Flatscreen
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'Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes' no longer requires VR on PS4
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a clever application of VR, as only one headset is required (for the bomb defuser) while everyone else explains how to deactivate the device. Now, you'll be able to play the game on consoles without a headset, as it is coming to PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo's Switch. Pre-orders start today at noon ET, with an official release date of August 16th.
Samsung's Q2 profit drops 26 percent due to sluggish TV sales, demand for phones explodes
You may or may not have noticed, but we're once again in the thick of earnings season, and today Samsung's in the hot seat. The company has reported that its second-quarter profit fell 26 percent year-over-year to 3.7 trillion won ($3.5 billion), largely thanks to underwhelming sales of flat screen TVs and, to a lesser extent, semiconductors. That's a shade worse than the whiz kids over on Wall Street were expecting, according to Bloomberg. In fact, the demand for televisions was so disappointing that it overshadowed what was actually an impressive quarter for the outfit's mobile division -- sales of feature and smartphones quadrupled year-over-year to 19.2 million units, putting the company on track to further narrow the gap with Nokia, the world's bestselling handset maker. All told, this balanced out to a modest growth in revenue -- an uptick of 2.9 percent to 39 trillion won ($36.7 billion).
Please don't really turn your TV into an iPad
We've posted a lot of wacky Apple-related products here on the site, but I think this is the wackiest I've ever seen. A Russian firm is reportedly selling a series of plastic decals that will make any flatscreen television of a certain size into something that looks like an iPad. Oh, you say, that's cute. What does it do -- maybe adds a little bit of chrome around the edges? No, this goes further -- it literally makes your television look like an iPad, complete with a Home button & black bar around the outside, and iTunes controls in the middle of the screen. That's right, the same controls that actually fade out of sight on the iPad because they're in the way can be on your TV screen for a small price. We don't know what that price is, but honestly just the fact that these exist is strange enough. I like the iPad and all, but the screen size and onscreen controls are limits of the device, not features that you want to artificially impose on other screens. Update: According to text on the website, this was an April Fool's joke done by Russian design group DarkDesignGroup. Consider us fooled. At least our faith in Russian designers is restored! [via Gearfuse]
ADB set-back box squeezes a DVR on SDHC card behind your HDTV
The space and weight requirements to fit a tru2way cable box behind an LCD or plasma HDTV would seem to rule out DVR functions, but ADB showed off a second generation set-back box that does just that. Dubbed Phantom, it can hold an SDHC card with programs either recorded elsewhere, or it can record directly to the card itself. Light Reading mentions there's also MoCA support to stream from standard DVRs, so while it's unlikely you'd have a memory card big enough to hold all the HDTV programs we watch, whether you're old school sneakernetting or going multiroom it can be your hidden HD DVR. The ADB-4820C it designed for Sony HDTVs that we saw at CES 2009 never appeared, but the company said at The Cable Show the Phantom could be available by late this year or early 2011, with potential targets in the hotel industry or direct retail sales.
Oy! Flatscreens burning down the house
Australia's Courier Mail news is reporting that flatscreen TVs are responsible for 70 house fires over the past five years. But TVs have a long, long way to go if they want to achieve "most deadly home gadget" status (radioactive gases notwithstanding): over the same period, 5251 fires were started by other electrical appliances, including hair dryers and heaters. No word on how many of the fires were caused by failures in the TVs as opposed to shoddy installation or draping fabrics over an Ambilight or Aurea LCD to "set the mood." But if you really need to balance safety concerns with your desire for a flatscreen, we suggest either putting a fire extinguisher near your entertainment center or installing an AQUiVO TV.[Via WatchingTVOnline, Image courtesy Prosac]
Dell brings the 24-inch E248WFP Stateside
Dell's latest 24-incher, the E248WFP, got a little overshadowed when it was released in Japan next to the webcam-sporting SP2208WFP, but now that it's coming Stateside we're ready to love it just as much. The lowest-priced Dell 24-inch display, the E248WFP features a 1920 x 1200 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio and a 5ms refresh rate for just $469. You're not getting a lot of frills for that number, of course, with inputs limited to just DVI-D with HDCP and VGA, no speakers, and no USB ports, but as a pure screen it's a pretty slammin' deal.[Thanks, Victor]
Solid state TDEL flat panel HDTVs -- still -- coming soon
Cheaper than LCDs and plasmas plus better picture quality in a 1-inch thick flat panel HDTV? That's what iFire has been promising for a while now and it may be one step closer to reality. Their parent company Westaim hopes to bring the thick-film dielectric electroluminescent technology (TDEL) screens to market in 2007 at a price point of less than $1000 for a 34-inch model. It involves no gases, liquids or vacuums and requires no backlighting. Instead the materials are layered directly onto the glass which they say provides better PQ and a wider viewing angle, with half the production cost of LCDs. Much like the fabled SEDs which we still haven't seen, we've been looking out for these since Engadget first mentioned them in 2004. If/when either technology debuts, it will be very interesting to see how it affects the existing high definition flat screen market.
