Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Blu-ray players are generally fatties but Samsung has thrown its latest 5th-gen player, the BD-P2500 on a treadmill while cramming in everything but the kitchen sink. The new player was unveiled today at the IFA 2008 show in Berlin and the minimalist styling looks tasty indeed. It’s compatible ‘out-of-the-box’ with the latest Blu-ray interactive features like BD Live (Profile 2.0), Bonus View (Profile 1.1) and uses the award-winning Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) chip for processing video, while supporting 7.1-channel sound systems. It comes with a built-in, wired Ethernet connection, 1GB of internal Flash memory and a USB port for memory expansion. On the audio front, the BD-P2500 can output Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS as an uncompressed PCM signal, as a bitstream, or via the 7.1 analog outputs. Also, support for DTS-HD HR (High Resolution) decoding will arrive with a firmware update. When you think that Yamaha had the audacity to launch its first Blu-ray player this week with no Ethernet and inferior features for a whopping $1,200 (£600), it’s amazing that Samsung will be shipping the BD-P2500 for $500 - around £250. Obviously that price will rise a bit here but we are finally starting to see highly specified players with less galling price tags. I still won’t be happy though until they start costing under £200 here.-Martin Lynch blu-ray movies samsung

Original post by nafiz

Looking like something that should have wheels and be zipping around cleaning the corridors of Imperial Star Destroyers, the new Philips CinemaOne is offering shoppers a one-stop solution for their iPod and home cinema needs. This dinky little unit - roughly the size of a football - is deceptive in what it houses, which includes a DVD/CD player, 5-channel home cinema amplifier, iPod dock, 6 internal speakers and a 4in subwoofer. The speakers are situated around the device and angled to provide some form of pseudo surround while the iPod can be controlled using the CinemaOne’s remote control.The DVD player supports DivX, MPEG-4 and WMV files too as well as upscaling video to near HD picture quality. There’s a HDMI output and USB port alongside the usual audio connections. I’d love to tell you that it will cost the same as a football too but I can’t. In fact, Phillips have been remiss in actually telling anyone when this will roll out and how much damage it will do to wallets.-Martin Lynch gadget cinema ipod

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The battle for the skinniest LCD TV continues this week with Sony unveiling the Bravia ZX1 at the IFA 2008 show, which is just 9.9mm at its thinnest. The ZX1 sure is anorexic and compares favourably to the other super-skinnys like the Hitachi UT models or the Sharp X Series AQUOS LCD TVs but the real innovation is Sony’s ability to make all those unsightly cables disappear. The TV comes with a separate receiver device called the Media Receiver, a box that you plug all your cables into and which transmits the signal wirelessly to the TV in ‘real time’, using something Sony calls ‘Bravia 1080 Wireless’. Attach your PS3, set-top box or DVD/Blu-ray player to Media Receiver, stash it anywhere in the room and watch as BRAVIA 1080 Wireless, which Sony calls a ‘ground-breaking high definition, high-speed wireless connection capable of real time transmission of HD signals’ does its party trick. The Media Receiver has 3 HDMI slots [with one more on the TV] and also contains an MPEG4 AVC-HD2 tuner as well as DVB-T and DVB-C3 digital broadcast and cable tuners. The ZX1’s display is lit from the sides by LED arrays instead of the usual CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) backlighting and, the good news is that, it’s almost here, not a ‘concept’. It goes on sale in Japan first in November with a price tag of around £2,250.-Martin Lynch TV HDTV LCD

Original post by nafiz

Leonardo Da Vinci might have worked painstakingly on the Mona Lisa and her enigmatic smile but the crowd at Mythbusters managed their own version in less than a second at nVidia’s NVISION event this week. Of course, the duo of Adam and Jamie were going to have to pull it off in style, if they wanted to demonstrate the difference between single-core CPUs and multi-core graphics processing units (GPUs). And that they did, with the help of an 1100-barrel paint gun that fired all the paint simultaneously. The result: a pretty recognisable Mona Lisa, despite the dripping. To break it down, we are talking about 2,100 paint balls hurtling to the reinforced canvas 8-feet away in just 275ms. There are those who would argue that the experiment was too simplistic to really capture the complexity of different processor architectures but, when the show is this good, who gives a damn?-Martin Lynch [Crunchgear] technology art

