Today's Website of the Day is The Apple Museum, a walk through the long and chequered history of Apple Computer. Look at the hardware, software and peripherals of the past 30+ years.
Philips have announced their GoGear SA9200 portable music player, with Nano-esque slimness and fairly good looks.
It will initally come in 1 and 2 gigabyte flash versions, so although initial storage isn't as much as a Nano, it's a good start. The screen is 1.7 inch (4 cm) colour and can display photos, but probably not video.
Even the controls sound iPod-like (though of course they're not) with their SuperScroll functionality that lets you tap and drag with your fingers on the smooth control surface. The buttons glow blue.
It plays standard MP3 as well as Windows Media DRM10 files. There's an optional docking station that works with the Streamium wi-fi hifi.
This really looks like a nice player with potential. Like its current and future rivals, it likely won't kill off the Nano but it could do very nicely, particularly if it continues to develop its features and storage capacity.
They're due at the end of summer (isn't that now?) for around €149 and €199 respectively.
Philips website
Our roving reporter, Susi, has all the latest information on Sharp's latest range of LCD TVs.
Philips announced today at IFA 2006 that it will make available a cordless DECT phone that will make Skype calls independently of a PC. The VOIP841 will connect directly to your broadband connection and should be available by Christmas.
Philips will also be releasing three multimedia headsets designed for VoIP calling, games, music and video - the SHM3100, SHM3300 and SHM6100. Availability and pricing to follow.
Philips website
Amongst everything else, Daewoo have been showing off a couple of their portable multimedia devices at IFA 2006.
Their DPC-7800PDT is a portable DVD player with a 7-inch TFT-LCD display, built-in speakers, and an integrated DVB-T digital TV tuner. Looks like Xoro won't be able to claim that uniqueness any more.
The DEH-705K is a multimedia player with an 8Gb hard drive and will store your music, photos and films. Not much more info than that at present, but we'll have pictures and better specs as they become available.
More Daewoo: Daewoo sat nav - Wireless HDTV
Blu Ray took another step closer to becoming the next high definition disc format ahead of rival HD-DVD with most of the major movie studios lining up at IFA to announce Blu Ray titles from this November.
Despite the very public split between Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures, Mission Impossible 3 will be one of Paramount Pictures' first Blu Ray titles when it launches at the end of November. Meanwhile Warner Home Video ("we have been late coming into the Blu Ray fold, admitted Stephen Nickerson, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Warner Home Video) announced it will launch titles in several European countries including UK, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Austria.
"We will have at least ten core titles in each European country before Christmas," said Nickerson. These will include latest releases such as Harrison Ford's Firewall and George Clooney's Syriana as well as vintage titles such as Full Metal Jacket and Space Cowboys.
Daewoo have announced that three new satellite navigation systems will be available in Europe soon.
The DPN-3500 has a 3.5-inch LCD display and the DPN-5600 has a 5.6-inch display, and both sound to be fairly standard portable sat-nav devices. Daewoo seem to be targeting cyclists and walkers, which is interesting as reports I've read suggest that this type of system isn't hugely reliable because of issues with the transmitter.
The third sat-nav device, the ANK-6160, also boasts a Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB) receiver which is supposed to allow you to receive audio and video data such as radio/TV programmes and service information. However, at present the DMB system is not fully operational across Europe, letalone having the services on it, so it could be that this unit doesn't do much more that navigate you, particularly in the UK.
It will be interesting to see how reliable and feature-laden these devices are when they're released, presumably soon though no official word on a date or prices yet. As usual, we'll keep you posted.
A whole host of manufacturers have recently been teaming up with MetaLink, a company that specialise in wireless media streaming technology based on the draft 802.11n specification - the next generation, higher-bandwidth wi-fi that should have sufficient capacity to stream multiple HDTV around the home.
The latest to partner is Daewoo, as announced at IFA 2006 today. It's next-generation set-top box (STB) will allow for just that - multi-streaming video around the home.
There's not a huge amount of detail on Daewoo's next-gen equipment yet, but other manufacturers to do the same thing include Philips and LG, so it's something that is sure to gain ground as both HD and wireless comms move forward over the next few years.
