Japan’s Sanken Electric has developed a new type of cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlight for LCD TVs that’s as power-efficient as LED backlights but is supposedly up to 60% cheaper to mass-produce.
Approximately 90% of all LCD TVs currently on the market have CCFL backlights. A 32-inch LCD TV usually requires six CCFL tubes, but Sanken says their new lamps are so efficient that only two of them are enough (one at the top and another one at the bottom of the device).
The company also works on LED solutions for TVs but still expects sufficient demand for CCFL tubes for lower-end TVs in the future. Sanken plans to start volume production in one of their plants in Japan as early as this summer.
Via The Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]
Here’s a question. What use is an iPad if you live IN AN AVALANCHE? Even its high-quality multi-touch screen won’t help it there. And what if you like to SWIM IN POOLS OF MAGMA? How will you check your email then? Not on your Windows Phone! It will have melted! This is why you need the AIS Ultra-Rugged RPDA37!
Are you a cook? Use the RPDA37 as a chopping block! Then crack eggs on it! That last part may not show just how strong it is, but really is a demonstration of how useful a portable corner can be. Devices rarely have corners any more, and that is a goddamn shame. Here are its specs:
Processor: 624MHz Marvell PXA270 (reliable, you could choke a horse with it)
Screen: 3.7-inch QVGA/VGA resistive touchscreen
RAM: 256MB
I/O: 3 USB, 1 RJ-45, 1 CF slot, 3.5mm headphone, 3.5mm mic, MicroSD, and some other hardcore stuff
Wireless: Wi-Fi (b/g/n), 3G, Bluetooth (v1.2, baby)
GPS: hell yes
Removable battery? Ah jeah.
SO BIG
SO RUGGED
It runs Windows Mobile 6.1. None of that pansy 6.5 stuff, this is a no-nonsense machine that can be yours for the low, low price of $1899. I’m so pumped!
In all seriousness, though. This thing would be pretty awesome to have around.
“Mommy, will you tell me a bedtime story?” “Of course. Once upon a time…” “Wait, I want it to be about bandwidth hogs at a Microsoft event.” “Okay…” “And can it have Bittorrent in it?” “I guess so…” “And someone gets Rickrolled at the end!” “Of course they do. Now, as I was saying, once upon a time…“
This is pretty cool; I’m not sure how I missed it when it came out late last year. It was on British TV, I suppose, and with me not even watching much American TV, it’s understandable. It’s from a show called Bang Goes the Theory, which you can watch more of at BBC if you’re in the UK or skilled at spoofing your location.
In the meantime this video is exciting enough for me for one night. Looks like a hell of a workout. There’s more information on the system over at this recent Daily Mail article — that’s a consolation: they appear to be as behind in local affairs as I am in foreign ones.
After Dell bought out Alienware, some of the executives left and formed a new company. That company, called Origin PC, sells high end computers and notebooks. Origin PC just announced their newest product, the Eon18 laptop. There’s only one problem. It looks suspiciously like another computer we looked at a few months ago.
No big deal, you think, Origin PC licensed the technology from BFG. Well, not exactly. If you do more research, you’d discover that BFG, Origin, and others have in fact licensed the technology from Sager, who’ll sell their notebook to anybody and let them slap a new lid on it. It’s not a bad thing really, it’s a good laptop. When we reviewed the BFG version we liked it. It just means you can shop around for a while, and find the best price/customer service option for your money.
Lowepro just updated their popular SlingShot line, adding more storage and the ability to attach a tripod to an already great bag system. The new version isn’t hugely different, but Lowepro did add a few interesting features to beef the bag up a bit.
The SlingShot has been around since 2005, and this is one of the first major updates. In addition to the “Hideaway Tripod Mount” system, Lowepro also increased the size of the top pocket, added a zippered “stash pocket” to the top to hold your filters, cell phone, or whatever. They also increased the padding in the main compartment, and updated the divider system to fit the current generation of DSLR cameras and lenses more effectively. Lowepro is going to be sending us one to review soon, so keep your eyes open for that in the coming weeks.
