Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

First off, we’ll warn you that these reports are currently unconfirmed by the suits in Redmond, but word has it that Microsoft is working with at least one OEM to have the Windows XP “downgrade” deadline pushed out from January 2009 to at least July 31, 2009. That’s according to an e-mail sent from Microsoft to an unspecified partner company, which purportedly details a plan to work with other buddies in pushing that deadline out another half year. Given the results thus far, we suppose we’re not too surprised to hear that firms are still clamoring for the XP option, but one wonders when this madness will ever end. Will folks really be opting for XP on new machines after Windows 7 is out?

[Via Download Squad]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Consumers remain willing to spend money on consumer electronics — for replacing older units or buying new ones with more advanced technology — even though most homes already own those same products, according to a new report from The NPD Group.

Although 85% of consumers own DVD players and sales dropped 25% in the first half of the year, NPD reports that consumers are still interested in buying upconverter units or Blu-ray players to take advantage of HD technology, noting that sales of DVD upconverters have risen 14% in the first half of this year.

(Sounds just like what I do.)  

Get more at TWICE.

Tags: blu-ray, dvd, hd, hd upconverter, npd

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Original post by nafiz

Sony launched the super-skinny Bravia ZX1 TV this week at the IFA Show in Berlin and at 9.8mm deep, it really is something. Check out the video above for a close-up of the ZX1 showing off its Keira Knightley waistline, thanks to side-mounted LED lighting arrays as opposed the the usual backlights on most LCD TVs. Those looks are also helped by the Media Receiver, a box that you plug all your cables [consoles, set-top boxes etc.] into and which transmits the signal wirelessly to the TV in ‘real time’.Of course, there will be a price to pay for this slinky 40in TV - isn’t there always? - but so far Sony has decided to put off our impending heart attacks by refusing to tell us. It costs £2,250 in Japan but don’t expect that kind of ‘bargain’ here.-Martin Lynch TV HDTV LCD

Original post by nafiz

Blu-ray may have won the HD war, but it may not be sitting on its throne for long if you believe what director of consumer electronics for Samsung UK Andy Griffiths has to say. While it seems as though 2008 will be Blu-ray’s year with sites like Lovefilm now adding this format to its mix, new formats and technologies are likely to mean that the HD discs, or even the optical disc in general, may well have a limited shelf life. Digital media streaming and downloading is most likely to be the way forwards, with only limited bandwidths preventing us from enjoying live HD content today. TVs sporting technology such as Sony’s Bravia Internet Video Link, which allows you to streaming and watch directly from Amazon’s video on demand service, will be another thorn in Blu-Ray’s side and when you consider that most upscaling DVD players from companies like Toshiba do a decent job of improving content, we wouldn’t be surprised if more savvy consumers decide to wait it out. - Paul Lester [PocketLint] HD Blu-ray media

Original post by nafiz

At IFA 2008, Philips launched its Essence TV, a stylish 38mm deep LCD telly designed to hang flush on your wall and look very pretty while doing so. However, Essence is just the tip of the iceberg and Philips was on hand to demonstrate a super-skinny 8mm prototype TV too. At the hear of it is a very thin light guide plate illuminated from the top and bottom by high-power, energy-efficient LEDs. Using Philips’ patented light in-coupling structure and a fine-tuned out-coupling pattern, light can be distributed over the whole display area in a uniform fashion. The result, a very, very thin TV panel. Fred Boekhorst, senior vice president Philips Research and program manager Lifestyle, explained: “At just 8mm thick, our ultra-thin display concept will enable the thinnest 32in LCD TV. Our concept is also very light - around 5kg - enabling a 32in LCD TV that is around 10kg lighter than existing comparable TV sets. As a result, hanging such an LCD-TV becomes simple and easy. We’ve managed to cut the size of the light guide - the thickest part of an LCD - from around 25mm to just 1mm. Hence, the thickest part of the display has now become one of the thinnest parts.” Excellent, a 32in TV that weighs just 5kg. So, when can we get one? Who knows and Philips certainly isn’t telling, just yet.-Martin Lynch TV HDTV LCD

Original post by nafiz

Blu-ray players are generally fatties but Samsung has thrown its latest 5th-gen player, the BD-󃻄 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-󃻄 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-󃻄 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

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-Hʪ 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

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

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 DD̶-SDRAM * 1000 GB Hard Disk - 7200rpm, interface Serial ATA * Blu-Ray Reader/DVD-ReWriter o Max: 4x DVD+̽ (DL), 4x DVD-̽ (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

If you′ve been contemplating whether or not to upgrade your Sky subscription to an HD box, it seems like now might be a good time. Not only has it recently dropped the price of an HD upgrade to £150 (plus £60 installation and the obligatory extra tenner a month), you′ll now find that seven more channels are set to be added to the 19 currently available. They are mostly movie related with HD versions of its existing Sky Movies Action/Thriller, Sky Movies Sci-Fi/Horror, Sky Movies Drama, Sky Movies Modern Greats, Sky Movies Family and Sky Movies Comedy to appear from October. The seventh, rather strangely we might add, is Sky Real Lives HD, which offers programmes like ‘The Real A&E’ and ‘Lorraine Kelly’s DNA Stories′. The move will bring the current HD selection to 26 channels and Sky seem confident that it’ll add four more by the end of the year. In addition, a new EPG (electronic programme guide) is also set to launch in October and with the popularity of HD-ready screens constantly on the rise, it seems like an upgrade for most people is simply a matter of time. - Paul Lester [Guardian] Sky HD movies

