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Newlaunches.com: You can now carry your 3D Blu-ray player around since it’s gone all slim and sexy. What’s awesome is that it doesn’t have to be one of the high-flying models that we’ve been reviewing from Sony and Toshiba and the likes. Sharp have gotten the whole thing stuffed into a slimmer, sleeker body that packs WiFi and BD-Live content support as well. It works fine with both 3D and 2D content, has a USB slot in the front, connects to your external drives, flushes them out in full glory via the “Pure Mode”, cool LED indicator lights and a very cool and glossy body.

The Sharp BD-HP905 can be expected before Christmas. I guess that’s a nicer way of using the word ‘November’.

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EngadgetHD: We’ll say it right up front — BD-Live hasn’t impressed early, but we’re not going to give up on it altogether. For the most part, it has underwhelmed because of uninspired implementation, not the technology itself.

While we skip right by most BD-Live features, however, consumers are connecting their decks to the cloud some 4-million times each month to grab up freebies, according to Deluxe Digital Studios.

What’s the most popular kind of feature that users are getting their hands on? Trailers, of course — reinforcing our “uninspired” comment. The linked post at Video Business hints at exciting new BD-Live developments like social networking and hooking into mobile devices, and we’d like to see some of these ideas get traction.

But our advice is that if Hollywood doesn’t “… want people to feel like they are being marketed to,” then just don’t market to them. Crazy talk, we know.

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T3: There aren’t really many excuses for not investing in Blu-ray right now, aside from perhaps the price of discs and the lack of classic titles in the format maybe.

But when it comes to hardware, decent players don’t have to cost a fortune, as the Philips BDP 3000 Blu-ray player shows.

It’s got everything you’ll expect and a few nice little extras you might appreciate, which means 1080p 24fps full HD images, upscaling of existing DVDs to near 1080p HD quality, Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround sound and BD Live (Profile 2.0) support for those web-based extras, along with USB connectivity, DivX compatibility, x.v.Colour technology to boost the look of your camcorder classics and of course playback of music and photos.

If that sounds like your kind of Blu-ray player, the BDP 3000 is available now for £169 (around €200).

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Electronista: Sony Pictures along with Gracenote announced movieIQ, a new Blu-ray disc feature that provides access to a real-time movie database.

By playing a movieIQ disc and having a BD-Live equipped Blu-ray player connected to the Internet, users can view continuously updated information on details such as cast and crew. movieIQ also offers pieces of trivia including production facts, and music and soundtrack information tied to specific scenes within the movie.

Sony says it plans to use movieIQ on upcoming Blu-ray movies starting September, as well as offering it on all major catalog titles and new releases.

By using Gracenote’s video explore software, viewers can access the information without having to interrupt the movie, and can also search the online Gracenote database to link together related cast, crew, movies, TV episodes, franchises, seasons, DVDs and Blu-rays.

Gracenote’s database contains video information for North America, Europe, and Japan. It also provides a synopsis, credits, and detailed descriptions.

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Engadget: Ready for loads of succulent new audio / video equipment that you can likely only afford in your wildest dreams? Fantastic. Monday in NYC, Denon has decided to introduce a whole fleet of new kit, so we’ll get right down to the nitty gritty. Oh, and we’re on hand at the premiere, so expect some hands-on shots shortly.

• DBP-2010CI ($699 / €511; shipping in July) – Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player, onboard Ethernet, BD-Live / BonusView support, DivX HD playback, support for AVCHD, Anchor Bay Technologies VRS processing, upconversion and IP scaling to 1080p/24, RS-232c support, HDMI / component / composite video outputs
• DBP-1610CI ($499 / €365; shipping in July) – Same as above sans Anchor Bay chip and RS-232c Nine new AV receivers, priced from $379 at the low-end to $1,999 (€1,462) at the high; shipping between May and July 2009 ASD-51W ($299.99 / €218) and
• ASD-51N ($249.99 / €180) network-enabled iPod docks, both shipping in August. Both items also allow for Rhapsody streaming, Internet Radio streaming and Napster support. AH-NC600 ($199 / €145),
• AH-C710 ($149 / €109) and AH-C360 ($49 / €35) in-ear headphones, all of which will ship by July

Full press releases and details for each are posted here, and yes, it’s overwhelming.

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Blu-ray.com: Prestigious consumer-electronics maker Harman/Kardon has announced the release of its first Blu-ray player, the BDP 10, initially for the European market only.

It will have BonusView and BD-Live capability and support advanced audio codecs, 1080/24p video, and JPEG and Divx, playable from its front USB port.

