Archive for January 7th, 2008
Continue reading Video: Guitar Wizard — it’s like Guitar Hero, but useful
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Continue reading Video: Alienware’s curved display caters to gamers
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Continue reading Video: DLP prototype makes gamers look geekier
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Remember Seagate’s DAVE? It stands for Digital Audio Video Experience and it’s a platform that connects a hard drive to other devices, wirelessly (via Bluetooth or WiFi). It was announced and demoed last year, but not, it seems that third party partners are building applications around it. Just to name a few: HarmanBecker is working automotive storage based on DAVE. Sanyo is going to use the platform to transfer data from its Xacti Digital Movie Camera. Permalink | Comment | Uberbargain | Uberphones
[CES 2008] Maxtor, the enterprise side of Seagate, is releasing the Maxtor Black Armor, an external 2.5” drive that supports security features like full-disk encryption, which is quite reassuring if the drive is lost. It can take years, decades or even more to crack a strongly encrypted drive (my advice: don’t forget the password). The maximum capacity of the Maxtor Black Armor is 160GB. It costs $150 and comes with a bundle of backup-related Maxtor software. Seagate home page Permalink | Comment | Uberbargain | Uberphones
With the “Put the fun of a PC in your pocket” tag line, Sony is going after the “young adults” crowd. The company thinks that there are not many devices that would allow students to have good “mobile entertainment” (as defined below), without paying an expensive wireless subscription fee. This is true and that’s the idea behind the Mylo 2. Although the original Mylo did not have the success that was hoped by its maker, Sony has learned a lot, and it designed the Mylo 2 to address the weaknesses of the first one. In this review, we will put the Mylo 2 to the test and share our thoughts with you. Feel free to ask questions, share your opinion or write your review (if you own the Mylo 2) in the comments section at the bottom of the article page. Every device is engineered to solve a problem, and the Mylo 2 has been built to provide “good” mobile entertainment and communications. For Sony, that means:
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[CES 2008] Sony has a brand new hard drive camcorder in town with the HDR-SR10, delivering HD resolution without sacrificing recording times. It comes with a 40GB hard drive that can record up to 5 hours continuously - something tells me the battery life is going to run out long before you start to lack storage space. Not only that, you also have the option to store your movies on a Memory Stick PRO Duo media card for greater flexibility. The HDR-SR10 will ship this March for $1,000.
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Authorities have said Britney Spears appeared to be “under the influence of an unknown substance” when they took her to the hospital for a mental evaluation. However, a source indicates that Britney’s blood tests came back negative: “Her blood test just came back, and, thank God, it was clean. There are no traces of drugs or alcohol of any kind.” So what the f*** is wrong with her?
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‘Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld’ TV to Give You Digital TV Anywhere You GoPosted by: in World newsFiled under: Audio/Video, Car Tech, Cell Phones, Computers, TV, CES 2008
We may file this under the “future watch” category because this development could have a big impact on you in 2009. Delivering video content to mobile devices in the digital age has been a challenging prospect for broadcasters and consumer electronics makers. LG Electronics and Harris Corporation yesterday announced at the Consumer Electronics Show the development of Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld TV technology, or MPH, which will make it possible to receive digital TV signals while on the move with properly equipped mobile phones, portable media players, laptop PCs or automobile video systems. According to Dr. Woo Paik, president and chief technology officer of LG Electronics, MPH will allow people to “watch digital TV anywhere, at any time, at broadcast quality, even (as they move) up to 140 miles per hour.” This development could significantly impact the local broadcast content available to people with mobile devices, which broadcasters are hoping will help bring these consumers back from their other sources of information and entertainment, such as the Internet or mobile phone services that have been steadily siphoning off viewers during the last decade or so. Successfully delivering a digital broadcast signal to moving devices is difficult, both on the broadcast end and on the receiving end. ATSC digital television — which was optimized for transmission to fixed receivers — will be the only high-power broadcast television service in the United States after February 2009, when high-power analog broadcasting ceases. Devices in motion often can’t maintain proper reception of the digital signal — especially at high speeds — and barriers such as skyscraper “canyons,” highway underpasses and natural geographical features often block the signal completely. %Gallery-12783% From the broadcasters’ perspective, as they have geared up for the switch to digital, their equipment is designed to process and deliver a full high definition signal. This is too much for a typical, small mobile device to handle. According to Paik, the cost to add this capability to consumer devices is minimal. LG is showcasing several prototype products at CES, including two phones, a portable/mobile DTV screen, and a USB dongle, which will deliver the DTV signal to a laptop computer. Also important is the relatively small impact this will have on broadcasters, as Harris’ solution only requires an addition to their full HD equipment, which is already in place. Successful trials have already taken place in the Chicago area. In addition to free broadcast content, the system also allows for paid programming. Audience monitoring service Nielson has already developed a measurement system called Nielson Mobile for this new type of programming so that broadcasters can deliver the all-important audience numbers to advertisers. LG hopes to have products available to consumer early next year. Expect also compatible in-car entertainment systems from Kenwood. %Gallery-12783% Related links: GM Prepping Electric Car for 2010 In-Car CD Players May Face Extinction
Filed under: Car Tech, iPod, CES 2008 
Just tell it what you want and this new GPS from Pioneer may very well be able to do it. The company yesterday announced the AVIC-F500BT hybrid navigation system - although you can already forget those numbers. Just call it the “AVIC Link.” That’s what company vice president Larry Rougas did at Pioneer’s press conference Sunday. The AVIC Link is an in-dash and portable navigation device that has a host of very cool features. Tops on our list is voice command and control that uses the VoiceBox Conversational Voice Search Platform. “This creates a new way for your gadgets to link to each other while in your car,” Rougas said. “With natural voice commands you control your iPod, you control your Bluetooth phone, and of course you control your navigation.” Voicebox is supposed to be quite forgiving of the normal starts and stutters that occur when people speak. Pioneer claims you can speak into Voicebox a natural way to choose directions, initiate a call over a connected capable phone, or control what music to play off your MP3 player using very normal spoken sentences, such as: “Play, um, um let’s see the album Joshua Tree.” Note that this is different from text-to-speech, which this unit also has. Text-to-speech means that when the GPS device is giving you directions it actually says the name of the street you’re supposed to turn on to. The unit comes installed with maps of North America and Hawaii from TeleAtlas and more than 12 million points of interest (such as restaurants, gas stations, hotels, etc.). It’s also compatible with MSN Direct’s pay service, which provides traffic information, movie times, and weather, among things. You get the first three months free when you purchase the device. The AVIC Link ships this Spring. We can’t wait to get our hands on one for a test drive. We like technology that actually speaks our language. From Pioneer.
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