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Netgear announces Push2TV WiDi adapter and three new NeoTV units
Today, Netgear is unveiling three more Roku-troubling NeoTV boxes and Push2TV, a wireless display adapter letting you harness WiDi (it's also Miracast pre-standard compliant) to push content from smartphones, laptops or tablets to your TV. The trio of NeoTVs are so similar to the last generation that it's a little hard to tell the difference, except that the new flagship NeoTV MAX now comes with the long-desired addition of DLNA and a custom remote that has navigation buttons on one side and a QWERTY keyboard on the other. All four devices are available from today, the Push2Tv costing $60, while the new NeoTVs are priced at $50, $60 and $70, respectively -- and if you'd like to know more, then we've got some more info down below.
Netgear's NeoTV Pro adds WiDi, makes any TV smart
Netgear is supercharging the Roku-troubling NeoTV 200 that arrived late last year. The NeoTV Pro adds Intel's WiDi tech to the tiny box, enabling you to wirelessly span your laptop's display onto the biggest screen in your house. It'll come with the same Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu, YouTube and Pandora offerings you know and love, controllable with the stock remote or your smartphone. The hardware remains otherwise unchanged, packing the same 300Mbps WiFi, Ethernet, optical out and HDMI -- specs that are doubtless powerful enough for you to catch all of those glorious episodes of The Engadget Show again and again.
Fujifilm's Finepix HD Player HDP-L1 puts 3D W1 footage onto your new 3D HDTV
Still monkeying around with that Finepix Real 3D W1 camera, somewhat confused about what exactly you bought it for? Take heart, bandwagon jumper -- the bridge you've been searching for has just been constructed. Fujifilm has recently introduced a new card reader / HD player for use with its year-old 3D point-and-shoot, and judging by the topic of conversation at this year's CES, it sure seems like the timing is far better this go 'round. Put simply, the HDP-L1 (¥4,000; $43) accepts both 2D and 3D content stored on SD / SDHC cards from your W1, and the HDMI output pipes that content directly onto your shiny new 3D HDTV for at-home enjoyment. We're told that it'll also work with that antediluvian 2D content as well, but let's be honest -- you didn't buy a 3D camera just to shoot in 2D, now did you? On second thought, don't answer that.
Hallods F43 MP4 player packs a 4.3-inch 720p screen, outed in Japan
Looks like the wait for a real HD PMP is finally over: Hallods of Japan has just released their F43 MP4 player featuring a 4.3-inch 1280x720 screen, easily beating other sub-5-inch, 480p screens found on big names like the Archos 5 and Viewsonic's VPD400. Under that sharp screen is 8GB of internal storage and a hot-swappable microSD slot, along with a battery life of about four hours and ten hours for video and music, respectively. Like many PMPs out there the F43 supports videos encoded in MPEG4, FLV, RMVB and DivX-WVGA. Sure, there's the ironic lack of HDMI output, but for ¥16,800 ($188) this is still a pretty good deal. Let's just hope Hallods will send them over to the US soon.
Kodak's Theatre HD Player reviewed: not all smiles
It's mildly unfathomable that we're just now seeing a review on Kodak's July-announced Theatre HD Player, but maybe that's because most folks could smell the lameness from the press release. Nevertheless, one critic finally got up the courage to publish his feelings online, and while the unit did have its bright spots, not everything was fine and dandy. First and foremost, the $299 price point was deemed absurd given the omission of any built-in storage and the unit's inability to access HD movies / TV shows. That said, the user interface "shined in its simplicity and was a lot of fun to use," which inevitably left the reviewer simply wanting more. In other words, you're probably better off passing this one by until Kodak figures out a way to add in a bit more functionality, but feel free to give the read link a look if you're still in doubt.
