about-electronics.eu

T3: Packing a native contrast ratio of 15,000:1, the projector’s capable of slapping true blacks all over your wall without denting picture brightness. It’s a real boon for film and TV lovers, and means moody scenes look better than ever.

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Slashgear: We’ve looked at ways that the Zune file-sharing feature could be better used, but Microsoft seems to have gone the way of the reward and confirmed they’ll be dishing out Microsoft Marketplace Points to people who share music with others.
These points can then be used to buy new songs (from the company’s own music store, naturally) or treats from the XBox 360 Marketplace. (…)

While this seems a good idea – assuming you can find someone to share with – I can imagine it creating a little confusion considering the music industry’s all-out ‘sharing is evil!’ message that has been broadcast for the past few dozen years.
“But Microsoft said I could” might be the next – failed – defence argument we see in courts across the globe.

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Akihabara: Audio-Technica has the ATH-PRO700, a new headset for DJs or anybody else who want to get their ears loaded. The headset has 53mm drive units, outputs 105dB/mW (at 36Ω) on a range of 5Hz to 33kHz. The design is quite nice and is almost iPod-inspired. It weights 320g.

For all tech specs, please visit the ATH-PRO700 productpage.

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Heisse: Siemens will be allowed to merge its network infrastructure division with that of the Finnish Nokia group. The transaction would not jeopardize free competition in the business segment, the EU Commission found on Monday in Brussels after studying the implications of the possible merger from the vantage point of competition policy and law for four weeks.

Market leader Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent both exerted enough competitive pressure in the mobile-phone network equipment sector, the EU Commission declared.

With the completion of the merger Nokia will take control of the newly founded company Nokia Siemens Networks, to which both Nokia and Siemens will contribute their mobile and fixed-line phone network equipment businesses.

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NYTimes: Sony’s new PlayStation 3 cannot play some of the games designed for previous generations of the popular console, the latest misstep for the company as it faces off in a crucial three-way war with Nintendo and Microsoft.

Sony, which has fallen behind in crucial products like flat-panel TVs and digital music players, badly needs a best seller in the PlayStation 3. The console went on sale here to hordes of eager fans over the weekend, ahead of its release on Friday in the United States.

On Tuesday, the company acknowledged the console would not run some of the 8,000 titles designed for previous PlayStations — even though the PlayStation 3 was billed as being fully compatible with older-generation games. (…)
Some older games will not run on the console at all, said a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment, Satoshi Fukuoka. Online upgrades of the PlayStation 3 software will be offered, but it is unlikely that all the problems will ever get fixed, he said. (…)

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NaviGadget: Another name to enter the sat nav market is Harman Kardon with a system called the Guide + Play.

It will include a media player that is smart enough to sort your music and other media on artist name, genre, album, etc. Guide + Play will come with a 4-inch screen and you’ll be able to upgrade its memory to 4 GB using the SD slot.

The internal rechargeable battery should last you up to 5 hours on a single charge.

Although we’re not sure on an exact release date for Europe, the retail price will be around €400.

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HardwareZone: Apple has announced it is teaming up with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to deliver the first seamless integration between iPod and in-flight entertainment systems.

These six airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections which power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the their seat back displays.

“There is no better traveling companion than an iPod, and now travelers can power their iPods during flight and even watch their iPod movies and TV shows on their seat back displays,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “We’re excited to work with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to offer iPod users an even better in-flight experience.”

In-flight iPod connectivity will be available to Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United passengers beginning in mid 2007. Additionally, Apple is working with Panasonic Avionics Corporation to bring even more leading airlines in-flight iPod connectivity in the future.

The iPod ecosystem continues to flourish with more than 3,000 accessories made specifically for iPod that range from fashionable cases to speaker systems, and more than 70 percent of 2007-model US automobiles currently offer iPod connectivity.

iPod and iTunes are leading the digital music revolution, providing the best way to listen to music on the go, at home, in the car and now on an aeroplane. With nearly 70 million iPods sold, the iPod is the world’s most popular digital music and portable video player and the iTunes Store is the number one online music store with over 1.5 billion songs purchased and downloaded worldwide.

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DigiTimes: Samsung expects revenues of their CRT, LCD, plasma and DLP (digital light processing) TVs to reach more than US$10 billion (€7 billion) this year, more than the originally expected US$8.8 billion (€6 billion), according to Choi Ji-Sung, the head of Samsung’s digital media division, as quoted by today’s Chinese-language Commercial Times.

The TV revenues from Samsung last year were US$6.5 billion (€5 billion), Choi was quoted in saying.

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Information Week: NASA will be broadcasting live HDTV from the International Space Station. The space agency is working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Discovery HD Theater, and Japanese broadcast network NHK to produce two live broadcasts.