Original post by nafiz

Having been sent packing with its tail between its legs in the high-def format war by Blu-ray, Toshiba has stubbornly maintained that it will not build a Blu-ray player. Instead, it announced that the best way to beat Blu-ray would be to build an uber-DVD player that upscales really well. It might sound bizarre but since a huge number of regular Joe consumers don’t know what Blu-ray is, or think it’s something to do with the porn industry, it might make some sense. And, it doesn’t hurt that the new XD-E500 only costs £75 [in the US for now]. The XD-E500 uses XDE, “eXtended Detail Enhancement,” technology, which Toshiba says offers more than just normal upscaling. Alongside upscaling images to near-1080p, XDE throws in 3 picture processing mode settings. They are: Sharp Mode offers improved detail enhancement that is one step closer to high definition. Edges are sharper and details in movies are more visible. Unlike traditional sharpness control, XDE technology analyzes the entire picture and adds edge enhancement precisely where it’s needed. Colour Mode makes the colours of nature stand out with improved richness. Blues and greens are more vivid and lifelike. Colour Mode combines the improvement in colour with the detail enhancement of Sharp Mode and is ideal for outdoor scenes. Contrast Mode is designed to make darker scenes or foregrounds more clearly visible without the typical “washing out” that can occur with traditional contrast adjustment. Recommended for dark scenes where detail may be difficult to notice, Contrast Mode is also combined with Sharp Mode to provide a clearer viewing experience. Other features include HDMI-CEC, DivX certification, JPEG capability, MP3 and WMA playback. Considering just how many DVDs people already have, and if the cheap XD-E500 is any good, Toshiba could be onto a winner. It’s still a shame it won’t swallow its pride though and make a Blu-ray player that doesn’t cost the earth.-Martin Lynch dvd blu-ray HD DVD movies

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Now look, we’re not sure if this was someone’s drug-induced fever dream or not, but if it did really go down, it might be the best thing that’s happened at the entire 2008 Summer Olympics. According to the Dirty Red Commie, sometime on August 17th between 2:00 PM and 3:13 PM Mountain Time, Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000 appeared on NBC’s broadcast of the summer games. The DRC says they were simply static — no hilarious jokes or animated banter — but cut out during local commercials, giving him the impression that this was coming from the NBC mothership rather than his local station. Apparently a video of the action was set to go up on YouTube, but was “copyright-killed before it was even done processing.” If anyone out there on the interblogs is able to confirm this, we’d love to hear from you.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

It’s big telly time with Sony launching a new flagship series, the Bravia X4500 family, in 40in, 46in and 55in sizes. The TVs [above] are Full HD 1080p models and boast some new styling, with a ‘floating’ design and translucent frame. And let’s not forget the sterling silver speaker covers. How posh. Optional speaker covers come in ‘Ruby Red or Obsidian Black’ and there’s 4 HDMI slots as standard. On the performance front the TVs use the new Bravia Engine 2 Pro processing technology which claims to “filter, clean and optimise image data before it’s displayed.” These are also the first Bravia TVs that can connect with other consumer devices using DLNA technology for sharing content like music and photos. The TVs will upscale non-HD images, like DVDs, using DRC (Digital Reality Creation) 3.0 while the 46in and 55in models use something called Motionflow PRO 100Hz technology that creates extra frames, inserting them into the signal and doubling the displayed frame rate. In other words, the promise is smoother playback of sports and action movies. The company has also launched the less expensive W4500 series, also 1080p and available in 40in, 46in and 52in varieties. The design boasts a long horizontal gap under the screen for that contemporary twist. It uses the Bravia Engine 2 [not the Pro version like the X4500 series] and also supports DLNA technology. They will be cheaper than the X4500s but since we have no prices for either yet, we can’t tell you what the difference to your wallet will be. They are due out next month. TV HDTV HD sony

Original post by nafiz

Apple Mac fans that enjoy lauding the platform’s ability to help you create and edit home movies may well have more ammunition to throw at the PC brigade, following rumours of an upgrade to its graphics chipset. The word on the street is that Apple’s new range of computers will have a dedicated chip specifically for decoding and encoding video, which should significantly reduce the time it takes to process HD content.We’ve seen such things in the past from technology like the Quad Core HD Processor which uses H.264 and MPEˈ encoders alongside the device’s CPU. Mobile phones like the Nokia XpressMusic range also use a dedicated chip for processing audio, therefore increasing the battery life and allowing for far better quality playback. Considering Apple’s usual stance in this area we’d be very surprised if this wasn’t true, and if you believe the hype it could arrive as early as September this year. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for more information in the meantime. - Paul Lester [TechRadar] Apple graphics HD

Original post by nafiz

Hot on the heels of Sky′s announcement of a high-def feast of Olympics coverage, Freesat has announced that it too will be offering the Beijing extravaganza in pretty HD. The Freesat coverage will be coming via BBC HD, meaning Freesat users, who don’t have to pay a hefty subscription to Sky+ HD, will be sitting pretty with around 300 hours of HD coverage. Emma Scott, MD of Freesat said:”The Olympics is the ultimate global sporting event, and viewers will be astounded by the quality of the BBC’s HD footage; every drop of water falling off the oars of a rower to the sand erupting from the long jump pit will be beautifully clear. At Freesat, we’re committed to bringing brilliant HD programming to as many UK viewers as possible, for free. The scope of BBC’s HD coverage of the Beijing Olympics is testament to the exciting future of HD broadcasting in this country.” Good news all around then. Just get yourself a Freesat HD receiver and you’re off. Roll on Friday.-Martin Lynch news TV sport

Original post by nafiz