Our polls for the Biz-News.com “Product of the Year Award 2009” closed on the 15th of February. The winner is a result of the amount of votes they were awarded by readers, all readers where invited to vote for their favourite products or service in the Smartphone, HDTV, Storage and VoIP categories.

Like gaming? Move right along to the iBuyPower booth, please. Want an unobtrusive PC that will feed your Hulu and YouTube HD streaming addiction? Say hello to the ZBOX HD-ID11. It's basically a desktop version of the same Ion 2 setups you saw announced on the mobile front yesterday, and as such should provide flawless Flash 10.1 playback while occupying an extremely lean footprint on your desktop. Zotac has matched MSI's Wind Box DE220 with its inclusion of a dual-core 1.66GHz Atom D510 CPU, though it obviously differs with its NVIDIA Ion 2 graphics subsystem that includes 512MB of dedicated DDR3 memory. HDMI 1.3a and standard VESA wall-mounting are expected extras, with six USB ports, integrated 802.11n WiFi, dual-link DVI, and a 6-in-1 media card reader covering the rest of your bases. Check out some 1080p playback on a similarly specced system right here while you wait for pricing and availability to be revealed.

Zotac's ZBOX HD-ID11 has NVIDIA Ion 2 and Atom D510 to thank for excellent media playback originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chances are you're not a part of the SuperSpeed revolution yet, and that's okay. It's early days yet, but ASUS is doing its part to make that transition to USB 3.0 a little more appealing with its O!Play HD2. A follow-up to the earlier O!Play models, the HD2 offers what looks to be plenty of connectivity options (we're seeing USB, memory cards, and eSATA) and promises a "wealth of cloud infotainment." ASUS isn't sharing any more details than that right now, but we're going to try to track this guy down on the CeBIT show floor and, when we find, it you can be sure we won't spare the hard questions.

ASUS introduces O!Play HD2, first networked media player with USB 3.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over three years after the original Series3 launched, TiVo's back with Series4 -- say hello to the new TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL, which will arrive in early April. The new slimmer hardware is nice, but the big news is the totally revamped HD interface built on Flash -- yes, Flash -- with all kinds of new options for discovering content from recorded, on-air, and internet sources. The new UI is only for the Series4, and TiVo's pitching the Premiere line as a single-box solution for getting content on your TV, so although there's long been support for services like Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand, it's now being pushed to the front -- content will show up in searches and be exposed on the main screen. There are also new partnerships with Pandora and FrameChannel, both of which will also come to Series3 boxes. And yes: there's finally a capacity meter. We could kiss the ground.

Both models will do up to 1080p output and have single multistream CableCARD slots and eSATA jacks for storage expansion; the $299 Premiere will do 45 hours of HD recording on the 320GB internal drive, while the $499 XL will do 150 on 1TB and adds in THX certification. The bad news? There's still no support for tru2way, so you still won't have access to your cable company's video on demand service -- although one of the screenshots has a Comcast logo on it, so we're intrigued.

There's also a new optional Bluetooth slider QWERTY remote, which will ship later this year for an undisclosed price -- we played with a hush-hush prototype at CES and we can say that it'll be a must-buy for Premiere owners. We're actually a little miffed that it's not packed in the box as the standard remote -- all that searching almost demands it. Same with the new Wireless N Adapter, which will be $90 and go on sale with the Premiere; it should at least be included with the Premiere XL. We're okay with the omission of the new optional phone line adapter, though, it'll be $30 and only sold online. Press release after the break, a full set of pics in the galleries, and PDF spec sheets at the read links.

Continue reading TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL usher in a brand new interface, optional QWERTY remote

TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL usher in a brand new interface, optional QWERTY remote originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although we had fun getting a new perspective from a third voice last week, its good to be back to our regular show as we try to predict what TiVo is going to announce tonight. Next up is the latest preview of the FCC's plan to bring broadband to everyone -- with a little help from the TV spectrum. Meanwhile some can't wait to get HDMI on the Mac Mini, while others couldn't care less. And we still love some 3D, but don't like the $150 price point on the glasses. Finally we talk the Olympics, Avner from Boxee on the Engadget Show and Cablevision's new PC to TV Media Relay.

