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Engadget: You heard right, folks. There’s absolutely no need to wait until 2011 in order to buy yourself a personal Surface. Instead, you can grab one of Microsoft’s multitouch phenomenons this June, but there’s just one tiny catch: it comes attached at the waist with a multi-million dollar yacht.

Down at the Miami Yacht & Brokerage Show this month, Lazzara Yachts showcased its soon-to-be-released LMC 76, which — coincidentally enough — comes loaded with a Surface along with software from Infusion Development.

The boat (and by extension, the Surface) should be ready to take on the open seas in just a few months, but there’s no indication yet on exactly how many New York banks you’ll have to rob in order to make it happen.

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CNet: Getting a better-quality CD experience without having to upgrade your CD player sounds delightful, doesn’t it? Sony’s new Blu-spec CD format promises just that, employing the same technology used to author Blu-ray discs to master standard CDs.

Blu-spec CDs are written using the shorter-wavelength blue laser diodes used in Blu-ray disc production. These blue lasers are far more accurate when it comes to burning pits in the readable surface of CDs, theoretically improving final sound reproduction, due to the reduction of reading errors when the disc is spinning in typical CD players.

Is this all marketing nonsense? Colour us a distinct shade of sceptical. Firstly, unlike Super Audio CD — a modern format that’s physically more capable of storing significantly higher-quality audio — Blu-spec CDs use standard 16-bit, 44KHz audio encoding, so you’re not gaining additional sonic data.

Secondly, Blu-spec CD is really just a fancy way of saying ‘improved error correction’. The CD format already incorporates decent error correction (called ‘Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon Coding’, which everyone knows, stupid), and computer-based CD rippers like Exact Audio Copy build on this with advanced software-based error correction.

So what’s the point of Blu-spec CD, and does anyone really care? The vast majority of noticeable read errors result from scratching CDs over time, not because the CDs were botched during the authoring process. Now, give us even better SACD or DVD-Audio discs, authored with blue lasers if you like, and we’ll be less dismissive. It’s just that, if you’re going to invest in higher-quality CD production, at least tackle the fundamental issue CDs suffer from — limited bit rate and comparatively narrow frequency ranges when put next to more modern disc technologies.

Sony is initially releasing 60 back-catalogue titles on the format, including work from The Clash, Miles Davis and ELO, some of which, as Steve Guttenberg points out on The Audiophiliac blog, is available on Amazon.com now.

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EngadgetHD: Man, plasma’s headed downhill — and fast. Hot on the heels of both Pioneer and VIZIO tendering their resignation in the plasma market, LG’s vice president Lee Gyu-hong has reportedly stated that his company is currently pondering its own future in the sector.

Should LG pull out, just Panasonic and Hitachi will be left holding down the PDP fort. Purportedly, LG’s plasma business is deteriorating in terms of profitability, and the VP stated that future cost savings were practically impossible.

At this point (and after coming clean like this), it’d be sort of crazy for LG not to drop out, but what’s even crazier is going from five major plasma makers to two within the course of two months. Yikes.

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TGDaily: DivX corporation announced yesterday the first line of DivX certified HDTVs for Panasonic, which are currently available in Europe.

There are nine models in the Panasonic VIERA Z1, V10 and G15 series which allow full 1080p resolutions with DivX video formats output directly onto the TV by the TV’s built-in encoder and a front-load media slot.

The TVs include an SD/SDHC memory card slot directly in front of the TV. On a 4GB media card using DivX compression, over six hours of video are possible. The DivX content can also be streamed to the TV directly off a DLNA server, allowing the PC to serve as a host for video favorites played on the TV.

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Ubergizmo: BMW is always at the forefront of vehicle technology and their latest contribution would be Intelligent Learning Navigation System (ILENA). The system will learn your (bad) driving habits as well as daily routes in order to assist you better when it comes to navigation and fuel economy.

It looks as though ILENA functions via Bluetooth connectivity or a docked handset, but drivers have the choice of an onscreen user select mode as well.

ILENA will be able to adjust your seating preferences and rear view mirror once it recognizes you, displaying the best way and method of driving to get to your destination even before you manage to back out from your garage.

Apparently ILENA is 80% accurate despite being in its development stages – we shudder to think that when it is fully operational, it will run for President in 2012.

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ShinyShiny: Panasonic are sure 3D Blu-Ray will be launching next year. This apparent self-assuredness, comes from Panasonic’s attempts to obtain acceptance of its new 3D system to be the standard way to achieve 3D pictures from existing Blu-Ray discs.

Panasonic have been busy showing off its 3D equipment for a while now, namely with its Plasma 3D Full HD home theatre system, demonstrated in CES with a mahooosive 103-inch plasma hooked up to a special 3D Blu-Ray player. What makes this Blu-Ray player special is its ability to process twice the data as a standard Blu-Ray player, but at the same speed. The reason for this is to deliver full HD images to each eye at once, using electronic glasses. So to put this in simple terms, it’s essentially playing two full HD movies simultaneously.

