We've certainly seen some fairly interesting dedicated handset buttons before, but it's hard to argue with the functionality of a standalone GOOG-411 key. Apparently, Thomson has teamed up with Google to integrate the "first ever one-touch, auto-dial GOOG-411 button" into over a dozen of its GE-branded DECT 6.0 phones. In case you've been chilling under a stone of late, GOOG-411 is the search giant's "free, voice-activated, business directory assistance service," and it will be within reach on a slew of April-bound home phones. For more details on specific models as well as pricing information, head on down to the read link.

It's a sad day indeed for Thomson fanboys worldwide, as the storied French corporation has announced plans to exit the consumer electronics industry altogether in an effort to refocus its resources on B2B digital video services. Following completion of the sale of its remaining non-European AV businesses to Audiovox on December 31st (which, as you'll recall, already bought the RCA brand and accessories division), Thomson will no longer have a presence on domestic or foreign retail shelves, and will also be short €30 million ($42.5 million) as a result of yesterday's announcement to shutter its AVA Europe operations. So here's to you, Thomson: we can't honestly say that we ever got into any of your various products, but as with any other departing member of our loving CE family, you'll be missed.

Update: After speaking with a Thomson rep, it seems inaccurate to state that the company is getting out of consumer electronics altogether, when in fact they do continue to sell home telephones. Therefore, please note that this is just an exit from the company's various A / V businesses.

[Via generationmp3]

Although Thomson's V888 isn't apt to make any calls, it sure slides with the best of 'em. This interestingly designed portable media player maximizes screen space by relocating the full gamut of controls beneath the display, and with all that space for buttons, we're delighted to see a control pad layout for playing any built-in games. Additionally, this unit packs a four-inch display, supports MPEG1/2/4, DivX, MP3, WAV, WMA, ASF, DAT, MOV and a host of other formats, includes an image / text viewer, and even does video out. You'll also find a removable battery, voice recording capabilities, and an SD expansion slot for loading up media. No word on pricing or availability at the moment, but click on for a few more snapshots of this unique device.

[Via PMPToday]

Tired of bulky media players? Hate having to lug around your iPod Nano? Well, welcome to the Thomson A1, a tiny PMP that the company claims is the "world's smallest," (which of course we recommend you take with multiple grains of salt). Truth be told, it is rather petite, clocking in at just 3-inches and weighing only 87 grams. Somehow, they managed to slap on a 16:9 display and cram 4GB or 8GB capacity into the little guy, and of course it plays all your favorites, like MP3, WMA, WAV, and AVI, plus it rocks an FM tuner. The only real question is this; what are those colored "nubs" in the photo, and what exactly are they doing? The A1 will hit China first, going for around $106 for the 4GB and $120 for the 8GB, but no word on when or if we'll see this Stateside.

[Via Tech Digest]

The words "Thomson" and "experimental" don't usually see much of each other, but the company is exploring a few new angles for its burgeoning VoIP lineup, and seems to have come up with a couple of interesting hybrids. The T2700 is a DECT phone with a fancy looking base station and a few hidden qualities. In addition to the usual VoIP duties, the phone can become a stereo loudspeaker for internet radio, and boasts of "HD sound" with enhanced bass and treble over your usual phone audio quality. Next up is an unnamed device (pictured) that seems positioned to compete with Nokia's N800, including an 800 x 480 touchscreen, internet browsing and a USB webcam for videoconferencing, with the main thrust of IPTV over WiFi or the use of a digital TV tuner via USB. Thomson is also sending its GE InfoLink RSS reader phone to Europe and announcing a video watermarking chip for set-top boxes. Unfortunately, we don't have the greatest pics of either of these phone devices, but we'll keep an eye out.

