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Gamers Get Hi-Tech Bean Bag
The traditional
Bean Bag has well and truly been pimped with the arrival of the Slouchpod
InterActive XT gaming chair.
The
Slouchpod is essentially a Bean Bag with a lot of in-built functionality,
including a digital control panel for controlling games consoles, MP3 players,
TVs, DVD players and stereos. 
To bring all that gaming and audio to life
though, it also boasts a pair of 5Watt speakers and a 10W subwoofer.
In terms of size it’s almost 80cms wide by a 33cms high and is "fire retardant to UK standards", which is reassuring since your butt will be the first to know about any electrical faults. The bag comes in six flavours from black, red, white and cream to the more lurid lilac and pink.
You may also need to save a little harder since this futuristic Bean Bag will set you back £299.
Nintendo Wii Still Thrashing The PS3
The woes of the PS3 continue as the console minnow, the Nintendo Wii,
continues to be the star seller in the US, and around the world.
According to the latest sales figures from NPD, US consumers snapped up
259,000 Wii consoles in March compared to 199,000 Xbox 360s and just 130,000
PS3s. However, none of the above were the biggest selling console.
That coveted position went to 
Sony’s last-generation console, the PS2,
which sold 280,000 units last month, thanks to some price cuts and the launch of
the highly anticipated God Of War 2 game, which sold over 830,000 copies in the same
period. This is not the first time that the PS2 has outsold its shiny new
successor.
The PS3 figures show that Sony only managed to increase sales in March
by a disappointing 2% over February. A
Sony statement said:
“We continued to find ourselves supply constrained in March due
primarily to the shift in manufacturing focus to the PS3 PAL version to support
the launch of the system in Europe.”
The Wii has so far sold a massive 5.8 million units globally and Nintendo plans to sell 20 million of them by this time next year. This is possible, but only if Nintendo manages to sort out its own chronic console shortages.
Denon Targets iPod Users
The Denon AH-C700 have been designed by the same people that build the
company’s £5,000 CD players and with a price tag of £140, people will be
expecting them to deliver. 
In-ear phones, like those from pioneers, Etymotic Research, are
becoming more popular as they isolate outside noise.
Denon claims the AH-C700 are set apart because unlike others that use
lightweight plastic capsules, they are made from ultra-rigid machined aluminium
that does not resonate.
High quality cables use oxygen free copper (OFC) conductors for improved
sound and feature a gold-plated, aluminium bodied stereo jack. According to
Denon, the earphones promise ‘excellent music detail’ and have been tuned to
provide full and smooth bass. They come with three sizes of soft silicone
adapters to fit different ear sizes.
Read more here.
Lord Of The Rings Goes Online
World of Warcraft may be the Sauron of online roleplaying games (RPGs) but
there’s a new band of Hobbits in town hoping to drag a few million players into
a new world.
The most eagerly awaited online RPG, Lord of the Rings: Shadows of
Angmar, launched 
yesterday and hopes are high that millions of fans of
Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s movies will take up the quest.
In development for four years, this is the first online game based on
Tolkien’s world and invites players to enter the world as an elf, dwarf, human or hobbit. The game environment
looks stunning and players will have more than enough chances to fight back the
Orc and goblin hordes, stand toe-to-toe with a cave troll, tackle the Witch
King, meet Gandalf the Grey or stop for a few flagons of ale at the Prancing
Pony.
David Solari, Vice President and General Manager of Codemasters Online
Gaming said: "It’s great that the many, many fans of this incredible game
can begin their heroic adventures through Middle-earth. The response so far has
been nothing short of stunning and we’re hugely excited about launching this
unique game and look forward to it having a profound effect in the
market."
Out now, the standard edition of the game costs £25 online, with
30-days free play, after which a montly fee applies. There’s also numerous special and limited collector editions too.
games lord of the rings PC online
HDTV Sales Set To Soar
Seeing as you can barely find a fat CRT TV on the High St. anymore, it’s
not surprising that high definition TV (HDTVs) sales are set to rocket.
According to Strategy Analytics, sales of HDTVs and high-definition (HD)
video devices will jump 158% in 2007 to reach 28.1m units. By 2012, 70% of
European homes will own at least one HD-capable telly, up from just 8% in 2006.
In addition to that, most HDTV customers will also buy a HD set-top box, movie
player, games console or digital media player too.
“Europe's high definition TV transition is well under way,” says David
Mercer, principal analyst at Strategy Analytics. “European consumers are
beginning to buy HD-capable devices in huge quantities and there is a terrific
opportunity for content providers and distributors to meet the growing desire
for HD programming.”
The report compared adoption forecast models across different emerging
HD device segments. It also claimed that by 2012, 44% of European homes will
own HDTV receivers, like set-top boxes or integrated digital TVs. By that time 27%
will have HD digital media players, 26% HD disc players, and 15% HD portable
devices.
