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Engadget: Looks like we’ve got a new record holder for world’s thinnest LCD, as LG pegs its new 42- and 47-inch models at only 5.9mm thick.

Apparently lacking an iPhone for the accepted measurement of thinness, this model was reduced to holding up a coin for an example of LG’s edge LED lit prowess.

Though you may prefer local dimming LEDs, DisplayBlog is hopeful we’ll see a combo of the two lighting schemes bringing thinness and high picture quality next year. Meanwhile, compare these to JVC’s magnetically mounted former champ, measuring a now-widebody 7mm thick, but at only 5kg, still holding a weight edge over these two at 6.1 and 7.3kg, respectively.

LG promises 120Hz refresh technology and 80% of the NTSC color gamut, up from 72% on standard models, on these, but we’ll wait for them to go from the demo stand to the store shelf before revisiting the question of whether thinner and more energy efficient is actually better.

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Electronista: The HDMI Licensing group today provided further details of the HDMI 1.4 spec that will have data become a core feature of the video standard. The technology will add a new pipe known as the HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC) that can supply up to a 100Mbps Ethernet connection between the device host and others that recognize the format.

The approach will let two compatible devices share information without requiring a separate cable and is suggested both as a way of networking close-by devices as well as sharing content across multiple rooms.

The technology also brings a reverse-direction path for sound known as the Audio Return Channel (ARC) that can handle compressed surround sound through an intermediary device, such as a home theater receiver, without requiring a separate optical audio cable. Future video support is also built in with the ability to handle resolutions up to 4K (4096×2160), 3D and the same color spaces as digital still cameras.

A recently proposed micro HDMI connector will be part of the 1.4 format and allow up to 1080p video from very small devices, including portable media players and compact cameras.

The combined technology is expected to significantly overhaul the approach to home media serving, particularly for networked media devices, and may also help future computers that could use the extra networking and audio features.

Samples of HDMI 1.4-equipped chipsets ship before the end of the spring and should result in finished products sometime within 2010.

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AkihabaraNews: This morning LG Korea announced their latest Blu-ray 5.1 Home Theater combo with iPod dock, the HB954TBW.

Despite the lack of information regarding this new combo, LG Korea underlined that their Pod dock (fitted on a Blu-ray player), accepts ALL iPods and allows you to listen to songs stored on a DAP and enjoy high-quality surround music.

It will be sold in Korea for around ₩1,299,000 (€780), and was introduced at CES 2009.

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NewLaunches: Looks like the camera fever has caught up with the iPods too! There is a rumor that Apple might be considering to put in cameras on their best selling portable media players.

The Apple iPods can do a lot of things and it would be cool to have a digital camera too where you can take pictures where you go. But personally, is a camera really needed in an iPod?

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Electronista: NEC claimed a minor record on Monday by becoming the first company to produce a hardware controller that supports the new USB 3.0 standard.

The µPD720200 will let computers and other devices talk to USB 3.0 peripherals and theoretically allows for the peak 5Gbps transfers of the format, or roughly 10 times the speed of USB 2.0.

The Japanese chipset nonetheless remains backwards compatible with both the 2.0 spec as well as 1.1 devices, although USB 3.0 ports themselves won’t support 1.x. In launching the technology, NEC says its hardware should be particularly useful for external hard drives and particularly solid-state drives, many of whom can transfer data at speeds far faster than USB 2.0 can handle and need the extra speed. These would also typically overwhelm FireWire 800 connections.

Test versions of the NEC chips will be made available to companies building USB 3.0-aware devices next month and should cost those companies $15 per part. When the first products will carry the chipset aren’t mentioned, but hipments should climb to 1 million

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Electronista: Researchers NPD Group said that 88% of the money consumers spend on home entertainment goes towards purchasing and renting movies on DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Of the $25 each US consumer spends on average in a given month, 63 percent was found to be spent on DVD purchases, 7 percent on Blu-ray discs, and 18% went towards renting DVD and Blu-ray movies.

The remaining 12 percent was split between video on-demand (VOD) services (9 percent) and digital downloads and online streaming (3 percent). Still, watching full-length streaming movies is a growing trend.

In 2009, 9 percent of those with Internet connections at home streamed movies online, which is an improvement from the 5 percent last year. Online rentals accounted for 8 percent of users polled, while less than 5 percent watched movies they downloaded via a game console.

Downloaders were also found to purchase or rent more movies than the average poll-taker, at 80 percent versus 50 percent.

To a lesser extend, the same holds true for buying and renting Blu-ray discs, at 25 percent versus 5 percent overall.

“While many in the home video industry worry that digital consumers might walk away from packaged media, that hasn’t happened yet,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD.”

Direct-download movie purchases and rentals have nonetheless contributed to growth in the past year in part through the rapid expansion of Netflix’s Internet streaming service, which can now be accessed on the Xbox 360 as well as Roku’s Internet Player, TiVo DVRs and multiple Blu-ray movie players. Rentals through iTunes and other services like Amazon VOD and VUDU have also contributed to the increase.

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Engadget: Pioneer’s decision to axe the Kuro earlier this year set off a wave of gloomy predictions about the future of plasma, but we’ve never really bought into it — and it sounds like the product planners at LG, Samsung, and Panasonic haven’t either.

HD Guru asked reps from each company for their thoughts on the state of the plasma market, and the responses were pretty similar across the board: plasma remains the connoisseur’s choice overall, and it still makes up just about half of 50-inch and bigger sales.

