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EngadgetHD: Always good for an optimistic Blu-ray outlook, analyst Futuresource this week continued to peg 2012 as the year Blu-ray breaks into the mainstream, while reducing its prediction of discs sold this year in the format from 95 to 75 million.

The expectation is that within the next couple of years hardware could drop to as cheap as $50 (€35) for an “entry-level” Blu-ray player, with dedicated set-top box owners snapping up high definition discs at a much quicker rate than the currently PS3-dominated (6% to 3%) audience.

Check Video Business for the full recap, but just in case you hadn’t heard, rumors of Blu-ray’s impending demise are greatly exaggerated.

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Electronista: Fans of the iPod Touch who felt left out due to last week’s launch of the iPhone 3G S, take heart: there’s a new device on the way. In the BlueTool initialization script in the iPhone 3.0 firmware there are mentions of a new iPod Touch called “iPod3,1.”

Given that the current generation is referred to as “iPod2,1″ it would seem to indicate that Apple has a new version in the works. It’s too soon to say what the new iPod Touch will look like or what its feature will be, but rumours point to a camera that takes video as being a likely addition. Other rumours indicate a larger screen, new wireless features, a digital compass, and GPS.

While fans would love to see more iPhone-like functionality in the new device, Apple has to make sure it doesn’t give too much away: make the iPod too much similar to the iPhone and it removes much of the reason to buy an iPhone. Apple’s last upgrade to the Touch line came last September, thus it would seem reasonable to assume that the next one would be this coming September. You can be sure more info will slowly come out in the months to come.

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Engadget: What the world needs now is another distraction to keep a driver’s eyes off the road, and Pioneer is ensuring wheelmen of the future will have something other than the asphalt to focus on with what it’s calling the Network AV playback system.

It relies on WiMAX to send your entire backlog of Knight Rider episodes straight to your Trans Am, and could stream every track from the Ronin Original Motion Picture Soundtrack too.

Pioneer also envisions its technology beaming data to your backyard and anywhere else you can get a WiMAX connection — which, right now, isn’t too many places. But, hey, at least with this tech you can drive somewhere that does.

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EngadgetHD: Pioneer and Sharp have officially finalized their deal to combine Blu-ray operations, completing the joint venture planned since Pioneer began navigating its way out of several businesses including its Kuro plasma HDTVs.

The official PDF has all the details, but the salient points are that Pioneer will have 66% ownership and 3 of 5 seats on the board of the 450-employee joint venture, ready to start up on schedule October 1, for the development, design, manufacture and sale of optical disc products, primarily Blu-ray.

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EngadgetHD: Promising the finest picture and sound, Paramount is launching its Sapphire Series, two disc high definition releases of some of its greatest films, starting with Gladiator and Braveheart September 1 followed by Forrest Gump in November.

That means a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track for Braveheart and DTS-HD MA for Gladiator, while both will have a slew of exclusive new extras. For Gladiator that includes the ability to tag elements while watching the main disc, which will then automatically queue up more information once the second supplemental disc is loaded into the player, while Braveheart’s extras focus mostly on the history of the Scottish Rebellion with 3D models and interactive timelines.

Paramount didn’t mention how much viewers would be paying for these new feature packed editions but they both show a $39.99 (€28,34)MSRP / $27.99 (€19,83) preorder price on Amazon. The press release runs down the extras, though we suspect you’ll have to be a pretty big fan (of which there should be plenty for these multiple Oscar winning flicks) to pay the premium over typical catalog releases instead of waiting for them to hit the bargain bin.

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TechDigest: It will be mini-USB and should go some way to reducing the absurd number of chargers that end up in landfills every year. The 10 companies who control 90% of the European phone market have signed a deal which will see mobile phone chargers become universal by 2010.

The group, which includes Apple, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, LG and NEC, has agreed to a harmonisation that will see mobile phones charged by mini-USB adaptors.

The move is not only good for people who have drawers full of various charges – it’s great news for the environment too. Every year there are 185million phones sold in the EU and therefore around 185million chargers as well. The majority of these chargers become useless after upgrading to a new phone – even, in some cases, if users stay with the same brand.

The idea is that, after an unspecified time following the release of the universal charger, chargers and phones will be sold separately. The move only applies to smartphones and is only for the EU at the moment. Hopefully, the rest of the world will follow suit soon after. They should do – not only would it save them money because they won’t have to manufacture and package chargers for every phone they sell (I can’t see them reducing the price of phones just because it ships without a charger) it will also be good for their green-credentials.

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TechDigest: Japanese company Onkyo has announced the release of two new home cinema receivers – the TX-SR707 and the TX-NR807. Both units are 7.2-channel receivers and are THX-certified.

They both feature six HDMI inputs – which should more than cover most home setups, Audyssey DSX and Dolby Pro Logic IIz decoding, 1080p video upscaling, four dedicated DSP modes which will be useful for hard-core gamers and ultra-low jitter Burr-Brown 192kHz/24-bit DAC.

