Heise: A growing number of Europeans are doing without a landline telephone connection at home. Viviane Reding, the EU’s Media Commissioner, announced in Brussels that some 22 percent of households had completely switched to cell phones at the end of 2006. That figure is four percent higher than the previous year.

At the same time, a Eurobarometer study found that the number of households with a landline connection fell by five percent to 72 percent. Approximately 80 percent of those surveyed had a cell phone. 6 percent did without a telephone altogether. (…)

eu

Hidefster: An article from the U.K’s Digit Magazine reports that Sony is rolling out a new digital cinema projector that can display theatrical movies at a resolution four times clearer than HDTV.  Sony hopes that theater owners looking to lure high-def owners back to the movies will purchase the projector and its supporting system.

The company showcased the digital cinema projector earlier this month during the world premiere of Spiderman 3 in Tokyo.  “The result (was) a spectacular image that’s a rank above what you might be used to seeing at the movies,” the magazine reported.
“The projector outputs an image with 4,096-x-2,160 pixels resolution, which is double that of HDTV both horizontally and vertically to result in more than 8 million pixels versus about 2 million on HDTV. ” (…)

Sony

Navigadget: Now you have more than ever reasons to believe you’re being followed. Thanks to a new patent pending technology by BlueSkyPositioning we are one step closer to having a GPS chip inside every cell phone - as long as they take SIM cards.

The key point here is their proprietary antenna design that is embedded in the SIM card itself. Just so you know this is not your regular GPS chip. It is an assisted GPS chip that relies on your cellular network for a faster position fix. (..)

The new startup company is in a great position since all EU countries will soon pass a law that requires network providers to locate the position of handsets in case of emergency calls.

eu sat nav

AV Zombie: The prospect of free-to-air high definition TV broadcasting in the UK moved forward this week with the announcement by the BBC that it plans to launch the Freesat platform early 2008. The venture has been approved by the BBC Trust and will be conducted as a joint venture with ITV.
The proposal is for as many as 200 TV channels to be available, most in standard definition but a selection in high definition, all without the need for a subscription. A range of reception equipment will be made available, both SD and HD, receiver only and PVR. (…)

bbc iTV United Kingdom

AV zombie: AV retailers will groan at a prediction from market research firm iSuppli Corp that the consumer electronics market will slow down significantly over the next five years.

It says that there are clear signs that the all-important OEM factory market is beginning to experience a significant slowdown in growth.

However, it’s not all bad news. Mobile device sales will continue to be strong, says iSupply, with personal media players gaining momentum, peaking at 268.6 million units by 2011.

CNN: The rising popularity of text messaging on mobile phones poses a threat to writing standards among Irish schoolchildren, an education commission says.The frequency of errors in grammar and punctuation has become a serious concern, the State Examination Commission said in a report after reviewing last year’s exam performance by 15-year-olds. (…)

Text messaging, with its use of phonetic spelling and little or no punctuation, seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing. The report laments that, in many cases, candidates seemed “unduly reliant on short sentences, simple tenses and a limited vocabulary”.