Gadzooki

Jamo 804 Surround Sound System

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Yeah I know the company name isn’t really a big bang with the audio industry but Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv seem to be pretty well pleased with their new system offering.  The <a href=”http://jamo.com/Default.aspx?ID=6509&M=Shop&PID=19152&ProductID=18072″>804 Surround Sound System</a> by <a href=”http://www.jamo.com”>Jamo</a> (new theater audio system) can be mounted horizontally as a center speaker or vertically as a chic black pillar emitting really good sound.

 

The speaker finish is housed in black leather and high gloss aluminum, kinda perfect for the bachelor or bachelorette in you, eh?  I’m sure your friends will remember this visual marvel.  They can be mounted as a three piece combo around your wall-mounted flat screen display.  

 

Each speaker seems to be a complete set-up of each own.  They have tweeters, 4 1/2 midrange speakers and 2 speakers for base.  The price for this setup is $449 when they’re released in January.  Ughhh…. too bad they missed the holiday rush, otherwise you’d see a lot of bachelors walking around and smiling from ear to ear! Ha ha.

 

Check out these specs:

 

System

3-way bassreflex

 

Woofer (inch/mm)

2 x 4½ / 114

 

Midrange (inch/mm)

4½ / 114

 

Tweeter (inch/mm)

¾ / 19

 

Sensitivity (dB – 2,8V / 1m)

87

 

Impedance (Ohm)

6

 

Weight (kg/lb)

5.9 / 13.0

 

Dimensions (HxWxD/mm/in)

700x160x100 / 27.6×6.3×3.9

 

Frequency Range

70-20,000

 

powerLongTerm

80

 

powerShortTerm

120

The case of too many D’s… it may kill X

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Whoever said that technology is too fast to control has hit it bulls-eye once again.  I was strolling in a mall, brought my trusty 80GB iPod with me and tuned in to TWIT’s Leo Laporte saying “HD-DVD is now DEAD”.  That’s too many D’s to control I know!  The death blow may well be Walmart saying they will now officially just sell Blu-Ray DVDs,  BUT won’t push for it, would still continue to sell HD-DVD formatted way back the aisle.

I was a bit relieved that I didn’t include an HD-DVD player in my Christmas list!  I could just imagine my frustration to find out that that player dead technology a month later.  Crossing my mind is Tom Hanks’ “Green Mile” liner… “dead man walking… dead man walking….”.  Now it’s “dead tech gone… dead tech gone!”.

OK so aside from Walmart, what led to HD-DVD demise??? 

  • “Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” chairman and CEO of Warner Bros.
  • All of us at Sony are feeling a bit blue today, but that’s a good feeling,” CEO Sir Howard Stringer said at a news conference, chuckling. “Along with Warner Bros.’ decision to support Blu-ray I want to thank Bob Iger at Disney and Rupert Murdoch at Fox for being ‘true blue’ from the start.”
  • Disney, the parent company of ABC News, was one of the first to commit to the Blu-ray format.
  • Rick Clancy, Sony’s senior vice president of electronics, echoed those sentiments

Well to note here that the rivalry between the two platforms of high-definition DVDs — Blu-ray is supported by Sony, while HD-DVD is supported by both Toshiba and Microsoft — has been raging since the discs’ development. While other Hollywood studios have gradually chosen one format over the other, Warner Bros. had been the lone exception, publishing movies in both formats.

There is a rumor that Toshiba will stop manufacturing HD-DVD players… just a rumor folks!  Now will that leave Microsoft alone on a limb… goodbye XBox?
 

Televisions of the Future

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The CES show was host to some rather amazing gadgets and gizmos this year – in fact arguably one of the best years for some time. Things really seem to be getter better – but not only that, they seem to be getting bigger as well. What I mean by that is of course that televisions are the next (and current) big thing!

