$200 Blu-ray price point now matched by Vizio
Vizio has announced its first Blu-ray disc player, also supporting BD-Live content and also priced at $199.99.
The VBR100 Blu-ray Player uses 1080p and upconverts from 720p and 1080i -- unlike Memorex', which also upconverts from 480p. Vizio promotes its unit's "super slim" dimensions of 17 X 11 X 2 inches. Memorex has not yet revealed the size of its player.
Live from the Cisco press conference at CES 2009
Known worldwide as an infrastructure company, Cisco now plays a bigger role in the CE field for being the parent of major consumer router manufacturer Linksys, and for finding its way into the IPTV infrastructure.
1:54pm PT: Closing statements
CES Countdown #3: Can environmentally sensitive technology pay off this year?
CES has been the scene of "environmentally sensitive" consumer electronics fare from its beginnings. But this year, more corners of the show than ever are going green.
Along with conference sessions focusing on green computing, CES 2009 is playing host to a new green pavilion known as Sustainable Planet. Inside the Pavilion and in many other nooks and crannies, vendors ranging from HP and Lenovo to little start-ups are fielding impressive numbers of eco-sensitive PCs and other gadgets, in an assortment of hues of green.
Toshiba focuses on mid-range DTV for everyone
Toshiba's press conference at CES 2009 this morning featured announcements in the areas of LCD TVs, DTV/DVD combos, and standalone DVD players.
Maria Repole, Toshiba's PR exec, began by making note of the high-def advertising display Toshiba installed in Times Square last summer. His deputy then took the stage to speak generally about Toshiba's contributions in the area of picture quality and connectivity. Consumers "increasingly want to access content wherever they are," the Toshiba rep told the crowd. "We are committed to meeting the entertainment needs of consumers today."
First word on Toshiba's eco-friendly netbooks
Toshiba has released two ultraportable notebooks intended to be ecologically friendly -- but they're not ultra-low-price.
The R600 comes in two models, the S4201 for $2,099, and the S4202 for $2,999. Each has a 12.1-inch screen and starts at 2.4 pounds. The S4201 comes with a 160GB hard disk, while the S4202 comes with a 128 GB flash disk. They both include an optical disc drive and support WiMAX.
LG unleashes its annual flood of announcements
Holding down its traditional CES-opening spot at 8:00 am, LG on Wednesday ran through a dizzying number of announcements across multiple product lines.
Life is good indeed for the Korea-based electronics giant, which reported $13.2 billion in revenues for 2008, up 16% year-to-year. Speaking to the press mob, CEO Michael Ahn said that the firm means to spend the recession building on recent advances in consumer awareness. (The company reports that LG now has 92.3% brand recognition among polled consumers, up from 83% in 2007 and 75% the year before.) There will be, he said, no cuts in R&D or in marketing.
Memorex Blu-ray tests the $200 price point
Following the prediction before the holiday shopping season that prices for Blu-ray players would fall further into the $150-to-200 range, Memorex has announced its MVBD-2520, a Blu-ray player for $199.99.
The device, due to ship in early summer, includes Profile 2.0 or BD-Live via an Ethernet port, enabling consumers to download extra features and online bonus content, as well as firmware updates. It uses 1080p but can convert up from 480p, 720p, and 1080i.
Netgear debuts a BitTorrent-enabled set-top box
The first of NetGear's three big product announcements at CES this morning is its Internet TV player set top box which carries on it, among the usual Web-based offerings, a built-in BitTorrent client.
Netgear's Internet TV delivers Internet content like other set top boxes available today, but ups the proverbial ante by including a video search engine called "Vtap" that combs through the associated Flash video sites, downloadable CinemaNow rentals, and even available BitTorrent files.
MicroSDHC capacity to grow yet again
For people whose phones are crammed full of photos, music, video, and other space-intensive content, SanDisk has announced a 16 GB microSDHC card.
Phones from vendors such as Nokia, Google, and Samsung use microSDHC cards. (Similar cards are also produced by Nokia and Toshiba.) The card comes with a MobileMate Micro Reader that plugs into a USB 2.0-compatible port, which makes it easier to put data onto and take data off the card.
Lexar tries to make USB thumb drives fashionable
For those who like to make a fashion statement with their solid-state memory -- as well as for those who keep losing the caps on the darn things -- Lexar has announced two new families of USB drives that don't have removable caps.
JumpDrive TwistTurn has a rotating case (really, "JumpDrive SwitchBlade" would probably describe it better, but that name probably didn't test well), while JumpDrive Retrax clicks in and out like a ballpoint pen. Each model comes in multiple sizes, with colors mapped to the size: 2 GB in white, 4 GB in red, 8 GB in blue, 16 GB in gray, and 32 GB in black.
Toshiba to show off 3D you can take with you
Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. will be previewing 3D technology on handheld 3-inch and 9-inch LCD displays that don't require special glasses to work.
The technology works by integrating a 3D film with the backlight modules of small- and medium-sized LCD displays that use Optically Compensated Bend (OCB) mode to deliver clear, true autostereoscopic viewing. Left and right eye images are focused sequentially into the viewer's eyes, allowing for full resolution of the display panel, the company said.
Live from the LG press conference at CES 2009
Research: LCD panel market continues decline
Recent iSuppli data shows that the market for LCD panels continued to decline through the holiday season, as demand for TVs, notebooks, monitors, and anything with a 10" or larger LCD panel languished.
With declining demand from both the consumer and corporate sectors, LCD manufacturers reduced their production to a fraction of capacity. Hardware analysis firm iSuppli expects that the conditions of the economy will continue to disrupt the LCD supply chain well into 2009, and could have a severe impact on revenue until the market is stabilized.
Upgraded TiVo Search enables finding videos on broadband, cable
TiVo viewers are already accustomed to finding content textually through a menu, even if typing on a remote is a pain. But soon, a new feature will enable them to find Internet videos alongside their regular HD media.
Betanews tests of a late beta of the new TiVo Search feature reveals the presence of a very sophisticated underlying search engine, not only capable of estimating what you might be looking for -- the way Google tries to complete your query when you're typing it in -- but also associating content you've selected for viewing or recording with other content with a similar theme or with matching cast members.
CES Unveiled event provides a high-energy opener
If CES is a banquet, CES Unveiled -- the opening press event -- is like a tasting menu personally selected by the head chef. You'd expect the most luscious morsels, and possibly a bit of gastronomic overload by the end of the evening.
This year's go-around was no exception. Such events, at which a selected group of vendors show their shiniest new toys to the people most hungry to see shiny new toys, have a tendency to feature a beauty queen -- one product that's both interesting and irresistibly photogenic. Only at a tech show would the beauty queen look like Wall-E, but there it is: The cherry-red Minoru Webcam, propping itself "on its elbows" atop a monitor, attracted crowds so large that it was hard at times to approach nearby booths, let alone the 3D webcam itself. The $90 gadget includes five pairs of 3D glasses for your viewing pleasure.
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