From the press release:
(Sebastopol, CA, February 18, 2010) – Lowepro, the leading brand of protective gear for photography equipment and portable electronics, today unveiled the next generation of its innovative SlingShot AW series. Designed to go from carry-mode to ready-mode in seconds, the award-winning sling bag rotates from back to front for fast and easy access to gear. Redesigned using customer input, the new and improved models of the SlingShot AW series add a Hideaway Tripod Mount™ system, compatibility with the latest popular prosumer and professional grade DSLR cameras, and a more efficient storage and workflow layout.
The latest SlingShot AW models offer increased volume in their upper compartment for personal items and include an elastic band for securing a camera manual or book. A zippered stash pocket placed at the top is the ideal spot to store a UV filter, cell phone or keys. In addition to its ergonomic and quick-rotating design, SlingShot AW features easy-glide zippers throughout its construction, providing smooth operation and fast access to all of the compartments.
Since its inception in 2005 the SlingShot AW series has been praised by photographers and editors from around the world. Most recently, the series received Editor's Choice awards from PCPhoto (recently retitled Digital Photo), American Photo and Outdoor Photographer magazines. In this latest update, Lowepro sought to carefully improve some of the features regularly lauded by fans, including:
· A fully padded and customizable main camera compartment now includes an updated divider system to accommodate the most-popular models of DSLRs and their compatible lenses and accessories.
· A repositioned microfiber cleaning cloth is built into a convenient mesh pocket that is easy to access but out of way when not in use.
· New models now feature a Hideaway Tripod Mount™ system securing a compact tripod or monopod to the side of the sling via a foldout holder, quick-release buckle and strap.
As with the original series, the latest SlingShot AW models include Lowepro's patented built-in All Weather AW Cover™ to protect gear from the elements during inclement weather. Additional features include: three SlipLock™ attachment loops to expand carrying capacity and two built-in memory card pockets located on the inside lid of the main compartment.
This sweet pack of crayola rockets was created a while ago by John Coker for… a rocket enthusiast group. Years ago, in fact. How it escaped memedom I can’t say. Maybe it did, I don’t know, I just wanted to write that headline.
You’d never get a kit like this on the market today. Too many tiny, delicious pieces. Kids these days all want to know what an objective mirror tastes like; it’s almost like that rarest of delicacies, unicorn flank. But I digress, and this isn’t a cryptoculinary blog. This kit, from way back in 1977, actually let you assemble a real SLR (slightly smaller than standard, but still 35mm), and not just an SLR-looking thing like so many cameras today (snort of derision).
I can only imagine how terrible the lens must be, but its freaky optical qualities would probably give create an interesting lo-fi effect, like that sought by Lomographers and people downloading annoying iPhone apps that make their pictures look, very unconvincingly, like old plate prints. Deep breath. It looks pretty fun, but it’s the kind of fun you have once and then wish you had something better, like a kit car that costs as much as a real one. Still, it’s fun to hearken back to the old days when kids not only knew what SLRs were, but had to build ‘em themselves.
Gotta love Gorillapod. They’ve taken a concept, perfected it, and then ran with it in all kinds of ways that most people never expected. The most recent addition to the family is the Gorillapod Magnetic.
Based off of the original Gorillapod, the Magnetic is a variation on the basic theme: attach magnets to the feet, so people can stick them to things. Makes more sense to me then the suction cup version. Keep in mind the Magnetic is only for smaller cameras, not for your DSLR. The Gorillapod Magnetic is currently available on the Gorillapod website, and it’ll set you back $24.95.
Canon appears to have an actual sieve in charge of holding their secrets, since not a day goes by that I don’t hear about this or that new patent or camera just around the corner. Maybe it’s just their canny marketing division seeding leak sites, and if so, bravo. But to business: if you are a millionaire, this is probably a post for you, since everything involved is high-end. I know we’re a big source of news for the fantastically rich, so I thought I’d write it up.