Asda May Sell Cut-Price HD Players
Supermarket chain, Asda, could soon be selling cut-price high-definition
(HD) DVD players if a rumoured deal by its parent company, Wal-Mart comes off.
Wal-Mart has reportedly inked a $100 million deal 
with a Chinese
manufacturer to supply it with 2 million high-def players, which it will sell at
the knock-down price of $199 – or £100. That’s less than a third of what the
cheapest Toshiba player costs. However, since much of this news is coming from
Asian sources, it’s not exactly clear whether or not the players will be HD DVD
or Blu-ray machines.
The players will come from Great Wall Corporation in China, with parts from Taiwan’s Fuh
Yuan and Japan’s TDK. Broadcom will supply the system-on-chip decoder. Asda has been working hard to boost sales of electronics equipment and it's highly likely that some of those players will make their way over here.
If, true, this deal could
radically change the nature of the high-def format war, not least by opening the
door for more, cheap players to arrive on the scene. If the Wal-Mart player is
HD DVD, it would certainly help that camp close the gap with Blu-ray, which
seems to be edging ahead – especially now that the PS3 is here.
Dell Forced To Make Windows U-turn
Since January, 
Dell has been
pushing Microsoft’s new OS, Vista, and was refusing to load the older – but
more reliable – XP onto many of its new machines. Dell’s feedback site has been
over-run by angry users, demanding that they want the older XP, not the flashy
new Windows Vista.
In response to a statement on Dell’s Ideastorm site, that read
“"Don't eliminate XP just yet", almost 11,000 votes were received. As
a result, Dell will offer XP on four notebooks and two desktops until
mid-summer.
Microsoft has controversially announced that from January 2008, no PCs
will be allowed to ship with XP, in an effort to force users to move onto
Vista. Some vendors, like Dell, have been withdrawing XP as an option for some
months now.
LG's Blu-ray/HD DVD Drive For PCs
The snappily titled GGW-H10N drive can record up to
50Gb of data on a dual layer BD-R or BR-RW disc at up to 4x speed – i.e. 25Gb
in 25 minutes according to LG. 
It will also read and write CDs and DVDs.
It remains to be seen if it will allow users to access the interactive
special features on HD DVD discs – something its standalone Blu-ray/HD DVD
player, the Super Multi Blue BH-100, has been rightly panned for. No official price but industry
whispers have clocked it at a wallet-wrenching £600.
Check in later when we'll have something on the UK price for the BH-100, which ‘officially’ launched today.
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HD-DVD Player Sales Hit 100,000 In US
The 
news arrives on the first anniversary of the release of the HD DVD
format. Most noteworthy is that the figures do not include sales of HD-DVD PC
drives or the XBox 360 HD-DVD add-on drive. Both of these have also been
selling strongly.
Toshiba, which recently slashed the cost of its players to compete
better with the newly arrived PS3 [which has a Blu-ray drive in-built], is
hoping to boost the image of HD DVD which seems to be losing the movie war with
Blu-ray right now.
According to Nielsen Video Scan, US sales of Blu-ray discs are
outselling HD-DVD by 2-to-1. Of course, there are new 1080p HD DVD players
coming and 70 new HD DVD movies on the way in the coming months, which the HD
DVD camp claim, and desperately hope, will turn things around.
In marketing terms Sony’s Blu-ray, especially with its tie-in to the
PS3, has been running away with the marketing battle. Over 165,000 Blu-ray-equipped
PS3s sold in the first two days of the launch in the UK last month.
Unless, the HD DVD alliance manages to raise its game, the so-called
‘Format War’ could soon become little more than a skirmish.
Philips Hunts Down TV Pirates
Philips has launched a forensic watermarking tool that marks broadcast
TV and allows pirated material to be traced back to a single set-top box.
VTrack is designed for use in set-top boxes and integrated digital TVs
and should make subscription TV broadcasters a little happier in the fight against pirates. If
a pirate makes illegal copies of a programme or movie and sells them on, the
watermarking technology can be used to track it back to the set-top box used
and its owner. VTrack cannot prevent piracy but Philips 
is hoping it will act
as a deterrent to those planning to sell copies of pirated material.
The company said VTrack supports standard definition (SD) and high
definition (HD) content and is format independent, which means it can be used
for current and next-generation codecs like MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264/AVC and VC-1.
It is also robust and cannot be separated from the content or altered. Philips
claimed that even with severe quality degradation of the video, pirated content
can still be traced to a specific TV subscriber.
“The main piracy threat in PayTV so far has been theft of service, which
has been addressed by Conditional Access and Digital Rights Management. Now
with the increased availability of HD devices and content, the capture and
distribution of high quality content copies is a new threat requiring a
different approach,” says Alex Terpstra, CEO of Philips Content Identification.