The TX-NR807 is also internet enabled allowing for firmware updates and, more importantly, it’s equipped to stream audio and internet radio such as Last.fm. The units are available from the end of July and are priced at £700 (€825) for the TX-SR707 and £800 (€943) for the TX-NR807.

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DigiTimes: There were 686.95 million subscribers of mobile communication services in China as of the end of May 2009, growing by 1.20% on month and by 16.01% on year, according to statistics published by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The number of subscribers at the end of May accounted for 50.7% of the country’s population (user density).

As of the end of May there were 331.54 million subscribers of fixed telecommunication networks in China, translating into a user density of 25.3%. In May 2009, mobile phone subscribers in China sent 64.32 billion short messages, averaging 3.04 per phone number a day.

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CNet: The newest version of Sony’s PlayStation Portable console — the PSP Go (pictured) — isn’t even on sale yet, but the company is already looking ahead to what’s next, according to Reuters. The electronics giant is looking into making a combination gadget that would meld its PSP gaming system with the mobile phones made by Sony Ericsson, its joint venture with Swedish electronics maker Ericsson, according to Reuters, which cited the Nikkei business daily.

Sony reportedly plans to put together a team as early as July to begin development of the new device. Sony no doubt has its eye on Apple’s iPhone, which is already popular with consumers and is now getting more serious attention from developers as a platform for their games. This isn’t the first time rumours of this nature have circulated, of course.

In 2007, Sony raised eyebrows with a patent filing that appeared to show a PSP-like device with phone capabilities. Previous moves in this direction have included the recently announced Sony Ericsson Aino, a phone that can stream pictures and video from a PlayStation 3, and BT’s effort to bring voice and video chat to the PSP. In the meantime, Sony continues to work on its portable gaming device. The PSP Go, which was unveiled at the E3 gaming conference, is smaller than its predecessors and has a slide-up screen. It will go on sale in the UK on 2 October for £250 (€294).

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BBC: Almost 90% of British homes are using digital TV, reveal figures from Ofcom. The latest statistics on take-up of digital TV in the UK suggest that 18 million households, 89.2%, have a DTV receiver.

Digital video recorders, that can store, pause, or rewind live TV, are also proving popular. Ofcom reports that about one million were sold in the first three months of 2009, taking the total in UK homes to 8.9 million.

Switch over The figures, gathered by Ofcom, suggest that five million of those recorders are Sky+ boxes, a further 2.6 million are Freeview recorders, and the remaining 1.2 million is split between Virgin Media’s V+, BT Vision and Top Up TV. The Ofcom report noted a drop of 28% in the sales of Freeview set-top boxes, as TVs with a digital tuner built-in start to take over from the stand-alone devices. Sales of TVs with an integrated tuner have now hit 20 million.

The figures also give insights into how Britain is switching to digital TV in advance of the analogue switch-off, due to be completed by 2012. Analogue signals have already been turned off in a few areas in the UK including the West Country, Scottish borders, and the Isle of Man. With almost 90% of TVs converted to digital, many homes were starting to update older sets. Ofcom estimates that by the end of March 2009, 61% of secondary TV sets were capable of showing digital TV. They also think that about 27% of the TV sets in use in the UK are still only capable of receiving analogue signals.

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NaviGadget: Digital map and dynamic content provider Tele Atlas have just announced Tele Atlas HD Traffic.

Tele Atlas HD Traffic contains up-to-the-minute traffic information from multiple data sources which includes GPS readings from personal navigation devices, mobile phone signals, and road sensors.

Tele Atlas HD Traffic takes all this data to provide – in real time – latest traffic conditions. Some of the features Tele Atlas HD Traffic can be delivered to any connected, mobile device and features:

• Delivery of “live” congestion information
• Extremely accurate positioning of traffic jams
• High update frequency, with fresh data delivered every three minutes
• Road speeds, length and location data to deliver the complete picture of the traffic congestion
• Content based on a proven approach to collecting, processing and distributing real-time traffic data

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Electronista: Sony Pictures along with Gracenote announced movieIQ, a new Blu-ray disc feature that provides access to a real-time movie database.

By playing a movieIQ disc and having a BD-Live equipped Blu-ray player connected to the Internet, users can view continuously updated information on details such as cast and crew. movieIQ also offers pieces of trivia including production facts, and music and soundtrack information tied to specific scenes within the movie.

Sony says it plans to use movieIQ on upcoming Blu-ray movies starting September, as well as offering it on all major catalog titles and new releases.

By using Gracenote’s video explore software, viewers can access the information without having to interrupt the movie, and can also search the online Gracenote database to link together related cast, crew, movies, TV episodes, franchises, seasons, DVDs and Blu-rays.

Gracenote’s database contains video information for North America, Europe, and Japan. It also provides a synopsis, credits, and detailed descriptions.

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