about-electronics.eu

Crave: Tivoli Audio is known for its tabletop radios, but the company has always remained somewhat on the conservative side when it comes to features: AM, FM, and CD, plus the occasional iPod dock and satellite radio. But the company is taking a firm step into the 21st century with a new pair of products, the NetWorks Table Radio and NetWorksGo.

The models are essentially network-enabled updates of the Model One and the SongBook, respectively, with the Table Radio intended for stationary duty and the NetWorksGo offering space for six rechargeable C batteries (which you have to supply). Both models have a built-in FM (but no AM) tuner, but the real attraction is the ability to stream WMA, MP3, and Real Audio Internet radio stations via their built-in Ethernet or Wi-Fi connections; they can also stream digital audio files from networked PCs as well.

Additionally, both also offer USB and line-in connectors for playing music from other devices.

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Product Reviews Net: Do you like the idea of having your own personal trainer in your own home with out even having to go to the gym? This is now possible.This is the only cable motion Interactive Personal Trainer System around that connects to the internet and downloads exercise routines from virtual fitness professionals demonstrating the correct exercise form and pace on a conveniently placed 17″ LCD monitor.

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Engadget: JVC’s got a couple of new LCD TVs for those who won’t settle for any less than full 1080p, today rolling out two new series of sets encompassing three different screen sizes. The slightly lower-end of the two, the 688 series includes 37 and 42-inch models, each with an all-black cabinet. Taking things up a notch, the 788 series boasts 42-inch and 47-inch displays, with an added silver trim and ultra-thin bezel to make ‘em stand out. Otherwise, the two series appear to be virtually identical, with each boasting that all-important 1920 x 1080 resolution, JVC’s trademark D.I.S.T. upcoverting technology, and dual HDMI v1.3 inputs, along with a newly designed remote control.

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Engineer LIVE: Consumers’ appetite for car navigation and Global Position Systems (GPSs) has become voracious, causing worldwide shipments of automotive navigation systems to more than triple from 2006 to 2012, iSuppli Corp predicts.

Since 2001, the automotive navigation market has transformed from being dominated by embedded systems installed in cars to being virtually taken over by Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs), which are handheld devices users can carry with them, as well as use in their vehicles.

The raised awareness of navigation is now having an uplifting effect on all types of systems, including line-fit units, with iSuppli forecasting total market shipments of 65.1 million navigation systems by 2012, more than three times the 19.8 million shipped in 2006.

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Did we talk about anything else before the iPhone?  Fans can now get a guided 20 minute video tour of all the “amazing” applications on Apple’s new phone here.

Go on, you know you can’t resist.

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AV Zombie: Disgruntled plasma buyers in Korea have besieged Samsung with complaints after their beloved flatscreens turned black.

Owners have even turned to a consumer rights group for help in demanding that Samsung immediately recall all of its plasma televisions.

Four models in Samsung’s 42-inch plasma range (the SPD-42S5HD, SPD-42S5HDM, SPD-42P5HD, and SPD-42P5HDM) appear to be affected by the terminal fault, which results in half the screen turning black after approximately a year’s use.

Samsung has confirmed that the black-out is due to a technical fault with the set and has offered free repairs to owners, however the CE giant is refusing to recall any screens. It has said however that if complaints grow it will consider extending its free warranty period from one to two years.

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Blu-ray.com: The first low cost Blu-ray player will hit US shelves this fall from Funai, according to reports from Japan.

As we reported earlier, Funai makes low costs electronics which are then sold under brand names such as Sylvania, Emerson, and Magnavox. While no pricing or specs have yet been released, expect pricing to be lower than players from top manufacturers, which are expected to drop to around $400 (around €300) for the holiday season.

At this year’s CES, HD DVD announced that they would leverage cheap players from China to reach a wider marketplace.

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I4U News:  It has been reported that Mitsubishi will show their Laser TV at the 2008 CES Show in Vegas, USA.

At the last CES, SED and Laser TVs had been no shows. In an NY Times article Rank DeMartin, vice president for marketing and product development at Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, said that Mitsubishi will show a large-screen laser TV.

Mitsubishi announced the first Laser projection TV back in 2006 and said they would bring Laser TVs to market in 2007. Now we know for sure that this will not happen; It will be 2008.

The advantages of Laser TVs are bright and deep images on large, thin, lightweight screens. Laser TVs are also supposedly cheaper to make than Plasma screens. There are other companies like Coherent and Arasor that work on Laser TV technology. Coherent demonstrated a Laser TV on Kron 4 earlier this year.

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TWICE: Kenwood has agreed to merge with Victor Co. of Japan (JVC), under a holding company in 2008, according to a Nikkei report released on Friday.

Kenwood had informed JVC parent Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Friday that it would agree to a proposal for a merger with the struggling subsidiary, according to the report.

Details have yet to be decided by the three companies, which will seek a final agreement by the end of next month, Nikkei reported.

Under the plan, Kenwood will buy 20 billion yen ($161,469,466) in JVC shares as early as this summer, raising its stake to 13 percent, Nikkei said.

The report said Matsushita will sell a portion of its 52.7 percent interest in JVC to Kenwood’s top shareholder, investment firm Sparx Group.

When JVC and Kenwood integrate operations under the holding company in 2008, Matsushita will sell the rest of its JVC shares to the holding company to complete the transaction. The holding company’s stock will be listed instead of Kenwood and JVC, according Nikkei.

Combined group sales at the two companies reached 910 billion yen ($7,346,767,192) for the year ended March 31.

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FT.com: Nintendo zipped past Sony in market value on monday and became one of Japan’s top 10 issues for the first time, as it elbows the PlayStation maker out of its decade-long dominance of the game industry.

Nintendo now joins such global household names as Toyota, Honda Motor and Canon on the list of the 10 most valuable Japanese companies.

Nintendo’s Wii game console has outsold Sony’s PlayStation 3 by three to one in Japan and by more than two to one in the United States so far this year, according to game magazine publisher Enterbrain and research firm NPD.

Demand for its DS handheld game players also far outstripped that for Sony’s PlayStation Portable.

”It is becoming quite clear that Nintendo is taking back its market share from Sony in the console market while well defending its stronghold of portable games,” Mizuho Securities analyst Takeshi Koyama said.

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Engadget: Sony has admitted that it sneakily upgraded the PSP’s clockspeed to 333MHz (from 266MHz) in the version 3.50 firmware update that was released last month.

This admission is confusing for a couple of reasons: for starters, Sony originally underclocked the PSP in order to increase the stated battery life of the console. Does that mean they’ll be forced to decrease the stated battery life, so as to avoid false advertisement? It’s also rather odd that developers are only now being granted access to the extra MHz oomph, prompting mutterings of a new PSP model which could take as long to appear as games that take full advantage of the 333MHz clockspeed.

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News Blaze: iPod2Computer Inc. announced on Saturday the immediate availability of iPod To Computer Transfer Pro 2.5, an extremely easy to use utility for exporting audio and video from your iPod to PC. The program also allows quick synchronization of iPod’s contents with iTunes.

Each and every iPod owner sooner or later faces the need for getting the contents of their iPod back to PC. Unfortunately, iTunes doesn’t provide this feature at all. But there can be a number of cases when you need it, for example, when some multimedia was lost after your formatting the hard drive or when you want to make a backup of an entire iPod collection. Taking these needs into account, iPod2Computer Inc. has developed an optimal solution for quick retrieval of music and audio from iPod to PC and for synchronizing it directly with iTunes.

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