about-electronics.eu

Twice: Five leading car stereo suppliers met yesterday, in what was termed an unprecedented spirit of cooperation, to plan an industry summit to raise consumer awareness about autosound.The summit, to be held in Dallas, July 16-17, was first suggested by Pioneer during International CES in January. Last week, Pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood, Clarion, and Directed met in person and by conference call to form a steering committee for the summit. The mission of the summit is to take action against a 30 percent drop in awareness for aftermarket car audio over the past five years.

Organizer of the meeting and the summit, Greg Sabatino, chairman of Sabatino Day Williamson Group, an advertising agency/seminar planning group, said the meeting was more than cooperative. “It amazed everybody. We had Pioneer and Alpine in the same room. The meeting went for an hour and 45 minutes without breaks. First, it’s very difficult to even get competitors like that together.”

He said only one subject was discussed, which was awareness. “Everyone acknowledged that hard research from more than one source has shown that awareness of the 12 volt aftermarket has dropped precipitously.” 

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The Register: Apple may have an existing exercise product partner, Nike, but several Apple patent applications have sprung-up online describing the company’s designs for a physical fitness system of its own.

The exercise software appears to be based around iTunes and works like a personal trainer – only you can turn this one off. Users set up the software by entering their vital statistics, such as weight, exercise objectives, preferred types of exercise and, of course, when you want to exercise.

From this information, the software then calculates a personalised workout routine for you. Schedules are synched onto your Apple device, such as an iPod Touch, which you’ll then need to carry with you during the workout.

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NaviGadget: Snooper is a European company that specializes in helping drivers avoid speed cameras, police radars, and many other traps with their GPS navigation systems. Their latest is the Snooper Strabo 370 which can pre-warn of any static/temporary speed cameras, mobile sites and even low bridges!Like we said their specialty is helping you avoid tickets so Strabo 370 works with the Enigma database which has the information for camera locations across Europe.

In terms of navigation, there is mapping for the whole of Western Europe on the 2GB memory (via Navteq), with all the searching and points of interest you might expect.

Strabo 370 also has hands free bluetooth capability.

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Electronista: HD DVD has ceased to exist in every formal capacity, an official announcement explains. The HD DVD Promotion Group, a body put together to represent the various companies which once produced HD DVD movies and players, has announced that as of March 28th, it has put a halt to all operations. Its website has been closed, leaving behind a message redirecting companies to the official bodies for the regular DVD format.

While Toshiba effectively handed victory to Blu-ray by stopping production of HD DVD players on February 19th, the format continued to have some lingering support, mainly as a residual effort to help clear out stock; since then, prices on HD DVD titles and equipment have dropped precipitously. At present, any remaining support for the format is generally dependent on individual manufacturers and retailers.

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Camera Core: The mobile industry has become so competitive these past few years that manufacturers are doing their best to go one up against each other. Some companies are doing their best to introduce innovative designs and state of the art technologies towards consumers while others tries to maintain and strengthen their hold on the market with their tried and tested handsets.

The Sony Ericsson brand will always come up whenever we talk about these companies. They are one of the leading manufacturers of mobile handsets and its range of Sony Ericsson mobile handsets has captured a large portion of the global market. Sony Ericsson has designed a wide array of handsets that are extremely popular among mobile users. One of its most impressive creations is the T250i.

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Absolute Gadget: The number of UK households with digital television on their main set has risen to 22.2 million homes, according to research published by Ofcom yesterday. The increase has come as Freeview and cable show strong growth, the communications watchdog said. The Digital Television Progress Report for October to December 2007 also shows that multi-channel television take-up has reached 87.6 percent of households, up 1.5 per cent from the previous quarter.

The growth in digital television was driven by sales of digital terrestrial television (Freeview), which saw its best quarter to date with over four million units sold.

That’s up by almost 70 per cent, year on year, helped by the inclusion of Freeview into modern televisions.

Cable television also had a strong quarter adding over 61,000 more customers to reach almost 3.5 million subscribers, the highest level of take-up since 2002.

Cable, with 13.6 percent share of the television market, has now overtaken analogue terrestrial viewing to become the third largest platform for the first time.

Ofcom said that over 15 million homes now have a Freeview device connected to at least one television, an increase of 1.3 million on the previous quarter.

