about-electronics.eu

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. (…)

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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. ” (…)

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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.

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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. (…)

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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.

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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”.

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CNN: Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs indicated Wednesday he is unlikely to give in to calls from the music industry to add a subscription-based model to Apple’s wildly popular iTunes online music store.”Never say never, but customers don’t seem to be interested in it,” Jobs told Reuters in an interview after Apple reported blow-out quarterly results. “The subscription model has failed so far.”

His comments come as the company he co-founded gears up for contract renewal negotiations with the major record labels over the next month.

Since Apple launched iTunes in 2003, it has sold more than 2.5 billion songs and now offers increasing numbers of television shows and movies. (…)

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Reuters: Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. Ltd. scored a nearly eightfold rise in quarterly operating profit on vigorous sales of its DS handheld games, and forecast stronger than expected growth this year. (…)

Nintendo said it aims to more than double its Wii sales to 14 million units in the current business year from 5.84 million a year earlier.

The Kyoto-based company added that it is targeting DS handheld game sales of 22 million units this year, compared with 23.56 million in fiscal 2007.

“We cannot make our business plan on the assumption that this extraordinary situation will continue this year, although modest DS growth in the United States and Europe can be expected,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told reporters.

Iwata said Nintendo aims to double its combined annual Wii and DS software sales to 300 million units from last year’s levels, without giving a specific time frame.

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ZDNet: Digital camera sales will grow 8% to hit 114 million units in 2007, but the market will peak in 2010, the IDC has forecast.

The digital camera market is saturating as the electronic devices replace earlier film models, and already camera makers have begun emphasizing products and features for customers who are upgrading or want multiple cameras. But even emerging markets will saturate soon, IDC forecast, and the number of units shipped will decline after 2010.

“We predict a slowdown, driven by a complete saturation of all regions, creating 2 percent negative growth in 2011,” said IDC analyst Christopher Chute.

The exception is with digital SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras, which are bulkier and more expensive but offer better performance and a variety of interchangeable lenses. Digital SLR shipments will increase 9 percent to 8.5 million units in 2011, IDC forecast.

To tap into new markets, camera makers will have to adapt marketing and distribution for customers in China, Russia and the diverse countries of Latin America.

But cameras should withstand the arrival of cell phones that can take snapshots, IDC forecast.

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Ubergizmo: Samsung’s new 50-inch SPD-50P91FHD plasma display holds the tag for being the first Bluetooth capable full HD plasma TV in the world.

The SPD-50P91FHD is compatible with other Bluetooth devices such as headsets and photo printers, supporting ACAP standard two-way data broadcast.

Featuring True Black Panel for an improved full HD image  and a Cinema Screen Mode that utilizes proprietary technologies like Ultra DayLight, Natural True Color, and Real motion studio. 

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The Red Ferret Journal: Fixya is an online consumer product repair community. Log on and the community experts will try and offer advice on how to fix those annoying problems with your favourite gadgets.

It’s a useful site: you can search by manufacturer, and it covers all kinds of consumer electronics goods, from camera’s, washing machines, to home entertainment systems and LCD TVs.

Take a look.

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Physorg.com: Earlier this week, a Hitachi subsidary filed a patent infringement suit against LG Electronics and one of its subsidiaries for the improper use of Hitachi’s plasma display panel technologies 

Hitachi Plasma Patent Licensing (HPPL) had been working with Seoul-based LG Electronics and LG Electronics USA in an effort to hammer out a licensing agreement, but talks “reached an impasse – and – HPPL filed the lawsuit to resolve the dispute,” according to Hitachi.

Hitachi claims that LG’s plasma display panel products infringe on seven of Hitachi’s patents. Hitachi is seeking monetary damages and a permanent injunction, which would prohibit LG from using those seven patents and from importing or selling its plasma display panel products in the United States.

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