19
Mar
2009
Gizmodo: Monster Cable has teamed up with silicon chip developer Redmere to develop ultra-thin HDMI cable that deliver a 10.2 GB/s data rate.
The idea is to make it easier to deal with a mass of cables, but we all know that anything from Monster is going to carry a hefty price tag.
Details have not been announced, but would thinner cable be worth what will surely be a hefty markup over regular HDMI?
19
Mar
2009
Toshiba: The board of directors of Toshiba Corporation has nominated Mr. Norio Sasaki, Representative Executive Officer and Corporate Senior Executive Vice President of Toshiba, for the post of Representative Executive Officer and President and CEO of the Company.
The next president will succeed Mr. Atsutoshi Nishida in June this year, and the appointment is subject to approval by the board meeting following the ordinary general meeting of the shareholders.
Today’s nomination reflects the board’s decision to accept the recommendation of Toshiba’s Nominating Committee, which met earlier today. T
he Nominating Committee received a submission from Mr. Nishida recommending Mr. Sasaki as his successor, and undertook a comprehensive assessment of Mr. Sasaki’s record, achievements and personal qualities, and the reasons provided by Mr. Nishida for his recommendation.
The Committee then decided to nominate Mr. Sasaki as a candidate for election as Toshiba’s next president and CEO. Concurrent with the election of the new president and CEO, Mr. Nishida will become Chairman of the Board of Toshiba Corporation in late June. The current Chairman, Mr. Tadashi Okamura, will become an Advisor to the Board.
19
Mar
2009
Akihabara News: It’s interesting to see despite Sony’s announcement a while ago to drop their GPSs line-up, they still continue to produce new compact GPS in a country (Japan) where virtually almost every car has one installed by default.
The only car I drove in Japan that didn’t have one were European press cars like Aston Martin, Lotus Exige, Lamborghini…
Regardless, here’s the NV-U3C with its 3:5” 4:3 QVGA touch screen, 4G of internal memory, and compatible with PetaMap data, that provides valuable information and announcements on stores and restaurants.
18
Mar
2009
Time: Most people use their eyes to judge the best flat-screen televisions. Michiyuki Sugino, deputy general manager of audiovisual systems for Sharp, says people should also use their hands.
Touch an ordinary set and you’ll feel the heat given off by electronic components at work. This warmth is energy that is being wasted, Sugino says, and for consumers, hot spots mean higher electric bills.
But lay your hands on one of Sharp’s new 32-in. D Series Aquos TVs: “The biggest surprise for consumers is when they touch the TV front and back,” says Sugino. “It’s cool. They can feel the difference.”
But will they care? Japan’s leading consumer-electronics companies sure hope so. The global recession is weakening demand for LCD and plasma TVs. This means Sharp, Panasonic and Sony are desperate to defend their market shares and are racing to come up with features to distinguish their products from those of their competitors.
The marketing catchphrase in Japan is now “eco-TV”: flat-screen sets that, like the new Sharp Aquos, are environmentally friendlier because they use less energy and cost less to run. “[Eco-functions] are a premium that consumers will pay for,” says Emi Nagahara, a product planner for Sony’s TV business group.
“It will be a standard” for all LCD TVs, she predicts. (See Japan’s greatest designs.) Using a variety of technological tweaks, manufacturers are achieving substantial power savings with no sacrifice in performance and picture quality.
Sony, which entered the eco-TV market last summer, developed a more efficient backlight for its new Bravia VE5 series that uses nearly 40% less energy than conventional LCD TVs. Further gains are made through additional features, including a sensor that halves the energy the TV uses by turning off the screen when no motion is detected nearby. The sets are also equipped with a light sensor that adjusts the backlight to ambient room light and with an energy-saving switch that cuts all power to the set as if it were unplugged. (Even when turned off, conventional sets waste small amounts of electricity if left plugged in.)
Other manufacturers are launching green TVs of their own. This month, Panasonic — the No. 1 maker of plasma TVs, with a 40% share of that market worldwide — started selling in Japan its 42-in. Viera V series plasma set, which uses 48% less power than the product line’s previous generation. On Feb. 20, Sharp launched its Aquos D Series in Japan, which uses 45% less energy than last year’s model. Cool to the touch, this model has improved power-saving components, including a modified backlight.