Figures show that more second television sets in people’s homes are also being converted to digital.

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About.com: JBL is a well-known name in loudspeakers, providing solutions for both the professional and the consumer. The latest loudspeaker line from JBL, the ES Series, is targeted towards the consumer market, and is intended to provide a solution that will work for both audio enthusiasts and the home theater fan.The ES Series is both stylish and functional. On the style side, the speakers are available in both Cherry and Charcol, and are available in both bookshelf or floorstanding options.

On the performance side, JBL has incorporated a new tweeter design that provides up to 40kHZ high frequency response, a combination of both paper and polymer cone material for more solid mid-range and woofer speaker response, and a new port system for the ES subwoofers that provides more efficient low frequency output, which can go below 30Hz.

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The Register: We’ve all had some shocking news delivered through a mobile phone. But if you’ve got a dodgy ticker, thank your lucky stars that someone’s applied to patent a handset with an integrated defibrillator.

The application for a “wireless communication device with integrated defibrillator” describes a handset that’s capable of “delivering an electrical charge to defibrillate the heart of a victim experiencing cardiac distress”.

The inventor claims the phone’s inital design will be capable of determining when the victim’s heartbeat has become irregular, if defibrillation is necessary and, crucially, if the shock’s been successful.

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NaviGadget: iNAVI K2 has the best 3D navigation software we’ve ever seen so far. Of course it is from Korea; a company called Thinkware announced iNAVI K2, a GPS navigation system that has 8GB of space on SDHC memory card, comes with 256MB of RAM, and has a 4.8″ WVGA screen with 800×480 resolution.What makes iNAVI K2 so futuristic is the fact that 3D structures are rendered with actual realistic images of the buildings. You can also expect to get complete lane information about the road you are on to help you with your next turn.

iNAVI K2 GPS navigation system also integrates a geomagnetic 3 axis sensor which detects absolute north pole and can calculate the heading of your vehicle even in stand still.

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HiddenWires: Households across Europe are full of expensive technology that most people do not know how to control, according to a study released today and commissioned by Logitech. It is estimated that Europeans have at least €362 billion worth of TVs, HiFis, speakers, video and DVD players, digital recorders and satellite boxes in their homes, with the true value probably being several billions more. In spite of this, in 24 percent of European households only one person knows how to control all the technology in their home.

The Logitech study, undertaken by Lightspeed Research, demonstrates the huge expense and complexity involved in acquiring and making use of technology commonly found in the home. Most households have spent thousands of Euros on home entertainment, yet the majority of people in each household are unable to do simple tasks like watching a DVD or recording a TV programme.

The source of the problem seems to be the sheer complexity of technology in the home – 49 percent of households have five or more remote controls and 87 percent have three or more. Yet one in four Europeans have a very untechnical solution to the problem: written instructions for their loved ones explaining how to control their system (otherwise known as a cheat sheet).

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HDTV News: Choosing between Plasmas and LCD nowadays have become very difficult. This is due to the improving quality of LCD televisions. Before, Plasmas are superior to LCD’s, now, you won’t even see the difference.With the Philips 42PFL7432D 42-inch (107cm) flat-panel LCD, you are given even a harder choice as it tries to compete with similarly priced 42-inch plasmas by bringing the company’s trademark Ambilight system to the table.

As a company known for their striking designs, Philips took relatively great care with the 42PFL9732D. It has a handsome exterior of entirely thick, glossy-black case with a similarly glossy-black bezel around the screen. The bezel in turn is set forward from the matte-black cabinet, for a double-frame look. A thin strip below the bezel consists of perforated speaker grille, which bends back subtly. The panel itself rests atop a stand with a silver pedestal and black glass base.

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NaviGadget: We have a shot of the nuvi 860’s remote controller! Nuvi 860 is the European version of Nuvi 880 so we’re assuming the remote will look the same on nuvi 880, and nuvi 850.nuvi 860’s features include hands free bluetooth connectivity, voice guided directions, speech recognition which is activated via the remote controller, FM traffic receiver, FM transmitter for using your (European) car’s audio, and microSD card slot.

Nuvi 860 will be available in Europe starting in May for 600 €.

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