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Fashion laptops strut their stuff
The companies carried out a survey in which 73 per cent of US adult
computer users claimed to want a laptop that “said something about them” and
that they often check out the design and look of other people’s laptops.
Personalising your notebook is one thing, but suede? Just think of the stains.
technology laptop fashion intel design
Sony’s High-Def 3LCD projector
At 23db the
unit should be reasonably quiet and displayed images range from 40in to 200in in diameter.
Connectivity includes component video and HDMI, among others. Shipping now, it
costs just over £1,800 here.
sony home entertainment projector DLP
High-def DVD player from Marantz
In the absence of any true high definition movie content many
manufacturers of DVD players have announced models that can upscale current
DVDs to near-high-def quality. At the very top-end of this market comes the
DV9600, a £1,000 DVD player from Marantz
which can upscale images to both 720p and 1080i resolutions. Powered by a
216MHz/14-bit video processor from Analog Devices, the high quality picture is
backed up by support for Super Audio CD (SACD)and DVD-Audio formats.
Along with the
usual connectivity options, the DV9600 comes with a HDMI interface to allow
digital content to be passed, without analog conversion, to HD Ready displays
and projectors.
DVD hardware marantz home cinema
First Blu-Ray movie announced
Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment has announced that it has transferred the first ever movie for
play on high-definition Blu-Ray players. Lawrence
of Arabia? Star Wars? Lord of the Rings? Nope. Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.
The movie has been compressed and authored in MPEG 2 full high definition of
1920 x 1080 pixels. The disc features dynamic menus with full resolution
graphics and animation, superior audio and obviously, better picture. Still, does a high definition version of a rubbish movie make it better? Or more saleable? 
The disc is
now winging its way to Blu-Ray drive manufacturers to test with their upcoming
drives. No doubt it will be bundled with many players to entice people to buy.
B&O launches BeoMedia 1
Media streaming is
all the rage and luxury consumer electronics maker Bang & Olufsen (B&O) has
joined the rush. The BeoMedia 1 is a media server that hooks up to your PC and TV. It
boasts a 160GB hard disk drive and is designed to playback music, stream
thousands of Internet radio stations to your sound set-up, browse through your
digital photo albums, allow limited Web browsing and the playback of âsmallâ
video clips. No full movie streaming then? It doesnât look like it. Considering
you may have to sell one or two of your children to own one of these, 
it seems
more than a minor oversight to create a media center device incapable of streaming
full movies to your home cinema set-up. Stylistically, itâs black and looks like
a PC that fell over on its side, which for B&O is, again, disappointing.
home entertainment Streaming bang & olufsen
Xbox 360 kiosks hit UK stores
The kiosks are not just for
play though since people will be able to use them to browse through the various
Xbox 360 packages to see which one suits them, and their budgets. Still, if you
think the teenage hordes will let you use the kiosk for anything other than
playing, forget it. Go here to find your nearest kiosk.
Big screen portable DVD player
Portable DVD
players might be losing some of the limelight to portable, digital video
players but newer models keep arriving. Goodmans has just taken the wraps off
its biggest screen model to date, the GDVD100WLCD with a 10in TFT LCD
widescreen display. Despite the screen size the overall unit is very slim with
some sleek black and silver design. It supports 2.1 stereo and 5.1 surround
sound, and will play DVDs, CDs and blank CDs crammed with photos. It comes with
four-second DVD and 20-second CD anti-shock protection, TV output, subtitle
support, SD Card/MMC card reader and dual headphone sockets. 
It
also has the now-standard car adaptor. Sadly, battery life is
just 2.5 hours from the rechargeable NiMH battery pack. It costs £299. For an extra couple of
hundred quid you can buy a notebook that will do the same job - and a lot more
- on a bigger screen and for a bit
longer. If you don’t mind lugging around an extra few pounds weight, that is.
iPod sound system goes upmarket
Audiophile-standard peripherals for the Apple iPod are pretty scarce which is why the
arrival of the Geneva Sound Systems from Geneva Lab are a welcome sight. These highly stylised
stereo/speaker units are certainly a designer match for the iconic iPod. Like
the Tardis, this thing packs in more than you’d think from its outward
appearance. It supports direct playback of CDs, the ability to dock all current
iPods, line-in turntables and MP3 players, an FM/AM radio and the ability to
hook up to TVs, PCs and games consoles.
