In other words, it’s the first PMP from Sony that is a genuine contender to the iPod Touch.

My first reaction on hearing this news was “about bloody time!” I mean, the iPod Touch is a fantastic device, but it’s been around for a while, and the user interface that it uses, coming as it does from the iPhone, has been around for even longer. It’s not like Sony didn’t know what was coming, so I’ve not idea what took them so long in developing a genuine contender.

Fortunately, though, the contender is here now, and it’s a beauty. With a 3″ OLED screen that’s actually better than the iPod Touch’s while drawing less power, the Sony X-Series is the smaller device of the two, and arguably looks the more handsome.

It has better sound quality as well, thanks to Sony’s legendary audio electronics, with completely digital internals and Sony’s advanced Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (which does exactly what it says on the tin). There’s even an extremely effective noise cancellation system, which removes any extraneous noise from the background, ensuring you get crystal clear music wherever you are.

It’s not about the music though…

Unfortunately, MP3 players are not about the music these days.

Sure they have to sound good, but it’s how they look and the range of features that they have that also helps them sell.

In this, the iPod Touch killed the competition.

With Wi-Fi and Web browsing taken straight from the iPhone, and with the iPhone’s amazing user interface, no other PMP player even came close.

Well they do now.

Sony has seen the light and has also included Wi-Fi and Web browsing into its Walkman X-Series.

Not only can you download tunes from the Internet, but you can also watch YouTube videos wherever there’s a Wi-Fi connection.

Sony takes on Apple’s interface

Best of all, though, must be the Walkman X-Series’s user interface. Fully touch sensitive, it does exactly what the iPod Touch’s interface does, and then some.

There’s a CoverFlow equivalent, which lets you thumb your way through album art to select your tune; and there’s also a nifty feature for fast forwarding through videos – when the video’s playing, simply slide your finger forwards or backwards over it to jump forwards or backwards in time.

Check out the video below to see for yourself just how well this works.

Summary

In short, Sony has done what they should have done years ago – developed a Walkman that can truly take on the iPod Touch at its own game. Apple set the bar amazingly high when it released the iPhone and iPod Touch, and it’s only now that we’re seeing genuine competitors finally emerge. Let battle commence!

The Sony Walkman X-Series release date is set for summer 2009, priced $299 for the 16GB model and $399 for the 32GB model.

[Source: Akihabara News,Stuff.tv]

1). High quality, low prices

HDTV has been around for some years now, but it’s only recently that the price of HDTVs has started to fall. In 2008, though, the price literally crashed. Every sector of the market saw prices plummet, which not only made HDTV affordable for many more people, it also enabled quality HDTV technology to trickle down even to the budget end of the market.

HDTV is a tricky beast. There are so many different factors that can make an “HD-ready” TV set look worse than the analogue set it was designed to replace, and many of the budget sets were horrors.

No more, though. With prices so low across the board, the technology has improved so that by 2010, virtually all HDTV sets should be of the same quality as the top-end sets from 2007, regardless of their price.

2). Size

Size continues to be a somewhat odd fascination with HDTV. Sharp retains the crown for the world’s largest LCD TV at over 100″, and you can bet that manufacturers will continue to try to beat this throughout the coming years, but really there’s a limit on how big you make a TV. Not a physical limit in terms of the technology, but a physical limit involving people’s living rooms!

If you build a TV that’s bigger than most people’s rooms, you’ve just shrunk your market significantly!

Which is why most manufacturers are focusing on another dimension now – thickness, or to be more precise, thinness. The race seems to be on to see who can make their TV the thinnest, with some screens being sold that are thinner than a mobile phone (less than 6mm in some cases!).

Again, this has its limits – thin screens are more easy to break, and who cares whether a screen is 5mm thin or 4mm thin – it’s still thin!

What it means for 2010 and beyond, though, is that the average thickness of HDTVs will shrink, while the price of the super-sized screens will come down.

3). Wireless HDTV

This is a nice new trend that was evident from several manufacturers at CES 2009. Wireless HDTV. Effectively, the technology splits the TV into two units, one (a Set Top Box) for managing the HD signal, and the other (the screen) for displaying it.

The result it that you can put your STB close to where HD connector is,while the screen itself can be placed wherever you want it – and with no unsightly wires feeding inot either.

