Ces2008
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Check out the hands-on with BD Live over at Engadget
Sony's demoing the new Blu-ray Interactive features in their booth at CES, and Engadget's got the video with Mahalo Daily's Veronica Belmont -- hit the read link to check it out!
AMD's LIVE! Ultra branding is so SUPER DUPER! Awesome
In a superlative heave of marketing masturbation, AMD just announced their "AMD LIVE! Ultra" brand. Having learned nothing from Intel's Viiv debacle, AMD will soon stuff systems powered by AMD's Spider and Puma platforms optimized for HD video playback into the extended AMD LIVE! brand. That includes machines packing AMD's quad-core or dual-core tech with ATI Radeon HD graphics, AMD chipsets, and a pre-load of AMD's LIVE! Explorer media viewer and browsing application (pictured above). The brands will infect our AMD desktops starting the first half of 2008 -- laptops in the 2nd half. See, that didn't take 1,162 words now did it AMD?
Hands-on with the Marantz VS3002 HDMI switcher
Readers who tuned in before CES already got the details on the Marantz VS3002 HDMI switcher, but we'll recap really quick before we move to the pics. Six inputs and two parallel outputs, HDMI 1.3 and RS-232. And lookee here: there are six HDMI inputs and two outputs around back! This is priced at $349 and will ship in February.%Gallery-13242%
Video: Bill Gates is looking for a job -- fruitlessly
Would you hire a 52 year old college dropout who's only had one job his entire life? Ok, but what if the college he dropped out of was Harvard, and the one job he's is as founder and chairman of the world's most powerful software company? No, not even then? If you haven't already seen it, watch as our man Bill flounders in the hunt for a new gig, as shown at his final CES keynote a couple of days ago. Good luck out there, man -- and don't forget, if you're looking for a few extra bucks we'd love your help covering Macworld next week.
Kiss-me Meter cashes in on your halitosis, insecurities
Forget about good hygiene practices eliminating your fears of halitosis, technology is here to the rescue! The pitch: Simply blow onto Seju Engineering's Kiss-me Meter just before planting a wet one on your date, and an LED indicator determines whether or not you should make the dive for first base (or you could pop a Tic Tac, whatever works for you, really). The test: One confidant Engadget blogger landed right in the middle, scoring a three. Which sounds about right to us.
Asus EeePC spotted running SplashTop instant-on OS
You probably remember the SplashTop instant-on, Linux-based OS from past posts or perhaps developer DeviceVM's demo at last October's reader meetup in San Francisco. It's well known that this embedded feature will ship standard on select ASUS motherboards, but as we were cruising around the PC manufacturer's booth today, we happened to catch a rather unexpected application for SplashTop: running on the EeePC. Neither ASUS nor DeviceVM has made any announcements with regard to porting the software onto the popular ultra-portable laptop, but unless our eyes were deceiving us, this Eee was all ready to run Pidgin, Skype, or a browser without booting into the main OS. We'll keep our eye on this one, as the merger of these two technologies would certainly create quite the compelling user experience.
