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JCN Network: Pioneer will be releasing their AVIC-HD3BT hard disk Sat Nav system into the Russian market.  It’s claimed to be the first all-in-one hard disk drive-based navigation system for the region’s consumer market.

In Russia, there’s been a lot of interest in in-car audio/visual entertainment centering on DVD media. With its recent energetic economy, consumer appetite in navigation systems is growing stronger.

Pioneer launched the world’s first GPS car navigation system designed for the Japanese consumer market in June 1990, followed by the European and North American consumer markets in 1999 and Chinese market in March 2006.

The navigation software includes Russian interface and voice guidance. The hardware seems to be similar to the European AVIC-HD1BT

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CNN: Selling your old phone once you upgrade to a fancier model can be like handing over your diaries. All sorts of sensitive information pile up inside our cell phones, and deleting it may be more difficult than you think.

An American company, Trust Digital, bought 10 different phones on eBay this summer to test phone-security tools it sells for businesses. The phones all were fairly sophisticated models capable of working with corporate e-mail systems. Curious software experts at Trust Digital resurrected information on nearly all the used phones, including the racy exchanges between guarded lovers. The recovered information was equal to 27,000 pages — a stack of printouts 8 feet high.

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Futuremusic: Yamaha has launched its EMX5016CF, a 16-channel stereo powered mixer, which includes two 500-watt amplifiers. The EMX5016CF combines a mixer to balance sources, effects to add ambience to the sound and amplification to drive house speakers. Features include single-knob input compressors, feedback eliminator, automatic digital graphic EQ, Dual Effect engines and a Maximize function for the main output. The unit replaces the company’s EMX5000-20.

More info to be found at the EMX5016CF productpage.

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Gizmondo: Sony has ‘completely updated’ their range of Bravia LCD TVs, with an improved enhancement technology (DRC-MF – Digital Reality Creation Multi-Function) that does a better job of up-converting anything that’s not 1080p, while passing true 1080p signals through to the screen.

The new line up includes the S, V and X models from 32 to 53 inches.  The version of DRC-MF mentioned above will only be included in the X line-up.

Pricing and availability is not yet known.

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And now for something completely different. You’ve got your smart phones. There’s music phones. But have you ever heard of flexible phones?

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Gizmondo: Sony are claiming that their newest DVD±R burner, made with partner NEC, is the world’s fastest.

The AWG170A is able to burn discs at 16x (whether or not 16x media is widely available is apparently irrelevant), the AWG170A also burns DVD-RAM (12x), DVD±R DL (8x), DVD+RW (8x), DVD-RW (6x) and CD-R/RW (48x).

The drive has a built-in system to help correct unbalanced discs and a self-cooling design that works without noisy fans. It will be availalbe in four different front bezel colours.

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TechDigest: Bang & Olufsen has launched the world’s first TV with in-built DAB radio.

The BeoCenter 6-23, is a 23-inch flat-screen LCD, high-definition TV with a DAB radio.  It promises a 180-degree viewing angle and a DVI input.

Retailing at around £3,000 (€4,450), you can also choose from six grille and frame colours.

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Bloomberg.com: Sharp Corp. has today announced 6 new Aquos brand TVs which will come in 42, 46 and 52-inch models.  The new sets will be available worldwide from October and are all high-definition.

Sharp’s new models are made at their ’No. 2 Kameyama’ factory – the world’s biggest LCD television factory. The factory, located in central Japan, cuts screens from the industry’s biggest glass sheets, reducing unit costs.

The facility, the world’s first eighth-generation LCD plant, produces glass panels equivalent to 120,000 40-inch televisions a month, which may be enough to help Sharp regain the first-place market share it lost to Sony Corp. last quarter. The later generation a factory is, the bigger glass it can handle.

The opening of their new factory gives Sharp a head start on Sony, which plans to start its first eighth-generation LCD factory in November 2007.

Sharp has said it lost the No. 1 spot last quarter because it couldn’t make its Aquos televisions fast enough.

The company’s share of global LCD TV sales fell to 10.8 percent in the quarter ended June 30, from 12.8 percent in the previous three months, according to industry research firm DisplaySearch. Sony grabbed a 16 percent slice in the period.

Sony introduced 11 new models yesterday, including its biggest LCD television in Japan, a 52-inch Bravia model.

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You can’t use it to do the laundry. It’s of no use when having to pick lottery numbers. But the PlayStation Portable does have some extra features. For starters, it can prevent you from making a complete fool of yourself in a dark movie theatre. A summary for absolute beginners.

And for all you pros out there, we’ve found an excellent article on the PS3 at wired.com

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China Post: Ahead of Europe’s largest consumer electronics trade fair, IFA, reports are surfacing that flat panel TVs are possibly getting too big for the living room.  German consumer magazine Test counsels against watching high-definition television from closer than three times the screen diagonal size, or else viewers may notice lines in the picture.

That would mean placing armchairs at least 3.2 meters from a 42- inch screen, further than some smaller living rooms allow.

In Germany, Europe’s biggest market, the standard size that most shoppers currently choose is the 32-inch, but all signs are pointing to the 42-inch becoming the norm.

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The Jamo open-backed R 909 loudspeaker has been named European High-End Loudspeaker Of The Year 2006-2007 by EISA. Says the company:
“With the R 909, Jamo’s development engineers have demonstrated what they are capable of delivering, when cost is no object, and only the best components and materials are good enough. The R 909 is among very few speakers that work without a box enclosure, which normally makes it difficult to reproduce low frequencies. So, a pair of high-efficiency 15-inch bass drivers and an ingenious crossover is Jamo’s response to this challenge (…)”

The Jamo R 909 is to be launched in Q4 2005, and would sell for a whopping 11.100 euro. More info to be found on the R909 productpage.
(source: AV Zombie)

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Digital Chosunilbo:  LG Electronics said yesterday that they will be launching a Blu-ray disk writer, the ‘Super Multi Blue’ GBW-H10N, and a desktop PC with Blu-ray drive, the XPION X600.  The company plans to release a player later in the year.

 
The new Super Multi Blue writes at 4 x speed when burning one-time only records, and at 2 x when re-writing. The shipping price is around W900,000 (around €730).

The X600 features a Pentium D processor at 3.4 GHz and Nvidia’s top graphics card, the GeForce 7900GT. Its selling point, though, is that it allows users to enjoy the newest games on Blu-ray disks. The price is W2.9 million (around €1,000), and another W500,000 (around €400) on top of that will get you the 20-inch monitor package.

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