Consumer Electronics Daily News

WirelessHD Unites HD DVD, Blu-Ray Supporters

The world's largest consumer electronics companies are dealing a significant blow to the future of ultrawideband (UWB) technology today with an announcement regarding the formation of a new standard for wireless distribution of HD content in the home, WirelessHD.

Under the direction of the WirelessHD Consortium, seven companies including LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial Corp. (Panasonic brand), NEC Corp., Samsung Electronics, Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp., and SiBEAM Inc., will work to make WirelessHD the new standard for delivering content over short distances.

WirelessHD is a 60-GHz millimeter-wave technology designed by SiBEAM to deliver HD content up to 32-feet (within the same room), and is ideal, the consortium says, for connecting set-top boxes to televisions and home theater installations without the need for spaghetti-like wiring behind the TV.

For more information, visit www.wirelesshd.org.

Samsung PMP Does Audio, Video, Games & More

Samsung Electronics offers up its slimmest and most feature-rich digital audio player to date -- the T9. With 2GB and 4GB versions, the PMP has up to 30 hours of battery life (audio only) and boasts more features than most players with many times more capacity.

The T9 has MPEG4 video playback on a 1.8” TFT LCD color screen, MP3, WMA and DRM'd WMA player, text viewer, photo viewer, Flash games, FM radio and recorder. The Samsung player is compatible with a variety of subscription music services including Napster, Rhapsody, MTV Urge and Yahoo! Music.

For more information, click here.

Microsoft Shows Off Vista Packaging

Microsoft has revved the PR machine into high gear this morning, trumpeting the upcoming release of its Windows Vista operating system and revamped version of Office with the debut of their packaging.

Pricing for Vista is as follows:

• Vista Home Basic: $199.00
• Vista Home Basic Upgrade: $99.95
• Vista Home Basic Upgrade (Additional License Only): $89.95
• Vista Home Premium: $239.00
• Vista Home Premium Upgrade: $159.00
• Vista Home Premium Upgrade (Additional License Only): $143.00

Pricing for Microsoft Office 2007 ranges from $149 (Student edition) to $679 (Ultimate edition) depending on the feature set and the licensing options for business use.

For more information about Vista, click here. To learn more about Office 2007, click here.

MovieBeam Hardware Now Offered at RadioShack

MovieBeam, Inc., and RadioShack Corporation have announced a new plan to sell the MovieBeam's movies-on-demand system in the 1,700 nationwide RadioShack stores, effective immediately. The massive, nationwide rollout covers the 31 major metropolitan areas in which the MovieBeam service is currently offered.

The MovieBeam System is composed of a set-top box and small indoor antenna that receives, stores, protects and plays movies. A simple remote control facilitates navigation of the intuitive user interfacec and the customer does not need cable or satellite to receive the service, although MovieBeam is compatible with each. The MovieBeam System sells for $99.99, after which customers pay only for the movies they choose to rent ($3.99 for new releases and $1.99 for library titles, with a $1 premium for HD movies).

For more information, click here.

TrekStor Ships 1st DAP to the States

Less than two weeks after its arrival into the U.S. market, TrekStor GmbH is rolling out its top-selling German mp3 player lineup stateside. The i.Beat organix line of ultra-portable flash-based MP3 music feature a rechargeable battery for extended playback, unique OLED display and sophisticated Sennheiser earphones. Additional features include an integrated FM tuner, voice recorder, stopwatch and alarm. Models range from 512MB to 2GB.

For more information, click here.

Stay Active in Wii-tirement

While your grandma might not be the target demographic sought by RockStar Games for its Grand Theft Auto series, she and the other 90 million who make up the retired or nearly retired population in the United States are key to Nintendo’s success in the console gaming market, the company says.

That’s why Nintendo and its yet-to-be-released Wii console made waves in Anaheim, Calif., over the weekend, showing off the motion-sensing system to attendees at the AARP's Life@50+ Expo. Nestled between booths for the Southwest Lawn Bowls Association and the American Academy of Audiology, the booth was a first for the videogame marketer, which is touting the unique, interactive game play of the Wii that makes it fun and easy for grandparents and their grandchildren alike.

Coupled with the highly successful BrainAge series on Nintendo DS, which was also on display at the show, Nintendo is the first of the major game console developers to market systems to non-traditional gamers in a broad effort to expand the appeal of their new system.
For more information, visit www.nintendo.com.

Syntax-Brillian Buys Vivitar for $26 Million

Syntax-Brillian Corporation, a manufacturer and marketer of LCD and LCoS™ HDTV is making a move into the digital imaging and photography markets with an announcement today that it has acquired Vivitar Corporation. The $26 million stock buyout gives Syntax-Brillian a significant presence in the design, development and marketing of photographic, optical, electronic and digital imaging products.

"Vivitar has long been recognized for its technological innovation in photography, optics and digital imaging," Syntax-Brillian CEO Vincent Sollitto said in a statement. "Theirs is a legacy that we're proud to inherit and eager to build on, as we combine our common expertise and the successful Vivitar and Olevia brands to create new business opportunities and digital entertainment products that will dazzle consumers across the world with their brilliant images."

For more information, click here.

Motorola Adds New SLVR to Ultra-Thin Mobile Lineup

The new MOTOSLVR L7e handset from Motorola features high-speed data access, enhanced multimedia functionality and Stereo Bluetooth® technology for hands-free music enjoyment.

The L7e comes complete with a 1.3-megapixel camera with 8x zoom and full screen video capture and playback,  an external microSD™ memory card for up to 1GB storage capacity and Push-To-Share or Push-To-Talk capability to instantly connect to one or more people.

Rounding out the multimedia features is the refreshed software interface that includes the Media Editor feature. With this new editing application, pictures can be rotated, sharpened or blurred, picture frames can be added and background colors can be adjusted before sending them out as MMS or to a Bluetooth-enabled printer for printing.

For more information, click here.

Wal-Mart Renews CE Focus for the Holidays

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced a new plan this week to aggressively promote its consumer electronics sections throughout the holiday season in an effort boost sales in the high profit margin sector. The company says it will take a far more vigorous role in promoting a variety of CE products including portable audio/video players, game consoles, plasma and LCD TVs and personal computers.

The announcement comes just one week after the company declared an earlier start to its holiday shopping season, cutting prices on toys and other sought-after children's items as well as other "gift categories" such as jewelry.

For more information, visit www.walmart.com.

Samsung Shrinks DRAM to 50nm

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.,  announced today that it has developed the industry’s first 50nm DDR2 DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip, which will increase production efficiency from the 60nm level by 55 percent.

The new 1-gigabit DRAM incorporates advanced technologies such as three-dimensional transistor design and multi-layered dielectric technology, which greatly enhance performance and data storage capabilities.

According to Samsung, the key to the exceptional production efficiencies in the newly developed 50nm process is the use of a selective epitaxial growth transistor. This 3D transistor has a broader electron channel that optimizes the speed of each chip’s electrons to reduce power consumption and enable higher performance.

For more information, visit www.samsung.com.