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Techradar.com: Remember the days when your remote could control both the TV AND the video? Heady days indeed.

Well, now we have the TV, the DVD players, the Blu-Ray, the amplifier, the surround sound, the HiFi, the sky and BT boxes and a million other things to consider.

Luckily Philips has had a look at the problem and decided to unveil a remote that could control absolutely anything at all by the looks of it.

The Prestigo range can control up to 15 devices from a choice of 26 different categories, and covers products from just about all decent consumer electronics brands.

An on board screen, a little click wheel that says ‘Thank you Apple’ for easy controlling, and the lovely white backlighting so you can see the keys IN THE DARK!

Apparently, the range can control more than one device simultaneously…we have no idea why, or even how, that might be accomplished, but still, it’s there for you to do.

The SRU8008 controls 8 devices, and the SRU8015 controls up to 15.

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Product Reviews: Samsung are all about keeping their consumers happy, which is why they have announced the launch of the Samsung Blu-ray Consumers Resource Center. This new service allows consumers to have easy access to all the latest product information, as well as online tech support and firmware upgrades. The support centre will be hosted on the Samsung website: www.samsung.com/bluraysupport.

The site is very easy to navigate and has an excellent FAQ section, perfect if you have a problem and have not been able to get the answer from another source. Samsung Blu-ray Consumers Resource Center, also offers you the opportunity to chat live with a Samsung Blu-ray support specialist. Samsung are offering a weekly topic section where Samsung will offer their perspective on any current Blu-ray issue that has come to light, this is also a great way to give consumer’s more information.

Reid Sullivan, Vice President of Audio/Video & Digital Imaging at Samsung Electronics America, has said “Now that Blu-ray is the future of HD, Samsung recognized the need to develop a single online location where current Blu-ray owners and those seeking out more information, can go to address their Blu-ray needs.” She also added “With answers to nearly every Blu-ray question and access to trained Samsung tech support, we believe the Blu-ray Resource Center will help consumers maximize the performance and potential of their Samsung Blu-ray player pre or post sale.”

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Crave: Let’s not beat around the bush: TVs are great, but for the proper movie experience you need a projector, in a dark room, with an epic surround-sound system. Because that’s the way to enjoy a really good film — it’s even the way to enjoy a bad film. The problem is that projectors are rarely cheap, so when we heard about the InFocus X10, which will set you back a very reasonable £1099 (approx. 1400 Euro) , we started to have dreams of a home cinema all of our own.

The X10 is a really smart-looking DLP projector that claims to be able to deliver a native contrast ratio of 2,500:1, or 7,500:1 with the iris turned on. The headline feature has to be that you’ll be able to play games and watch movies in lovely 1080p quality. Now if that’s not something to get exited about, we don’t know what is.

You also get a 2m HDMI cable, which is handy, although it might not be quite long enough for people determined to ceiling-mount the projector. There are also a surprising amount of connection options too, including HDMI, DVI, component, composite and S-Video inputs.

To help projector novices, the X10 will pretty much set itself up, adjusting its own colour gamut and black levels. If you want to get the best out of it you can have it calibrated professionally, and then you can make use of the day and night modes, which should help your lamp last a little bit longer.

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PC World: Texas Instruments announced a new technology that could dramatically change the perception and appeal of front projectors. Its new Brilliant Color DLP chipset works with a PhlatLight Light Emitting Diode (LED) light source to produce images.

Traditionally, DLP projectors relied on a color wheel and mirror design, which would produce color images in conjunction with a lamp light source. Competing projector technologies 3LCD, which uses red, green, and blue LCD panels, and LCOS both require a lamp as well.

Texas Instruments’ design is the first full-size LED projector to be shown. But the idea of using LEDs as a light source for displays is not a new one. A handful of pocket-size projectors have used LEDs as a light source, including Toshiba’s TDP-FF1AU, the Mitsubishi PocketProjector, and models from Samsung and Boxlight. Both ViewSonic and 3M have shown prototypes, as well. And LCD television and monitors have begun using LED-backlighting in the past year and a half.

Roger Carver, manager of DLP Front Projection at Texas Instruments, calls the new design a major innovation “that will be a breakthrough for the industry. It will change the face of consumer projectors,” he says.

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Register Hardware: Fans of Singing In The Rain can now actually watch the film in a downpour, because Sanyo has produced a waterproof 52in HD TV.

The flat-panel telly has a “marine grade” anodised aluminium frame and cabinet construction, helping to protect the innards against everything from Coke spillages to showers. Sanyo even boasts that the screen’s protection against water is so good that it “can withstand low-pressure jets of water sprayed directly on the front glass”.

And, because rain usually falls outside, the screen has also been treated to ensure that all of its 179° viewing angle is still visible under sunlight.

Admittedly, the Sanyo stunner is designed for commercial uses, such as theme parks and railway stations, the company said. However, there’s nothing to stop you dreaming about weekend barbeques, where you know that watching the football and having a water fight won’t cause a major electrical fault.