Eyeballs-on PumpTop TV
We're still not quite sure whether to file Westinghouse Digital's PumpTop TV network under "because there were a few square inches of advertising-free modern life left" or "because Western civilization demands the right to watch TV absolutely anywhere," but either way we thought it fitting to remind our US readers that these things will start becoming more ubiquitous in major cities this year. The technology isn't new but, much like bell-bottoms, seems to keep coming back unexpectedly despite antipathy from the sane.%Gallery-13246%
Griffin's Evolve wireless system mutates add-ons
Griffin's oh so sexy wireless Evolve iPod speaker dock now has a little buddy. Two actually: the $100 Cube Speaker and $30 Charging Base add-ons. The speakers operate at 433MHz and feature an internal lithium-ion battery for 10-hours (at "normal" listening value) between charges. And you can add as many speakers as you can afford. Our own hands-on from CES allowed us to walk about 100-feet from the base station before interference set in. Not bad considering the density of RF noise the speakers had to compete with on the busy show floor. Combined with the charger, the complete system could make for a quick, dirty, and expensive (the Evolve costs $299) wireless setup in your tiny dorm or garden apartment.[Via iLounge]
BD+ has not been compromised, yet
Despite SlySoft announcing that BD+ was compromised, and promising an update to its AnyDVD HD software, -- which enables you to rip a Blu-ray discs -- here we are a few months later and the latest is that SlySoft recommends that you buy HD DVD. But with Warner recently going blu, a question at the Blu-ray press conference was "did BD+ have anything to do with their decision?" And while Warner's answer was "no", afterwards it was brought to our attention by a Fox employee that BD+ has not been compromised. But, if that's true, then where do these HD Fox titles distributed via illegal means come from? The situation is actually hilariously ironic, as in love with BD+ that Fox seems to be, high quality transfers of their movies still make it onto the internet because of the European releases of HD DVD -- not distributed by Fox and thus not Blu-ray exclusive -- are only protected with AACS. So if you think about it, without BD+, users would have to buy Fox titles to get them on their computer for other uses, but as it stands, it makes more sense for them skip laying down any cash and download the movies instead, nice job guys.
Eyes-on with Westinghouse's Quad HD displays
We promise this post isn't just a cheap excuse to drool over Halo 3 -- no, no -- this post is a cheap excuse to drool over Crysis running at native resolution. Westinghouse got smarter this year and made its two Quad HD LCDs on display a more prominent attraction in the booth, showing off 47-inch and 56-inch models. For those who haven't been keeping score, the 56-inch display is running at 3840 x 2160 Quad Full HD resolution (think 8.3 million pixels is enough for ya?) -- its little brother runs at 2560 x 1440 Quad HD and 3.7 million pixels. Both of these units are going to be released this year in Q2 ("March or April"), but you'll have to part with $10,000 to pick up the 47-inch and a whopping $50k to take home the 56-inch. The rep we spoke with mentioned they obviously weren't targeting consumers with these things so much as engineers, architects, visual imaging and editing professionals and production studios, and medical and geological professionals, as well as mining companies who've shown interest in the technology. We fully concede there's no rational way to justify shelling out 50 grand for one of these things but damn, it doesn't stop us from wanting one at Engadget HQ.%Gallery-13245%
Neonode planning revamped OS, totally new handsets
We've just gotten out of a meeting with Thomas Eriksson, co-founder and CTO of Neonode, and we've learned some very exciting information about the company's newest, as-yet-unannounced phones. We were shown designs of the mobile-maker's next lineup of devices, including an iPhone-esque model called "Earth" which has been confirmed for production (though Thomas insisted that some features and design would change, of course). The phone will feature a 2.9-inch, true 16:9 ratio infrared touchscreen (an updated version of the Neonode N2's touch surface), HSPA connectivity, and will operate on five separate frequency bands (a first as far as we can tell), allowing 3G use in both Europe and the US. However, the most interesting thing that we were shown was a live prototype of the company's latest OS, which blows the doors off of previous iterations. The new interface is a much more robust platform, featuring a homescreen made up of a number of small widget-like icons, all updating live with things like RSS feeds, phone logs, weather, and mail. The UI is still meant to be operated via one hand, though Thomas confirmed that the device would sport a virtual QWERTY keyboard, and would deliver more PIM / smartphone features than we've seen from them in the past. The design of the interface is still being tweaked, but it looks very contemporary to current and future phone OSs we've been seeing, with lots of nice shading and alpha layers. From the little we peeped, this platform could be a contender if handled correctly -- Thomas told us that Neonode had plans underway to partner with carriers in the US, so stay tuned to this space for more info.