I've written about the concern over standards compliance - but if things continue like this we may just end up with a de facto standard with everyone using MetaLink WLAN technology to power their connected homes and worlds (oops sorry that's a Philips-ism). What I'm wary of is seeing a standard turn into a manufacturer tie-in (Microsoft anyone?) - hopefully that won't happen despite 802.11n not due to be officially ratified until at least mid-2007.
MetaLink do seem to be the real winners here so far, but in an consumer electronics world currently dominated by cables, a decent wireless solution that's as good as wired is a very welcome prospect.
Daewoo UK website
802.11 specifications explained at Wikipedia
Sharp has used the IFA in Berlin to launch two DLP projectors - the full HD XV-Z21000 and the XV-Z3000, which hits the market today.
The top-end model, the XV-Z21000, is a full HD DLP projector with a resolution of 1,920 x 1080 pixels and a contrast of up to 12,000:1. It offers HDTV resolutions from 1080p through to 480i. It also features two HDMI connectors, a DVI Plug, an analogue component input and S-Video. It should be available from October, price to be confirmed.
Sharp has also launched the XV-Z3000 DLP projector (pictured). This HD-ready model delivers 16:9 widescreen format, a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels and a contrast level of 6500:1. There's one HDMI socket, plus PC analogue connection for gaming or office presentations. It's available from today, but so far we've not had a confirmed price.
More projectors:
Hitachi launches the theft-proof projector
Sony's VPL-ES3 projector
The Q and A session at the Philips/Fox press conference at IFA today threw up a couple of interesting snippets.
Firstly while Philips gave details of a Blu-ray recorder for the PC it also said that a Blu-ray recorder for the home TV was a strong possibility. CEO Rudy Provost said that the company was monitoring the market and would respond to demand and that a Blu-ray recorder was something it is considering.
Meanwhile Fox's Mike Dunn told the gathered hacks that Fox was very keen to enable users to take Blu-ray content and port it on to personal video players. Dunn said that this was 'very important to its consumer proposition.'
Having sold nearly a million Ambilight TVs Philips is now rolling the facility out into the games arena with the launch of a 20inch display that boasts AmBX, aka Ambilight for smaller PC screens. AmBX works in a similar way to Ambilight in that it use ambient light delivered from around the screen to heighten the overall impact of the picture. The first game for the PC to feature dedicated Ambilight effects (ie to enhance explosions etc) will be Broken Sword 4. There's a demo on the stand, so I'll grab some video footage of the feature later.
In something of as surprise move Philips has announced that intends to enter the satellite navigation system market in early 2007. It will offer what it calls 'personal navigation systems' that are much designed for user on foot as they are for cars. The devices will also deliver location specific information - though the company hasn't yet said how. This could be via FM, Wi-Fi, 3G or even a mixture of all three.
Mike Dunn, Worldwide President of Fox Home Entertainment ,today announced at IFA that its first eight Blu-ray disc would reach the stores on November 14th in both the UK and the US. MGM will also launch titles at the same time.
According to Dunn, the key titles is Kingdom of Heaven, which will be the first dual sided 50 Gigabyte disc - it has to be the movie in this Directors Cut edition is three hours and 42 minutes long.
Its other key Blu-ray title is The league of Extraordinary Gentleman which also includes searchable categories and an apparently unique 12 layer game.
Both discs, as well as the other titles, feature HD Lossless audio.
Other discs includes Ice Age II, The Usual Suspects, Bulletproof Monk and The Fantastic Four. I'll give details of the other titles when I get the release.
Philips has been one of the major Blu-ray players for some time and has already committed to new models for the PC. At IFA it unveiled its products.
From a PC perspective the key one is the Philips TripleWriter SPD7000. This internal drive for PCs has a 2x read and write speed and works with CDs and DVDs too. It goes on sale in both the US and Europe next month (September).
Philips has also confirmed its debut Blu-ray player - the BDP9000. It connects to HDTVs via HDMI and delivers full 1080p HD resolution. It also has an on board card reader and uses a Java based interface to aid set up. It goes on sale in the US in the autumn with a UK launch lined up for early 2007.
Philips has also announced a 50 gig Blu-ray disc.
I am just waiting for the Philips conference to start.