As a first at CES, the world’s first laser television was displayed. This was debuted by Mitsubishi who state that it is a ‘new category’ of display to offer alongside the likes of LCD and plasma technology. The reason for the development of this type of screen is that it offers (apparently) more of the colour spectrum that the eye can see, which is reportedly limited in current technology.

The laser set comes in at a particularly impressive 65 inches and has three lasers in the standard colours of red, green and blue. These are projected from the rear of the television (in a similar manner of DLP) but offers amazingly crisp, vivid and colourful images. Prices haven’t been revealed but the tv will be shipped later in the year.

Samsung has expressed interest in laser technology, but it didn’t show any at CES. Instead, it decided to display a 3D plasma screen – interesting from a company that does some of the best plasma sets in the world. Apparently, the 42 and 50 inch screens will be available in 2008 and rely on a PC connected to the set and polarised glasses to create the 3D image.

Samsung have also shown their OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays, known for being brighter than LCD and much thinner. More importantly, they also use less power to create the image – something which will no doubt seem to be important to consumers being fed the green message at the moment.

The reason for the brighter image is that the OLED does not require a backlight for the display as the organic material is naturally lit when an electric current runs through it. Different materials produce difference colours and this provides screens that are brighter and have a better contrast ratio.

I can vouch that OLED does look excellent as my Creative Zen V is supplied with just this technology – however, unfortunately for television creation it is extremely expensive, meaning that this will be for premium sets only in the future.

Perhaps one of the most amazing developments at CES was the display by Panasonic, noted for their Viera and V-Real technology on their current plasma display systems. Their offering was in fact the world’s largest LCD display – taking up a whole wall and featuring Advanced High Definition.

Whilst of course, a 150inch tv is always going to look amazing (unless you’re standing too close and can see the rather large pixels), the really amazing technology behind it was the ‘interactive wall’ that featured facial recognition and customised displays.

The technology is expected to take up the whole wall (no doubt of some millionaire’s mansion) and is able to detect the distance of the viewer from the screen and optimise the size of the image to suit. Rather impressive I’m sure you agree.

Other items of note were the super-thin LCD (at only 3mm deep) and deep-black screens. So, whilst most of it was interesting, it’s perhaps the ‘taste of things to come’ that really offers up a glimpse of the future. I for one can’t wait.

The Gadgets of CES

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Well, the CES was a little while ago now (back in 7-10 Jan, held in Las Vegas). Unfortunately, this year was more of an evolution of current gadgetry rather than a revolution to display anything genuinely exciting. Nonetheless, there are a few new developments we should, as gadgeteers, take a look.

Smart GPS
Not just a provision of point to point navigation equipment and software anymore, most of the major GPS suppliers are moving to ‘smart’ versions of their hardware. The focus is (luckily) still on getting access to on-the-move information such as cinema times, parking spaces and traffic awareness information.

This one would be particularly useful for me as there’s always a blackspot I hit every morning. Watch out for Dash Express – the more of these there are on the road the more accurate their reporting systems – definitely one to watch.

Wireless Cards
There are a few different cameras, stereos and gaming systems that are now wireless enabled. I’m convinced that it’s the way of the future, with some even talking about wireless power. However, for those without a really flashy camera, the Eye-Fi looks to be a great solution. This 2GB card can automatically hook up to your wireless wi-fi network and dump all images to a specified network location. This is scheduled as US only so far but will move into Europe later in the year.

TN Games Vest
For us gamers, there’s another take on the force feedback option about to hit the market (well, sometime soon anyway). That’s the TN Games Vest. It connects to the computer by USB and features an air compression system that allows the gamer to ‘feel’ where they have been shot, or even the G-Force of trying to turn a corner at 70mph. There’s also a full-body system, which might be taking it a bit far in my view but it’s certainly something to watch for the immersion stakes.

National Public Radio
For usability, you can’t beat the idea behind Harris Corporation and Towson University. Previously of course, radio was an audio medium – if you couldn’t hear then it was pointless tuning in. Now however, the aforementioned consortium is creating a system that translates speech on the radio into text in real time. Currently, the system works manually via a typist but this could well change in the future as the system will no doubt use adaptive voice recognition technology.