Better still, new laptops will also support wireless HDTV, meaninig you can transmit your laptop’s display onto your super huge, super thin HDTV. No laptop screen = much longer battery life (and cheaper laptop, too!)

4). Internet TV

One of the strongest new trends at CES was the integration of Internet TV. Virtually all manufacturers had new TVs on show that had built-in Internet connectivity and support for several Web-based services, including YouTube, Flickr,Yahoo! and NetFlix.

The age of browsing the Web on your HDTV, having a movie streamed over the Internet in real time, or just browsing videos and pictures from YouTube and Flickr without firing up your PC,is very nearly here.

After being talked about for so long, Internet TV looks set to break through into the mainstream – and it’s Yahoo!, of all companies who looks set to be the pioneers in this space.

5). Green TVs

It had to happen – the green lobby got at HDTVs, not, I suspect, because they’re profligate consumers of power, but simply because they’re seen as expensive status items, and therefore easy fodder for the neo-hippies of the militant green movement.

The result is that more and more HDTV companies are releasing new models with green credentials. Some of them use less power, some fo them have fancy standby modes that use virtually no power, while others are using sensors to detect whether anyone’s actually watching them and then switching off if no-one’s in the room.

This last feature sounds like a nightmare – I like my TV on when I’m cooking, as I can keep up with whatever programme’s on while making dinner. My kitchen isn’t in my living room, though, so a TV with this feature would just keep turning itself off whenever my back was turned!

Sneaky and pointless!

Summary

So there we have it – the future of HDTV (well, at least for the next couple of years). HDTV has finally broken free of its commodity business model, with new sets focusing more on features and adding real value to the home, rather than just endlessly trying to create blacker blacks!

What I like about the new emerging trends is that they take TV away from its existing model of one box chained to the nearest aerial socket, and towards a completely new future that sees the TV as a window onto a connected world, free to move wherever it’s needed.

With its new Internet connectivity, wirelessness and super-slim size, the TV of the future will be connect to any device, present images from any device anywhere in the world, and be placed anywhere in the room. The line between TV screen and PC screen will become blurred, as one HDTV screen will do both.

The way we use our TVs, and the way we use the Web and live our lives, will slowly change forever. The future of HDTV is bright indeed.

[Source: Light Reading]

This camera has everything; the picture even has a snazzy “web2.0″ reflection. Manufactures have been adding features and gizmos to mobile phones for years but this could be the first sign that cameras are going to get the same treatment. We have been moving towards the one device to control them all for sometime but it has always been MP4 players and mobile phones which have received the attention and had cameras added, and been internet enabled but now it is the digital camera’s turn.

Sony has pulled one out of the bag with its new Cyber-shot DSC-G3 digital camera, the world’s first camera with a Web browser. We are still reeling from the announcement that cameras come with Wi-Fi but the G3 has taken it up a notch by providing a web browser so you can, among other things, upload your photos and videos to popular sites such as YouTube and Picasa.

And because the Cyber-shot G3 is a camera you get also the usual suspects: 3.5in display, 10MP with 4x optical zoom and a very generous 4GB of internal storage. Digital cameras usually come with so many features that you can spend a year just playing with them all and this one is no different among the plethora of snazzy options and features you get face detection, DNLA support and intelligent scene recognition. As I was looking through the specification, one of the features did catch my eye and so I had to look it up, smile shutter. Now face detection and scene recognition is one thing but smile shutter is built around the intriguing notion that the camera will automatically take a picture the instant your main subject smiles. All I can say is nice. Here is the smile shutter feature in action (not on the G3 but gives you the idea):

With a price tag of $500 it is a little steep but it is available now and Sony even throw in a few years of free AT&T Wi-Fi access (the kind you

Pioneer DV-420V overview

Firstly, the DVD player itself. It’s from Pioneer, which means it’s going to be good. The sound quality is apparently the best feature,with 24 bit DACs doing their best to make your tunes and your DVDs sound even better than the real thing (not sure why I’m quoting U2 there – it is late, though!)

The picture quality should also be top rate, as the DV-420V replaces the DV-410V, which was already a bloody good DVD player.

