Sony Luma LCD
The Luma Series of LCD is the new desktop display LCD from Sony. Despite having said that they will stop all production on destop display LCDs, they went ahead and made this one. Now, this sleek looking screen are made to target people like graphic designers and video editors. Of course, if you’re feeling decadent, you can get one of these 20-inch screen babies yourself. Daily email will never feel so luxurious with this big widescreen staring back at you, in fact you can read two emails from two different accounts side by side!
There will be three different models from the Sony Luma Series; two different 20-inch models available (LMD-2050W, LMD-2030W) and one 24-inch model (LMD-2450). The price is not out yet, unfortunately but you can read about the buzz here
Source: Gizmodo
It’s got the style, it’s got funk,
it’s got the power,
to blast you back into your trunks.
Beolab 9
Bang & Olufson’s Beolab 9 Speakers are quite the something for audiogeeks. Not only does it look like your mom’s air humidifier, it also looks like an electric kettle. But that’s really besides the point, isn’t it? I truly believe that when something is from Bang and Olufson, they’re just one of the best audio people in the world, you just want to stare in awe and nod in agreement that it looks good. I don’t really like how it looks but we already know that. :P
Anyway, here’s what they from B&O say about their Beolab9 speakers:
The unique conical shaped cabinet houses the usual mid-range and bass units. Sitting atop the speaker is the B&O patented Acoustic Lens that disperses the treble within a 180 degrees arc. This, according to the company, guarantees uniform sound characteristics in front of the speaker, letting the listener hear constant timbre even while he is shifting places. The absence of a sub-woofer is compensated for by another technology, “Adaptive Bass Linearisation,” that prevents distortion while delivering excellent bass performance. The speaker also has a manual position switch that changes the sound based on it’s position in the room. The speaker can be placed in an open area, a corner or against a flat wall without any compromise of the sound.
The question is, would I get it? If I am a millionaire and I own my own home theater system, I might. This set of speakers will be setting you back around USD10k. And it comes in four colors too: red, blue, dark grey, and black.
Source: PopGadget
Yamaha USB Speakers
These speakers from Yamaha boasts of mobility, as in you can carry it anywhere you want since it has a USB point and its compact. We’re talking 248×33x100mm and 500g. Sound wise, it is better than the cheap speakers you bought during the last minute sale. For those who don’t like to wear headphones, you can bring this to your office space too - we all know no music, no life..:) God knows my laptop’s speakers sucks; it’s no different than the sound my neighbor’s cat makes when its on heat. I should probably get one. But I already have my trusty iPod…so money is better saved somewhere for my retirement fund!
The Yamaha USB Speakers also run on 4 AAA batteries too if you can’t find a USB plug point and it also has an audio port too for whatever device you might have at home that might be able to spew music. That means you can also connect your iPod or other MP3 player to the speakers via a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Pricing is set at 149 pounds (about $293 dollars) and availability is set for later this year.
Source: Akihabara News
Wii
Nintendo Wii is set to offer its gamers access to world news. Consoles which has internet connection and an Opera browser will be able to browse for their daily dose of world news in the midst of a virtual tennis game. I don’t really know how it works but being connected to the world while playing videogames sounds like a good idea for now. At least people are not so “disconnected”.
News will be displayed through an interactive map, which users can navigate with the Wii’s wireless controller, Kaplan said.
“The beauty of it is it zooms in and out of areas of the world,” she said. “So if you really want to focus on regional news or national news versus international, you just blow up the map of the U.S.”
Imagine - advertisements for Wii Consoles…. but as of now, there are still no news on whether advertising spaces are up for grabs in the consumer market yet. It also appears that Nintendo aren’t the only console out with to offer online video streaming with its console. The Xbox was the first to launch its internet gameplay which has gathered a lot fans.
I guess, the thing that is “new” here is that Wii now offers CNN/MSNBC/CNBC/BBC/etc to the public. Something for the more serious crowd, I suppose. I can imagine an office having a Wii already as part of stress management.
Is Japan’s Wii going to have the same service offered? Why, yes…a Japanese News Company named Goo will be providing Nintendo’s Japanese-language news.
