macnica
Latest
Fujitsu and Macnica embed Android into digital photo frames -- WalMart, you listening?
Hey, if you can take Google's open source OS for mobile telephones and chunk it into a netbook, then why not digital photo frames? Fujitsu and Japan's Macnica have teamed up on what they're calling a "Software Platform for Home Network Digital Photo Frames" based on Google's Android. In other words, it's a software platform for home network digital photo frames based on Google's Android. Uh, riiight. The prototype frame above was on display in Japan yesterday running slideshows off a standard DLNA network. Honestly, we don't care what OS is running at the core of those cheap, off-brand digital photo frames cluttering big box shelves every holiday -- just make the navigation intuitive and we're happy. Android seems like a good (and free!) start along the road to standardization.
Macnica demonstrates UWB-over-coax HD transmissions
Not that Macnica is the first to offer up a method for transmitting HD / HDMI over coaxial cabling, but it has taken the time in Tokyo to showcase a new system that relies on a Sigma Designs UWB transmission chipset (dubbed Windeo). The display saw high-definition content passed 100 meters over coaxial cable without noticeable degradation, and booth attendees at ESEC 2008 stated that the effective throughput was close to 120Mbps. We're still quite aways from this stuff being commonplace in the home, but with Pulse~LINK and Tzero battling it out in the courtroom over patent issues, we suppose someone has to pick up the slack.
