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HiddenWires: The worldwide market for consumer electronics products continues to be strong and will continue to expand through 2011, reports In-Stat. Shipments of personal computers and peripherals, traditional consumer electronics products, and communications products will grow from 2.7 billion units in 2007 to 3.1 billion units in 2011, the high-tech market research firm says.

“Traditional consumer electronics devices continue to be led by the conversion from analog to digital television (DTV),” says Brian O’Rourke, In-Stat analyst. “PCs will maintain their strong growth pattern with a compound annual growth rate of 9.7% through 2011, with growth being driven by increased sales in Africa, the Middle East, South America, and Asia/Pacific regions.”

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WhatCar?: The Modular ICE system features two seven-inch screens that fit to the back of the front headrests.

The master screen has a side-loading DVD slot and USB port, and can play MP3, MP4 and DivX files.

You can tilt and adjust both screens, and play videos or connect games consoles and cameras.

They can be used separately, too, with the master screen showing a DVD and the other linked to a games console.

Alternatively, buyers can pay to have two master screens, which can then show two films independently.

The screens are removable, and can be used indoors using mains power. Two sets of infra-red headphones and a remote control are also provided.

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WebProNews: There are 28 million U.S. households with an HDTV set, accounting for 25 percent of the population, according to a March 2008 Frank N. Magid Associates study.

During the 2007 holiday season and the 2008 Super Bowl, 5.5 million households purchased their first HDTV set, while 3 million homes bought a second HDTV.

Current HDTV owners are projected to drive demand. Close to 40 percent of HDTV owners said they plan to purchase a second HDTV set within the next year.

“Consumers who become accustomed to the sleek and contemporary appearance of their first HD set are now looking to bring that benefit into other rooms in their home,” said Maryann Baldwin, vice president at Magid Media Features.

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Eurogamer: Wii Fit has barely broken a sweat to romp to the top of the UK All-Formats Top 40 in its first week on sale.

In the process it hurdled the previous Nintendo record set by Mario Kart just a few weeks ago to become the third fastest-selling game ever, netting around GBP 16.3 million.

Mario Kart Wii managed to hold onto second, though, although sales were down a significant 62 percent. And Mario & Sonic at the Olympics clung on at third to make it a Nintendo-dominated podium for the week.

Further down and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue took four, PES 2008 took five, and Call of Duty 4 climbed a little to six.

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Electronista: Novelty TV maker HANNSpree announced the launch of its Starlight Blue 15-inch (38 cm) LCD TV on Monday. The TV’s design theme is a night sky, with a sparkled blue surround that curves out to form points meant to mimic a crescent moon. The TV’s stand is likewise uniquely styled, resembling a planet’s orbiting rings. The display’s resolution is rated at 1024×768 pixels, with a 500cd/m2 brightness and 500:1 contrast ratio. Video is clear up to 150 degrees off center in the horizontal plane and 135 degrees in the vertical.

The Starlight Blue includes a 4-in-1 SCA cable, along with two composite video inputs and a couple of analog audio inputs. An NTSC tuner is integrated into the Starlight Blue. A headphone jack is included when the pair of 2 Watt speakers is not sufficient.

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The Register: Unconfirmed reports claim that LG is developing a second-generation Prada handset that adds in a slide-out Qwerty keyboard to the current phone’s touchscreen.

Numerous online sources have stated that a formal announcement from LG is due in Q4. But as we wait for official word from the Korean manufacturer, speculative specs suggest that the new model will be quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge capable, work on two UMTS 3G bands, and support 7.2Mb/s HSDPA downloads.

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Camera Core: The Asus P527 Smart Phone is probably what you’d call perfect. When shopping for a new phone, you’d probably look at its technical specifications first and more often than not, base your decision on that piece of scouting job. Well, if you did that, it’s hard not to choose the Asus P527 phone. On paper, it has everything you’d ever dream of in a phone. But it’s not always the specs and features that matter. At least not with the P527. Later on in the article, you’ll know why.It’s features include a big 2.7-inch LCD and spacious keypad that is both very usable and attractive. Beneath the elegance, you have Wi-Fi, GPS, an FM radio. Asus has even thrown in a even remote desktop-control feature. Great right? Well, unfortunately, what will detract users from getting this phone is its slow response time that I’m sure most users will loose patience of, and buggy applications.

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Product-Reviews: Yesterday Nokia have launched three new phones in the shape of the Nokia 3600 slide, the Nokia 6600 slide and 6600 fold. Nokia have said that these new phones are “beautiful to use and beautiful to behold”, now I am not sure of many cell phone uses that want an ugly phone and most of us want as many features as possible for the price.

The Nokia 6600 fold is said to have “smart and sophisticated looks” and you can display a bright 16 million-color 2.13 inch OLED screen with one touch of a button. Other features on the 6600 fold include a high-gloss surface, 3G technology, 2-megapixel camera with double LED flash, and quick access to Yahoo! Go and Flickr. The 6600 fold will be priced at around 275 EUR.

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PC World: Do your HDTV programs look as good as they should? If not, you may be seeing the results of overcompression. A growing number of viewers and experts are claiming that increased use of compression–technology that downsizes huge high-definition video streams for eventual reconstitution on your screen–is responsible for a drop in quality.

Such charges–aimed mostly at the two biggest cable providers, Comcast and Time Warner–have been echoing around the blogosphere in the wake of reports about new compression algorithms. Contributing to the debate: An AVS Forum member’s tests showed that at least ten HD networks were more compressed on Comcast than on Verizon’s fiber-optic-cable-based FiOS service.

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HiddenWires: The Blu-ray Disc victory in its recent format war with HD-DVD will propel this technology into 29.4 million homes worldwide by the end of 2008, according to the latest research published by the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service. According to, “Blu-ray Devices: Forecasting Sales and Ownership ” Sony’s PS3 games console will continue to drive the Blu-ray market until 2009, after which stand-alone Blu-ray players will become the dominant segment. By 2012 more than 132 million homes worldwide will own at least one Blu-ray device.

“HD-DVD’s withdrawal leaves the way open for Blu-ray to become a major revenue earner for technology vendors and content owners alike,” says David Mercer, Principal Analyst. “The 265 million homes that will own an HDTV by 2012, and Hollywood’s need for a new growth engine, represent huge incentives for the industry to coordinate marketing activities and demonstrate unified support for the successor to DVD.”

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Akihabaranews: Pioneer Japan will start selling 3 new DVD and SACD player later this may and july with the :

DV-610AV, which feature an HDMI output, upscaling, SACD, DSD, USB port, and CD to USB recording. Our player also support the following media : WMV, WMA, MPEG-4 AAC, MP3, DivX, DivX Ultra and JPEG

FV-410AV, also feature an HDMI output with upscaling, no SACD an USB port and support the following media : WMV, WMA, MPEG-4 AAC, MP3, DivX and JPEG

DV-310 with no HDMI and no upscaling, no SACD, no CD to USB recording, but a simple USB port and support the following media : WMA, MPEG-4 AAC, MP3, JPEG, and DivX

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NaviGadget: GPS enabled HTC Diamond’s specs are all over the internets and we thought we’d share this with our readers:

• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• Qualcomm MSM 7201A @ 528MHz
• 256MB ROM / 128MB RAM
• 7.2MB HSDPA / HSUPA (rev A EVDO for Sprint versions)
• 2.8″ VGA screen
• WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• eGPS
• 3.1MP Camera with flash
• Forward facing camera
• Samsung MoviNAND 4GB internal flash storage
• Orientation sensor
• FM Radio
• microSD expansion
• 900mAh battery
• Dimensions: 51×99×10.7mm

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