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So, what’s the difference between the new Squeezbox Boom music streaming system and the original Squeezbox from Logitech? Well, this time, Logitech has squeezed in some real audio power meaning you don’t have to hook this up to separate speakers. Inside is a 30Watt all-digital amplifier accompanied by two ¾in, high-definition, soft-dome tweeters and two 3in, high-power, long-throw woofers. Logitech says the bi-amplified design ‘delivers crystal clear sound with minimal noise and distortion’. There’s even a connection for hooking it up to an external, dedicated subwoofer if you need even more low-end thump. You just plug it in wherever you are at home and it will detect your network automatically. After that you can stream your tunes over an 802.11g wireless network connection or listen into thousands of Internet radio broadcasts. The Squeezebox Boom - sadly - also operates as an alarm clock, so it’s not all fun. There are 6 preset buttons for finding your favourite tracks or stations and the remote control even features a tiny magnet so that you can stick it to the unit or the fridge. It’s due for launch here in a few weeks and will cost more than the £150 US price, especially considering the existing Squeezbox costs around £180.-Martin Lynch music wireless

Original post by nafiz

I never really got the appeal of projectors with in-built DVD players but I can see why some people might like a portable unit that provides the big screen thrills without any cabling fuss. Epson has launched another DVD/projector/speaker combo with the MovieMate 55 for the home. Yes, it is pretty ugly but it only costs around £350 [possibly £400 by the time it gets here]. It houses a progressive scan DVD spinner, 8Watt speakers and weighs in at just over 8lbs. It’s a standard-def projector - not HD - but it’s still capable of throwing up a 60in image from just 6-feet, and 120ins from 12-feet. It’s based on the 3-chip 3LCD technology and comes with a new, brighter 1200 Lumens bulb with a respectable life expectancy of around 3,000 hours. There’s a fold-away handle for easy carrying and a host of connections guaranteed to make it easy to hook up to your Nintendo Wii, PS3 or Xbox 360. At £400 for something that will really bring those games and movies to life, you could do a lot worse.-Martin Lynch home cinema movies projector

Original post by nafiz

I have a Philips AmbiLight TV and while I love the inner glow I get from the glowing lights around the telly, I am continually frustrated by the positioning of the HDMI ports. Being underneath, they make sense only if you are wall-mounting but will freak you out if your TV - like most flat HDTVs - is sitting on a TV cabinet or table. Combine that with corner positioning and the theoretically simple job of swapping out HDMI devices becomes a task for a heavily-muscled contortionist. Cable and add-on specialist IXOS has an answer: the odd little Studio HDMI 90 degree Adapter. As you can see from the shot, it’s a simple little L-shaped HDMI affair that fits into an awkwardly placed HDMI slot to make it easier - and safer for your connectors - to plug things in and out of. And it works a treat.It’s also perfect for those side-mounted HDMI ports that leave you with an unsightly cable sticking out the side like a sore thumb. Using this, I was able to overcome the tricky underneath ports as well as being able to route the cable from the side down along the side of the TV. The adapter comes in two varieties: the Studio XS118 adapter-only and the XS218 which also sports iVEC Technology, for boosting the HDMI signal and which lets you use longer HDMI cables, up to 4m. The XS118 and XS218 cost £15 and £30, respectively - a cheap way of sorting out those niggling TV cabling snafus without putting your back out.-Martin Lynch [IXOS] news TV HDTV

