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  • Solar-powered and Wireless – HDTV Doesn't Come Much Cleaner


    Japan’s cutting edge electronics fair CEATAC just ended but it tossed a few interesting titbits into the mix, including a solar-powered HDTV from Sharp.

    The LED-backlit 52-inch set receives up to 220kWh of power from a solar floor panel.

    If “cleaner” technology is set to become ever more important then Panasonic was displaying a variation on this theme.

    It demonstrated a plasma Viera HDTV that was able to transmit video beamed from a Blu-ray deck via a WirelessHD at an uncompressed 1080p across a 60GHz link at up to 4Gbit/s.

    WiHD replaces HDMI wires with radio links and is designed to handle HDTV video streams between AV equipment.

    Aside from excellent picture quality, the technology does away with the need for the clutter of wires and cables that spoil the clean look of today’s often-wall mounted screens.

    Panasonic says the WirelessHD devices will be on sale within a year.

  • BitGravity To Support Interactive HD Video Applications


    BitGravity has announced the release of an application programming interface (API), capable of supporting cutting-edge interactive video applications.

    The new patent-pending Advanced Progressive API provides extensive control over progressive downloads within Flash.

    According to BitGravity, this enables developers to inject advertising, automatically adjust bitrates, add virtual clips and other additional advanced features into their H.264- and FLV-encoded video.

    Barrett Lyon, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and co-founder of BitGravity, said its content delivery network (CDN) was engineered to enable a new wave of HD, live and interactive content on the Internet.

    He said the update of the Advanced Progressive API for BitGravity’s Distributed Origin-based content delivery platform unlocked the ability to create affordable and scalable interactive HD video applications for the first time.

    Customers will be able to add a variety of advanced features to FLV- and H.264-encoded video, such as:

    • enabling auto bitrate adjustment between series of encoded videos,
    • seeking to any portion of video by time code without having to download an entire file,
    • showing select scenes from a larger video,
    • creating start and stop points,
    • allowing time-range requests,
    • synchronizing videos from time codes and
    • delivering bandwidth control.

    “From inception, our service was intended for interactive, fast-loading, HD content delivery across the mainstream Internet, and this new release of our Advanced Progressive API with H.264 support is another milestone in keeping with this original vision,” said Lyon.

  • iPhone Big Carrot For AT&T


    Thirty per cent of US consumers who purchased Apple’s new iPhone 3G from June through August 2008 switched from other mobile carriers to join AT&T, according to a survey by the NPD Group.

    AT&T is the exclusive mobile carrier for the iPhone in the US.

    Nearly half (47%) of new AT&T iPhone customers that switched carriers switched from Verizon Wireless, another 24 per cent switched from T-Mobile, and 19 per cent switched from Sprint.

    Unsurprisingly, the new iPhone was the top selling smartphone between June-August, pipping RIM’s Blackberry Curve and Pearl to the top slot.

    The Apple device is now the second best-selling mobile phone handset among US consumers, after Motorola’s RAZR V3.

    Before the launch of the iPhone 3G, iPhone sales represented 11 per cent of the consumer market for smartphones (January through May 2008), according to NPD’s iPhone 3G Report.

    However, after the launch of iPhone 3G, Apple commanded 17 per cent of the smartphone market (January through August 2008).

    Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for the NPD Group, said: “While the original iPhone also helped win customers for AT&T, the faster network speeds of the iPhone 3G has proven more appealing to customers that already had access to a 3G network.

    Rubin said that in general terms, the iPhone had boosted overall smartphone sales.

    “The launch of the lower-priced iPhone 3G was a boon to overall consumer smartphone sales,” he said.

    The average price of a smartphone sold between June and August 2008 was USD $174, down 26 per cent from USD $236 during the same period last year.

    During June through August 2008, the top four best-selling smartphones based on unit-sales to consumers were as follows:
    1. Apple iPhone 3G
    2. RIM Blackberry Curve
    3. RIM Blackberry Pearl
    4. Palm Centro

  • 12 Mpx Camera, Touchscreen Phone Due From Sony Ericsson


    The smartphone camera race roars on with news that Sony Ericsson is shaping up a 12 megapixel camera on a CyberShot phone.

    Currently codenamed the Kokura, it will apparently also feature a touchscreen and iPhone-like interface, according to Mobilementalism.

    Based on leaked information, the site says the Sony Ericsson handset will be based on the TI3240 chipset with the Symbian OS version 9.4 and S60 interface.

    It also reports another offering from the phone maker – another CyberShot phone currently codenamed the Yurika.

    Aimed at the youth market, it will feature easy access to Facebook, Yahoo!, YouTube and so on.

    According to Mobilementalism, the Yurika will come with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well as a touchscreen and similar iPhone-like interface to the Kokura.

  • HP To Target Consumer Smartphone Market


    Hewlett-Packard is seeking to capitalise on the success of the iPhone by launching a smartphone that gives it a stronger footing beyond the enterprise market.

    The new device will fall into the HP iPAQ line that has been developed around Windows Mobile for business use.

    While the new smartphone will still be marketed at corporate users, it is expected to also be targetted at the consumer market.

    Details on the consumer mobile are sketchy but reports suggest it will have a touchscreen, keypad and run Windows Mobile 6.1.

    Expected in Europe before the end of 2008 it will be be released worldwide in early 2009.

    HP is among a host of big names, including Nokia, RIM and Google with its Android platform, seeking to capitalise on the success of the iPhone in the consumer market.

