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Tatung throws its hat into the Android game
Odds are you've never seen a phone by Tatung -- much less owned one -- but according to the Taiwanese firm's chairman, the company is now pursuing development of smartphones powered by the Android platform. DigiTimes believes the phones will find their way to Tatung InfoComm, winner of one of Taiwan's WiMAX licenses -- and the combination of 4G plus Android is a tantalizing thought indeed. Of course, that would put these bad boys no closer to US shores than any other Tatung handset -- but at this point, Android needs whatever hardware it can get, no matter how geographically limited it might be.
GE quietly delays premium HDTV line
General Electric came clean with its intentions to delve into the wide world of HDTVs last September... and then the economy, as well as GE itself, fell apart. Earlier this year, we were actually clued in on some of the details surrounding the Tatung-built sets, but now we're hearing that the company is pushing everything back by around three months. GE maintains that the setback is due to "marketing rather than operational or manufacturing issues," though we all know right about now isn't the greatest time to introduce new high-end televisions. We also get the idea that GE may use the time to better implement connected HDTV features given just how prevalent those were at CES, but again, we're really just shooting in the dark here. Oh, we forgot to even ask -- does anyone care that GE's getting back into the TV biz, let alone that its forthcoming sets are delayed?
GE lets loose premium details about premium HDTV line
When we heard last September that General Electric was aiming to enter the "premium" HDTV market, we all had a brief laugh and continued on about our day. Apparently, our doubts are completely unfounded. According to an interview with numerous GE executives tied in with the initiative, the GE-branded sets will be serious contenders. In fact, bigwigs are hoping to make their sets "a top-tier brand that rivals the likes of Sony, Samsung, and Sharp." The secret sauce is the differentiation, as GE is looking to stuff internet connectivity, wireless audio and many other "advanced features" onto its sets in order to show up rivals. Among the early prototypes shown at CES earlier this month was a 46-inch HDTV with a GLT edgelight that utilized white Luminus LEDs and GLT's lightguide blades. It's also looking to expand into wireless video boxes with 1080i support, which means the sky really could be the limit here. Obviously, we're keeping our skeptic hats on until a commercial device hits the market, but you can definitely color us intrigued.[Image courtesy of DecoRadios]
General Electric partners with Tatung for "premium" GE-branded HDTVs
Who says there are too many players in the HDTV realm? With current mainstays partnering up like it's going out of style, we've found two firms that see something no one else does. General Electric has just announced a joint venture with Taiwan-based Tatung in which the pair plans on making two million HDTVs annually when production gets going in 2009. The two hope to capture at least 5% to 10% of the global TV market in due time, and according to Peter Weedfald, president of North America and global chief marketing officer for the JV, the resulting product will be a "premium brand" that will be "very competitive with current leadership brands." We'll be interested to see what all becomes of this, and hopefully we'll have some prototypes to gawk at come CES / IFA / CEDIA 2009.[Image courtesy of VintageTVSets]
Philips, Samsung named in CRT-cartel suit
A whole bevy of companies have been named in a suit alleging that a CRT-cartel has been price-fixing the good-old tube. Companies claimed to be "in on the fix" include Philips, LG, Tatung, Matsushita, Samsung and Toshiba. The suit states that these companies banded together in the face of (precipitously) dropping demand for CRT-based sets to, you guessed it, keep prices artificially high. The plaintiff's lawyer cites "...unnatural and sustained price stability, as well as inexplicable increases in the prices of CRTs" as evidence of the shady goings-on stretching back to 1998. Ten years seems like a stretch to us, and we haven't exactly been keeping up with CRT prices; but we'll see how this one settles out.[Image courtesy of TheHarrowGroup]
Tatung launching 10.4-inch WebPad TX-3000 tablet PC
Not too many details on this one just yet, but the good news is that Tatung is reportedly readying the 10.4-inch WebPad TX-3000 for release -- at least in Thailand, that is. Apparently, the company has been busy showing off the machine at Taitronics Bangkok 2007, and word on the street puts an AMD LX 800 processor and 1GB CompactFlash card within, and we could also see 802.11b/g WiFi, USB 2.0, PCMCIA, VGA output, audio in / out, and a three-hour battery pack on the final release. Sadly, we've no idea exactly when Tatung plans on loosing this thing to the public, but we're hoping it won't keep those eager to snap one up waiting for too much longer.[Via TeleRead]
Tatung's mysterious Windows Mobile-powered UMPC / PPC hybrid spotted
We're really digging these UMPC / PPC hybrids that seem to be popping up every so often, and even though those full-fledged (and overpriced) first generation UMPCs didn't exactly shake up the mobile computing world, we're a forgiving bunch. Presumably similar in function to HTC's Athena X7500, this mysterious Tatung device will apparently sport a longer battery life than those tried-and-true UMPCs, have "instant on" capabilities, and feature Windows Mobile 5.0. We can only hope that it sports at least a few connectivity options, but until CES (hopefully) discloses a bit information, the pics snapped (click on through for more) at Computex will have to do for now.[Via PocketPCThoughts]
Microsoft partners with major players on IPTV Edition-powered SoC STBs
With Zune and Vista hogging all the headlines these days, you may have forgotten that Microsoft is also hard at work pushing its IPTV Edition software platform into living rooms around the world, so the software giant decided to take the Broadband World Forum Europe in Paris as occasion to remind us just how committed it is to TV over the internet. The major announcement to come out of the conference was the immediate availability of system-on-a-chip set-top boxes powered by Redmond from several of the major STB hardware manufacturers, including Cisco, Motorola, Philips, and Tatung. All of these boxes will provide the end-user with HD and DVR support and on-demand viewing as well as more advanced capabilities like multiroom streaming and home media networking. Most of the new offerings -- such as Tatung's STB2000 series, Philips' BT-bound hybrid IPTV-DTT STB, and Cisco's unnamed models -- use an SoC based on Sigma Designs' 8634 chipset, with Cisco also hitting up STMicroelectronics for its silicon. Moto, meanwhile, announced that AT&T would be be the first customer to take delivery on its new devices, which -- as we already knew -- will be heading into the homes of the few, the proud, the U-verse subscribers. So congrats, Microsoft, on another product category successfully infused with your special brand of software, but now that you've become a major player in this realm, remember to watch your back -- FairUse4IPTV could be right around the corner.
Tatung's new Tablet PC sports detachable keyboard
Seems like it's never too late to reinvent the whole keyboard/hinge relationship, and Tatung is giving it a pretty good go with their new TTAB-A12D Tablet PC. The unit stores a thin, detachable keyboard on its back, which can then be clipped onto the base of the PC for a tray table-friendly setup. We're pretty impressed with the tablet's overall size, even with the keyboard tacked onto the back, but for all we know of the PC's specs there could be saltine crackers inside that box, so we'll withhold judgement until they're ready to wow us with some news of Core Duos or hybrid hard drives.
