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Gizmag: Nissan is set to begin testing an intelligent transportation system in Japan that allows vehicle-to-infrastructure communication to help reduce traffic accidents and ease congestion.

The system uses information obtained from nearby vehicles and roadside optical beacons to wirelessly alert drivers to potential danger from approaching vehicles.

It also provides drivers with fastest-route and traffic avoidance information.

This information is sent to the driver’s navigation screen where it is displayed as real-time maps showing the traffic flow and density.

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Zune will be coming soon, but that didn’t stop our Chinese friends to bring out a lookalike.

(source: bright.nl)

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BetaNews: A statement made by Universal Studios president Craig Kornblau cites that HD DVD has already been crowned champion in the battle against Blu-ray.

“Look at the blogs, look at the reviews by the early adopters and even look at the mainstream media,” stated Kornblau. “HD DVD has maintained its first-to-market advantage and delivered on the promises of providing the best high definition image and sound quality at the best value for consumers today.”
Universal Studios has been an early supporter of HD DVD since the beginning of the so-call format war, and is seen as the leading major studio in that camp with no intention of considering joining Warner and Paramount in supporting both formats.

Disney, an early Blu-ray supporter, has been reported to consider both formats, while 20th Century-Fox is seen as the stalwart studio in the Blu-ray camp.
Sony’s position as Blu-ray’s champion is seen as unyielding, since it produces movies and Blu-ray components for both home theaters and PCs.

The issue of widespread studio support is of prime importance to the videodisc retail and rental industry, upon whose well-being the whole video industry still depends.

Retailers would rather not divide their shelf space into more than two compartments — standard-definition (NTSC) and high-def — if they can at all avoid it.

If consumers have to ask store clerks whether or not a disc will play on their machine, just that uncertainty might be enough to make both the consumers and the retailers unwilling to invest in high-definition discs and components of either format.

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According to figures released by the German lobby group Bitkom, 11.71 million music files were downloaded for a fee in the first two quarters of 2006.
Overall sales are posted at 21.2 million euros, with the market growing by 36 percent over the first two quarters of 2005. Music sales on the Internet thus reached record levels in Germany.
(…)
Men are downloading more music from the Internet than women (64-36%). Germans pay an average of 1.79 euros per download; a year ago, the average was 1.89 euros. In the calculations of Bitkom/GfK Panel, an album containing multiple songs was counted as a single download.

In 2004, almost 8.5 million downloads were registered, with sales totaling 14.6 million euros.
In 2005, the figures had increased to 19.57 million downloads and 35.8 million euros.

(Source: Heise.de)

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TechDigest: A recent report confirms the continued growth of the MP3 player in Western Europe – apparently the world’s largest market.

In 2005 sales of MP3 players witnessed massive growth of 241%, with 32m units sold, and will stay ahead of the rest of the world until at least 2010.

MP3 players and Sony’s PMP were the hottest selling devices in 2005, representing 61% and 20% respectively of a market worth €4.7Bn in Western Europe alone.

Flash-based players are particularly popular now that they compete favourably in price with hard disc based players above 4Gb. They are expected to rise in capacity to 30Gb by the year 2010, though hard drive players will reach over 200Gb, and so will be most popular for players that show video.

Mobile phones sporting music playback are predicted to take market share from entry-level MP3 players.

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Engadget: Most studios have picked a side in the HD DVD / Blu-ray format war.  However, Warner engineers have been working on a way to get all three formats (HD DVD, Blu-ray and DVD)on a single disc, and have recently filed a patent to that effect.

This is made possible by the fact that Blu-ray uses a 405nm laser to read its 0.1mm deep info layer, while HD DVD uses the same blue laser wavelength at the depth of 0.6mm. The hybrid disc works by making the Blu-ray layer act like a two way mirror, reflecting enough light for Blu-ray playback, but letting enough light through for HD DVD operation.

As for DVD, that layer can be found on the flip side of the disc. Of course, the new format will cost more to produce than your standard next-gen disc, and we’re not quite sure this isn’t all madness to begin with, but we suppose we’ll have to play the game if we don’t want to end up buying every title in triplicate.

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iRiver has announced the S10, a tiny mp3-player weighing only 17,5 gram. It has a 2GB capacity and sports a 1,15 inch OLED-screen with 65.000 colours. The S10 measures 42 x 30 x 10,8 mm.

Nice to know: the new iPod shuffle measures 41,2 x 27,3 x 10,5 mm and weighs 15,5 gram.

The iRiver S10 has been launched in South Korea yesterday. Pricing for the 2GB player: $175 (about 140 euro). For distributors and dealers in Europe, please click here.

(Source: Anythingbutipod.com)

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Gizmondo: Sony launched their biggest Bravia LCD TVs on Friday, two 52-inch 1920×1080 (1080p) panels with HDMI inputs. The KDL-52XBR2 has a piano black finish while the KDL-52XBR3 has a silver finish.

Both screens boast a contrast ratio of 7000:1, which may fix the biggest problem with LCDs: their black levels aren’t quite black enough.

These two arty-looking monitors won’t be cheap: $6,800 (around €5,400) for the shiny piano black model; the silver one is $300 (around €230) less. Both will be available in November.

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Akihabara News: Hitachi has introduced 3 new media recorders with rather futuristic shapes. The features are impressive, such as HD video recording thru XCodeHD, 250GB to 500GB, and even 1TB hard disk capacity depending on the model.

The high-end DV-DH1000S is equipped of course with a DVD burner, HDMI and i.LINK.

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AME Info: LG has launched its new range of ‘Time Machine’ LCD and Plasma TVs – the world’s first televisions to come equipped with a built-in Digital Video Recorder (DVR). A built-in 80GB hard drive can store up to 40 hours of digital standard-definition programming.

The ‘Time Machine’ LCD TVs are available in 37 and 42-inches, while the plasma version comes in sizes of 42 and 50-inches.

The advanced ‘Time Machine’ feature allows users to pause, record, and replay TV programs just minutes after the original broadcast. The one-touch commercial skip features blocks out unwanted commercials with a touch of a button. The units also boast of continuous automatic recording in one-hour intervals.

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Gizmondo: Pioneer’s first Blu-ray player is late to the game, but as the company seems to be practically run by engineers, it means its stuff is good and often doesn’t come out until they’ve got it right.  Unlike the first generation players from the other guys.

Their BDP-HD1 adds in movie, picture, and music playback from a USB stick, PC, or DLNA compatible device (by Ethernet).

The player will be released this Autumn in the States, but according to the company’s European website, the BDP-HD1 will hit the mainland in early 2007.

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Gizmondo: Samsung’s new range of MP3 players will debut - not in Europe or the USA – but in China.  The YP-T9 and the YP-T9B (which may mean it’s Bluetooth enabled) should support MP3, WMA, OGG, ASF, AVI, MPEG-4, RMVB (a format that’s very popular in China), and WMV.

They get around 30 hours battery life for audio and 6 for video, which is not bad for such a small-sized player. No price or other availability information yet, but if you really want one, Shanghai is nice this time of year.

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