CES might be the largest consumer electronics (CE) trade show in the U.S., but it isn't the only large-scale CE show, nor even the oldest. Taking place this week in Berlin is the IFA 2008 consumer electronics show, of which its origins actually date as far back as 1924 when it started as a trade show for the radio industry. Things have changed...Read more...
Broadcom to Acquire Digital TV Business from AMD- Acquisition Expected to Bring Broadcom Scale, a Complete Product Line to Address All Segments of the Digital TV Market and Expand Tier One Customer Base -IRVINE and SUNNYVALE, Calif. — August 25, 2008 — Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless...Read more...
Eric Kim really loves TV. If he ever decides to step down as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Digital Home Group, he might have a future as a game show host. At least he had fun channeling one as he donned a bright red jacket and asked panelists some media-based trivia questions to prove a point during his keynote address...Read more...
Eric Kim really loves TV. If he ever decides to step down as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Digital Home Group, he might have a future as a game show host. At least he had fun channeling one as he donned a bright red jacket and asked panelists some media-based trivia questions to prove a point: Question...Read more...
Pundits argue that the computer is quickly on its way to becoming the primary source of delivering audio-visual entertainment. Others will argue that it's already happened. With over 12 billion videos watched online in the U.S. during the month of May, its hard to argue against the ubiquity of the PC as the king of media. To further this claim,...Read more...
Now that buying a fixer-upper in the 'burbs, putting in mildly radioactive granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and laminate flooring, and then selling it is a recipe for losing money instead of getting rich quick, people looking to make a fast makeover buck have turned their attention to the Internet. They troll the tubes...Read more...
According to BitTorrent news site, TorrentFreak, at any given moment, nearly half of all active BitTorrent users are downloading pirated TV shows. TorrentFreak estimates that one of the most popular TV shows, Lost, garners "close to 10 million downloads per episode." According to the Nielsen TV ratings for last week, the two-hour series finale...Read more...
The Wall Street Journal's sixth All Things Digital conference (D6) continues to make news--this time with Sony Corp.'s CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, showing off an OLED TV prototype that he claims is a mere "0.3mm" thick, has a contrast ratio of "a million to one," and is "a hundred times brighter than an LCD screen." Sony plans to introduce a...Read more...
While some reports seem to point to NBC returning to iTunes, that seems unlikely, as the Zune Marketplace, along with the changes to the Zune 2.5 software, has added NBC to the fold.Notable in the deal is NBC Universal's inclusion, as the company's programs disappeared from Apple's iTunes Store in December following disputes over pricing and...Read more...
As many of you are no doubt aware, all analog television stations in the U.S. are required to switch to digital broadcast systems by February of 2009. What exactly that means to the millions of TV-watchers with analog only sets, however, isn't quite clear to everyone and the amount of misinformation out there is amazing..."Did my TV screen...Read more...
The amount of videos viewed online rose 66 percent in the US in February, compared to the same period last year. The huge goose in traffic is interesting, but what might be even more interesting is how little of that traffic is enjoyed by sites run by television networks. From the figures, the only way networks can get anybody to look at what...Read more...
When Apple formally announced plans for an iTunes rental service it was only inevitable that a conflict between Blockbuster and Apple was to occur. We weren’t entirely sure how this conflict was going to be waged, but now things are becoming clearer: Blockbuster is developing a set-top box to compete with the Apple TV.“The product would...Read more...
Apple TV users who updated to the new 2.0 software may have already received an update to 2.0.1.“The fix, available through the Apple TV's own update utility, is not documented by the company and appears primarily to be a maintenance update.However, a preliminary discovery reveals a Genres category under My Movies, letting owners browse by...Read more...
April 15th is not my favorite day of the year. I doubt it's yours, either. But the IRS is not the only acronym you need to start worrying about on that date. This year, your DirecTV digital video recorder will be getting the DRM treatment for pay-per-view content on April 15th. The days of recording and watching entirely at your leisure are...Read more...
It'll be a cold day in ... well, you know where before this happens in the U.S. Or will it? Following closely on the heels of Norway, Canada's public broadcasting service is adopting DRM-free BitTorrent distribution for a major prime-time show.On March 24, CBC will use BitTorrent to distribute this year's broadcast of Canada's Next Great...Read more...
Starting in May, sellers will no longer be able to give buyers negative, or even neutral feedback.EBay said problems were occurring, and slowing down trade, when buyers left negative comments about sellers who then retaliated with their own views.From May, those selling on eBay will not be able to leave unfavourable or neutral messages about...Read more...
Software updates and delays have walked hand-in-hand in the industry since day one, and Apple certainly isn't any exception to this rule. The latest Apple product to be plagued by software delays is the updated software that will enable Apple TV customers to rent videos.Rumors of Apple testing rental software and encountering numerous...Read more...
In a move that will no doubt send double-door armoire makers into a death spiral, Sony announced today that they would stop manufacturing rear-projection televisions next year. Sony said it would focus its resources on liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology to address the flat-TV market, which...Read more...
The Apple TV, once touted by digital-guru Steve Jobs as the device that was going to change the way people watch TV, apparently hasn't been selling that well.Analysts blame the poor sales on the loss of very popular content from NBC Universal and the lack of a media rental feature. Both of these shortcomings have caused industry analysts...Read more...
AMD Delivers HDTV Experience for Mac®ATI TV Wonder™ 650 Combo USB for Mac offers both analog and HDTV broadcast receptionSUNNYVALE, Calif. -- November 14, 2007 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the new ATI TV Wonder™ 650 Combo USB for Mac® – a new HDTV experience for Mac users. ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB for Mac integrates...Read more...
On October 22nd, innovative memory chipmaker SanDisk is rolling out its TakeTV, a big ole flash memory drive that loads television shows or movies from your computer and plays them on your television. It uses a cradle for their drive that you hook up to your television, and allows you to simply scroll through a menu of available files to play...Read more...
Once again, no one (except maybe cellular carriers and those supplying the content) should be surprised. Europeans' interest in watching mobile television is as tiny as cell phone screens, a new study showed on Monday, even though the industry has been buzzing about offering TV on handsets for years. Mobile operators hope that mobile TV could...Read more...