Each cabinet houses two stereo channels
that project sound with a full sound stage of 120 degrees, meaning no
complicated speaker set-up and trailing wires. As for power, how’s 600 Watts of
amplification? Due out in the coming months, there are two models, priced at
approximately £350 and £650.
Home cinema style from Jamo
Jamo is quick off
the mark for the Christmas rush with the introduction of a thin, DVD receiver
and entry-level home cinema speaker set. The DMR-60 may look like a thin DVD
player but this one packs in a home cinema receiver capable of delivering 5 x
60W of power to the speakers. It has an in-built FM/AM radio with 40 presets
and as well as replaying DVD/CD it can also handle Xvid and DivX video
files, and MP3/WMA/MPEG-4/JPEG files directly from cards with its 4-in-1 card
reader. 
There is a USB port for playing files directly from USB sticks, MP3
players or portable video players (PVPs). The new A 10 speaker series comprises
a A 102 satellites, A 10CEN centre-channel speaker and SUB 200 subwoofer. The
DMR 60 costs £349 while the A 10 speaker set will set you back £249. You can
save yourself a cool £100 though by buying both together for £499. Due out next month.
One control to rule them all
It even sports handy colour-coded buttons
for navigating the console’s menus. It will set you back about £80 which would
be steep for any Xbox 360 peripheral but this thing is designed to control all
of your other AV kit too – up to 12 devices – including TV, hi-fi, AV receiver,
projector etc. Say goodbye to control clutter.
gadgets technology logitech xbox
Mitsubishi enters high-def home cinema
The number of high definition (HD)-
capable projectors arriving is on the up and Mitsubishi is the latest player
into the home cinema scene. The HC3000U is a DLP projector that supports 720p
high definition with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The quoted brightness
and contrast ratio are 1000 Lumens and 4000:1, respectively, but Mitsubishi is
claiming some firsts that should boost performance beyond those specs. The
HC3000U is one of the first to incorporate DLP’s new TrueVision Image
processing with BrilliantColor technology from Texas Instruments, inventors of DLP. 
These enhance white segment
processing and secondary colours to boost mid-tone brightness and result in a
smoother, and brighter, overall image. Lamp life is up to 3,000 hours and it
comes with the all-important HDMI interface. Out now, you can expect to pay
around £1,900.
Sky brightens up Sky+ boxes
The other four come
from an eclectic mix: Osborne & Little (fabric and wallpaper specialists), Lulu
Guinness (accessories designer), Farrow & Ball (wallpaper and paint experts)
and Cole & Son (luxury wallpaper designer). To opt for a brighter living
room, you can pick up your designer Sky+ box at John Lewis stores nationwide for
£99.
Sony's first “cheap” SXRD projector
The VPL-VW100 boasts a 400
Watt Pure Xenon lamp - offering 800
ANSI Lumens – which does not sound like a lot these days but, Sony claims it
has a natural light spectrum that results in pure whites and great reds (red is
a tough colour for many projectors).
Home projector DLP Sony technology
Creative gets festive with new speakers
It’s no longer surprising to find home PCs sporting better
sound systems than those found in the living room. Creative Labs is hoping to
bridge that gap though with a big refresh of its speaker offerings for the silly season, unveiling
three new sets with a spruced up look and the ability to hook up to consumer
electronics equipment. The top-end GigaWorks ProGamer G500 is a 5.1 surround sound system,
boasting THX certification and a whopping output of 310 Watts RMS. It’ll cost
you around £200. If your ears and wallet aren’t up to the abuse, there’s the
Inspire T6060 (around £65), a mid-range 5.1 surround sound system that - like its big brother - can be
set up with your PC, TV or Hi-Fi. At the entry level, you can get the Inspire T3030
for about £40.
It’s a 2.1 speaker system with small-footprint speakers. Still,
for that £25, we suggest heading the 5.1 surround route offered by the T6060 since nearly all movies and many new games now come with surround sound as standard.
home PC speakers audio Creative
Ultra-light HD projectors from NEC
Proving that size isn’t everything, NEC has shrank its latest DLP projectors
into the sub-2Kg space. The ultra-portable LT25, LT30 and LT35 are targeted at
home users and small businesses and all come with native resolutions of 1024 x
768 which makes them ready for High Definition TV (HDTV) and DVD content. Innovative
features include Quick Start makes them ready to project in 10 seconds,
while Fast Finish means cool down is, again, just 10
seconds. Most projectors require a couple of minutes to cool down before the
power can be switched off so as not to damage the lamp. Auto Focus means the
projectors can automatically focus their images in under a second and there’s
an automatic keystone correction feature to help align images correctly, depending
on where the projector is placed. 