The rumor is that next week, Canon will be firing off a 1D mk IV in our general direction that sports a whopping 32 megapixels. I can’t be the only one that thinks that’s not only not true, but absolutely ridiculous. I can see 20 with an ISO improvement, but 32? Why not 50, guys? That’d be just as useful to the guys who use 1Ds.
The other rumor is that we may finally see a 24-70mm f/2.8 IS lens. The 24-70 f/2.8 is widely considered Canon’s most versatile lens, for good reason, and an IS variant would almost certainly be welcome. I’ve always avoided getting one because I’d really like another stop… and also because it costs $1300. That’s the other thing. A replacement L lens means all the serious gearheads will be unloading their old one, so in a week or so we might see a glut of old 24-70s on Craigslist or eBay for insane prices. I’m looking forward to it, even though I haven’t got two dimes to rub together these days.
I feel like I should come to Flash’s defense, partially because I gave it one between the ribs last night, and partially because, in the words of Sherlock Holmes, “to see justice done is every man’s business.” Now here we have Steve Jobs saying in a WSJ interview that using Flash for video would reduce battery life from 10 hours to 1 hour, and suggests H.264 as an alternative. Let’s just take a moment to evaluate these plainly inflammatory statements.
First, we may as well be clear about this part: Flash isn’t the best on OS X, and probably would end up occupying a good portion of the CPU, resulting in lower battery life. Whether it’d knock eight hours off this theoretical ten-hour battery is, of course, the most tenuous of speculation.
And why, we might reasonably ask, is Flash such a dog on OS X? Well, decoding 720p YouTube video can be either GPU-intensive or CPU-intensive. On Windows, Flash has tunnels to your video card to let its hugely parallel processors burst-decode a ton of information at a time. It can’t do that on OS X, from what I understand — mainly because Apple doesn’t want them to.
(To put the above into context, 720p video files in MPlayerOSX take up a little more than 30% of my CPU.)
Here’s the thing: Apple doesn’t like Flash. I don’t particularly care for it, but it’s one of the foundational technologies of the web and can’t be dismissed as trivially replaceable, as Jobs would have us believe. But Apple doesn’t like it. That’s the key. They’ve got a grudge against Flash and Adobe and they’re going to pursue that to the bitter end. They could call up Adobe and say “Hey guys, Flash is blowing it in our OS, why don’t we get a few guys together and work it out?” But they won’t. They’d rather they had an excuse for railing at it and excluding it from the table. Flash is getting punched in the breadbasket here for no reason other than that Apple doesn’t want to play nice.
Jobs suggests H.264 as an alternative. Okay… H.264 is a video codec, not a wrapper like Adobe’s FLV. There are plenty of H.264 FLVs. If what he meant was we should have direct access (i.e. HTML5 or otherwise) to H.264 files on the web and elsewhere, then okay, that’s good, but it’s not really achievable right now since Flash is the acknowledged standard for web video. Every web video site uses it, though some are working on moving to HTML5. Maybe a few years down the line you could suggest replacing FLV with raw unwrapped files, but that time is not here yet.
Lastly, while we’re on the topic, H.264 is just as closed, proprietary, and potentially inefficient as Flash. It’s owned, operated, and developed privately, but clearly Apple can only throw its weight behind one of them. It’s not good for users, but really, that’s not always Apple’s first priority.
Initially I was like, "Why am I writing about a USB cable?" Then I read the little description and was like, "Oh, neat." Yes, I used the word "neat" like a schoolgirl in 1954. Anyhow, the cable blocks data synchronization. Why would you ever want that?
Let’s say you have your phone or whatever synced to your home PC. You come home from school or work, plug it in, and let it both charge and sync. Nothing too crazy.
But what if you go to a friend’s house and need to charge said device? You don’t want to use a standard USB cable and have all these applications popping up complaining, "This device is synced with another PC. Please drop what you’re doing and close the 800 windows we’ve just opened up for no reason." It’s such a hassle!