  • iTunes "Closure" Threat Passes as Royalties Unchanged


    Whether Apple would have carried out it’s threat to close down its iTunes Store rather than operate at a loss will never be known.

    Apple had raised the possibility of shutting iTunes if the US Copyright Royalty Board decided to increase the royalty fees paid to publishers and songwriters.

    But the CRB opted to keep rates the same for digital music stores late last week, so removing any need for Apple to make good its closure threat.

    The three-member CRB kept the royalty rate at 9.1 cents, and mandated a 24-cent rate for ringtones.

    The board has never before established mechanical rates for digital files.

    With that little problem behind them Apple can now focus on other threats to iTunes’ dominance of the music download scene – like the launch of Nokia’s Comes With Music program.

  • Nokia Unveils Music-loving Touchscreen Phone


    Nokia finally unveiled its touchscreen 5800 XpressMusic.

    Dubbed the “Tube” during its development the 5800 is the first device to run the Symbian S60 5th Edition platform – S60 Touch.

    Aimed at a mainstream market, the Finnish phone giant is hoping to attract users put off by the price of Apple’s iPhone.

    To coincide with the announcement of its the mid-range music-focussed phone Nokia launched its’ free music package Comes with Music.

    This is being seen as a challenge to Apple’s dominance of the digital music market.

    The 5800 comes with a 3.2-inch, 640 x 360 touchscreen to go along with its 3.2-megapixel autofocus cam, Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash, GPS, WiFi, 3.5mm jack, and a microSD slot with support for 16GB cards.

    Nokia said it will be available in three versions – European HSDPA, North American HSDPA, and GSM only.

    The first version will be priced at just under €279 (around USD $400) and it will be followed early next year by a slightly more expensive version bundled with Comes with Music.

    The battle for mobile music is increasingly crowded, with Sony Ericsson launching its music package this month in Sweden, while South Korea’s LG Electronics plans a service similar to Nokia’s.

    Nokia’s package differs from others on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded during a 12- month subscription period.

    There are no charges for tracks downloaded, since the cost is bundled to the phone price.

    The music package is being heralded as a genuine tool for fighting file-sharing as research has shown most consumers would be willing to pay for a service like Comes with Music.

    It is the prospect of users accessing millions of tracks for free that poses the biggest threat to Apple.

  • Hitachi Camcorder Wirelessly Streams HD


    Hitachi have been showing off a prototype digital camcorder that can stream HD video on a TV via a wireless LAN, according to Tech-On.

    The camcorder, which was being exhibited at CEATEC JAPAN 2008, can output video recorded on its HDD or video being shot live to a Hitachi HDTV.

    Video selection, playback, stop and other operations can be done using the TV’s remote control.

    Tech-On reported that the prototyped camcorder transmits the HD video compressed in the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format through an SDIO standard IEEE802.11g module and delivers it to a TV via an access point.

    DLNA is used to deliver already recorded video.

    Video being shot live is transmitted using the camcorder’s IPTV server capability.

    No details about when the camcorder is likely to be available commercially.

  • IT Managers Pushed To Cut Carbon Emissions


    Almost two-thirds of IT managers are being pressured to reduce their carbon footprints, according to a survey.

    The results show that 61 per cent are being directed to cut down on their energy usage and 60 per cent plan to reduce their carbon footprint within the next 18 months.

    The poll, commissioned by VAR Zycko among IT managers in the UK, also found that 70 per cent already have some green measures in place.

    These range from measures such as remote working and video conferencing facilities to reducing the need for employees to travel.

    The survey into green IT issues currently faced by medium to large UK businesses also identified major hurdles on the way to reducing carbon emissions.

    Almost two thirds (67%) of IT managers are unaware of how much power their data centre draws and less than half (45%) currently enforce shutting down of computers at night and on weekends.

    Six per cent have no policies in place at all.

    Lack of IT resources and cost were cited as the biggest barriers to becoming green (52%), with 23 per cent claiming they simply do not know what their options are. When asked where they get their information on environmental issues, 39 per cent claimed they rely on their suppliers.

  • DeFi Offers Worldwide Wifi VoIP


    DeFi Mobile has launched a new service that aims to reduce international mobile roaming charges by substituting wifi VoIP for cellular calls whenever possible.

    DeFi Global Access lets customers use their dual-mode cellular/wifi handsets to make calls through international wifi hotspots.

    It costs USD $40 per month and gives users a phone number in the country of their choice – currently from a list of 40.

    This allows them to make and receive unlimited global wifi calls.

    For an extra USD $10 per month customers can have two more numbers in any of the listed countries, so that friends and relatives in those locations can phone them for the price of a local call.

    The flat monthly fee lets customers connect through the hotspots of a longlist of operators, including AT&T Wireless, FON, free-hotspot.com, Orange France SA, T-Mobile International AG and VEX.

    DeFi says it has arranged more than 50 partnerships that provide wifi access in upward of 75 countries, 15,000 hotels and 120 airports.

    Jeff Rice, CEO of DeFi, said to ensure call quality customers would have direct connections with hundreds of telecom carriers through a colocation center in a major undersea cable landing station.

    Users download client software to their handset – currently it’s available for Nokia Symbian handsets, with other versions coming.

    The software automaticaly makes a connection when the handset is in range of an accessible hotspot, and routes calls over the DeFi network rather than the cellular network.