Hey, BlackBerry fans, good news:

Spy shots: Skyfire’s BlackBerry browser.

YouTube gets a chat feature.

New Ubuntu available for download.

Microsoft: still under antitrust watch.

$9000 Leica camera: pretty, white.

MSI readying Android-based netbooks?

OQO’s future doesn’t look bright.

Trade your HD-DVDs for Blu-Ray.

Lost laptops cost $50,000. Supposedly.

Asus releases a 17.3″ notebook.

Amazon deletes bribe-revealing reviews.

Here’s what’s up this morning:

How the CIA uses spyware.

iSuppli tears down the Kindle.

Embedded broadband for new Macs?

Crooks want old Nokia phone.

Firefox fixes twelve security holes.

New OLPC uses Via CPU.

Pleo maker files for bankruptcy.

A Blu-Ray player for cars.

Oprah fans pour onto Twitter.

Second Life’ red-light districts.

I just got finished reading two pieces on Blu-ray: one from David Carnoy from last week on why the format will succeed; and the other from Jeremy Toeman, who countered David’s argument that it actually may be closer to failure.

Blu-ray is in a lot of trouble at this moment. It’s kind of a one-two punch: with the sinking economy, people have less money to spend on expensive gadgets. Blu-ray is still one of them, with most players still well above $200 if not $300.

Add to this the fact that streaming media is really beginning to take flight (yesterday’s Inauguaral hiccups notwithstanding), and it isn’t looking good for Sony’s format.

Yeah, Sony may have finally won a format battle, but the protracted fight may have just taken too much time and ended up wounding Blu-ray just enough that it will never be able to replace DVD.

Like Jeremy says, there just is not a whole lot of value proposition to Blu-ray. People with HDTV’s are indeed finding their upscaling DVD player looks wonderful for a third of the price of the Blu-ray player.

The only way Blu-ray is going to stay afloat here is the PS3. And you all know my opinion on that subject.

Maybe I’m just not very observant, but I never notice old media formats going away until they’re…gone. One moment, the record stores down at my local malls still stocked vinyl. And then they didn’t. Audio cassettes? Same thing. And now the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Distribution Video Audio, the last major distributor of VHS tapes, is calling it quits on videotape. Everybody seems to be taking this is the closest thing we’ll get to an official death warrant for VHS, which seems perfectly reasonable.

I never noticed Blockbuster or Hollywood Video shrinking their tape sections into nothingness to make room for DVD. But even in my home, VHS ain’t what it used to be. I moved in July; so far, I haven’t bothered to set up my VCR at my new house, though it’s in working condition and ready for duty should I need it. Which I probably will, since I have several hundred VHS tapes–including some good stuff that has never been released on DVD. (I keep telling myself I need to dub them all to DVD before they rot away, and I will…but almost everything is still in surprisingly good shape, or was the last time I checked.)

It doesn’t seem like it’s been all that long since I bought my VCR and had to choose between VHS and Beta, and congratulated myself on my wisdom in investing in VHS instead of the increasingly dicey Beta format. But that was…1985, I think.

The end of VHS is a little different than past media-format deaths in that it’s pretty obvious that media is on its way out. DVD is wonderful in many ways, but Hollywood is already trying to get us to buy everything we already bought on VHS and DVD all over again in Blu-Ray. (I’ve resisted the siren call so far.) And given how fast things are moving with delivery of video programming over the Internet, Blu-Ray itself feels like a stopgap. Ten years from now, a Blu-Ray disc will look almost as archaic as a vinyl LP does now–and I’m not so sure that it won’t be more like four or five years. Maybe even less.

In many ways I’ll miss the comforting notion that content I’ve bought resides on platters or cassettes that I have control over…although copy protection has already removed much of that benefit. But I won’t miss it too much. Especially since I have the sneaking suspicion that I’ll have some tapes and discs around the house for as long as it’s possible to find devices that will play them.

As I have pointed out in the past, streaming is probably the single biggest threat to Blu-ray overall. Well, it looks as if Samsung — the company thats already given the format just five years to live — is acknowledging that and trying to stay one step ahead of the curve by adding streaming capabilities to two of its players. This appears to be part of a bigger strategy by Netflix to get its software on more Blu-ray devices.

CEO Reed Hastings does acknowledge that the format’s install base is still extremely small, but expressed confidence in its earnings call earlier in the week that adoption would pick up. Either way, it is definitely a good move for either company.

Netflix gains another partner for its streaming service, which already includes Microsoft and the Xbox 360, LG, and Roku, which markets the Netflix set-top box. Blu-ray gains a partner which adds functionality to its players, making them more attractive to consumers.

Obviously, this does nothing to address the price issue of players, which is the single biggest obstacle for most. However, at the same time, it certainly adds more value to the player. This could help justify the high up-front cost for some.

After Blu-ray finally finished off HD DVD shortly after CES 2008, analysts rightfully asked whether the format could survive the wounds the format war had inflicted on it. While these concerns certainly were warranted, for awhile it had appeared Blu-ray could weather the storm.

That now may not be the case — and this time, it may be no fault of Sony. With the overall economy beginning to sour and technology going with it, Blu-ray’s moment in the sun may be over sooner than we think.

Simply put, all indications are that consumers will close their pocketbooks for the forseeable future. No one has confidence in this economy: consumer indicators are falling, which likely equals to more budget conscious shoppers who will not be as eager to drop large amounts of money for higher ticket items.

Bad news, Blu-ray fans.

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New Technologizer feature! Starting this very moment, I’ll round up five items a day, give my take, and refer you to discussion elsewhere. They may be the day’s biggest stories. Or not. List starts after the jump…
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