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Stuff.tv: A 512MB hard drive just ain’t enough when it comes to stashing your WiiWare and Virtual Console goodies. And now Nintendo has poured cold water on rumours that they’re readying USB storage for the Wii.

However, their marketing man here in Europe, Laurent Fischer has told Gamesindusty.biz they’re “working on a solution” to fix the problem.

Although remaining coy about details, it’s believed Ninty will drop a firmware update to allow games to be played via an SD card. This would certainly make life easier for mini–games addicts.

Rumour is we could here about this as soon as the E3 gaming summit next month.

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Techradar.com: The driving experience for drivers is, quite frankly, rubbish. No longer are you allowed to use your phone, play with the radio or even pick your nose without the danger of the police picking you up. For passengers, though, the humble car has become a one-stop shop for entertainment.

To add that little bit extra to in-car excitement is Matrix and its high-definition IPTV terminal, the MX-Drive. Not only does the MX-Drive have a touchscreen, it also houses MatrixCast video streaming technology that allows users to stream video on-demand titles and live TV channels in standard definition and high definition.

Speaking about the new product, Robert Liu, COO of MartrixStream said: “Whether you’re a business person needs to keep up to date with the latest stock news or a parent who wants to keep your children occupied during extended road trips, the MX2 wireless terminal touchscreen will keep car and minivan tuned in all ride long.”

There’s no word on a European release or pricing just yet, but if you and you’re family are going to be crusing the highways of the US soon, then this could be for you.

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International Herald Tribune: Music sales fell to their lowest level in at least 10 years as an increase in digital content sales failed to make up for declines in compact discs and the effects of piracy, an industry group said Wednesday.

Global music sales dropped 8 percent to 12,5 billion Euro in 2007, according to a report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Revenue came in at its slowest pace since at least 1997, the first year for which the body issued figures. Physical sales of CDs and DVDs fell 13 percent to 10,2 billion Euro. Sales of downloaded songs and mobile-phone ringtones rose 34 percent to 1,8 billion Euro.

Digital sales “are growing healthily but, crucially, not fast enough to arrest the overall decline of the market,” said John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the industry group.

Tackling online piracy is essential to the industry’s fortunes, according to the report.

The cabinet of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France approved a draft bill Wednesday to introduce new sanctions aimed at individuals who illegally download content from the Internet.

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Blu-ray.com: During the keynote address at the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference, Darcy Antonellis, President of Warner Technical Operations noted that the studio would begin utilizing BD-Live features as early as this winter. The yet-to-be-named title would include real-time viewing, library tools, a search engine, a recommendation tool with e-mail reminders, ringtones and wallpapers.

Originally set aside for HD DVD releases, these advanced web-based features will dramatically increase Warner’s ability to compete for consumers’ time. Antonellis commented, “I think it has the ability to compete [with MySpace and YouTube] for a user’s time because you are taking them online and you’re able to create a community that we have never been able to do before. That’s huge for us.”

Antonellis also feels that advanced Blu-ray features will be widely adopted by consumers faster than advanced DVD features.

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Register Hardware: Speculation continues to grow over the date on which Samsung will release its latest would-be iPhone killer, the Omnia, to European customers.

Samsung has already confirmed that the 3.5G phone will ship to South-East Asia during Q3, but it has never said exactly when European customers will be able to get their hands on the handset.

However, according to a report on Digitimes, the phone will be launched in Europe at the end of July.

Other markets, which are likely to include the US, will see the phone arrive one month later, in August.

The phone, which has the model number SGH-i900, boasts HSDPA 3.5G connections of up to a 7.2Mb/s and Wi-Fi support.

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Reuters: Samsung, the world’s No. 2 handset maker, said it sees the global handset market growing by 9 percent in 2008, and expects to sell 200 million units during the year.

“We expect the overall mobile market size in 2008 to be about 1.2 billion units, a 9 per cent increase from 2007,” Youngcho Chi, Senior Vice President of Samsung Electronics’ Mobile Communications division, told Reuters in an email.

“Of these, we aim to achieve sales of 200 million units, a 25 per cent increase from the 161 million units sold in 2007,” Chi said.

Samsung, which trails Finland’s Nokia in the cellphone market, sold 46.3 million phones in the first quarter, equal to a record number sold in the fourth quarter.

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Techradar.com: PlayStation 3 owners will get the long-awaited XMB in-game access and ‘trophies’ with firmware update v2.4.

PS3 gamers will have to wait a little longer for the updates however, with the next update (v2.36) only bringing minor fixes.

Update v2.36 – announced on the console’s official blog – brings with it ‘improved stability when playing select PlayStation format software titles’, although it remains to be seen if that includes the notoriously buggy GTA IV.

When 2.4 does arrive, the inclusion of the in-game cross media bar or XMB will be a major boon to users, allowing changes to settings on the fly whilst playing games or watching films.

Trophies – which is almost certainly a system that can be compared to rival Xbox 360′s gamer points – will also be included, with Sony saying: “The update will also include “trophies,” an exciting new feature that we’ll be providing more details on soon, as well as some other new enhancements.”

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