Information on Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD support is still a bit undefined, as the specifications don’t say whether the player only bitstreams those codecs or also decodes them.

Also, the player does not include multichannel analog audio outputs. List price in Germany is €700, and it will be available during May.

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EngdagetHD: Still believe in the potential of BD-Live? Sony does, exec David Bishop called this the “Pong” stage of development in the technology during an industry demo yesterday on its lot.

Apparently wanting to get some fresh eyes on BD-Live after some glitchy releases and underwhelming features, Sony, Disney and others are still trying to find different ways to work BD-Live into their discs, and new wireless capable players like Samsung’s 2009 models mighty see more people going online.

We’ve seen live directors chats, games, story databases and other twists, but at the moment we’re not as optimistic about where BD-Live is headed in 2009 and beyond.

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HiddenWires: LG Electronics launches the LG BD370, the first Blu-ray player to feature video on demand powered by YouTube combined with BD Live (BD-ROM Profile 2.0).

Encased in a slim and classic design, the player features enhanced picture and sound quality, with 1080p Full HD resolution via HDMI connection.

Dolby True HD and DTS-HD are also incorporated for high bit-rate audio functionality. Additionally, LG’s SIMPLINK connectivity allows users to operate all functions with a single remote control, while a USB memory stick can be connected via the USB port for expanded memory capacity. The unit is compatible with MPEG4 video, JPEG, MP3, and WMA file formats.

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CDFreaks: Want to embrace Blu-ray without abandoning all those episodes of M*A*S*H you recorded to VHS? Panasonic’s Blu-ray/VCR combo player could be the answer.

The DMP-BD70V is a BD-Live compatible Blu-ray player featuring a front USB port, memory card slot and amazingly, a “slot” for inserting your old VHS tapes. Otherwise, it offers the same features at the DMP-BD60 Blu-ray player, such as on-board Dolby TrueHD, DTS-Master Audio Essential decoding and networking functions such as VIERA Cast Internet content.

While it seems like a strange combination in one device, the upside is that the DMP-BD70V will upscale both DVD and VHS to 1080p.

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Crave: Sony reports that Blu-ray’s interactive platform is catching on. Sony’s servers for BD-Live content are coming up on the one million hit mark, according to a report by Video Business, and Sony VP Rich Marty is quoted saying that “consumers are engaging with this game-changing interactivity and are defining BD Live as that killer application.”

That’s in pretty stark contrast to previous reports that industry insiders considered Blu-ray’s interactive features to be mostly a let down. If BD-Live truly is catching on, then we’ve underestimated the public’s desire for slowly loading movie trailers.

While the one million mark is surprising to us, we’d bet that the majority of those visits were made by PS3 owners–rather than more mainstream standalone players–for a few reasons.

First, only a fraction of standalone Blu-ray are Profile 2.0 compatible, which is necessary to access BD-Live features. Of those Profile 2.0 players, so far all of them require a wired Ethernet connection to connect to BD-Live features, while the PS3 can connect via Wi-Fi. Lastly, in our experience, even the best standalone Blu-ray players have handled online content clumsily compared to the PS3, which boasts superior processing power. For BD-Live to go mainstream it needs to work on all players, which means Blu-ray hardware makers have to improve the user experience.

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Electricpig: We’ve heard a lot about BD-Live, or Blu-ray Profile 2.0, and how it’s revolutionising bonus content on a movie disc, but a new app demonstrates that it’s not just about downloading interviews and featurettes onto your Blu-ray player – you can also interact with it using your mobile phone.

The app is called Video Bulletin Board, and allows users to upload photos and videos shot on their mobile to the BD-Live enabled players of their Blu-ray using friends.

Once a user has received a picture on their player, they can click to call the sender back straight away.

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Blu-ray.com: During the keynote address at the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference, Darcy Antonellis, President of Warner Technical Operations noted that the studio would begin utilizing BD-Live features as early as this winter. The yet-to-be-named title would include real-time viewing, library tools, a search engine, a recommendation tool with e-mail reminders, ringtones and wallpapers.

Originally set aside for HD DVD releases, these advanced web-based features will dramatically increase Warner’s ability to compete for consumers’ time. Antonellis commented, “I think it has the ability to compete [with MySpace and YouTube] for a user’s time because you are taking them online and you’re able to create a community that we have never been able to do before. That’s huge for us.”

Antonellis also feels that advanced Blu-ray features will be widely adopted by consumers faster than advanced DVD features.

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