Panasonic, Sony show off 2.0 Blu-ray players
Both Sony and Panasonic are showing off their next-gen Blu-ray players that support Profile 2.0, but only Panasonic has its product nearly ready.
The Blu-ray Disc Association has promised that 2008 will be the year for interactivity coming to the format, and the hardware vendors supporting the standard are pushing forward with player upgrades to support it.
Panasonic's new Lumix camera works with T-Mobile hotspots
Want to upload photos from a T-Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot at the airport, your hotel, or Starbucks? Then at CES, Panasonic has announced a digital camera for you.
It seems like T-Mobile WiFi HotSpots are just about everywhere these days, whether it's Starbucks, your local bookstore, or the airport or hotel. At CES this week, Panasonic rolled out a Lumix camera that will let you send photos wirelessly from any of these hotspots to Google's Picasa Web Albums photo sharing service.
Xerox updates its stodgy image with a more colorful look
As ironic as this might sound for a document imaging company, Xerox Corp. is attempting to revamp its own image this week by launching a new logo and a friendlier, more colorful look across all of its marketing materials.
Although the changes wrought by the multimillion dollar rebranding initiative might seem superfical to some, other observers think an image overhaul is truly needed to help the "human" qualities of Xerox -- and its long-time spirit of innovation -- shine through, especially to consumers and small businesses.
Analysis: Can Sprint come back to pull off its Xohm WiMAX plan?
Despite Sprint's financial trouble, its current WiMAX efforts appear promising, according to one In-Stat analyst.
In addition to product and service announcements made earlier this week, the company said its Xohm service would be commercially launched in its three test cities by April. "That's a little bit faster than I thought," said Daryl Schoolar, senior analyst of the networking group for In-Stat.
Universal Music expands its mobile reach with SendMe
The string of digital music pacts continued Tuesday as Universal and SendMe Mobile announced a pact that will bring the label's music to the mobile content provider's service.
For the first time, tracks, ringtones, and content would be made available to users of SendMe's service. Acts such as 50 Cent, Fall Out Boy, Fergie, Kanye West, Rihanna, and U2 are slated to appear.
Verizon to bump up its DSL speeds to cable levels
With its FiOS rollout not exactly moving at lightning-fast speed, the company announced it was rolling out faster DSL service in about 400 communities.
The speed bump would erase most of the speed advantage that cable Internet currently enjoys over its rival. Speeds of up to 7 Mbps can be attained, and pricing would start at $39.99 with an annual service contract.
Gemstar to provide TV Guide scheduling to Sony HDTVs directly
The payoff for Macrovision in its having acquired the online and print publisher of TV Guide's regular schedules, appears to have been swift and immediate with a deal that puts Macrovision equipment into Sony displays.
The interactive program guide (IPG) from the most recognized brand in TV viewing scheduling, will now be integrated into Sony digital TVs sold in the US, as the result of a multiyear agreement between TV Guide publisher Gemstar and Sony.
Everex throws its hat into the UMPC ring
It's first entrant looks less like the Origami UMPC's pushed by Microsoft, and more like the OLPC XO laptop, however.
Priced at $399, the CloudBook is slated to be sold on Walmart.com beginning January 25. Its battery is said to provide about five hours of continuous use, and features a 1.3 MP webcam, 4-in-1 card reader, DVI output, and 30 GB of storage running on a 1.2 GHz processor with 512 MB of RAM.
MusicGiants launches high-quality video service
The high-quality music download service is making the logical progression into high-quality downloadable video with the launch of VideoGiants.
A distribution deal has been signed with Paramount Pictures to make it the first to offer its films through the service. MusicGiants' MediaStore software has already been built into high-end media servers across the industry, and VideoGiants would see the same type of distribution.
First Trojan for iPhone discovered in the wild
F-Secure said that it had uncovered the first Trojan horse for the iPhone, which seems to erase user's files in their /bin directory.
Standard iPhone users have nothing to worry about. However, those who have opened up their phones (both locked and unlocked) to install third-party applications are at risk for the exploit.
Apple settles its case with the EC, will equalize iTunes pricing
With Macworld just around the corner, Apple today settled a dispute around iTunes pricing involving the European Commmission (EC), a British consumer group, and four major music companies.
With the agreement now having been reached, Apple has announced plans to lower the prices for music at its UK iTunes Store to match already standardized pricing for iTunes in other countries in Europe.
Yahoo revises its browser-based MP3 player
The search company updated its application which plays MP3 files directly within the browser, this time allowing third party developers to use the functionality.
Previously, it had been intended for use with 30-second samples of music tracks from its Yahoo Music site. However, now Yahoo is opening up the code to allow anyone to use the application for his own purposes.
Panasonic announces new full-HD camcorders
Featuring Leica lenses, image stabilization and 1920x1080 progressive recording, Panasonic unveiled two HD cameras on Tuesday poised to take the throne from Canon in the portable camcorder market.
Apart from storage options, both cameras are identical. The higher-end model, the HDC-HS9, can record to an SD memory card or its built-in 60 GB hard drive, giving it a total capacity of 29 hours of HD-quality video. Its brother, the HDC-SD9, is limited to SD only.
Panasonic links cellular handsets to home cordless phones
On Tuesday, Panasonic announced "Link to Cell", an accessory that connects a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone to cordless home handsets. Link to Cell is useful for homes without a landline connection to both compensate for dead spots in the home, and increase accessibility to up to six handsets. At the same time, battery life of the cell phone is preserved.
The device maintains all of Panasonic's advanced cordless phone features such as Night Mode, Call Blocking, and Talking Caller ID. Handsets have LCD displays with multi-color LED incoming call indicators and multiple ringtones.
Ericsson: 'The jury is still out on WiMAX'
In a meeting with BetaNews Tuesday, Ericsson said that HSPA is a more compelling wireless broadband solution than WiMAX, which it believes has yet to be proven in the marketplace.
Ericsson launched its embedded module business last year to compete with Qualcomm, which had dominated the industry for wireless broadband chips. The Swedish company, part of the GSMA, is backing High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology, which rivals both existing EV-DO services and WiMAX.
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