05
Mar
2008
BBC News: Warner Music has signed a deal with media site 7digital.com to offer its music without copy protection.Customers in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Germany will be able to download albums by artists such as Madonna and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
The MP3 files can be played on nearly all music devices including Apple’s best selling iPod.
7digital.com is the first European site to offer Warner’s music free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems.
05
Mar
2008
NaviGadget: Garmin Nuvi 900T is one the latest GPS navigation systems from Garmin announced at CeBIT yesterday. It is unique because it is the only the nuvi that comes with an DVB-H (digital TV receiver) antenna. It looks like Garmin only made a deal with the Italian La3 TV offering their content for free for the first 6 months.
Other features on the nuvi 900T include a wide 4.3″ screen display, turn-by-turn directions, preloaded maps of Europe, hands-free calling, life-time traffic services, and more. However don’t expect MSN Direct (U.S. only feature anyways), speech recognition, FM transmitter, or dead-reckoning like the highest end models (Nuvi 880).
05
Mar
2008
GPSTracklog: Garmin is announcing four new nuvi models yesterday…the nuvi 205, 205W, 255 and 255W. These new models bring advanced features into the nuvi 200 series budget line up. Each will include the following:
The nuvi 255 and 255W will be available in versions that include comprehensive coverage of North America, Europe, Australia or New Zealand. The nuvi 255 and 255W models for North America, Australia or New Zealand announce street names in their voice prompts, advising you to “Turn right on Walnut Street” rather than just saying “Turn right in 500 feet.”
05
Mar
2008
Engadget: Navigon is hitting CeBIT with some new and fairly expected hotness: the 8110. With a 4.8-inch WQVGA screen, full 3D maps and some sexy brushed metal looks, this one’s going to turn some heads — just promise you’ll try and keep your eyes on the road, will you?
There’s a 533MHz processor under the hood, along with a independent graphics accelerator to handle the 3D. 512MB of ROM and 128MB of RAM round out the specs, which won’t exactly make this your second computer, but should handle media from SD cards just fine. TMC Pro is also included for higher quality traffic info. The 8110 should hit Europe at the end of April for €449.
05
Mar
2008
Camera Core: T-Mobile International is to be the exclusive carrier for Nokia’s new 6650 smartphone. The phone will be available in the third quarter, it was announced at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hanover, Germany.T-Mobile is expected to offer the Nokia 6650 for 1 euro to customers in Germany who sign up for its Relax 100 rate.
The Nokia 6650 clamshell phone features assisted GPS (A-GPS), which provides more reliable location information than conventional GPS when the signal is weak.
Multimedia player functions are included, allowing access to T-Mobile services including Web’n’walk, MyFaves, Mobile Jukebox, and NaviGate.
The 6650 also features an interface for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), which offers 1.4-Mbps downloads, with a theoretical upper limit of 7.2 Mbps.
The phone also has a 2.2-inch TFT QVGA colour display, a 2-megapixel camera with flash, 30 MB of internal memory, a MicroSD card slot, FM radio, and Bluetooth connectivity.
04
Mar
2008
HDTV News: Toshiba’s Cinema Series has produced some of the best looking and high performing sets for the HDTV market. The 46LX177 46″ (117cm) 1080p LCD is a part of this series, and same as the other members of this series, is something that would no doubt impress a lot of users.You may notice that we have been talking about sets that features 120 Hz display component. The 46LX177 is no different. This HDTV has been labeled by Toshiba as a 120 Hz monster and includes other features such as ClearFrame; the increased color gamut, ColorBurst; and the 14-bit internal digital video processing, PixelPure 3G.
Its connection panels are located, of course, at the back and includes three HDMI 1.3 compatible inputs, two Component (YPbPr) with matching stereo Audio Ins, one Composite (with Audio), one VGA (15 pin D-Sub) and an S-Video. Also included is an input for a wired remote control receiver. One set of L/R Stereo Ins are included, which is also the audio connection if you are hooking your laptop or PC up with a VGA cable.
