LG Electronics will be launching the “Super Multi Blue” dual-format, high definition disc player in South Africa during the third quarter of 2007. The disc player blends the latest technologies, offering unprecedented flexibility to consumers who seek the convenience of both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD content.
The advanced dual-format high-definition disc player, (BH100) has already been launched in the US market and is the world’s first player with the capability to play both next-generation disc formats, addressing the challenge of the current format war. The player is ideally suited to LG’s expanded lineup of Full HD 1080p plasma and LCD HDTVs, delivering the best video possible in the highest display resolution format.
“We have developed the Super Multi Blue Player to end the confusion caused by the current competition between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Customers are no longer forced to choose between the two formats,” said Charlie Kim, Product Manager, Digital Media, LGE South Africa. “As Full HD TV is already gaining significant ground, we are hoping that the Super Multi Blue Player will play the trigger role in expanding and advancing both Full HD TV and high-definition DVD market volume together.”
In addition to offering Full HD 1080p picture quality from high-definition discs, the player incorporates interactive functions based on BD-Java, which allows advanced menus and functions to be displayed over the video of Blu-ray discs. It is also capable of accessing and playing audio-video content from HD DVD discs in full HD resolution. Users will still be able to access LG’s software-based advanced menu for HD DVD. Regardless, the capability to play movies in both formats is a huge consumer benefit.
The introduction of the Super Multi Blue player will ultimately eliminate the end consumer confusion and hesitation in the high-definition disc marketplace. The LG unit supports various A/V formats, including MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264 video, MPEG1/2 audio, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital+, DTS and DTS-HD audio, and includes multiple inputs/outputs such as HDMI out, component / composite video outputs, and optical / coaxial / discrete 5.1 channel audio outputs, among others.
The unit incorporates elegant backlit touch sensor buttons along with an ergonomic remote control that gives the user command of the next-generation home entertainment experience.
Source :http://www.gadget.co.za
Sunday, July 22, 2007
LGE launches Dual HD Player in SA
Richard Branson foreword
The patience of the cellphone networks’ customer is being tested, says Sir Richard Branson in his foreword to Arthur Goldstuck’s latest guide to the hi-tech world, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Going Mobile, launched this month.
Arthur Goldstuck, founder and editor-in-chief of Gadget, has released his latest guide to the hi-tech world, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Going Mobile. The book follows in the tradition of his previous books in demystifying an increasingly complex world, and includes a foreword by Sir Richard Branson, head of the Virgin empire.
In this case, it is the world of the cell phone, the laptop computer and all the wireless connectivity options that connect the two with the rest of the world. Goldstuck highlights the extent to which the cellphone has changed our lives, yet keep becoming more and more complicated to use.
He says in his introduction, “The humble cellphone was easy to use in the beginning, but it has evolved in the opposite direction to that of the Internet. It has become the ‘smartphone’, which really means that you have to be pretty smart to get it to operate in a smart way. Or at least, you need to be pretty patient.”
The same applies to dealing with the networks, on whom we depend for our communications lives.
As Sir Richard Branson says in the foreword to the book, “Every second South African has been able to become a cell phone user despite all the odds and despite even the most optimistic forecasts not anticipating such widespread uptake. And despite numerous obstacles, ordinary South Africans have found a way to make the mobile world work for them.”
Branson continues, however, to say that “The complaints and protests that have come from so many sources should long ago have been a warning signal to the industry that the customer’s patience is being tested. What has worked until now is not going to work as well in the future. Because the customer knows: there is always a better way.”
Goldstuck’s book is geared towards showing users of mobile technologies just how to achieve that better way, with guidelines on how to choose phones and laptops, how to set up wireless networks at home and in small offices, and a directory of WiFi hotspots around the country – including a listing of free hotspots, where laptop users can connect to the Internet at high speed at no charge.
Mobility 2006, the research project that Goldstuck led for his company, World Wide Worx (http://www.therworx.biz), informed much of this book, by provided him with a broad understanding of the needs, expectations and experience of South African businesses and individuals, as they attempt to go mobile.
Funded by First National Bank, Virgin Mobile and Verizon Business, Mobility 2006 confirmed what many have suspected for a long time: South Africans do want the latest communications technology, but not for its own sake. It must offer them an easy, convenient route to their destination, and the destination is effective and efficient communications. This book aims to provide a roadmap to help reach that destination.
Source :http://www.gadget.co.za
Saturday, June 30, 2007
iPhone Madness Hits US after Gadget Launch
The Apple iPhone, the most-anticipated gadget debut in years, went on sale Friday in the United States, with thousands of impatient buyers streaming into stores.
In the five months since Jobs announced Apple's move into the mobile phone business, the iPhone has become the most widely-anticipated product launch in recent memory.
The phones, which retail for USD 499 for 4 gigabytes of storage or USD 599 for 8 gigabytes of storage, meld a phone, Web browser and media player.
Apple, which was to begin selling the phone online late Friday, has said shoppers will be limited to two devices apiece. AT&T, the exclusive carrier, plans to sell one iPhone per customer and at company stores only.
Source :http://www.novinite.com
Apple iPhone launch draws gadget geeks, hired help
Kristian Gundersen flew from Norway to New York to be among the first people to buy Apple's media-playing iPhone. He described the day as one of the best of his life.
"It's a dream come true. ... It's Christmas, birthday, New Year's all rolled into one," said the 23-year-old graphic designer who lined up for nearly 12 hours to buy the music and video playing phone.
"I'm a Mac addict," he said, referring to Apple Inc.'s trademark computers. "I got on a 10-hour line for the 'Lord of the Rings' (movie), but it is nothing compared to this. This is a historic event."
