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Polaroid's Digital Entertainment Center revealed in FCC documents
It looks as though Polaroid is about to get into the set-top box game with a new product the company has sent to the FCC for review. Apparently holding steady on its path away from cameras, Polaroid has cooked up an all-in-one, do-everything "Digital Entertainment Center" (or DEC, as they're calling it). The main purpose of the device will apparently be to store and stream your media to a TV, stereo, or any other old-world box you have lying around. The DEC will have a hard drive of indeterminate capacity, and will feature 802.11b/g, HDMI and component outs, two USB ports, as well as composite and S-Video ins and outs for video, with RCA ins and outs, plus coaxial and optical outs for audio. On the front you'll have access to a slew of slots (MMC, SD, MD, CF, Memory Stick), as well as additional USB, video, and audio jacks. So now the questions are when, where, how much, what kind of OS, and what is it compatible with? We'll be poring over the many, many pages of FCC papers while we wait on those answers.
Switched On: Media centers engender extenders, relenters
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: A few weeks ago, HP announced that it was ending development of its Digital Entertainment Center line of A/V component form factor PCs. Normally, even a major manufacturer dropping a line of PCs wouldn't be cause for much industry introspection, but the continued struggle of the computer in the living room illustrates the challenges Microsoft has had in expanding the PC beyond its staples of desktops and notebooks, and why it may be increasingly turning inward to approaching new hardware markets. Before the great unification of Windows Vista, Microsoft created two forked, hardware-specific versions for Windows XP -- Tablet Edition and Media Center Edition. Both found their way onto millions of computers, but neither achieved Microsoft's most ambitious goals. Per its name, Tablet Edition was to usher in a new wave of ultrathin devices free of keyboards that would be positioned as the next wave of notebooks. However, to the extent that the operating system was adopted, it was primarily retrofitted onto "convertible" notebooks with swivel screens, making some of these "tablets" only slightly more sleek than the props carried by Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. Undaunted, Microsoft has now decided that these devices should be half the height of those Tablet PCs, but its latest foray against the keyboard is driving backlash.
RIP, DEC: HP drops Digital Entertainment Center line
HP's Digital Entertainment Center line of Media PCs has attracted its share of fans over the past few years, but it looks like they'll now have to look elsewhere if they want another set-adjacent box, with HP announcing that it's abandoning the DEC form factor in favor of its other media-centric options. In particular, HP says it'll now focus on its MediaSmart line of TVs with integrated Media Center extenders, as well as its standard desktop PCs with Media Center functionality. Of course, for the time being, the DEC units are still readily available, and could potentially wind up being quite the bargain if past product cut-offs are any indication.
Three from HP: dv2000 and v3000 laptops, tc4400 tablet
You could say that we're a bit "lappy happy" today (ugh, that was terrible), as we have two more notebooks -- and one convertible tablet -- from HP to show you, to join the Toshiba Qosmio, Sony VAIOs, and pair of Alienwares we brought you earlier. Both 14.1-inch laptops are replacements for previous HP models -- the redesigned dv2000 (pictured, left) replaces the dv1000 in the Digital Entertainment Center line and the Compaq Presario v3000 (pictured, right) puts the v2000 out to pasture -- with the main upgrades coming under the hood, where each model now offers you a choice of Centrino Duo or Core Duo processors from Intel or the Mobile Sempron or Turion 64 X2 from AMD. Also rocking Core Duo (in three flavors: 1.83GHz, 2.0GHz, or 2.16GHz) is the Compaq tc4400 tablet, which sports a 12.1-inch XGA display with digitizer, integrated graphics, 512MB to two gigs of RAM, 60GB, 80GB, or 100GB hard drive, WiFi, PC Type I/II and SD card slots, and the usual assortment of inputs and outputs. The tablet, which you can peep after the jump, will be available on May 22nd for an undisclosed sum of money (but it's safe to assume that it'll be more than the $1,550 Pentium M-sporting tc4200), while the Intel-based notebooks will ship this month -- with the AMD models following shortly after -- all starting at around $1,049 after rebates and junk.Read- dv2000 and v3000Read- tc4400