SLACKER
The problem with portable media players and music in general is that unless you’re a fan of a particular scene or regularly trawl the music channels on TV, it can be hard to find some new stuff that you like. Slacker is a gadget that could well take the pain out of this search and is for me one of the hottest gadgets at the CES.

It connects wirelessly to the network whenever you’re in range and downloads new music based on the preferences you’ve already shown the machine. There is a 500MB, 1.5GB and even 4GB version. Currently it’s only available in the US but sounds definitely worth a look if you’re over there.

Philips ECO TV
I’ve given this my ‘best in show’ as it were, due to the forward thinking nature of the product. Simply, it’s a 42inch, 1080p flat panel LCD that has various power saving features such as a dimming backlight for darker scenes and a room lighting sensor with automatic adjustment. Impressively, it’s got a very reasonable price tag of only $1399 dollars, which means that not only do you get something that sucks less juice but you also have a fantastic picture quality. One not to miss.

Vista Performance Improvement with these Updates

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While waiting for SP1 or the Tuesday Patch on October 9, though I’m waiting for the SP1 for quite some time, I’m starting to think if it would do me any good to wait for it. Microsoft has wordlessly release four updates for Windows Vista which will improve the performance and reliability. Although these “hotfixes” are not yet available on Windows Update. But You can download them and install them on your own.

Here’s the Detailed List of the Windows Vista(KB941649) update improvements:

  • It extends the battery life for mobile devices.
  • It improves the stability of portable computers and of desktop computers that use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS).
  • It improves the reliability of Windows Vista when you open the menu of a startup application.
  • It improves the stability of Internet Explorer when you open a Web page.
  • It improves the stability of wireless network services.
  • It shortens the startup time of Windows Vista by using a better timing structure.
  • It shortens the recovery time after Windows Vista experiences a period of inactivity.
  • It shortens the recovery time when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
  • It improves the stability of Windows PowerShell.
  • A compatibility issue that affects some third-party antivirus software applications.
  • A reliability issue that occurs when a Windows Vista-based computer uses certain network driver configurations.

And While Your at it, I downloaded this Hotfoxes, better check it out too:
1. Update for Windows Vista (KB941651)

  • This is a reliability update. Install this update to improve the reliability of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista in certain scenarios.

2. KB941600

  • Cumulative update rollup for USB core components in Windows Vista

3. KB941229

  • Several issues that are related to the Media Center Extensibility Platform.
  • An issue that affects digital cable card components when you use Scientific Atlanta cable cards.
  • Interaction issues that occur between Media Center PC and Microsoft Xbox 360 when Xbox 360 is used as a Media Center Extender.
  • Autolaunch issues that occur with video CD (VCD) media.

Sony to release OLED TVs in December

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sony-oled-tv.jpgWith the HD war heating up, the battle between LCD and Plasma is reaching fever pitch. Just like HD DVD and Blu-ray, each camp has its avid supporters who extol the virtues of each technology. But Sony is about to stir things up with the announcement that it will finally release the first OLED TV this December.

OLED is widely seen as the best among the three technologies because it is more energy efficient and it allows for the production of extremely thin and ultralight displays. It is also a great technology for showing very vivid pictures that can render fast moving images — this makes it perfect for action movies or sports. Of course, the downside is that OLED is said to have a shorter lifespan.

Sony is banking on OLED technology to really push it in the new millennium. The company wants to use OLED as its rallying point to signal the revival of its leading position in technological innovations.

The first OLED TV will only measure a paltry 11 inches because one of its limitations is that present technologies are not capable of producing larger panels. The OLED TV will measure just 3 mm in thickness though, and will sell for $1,740m, which is a high as the price of current 40-inch plasma models.

