About Electronics

TechRadar: Toshiba appeared re-energised at its IFA press conference yesterday with ambitious plans for the future that will finally put the failure of HD DVD behind it.

Alan Johnson, executive vice president of Toshiba Europe, acknowledged the success of Blu-ray. However he suggested that technology was already moving beyond optical disc formats.

High resolution internet downloads, high capacity hard drives and flash memory cards being key – the ability to store up to six HD movies on 32GB flash memory cards being just one example.

Toshiba also looks set to move beyond 1080p high definition video, with Johnson saying the company was ready to offer 4,000 x 2,000 pixel (4K) and 8,000 x 4,000 pixel (8K) displays when there was sufficient demand for them.

Wireless HDMI is also set to appear in Toshiba TVs and DVD players from next year.

read more

PC World: Panasonic will soon begin selling Blu-ray Disc-based video recorders in Europe, it said Thursday at the IFA electronics show in Berlin.

The company put its first Blu-ray Disc burners on sale several years ago in Japan but the planned launch of the products in France later this year marks the first time they will be available in Europe.

Using the recorders, consumers will be able to record high-definition TV programs to Blu-ray Disc without losing quality.

France was chosen as the launch market in Europe because of the availability of several free-to-air high-definition TV channels, said Takuya Sugita of Panasonic’s network business group at a news conference.

read more

PC Pro: The first Android handsets will ship without Google Talk and severely limited Bluetooth support, after the features were omitted from version one of the SDK.

Speaking on the Android Developer’s blog, the company addressed the issue of the missing features claiming Google Talk apparently “has some fundamental security problems”.

Principal among these is the fact that Google Talk currently doesn’t offer an ability to interact with other Android users anonymously and for short periods of time.

The developer also claims the first SDK of Android places too much responsibility on application developers to avoid security flaws, meaning that a flaw in an application would be far more exposed by Google Talk.

The company says it is looking at introducing “automated mechanisms that could be used to help protect vulnerable applications or stop the spread of malware”, but that it simply ran out of time.

read more

Electronista: Samsung on Wednesday introduced four new LCD digital photo frames, ranging from 8- to 10-inches in size, with two of the frames sporting WiFi connectivity.

The 8-inch models consist of the SPF-85H and WiFi-enabled SPF-85V, while the 10-inch versions are the SPF-105P and the wireless SPF-SPF105V. All frames are encased in a glossy black bezel that offers Samsung’s Starlight Touch controls, which combine with several on-screen touch controls.

Most notably, the picture frames can interface with a PC or notebook for use as a secondary monitor, through Samsung’s USB-based UbiSync port. The 8-inch models offer an 800 by 600 pixel display area, while the 10-inch frames have a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels.

The 8- and 10-inch frames without WiFi feature 1GB of internal flash storage, while the wireless versions have 64MB.

read more

CNN Money/Fortune: Even with its flaws, the iPhone is pretty impressive. But from the first, Apple’s TV ads for the device have made it look a little better than it is. Maps pop up without any annoying delay. Apps download almost instantly. Calls are never ever dropped.

Now a government agency has called the company on it. According to reports in the Guardian and the BBC, Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that one of Apple’s TV spots misleads consumers and ordered the company to stop airing it in the U.K.

The ad, which showed a weather forecast, stock prices, vacation spots and a map to Heathrow airport, included a voiceover that read: “You never know which part of the internet you’ll need … which is why all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone.”

At least two viewers complained to the watchdog agency that because the iPhone doesn’t support Flash or Java, there are many parts of the Internet that can’t be viewed through the device’s Web browser. The ASA agreed, concluding that “the ad gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone.”

read more

Gizmodo: The Homedock HD Pro is an upscaler dock that can add 1080i or 720p output to your iPod through an HDMI cable to your TV, and it’s going to be demoed at the upcoming CEDIA Expo show.

It’s got “industry standard connectivity” over RS-232 and I.P., with digital optical audio and an IR receiver so you can bolt it into your media setup and control it with universal IR remotes.

Better still the dock has an “enhanced on-TV interface”.

read more

CrunchGear: Epson expanded on their MovieMate line with the MovieMate 55.

The new projector not only has a brighter light, but it is also cheaper.

The MovieMate 55 projects a 16:9 widescreen 60-inch image from only six feet away or a 120-inch image from just 12 feet away

It has a built-in progressive scan standard definition [480p] DVD/CD player and great sound quality using two built-in 8 watt 5.1 Dolby Digital DTS speakers.

read more

PC World: South Korea’s Maxian will unveil a couple of new portable media players at the IFA consumer electronics in Berlin later this week.

The M1 player has a 3.5-inch widescreen display and can play music and video files, has an FM radio, personal information management software and built-in wireless LAN, said the company in a statement.

The player can also tune into terrestrial digital television using the DVB-T format that is gaining support in Europe.

It will be accompanied by the T2, details of which were not disclosed by Maxian.

read more

Rapid TVNews: The giant IFA consumer electronic show in Berlin (Aug 27-Sept 3) is Europe’s answer to the USA’s CES. This year’s event promises a keynote highlighting 3D. 

One of the keynotes is from Andrea Ragnetti, EVP at Philips, and CEO of its Consumer Lifestyle division. Philips is showing its “3D on Blu-ray” device, which says Philips, “shows that its 2D-plus-Depth content format can be applied to Blu-ray thereby enabling a great 3D movie viewing experience on a variety of displays.”

Philips adds: “With the growing amount of 3D movies currently on theatre release, people now want to enjoy the 3D viewing experience in their homes as well. In order to bring high quality 3D content to the home, the 2D-plus-Depth format offers a solution that can be applied to Blu-ray. Subsequently, these discs can be enjoyed on both stereoscopic (special glasses needed) as well as auto-stereoscopic 3D displays, which do not require glasses.”

read more

SlashGear: If you need a new GPS system or simply like to stay current with these things, two new Blaupunkt navigation systems are coming next month.

The TravelPilot 500 and 700 will have interactive voice controls among other new features.

Both models will have Bluetooth and interactive voice controls, while just the 700 will have Internet access.

One thing that sets these devices apart from others on the market is the real-time video navigation and traffic sign recognition.

With a video camera on the back, these TravelPilot models take in live footage of the upcoming road.

read more

ProductReviews: There seems to be no ending with the love affair with the iPod and iPhone, and there never seems to be a shortage of accessories for these Apple products.

The iMM173, Hi-Fi Dual Dock Alarm Clock is just one more to add to the never ending list.

iLuv announces the iMM173, Hi-Fi Dual Dock Alarm Clock for your iPhone / iPod. The iMM173 will be available Worldwide in early September 2008.

This Apple certified Dual Dock Alarm Clock for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 2G includes a multitude of features and functions including powerful 5W x 2 sound output with treble / bass control .

It also charges two iPhones and/or iPods at once.

read more

ProductReviews: So we know that the new 80GB version of the Sony PS3 was upgraded with a larger hard drive. We did not know however that it would be more energy efficient than the 40GB version.

It seems that the Core does use less energy than the smaller hard drive version. A user from Slickdeals forum connected his 80GB PlayStation 3 up to a Kill-a-watt and was shocked at his findings.

The 80GB PS3 used 130 watts of power while playing MGS4, whereas the 40GB version used 155.2 watts of power. That’s not all, on idle the 80GB version uses 111.9 watts, whereas the 40GB model used 125.8 watts when idle on the XMB.

There are many theories as to why this is; the most popular is that Sony is now using the 65nm RSX chips.

read more