About Electronics

Engadget: What’s the world coming too, really? Not only did we see the first official presidential portrait shot with a DSLR this year, but we’re also seeing the first feature film to be entirely shot on one as well.

Searching For Sonny has grabbed the rights to that latter claim, a little ditty written and directed by one Andrew Disney. As expected, we have Canon’s almighty EOS 5D Mark II to thank, though Nikon fanboys will surely love that their lenses were used. Head past the break for a sneak peek, and hit up the read link on April 15th for the full trailer. Indie filmmakers, this is the break you’ve been waiting for — don’t screw it up.

Searching for Sonny – Teaser Trailer/Canon 5d Mark II Feature Film from Andrew Disney on Vimeo.

read more

Gizmodo: Here’s one from left field: you know how your car’s navigation console locks itself when in motion, whether or not there’s a passenger to safely operate it? Apple, of all people, wants to fix that.

In a patent filing recently published and dug up by Apple Insider, Apple lays out various methods, including weight, proximity and biometric sensors, for detecting a passenger in the front seat, and then allowing he or she to operate the nav while the car is in motion.

It goes even further, though, by specifying means for the system to identify exactly who is touching it via biometric sensors, and then grant them access or not depending on pre-set safety settings.

So if you don’t want your 16 year old kid using the nav at all while in motion, just thumbprint him and program your Apple GPS.

Wait, what, Apple GPS? While apple has patented numerous techniques for pairing gadgets to cars, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one that was so specifically geared toward an in-car device. Innnnteresting.

Although this could obviously describe a way for a turn-by-turn iPhone 3.0 app to behave in-car. So like all patent filings, which are written in a language so obscure as to make reading and parsing by anyone who is not a patent lawyer, take this with some skepticism. But as a concept, sounds kind of interesting—is the real iDrive coming?

read more

Electronista: Toshiba is in negotiations to buy out Panasonic’s stake of a joint LCD venture, claims the Financial Times.

Panasonic currently controls 40 percent of Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology, which produces smaller LCDs used in products like cellphones. The venture has been hit by falling product prices however, and is predicting an operating loss of approximately 30 billion yen ($309.6 million) in the fiscal year ending March 2009.

The deal is said to have been instigated by Panasonic, and should be worth “several billion” yen when completed. While refusing to comment on the possibility of a Toshiba buyout, Panasonic has nevertheless admitted that its current strategy is to focus on larger plasma and LCD panels.

The Times notes that Toshiba Matsushita Display is one of the leading companies in OLED technology; divesting from TMD could be a sign that Panasonic feels OLED is not making rapid progress, although it funds an OLED initiative of its own. Toshiba is meanwhile expected to absorb a net loss of 280 billion yen for FY08 as it engages in major expansions.

The company has agreed to buy Fujitsu’s hard drive division, and is also developing a new business in lithium-ion batteries. Weakening of the tech industry due to the economy has allowed a number of corporations to make otherwise unaffordable acquisitions.

read more

Electronista: Microsoft and TomTom today said they have reached a settlement regarding their patent dispute that will put an end to their mutual lawsuits over GPS technology.

The agreement sees TomTom get “coverage” from Microsoft for 3 patents that reportedly still meet TomTom’s requirements for its GPL v2 license. In exchange, TomTom must remove the features related to two FAT file system patents within the next two years.

The deal also involves a financial arrangement whose terms haven’t been mentioned, though Microsoft emphasizes that it doesn’t have to pay TomTom.

The agreement lasts for the next 5 years and covers past products. TomTom’s concession comes as a partial surprise, as the company had just last week secured a Linux license that would theoretically have given the company access to patents it could use to defend its own uses of Linux, including three Microsoft patents that allegedly touched on the use of the operating system.