Original post by nafiz

There’s no shortage of of remote controlled helicopters out there but how about something completely different. This is the Draganflyer X6 helicopter, which uses six main horizontal rotor blades that allow it to hover efficiently and manoeuvre rapidly using differential thrust. All that lift means that it can be equipped with HD camcorders, night vision, still or thermal imaging cameras and because it has in-built GPS, it can be set to hover over a particular location while you go make a cuppa. Here’s what the makers say:” Aimed at industrial and commercial use, it provides reconnaissance and inspection information using on-board wireless video and still cameras. The Draganflyer X6 helicopter is able to fly autonomously or can be flown manually by remote control. The Draganflyer X6 helicopter achieves its stability by using an on-board processor running more than ten thousand lines of code and receiving data from eleven on-board sensors (three gyros, three accelerometers, three magnetometers, one barometric pressure sensor, and one GPS receiver). It can be piloted by users with minimal or zero training. The Draganflyer X6 helicopter can be put into GPS hold mode where it will maintain its position without any user input. This means that after activating GPS hold, the pilot can set the handheld controller on the ground while the Draganflyer X6 helicopter flies itself. This mode will allow the user to focus on other tasks such as aerial photography from the Draganflyer X6 helicopter. The Draganflyer X6 helicopter uses interchangeable cameras, covering different areas of use. A high definition video camera provides 1080p resolution. For dawn and dusk use, there is a low light (0.0001lux) video camera. For night use or search and rescue, the thermal FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) camera provides heat vision. High-resolution photographs can be captured with the 10.1 mega-pixel digital still camera. When using any of the camera modules.” The controller is a custom-designed handheld with a 2.8in colour OLED touchscreen. The control also receives streaming video from the X6 and passes this to the video goggles, giving you an onboard view of what’s happening. There’s no price but I want one. Check out the video of the X6 in action below.-Martin Lynch gadget spy helicopter

Original post by nafiz

Hot on the heels of the new Canon EOS 50D comes the Nikon D90, which manages to cannibalise features from its professional line-up as well as claim the honour of being the first digital SLR with HD video recording capabilities. It’s a 12.1MP camera that can shoot continuously at up 4.5 frames-per-second. The camera powers up very fast in just 0.15 seconds and shooting lag is just 65ms. The new HD video party trick, called D-Movie Mode, allows snappers to capture 720p video in Motion JPEG format at 24fps with sound. The camera has low noise ISO sensitivity from 200 to 3200 and there’s a 3in 920,000-dot LCD display with 170-degree viewing angle. Other key features include built-in image sensor cleaning, 11-point AF system with face priority and fast auto-focus, one-button Live View, 5 scene modes, in-camera image editing and GPS geo-tagging. It’s not as highly specified as the Canon EOS 50D but then it is cheaper, with a US price tag of around £500. There’s also a new lens, the AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, and the kit price is around £650. Obviously, those prices will inflate the closer it gets to the UK but, it also means that the existing D80 will be getting a serious price cut bargain hunters.-Martin Lynch [Nikon] photo camera photography

Original post by nafiz

The price of a dedicated Blu-ray player has remained high - too high - even after winning the HD war against HD DVD but, Tesco has teamed up with German PB big-shot Medion to sell a performance PC with Blu-ray drive for just £600. The PC in question is the shiny, black Medion Akoya P36888 and, despite the attractive pricing, it’s no slouch. The P36888 is powered by the Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600, runs Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, has a 1TB 7200rpm hard disk drive, 3GB of RAM, a hybrid TV tuner and the all-important Blu-Ray Reader/DVD-ReWriter. Here’s the full line up:* 3GB DDR2-SDRAM * 1000 GB Hard Disk - 7200rpm, interface Serial ATA * Blu-Ray Reader/DVD-ReWriter o Max: 4x DVD+R9 (DL), 4x DVD-R9 (DL), 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM * NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300GS o PCI-Express Graphics card with 256MB, DVI-I, 1 x D-Sub VGA and 1 x TV Out * Integrated Memory Card Reader o reads from and writes to all standard memory cards** * DVB-T/Analogue TV tuner card*** * Network controller Gigabit 10/100/1000 Mbit/s * IEEE 1394 FireWire * 8 Channel Audio * PS/2 keyboard and mouse * Remote control The PC will be available in Tesco Extra and Tesco Homestore outlets around the country, as well as online.-Martin Lynch PC blu-ray news

Original post by nafiz

There’s only one thing better than wasting your employer’s broadband by surfing Gizmodo UK during work and that’s using your paid-for, company mobile phone for doing the same thing. And now, you can. Gizmodo UK is now mobile and thanks to the great Mippin technology and news aggregator, there’s no reason why you can’t have access to your fave gadgets site no matter where you are. You can go directly to the mobile Gizmodo UK page from your mobile by entering this link on your phone’s browser. Or, if you have more news feeds, just register for free on Mippin and add them in too. Mippin takes stories from Gizmodo UK as they go live and reformats them for all phones and browser types, with small photos. Audio and video streaming are also supported and the best thing of all, is that it’s fast. After all, we don’t want you wasting all of your company mobile data package on little old Gizmodo UK. Just a fair chunk of it. Let us know how you get on.-Martin Lynch [Gizmodo UK Mobile] news gizmodo mobile