My personal favourite, though, is the CD ripping feature, whereby the DV-420V will rip tunes from a CD, turn them into MP3 files and then dump them on the USB-equipped device of your choice. Certainly not what you’d expect from a DVD player, but a welcome addition nonetheless.

Confusing Engdaget

In its write-up of the DV-420V, Engadget completely missed its ability to rip tracks from CDs, and concluded that:

“…the front-panel USB port enables playback of DivX files and JPEG shots if you find that of interest. We’re thinking not, so you can feel free to save your $90 when it ships this summer.”

This implies a cursory scan over the DV-420V at best, which isn’t what you’d expect from Engadget. Thank gods for the concept of blogging, though, as several fans of Pioneer not only corrected Engadget, they added how great they thought the previous versions of this DVD were.

The moral of the story – sure you may only have ten minutes to write a post, but if you’re not sure about a DVD player that’s standing there in front of you, at least ask the kind gentleman or lady who’s there to answer your questions! Really, Engadget, you should know better by now

[Source: EngadgetHD]

In the spirit of ever-tedious eco-friendliness, JVC has endowed the GN6 with a standby mode, whereby the Micro system falls into a power saving sleep when it’s not been used for a while. No problem there. However, rather than instantly waking up whenever a button is pushed, JVC have incorporated a motion detection system into the GN6, so it wakes up whenever it detects movement directly in front of you.

So, how often do you think the GN6 will wake up each night when your curious and somewhat bored cat decides to spend the whole night running around the room?! Nice idea, but it does smack ever so slightly of badly-thought through gimmick!

The system itself looks pretty good, though. Aside from its physical good looks and its obvious integration with the iPod, it also connects to a variety of other devices through a USB port in the front. Its controls are operated by a ‘laser-touch’ system, which simply means you only have to breath on them for them to operate.

Again, the cat’s going to have a field day – it can wake up the hi-fi by walking in front of it, and then start playing tunes and turning the volume up with just the swish of its tail! What were you thinking of, JVC?!

[Source: Akihabara News]

The iPod Touch made existing MP3 players look as outdated as mobile phones when the iPhone came out, but this may not be the case much longer. The Samsung P3 is just one of a new generation of MP3 and MP4 players that offer a brand new touch-based user interface that brings them far closer to the iPod Touch than ever before.

Samsung P3 MP4 player in detail

So what does the Samsung P3 offer? Well, obviously an MP3 player, and a nice set of features for organizing your music. You can access your favourite tunes instantly, for example, through the use of a Music Hot Touch Key, while the touchscreen user interface lets you choose tunes by pushing virtual keys and swiping your finger across the screen. As its a haptic interface, the device vibrates whenever you push a virtual key, giving you instant feedback of your actions.

The screen itself is a 3″ widescreen 16:9 format, which is useful for watching videos on, which you can watch in MPEG4, WMV and SVI formats.

The P3 also sports integrated speakers with Samsung’s amusingly-named DNSe 3.0 sound enhancement technology, and comes with storage of up to 32GB.

As you can see form the pictures of the P3, it also offers a variety of other features, including FM radio, several games, address book, alarm, calculator – in fact, the types of thing you’d find in a mobile phone.

Indeed, the P3′s user interface is called the EmoTure touch interface, which by the looks of it, seems very similar to the Samsung Tocco touchscreen mobile phone. Looking at the P3, then, I can’t help but feel it’s a top-end Samsung phone that’s had its mobile phone internals ripped out – but then, that’s no bad thing!

The user interface certainly looks good, and the brushed aluminium of the device’s body makes it exude a cool and stylish look.

No pricing or release date has yet been announced, which is annoying, as the price will surely dictate how successful the Samsung P3 will be compared to the iPod Touch.

[Source: Electronista]

A pico projector, if you’ve not heard the term before, is a tiny video projector that can project an image from a device onto a wall or other flat surface. In the case of the MBP200, the 2.2″ image you see on the screen can be projected onto a wall with a viewing area of 50″

This is the perfect combination of technologies – the device itself is small enough to fit in your pocket, while the image it projects is large enough to actually see!

Pico projector technology has been around in prototype form for the past two years or so, but this year at CES we’re finally starting to see some real products being released. Several stand-alone pico projectors were on show, but Samsung scooped them all by including a PMP within theirs.