NASA will broadcast the first live high-definition television feed from space next week.

“HDTV provides up to six times the resolution of regular analog video,” said NASA Principal Investigator Rodney Grubbs in a statement. “On previous missions, we’ve flow HDTV cameras but had to wait until after the mission to retrieve the tapes, watch the video, and share it with the science and engineering community, the media, and the public. For the first time ever, this test lets us stream live HDTV from space so the public can experience what it is like to be there.”

The U.S. space agency announced Tuesday that it is working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Discovery HD Theater, and Japanese broadcast network NHK to produce two live broadcasts. The special broadcasts will air Nov. 15, on Discovery HD Theater, NHK, and at Discovery Channel stores.

Viewers will see Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria on the International Space Station as Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter operates a camera 220-miles above Earth.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis crew delivered equipment in September so those on the space station could record and downlink HDTV signals. The Space Video Gateway system includes a camcorder, viewfinder, lenses, power cables, an HDTV signal decoder, processor, hard drive, and data cables. It will transmit high bandwidth digital television signals to the ground.

The images will be useful for scientists, engineers and managers and spectacular for viewers, NASA said in a news release.

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Ecoustics: Hands on with the most feature-packed smart phone yet for those on a budget.

Joining the parade of sleek, sub-€160 smart phones, the Samsung BlackJack is anything but a me-too device. It’s the first affordable Windows Mobile phone to run on Cingular’s growing high-speed HSDPA network, and it includes a host of amenities the competition lacks, including support for Cingular Video and streaming XM radio. Some prospective buyers may lament the lack of Wi-Fi, but we think the BlackJack is the real deal.

At first glance, the BlackJack looks like a black-clad Moto Q clone. But while this device has all the sex appeal of a scientific calculator, it’s lighter (10 g vs. 116 g), a hair thinner (1.17 cm vs. 1.19 cm), and noticeably narrower (5.84 inches vs. 6.35 inches) than the Q. The soft-touch finish gives the BlackJack a good grip, and despite its tiny dimensions, the keyboard didn’t feel cramped. We had no trouble typing e-mail or URLs at a quick pace. Like the Q, the BlackJack sports a thumbwheel on the right side for scrolling through menus and Web pages, along with a corresponding Back/Clear key.

We have only two complaints about the design: 1) The BlackJack’s four-way navigation key is too close to the Send and End keys; we accidentally entered the phone menu or exited an application on more than one occasion. 2) With the way the dial pad is arranged on the QWERTY layout, a letter falls between each number (going from left to right), which slows dialing.

The right side of the device is where you’ll also find the microSD Card slot to supplement the 64MB of built-in RAM (about 40MB of it is user-accessible), and the volume keys and a proprietary USB/charger jack line the left side. The optional stereo headset uses the same jack, but we’d suggest springing for a stereo Bluetooth headset so you can talk and listen to music wirelessly. A raised portion on the back of the device houses the camera lens, self-portrait mirror, and speaker. This protrusion makes the BlackJack easy to hold during calls.

Like most other Windows Mobile 5.0 phones that run the Smartphone Edition of the OS, this one can sync your contacts, calendar, e-mail, and tasks with Outlook. But Samsung went the extra mile by including an Organizer, which includes a welcome Notepad app and a convenient Smart Converter tool (currency, length, weight, temperature, etc.). The D-Day tool, for counting down to a critical event, is a little overkill given that you already have a calendar with built-in reminders.

As the second smart phone to tap into Cingular’s HSDPA network, the BlackJack offered fast data rates when we were within 3G range. Most Web pages began to load within 15 seconds. In other areas, you’ll get slower EDGE data, which is fine for downloading e-mail and Web sites optimized for mobile phones (like Cingular’s own MediaNet), but not for traditional HTML sites. The carrier currently offers HSDPA in 130 markets with populations of 100,000 or more. That pales in comparison to Sprint’s and Verizon Wireless’ EV-DO networks (200+ markets each), so you may want to hold off on the BlackJack until Cingular has closed the gap.

When it comes to messaging, the BlackJack satisfies. For e-mail, the device supports Cingular Xpress Mail (working with consumer services like Comcast, Yahoo, and BellSouth), Microsoft Direct Push, and Good Mobile. You can open all sorts of attachments using the included Picsel Viewer application, but you’ll have to zoom in to read them. For those who prefer instant messaging over text messaging, the BlackJack supports AOL, MSN, and Yahoo.

Another way the BlackJack stands out from other WM 5.0 phones is its multimedia perks. For starters, it’s compatible with Cingular Music. That means you can stream 25 channels of XM radio (for $9 per month). Reception was quite good—even if the service didn’t always list the right artist and track name—regardless of whether we were in an HSDPA or EDGE coverage area. You can also use the free Music ID feature to identify songs you hear and then purchase ringtones or wallpapers for that artist. No, you can’t download songs over the air, but you can easily sync tunes to the BlackJack using Windows Media Player, whether you rip them yourself or buy them from PlaysForSure stores.