Critics have charged that Microsoft has lately used patent cross-licensing through Novell and others to wield influence over other companies using Linux. The GPL v3 license was developed in part to prevent firms from entering into these deals and thus to shut out Microsoft from controlling genuinely open-source companies.

read more

DigiTimes: Global shipments of high-definition (HD) set-top boxes (STBs), camcorders, DVD players and video-game consoles are expected to triple from 2008 to 2012, as HD becomes the ubiquitous video standard worldwide, according to iSuppli.

Global shipments of HD-capable equipment in these categories will rise to 202 million units by 2012, up from 68.9 million in 2008. By 2012, 52.9% of STBs, camcorders, DVD players and game consoles shipped will be HD-capable, up from 21.6% in 2008.

“For the last 20 years, HD video has been the holy grail for consumer electronics OEMs, as well as for avid home theater fans around the world,” said Randy Lawson, senior analyst for DTV and display electronics at iSuppli.

“The high-tech industry’s efforts to provide HD service to every home now are finally coming to fruition. This has resulted in an explosion of shipments of consumer-electronics devices that support HD video, from new Blu-ray DVD players to ultra-thin LCD HDTVs, and even some portable media players.”

The amount of HD content available in some mature television markets is growing to the point that hundreds of high-definition channels now are being offered by the entire spectrum of television service providers – from cable, to satellite, to terrestrial and to even to telecom – due to the rollout of Internet protocol television (IPTV) services.

The rapidly growing list of HD content suppliers, along with the fast-rising adoption rates seen for HDTVs and STBs, clearly indicates that HD video transmission and delivery are becoming major motivators for consumer adoption of newer technology television displays and playback/recording equipment.

As the broadcast TV market inexorably moves to all-digital television formats, there is more incentive for the inclusion of HD support in consumer-electronics devices.

read more

Automated Home: Following on our story about touchscreen phones possibly spelling doom for universal remote controls, The OpenRemote guys have been pretty busy over the last few months.

From launching their new website and Twitter feed, to publishing a new YouTube channel. But perhaps most tantalisingly this weeks blog post for the open source project shows prototype hardware up and running – sending commands from an iPhone, across Wi-Fi and out of their hardware device to an IR signal.

Even more interesting it promises that “two more weeks or so and you’ll be able to try it out for yourself”.

The Open Remote project sets out its mission to – “provide high-end automation software and hardware for the masses and without vendor lock-in.” They are building an open community in an effort that contrasts the proprietary systems currently on offer.

Off-the-shelf hardware is being targeted and the group aim to increase consumer choice by building interoperability and therefore reduce hardware cost. We share their belief that high-quality smart homes should not be exclusive to millionaires, but available to a larger audience of home-owners. Finally OR believe that by being an open source project they remove the barriers to user innovation, freeing the community to innovate with their hardware prototypes and the features they build into their software.

read more

AkihabaraNews: Powered by Onkyo’s VL Digital Technology this new set of PC speakers, GX-500HD, will hit Japan next week. Feature wise, they offer 2x40W, and work on a 50Hz to 100kHz.

A true all in one solution, the GX-500HD has an Optical In, Analog-In, and a Subwoofer Pre Out, only support 100V (50/60Hz), and will cost around 49,800 Yen (€380).

read more

The Register: Fujitsu Services employees are up in arms after the company’s management announced a pay freeze.

A memo was dished out to the firm’s Blighty-based workers earlier this week, in which Fujitsu’s UK boss Richard Christou outlined “the need to take action now to protect our business.”

He blamed the economic downturn for the company’s decision to backtrack on pay reviews that were supposed to kick off on 1 April 2009.

A Fujitsu spokesman told The Register that the firm had taken “a reluctant move that is really a prudent measure.”

He confirmed the annual salary review had been scrapped throughout Europe where the company, which is a subsidiary of Japanese technology giant Fujitsu Limited, employs around 21,000 staff.

“We know people will be disappointed [by the pay freeze] but we’re not the first to do it, and we certainly won’t be the last given the state of the economy right now,” he said.

However, Fujitsu workers have reacted angrily to the company’s U-turn on pay and a petition has so far been signed by over 350 disgruntled employees at the firm.

