Archive for 2007
Following on from our earlier post regarding DivX support for PS3 here is some more DivX news:
DivX, Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Kevin Hell as DivX’s new Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board, effective October 31, 2007.
Commenting on the CEO appointment, Jordan Greenhall, the Company’s Chairman of the Board, stated, “Kevin is a strong leader with a distinguished track record who has been leading our consumer electronics licensing business for over five years. Coupled with 20 years in the industry, Kevin is the logical choice as CEO for DivX as it refocuses on opportunities in several key product markets. The entire Board looks forward to working with Kevin as he moves into his new role.”
Hell, 43, has served as the Company’s Acting Chief Executive Officer since July 2007. Between 2002 and 2007, Hell held a number of management positions within DivX including Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer, the Company’s CXO for Partners and Licensing, and President. Before joining DivX in 2002, Hell served as Senior Vice President of Product Management for Palm Solutions Group, a handheld solutions company, as well as Vice President of the Connected Home division and Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Gateway, a personal computer manufacturing company. Prior to Gateway, Hell worked with the Boston Consulting Group in Los Angeles focused on high-technology and entertainment. Hell received an M.B.A. from The Wharton School, and a master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): technology blog, video, Tracy & Matt, DivX]
The rumoured DivX support within the PS3 is now official. Check out the press release:
DivX, Inc. today announced that DivX® video technology will be integrated into PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE). The popular computer entertainment system will be added to the ecosystem of devices that currently support DivX video playback. To date, over 100 million DivX Certified products have been shipped into the market, and it is anticipated PS3 will significantly expand that number.
“We are excited to work with Sony Computer Entertainment to bring DivX to PS3,” said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. “Our technology will expand the multimedia functionality of PS3 by enabling users to enjoy access to the broad library of content in the DivX digital media format.”
Products that bear the DivX Certified logo have undergone a rigorous testing program to ensure a high-quality DivX media experience that includes reliable video playback and excellent visual quality. DivX is working currently to certify PS3 and deliver a superior digital media technology to consumers in the near future. Current PS3 end users will be able to add DivX functionality to their systems via a seperate system software update at a forthcoming date. PS3 game title developers will be able to utilize DivX’s decoder technology by updating the system software of PS3’s Software Development Kit to version 2.00, which was released by SCE on November 2nd.
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): technology blog, gaming, Tracy & Matt, DivX, Playstation, Playstation 3, Sony]
The Asus M530w (aka Asus Aries) is another attractive looking device from Asus. This is a Wondows Mobile 6 standard (Smartphone) device, so no touchscreen, but is backed by a powerful 416Mhz CPU, and 256MB ROM! You’ll also notice 3G and HSDPA standards are supported and there’s even a front-facing VGA camera for video conferencing.
Despite that impressive feature set the Asus M530w wont break the bank costing just Price: £195.74 (Ex. VAT) at Devicewire.
Once again I’m in the middle of reviewing this device and will have something online for you soon. Here’s the unboxing video for you:
Asus M530w Specification:
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Asus M530W, Asus]
Hot on the heels of the successful HTC Touch and the Touch Dual, HTC have just announced the HTC Touch Cruise.
The Touch Cruise based upon the HTC Artemis, and adds a 400 MHz processor, 3G / HSDPA and TouchFlo to it’s predecessor.
The HTC Touch Cruise is sleek, stylish, and compact, but big on features and with an LCD screen size that gives you an excellent multimedia experience in a mobile device. Featuring HTC’s innovative TouchFLO interface, the Touch Cruise is extremely easy to use. Using ordinary finger gestures, you can quickly browse through e-mails, web pages, messages, music, and images, making navigation a breeze.
Built-in GPS functionality and the included software enable you to find the fastest route to your direction, locate restaurants and services on the way, and never get lost. Avoid traffic and delays, and take detours to visit points of interest and local attractions.
HTC Touch Cruise specification:
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, HTC Touch Cruise, HTC Artemis, HTC P3450]
Phones with built in GPS are becoming more common place and the Asus P526, aka Asus Pegasus, is another device to fall in to that category.
This is one of the few candy-bar style Windows Mobile devices to include GPS, Touchscreen and a phone keypad and seems to cater for almost everyone.
There are a few disapointments though. Firstly there is no built in WiFi nor is there 3G/UMTS or HSDPA support. This may limit the phones appeal but when you consider the compact form factor and the cost, £246.80 (Ex. VAT) from Devicewire it could well be an ideal device for business users.
I’ll be reviewing the P526 shortly but here for your viewing pleasure is our unboxing video.