18
Mar
2009
Electronista: Music from iTunes and other download stores now makes up exactly one third of all music sold in the US, according to NPD Group findings.
The jump comes after the number of buyers climbed from 28 million in 2007 to 36 million in 2008 and these new shoppers bought more tracks.
By contrast, CD sales have continued to plummet and saw about 17 million Americans stop buying CDs altogether in 2008, resulting in a drop for CD sales of about 19 percent. However, the researchers noted both that CD sales were not only declining faster than downloads could increase but that music sales as a whole were declining in the US; about 13 million fewer people bought music in any format last year.
Where 65 percent of those online bought some kind of music in 2007, 58 percent bought music the year later. The drops in purchases, and CDs in particular, are attributed to multiple factors that don’t necessarily involve purchasing. The NPD Group particularly notes that use of Pandora’s recommendation-based Internet radio doubled to make up 18 percent of people last year, while as much as 41 percent of college-age adults and 50 percent of teens listen to at least some of their music on social networks liky MySpace or the iLike app for Facebook.
Cautious spending in the recession also contributed, as did behavior for certain age groups; teens and adults over 50 were both significantly less likely to buy music. The shift is interpreted by NPD as a further signal that labels need to adapt their business models.
Although downloads are now one of the largest categories, they themselves are potentially threatened by streams. “Just as music piracy and the advent of digital music ended the primacy of the CD, we are beginning to see new forms of listening challenge the practice of paying for music,” said the NPD Group’s entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick.
18
Mar
2009
Engdaget: We’ve already seen a number of mainstays in the turntable game crank out decks that easily archive vinyl records to MP3, and now we’ve got a new pair from Stanton making that same claim.
The T.92 and T.55 USB turntables each feature USB and S/PDIF outputs and come bundled with Cakewalk Pyro Audio Creator and Audacity software.
On the hardware front, you’ll find an S-Shaped tone arm for lower distortion and reduced record wear along with a built-in DSP with key lock for controlling tempo without affecting pitch.
As for differences, the T.55 is a belt-drive turntable that features a straight tone arm, while the T.92 touts a high-torque direct drive motor. Check ‘em both right now at popular music retailers across the globe for $299/€230 (T.92) and $199/€150 (T.55).
18
Mar
2009
DigiTimes: Shipments of large-size TFT-LCD panels increased 26.3% on a monthly basis to 30.1 million units, with revenues going up 21.4% sequentially to US$3.1 billion in February 2009, according to Displaybank.
It is the first time since September 2008 that both shipments and revenues have increased because of low inventory levels, increasing orders from system makers and falling prices, Displaybank said.
But the shipments and revenues declined on a yearly basis, which indicates that demand has yet to really recover, the research firm said. Shipments and revenues dropped 14.8% and 53.7% respectively compared to February 2008.
Samsung Electronics remained the top supplier with 26.2% of the market in terms of revenues for February 2009, followed by LG Display (LGD) with 25.8%, and AU Optronics (AUO) with 14%.
Samsung also ranked first in the unit shipments with 26.2%, followed by LGD with 25.8%, AUO with 14%, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) with 13.9%, Displaybank said.
18
Mar
2009
BBC: Apple has unveiled what it calls a “major update” to the operating system that drives the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Some of the 100 new features included in the update replicate those already offered by other smart phones.
The new functions include cut, copy and paste, long demanded by iPhone users, picture messaging and an in-phone search feature, but not Flash video.
“The upgrade is a big big deal and will help persuade consumers to stay with Apple,” said Gartner analyst Van Baker. “While things like copy and paste and multi-media messaging (MMS) are things they have needed to do for a while, other features will in essence stop consumers buying other smartphones and raise the amount of money people spend on the iPhone, ” he said.
Analyst Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray agreed that the upgrade was a major step forward. “We believe Apple addressed key issues that were leading some consumers to competing devices for multimedia messaging and enterprise email.”
Some of the other main features Apple highlighted for consumers include a voice memo and stereo Bluetooth. A new search tool called Spotlight to allow users to search files and applications on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
17
Mar
2009
B&O: With its attractive price point, the BeoVision 8 TV now also comes in a 40-inch version that offers a Full High Definition experience based on a glare LCD screen with a range of exciting new picture improvement technologies.
The new 40-inch version of the acclaimed BeoVision 8 TV combines a technologically advanced home cinema viewing experience with the straightforward elegance and ease of use characteristic of this compact TV concept.