Read - Thomson VoIP phones
Read - Thomson watermark chip

Thomson has announced plans to introduce RCA's Small Wonder EZ201, a solid state storage based MPEG-4 digital camcorder that will sell for the relatively affordable price of $129, sometime later this Spring. The camcorder is similar to a lot of solid state camcorders in that it features an SD card slot: we'll take the failure to mention the specific amount of built-in storage as a clumsy hint to potential buyers that they should bring their own storage if they want to get the most out of the camera. Unfortunately, in their efforts to keep costs down, RCA didn't include a rechargeable battery: instead, you'll have to feed the EZ201 2 AA batteries at a time, which will only keep it going for a pitiful 2 hours tops. Externally, the device looks to be not much larger than a pack of cards, and has a 1.5-inch, 180 degree swivel LCD display. The Small Wonder can also be plugged directly into televisions, and can transfer its MPEG-4 files to a PC without software. Later on this year RCA also plans to release what it calls the Memory Maker, a DVD dock and recording system for the EZ201 that lets users burn footage onto a DVD without the use of a PC.

It hasn't been all glimmer and glam for RCA of late, with the ancient consumer electronics brand lagging behind innovators in the field, being mostly relegated to cheap also-rans. But there's hope for that once-great purveyor of radios: Audiovox just snapped up the rights to RCA-branded accessories from Thomson to the tune of $50 million, which hopefully means a mild cred boost for the brand. We really couldn't have said it better than Patrick Lavelle, President and CEO of Audiovox: "We believe the acquisition of this business will enhance both our top and bottom line performance and create powerful marketing synergies for our organization." Gotta love those powerful marketing synergies. The acquisition includes 115 employees in North America and Asia, and Thomson also threw in Recoton, Spikemaster, Ambico and Discwasher brands for use on any products and the Jensen, Advent, Acoustic Research and Road Gear brands for accessory products. Audiovox expects the acquisition to pay off in over $150 million of sales in 2007.

Think your black iPod nano attracted fingerprints and got scratched too easily? Keeping the same sleek black / blue glow motif showcased on Thomson's PMP2008, the mysterious new Black Diamond PMP (a.k.a. the EH308) should truly wear your touch on its enclosure. While the flashy homepage doesn't give us a completely satisfactory look at the unit itself, we do know that it'll pack 8GB of internal capacity, rock a 1.8-inch OLED screen, and feature "tactile controls." Furthermore, it'll come with a rechargeable Li-ion cell rated for 15 hours, USB 2.0 connectivity, a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, and the ability to display photos as well as play back audio (formats unspecified) and video (WMV / MPEG4). Curiously, Thomson also boasts about its ability to "manage podcast and web audio formats," as well as confirming its compatibility with "secure downloadable music formats" such as WMA-DRM. Expect this dark device to hit store shelves any day now, and at around $300, it's just a tad cheaper than that other Black Diamond floating around out there.

Just a few months back we saw RCA's Lyra X3000 get some well-deserved praise, and now the folks over at CNET are putting its successor through its respective paces. The X3030 sports most of the same specs and attributes as its aging sibling, but touts 30GB of internal storage (up from 20GB) and "adds protected Windows Media Video support and DivX certification." Reviewers found a good bit to love on the PVP, as they extolled its broad range of supported formats and "Apple-esque" scroll wheel, as well as admiring the "healthy set of accessories" that made scheduling recordings a breeze. The main digs came from the "tricky interface," the lack of a widescreen display (like that found on the lower-priced, albeit less accesorized, Archos 604), and the "decent" video quality that fell short of "some competitors." It was also noted that while the 4.5-hours of realized battery life while watching video was commendable, the 8.5-hours achieved while listening solely to audio was indeed lackluster. Nevertheless, the crew found enough niceties to slap a "7 out of 10" rating on the X3030, and closed by dubbing the X3030 "a solid video playback and recording device, despite its poorly designed menu interface."

Alright folks, if some off-the-wall PMP manufacturer can get this whole horizontal, white, touch-sensitive, movie playing, video-out touting thing down pat, then what's taking Apple so long? Regardless of Steve's insistence on rehashing the 5G iPod in its latest refresh, Thomson is going for broke with its 1GB PMP251. Sporting the same ultra-thin design and video-out we saw on the PMP2008, Thomson has shifted the plane by tossing in a horizontal layout, a 320 x 240 LCD, MPEG / JPEG support, PAL / NTSC video output, musical support for MP3, WAV, and WMA files, line-in recording capability, and USB 2.0; it even boasts a few PDA-like functions such as a calendar, address book, and oddly enough, an electronic dictionary. So if you're tired of waiting for a widescreen 6G iPod, and don't mind giving up 29 gigs or so, you can snag the PMP251 for CNY1,380 ($174).

