Navigadget: Back at CES2007 Navigon was also promoting a new GPS navigation system called P9611, a colloboration between Navigon and Porsche. This system uses Navigon’s MobileNavigator Premium software which in our opinion looks better than any of the Garmin interfaces.

The hardware on the P9611 is also pretty impressive. It features a 4.3″ screen, bluetooth hands free communication support, 1400mAh Li-Ion battery. (…)

AE: the Navigon Porsche P9611 should be available for Europe in Spring 2007.

bluetooth CES sat nav

Gizmodo: If you’re looking for a pair of speakers that can do the same thing five speakers normally do, KEF’s fivetwo series can surround you with sound with just two swanky-looking audio towers. Their cool euro design and the fact that you only need two of them instead of a roomful of speakers appealed to a lot of the ladies at the 2006 IFA in Berlin.The surround sound effect is achieved by using side-facing SurfaceSound panels by NXT, coupled with drivers that KEF calls Uni-Q. Those side-firing SurfaceSound panels create left and right ambient effects, while the Uni-Q drivers deliver the left, center and right channels up front.

Available this fall, the seven-driver Model 7 will be 600 £/pair (about 900 eur), and the eleven-speaker Model 11 pictured here will be 1,100£/pair (about 1660 eur)

ifa KEF

ZDnet: It looks as if plasma is losing ground in the high end of the TV market. Shipments of plasma panels -sheets of glass placed inside plasma televisions- rose only 3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 over the same period the year before and actually declined 4 percent from the third quarter of 2006, according to research firm DisplaySearch.

It was the first quarter that plasma panel shipments grew less than 47 percent on a year-to-year basis and only the second time since the first quarter of 2003 that there has been a sequential decline. Plasma panel shipments were 15 percent lower than the suppliers’ aggregate forecast and 9 percent below DisplaySearch’s forecast.

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lcd matsushita Philips pioneer plasma Samsung sharp

T3: Satnav specialist Garmin has unveiled a pair of nuvis GPS devices, both of which come jam packed with maps: you get the lowdown on 30 European countries, plus the USA, Canada and, er, Puerto Rico.

The nuvi 670 has a crisp 4.3-inch touchscreen and the aforementioned maps. It also has 1.25GB flash memory, which can be used to store MP3 music; fill it up and you can shove in an SD card with yet more tunes on.

You also get Bluetooth, allowing you to hook up your mobile for hands-free calls, but the most impressive feature is the FM transmitter, which pushes navigation instructions, music and phone calls to your car stereo, taking advantage of the better speakers.

The nuvi 370 is a more straightforward satnav. It has a 3.5-inch screen and not much else of note (apart from the globetrotter-friendly map selection).

Both models should be available in the next few weeks.

garmin nuvi nuvi 370 nuvi 670

Home Cinema Choice: Hitachi will upgrade its entire lineup of plasma TVs to 1080 resolution in 2007. Their plasmas will feature integrated personal video recorders (PVR) and a host of new picture processing technologies.

Due in the Autumn, the flagship X and XR series, available in 1920 x 1080 resolution, will ship in 42, 50 and 60in sizes. The larger two will sport 250GB hard drives, able to make recordings direct from a Freeview EPG.

This built-in PVR allows the viewer to record one channel while watching another, comes with a 28-event timer and features audio playback of recordings during slow (x0.8) and fast (x1.5) trick replay.

The PVR plasmas can even have their recording capacity enlarged through slot-in iVDR (information Versatile Disk for Removable storage) drives. This removable caddy may become a common standard for all hard drives used with consumer electronics kit.

All feature three HDMI inputs (two rear, one front-facing).

Preceding these models will be two more affordable 1080 interlaced plasmas. The T-series 42in and 50in models will feature 1024 x 1080 and 1280 x 1080 resolution respectively.

60 inch hitachi plasma pvr x series xr series

Slashgear: I’ve a shudder-inducing feeling that my own personal purgatory will be a nightmarish bombardment of acronyms and abbreviations.  Seriously, is there any other industry so in love with initials and oddly-constructed names?  Well, the latest to offend my eyes is USBTV, basically a USB memory stick with built-in video encoder and video line-out.

Tech-shy users slap the key into their PC, drag’n’drop a load of content onto it (which get DRM-encrypted as it transfers) and then either slot it into an LCD or Plasma TV which has a compatible USBTV USB port, or use the cradle and a bog-standard video-out cable.

It might sound bland - and compared to wireless media streamers, it is - but it’s obviously caught the attention of LG, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer and Zoran who have all jumped into bed with Sandisk. Expect to see USBTV products later this year, after some trial testing starts at the beginning of February.

drm lcd LG mitsubishi Philips pioneer plasma Sandisk usb USBTV