We’ll see if OLED will really signal Sony’s resurgence or if this will go the way of other “pioneering” Sony technologies like the DAT, Minidisc, Atrac format and the Memory Stick.

[tags]Sony, OLED, Plasma, LCD[/tags]


NO OVERNIGHT SUCCESS

It is technologically difficult at the moment to make larger panels, limiting the appeal of the otherwise promising next-generation television.

Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd is offering 103-inch plasma TVs, while the main battle ground for LCD TV makers are moving up to the 40-inch class market from the 30-inch class category.

An 11-inch panel is smaller than regular copier paper used in office.

“I don’t think OLED TVs will replace LCD TVs overnight. But I do believe this is a type of technology with very high potential, something that will come after LCD TVs,” Sony Executive Deputy President Katsumi Ihara told reporters.

Ihara said he set the 200,000 yen price tag without paying much attention to profitability, suggesting Sony will make a loss for each set it sells at least in the initial stage.

The new TV is set to go on sale in Japan on Dec. 1, while overseas launches have yet to be decided.

It has a life span of about 30,000 hours of viewing, which is about half of Sony’s LCD TVs, but long enough to allow eight hours of daily use for 10 years.

Monthly production will come to just 2,000 units. In comparison, Sony plans to sell 10 million units of LCD TVs in the year to next March.

A 12 Year old OS : Windows 95

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Microsoft Windows 95 is celebrating it’s 12th year anniversary since it was launched August 24 1995. The 32-bit successor of famous OSes Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups and MS-DOS. Windows 95 started it all. I remember an advertisement on a PC magazine — “DOS is Dead” — a Windows 95 Ad. Two months after the official launch, that Windows 95 had sold millions of copies. A year later, it boasted sales of 40 million units. Although Microsoftno longer supports Windows 95 there are still some that uses Windows 95. after it still has a DOS operating system to back it up, which is very stable OS.

“Windows 95 has been much anticipated and much has been written about it. But fundamentally, it is about unlocking more of the potential of computing,” Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman said in a statement about the launch. “We are moving into the next era of computing, which includes broader communications via email and the online world, dazzling multimedia and games, and richer educational software.”

“During the last decade, Windows 95 and Office 95 transformed the way people work,” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive said during the simultaneous business launch of Exchange 2007, Office 2007 and Vista in November last year.

I am a day late but heck… Happy Birthday Windows 95.

Change of Heart: Intel joins the $100-laptop per child

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The web has been a buzz with the sudden change of hearts at Intel as the world’s top chip maker has joined the One Laptop per Child Foundation, the organization that makes the now infamous $100 laptops intended to help children worldwide, particularly those in the poor countries, receive education and a better chance to improve their lives.

In May this year, Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of OLPC, said the silicon giant “should be ashamed of itself” for efforts to undermine his initiative.

He accused Intel of selling its own cut-price laptop – the Classmate PC – below cost to drive him out of markets in the developing world.

“What happened in the past has happened,” Will Swope of Intel told the BBC News website. “But going forward, this allows the two organisations to go do a better job and have a better impact for what we are both very eager to do, which is help kids around the world.”

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child, said: “Intel joins the OLPC board as a world leader in technology, helping reach the world’s children. Collaboration with Intel means that the maximum number of laptops will reach children.”

This however does not mean that the $100 laptops would now be running Intel chips, rival chipmaker AMD has already landed that spot. Instead, the servers that will support these laptops would be graced by Intel technologies at their cores.

With Intel aboard, more technologies and more funding would get the project going even more. Not unless of course, criticisms about the project picks up wind and starts to convert observers to its side of the fence.

Such critic is Michael Dell who once said;

those so-called $100 laptops won’t be powerful enough to make much of a difference in their lives.

“The issue is not so much what does it cost, but what does it do,” he said during a question and answer session with customers and finalists of the Dell/National Federation of Independent Business Small-Business Excellence Award.

Things are certainly picking up for the OLPC project, now that Intel has jumped fences things will be more interesting from here on.