The LT20, LT30 and LT35 boast brightness levels
of 2200, 2600 and 3000 ANSI Lumens, respectively. Prices will start at around £999
for the home friendly LT 25.
Yamaha bundles DAB with AV receiver
The
popularity of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) radios is on the increase so
it’s no surprise to see DAB functionality appearing in a wider variety of
devices. Yamaha has updated its popular RXV line of home cinema receivers with the
new RX-V100D 6:1 surround sound with DAB in-built. The receiver, which sits
under the RX-V1500 (pictured), has also been ‘UK tuned’, meaning it has had certain
components tweaked to produce a sound that will appeal more to UK listeners and
work better in their typical listening environments. The receiver boasts a
Quad- Field Cinema DSP with 14-surround programmes and a night listening
enhancer. 
It offers Dolby
Digital EX, DTS-ES, Dolby Pro Logic llx, DTS 96 / 24 compatibility and 192kHz /24-bit digital audio converters for all channels. At
£429 – which will mean £399 or below on the street – this is a good price for a
well-specified home cinema receiver with the DAB thrown in.
B&O's clock radio for the rich
Luxury electronics masters, Bang & Olufsen (B&O) are tackling the humble
radio space again with some early details of the upcoming Beosound 3. OK, apart
from looking like a cross between a cheese grater and a handbag, it’s an FM
radio with 99 presets that can also play MP3 and WMA music files from SD
Cards. There’s an LCD and the whole thing is controlled from a click-wheel at
the top. It is powered by a rechargeable battery so there are no cables, which
is great, and battery life is around 10 hours. Now, prepare yourself. This will
cost you about £450 when it ships next year. We realise that B&O are
reassuringly expensive, but think this is just a bit steep considering that the
Beosound 3’s 16in tall frame could have housed a 1Gb-to-60GB hard disk drive
for music storage. And where’s the DAB radio? FM radio, a clock and an SD Card slot for £450? We don't buy it.
Music radio MP3 bang & olufsen
No HD DVD games for Xbox 360
With just a month to go until the UK goes Xbox 360 loopy, it looks like
the console will not support high-definition computer games next year when
HD-DVD drives are introduced. In an interview, Microsoft Japan's Xbox
operations chief Yoshihiro Maruyama said that it’s likely that the HD-DVD
drives promised for Xbox 360 consoles next year will be for playing back
high-def movies only, not games. He said: “If the Xbox 360 uses a
next-generation DVD drive in the future, it will only be used for watching
movies that run on next-generation DVDs. The format for games will remain as
[standard] DVD. That's not going to change.” This a blow to Xbox software
developers would no doubt like the option of releasing both standard DVD and
HD-DVD versions of games. It’s certainly playing into Sony’s hands as the PS3
will allow for high-definition games with it’s Blu-Ray drive technology. 
And
finally, it’s a blow to Xbox 360 consumers who should have the option of being
able to buy a standard DVD version of a game or a high-definition version. We
think, somehow, that market pressure will see this decision reversed sometime
next year when the HD-DVD drives start shipping and the PS3 launch date looms.
Turn TVs into paintings
These days, it seems, a TV is no good if it merely looks like a
TV. Now, it has to be more. It has to fit in with your décor, at least that’s
what TV manufacturers would like you to believe. Panasonic is the latest
one to try and come up with way of making your plasma look less
obtrusive, or just plain ugly, depending on who you ask. We are not sure what
the appeal is here but at least Loewe’s customising efforts leave the TVs
looking like designer technology, not some dusty old portrait. The frames come
in eight different styles and are designed for select 42in and 50in models.
They will come in gold, black, pewter, mahogany, walnut and antique white
finishes and will be priced from around £240 to £300. If you like your skinny
TV but love your oak-paneled walls more, then this could be you. Find them
here.
Denon 'wows' with high-def AV receiver
It also boasts the all-important HDMI interface for
accepting high-def digital content – whenever it arrives. The system delivers a
powerful 120W into all seven speakers, boasts more user presets for easier use
and support for all the major Dolby and DTS sound formats. Shipping now it
costs a shade under £1,000.
home entertainment HD Denon home cinema