The new technologies include double frame rate technology, also known as 100Hz, with motion compensation. As a consequence, the picture refresh rate has been doubled compared to conventional LCD TVs, and the inherent blur of LCD technology has thus been reduced significantly.
BeoVision 8 40-inch also includes contrast improvement technology – so-called Dynamic Contrast – which optimizes the contrast according to the picture content in each scene. In addition, both BeoLink home integration functionality and extra video connections can be included with a convenient plug-and-play module.
17
Mar
2009
Electronista: Hitachi turn around involves new president, company split Hitachi on Monday announced it has named a new president to head up the company’s turnaround plan to return to profitability.
At the same time, the company will split up its automotive supply and consumer television operations.
About two months ago, Hitachi announced the biggest loss ever among Japanese manufacturing companies and is expected to post a 700 billion yen ($7.1 billion) loss for the year at the end of March.
The loss-making businesses will be made into wholly-owned subsidiaries but become independent in July.
Names and other details for the new spun-off companies are not yet known, though they will both have a more evident accountability for making profits.
The smaller companies will also be able to make quicker decisions, thereby more efficiently serving their indented markets. The new automotive company is expected to retain the division’s 7,600 workers and annual sales of 280 billion yen ($2.84 billion). The focus of the new company will be on automotive systems for environmental and safety purposes. This includes lithium-ion battery, inverters, motors and related hardware used in hybrid vehicles.
17
Mar
2009
DigiTimes: North America overtook EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) as the largest regional market for PNDs in the final quarter of 2008, according to research firm Canalys.
In fourth-quarter 2008, the US alone accounted for 52% of the worldwide PND shipment total, compared to 36% for EMEA.
“The US has continued to deliver unit growth on-year, despite the economic situation, but this is supported by very aggressive pricing, especially for holiday promotions,” said Chris Jones, Canalys VP and principal analyst.
“Shipments in the US were up 20% in the fourth quarter, and 44% for the whole year. In contrast, EMEA was down 26% in the quarter, bringing global shipments for the fourth quarter down 4%.”
Garmin retained its worldwide PND lead, increasing its market share in the fourth quarter to 37%, up from 35% in the third quarter and up from 30% in the year-ago quarter.
TomTom kept second place, also increasing its share, taking 30% of the market in fourth-quarter 2008. The combined shipments of Mio and Navman put Mitac in third with 6% share, narrowly ahead of Nextar. F
or the year of 2008, PND shipments globally grew 18% over 2007, to around 41 million units, but the value of those shipments fell 16%, highlighting the price war that has been raging in the industry. Canalys estimates that more than three-quarters of the PNDs that shipped in the fourth quarter were priced below 200 euro (US$250) before tax, and that connected PNDs, which are typically at the higher end of the price range, represented less than 1% of the total shipments.
“One of the challenges facing vendors of the new breed of connected PNDs is that the market has been educated to expect very low prices,” said analyst Caroline Chow. “These devices offer useful live information for the driver, but come at a premium that few are willing to pay, especially in the current climate.”
A consumer survey run by Canalys in November revealed that more than a third of PND owners described real-time traffic as a “must have” in their next device – above any other feature listed. A fifth of the 2,400 consumers surveyed said that, in the previous six months, they had got stuck in traffic and wished they had taken a different route more than six times – 10% said it had happened more than 10 times.
17
Mar
2009
Guardian: A row has broken out between the European commission and the International Telecoms Union (ITU) over Europe’s decision to take unilateral control of which satellite operators can broadcast in member countries.
Tomorrow the EU will award 18-year licences to two satellite operators, giving them an effective duopoly over the use of what is termed the ‘S band’, which can be used for services such as satellite broadband.
But many in the industry have warned that the commission’s move could hinder technological development within the EU and cause interference with other satellite signals, as well as damage a system that successfully functioned throughout the cold war.
“The commission process, if it goes ahead, is likely to set an ugly precedent that will ultimately destroy the fabric of international satellite communications and co-operation that has taken several decades to evolve,” one satellite operator said.
“What is to stop the Russians or other nations in Africa from unilaterally authorising their own systems to provide global coverage without co-ordinating with neighbouring countries? If all nations followed the commission process, then the end result is likely to be such interference that no satellite will be capable of operating.”