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.

dslr EOS 5D Mark II

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?

Apple gps patent sat nav touchscreen

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.

lcd panasonic Toshiba

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.

Microsoft TomTom

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.

hdtv high definition

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.

iPhone remote remote control