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HDTV: There seems to be no stopping LG at the moment as they announce the introduction of no less than 8 new lines of LCD TV’s. The flagship super slim series is the LG75 which features a unique ‘teardrop’ design. The LG75 series is a 1.7in super slim design that according to an LG spokesperson, is the “epitome” of elegance.

The LG75 comes with a unique ‘rose red’ tint within the “high-gloss” black finish. Not only does the flagship series from LG look good, the style is backed up by an impressive specification.

Full HD, TruMotion 120Hz technology, backlight technology, wireless connectivity along with a claimed Dynamic Contrast Ratio of 1,000,000:1 head up an impressive spec list. In addition, the LG75 series sports 24p TruCinema, 4 HDMI inputs (v1.3), Deep Colour, and a USB 2.0 jack for viewing JPEG photos or listening to MP3 music files.

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Reuters: Television set and digital camera maker Syntax-Brillian Corp  said it signed a liquid crystal display panel supply agreement with Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp, sending its shares up 5 percent.Under the terms, Sharp will supply Tempe, Arizona-based Syntax-Brillian with a minimum of 700,000 LCD panels in 2008, with the option to buy more LCD panels based on market demand.

The contract also gives Syntax-Brillian and Taiwan home appliance maker Kolin Co the exclusive right to buy the 65″ 120Hz LCD panel through September 2008.

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TMCnet: Providing more support to Blu-Ray supporters, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment announced a new line-up of Blu-ray initiatives for 2008, including an expanding portfolio of technology advancements in bonus feature materials.

Starting in fall 2008, Walt Disney will begin releasing its animated classics on Platinum Edition Blu-ray Disc for the first time ever, Wireless News reported. Utilizing the technological advancements of the new format, Disney will include with each disc interactive content (e.g. virtual games) and other features (e.g. motion picture-in-picture and online shopping capabilities).

As part of its continued worldwide Blu-ray release strategy, Walt Disney also plans to announce the addition of many movie titles to its 2008 Blu-ray line-up in North America, Europe and Asia, Wireless News said.  

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Guardian: Bang & Olufsen, the Danish maker of sleek stereos and televisions, sacked Chief Executive Torben Sorensen last Thursday, one day after a steep drop in profits triggered a sell-off that slashed its market value.

The company said its board of directors was disappointed by B&O’s turnover and profit downgrade despite rising sales for most of the past three and half years. But analysts expressed surprise at the sudden decision.
“We have not had the desired growth in turnover during the upturn in the global economy,” B&O Chairman Jorgen Worning told Reuters.
“We probably will never have as good business conditions as in recent years.” He added that the board was looking outside the company for a replacement CEO.
In the first half of the 2007/08 fiscal year, B&O sales were flat in Germany, down 6 percent in Britain and rose only 3 percent in Denmark, the group’s largest markets. The company said the start of the third quarter showed a decline in sales in the United States and Europe amid a weakening economy.

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NaviGadget: Clarion just introduced a next generation GPS navigation device called MiND which stands for Mobile Internet Navigation Device.Clarion MiND is based on Intel’s Menlow platform which is pretty much an UMPC, allowing users to connect to the internet from their navigators using Wi-Fi, and play various kinds of multimedia files. Clarion MiND is also equipped with bluetooth which means you can pair up your bluetooth enabled phone with the device. Alternatively the same bluetooth connection can be used to connect to 3G networks when Wi-Fi is not available.

Here is the full list of those impressive specs:

• 5.2 inch WVGA (800×480) LCD Display with Touch screen
• Intel Menlow (Based on Silverthorne processor and Poulsbo Chipset)
• 256MB DRAM
• 4GB Flash Memory for Storage
• WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
• CMOS Camera
• 3G Data Module (Future Capability)
• Mobile WiMAX (Future Capability)

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Audio Junkies: B&C Speakers of Italy have just released the latest (and largest) driver under their LF Nd range, the humongous 21SW150 21” woofer. The 21SW150 features a 1500 watt continuous power rating, a very large 6” copper voice coil and 60mm of maximum excursion. Sensitivity is rated at 95dB, and impedance is 4 Ohm. Given its huge size, the frequency response of the 21SW150 is rather strange, it isn’t a conventional subwoofer.

The 21SW150 is rated at 30Hz – 1kHz, but it begins to roll off sharply below 80Hz. Its response curve is similar to a typical 6.5” midrange driver, making the 21SW150 more suited to PA systems that require substantial SPL in the lower midbass range than those looking for extremely low frequency output. And if you’ve just got to have the biggest woofer in town, the Clarion SRW8000 32” and Audiobahn AWT34X 34″ subwoofers are larger, but much more expensive.

