SD Card, Memory Stick formats to reach 2 terabytes, but when?
The two major flash memory card formats for consumer electronics devices both announced plans to launch versions of their technology that expand capacities to up to 2 terabytes, but neither specified an expected release date.
The SD Card Association said yesterday that it would be rolling out the SDXC (SD eXtended Capacity) standard to succeed SDHC and become the format for capacities greater than 32GB. Eventually SDXC cards will be able to hold 2 terabytes of data and offer transfer speeds of 300MB per second.
Dell follows competitors with LED flat panel monitors of its own
Dell on Thursday took the wraps off a new line of flat panel displays that feature LED backlighting and consume less than half the power of comparable monitors, the company claims. But the G2210 and G2410 use lower-quality screens than Dell's top-of-the-line UltraSharp models.
Both LED displays feature contrast ratios of 1,000:1 and a brightness of 250 cd/m2. Dell says the response time is 5ms, and has included VGA and DVI-D connections, with HDCP supported on the latter. The resolution of the G2210, a 22-inch widescreen, is 1680 x 1050 pixels, while the 24-inch G2410 is 1920 x 1080 pixels.
New Pioneer Blu-ray players turn up the RAM for Blu-ray
One of the most venerable names in consumer electronics, Pioneer, showed that it was still a player. No pun intended.
Like a TiVo for XM radio, Pioneer Electronics' GEX-XMP3 portable XM Satellite Radio with MP3 provides more than 170 channels of XM content, with the capability to schedule recordings of up to 75 hours of XM programs, and automatic recording of 15-30 hours of XM programs -- five channels at a time. It can also replay up to 30 minutes of live XM. In addition, it includes a microSD card slot for playing recorded music. It is available now for $279.
Macrovision's appeal for CE makers to stop bypassing the IPG
The channel behind the TV channels you watch could be the most lucrative new advertising platform since the advent of the Web.
Last year, Macrovision acquired TV Guide magazine not so much for the magazine -- it ended up selling the publication arm for a single buck -- but for its interest in its interactive program guide partnerships with content providers like Comcast. With HDTV manufacturers at CES this year integrating their own program guides into their displays, Macrovision's investment is threatened with irrelevance in the coming years.
Toshiba starts integrating DVD into small-screen displays
Want to watch a movie in bed? Cooking programs in the kitchen? Pilates videos in the den? Toshiba America Consumer Products has announced a new line of LCD TV/DVD combination products, which are intended to be used in any room in the house.
Screen size include 19, 22, and 26 inches, all with a 16:9 aspect radio. All the TVs will meet Energy Star 3.0 certifications. The current 15-inch television will continue to be sold.
Vizio adds IPTV connectivity to its HDTV line
Continuing the move toward integrating the Internet with televisions, Vizio has announced Connected HDTV, a technology platform that it said will be integrated into its displays shipping this fall.
The technology, which has both wired and wireless connections built in, will use a customized remote control that will give viewers access to Internet content without interrupting the TV program they are viewing.
Palm to partner with Sprint for its new Pre
With perhaps the entire company on the line, Palm has one more shot at glory with the likely introduction of an entirely new smartphone line.
12:14pm PT: AG: Cynic one, converted. Hot damn.
ViewSonic brand adorns a new netbook
Known for its crystal-sharp displays, ViewSonic will enter (or re-enter) the PC business with its Atom-based LinkPC.
New netbooks are struggling to find the right price point, and the sluggish economy may not be helping much. So $400 is going to be a gamble for ViewSonic, a company not known to current buyers as having ever made a PC.
Opera to launch new browser toolkit for game machines, TVs
At CES, Opera is launching a new edition of its toolkit for building browsers that run on gaming machines, set-top boxes, and other places beyond garden variety PC and cell phone environments.
The "Devices" toolkit -- already used for Nintendo's Wii -- now allows for development of mini-browsers with complete Internet capabilities.
Live from Sony's Thursday keynote
There's so much going on with Sony this year that yesterday's massive press conference couldn't hold it all. This morning, CEO Sir Howard Stringer is scheduled to take Sony's rebound strategy one step further.
10:43am PT: Stringer concludes with a sad story re kids losing their sense of wonder and adventure as they get older.
'Microsoft Tags' set for rollout today
Steve Ballmer didn't mention Microsoft Tags in his keynote yesterday. But the new phone tool -- designed for Windows Mobile as well as Android and other environments -- is slated for announcement at CES today.
Microsoft will enter beta on Wednesday with Tags, a new phone tool developed internally by Microsoft's research division and then adopted by Microsoft's incubation arm.
Sony hints of more details today on 3-D, portable PCs, OLED TVs
"Coming soon," read a mysterious sign in the portable PC section of Sony's CES booth last night. Sony showed 3-D technology to journalists, too, but that "wasn't an announcement" either? Is there more to come from Sir Howard?
In demos and displays for journalists last night, Sony officials gave stronger hints about what CEO Sir Howard Stringer might say about his company's portable PC, OLED TV, and 3-D activities in a CES keynote later today.
CES Countdown #2: Who will be spending money in 2009, and for what?
There is, or there was as of Wednesday night, a CES sign in the Las Vegas Convention Center that seems to sum up the current state of the technology marketplace. For everyone's sake, let's hope it's only a sign, not a Sign.
The small-s sign listed seminars slated for the rest of the week in LVCC North. Usual stuff, with SuperSessions and "thought leaders" and all, but there was one disturbing last-minute addition -- a big CANCELED sticker over the presentation on "International Success Stories from the Retail World."
iRiver unleashes a stream of products at CES
There are a dozen products on iRiver's CES announcement list -- devices for networking, devices for getting around town and enjoying one's music, including two that are pretty Mickey Mouse.
The world's most famous rodent graces two solid-state MP3 players, the Mplayer Eyes and the Mplayer Season II. The Eyes model is a 2 GB player, available in pink or blue, with white LED eyes that speak to you of...well, MP3s. The 1 GB Season II model comes in 10 colors and, like its sibling, connects via the USB port.
Microsoft Research discovers its inner Songsmith
Researchers at Microsoft have developed software that purports to do what many thousands of starving artists work at daily: write music. But Songsmith, according to its keepers, is all in good fun.
The program, announced Thursday at CES, generates musical accompaniment to a song sung into the computer microphone. Songsmith knows about several dozen musical styles, and adjusts its output accordingly -- selecting a reggae accompaniment will get you something different from the R&B results, for instance. The tempo can be tweaked to be peppier or slower, various instruments can be added or subtracted, and more knowledgeable users can make further adjustments.
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