Green Apple is on the way

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With the amount of craze built around the public sale of the much anticipated iPhone currently dominating the headlines and RSS feeds of the internet, another timely news that would even boost the love wave Apple has been getting this past few weeks.

greenerapple

International eco-watchers Greenpeace has praised Apple, Inc. for its recent moves and efforts to make its electronic products cleaner and more friendly to mother nature.

Greenpeace has moved Apple up its green electronics rankings thanks to Steve Job’s promises to phase out PVCs and other chemical nasties from its products, but the top spot goes to Nokia.

Greenpeace takes an aggressive tone in criticizing electronics manufacturers for e-waste, stating: ‘The electronics ranking guide has been our answer to getting the electronics industry to face up to the problem of e-waste. We want manufacturers to take responsibility for the unprotected child laborers who scavenge the mountains of cast-off gadgets created by our gizmo-loving ways.’

It all started when Greenpeace launched the Green my Apple Campaign. A cyber campaign that aimed to increase the awareness among consumers and Mac users that the Macs they so love could be harboring environmentally-dangerous chemicals like brominated flame retardants (BFR) and vinyl plastics (PVC). It also called on for a more active participation of Apple in managing and handling old, discarded Macs so that their processing as ‘e-junk’ doesn’t do any harm to the environment, the people who process them and the community that surrounds the waste processing facilities.

Greenpeace rates the big electronics companies on the following criteria:

Chemicals policy and practice (5 criteria)

    • A chemicals policy based on the Precautionary Principle
      Chemicals Management: supply chain management of chemicals via e.g. banned/restricted substance lists, policy to identify problematic substances for future elimination/substitution
      Timeline for phasing out all use of vinyl plastic (PVC)
      Timeline for phasing out all use of brominated flame retardants (not just those banned by EU’s RoHS Directive)
      PVC- and BFR-free models of electronic products on the market.

    • Policy and practice on Producer Responsibility for taking back their discarded products and recycling (4 criteria)

    • Support for individual (financial) producer responsibility – that producers finance the end-of-life management of their products, by taking back and reusing/recycling their own-brand discarded products.
      Provides voluntary takeback and recycling in every country where its products are sold, even in the absence of national laws requiring Producer Responsibility for electronic waste.
      Provides clear information for individual customers on takeback and recycling services in all countries where there are sales of its products.
      Reports on amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collected and recycled.

    • Enthusiasm and support from the community particularly Mac users proved to be effective as Steve Jobs finally made some announcements for a Greener Apple.

    It is generally not Apple’s policy to trumpet our plans for the future; we tend to talk about the things we have just accomplished. Unfortunately this policy has left our customers, shareholders, employees and the industry in the dark about Apple’s desires and plans to become greener. Our stakeholders deserve and expect more from us, and they’re right to do so. They want us to be a leader in this area, just as we are in the other areas of our business. So today we’re changing our policy.

    Wonderful news indeed. And thanks to this, Apple has moved up the green charts of eco-friendly electronics companies. From the languishing in the bottom of the list last year, Apple has moved up the field into 10th position and Greenpeace has the details:

    Apple has finally moved off the bottom of the scorecard and is now in 10th position with improvements on many criteria. The company has committed to eliminate all uses of PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in their products by the end of 2008. They now provide
    examples of additional substances that they plan to eliminate with timelines, such as arsenic in LCDs and mercury, and Material Safety Data Sheets for all their products. But, Apple has yet to give consumers products free of PVC and BFRs.

    Top marks to Apple for reporting on its recycling rate as a percentage (9.5%) of sales 7 years ago and for setting goals to recycle nearly 30% by 2010. It could score better by supporting the principle of individual producer responsibility for its end of life products globally.

    Kudos to Apple! Mac users worldwide must be really proud of their Macs right now and even more ecstatic that the iPhone is now available to the masses.

    Speaking of the iPhone, here’s one nagging question; How green is that iPhone?

    Photo by Outbreaker