That’s where this bad boy comes in. There’s a switch on the side that turns off the syncing capability of the cable. Amazing. The point is, with the switch activated, you can safely plug our device into a PC, have it charge just fine, but not pop up the 47 syncing programs on the alien PC. Handy if it’s handy, I think you can say.
Am I the only one who finds large-scale miniatures slightly ironic? If anyone else does, they obviously don’t find them ironic enough to stop making them. The Seoul Museum of History just finished up a full-city recreation that takes up a whopping 317.29-square meters.
This project was finally finished after two years of work, involving over 2,000 people. It cost approximately 1.5 million USD to build, and contains over 200,000 LED. Now that’s a lot of lights. Seeing this city kinda makes me want to go play Beautiful Katamari again.
I’m sure at least four of you would have enjoyed seeing the year old Project Natal demo I promised we’d stream live on the site. Thanks to some delightful assdickery by Microsoft we were told we were first told we wouldn’t be able to show the Natal bar – the thing you see above – on video and then we wouldn’t be able to film the screen. The video, in short, would have been me waving my hands around.
The demo unit we saw was still running the Natal project under Windows – it looked like 7 or some dev version running on an XBox – so it’s clear this project is 1/8 baked, if that. Oh well. Both my XBoxen are RRODed anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.
With all the flaws that e-book readers have, they don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. VTech, makers of fine educational electronics, are rolling out the Flip animated e-book reader, so now, your kids can get in on the action too.
I always loved to read as a kid, so on family trips I’d bring a backpack stuffed with Hardy Boys paperbacks. The Flip is aimed at bit lower age group with the animated touch screen and read-along feature, but it does allow parents to bring dozens of books in a fraction of the space.
It features various word games and a dictionary feature to teach kids how to read, as well as downloadable content. The aren’t a huge number of “books” available, most being various Disney or Pixar characters, but the device hasn’t even launched yet.
Units will be available this August at $59.99 a pop, with the e-books running at $19.99.
My favorite game in the whole wide world, Civilization, is getting one more incarnation. Civilization V (that’s “five” for non-Romans) is coming in the Fall of 2010 and promises – get this – hex tiles. Hollah!
Civilization V takes this definitive strategy game series in new directions with the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire. The brand new engine orchestrates a spectacular visual experience that brings players closer to the Civ experience than ever, featuring fully animated leaders interacting with players from a screen-filling diplomatic scene and speaking in their native language for the first time. Wars between empires feel massive as armies dominate the landscape, and combat is more exciting and intense than ever before. The addition of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, challenging players to develop clever new strategies to guarantee victory on the battlefield. In addition to the new gameplay features debuting in Civilization V, an extensive suite of community, modding and multiplayer elements will also make an appearance.
Trust me: I’m truly excited about this. I play mostly Civ Revolutions on the iPhone but I’d be willing to sit down and waste a few months on Civ V on the PC.
NEW YORK, Feb 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — 2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (TTWO 9.58, -0.08, -0.83%) , today announced that Sid Meier’s Civilization(R) V, the newest entry from the genre-defining strategy-based franchise, is currently in development at Firaxis Games for PC. Civilization V reinvigorates the classic turn-based strategy genre with an astonishing new engine built from the ground-up for this flagship edition of the Civilization franchise. Players are introduced to an entirely new combat system, deeper diplomatic interactions and a cavalcade of expanded features that deliver a fully immersive experience providing hours of entertainment as players build and defend their empire on their quest to become the greatest ruler the world has ever known.
Civilization V takes this definitive strategy game series in new directions with the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire. The brand new engine orchestrates a spectacular visual experience that brings players closer to the Civ experience than ever, featuring fully animated leaders interacting with players from a screen-filling diplomatic scene and speaking in their native language for the first time. Wars between empires feel massive as armies dominate the landscape, and combat is more exciting and intense than ever before. The addition of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, challenging players to develop clever new strategies to guarantee victory on the battlefield. In addition to the new gameplay features debuting in Civilization V, an extensive suite of community, modding and multiplayer elements will also make an appearance.
“Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise has been recognized as one of the greatest PC game franchises of all time with millions of units sold worldwide,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Civilization V takes the franchise further by offering players a more immersive experience with deeper strategies; heightened tactical combat; vast, realistic landscapes to explore, battle over and claim as their own; and an in-game community hub where Civ fans can share content and compete against each other without leaving the game. This marks a new era that will forever change the franchise responsible for sleep deprivation and reduced productivity for nearly two decades.”
“Each new version of Civilization presents exciting challenges for our team,” said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. “Thankfully, ideas on how to bring new and fun experiences to Civ players never seem to stop flowing. From fully animated leaders and realistic landscapes, new combat tactics, expanded diplomacy and shared mods, we’re excited for players to see the new vision our team at Firaxis has brought to the series.”
In addition to Civilization V, Firaxis Games is also currently developing Sid Meier’s Civilization(R) Network(TM), a Civ game for Facebook. With Sid Meier leading design, Civilization Network will offer yet another option for world domination to both the casual gamer and the biggest fans of the series. It’s another way to access the famously addictive world of Civilization.
Okay, what’s going on here? This is the headline of Kingston’s latest press release:
Kingston Digital Ships First 256GB USB Flash Drive in the U.S.
Right. What’s this, then? Commenters were reporting buying that thing, here in the U.S., months ago. But I guess it wasn’t actually released here, maybe only imported? Is this like how companies won’t let me review gadgets that are out in other countries but not my own?
And why would they replace a good-looking drive with this butt-ugly-Transformers-duffel-bag-style one? They both use the cheapest flash storage out there, and I doubt the interface tech has changed much in the last few months. Man, I’m never going to understand this industry.
VUDU apps is going to start being a lot more available with the announcement today that Zoran, “the U.S. market share leader in flat panel televisions according to DisplaySearch,” is integrating VUDU apps and VUDU Movies into its SupraHD processor. This announcement comes on the heels of a recent deal with Entone to bundle VUDU apps with a variety of IPTV set-top boxes. All this in addition to existing VUDU integration with TVs from LG, Mitsubishi, Samsung, SANYO, Sharp, Toshiba and VIZIO means that VUDU is more and more available.
ZORAN CORPORATION ANNOUNCES INTEGRATED VUDU APPS REFERENCE DESIGN FOR RAPID DEPLOYMENT OF INTERNET CONNECTED HDTVS SupraHD-Based HDTV Reference Platforms Designed for U.S. & Europe Available Q2 2010
Sunnyvale, Calif. – Feb 18, 2010 – Zoran Corporation (Nasdaq: ZRAN), the U.S. market share leader in flat panel televisions according to DisplaySearch, today announced that VUDU Apps, a platform for the delivery of Internet entertainment services on HDTVs, and VUDU Movies, the leading HD on-demand movie service currently available, are being integrated on Zoran’s advanced SupraHD TV processor design platforms.
The new reference designs, enabling the rapid deployment of Internet-connected HDTVs for Zoran's OEM and ODM customers, provide integrated software that includes both Zoran's TV Applications and VUDU Apps. Zoran customers that deploy VUDU-enabled HDTVs will provide TV viewers access to over 100 apps, ranging from news providers to popular Internet services and VUDU Movies.
Current VUDU Apps include:
VUDU Movies, featuring the world's largest catalog of HD movies, with over 3,000 titles, and HDX, the only streaming 1080p HD video with high resolution 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus surround sound available directly on Internet-connected televisions
VUDU Ticker, an Internet powered real-time ticker that enables the display of user specific Internet content updates over live TV
Popular Internet services, such as Pandora, Dailymotion, Picasa and Flickr
Leading news providers, such as The New York Times and The Associated Press
Popular Video podcasts such as Revision3 and DiggNation
"Providing a pre-integrated version of VUDU Apps, running on top of our most advanced HDTV processor platform, will enable our TV customers to deliver the kind of Internet-connected TVs consumers are starting to demand," said Mustafa Ozgen, general manager Zoran's Digital TV business unit. "Our highly integrated SupraHD product line provides the best cost-performance solutions in the industry, while delivering the high performance needed to support advanced applications such as VUDU Apps."