Hands-on with Marantz's new AV8003 and MM8003 processor / amp pair
If the idea of a receiver is just too lowbrow for you, Marantz is introducing their new AV8003 and MM8003 processor / amplifier pair. It's a nice couple: HDMI 1.3a (four in, two out), Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, DeepColor and Audyssey to get things dialed in; the amp kicks out eight channels at 150-Watts. Both available Q2 2008, prices to be determined.%Gallery-13234%
MusicGiants launches VideoGiants, with HD movies from Paramount
The HD digital distribution club just got a little bigger, as lossless audio distributor MusicGiants is launching its VideoGiants service with 250 movies from Paramount, and additional content from HDNet. Available in 1080p or 1080i WMV format, users can purchase the movies in 10-packs for $159 delivered via Seagate hard drives or, in a few months, one at a time via direct download to a home media server. After that, it can be viewed via the media PC or Media Extender (including Xbox 360). MusicGiants has been selling HD audio tracks to high end home theater owners via its network of dealers and installers for about two years, with plans to make this type of service available to the mass market soon. Still think the future of HD content is on shiny discs?
EVGA shows off USB monitor adapter, InterView dual-screen display
Those looking for some added desktop real estate may want to keep an eye on what EVGA has in store, as the company has just taken the wraps off two upcoming products that take considerably different approaches to expand your view of things. The first is a rather standard USB monitor adapter, dubbed the EVGA UV Plus+, which will apparently be available in both standard and widescreen-capable versions (as opposed to one that does both). The former of those will give you a max resolution 1280x1024, while the latter maxes out at a decent 1680x1050, with each boasting a single DVI port and support for full 32-bit color depth. Taking another tact is the company's so-called InterView display (pictured after the break), which consists of two 17-inch monitors that can be folded together for toting around. Those'll give you a combined 2880x900 resolution, along with a 500:1 contrast ratio and an 8ms response time. On a somewhat related front, EVGA also took the opportunity to show off its latest motherboard, which may be most notable simply for its name: the EVGA 780i SLI FTW (we kid you not.)[Images courtesy of PC Perspective]
Video: MyVu Crystal and Shades still incredibly dorky
Look, we really want to live in a world where strolling around wearing MyVu's latest video glasses is acceptable, but we just don't -- which is probably why Mahalo Daily's Veronica Belmont could just barely bring herself to put 'em on when she stopped by the booth at CES. Check out the vid after the break!
Hands-on with Motorola's S9-HD stereo Bluetooth headset
As mentioned a couple days ago, Motorola pushed out a pretty minor revision to its S9 stereo Bluetooth wraparound headset. We bumped into one while wandering the booth and snapped a few pics of it before it wandered away. First impressions -- without actually using it, cause, that's kinda gross -- are that physically, it looks just about identical to the previous effort with the small exception of the minor visible changes to the buds.%Gallery-13231%
Hands-on with Belkin's Podcast Studio
After getting a look at Belkin's unique podcast solution, the Podcast Studio, we thought we'd take a look out on the CES show floor for it, and we've got the pictures to prove it. Due to the odd design and poor choice of lighting in the Belkin booth, these photos look a little more arty than they should. Hey, we're not complaining. Check the gallery and be taken on a magical visual journey.%Gallery-13180%
FCC to investigate Comcast BitTorrent filtering
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced at CES last night that his agency will be looking into Comcast's data-meddling ways. "Sure, we're going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked," he said. Per FCC rules Comcast is allowed to use "reasonable traffic management" solutions to keep its network running, but Martin said he thinks Comcast and other ISPs should be required to disclose filtering to customers even if it's found to be reasonable. That's pretty encouraging, but we'll see how this all plays out in the industry -- especially since NBC and AT&T execs were talking excitedly about ISP-based copyright filtering on another stage at CES earlier in the day.[Via Slashdot]
Video: Hands-on with Delphi's dual-view nav system
Dephi's press image for its dual-view nav screen was ridiculously janky, so we sent Mahalo Daily's Veronica Belmont over to investigate -- and it's pretty awesome. Check it out after the break!
Hands-on with Avis' upgraded Where2 GPS
Avis is showing off its new Where2 portable nav unit this week, a customized Garmin Nuvi 780 that will replace the StreetPilot-based units currently in Avis' arsenal. The software has been mildly reworked to offer routing to Avis rental return locations and the like, but we think the best part of the customization is the bezel. Come on, tell us that red isn't way better than Garmin's own gray? Look for the new units to be available -- by rental only, of course -- in March.%Gallery-13176%