04
Mar
2008
NaviGadget: TomTom just announced TomTom GO 930 at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany today. The new model will feature two new innovations from TomTom.One of these new features is the IQ routes which makes use of the historical speed data of more than 6.2 billion miles of roads to estimate your arrival rather than just relying on posted speed limits.
The other new feature is the lane guidance (just like Navigon’s Reality View) which provides realistic views of complex freeway intersections and help you stay on the correct lane.
Here are the specs for GO 930:
and more features:
In addition to GO 930, GO 930T was also announced yesterday which adds live traffic updates to the mix.
04
Mar
2008
Electronista: Acer yesterday said it would acquire E-TEN, best known for its relatively successful Glofiish line of smartphones. The deal is described as worth more than €190 million and is primarily intended to help Acer explore “entirely new solutions” in the mobile world, according to the purchasing company. Both companies’ executive teams have approved the deal and say they expect the necessary government approval to clear by the summer of this year.
The buyout provides Acer with a quick entry into the cellphone market and significantly expands E-TEN’s influence, which (although supporting the US) has largely been limited to Europe and parts of Asia. E-TEN’s devices currently run Windows Mobile and often focus heavily on 3G Internet access over HSDPA as well as extras such as digital TV and GPS navigation.
04
Mar
2008
Camera Core: LG is expected to announce three new ‘Fashion’ phones at CeBIT 2008, Europe’s largest IT trade show which will be held in the German city of Hanover March 4-9.Pics and details of the three new phones – the KF750, KF240 and KF300 – are starting to appear on the web.
The high end LG KF750, codenamed Libra, is expected to be a touchscreen slider phone, with an innovative new navigation touchpad which combines features of the LG KF510 and LG KF600 handsets. It looks like it displays different symbols depending on which mode is in use.
It is also expected to feature a 5 megapixel camera, VGA camera for video calls, 160MB of internal memory and microSD card slot.
04
Mar
2008
Engadget: While poking around the ASUS booth at CeBIT this morning we had a chance to witness the world premier unveiling of the ZX1 Lamborghini. We even took a few shots before it went under the glass. However, the real treat is the UI based on a Windows Mobile 6.1 core running special ASUS tweaks.
It’s “just like the iPhone” according to our friendly ASUS guide. The device is expected to fetch an unsubsidized €1,000 price tag when this 3G world-phone launches in Europe this May.
03
Mar
2008
HiddenWires: When comparing organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) to liquid crystal display (LCD), OLEDs remain a relatively new technology in the flat panel display (FPD) market. With advanced technology, improved energy efficiency and superior viewing angle, OLEDs have become the technology of the future.
While also formidable, the gradual saturation of the LCD market will positively affect the uptake of OLEDs and some market experts anticipate that the OLEDs market revenues will reach the billion dollar mark by 2009.
“OLEDs promise to be one of the key technologies of the future, especially with respect to display and lighting applications,” notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Abhigyan Sengupta. “The key advantage of OLED displays is that they are based on an emissive technology, besides which the absence of back light units gives OLEDs certain advantages over LCDs.”
03
Mar
2008
Crave: If you’ve long wanted to get into home cinema but haven’t had the motivation, you might find the switch to high definition is a good time to get involved. At least, that’s what Panasonic is hoping with its SC-BT100, a Blu-ray home cinema system with 5.1 surround and a bunch of wonderful trimmings.
We’ve always been a fan of simple home cinema systems. No one will pretend you’re going to get the best quality high-end sound, but as far as simplicity and value for money goes, they can’t be beaten. Especially if you lack the expertise and inclination to spend hours putting together a top-notch setup.
What makes the BT100 ideal is that it also offers a step up to Blu-ray while at the same time offering 5.1 sound. There’s an added bonus too — you can add an extra pair of optional speakers to turn the whole thing into a 7.1 surround sound system. Now that’s the sort of flexibility we like.