Samsung was first to market with the large-screen 81-series LCD TV’s which featured an LED backlight instead of the normal CCFL. LED backlights have invaded laptop screens and offer bright, uniform backlights that are impossible with CCFL.

Now their second generation of LED backlight TV’s are out, the 950 series. Engadget lists features “feature 4-millisecond response times, down-firing speakers with a built-in subbie, an integrated NTSC / ATSC / ClearQAM tuner, four HDMI-CEC ports, a PC input, Ethernet socket and a pair of component jacks.”

Sony also announced LED backlights on their XBR8 models.

Now we have to wait for Sharp’s announcement.

In my previous post about the F-series car decks, I recommend not to buy them because of the numerous bugs being reported by users and even videos of it on Youtube.

Pioneer has responded by releasing new firmware for the models that hopefully will improve them. Specifically they address:

Pioneer has become aware that users of the AVIC-F90BT, AVIC-F900BT, and AVIC-F700BT may experience issues with one or more of the following: navigation voice guidance sound quality and reading of guidance information; brightness of display screen; Bluetooth sound quality and hands-free calling; parking brake warning; cataloguing time for voice recognition of iPod content; song order within an album for iPod content; playing of MP3 music files for USB content; volume control for USB and SD content; and, Spanish and French mode operation with an iPod and with navigation voice guidance.

Blaine’s been a pretty active photoblogger for quite a while. Many of his shots have been in BlogTO. His site, Photo-Persistance, won one of the Canadian Blog Awards.

Mike’s been a good friend of mine for years. We met at a racing event sponsored by Audi so it’s only fair that I use his Audi R10 picture to show off his talent.

Mike’s photoblog has many car events, outdoor shoots including some great lightening pictures, and recently quite a few portraits.

Walter Lai Designs

My friend Walter just compiled his photoblog. I really like this pic that I displayed here. I like Walter even though he uses Canon SLR’s. :)

Walter’s shots are usually of biking, dancing and some pretty good portraits.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant. I think the last time I did was in DC or Vancouver - those always seem more convenient when I’m traveling than when I’m at home. The places are usually super busy and the food quite mediocre.

My friends have gone to Syogun for a few years. It’s changed owners a few times but recently they said the food is better than average. I’ve been there twice now and for an all-you-can-eat place, the food is quite good. It won’t come close to any of the nice Japanese places downtown, however it does beat some of the local, smaller places that have chefs that have probably never been to Japan.

The sushi rolls are only average, but their cooked food like Beef Katsu Don is really good and the Katsu Udon as well. It doesn’t take many orders until we were all full. One of the standouts was their tempura. It’s extremely light and crunchy and really stands out as one of the best tempura dishes I’ve tried in Toronto.

Syogun is recommended if you’re not a Japanese food beginner and don’t mind eating some simple food for a good price. I wouldn’t take anyone that really appreciates good Japanese food there.

Syogun Japanese Cuisine
8261 Woodbine Avenue
Markham, ON
905-305-8990

With the new Pwnage tool you can jailbreak and unlock your iPhone. However you can only jailbreak your iPhone 3G. Grey market owners rejoice!

The blog has an update of available mirrors.

According to the iPhone Dev Team blog, the tool that will jailbreak and activate may arrive Sunday. Keep in mind that they’ve admitted that unlocking a iPhone running 2.0 firmware is possible, but unlocking an iPhone 3G running 2.0 will not be possible yet. This news is good for you that are running grey-market iPhones, but bad for those that shelled out the big bucks on the iPhone 3G. Let’s hope they find a way to unlock it soon.

In Canada and in the United States, prices for the latest iteration of the Carrera, the 997, have changed much since it’s 2005 introduction. In the USA, Porsche has increased the price of both Carrera and Carrera S models every year.

In Canada, a different story emerges. After a large price hike in 2006, prices fell in 2007 and 2008, lowering the gap between Canadian and American prices. However, even after the change, a 21% price disparity exists all models in the Carrera range.

911 Prices in USA

911 Prices in Canada

Marben is another restaurant with a nice patio and on what has become my favorite street in Toronto - Wellington Street. I noticed a nice loft development down the street with prices starting at $1.5mm - donations are being accepted starting today.

Marben has been mentioned to me a few times by my friends. It’s a nice place and just off the King St. strip and offers a good venue for drinks on a patio. We stopped by early into the dinner hour before my friend had to go to a concert. We started with the fois grais terrine which was nice and light - it was not thick and “solid” as i would have expected from a terrine. The savoury terrine was offset by some nice greens topped with salty prosciutto.

For mains, I ordered a rare strip loin that came out nicely sliced and stacked elegantly and sided by the softest, butteriest Gnocchi I’ve ever tasted. The veg was a spiced rapini - a vegatable I normally would skip until I discovered that it is good when spiced up. It’s almost like a non-pickled kimchi! Brilliant.

My friend had the black cod. It was a simple dish that was well executed. I think i’ve been spoiled by the sizable portions recently at Crush and Le Select, the Marben portions were normal sized for a fine restaurant.

Our only common complaint about the restaurant is the cocktail menu. It’s a bit too experimental and changes to old classics like the mojito just don’t taste as well as the originals. I would skip the speciality cocktails and stick with the nice wine list.
Marben is now open for brunch.
Marben
488 Wellington West
Toronto, Ontario
416-979-1990