Broadcom, TI, ST and others have agreed to incorporate VTrack into their
chipsets.
Widescreen Monitors To Take Over
According
to iSuppli, sales of widescreen format monitors are going to quadruple this
year alone with consumers leading the charge. The market-watcher has said that
growing video usage,
Microsoft’s Vista operating system and aggressive pricing will all lead to
skyrocketing sales of widescreen monitors in the next five years.
Worldwide
sales of wide-format LCD monitors will grow to 146.9 million units by 2011, up
from just 9.1 million units last year. That’s a whopping compound 
annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 74.3 per cent. This year alone will see sales hit almost 36
million units. In revenue terms, the market will be worth $20.9 billion by
2011, up by a CAGR of 55 per cent, from last year’s $2.3 billion. Revenues for
this year will top $6.7 billion.
“The wide-format cut allows for more efficient glass utilisation than standard-format panels, making the format a favourite of LCD panel manufacturers, but end-users in the monitor market have lagged behind television and notebook users in adopting the new standard,” explained Rhoda Alexander, director of monitor research at iSuppli.
“With the introduction of Vista, which favours a wide-format display, and attractive pricing on wide-format offerings, monitor users are finally shifting to wide alternatives. Adoption varies substantially by region, with China leading the way to date in wide-format adoption.”
Consumers
will drive sales for a number of reasons, not least of which is the growing
importance of video applications like games, movies, IPTV, and video clips. As
screen sizes go, the most cut-throat segment in 2007 will involve 19in, 20in
and 22in displays.
Virgin Sues BskyB
According to Virgin, the action is a result of Sky withdrawing its
‘basic’ channels from Virgin’s TV service after the companies failed to agree a
price. Virgin alleges that Sky, which controls 70 per cent of the UK
subscription TV sector, deliberately tried to stifle competition from Virgin TV
by demanding double the fees Virgin pays to offer Sky’s basic channels. It also
said that Sky forced it to accept an 85 per cent reduction in the fees Sky
pays to Virgin for the use of its Living, Bravo and Trouble channels.
“This dispute is one very specific example of how UK consumers are being denied the benefits of a diverse, dynamic and competitive pay TV market,” said Virgin Media CEO, Steve Burch. “Litigation is obviously a serious step and a last resort but we are determined to have these issues resolved as quickly and fairly as possible.”
Sky
has denied any wrongdoing. Mike Darcey, Sky’s chief operating
officer, has countered:
“This action is without foundation and is an obstacle to bringing back
Sky’s basic channels for Virgin Media customers. The best and quickest way to
give customers what they want is to resume negotiations and we’ve invited
Virgin Media to return to the table.”
Toshiba Rolls Out Nine DVD Players
Just a week
after it unveiled its 2007 line-up of Regza HDTVs, Toshiba is back on the
launch trail with nine new DVD players and recorders.
Using the
black styling of the Regza TVs, the new range boasts regular DVD players,
combined DVD/VCR recorders, DVD/HDD recorders and portable DVD players.
At the
entry level are the SD-270E and SD-370E players, the latter with HDMI output
and upscaling abilities. There are four DVD recorders up for grabs too, the
DR-17DT (DVD recorder), RD-97DT (DVD recorder with 250Gb hard disk drive),
DV-R17 (DVD/VHS recorder) and the RD-XV47 (DVD/VHS recorder and 160Gb hard disk
drive). Both the RD-97DT and the DV-R17DT sport HDMI output and upscaling of
DVD video to ‘near’ high-def levels of 720p, 1080i and 1080p.
On the portable front, there is the SD-P1707 (pictured) and SD-P1900 with 7in and 9in screens, respectively. Both have a resolution of 480 x 234 pixels and support DivX playback. Battery life is rated at three hours for the SD-P1707 and five hours for the SD-P1900.
dvd movies home cinema toshiba
Virgin Radio Hits Wii And PS3
Virgin Radio has announced that it has become the first UK radio
broadcaster to be available across games consoles. In a new deal, owners of Wii
and PS3 consoles will be able to tune into Virgin Radio via a special player on
the consoles’ Web browser.
They will also be able to tune into Virgin’s other stations, 
Xtreme,
Classic Rock and Groove. As well as radio, listeners will also be able to
access videos and ‘exclusive’ music sessions.
The commercial side of the offering will allow users to also buy CDs,
gig tickets and tracks via the Virgin Radio Ticket Store.
“People are treating the consoles as part of their home entertainment media centre, and now Virgin Radio will be part of that experience," claimed James Cridland, digital media director at Virgin Radio.
“This platform
has great growth potential, particularly among early-adopters and 25-44 audience
popular with advertisers.”
PS3 Gets A Price Cut
According to Chat Track, 
sales were down 82 per cent following the
launch week. WH Smith and online retailer Play.com have reduced the price to
£399.99. The WH Smith Easter weekend offer ends today so hurry if you want one.