Original post by nafiz

Back on Rumour St. this morning and we have what looks to be one of the more credible leaks on what the new iPod nano may look like. It comes from Kevin Rose [Digg founder], who has gotten things right and, really wrong, in the past, but who is sure - thanks to ’sources’ - that the squarer and chunkier nano is going to be replaced by the end of next month with a slimmer and longer nano, complete with cool tapered edges. That’s his pic above.The iPod touch is also due for some work, although mainly cosmetic on the outside but it will come with the 2.1 firmware software, that will then wing its way to the iPhone. Apple is also rumoured to be taking the knife to the price tags, with some ‘fairly large’ cuts on the way to offset any iPod sales hurt by the the [US] £100 iPhone. And, to top it all off, Kev says a new iTunes 8.0 with lots of new features is coming and that next Apple OS X 10.5.6 will come with Blu-ray support. Imagine, all of this is expected in the next few weeks so here’s hoping, but not holding our breath. For all the details, watch Kev’s video below.-Martin Lynch ipod apple music

Original post by nafiz

If you’re in the market for a wireless home music streaming system but, are unable to knock of the bank needed to afford the pricey - but great - Sonos system, then Sony may have something of interest. This is the S-Airplay Wireless iPod Dock, comprising a central station where you plug in your iPod dock and then stream music around the home to separate S-Air wireless speakers that you plug into a spare socket. The streaming range is a claimed 164-ft, so good enough for most domiciles. If you have a mansion, then you’ll be able to afford the Sonos anyway. Sony is making a lot of the fact that it’s a snap to set-up so anyone can be streaming their favourite tunes from the living room to the bog in no time. “This technology makes it easy to listen to music from a compatible iPod without carrying it from room to room,” said Andrew Sivori, director of marketing in the personal audio group at Sony Electronics’ Digital Imaging and Audio Division. “It’s an easy, inexpensive way to get multi-room audio without professional installation.” The S-Airplay central unit comes with an AM/FM tuner, and the dual source feature allows you to listen to System Of A Down in your room while gran can get knitting to her fix of The Archers radio show in the kitchen. The system comes with the central unit and 2 S-Air speakers but it is capable of transmitting to up to 10 speakers. It is priced at around £200 - in the US first - with additional speakers priced at a cheeky £65 each.-Martin Lynch music home streaming

Original post by nafiz

PURE has been tickling radio listeners’ ears for some time with some great DAB radios but now the company has launched its first DAB model with Internet capabilities. It’s also the first DAB radio based on the Linux operating system. Kicking off with its good old retro looks, the DAB and FM are now joined by Internet capabilities that lets you can access over 10,000 streaming stations, BBC Listen Again content, and podcasts.There’s an OLED display and touch-sensitive controls but, the most intriguing aspect of this launch, is the Web service PURE is putting behind it. Called The Lounge, it will be a one-stop radio service allowing you to find exactly the kind of radio stations you want and create favourite lists of different kinds of content, from sports to talk shows. The Lounge also promises to constantly check the quality of broadcasts so that what you get is all crisp digital goodness without lag and dead air. The Evoke Flow is due out next month for £150.-Martin Lynch [PURE] radio DAB news gadgets

Original post by nafiz

Rather than let Sony hog all the console news at the Leipzig Games Convention, Microsoft has confirmed earlier musings that there will be a new improved controller for the Xbox 360. Try not to wet your pants yet though as this is no major overhaul we’re talking about here. The new controller will look like the current one but will have an improved d-pad for use in games - like footie - where the d-pad is the prime means of control. Speaking to Eurogamer, Microsoft said:”The new limited-edition green wireless controller offers enhancements to d-Pad functionality, which will add to the experience of playing games where the d-Pad is the primary control mechanism. We’re always looking to improve products and we made these changes based on feedback from gamers.” So why is it draped in yucky green? Ah, and here’s the rub. The new controller is “a limited edition promotional item that is only available in Europe, Asia and Latin America while supplies last”. If you need that better d-pad, you better stay sharp then, although why the ‘improved d-pad’ can’t added to all new controllers is beyond me.-Martin Lynch [Eurogamer] console xbox 360 games

Original post by nafiz