[Via DAPReview]

You know something's gone mainstream when corporate giants like Thomson and GE get involved, and these two are presumably validating the internet calling craze by teaming up with Skype to release a GE-branded VoIP / conventional landline phone. The GE 28300EE2 isn't too much different than the other computer-free units we've seen, and sports the DECT 6.0 protocol as well as a color LCD screen to view Skype messages and traditional caller ID data. Aside from handling both VoIP and landline duties, the device sports speakerphone, conference calling, a 100-name address book, and 10 hours talk / 120 hours standby time. GE throws in two (conservatively styled) handsets to get you started, but since six units are supported, you can snag a few more to prevent having to move a muscle to communicate with your entire household. You can get your VoIP on with the GE 28300EE2 "sometime this fall" for $149.99.

It's pretty hit or miss with these guys, but this new PMP2008 from Thomson looks like one of their hits. We can't imagine the player is too terribly exciting to use, and specs like USB 1.1 don't do much to inspire confidence, but they do seem to have managed to build a skinny flash DAP with at least a modicum of sex appeal. The unit, which is out now in China, sports 1GB of flash memory, a 2-inch screen and a surprising video-out port. However, we're most impressed by the player's 10mm (0.4-inch) thickness, though a sketchy 640 x 240 screen res stat might have that beat if it proves true. Unfortunately, we don't have a word on price, and don't really expect this one to hit our shores, but we can always admire from afar.

[Via dapreview]

Thomson (or if you're a Yank like us, RCA) has found its way into the handheld GPS market, and is poised to release two new models in the fall. The GPS 420 (pictured), which is designed primarily for in-car use, will drop (in Europe, of course) this September or October, loaded with a 4.2-inch 16:9 touch screen and carrying a €500 price tag. The pedestrian-oriented GPS 280 will boast a 2.8-inch screen that can be oriented horizontally or vertically, and should be available sometime in November for a semi-affordable €400. Other hard specs on these SiRFStarIII-based devices are few and far between, but judging by the picture in the source link we assume video (DMB anyone?) and audio playback will find their way into the mix as well. We'll keep you posted when we get more info, unless we get sidetracked daydreaming about Archos' upcoming antenna-packed GPS powerhouse. 

With all this crazy money being spent on rolling out new standards like HD DVD and Blu-ray, you'd think at least they'd be able to manage that 1080p res they're soaking you for, right? Well, sort of. HD DVD runs at about 10-15Mbps, compared to SD-res bitrates of around 8-10Mbps. That means a whole lot of compression is going on, and some of that film grain that you're paying for with such high resolutions is getting lost in the process. Now Thomson is stepping in with a solution to reintroduce that grain, by simulating it in the actual player as a visual effect on the image. Sounds pretty cheesy to us, since the whole point of seeing film grain is for the subtle nuance of it, not for the mere effect of distorted picture. It does sound like they have some algorithm in place to pickup the actual patterns of noise during compression, so that the final representation has at least a semblance to the original, but it sounds like true film grain purists are going to have to stick with movie theaters for their fix for now.

[Via HD Beat]

RCA-parent Thomson announced three new MP3 players for the European market today, along with a 30GB PMP called the X3030E, which should look quite familiar because it's just a re-badge of the Lyra X3030 that we covered a few months back. First up is the 6GB EH306, also known as the Black Diamond, which is a nano-like device sporting a 1.5-inch color OLED display, MP3, WMA, WMV, and MPEG-4 file support, fifteen hours of battery life, and that old standby, the FM tuner -- all for around $320 when it hits stores in October. Next we have the Lyra EM2600 (pictured), a 512MB or 1GB flash-based model which is basically a color version of the RD2312 we spotted at CES 2005, and which will cost $100 or $126 depending on capacity. Bringing up the rear is arguably the hottest model of all, a little waif of a DAP known as the EM2802. With this one you're getting the same color screen and codecs as the EH306, but in a much smaller package and in capacities of either 1GB or 2GB -- which will go for $165 and $216, respectively, upon their November launch. You've already seen the EM2600; now keep reading to check out all the other upcoming devices...