"Solidifying our relationship with Zoran allows us to expand the extraordinary value of VUDU Apps to a broader range of HDTV OEMs and ODMs," said Edward Lichty, VUDU’s EVP of Corporate Development. "By leveraging VUDU’s unique cloud architecture, Zoran's HDTV customers' products will be able to run a constantly expanding suite of applications and services without having to download or install new software in the field."
About VUDU VUDU is a leading provider of streaming media technologies and services that deliver Internet entertainment to broadband-enabled HDTVs and Blu-ray disc Players (BDP). VUDU is the creator of VUDU Movies, which delivers on-demand movies in HDX, the only format to offer streaming 1080p resolution and 5.1 surround sound. In addition, the company offers VUDU Apps, a platform to deliver streaming Internet applications to HDTVs and BDPs; examples of applications on the VUDU Apps platform include Pandora, Dailymotion, Picasa, Flickr, The New York Times, The Associated Press, VUDU Movies and many more. For more information, visit http://www.vudu.com/.
About Zoran Corporation Zoran Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is a leading provider of digital solutions for the digital entertainment and digital imaging markets. With over two decades of expertise developing and delivering digital signal processing technologies, Zoran has pioneered high-performance digital audio and video, imaging applications, and Connect Share Entertain™ technologies for the digital home. Zoran's proficiency in integration delivers major benefits for OEM customers, including greater capabilities within each product generation, reduced system costs, and shorter time to market. Zoran-based DTV, set-top-box, DVD, digital camera, multimedia mobile phone, and multifunction printer products have received recognition for excellence and are now in hundreds of millions of homes and offices worldwide. With headquarters in the U.S. and additional operations in China, England, France, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Sweden and Taiwan, Zoran may be contacted on the World Wide Web at www.zoran.com or at 408-523-6500.
I could sit here and talk about the latest big "hack attack" to strike the civilized world, but these have become so tedious. The story is always the same: hackers from scary place (here, China and Eastern Europe) attack Western government/corporation (here, corporations) for unknown, shadowy reasons. Blah, blah, blah. Instead, I’ll take this opportunity to remind you all of a very basic thing: please use the Internet with care. Don’t go clicking things willy nilly.
The story here is that hackers were able to penetrate German defenses by phishing. Yes, phishing. It’s the equivalent of, "You win Cool Thing! Please click here!"
And people click! Come on, people! Stop this nonsense already!
I understand that I’m talking to people who already know not to click every little thing on the Internet, but please tell your friends or something.
So many of the world’s computing problems could be solved if A) people let the Windows firewall do its thing and B) use some common sense when online.
Let’s say you’re walking down the street. A man in a shiny coat approaches you and says, "Good sir! Today you have won the Nigerian lottery! Oh, you don’t remember buying a ticket? Don’t worry, good sir, for the lottery is compiled using the latest United Nations statistics. Just give me your social security card and I’ll get back to you as soon as I get off the phone with the prime minister. Again, congratulations!"
Sigh.
You are subscribed to email updates from CrunchGear To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.
“Mommy, will you tell me a bedtime story?”
After Dell bought out Alienware, some of the executives left and formed a new company. That company, called Origin PC, sells high end computers and notebooks. Origin PC just announced their newest product, the Eon18 laptop. There’s only one problem. It looks suspiciously like 
Lowepro just updated their popular SlingShot line, adding more storage and the ability to attach a tripod to an already great bag system. The new version isn’t hugely different, but Lowepro did add a few interesting features to beef the bag up a bit.
Gotta love 
Am I the only one who finds large-scale miniatures slightly ironic? If anyone else does, they obviously don’t find them ironic enough to stop making them. The Seoul Museum of History just finished up a full-city recreation that takes up a whopping 317.29-square meters. 
With all the flaws that e-book readers have, they don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. 
No comments:
Post a Comment