Source: CNN News
I am an iPod groupie. Yes. I LOVE iPod but that would send a lot of anti-iPod-ers screaming shame at me for being part of a fashion fad. Tch tch but the shame is on them. While some iPod accessories like the iPod Hi-Fi system by Apple and and Bose’s Sound Dock (i know there are many other but currently these are the main ones) are more mainstream, Chestnut Hill Sound is out with their very own iPod dockable sound system, aptly named George. I once had a goldfish name George, I thought I’d like to share that. Anyway, George (not the goldfish) has what it takes to be more than meets the eye. Well, I say that because most of the iPod dockable systems I know of do not have an AM/FM station, that’s a pretty big leap in my opinion. You can see some of the examples here and here and here.
Well, the Chestnut Hill Sound’s George will be out later this month. I guess then would be the time to see if it lives up to its hype. However, I absolutely dig the design and its detachable LCD screen controller. It looks good. Period. Soundwise, it can’t be that bad but damn, it’s looks good!
OK, so it’s not exactly origami, it’s papercraft. And it’s not exactly TV, but you can watch “movies” like Kill Bill, Dirty Harry and Dr Stangelove on it.
The papercrafters at Stane’s Island have put together this little DIY “television” project. The boxes have a theme depending on the movie and some low res footage from the films are rolled up inside.
Warning: Pencils are not included.
Links:
Sharp Pencil Quality TV via Gizmodo
It’s allliiiivveeeee! Gadget.3yen.com has had it’s head screwed back on, a big bolt of electricity pumped through it and has been sent off down the mountain to terrorise the villagers below.
I’m helping to revive gadget.3yen.com now, on top of my other blogs here at 3yen. Ja, yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
So to start us off, here’s something that’s both cute and probably useless since everyone has something better anyway.
Toshiba will soon be releasing their Dynabook CX/855LS in Japan (a laptop that’s usually branded ‘Satellite’ in the rest of the world) and to celebrate that release, Toshiba will be selling this music player/USB memory device. It only holds 512MB, which, in the times of 60GB iPods, doesn’t seem like much. They also had the <sarcasm> brilliant </sarcasm> notion that they could sell it for ¥12,800 (about US$120).
The name of the little critter is Para-chan. I’m not sure if that means anything. Is para Japanese for whale? Bloated fish? Either way, it’s Toshiba’s kawaii mascot. Every Japanese company needs one. Think Domo-kun of NHK fame, or the Nova Usagi.
For that $120, you can have 512MB worth of MP3 and WMA player. There’s a small LCD screen on Para-chan’s belly that lets you see what you’re listening to. You can listen to him/her/it for about 10 hours before you need to recharge the lithium ion battery.
I would buy this, if it were ¥4000. But for ¥12,000, Toshiba can keep it. I bet they’ll be giving it away in showbags at every technology show or convention in years to come.
If you have an MP3 player like the iPOD or ANY other device, the Japanese company Logitec (not related to the wiss company) presents a small dongle, that connect to any audio source, and a receiver (Bluetooth) that connects to your HiFi set. It’s possible to connect this second part to your PC or (Japanese) telephone that has the MP3 function. Yours for less than 180 EUR.
Tech-On! reports that the Cell microprocessor jointly developed by Toshiba, Sony, and IBM, can simultaneously decode 48 SDTV format MPEG-2 streams. At the “COOL Chips VIII” in Yokohama a few days ago, Toshiba presented a demo movie in which 48 MPEG-2 streams stored on a HDD were “read, decoded and projected to a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution display divided into 8 x 6 cells, each of which showed a different video fitted to the cell size”.
They add that “of the eight synergistic processor elements (SPE) featured by the Cell, six are used for decoding 48 MPEG-2 streams and one is used for scaling the screen. The remaining SPE can be used for a completely different processing”. Which, Gizmodo noted, will allow Sony to follow their plan to putting a Cell processor inside each and every Playstation 3.
d:sign presents a new 26″ LCD TV HD today. This d:2632GJ will cost 1200 EUR. The screen of this LCD TV is a ultra-high-density liquid crystal with a 1366×768 resolution, a contrast ratio of 800:1 and a refresh time of 15ms. It speaks for itself that this LCd TV comes with every function a good TV has these days, and it can even be hooked up to a PC.
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