That said, if you don’t mind waiting a couple of days for delivery, go to Play.com, which is offering the console for the same price but with free delivery, a free HDMI cable and a Blu-ray copy of the movie, Click.
PS3 sony console technology games
Virgin Launches Not Quite ‘Free TV’
Virgin Media wants a slice of the T and has launched a new service targeting people in non-cable areas of the UK.
Called Virgin Free TV it
involves a tiny set-top box capable of bringing you 40 free-to-air channels
once you sign up for Virgin’s 8Mb broadband and Talk Anytime phone bundle at
£199.99 a month. There’s also a £40 set-up charge if you opt for the
broadband service only. So, as you can see, it’s not actually free but works
out at around £280 a year.
It is a very small set-top box
though at 19 x 9cms – about the same size
as a ‘ye olde video cassette’. It comes with a remote control and a very handy
remote extender, which will allow you
to hide this away in a press and still be able to change channels. Here are the
key features of the service:
* over 40 free-to-air TV
channels and over 25 digital radio stations
* an easy to use eight-day,
Virgin branded, on-screen TV guide
* high quality reception plus
access to interactive content via the red button
* customer service support
online and over the phone
* plug 'n' play installation
* low power consumption using
just 1/15th of the energy of a standard 60W lightbulb
Philip Snalune, managing director of non-cable at Virgin Media, said:
“Launching a basic TV service into non-cable areas enables us to expand
availability of our quadplay of broadband, phone, mobile and TV. This is just
the first step and our aim is to offer more advanced TV services across the UK
throughout 2008. The digital switchover is just around the corner and we can
now offer consumers across the UK a simple and low-cost way of making the
digital leap, even if they can't get cable services."
Toshiba’s 2007 HDTV Line-Up
The entry level C series is made up of 26, 32, 37, and 42in 720p TVs
with resolutions of 1280 x 720 and sporting HDMI inputs. Next up is the X
series of 1080p TVs, coming in sizes ranging from 37in to 57in. All of these
TVs sport a generous three HDMI inputs, like the new Sony Bravia TVs, but the
real selling point is the thin frame.
The X series TVs boast really thin frames [pictured] a
round the display
panel itself – just 15mm wide – which makes the screen seem even bigger when
you are watching TV and movies. It also makes the TVs look that much more
attractive. There are 40in and 46in models cost roughly £1,500 and £1,800.
Sitting at the top of the heap, is the Z series. Like the X series, the
Z series TVs are 1080p and have three HDMI inputs. Unlike the X series they use
a more advanced version of Toshiba’s Active Vision image processing technology
called M100. This doubles the image frame refresh rate to reduce screen
flicker.
The Z series comes in 37, 42, 47, 52, and 57in models with prices for
the 57in flagship coming in at £3,500. All Regza TVs have Freeview tuners and
the X and Z series are finished in glossy, piano-black. The TVs will be introduced throughout the
year.
EMI And Apple Dump DRM
This is the first time that one of the big four music publishers – EMI,
Warner, Universal and Sony BMG – has decided to get rid of Digital Rights
Management (DRM) technology and throws up the challenge to the others to do
something similar. EMI acts include Radiohead, Coldplay, A Perfect Circle, Norah Jones and Joss Stone, among others. Steve Jobs came to London to make the joint announcement with EMI yesterday afternoon.
DRM technology was designed to prevent music piracy but has, largely,
failed and most people see it as an unfair measure that restricts what they can
do with the music they have paid for.
The EMI/Apple move is good news but iTunes users will have to 
stump up a
little bit more cash for the privilege. DRM-free tracks will cost 20p more at
99p each but, Apple has said that the tracks have a higher audio quality than
regular iTunes downloads. They will boast 256kbps AAC encoding which Apple
claimed makes the “audio quality indistinguishable from the original
recording”. It is also twice that of current iTunes downloads.
“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”
At 20p extra per track, I think most people - those who don't tend to download music illegally, that is - will not find it too much of a financial burden.
news technology DRM EMI itunes apple
HD DVD Goes On The Offensive
The HD DVD
Promotional Group has lined up more than 70 new offerings, ranging from movies
to live concerts, and including the long-awaited The Complete Matrix Trilogy. 
With the PS3 now available in Europe, with its in-built Blu-ray players,
the HD DVD camp is making much of its lower cost dedicated players and some new
price reductions – at least in the US – on Toshiba players.
Ken Graffeo, executive vice president, HD strategic marketing, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, commented:
“Our consumer base continues to buy
movies at rates that outpace DVD in its early years, which shows the
willingness of consumers to make the transition to high definition.”
It’s early days yet in this HD battle but it will be interesting to see
what kind of difference the arrival of the PS3 will have on Blu-ray movie
sales.
See the full HD DVD line-up here.
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