Another pleasant surprise is support for Cingular Video, allowing users to stream clips from CNN, ESPN, HBO (for an extra fee), and other content providers. When you’re within HSDPA coverage, the video looks smooth, but when we roamed into EDGE areas, our CNN hourly news update looked like a slideshow. Regardless of the data rate, enabling the Full Screen view doesn’t expand the actual viewing area. It merely makes the area framing the video disappear.

Yet another advantage of the BlackJack is that it can play Java-based games, something most other WM 5.0 phones can’t do. Although it took us a while to download Jamdat’s Midnight Bowling (€4.66), there’s no question that this device is as good at killing time as it is at keeping you organized. The selection of games for now, however, is limited to a few titles, since they have to be optimized for this device’s display. Samsung also throws in an RSS reader application so you can quickly update and read the latest headlines from CBS, The New York Times, Yahoo News, and more.

The BlackJack also saves you more time than the competition, thanks to several handy shortcuts. For instance, pressing and holding the thumbwheel launches the Quick Launcher, allowing you to jump to your calendar, music, or even a specific Web page. You can edit what’s inside the Quick Launcher from within the app. Another example: pressing FN + B turns Bluetooth on and off.

The 1.3-megapixel camera is a mixed bag. It took sharp photos with very nice color saturation when shooting outdoors. However, the shutter speed is lacking, so you can forget about capturing moving subjects. And without a flash, you’ll need a lot of ambient light when shooting indoors. The 15-second video clips are just decent.

Call quality in our tests was quite good. Voices on our end exhibited very little static, and some people we called couldn’t tell we were calling from a cell phone. The loud, back-mounted speakerphone impressed us as well—for calls and music—even with the BlackJack laid flat on a table. Talk time is rated for 5.5 hours, 2.5 hours more than the Moto Q. We didn’t have enough time with our unit to test that claim, but we can tell you that the BlackJack’s standby time is longer. The Moto Q generally needs to be charged every other day, but with Samsung’s smart phone, we got through an entire weekend before having to find an outlet.

Since Cingular’s HSDPA network is still being rolled out, the BlackJack is a device that will get better with age. But we think it’s a very good deal now given all the extras Samsung stuffed inside its thin frame. The BlackJack offers more features and battery life than the €77-cheaper Moto Q, and it boasts better voice quality and coverage than the identically-priced T-Mobile Dash, even though the latter offers Wi-Fi. The BlackJack is now our favorite value-priced Windows Mobile phone.

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Yahoo News: Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L) topped forecasts for half-year earnings and tweaked up some of its full-year expectations on Tuesday despite continuing tough European mobile markets, sending its shares to a 12-month peak.

British-based Vodafone said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the first half to September 30 rose to 9.28 billion euro, well ahead of forecasts of between 8.90 billion and 9.21 billion.

Underlying earnings per share also came in well ahead of the average market forecast (…), and Vodafone stuck to its full-year forecasts for organic mobile revenue growth of 5-6.5 percent and EBITDA margins 1 percentage point lower.

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Microsoft’s Zune music player has gone on sale in the US, hoping to make a dent in the success of Apple’s iPod.

The modest launch of the player is Microsoft’s first direct attempt to topple the iPod, which dominates the MP3 player market around the world. The Zune is only available in the US and there is just one 30GB model – in three colours – for $250 (£131). (…)

Zune features:

• - 30GB model – $249
• - 3-inch screen (320*240 pixels)
• - FM radio
• - Songs cost 99 cents or unlimited subscription for $15 a month
• - Two million songs on offer
• - Wirelessly share songs with other Zune users
• - Registered guests can swap songs via a PC

Microsoft has all but abandoned plans to try to topple the iPod by working with third-party MP3 player manufacturers.

The firm licenses software called Plays For Sure, which guarantees that digital music bought from a range of download stores works on players that have signed up to the system.

But Microsoft’s Zune is not part of the Plays For Sure initiative – so songs bought from Napster, Rhapsody, AOL or Urge, for example, will not work with the player. Songs bought from Microsoft’s own MSN music store – which is being closed down – will also not work on a Zune player.

Instead Zune users must buy and download music from a dedicated Zune music store – or rip their own CDs and copy them on to the player.

Zune owners can buy individual tracks using a points system – 79 Zune points equals 99 cents which buys a single – or subscribe to the service monthly, giving users access to two million tracks.

The first reviews of the player have been mixed – praising some features, and criticising others.

(source: BBC)

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