It was assumed that pico projectors would find their natural home within mobile phones, but I guess the electronics and power requirements of a mobile phone + projector are too great for one device at the moment. A PMP, in contrast, doesn’t need the energy-sapping demands of a wireless radio, so it makes perfect sense to use it as the first device to include a pico projector.

Once the technology is proven, it can then be refined and integrated into a mobile phone, probably in 2010.

Samsung MBP200 specifications

Back to the Samsung MBP200 pico projector PMP though. Here are it specs:

• Features: File viewer, picture viewer, music player, video player
• Projection Panel: HVGA (480*320)
• LCD: 2.2
  ]]> http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/samsung-mbp200-the-worlds-first-pico-projector-pmp/feed/ 0 http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/ces-2009-sandisk-sansa-slotradio/ http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/ces-2009-sandisk-sansa-slotradio/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:27:05 +0000 admin http://mediamentalism.com/?p=888

  SanDisk showcased a rather usual mp3 player at the Consumer Electronics Show this year. It is called the Sansa slotRadio, priced at around $100 and doesn’t have its own internal memory to store the music. Instead it relies on a partner in crime, the slotRadio music card that was specifically designed for the casual music connoisseur. The slotRadio cards hold all the music for the player, and to wet your appetites SanDisk gives you a card preloaded with

  ]]> http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/ces-2009-sandisk-sansa-slotradio/feed/ 1 http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/the-lazy-readers-guide-to-the-best-hdtvs-at-ces-2009/ http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/the-lazy-readers-guide-to-the-best-hdtvs-at-ces-2009/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:43:39 +0000 Mike Evans http://mediamentalism.com/?p=884
  Which are the best HDTVs out of the hundreds that were shown off at CES 2009? After spending hours hoovering up all the HDTV-related news, it seems an impossible question to answer, but the following posts provide an overview of the best that the big guns had on display.

  There’ll be more coverage of these and many of the other gadgets on display at CES 2009 over the coming days (and probably months given the amount of new gadgets on show!)

  • JVC TeleDock with iPod dock
  • Sharp AQUOS BD with built-in Blu-Ray player
  • Toshiba Combo HDTV with wireless streaming and PS3-power
  • LG wireless HDTVs with Yahoo! and YouTube content
  • Super Samsung HDTV with LED TV technology, Yahoo! content and wireless DLNA
  ]]> http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/the-lazy-readers-guide-to-the-best-hdtvs-at-ces-2009/feed/ 0 http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/ces-2009-samsung-hdtvs-with-wireless-dlna-youtube-leds-ktichen-sinks/ http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/ces-2009-samsung-hdtvs-with-wireless-dlna-youtube-leds-ktichen-sinks/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:14:54 +0000 Mike Evans http://mediamentalism.com/?p=873
  Last, but by no means least in this little round-up of HDTVs at CES 2009, comes the biggest gun of all – Samsung, the world’s biggest gadget manufacturer, who’ve launched a seemingly endless number of new HDTVs. Joining LG, Samsung have also been showing off a new range of Internet TV-equipped TVs that also feature Yahoo!’s new Widget Channel technology for direct access to YouTube, Yahoo! and Web content and Flickr images direct to the TV.

  Wireless DLNA

  Not content with Internet TV, though, Samsung have also equipped its Series 6 and 8 Plasma TVs with wireless DLNA, which means you can access all the content from any of your DLNA-equipped devices (mobile phones, cameras, PCs, etc.) wirelessly. You can view, browse and control the content directly through the TV without any wires whatsoever. And if your device doesn’t have DLNA, that’s OK too, as the TVs come with a USB 2.0 port!

  These incredible TVs come equipped with 3GPP, MKV, WMV9 and DivX codecs, meaning you can watch videos from your devices in a wide variety of different formats.

  LED TVs

  As if all that wasn’t enough, Samsung also released a new range of LED TVs. Yes, you read right, not LCD TVs, but genuine LED TVs, which give a much greater contrast ratio than LCD technology (which itself is currently capable of 2,000,000:1) for much deeper blacks, while consuming 40% less power than their LCD equivalent.

  [Source: EngadgetHD]

  ]]> http://www.mediamentalism.com/2009/01/08/ces-2009-samsung-hdtvs-with-wireless-dlna-youtube-leds-ktichen-sinks/feed/ 3