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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh, Richard Lawler

Producer: Trent Wolbe

Program
01:26 - TiVo Premiere, XL DVRs show up in Best Buy systems for $299, $499; due March 27
07:40 - FCC's Genachowski previews broadband plan, demands half gigahertz of spectrum for the task
13:44 - Broadcasters may have to pay extra for the right to deliver Mobile DTV
20:10 - Apple rumored to be readying Mac mini with HDMI
30:24 - Samsung's new 3DTVs get an early eyes-on, through $150 shutter glasses
36:27 - Samsung's first Full HD 3D TV now available in the US, all 55 inches of it
37:55 - Sony Style stores proclaimed 3D ready, are you?
40:34 - NBC turns off the tape delay, will air Men's Hockey final live in all time zones Sunday
52:34 - The Engadget Show - 006
57:50 - Cablevision's new 'PC to TV Media Relay' slings PC media to your cable box, fuzzy on the details

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget HD Podcast 180 - 03.02.2010 originally appeared on Engadget HD on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you needed more proof that rumors of plasma's demise were greatly exaggerated, just look at Panasonic's latest, the G20. FlatpanelsHD took a 42-inch model fresh out of Panny's massive new plant and ran it through a gamut of tests. The 1080p panel with its 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio blitzed all of them, delivering the infinite viewing angles, deep blacks, and rich colors that are the hallmark of charged gas, and doing so without the annoyance of active cooling fans. That said, the improvements here over the previous G10 series are said to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, with black levels about the same and network functionality little improved, meaning current owners don't need to feel too bad. But, if you don't mind waiting a little longer and paying for the latest and greatest, this looks to be it.

[Thanks, John]

Panasonic G20 HDTV review shows plasma's still got it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ThinkFlood's original RedEye was pretty swank, but unfortunately, it was both expensive and somewhat convoluted. It's only been four months since that very device hit the scene, but it's safe to say it's already history. Today, the RedEye mini is setting a new bar in the world of iPhone / iPad / iPod touch remotes, with a single plug-in Infrared (IR) adapter enabling your Apple device to beam out a near-limitless array of IR commands. All that's needed is the 3.5mm dongle (read: your dock connector remains open), iPhone OS 3.2 and the free RedEye app; once you're setup, you can then control your TV, AV receiver, Blu-ray player and whatever else is lucky enough to be in your home theater rack and support IR dictation. Better still, the app allows users to customize the way they control their gear, with full multitouch and accelerometer support complementing the ability to add (soft) macro buttons. Oh, and did we mention that this wealth of functionality will only set you back $49? Huzzah!

Continue reading RedEye mini converts iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into IR-beaming universal remote

RedEye mini converts iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into IR-beaming universal remote originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know who else is firmly situated on the 3D bandwagon? Acer. This fine morning the outfit has busted out two new beamers, both of which are eager and willing to be paired with NVIDIA's 3D Vision setup for viewing in the third dimension. Outside of that, neither one is particularly awe-inspiring, but if you've got a 3D Blu-ray player on the brain, you might need one of these to fully complete the nerded-out basement experiment. Up first is the H5360, offering a native 1,280 x 720 resolution, a 3,200:1 contrast ratio, 2,500 ANSI lumens and an HDMI socket. The lower-end X1261 gets a lowly XGA resolution, a similar amount of brightness and a component video port. Check 'em real, real soon for $699 and $579 in order of mention, and hop on past the break for the rest of the details.

Continue reading Acer's H5360 and X1261 projectors take it to the third dimension

Acer's H5360 and X1261 projectors take it to the third dimension originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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