Still no idea what that switch does! 😛
Asus P526 Specification:
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Asus P526, Asus]
Digital photo frames have been around for a little while now, but now that the prices are falling to a more mainstream point I expect that they will start to become a more common feature in the home and office.
I’m sure that some people try to use them to store all their images, but I suspect that the more common usage is to sit on the mantlepiece or office desk and replace the family photo frames.
So just what does this particular frame have to offer….
What’s in the Box?
General
This particular frame is a 7″ widescreen with 480×234 pixel resolution. It’s capable of playing MP3’s and MPG’s (type 1/2/4) as well the more common JPEG file formats. It also has 128Mb built in memory.
It comes with a remote control and supports USB keys as well as SD, SM, MS, CF and MMC memory cards to extend its memory (or indeed just to transfer images to the frame)
There is also an AV cable to allow you to connect the frame’s output to a bigger display.
Highlights
Lowlights
Review
On first opening, the screen is pleasant to look at (like lots of things on the market at the moment it’s design has obviously been influenced by Apple’s products).
Setup is a simple process, taking no time at all. You just clip in the stand (it only goes in one way around), plug in the power adapter, remove the tab from the remote control and you’re up and running. It really is that easy.
To get images (or MPG’s or MP3’s) onto the frame you can plug in a USB key, a memory card (SD, SM, MS, CF and MMC are all supported) or else you can connect the frame to the computer with the included USB cable.
You then use the interface on the frame to either playback the images directly from the memory cards or else you can copy the images to the internal 128Mb of memory of the frame itself then playback from there.
NOTE : 128MB of built in memory might not seem like much, but if your JPG’s are resized to the size of the screen then you’ll store plenty of images on the frame (480×234 jpeg ~70kb each = 1872 images in 128Mb!)
The frame is capable of resizing your images on the fly to fit the display (it claims to be able to handle up to 8000×8000 pixel images and I certainly had no problems with anything I threw at it). The remote also allows you to change the aspect ratio of the image playback, but this will apply to all images so everything will either attempt to be 4:3 or 16:9.
Once you’ve selected the folder of images to show the frame cycles through the images.
This cycling can be set to go though the images in order or randomly, then you can change the speed this should happen and the effect that you want to use for the transition between 2 images.
The remote allows you to control everything function on the frame – navigating the menus, zooming images, volume, aspect ratio of playback. There are also buttons on the frame itself so you can still control the frame if your remote’s battery run’s flat – they aren’t particularly easily positioned, but most of the time you’ll be using the remote after all.
The AV socket allows you to connect the frame up to a larger display with composite input like a TV.
[The one thing that the manual doesn’t really seem to mention about this is that you can only get into this mode from the top level menu in the interface, then you press the AV button on the remote and hey presto the output goes to your TV]
You can apparently set the display up to play music and show images at the same time, but this doesn’t seem to be covered in the manual at all. (On other frames this usually requires a CF card for the speed of access)
If you playback MP3’s on their own the display shows a little graphic display of the music during the playback.
Playback of MPG’s is the one area where the frame doesn’t seem to let you have any control over the aspect ratio as it seems to stretch them all to widescreen regardless of their original format or any buttons that you may press.
I dont think that anyone is really going to use a digital photo frame as an MP3 or movie player, but it’s nice that these features are there for those that might.
There are also built in Calendar and alarm functions, but again I’m not really sure what you’d use them for.
Conclusion
If you aren’t willing to prepare your images to make the best of the widescreen ratio, then you’ll probably find this frame a little underwhelming, and the interface issues will rapidly start to get on your nerves.
If you ARE willing to prepare your images and you just want digital photo frame that will sit on your desk, shelf or mantlepiece cycling through them, then this is a nice bright screen for just that sort of purpose.
Review by: Iain
[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Living Images, Digital Photo Frame, Tracy & Matt]
HeroCraft presents a wonderful puzzle Snow Lines for PDA & Smartphones.
This “bright as the glittering snow” and “bracing as a frosty winter morning” mega-popular logic game is ready to load you up with a heap of presents! Snow Lines has superb graphics, intellectual puzzles, a variety of game modes and enthralling game play.
Can you imagine anything worse than a dull winter evening on your own? How much better would it be to spend your time in a crowded party with cheerful friends, where there is a lot of jokes and amusement? But have you ever tried to organize a feast yourself? In this case you know how complicated it can be. Snow Lines is not necessarily easier, but it’s a much more fascinating passtime! In this arcade logic game you should, with all your sharpness, gather together all who have a tedious time in solitude, into merry company.