Of course, that means that plasma’s niche is shrinking and moving higher-end while LCDs more or less take over the rest of HDTV market, but until something like OLED develops into a true competitor we think plasma’s around for a while.

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DigiTimes: More than 60% of European consumers are extremely interested in location-based vehicle-centric services like eCall, bCall, stolen vehicle tracking and real-time traffic information, according to Frost & Sullivan.

However, they clearly indicate that the current price of such systems is more than they are willing to pay. Manufacturers could still turn this market into a significant revenue stream though, with the aid of some clever business modeling, like the one used by TomTom for the HD Traffic service, the research says.

“Vehicle manufacturers like Mercedes and Ford are moving towards mobile phone based navigation and telematics solutions, while others like Renault are working on dedicated low-cost navigation systems,” observes Frost & Sullivan program manager Praveen Chandrasekar.

“This clearly indicates the importance OEMs are attaching to this segment and is an indication that development activities are taking place in the right direction.” Renault recently launched the TomTom Carminat, which is priced under 500 euros (US$684.4). Recent analysis shows that more than 40% of European consumers would be willing to buy such low-cost solutions.

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JCNNetwork: Fujitsu Ltd., Japan’s biggest computer-services provider, forecast it will return to profit this fiscal year on narrowing losses in its chip business.

President Kuniaki Nozoe is selling the company’s money-losing hard-disk-drive business to Toshiba Corp for about 30 billion yen (US$303.9 million) to focus on chip and software operations.

Fujitsu also plans to outsource production of system LSI chips measuring 40 nanometers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to cut spending and help return the chip unit to profit next year.

Net income will probably be 20 billion yen (US$202 million) in the 12 months ending March 31, 2010, from a deficit of 112.4 billion yen (US$1.1 billion) a year earlier, losses at the semiconductor unit will narrow to 15 billion yen (US$152 million) in the period from 60 billion yen (US$607.8 million). Fujitsu is also considering joint development of 28-nanometer devices with the Hsinchu, a Taiwan-based company.

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BBC: Electronics giant Sony has reported its first annual loss in 14 years, after being hit by a big drop in sales.

Sony reported a loss of 98.9bn yen ($1.04bn; £685m) for the year to the end of March, compared with a profit of 369.4bn yen the previous year.

The company blamed the global downturn and the strong yen for the loss. Worldwide sales were down 12.9%.

It had previously announced it would be cutting 8,000 of its 185,000 workforce and closing 10% of its factories.

Sony’s president Ryoji Chubachi stepped down in April as part of a managerial shake-up at the group.However, the loss was not as bad as Sony had expected. It had forecast a loss of 150bn yen back in January.

Sony’s shares closed down 6.8% at 2,400 yen ahead of the results. Several Japanese companies have said they have been hurt by the strong yen, which make exports more expensive. On Tuesday, Hitachi announced an annual loss of 787.3bn yen – a record for a Japanese manufacturer.

Sony, which makes Playstation games consoles and Vaio PCs, forecast a net loss for the current financial year of 120bn yen. And it said it would carry on with its restructuring programme of closing plants and cutting jobs. Analysts greeted Sony’s results with cautious optimism.

“Their outlook gave me the impression that their business is heading for a gradual recovery,” said Fujio Ando, senior managing director at Chibagin Asset Management. “But it would all depend on whether they would be able to start producing popular products, because right now they have no ‘Number One’ products.”

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Pioneer: The NavGate AVIC-F310BT (available across Europe in July) is one of the most competitively-priced products in Pioneer’s range of integrated in-car GPS navigation and multimedia centres.

Providing simple, highly intuitive control of navigation, audio and phone features, it’s a multi-talented partner for more entertaining and efficient journeys.

The AVIC-F310BT provides:

• comprehensive navigation across Europe complemented by
• a range of powerful features (including traffic alerts, 2D and 3D maps),
• versatile connectivity to enjoy high-quality audio from virtually any source and hands-free phone communications.

The ‘face’ of the 2-Din NavGate AVIC-F310BT is a 4.3-inch WQVGA touch screen, that can be detached for peace of mind.

The wide-viewing angle display is perfect for viewing the detailed maps (covering 9 million kilometres across 44 countries covered) available in 2D or 3D views integrated on the fast-response internal flash memory.

Keeping a constant eye on the road ahead, the system monitors TMC traffic feeds to assess traffic flows up to 150 kilometres away: should a problem arise, the system will suggest alternative routes for you.

With a powerful processor, navigation and entertainment capabilities can be used simultaneously. And when it comes to playing your audio, your way, the NavGate AVIC-F310BT has it covered. As well as playing CDs, you can enjoy audio in a range of formats including MP3, WMA, AAC or WAV (played from CD or USB), connect and control your iPod or iPhone (through an optional cable) and Personal Media Players through the Audio-in socket.

Your communications is managed by the industry’s optimum Bluetooth system from Parrot. You can leave your phone anywhere in the vehicle or in your pocket and all your contacts are available to browse and call. All conversations are clearly relayed through your car’s speakers. Three phones can be registered in the system with 400 contacts available per user.

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TGDaily: Manufacturers could cut the energy consumption of electronic devices by more than 50 percent if they chose, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Without such measures, it says, energy use by new devices will triple by 2030.

The Gadgets and Gigawatts study found that if manufacturers used the best currently available technology and processes, it would slow growth in consumption to less than one percent per annum through 2030.

The IEA is calling on governments to implement policies to make electronic devices such as televisions, laptops and mobile phones more energy-efficient by setting a maximum energy usage for each device function.

(more…)

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