Gundersen was among several thousand people who lined up -- some for up to five days -- outside U.S. Apple stores and outlets of AT&T, the exclusive iPhone carrier for the next two years. Stores opened at 6 p.m. local time in each U.S. time zone.
The iPhone melds a phone, Web browser and media player and costs $500 or $600, depending on the amount of memory.
Technology gurus have praised the gadget as a "breakthrough", but questioned whether people would be put off by its use of a smooth touch-screen instead of a keyboard, and its relatively slow Internet connection.
Albert Livingstone's wife thought he was crazy for lining up overnight in Chicago outside the Apple store.
"It's the newest toy. I'm 62 -- I don't have much time left to buy toys," said Livingstone, who stood in line with his friend Mark Stevenson, 50. They rented a room across the street and took turns to sleep.
But not everyone could understand the excitement.
"It's just a phone!" a San Francisco construction worker, driving by the Apple store in his pick-up truck, yelled at the waiting crowd.
Despite a limit of two iPhones per person, Grant Johnson, 41, managed to get his hands on three when the doors opened at the Apple store on New York's Fifth Avenue. He had asked a girl in front of him to buy an extra one.
"I'm keeping one and selling the other two, I'm trying to get $1200 for them," said Johnson, who had queued up for 25 hours. "I haven't slept in a day and a half," he said. "I need a nice hot shower and a bath."
"WE STINK"
On a mild summer's day in Chicago, 50-year-old business consultant James Budd joined the line at dawn to buy an iPhone for himself and for his 95-year-old grandmother because he hoped it would be "simple enough" for her to use.
But other high-flying professionals who couldn't escape work paid others to do it for them.
A tongue-in-cheek Citigroup research note on Apple even gave tips on how "to obtain an iPhone ASAP on Friday," advising clients to "send whoever is the newest and most junior at your firm to stand in line."
Young entrepreneurs sought to make a quick buck.
In Walnut Creek, California, a group of college students arrived at the Apple store at dawn on Wednesday to nab the first 10 spots to sell on Web site www.iwait.org.
"We're exhausted, we're having trouble speaking -- and we stink," said 18-year-old organizer Josh May.
Terry Austin, a 23-year-old New Yorker, waited in line for 27 hours outside Apple in New York.
"I feel good, it was fun," he said when he walked out clutching his purchase. When asked if it was worth it, he answered: "We'll find out."
Source :http://in.today.reuters.com/
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Sony Ericsson's iPod nano nobbler?
Today's onslaught of slick Sony Ericsson phones continues, with this monster 8GB Walkman phone squaring up to Apple's top-end nano in the storage stakes.
A beast of a blower, the new W960 isn't holding back memory-wise, with enough space to crowbar in a serious portion of your digital music collection - you're looking at around 700 albums if you encode your tunes in the eAAC+ format. Plus, Sony Ericsson is ensuring it's a slick experience, by chucking in a big-boy 2.6-inch touchscreen, enabling you to use your finger or the stylus to flick through album art as well as perform more old fashioned searches.
3G equipped and Wi-Fi'd up to the eyeballs, the W960 is an online maestro, encouraging you to access music and media online. It's no slouch on the imaging and movie fronts either, boasting an impressive 3.2-megapixel shooter and able to playback video at a super smooth 30 frames per second.
Source : http://gadgetshow.five.tv
King of Cyber-shot callers
Sony Ericsson has unveiled its most striking and serious camera phone yet, in the form of the snaptastic K850 Cyber-shot mobile.
Set to shoot onto UK shelves in the Autumn, this smartly green-flecked Cyber-shot phone is packing a jumbo 5-megapixel digital camera. Like it's lesser-megapixelled sibling, the K810i, it's equipped with zippy auto-focus skills and a Xenon flash. Plus, it's packing all the old favourites functions-wise, including Sony Ericsson's slick BestPic talent, which cleverly starts taking shots before you hit the shutter (while you're auto-focussing, it's not magic), and takes a series of pics after you
hit the button, enabling you to select from a series of nine shots.
It promises to be fast on the draw too - tap the camera button and the lens cover automatically whips open, ready to shoot.
The K850 is HSDPA equipped, meaning faster online access verging on broadband speeds, so you can access your favourite photo sharing site in a blink. Uploading your pics straight to the web is simple too, and doesn't take too long via standard 3G upload speeds.
Stay tuned for the first review, coming soon.
Source :
Eyes wider open
Samsung has wheeled a whopping 70-inch high-def LCD into the frame, packing some enlightening telly talents.
This beast of a big-screen has just hit shops over in South Korea, making it one of the world's largest commercially available LCD goliaths. Word has it the 70-incher could be stomping its way onto UK shores, although no official announcement just yet. Here's hoping.
Sure, its super-size dimensions put it on the global map, but Samsung's titan telly promises to be equally as impressive in the picture quality stakes. Its guts are loaded with the latest image enhancement tech, including an LED backlight with a smart 'local dimming' feature that basically means it automatically turns off dark image areas to create an awesome amount of contrast to create a more realistic and dynamic picture. Stat fans, we're taking a contrast ratio of 500,000:1 - put that in context, the latest and greatest sets are pumping out around 20,000:1. Of course, it's not going to be (one sec, while we get the calculator), er, 25-times better by any means, as unfortunately it ain't that simple, but it should spit out a fantastically deep and vivid picture nonetheless. You just might need to get a flip-top house to fit it in your lounge.
Using an LED backlight also means its more energy efficient and eco friendly, so bravo to the big fella.
Source :http://gadgetshow.five.tv