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PMP Today: So, you take an average double-sided electric razor (if there is such a thing), slap on a 2.4-inch TFT screen, and you’ll approximate the look of the SA-866 from the incomprehensibly named SOAIJVJ Electronics. The device can’t actually shave your face, but it supports MPEG-4 and AVI videos, MP3, WMA, APE and FLAC audio files (with ID3 tags), and JPEG, BMP and GIF images.

The SA-866 has a USB 2.0 port, a speaker and a microphone for voice recording. It comes with audio recording (ADPCM or ACT), e-book reader and gaming functionality. Internal memory comes in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB options, and black and pearl white housings are available.

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TVPredictions: Apple yesterday gave its disappointing Internet TV device a face lift,  adding High-Definition movies and lowering the price.

At this week’s Macworld conference, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the company is unveiling new software for the  Apple TV, allowing owners to rent movies from the iTunes store which can be played back on a widescreen HDTV.

The iTunes movie catalog will consist of more than 1,000 titles including more than 100 in high-def. The list will include films from all major studios.

“With the new Apple TV and iTunes Movie Rentals, movie lovers can rent DVD-quality or stunning HD movies from their couch with just a click of a button,” said Jobs. “No more driving to the video store or waiting for DVDs to arrive in the mail.”

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NaviGadget: European car maker Seat is offering a new breed of GPS navigation system which is DVD based but also comes with a 30GB hard disk drive. This new add-on will set you back €2115 – way above what you would pay for an after market GPS navigation system.The device is actually built by Siemens and the mapping data comes from Navteq. The new sat nav systems is available for order as an option on all Leon, Altea, Altea XL, Altea Freetrack 4 and Toledo models.

Seat’s new GPS navigation systems feature a large, 6.5″ touch screen and it also doubles as a CD/DVD player capable of handling various file formats including CD-A, MP3, WAV and WMA. On top of that, it can read from most mainstream media types such as CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW etc.

With these DVD-based GPS navigation systems what comes to mind usually is if you can listen to music or watch something while navigating. With Seat, this is possible but you’ll have to store the whole mapping data on to the HDD. However you’ll still have 20GB of space left for your other files. Oh, and about watching DVD’s on your console: Only when the vehicle is stationary.

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Slashgear: This is apparently the company’s first foray into this market. It’s a really tiny camera that should be mountable just about anywhere on the rear of the vehicle.

Even better yet, it should be fairly easy to integrate into any existing display or navigation system. They also took it a step further, and made it so that if you use it in conjunction with some of their TravelPilot units it will automatically activate the backup camera when the vehicle is shifted into reverse which is a feature you usually have to have professionally or factory installed.

The kit comes with the camera and both 2 and 8 meter cables with 3.5mm jacks at the end so you can connect it to just about anything that will accept an external video source.

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Electronista: Major music label EMI will slash as many as 2,000 jobs in a bid to sustain itself, company chief Guy Hands revealed today. Although the firm’s music contains only about 4,500 workers, at least one third (1,500) and as many as 2,000 will be let go to reduce the beleaguered label’s costs by as much as €266 million per year. This will also come with a consolidation that brings normally separate distribution, marketing, and sales into a more efficient single group. It should also allow sub-labels such as Capitol or Parlophone more freedom to find and sign new musicians, according to EMI.

The seemingly drastic move has largely been credited to the struggle to adapt to downloadable music,”We have spent a long time looking intensely at EMI and the problems faced by its recorded music division which, like the rest of the music industry, has been struggling to respond to the challenges posed by a digital environment,” Hands says.

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Audio Junkies: The PS Audio memory transport is back, appearing at CES with a new name (Memory Link) a new full width chassis. The new design is likely to be the final revision, and includes a small full color display on the front panel which can show metadata and album art downloaded from the internet thanks to an Ethernet jack.

Actual playback is still taken from the 64MB of memory rather than the disc itself, and re-clocked via the integrated digital lens for jitter as low as possible. Two USB ports allow the Memory Link to rip a CD to a music server or an upcoming PS network attached storage device. Optical and coaxial digital outputs, a balanced AES/EBU output, and an HDMI output configured for 12S accommodate for pretty much every DAC out there, with a similarly equipped PS DAC also on the horizon. 

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