that will recharge any device that needs recharging.

The creator of this portable fuel cell is Gennadi Finkelshtain who is also the general manager of More Energy. His invention is housed in a flexible plastic shell (compared to a deck of cards, this one's a bit larger). To use it, one has to squeeze the shell container which will resist lightly before you hear a click. You then plug the cable in and connect it to the device you will be recharging.

The fuel cell recharger pack from More Energy will be the first commercially-distributed device if the company meets its deadlines (in terms of mass production and shipping) come 2007.

Billy Talent from our forums has discovered that the local Wal-Mart in Middletown, NY has started selling HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies. The price tags on these movies are... very interesting and can be a factor in decisions regarding which player to buy.

Although it might be good that these movies are already on sale (take a look at the prices under the titles) - "The Fifth Element" in Blu-Ray format sells for $19.96 while "The Fugitive" in HD-DVD format sells for $24.96 - they're still too costly.

I'm still wondering though what the latest from the war front between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray might be. You might remember that we reported about Pioneer's statement regarding the launch delay of its Blu-Ray players, which Toshiba can take (or perhaps has already taken) advantage of.

If until now you still haven't figured out which of these two next-gen DVD players you would want to get (assuming, of course, you still haven't gotten hold of one), maybe the price of the movies released in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats might help you decide. After all, you'd want to invest in something that won't be a pain in the... cause you financial strain in the future.

We all know just how important water is to everyone. Water makes up to 70% of a person's total body weight, and a regular 75 kg human normally contains 45 liters (or 60%) of water. That's how important water is.

PlayPumps International, makers of the PlayPump, also had this in mind when they provided playgrounds with a merry-go-round that would pump uncontaminated water to underserved communities in South Africa. The PlayPump allows clean drinking water from under the ground to be pumped onto a water tank placed 7 meters above ground.

The system works with the merry-go-round as the pump. When children start spinning this, clean water from under 40 meters (or in some cases, 100 meters) will be pumped into the 2,500-liter tank. Up to 1,400 liters of water per hour at 16rpm can be pumped into the tank. People can then get water via a tap connected to the water tank.

Almost 700 PlayPumps have already been installed in rural communities in South Africa, providing residents clean and safe water to drink.