Snow Lines is arguably the best Lines game yet. You are able to play against the clock or to set up dizzying records; achieve high scores; or try to overcome dozens of original levels. Several game modes give the opportunity to get the most amusement out of Snow Lines, and flexible rules help to find something new in this game time after time. Just load it up and you’ll be engrossed in a vortex of smiles, excitement and riddles which get evermore complicated as you play.
The detailed information about the game, including screenshots, trailers and links for demo versions is available on HeroCraft PDA official site.
[b]Game features:[/b]
Posted by: Matt
[Post tags: smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Snow Lines, HeroCraft, Tracy & Matt]
Last night we were invited along to a press event where Sony introduced their full range of LCD TV’s to members off the press. This was a unique opportunity for us to see each and every model in the range side-by-side playing the same footage. This really gave us a chance to compare them all.
I have to admit that I’m more of a fan of plasma than LCD, however, the products on offer from Sony did start to sway me. I particularly liked the 52″ BRAVIA W3000-Series which is encapsulated in a premium, brushed black metal bezel. The W3000 range features a 40-inch, 46-inch and 52-inch models.
Of course all the other models were represented and we’ll post more about each model and the press event itself later. We are also hoping to be able to bring you more detailed reviews in the near future. In the mean time, here’s some more info from Sony.
The Sony BRAVIA X3500/X3000-Series is the flagship of the BRAVIA LCD TV range. With its perfectly judged combination of picture and sound enhancing technologies, the range represents the next generation of HDTV. It encompasses the latest and most enhanced version of the renowned BRAVIA ENGINE (BRAVIA ENGINE Pro) which optimises the depth, clarity and definition thus improving your High Definition signal.
The sleek X3500 Series features a brushed metal exterior, available in 70”, 52”, 46” and 40” models, all capable of HD1080 resolution – 1920 x 1080p. The High Definition X3000 is available in 46” and 40” models, all capable of HD1080 resolution – 1920 x 1080p. To suit every taste and décor the X3000-Series offers a range of optional colour bezels.
The series is ideal for film and sports fans with its 24p True Cinema mode and Motionflow +100Hz technology.
With its sleek, high-end, quality design the BRAVIA W3000-Series is encapsulated in a premium, brushed black metal bezel. The range features a 40-inch, 46-inch and 52-inch models, all showcasing an impressive array of new audio-visual technologies.
Complete with an integrated HD tuner, Theatre Mode and 24p True Cinema to enable the richest cinematic experience and HD1080 on all models.
Ideal for film buffs, the BRAVIA V3000-Series offers a powerful blend of HD1080, exceptional image quality and features designed to make movies and even digital photos look outstanding. Available in 40” and 46”, see films the way they should be seen with 24p True Cinema and Theatre Mode – view films as the producers intended. Advanced image technology is perfectly complemented by the new ‘Art Frame’ design, specifically created to focus attention on the picture itself.
Sony has extended the successful HD Ready BRAVIA S3000-Series LCD TV first launched earlier this year. The existing 40-inch and 32-inch sets are now joined by 26-inch and 20-inch models.
The range is ideal for the style conscious, with the 20-inch sets available in a total of seven different colours – enjoy amazing colour on and off the screen.
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): technology blog, LCD TV, Tracy & Matt, Sony, Bravia]
Apple’s iPhone goes on sale in the UK and Germany on Friday with thousands expected to snap up the device.
Here in London, nutters loyal Apple customers have begun queuing outside the Apple Store in Regent Street.
At the moment, however, the iPhone has been locked to work Only on the O2 Network.
The phones can be unlocked for use on other networks but this voids the warranty and could break the device if software updates from Apple are loaded.
As many as 250,000 users in the US have unlocked the device using free and paid-for software to make the phone work on different networks, and to load third-party software not supported by Apple.
Posted by: Matt
Quote courtesy of the BBC news.
[Post tag(s): iPhone, Apple, OS X, Amazon, Tracy & Matt]
VITO Technology releases a new version of VITO AudioPlayer. This easy-to-use Windows Mobile player runs swiftly and has the basic playback features.
VITO AudioPlayer has become closer to you as now it can be set as a default player. Now it is easier to access the player and play your favorite music with VITO AudioPlayer. Another feature added is that instead of multiple taps for rewinding a song you can just press-and-hold the right or left arrow on joystick to rewind or fast forward the recording.
VITO AudioPlayer has become even more user-friendly as it now pauses during the phone call and continues playing after it’s over. Smart enough, isn’t it? Besides, while playing audio files it doesn’t interrupt when stumbling over files with not supported audio format.
VITO AudioPlayer is available for $9.95 at http://vitotechnology.com
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, VITO Technology, VITO AudioPlayer, GPS, Tracy & Matt]
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