The big stories are;
Blu-ray lined up details
A pair of new Media Center PCs
A tiny two Gig music player
A nine inch LCD digital picture frame
and what it is billing as the world's first Skype DECT phone that works without a PC
I'll give more details as I get them
I mentioned earlier in the week that the first viewing of the new Commodore (the Mpet II mp3 player), but the new Gravel entertainment system seems altogether more in line with the Commodore name.
Commodore's latest baby is Commodore World and the Gravel entertainment systems. The Commodore World website promises "a large variety of entertainment content - music, videos, games, favorite radio and TV programs", accessed on demand via the Gravel devices. As yet, the site is unavailable to view, so we can't confirm what exactly is on offer.
What we can see are the Gravel devices. The Commodore Gravel In Pocket is a pocket-sized multimedia device with built-in Wi-Fi. It supports all major file formats, including MP4, MPEG, DivX, Xvid, WMV, streaming WMV, JPEG, BMP, GIF, along with MP3, WMA, WAVE music files. There's 1GB or 2GB internal flash memory, expandable by SD card and comes with the claims that it's world-first, high-quality flash video device that plays full screen, full motion (24 fps) on a 2.8-inch TFT screen.
It's sometimes hard to illustrate a jump in technology, but TDK has made it that bit easier, unveiling a disc for Blu-ray drives with a whopping 200GB capacity.
TDK's new 200GB Blue-Laser disc doubles the capacity of their existing 100GB Blu-ray prototype and could store approximately 18 hours of high definition video (encoded at 24Mbps). The initial Blu-ray disc standard offered a choice of 25GB single layer Blu-ray discs or 50GB dual layer discs (as pictured). However, TDK has now managed to cram 33.3GB on each of the disc’s six layers to hit the 200GB mark on a single-sided disc.
The disc is currently a working prototype, with no shelf date confirmed as yet. We'll keep you posted.
More Blu-ray:
Lite-on unveils external Blu-ray disc writer
Sony announces AR series VAIO – world’s first Blu-ray notebook
Previewed a short while back here at Tech Digest, the Sony NW-S200 Walkman has been officially released today, aimed at the more sporty amongst us who require a lightweight, durable and water-resistant player.
Looking like a test tube in an armband, the NW-S200 features a lightweight aluminium casing and is claimed to be the first ever digital music player to be completely water resistant - sweat or rain. Even the armband is absorbent - lets hope it's washable. The band does have a more practical use, cutting down on the amount of headphone cable needed and offering easier viewing of the OLED screen whilst on the move.
Hello and welcome from Berlin where the Tech Digest team, that's Ash, Chris and Susi, will be bringing you all the breaking news from the world of consumer electronics. At the moment the stands are still half built so we haven't been able to check out what's new, but here's a taster of what's in store just to whet your appetite.
Philips: The press conference begins 2pm Berlin time and you can log in at www.ifa.philips.com to get all the latest product information. For now we know that Philips will be announcing a new Skype VoIP phone which also doubles as a DECT phone (the product was first shown last year). Also there's a new Windows XP Media Center for the living room with 250GB hard drive and Blu-Ray (again the product was first shown last year).
LG: We went to the press conference this morning but new product information was disappointingtly scarce. What we do know is that they plan to launch new TVs with built in DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) following the success of the 43inch plasma model launched in May. After toying with the idea of a combined Blu-Ray and HD-DVD player (now isn't that a good idea) it seems they've ditched that plan in favour of backing just Blu-Ray. No plans to launch a new a player this year though. Apparently LG has shifted two million handsets of its 'hero product', the chocolate phone, but now news on a successor yet. However, we do know they will show off another mobile TV phone which uses the DMB standard.
Still not sure about the merits of Skype versus your traditional landline? How about a device that mixes both, like this USRobotics' USR9630 cordless phone and base station.
The USR9630 connects to both a traditional phone line and an available USB port on a PC running Skype, which means you can make and receive Skype calls and ordinary telephone calls from the same handset - which doesn't have to be near your PC. Aimed very much at small businesses, it allows up to four cordless handsets to be connected to the same telephone line, each with a 50m indoor range or 300m outdoor range.
From: Top Ten Geeky Valentine Presents: For Him