These special glasses achieve the 3D Blu-Ray effect using Active Shutter technology that directs the right image to the right eye. The result – full quality 3D images.

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Popgadget: What are the 10 technologies that will knock our socks off this year? Technology Review magazine takes its annual look at what’s in the pipeline.

Among them: cyborgs, a chip that will analyze your genome and software to speed up the ‘Net. Hurray!

One of these new technologies, currently called Siri, is that personal assistant software they’ve been promising me for ages. This year’s model, they say, will be a mobile app that responds to either voice or typed commands and will do only relatively simple things like making restaurant reservations and checking flight status.

See the report…

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EngadgetHD: Not like it’s any shock to see a legacy port slowly fade away as new technologies come along, but really, it’s kind of amazing that S-Video has hung around as long as it has.

So far as we can tell, the format has been in existence since at least 1987, and no matter the adoption rate, 22 years in the consumer electronics industry is a milestone to be proud of.

CNET has a new piece up that points out just how many AV receivers are dropping S-Video connectors entirely, with Yamaha’s new RX-V family among the latest to bid the port a fond farewell.

Our question to you is this: do you mind? When’s the last time you actually used an S-Video socket over component, HDMI, DVI, VGA or DisplayPort?

We’re guessing most of you won’t even be able to recall.

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DotGizmo:Toshiba is currently allocating some of their resources in developing the video wallpaper, a thin covering for large walls which could be turned into illumination and color scheme (at a minimum) or a full-wall, full-motion video on the other hand.

This is made possible thanks to advances in organic electroluminscence (OLED) screen technology, and Toshiba proudly claims that “OLED is anticipated to become an important light-emitting device for the next generation.”

This good work by Toshiba still remains within the research phase, so it will take years before a commercial product is good and ready to go. We guess the advertising industry can’t wait for such technology to pervade our society as they will then have yet another platform to show off their clients’ products.

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I4UNews: Microsoft announced that they have filed Patent Infringement Action against GPS device maker TomTom.

Microsoft says that they have tried to engage in licensing discussions with TomTom over a year with no success. Microsoft’s Horacio Gutierrez says: “We have an established intellectual property licensing program, and the patents involved in this case, relating to innovations in car navigation technology and other computing functionality, have been licensed by many others. In situations such as this, when a reasonable business agreement cannot be reached, we have no choice but to pursue legal action to protect our innovations and our partners who license them. Other companies that utilize Microsoft patents have licensed and we are asking TomTom to do the same. TomTom is a highly respected and important company. We remain open to quickly resolving this situation with them through an IP licensing agreement.”

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TWICE: Manufacturers of Blu-ray Disc products may soon find it easier to acquire licenses to the technology through a one-stop-shop licensing program being coordinated by key patent holders Panasonic, Philips and Sony.

Representatives for the three consumer electronics companies said Wednesday they are now working with other Blu-ray Disc patent holders to establish the licensing program.

The companies said the resulting single license will cover essential patents for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD, and is expected to be available around the middle of the year. A new independent licensing company is being set up and will be based in the United States with branch offices in Asia, Europe and Latin America, the companies said.

Gerald Rosenthal, former head of IP at IBM and more recently CEO of Open Invention Network, will be CEO of the licensing entity. “By establishing a new licensing entity that offers a single license for Blu-ray Disc products at attractive rates, I am confident that it will foster the growth of the Blu-ray Disc market and serve the interest of all companies participating in this market, be it as licensee or licensor,” stated Rosenthal.

The three founding companies said they expect the program “will stimulate the growth of the market for Blu-ray Disc products.” The companies are inviting any essential patent holders for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD patents to join the licensing pool as a licensor and shareholder.

The fees for the new product licenses are $9.50 (around €7.50) for a Blu-ray Disc player and $14 (around €11) for a Blu-ray Disc recorder. The license fees for Blu-ray Disc software will be 11 cents for a read-only disc, 12 cents for a recordable disc and 15 cents for a rewritable disc. As a result of the efficiencies obtained with the combined license offering, the royalty rates for Blu-ray Disc products are expected to be at least 40 percent lower than the current cumulative royalty rates for individual Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD format licenses, the companies said.

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Pioneer Europe: The BDR-203BK is Pioneer’s first Blu-ray writer to achieve write speeds of 8X on Single Layer (25GB SL) and Dual Layer (50GB DL) BD-R discs.

Now available on an OEM basis across Europe via Pioneer’s distribution network, the BDR-203BK is expected to cost in the region of €250 (although prices will be set by distributors).

The BDR-203BK is also compatible with a wide range of Blu-ray, DVD-R/RW, +R/RW, DVD-RAM and CD media types, with key specifications also including:

• 2X write speed for BD-RE (SL and DL)
• 16X write speed for DVD-R/+R 8X write speed for DVD-R DL/+R DL and
• 32X write speed for CD-R media.

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