“One minute the company are saying we are on track to making a nice profit, then next, they are blaming the economic downturn and wanting to send all the cash to Japan,” an anonymous source told El Reg.

We asked the Fujitsu spokesman if jobs could be under threat at the company. “We have no intention of doing that, but equally we can’t say there won’t be job cuts in the future,” he said.

The pay freeze is the latest blow to Fujitsu staff. Late last summer the IT services provider told workers not to expect bonuses following the firm’s loss of an multi-million pound contract for the UK’s NHS National Programme for IT.

read more

Register: LG has launched a website where customers can submit their weird and wacky ideas for futuristic TV features, such as a telly that replaces swear words with baby laughter.

A spokeswoman at LG told Register Hardware that its LGenius website is a portal where “customers can turn their TV dreams into reality”.

Several ideas have already been posted onto the site, including a TV with a sponge frame that prevents kids and poorly-sighted grandparents from hurting themselves when they bump into it.

Other suggestions include a “Teeth De-Whitener” feature that allows viewers to dial down the whiteness on people’s teeth, and a “Spousal Volume Control” setting that would automatically turn up the volume when the missus starts jabbering during your favourite show.

LG’s also created a video that demos how some unique features would work, including its baby laughter “profanity filter”.

Other demoed features include replacing sad scenes with pictures of cats and a setting that creates family friendly telly by turning any show into a cartoon. Some of the posted ideas have already been put into development though. For example, one poster suggested using face-recognition technology to switch the TV screen off when the viewer falls asleep, but Sony’s WE5 telly already boasts a very similar feature.

LG told us that it’s not actually promising to build any of the suggested features into its future tellies, but has promised to hand out prizes to creators of the very best ideas. Smell-O-Vision, anyone?

read more

T3: UK-based Apple owners have been putting the ‘i’ into iPhone, accessing the internet and email in far greater numbers than other smartphone users.

That’s according to market reseach company ComScore. According to figures collated in January, a massive 93 per cent of iPhone owners accessed mobile media, with 75 per cent using the handset for checking and sending email.

That’s apparently double the smartphone average. And it’s big news for news too, with 80 per cent of users catching up with world events via the Safari browser, four times the rate of other mobile users.

It’s not just the built-in software that’s being used either – over 50 per cent of users have downloaded apps for reading news and information on the handset, compared to just 22 per cent of other smartphone users. And 37 per cent of iPhone owners have downloaded games.

The comparitive figure on other phones is hardly worth mentioning. While these numbers are high, they’re certainly not surprising. A healthy data allowance and free Wi-Fi is certainly going to encourage users towards mobile media. And let’s be honest, is there an easier handset to use for web-friendly fun right now than the iPhone? We think not.

read more

EngadgetHD: Hey, wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute here! Last April, we caught Samsung asserting that it figured affordable medium-to-large size OLED TVs would be available in 2009 / 2010. Now, we’ve got Samsung Europe’s new President and CEO telling us that “mainstream” OLED sets are still five years out.

Believe it or not, said bigwig was quoted as saying that “when it comes to OLED, we have several issues to overcome in terms of technology and production cost,” and that it would be “at least four to five years before we see OLED in the market place.”

Of course, such a quip is to be expected given the quantity of dollars Sammy has poured into LCD, but we’re still a bit dismayed by the news. Hear that, entrepreneurs of the world? The time’s about right for an OLED-only startup to beat every last one of these traditional powerhouses to the punch.

read more

Engadget: You know what’ll be awesome? Actual end products resulting from this presumably nonstop research on piezoelectric nanowires.

Yet again we’re hearing of a new group of researchers that have figured out a way to harness electricity from life’s simplest things: walking, a heart beating or even the flowing of blood.

Put simply, the gurus have discovered how to use zinc oxide nanowires in order to generate an electric current when “subjected to mechanical stress.”

The difference here, however, is that these critters could actually be implanted under the skin, though the scientists have made quite clear that there isn’t a timetable for commercial production. In other words: yawn.

read more