At IFA today many companies are showing off their attempts at 3D TV. Most of the displays being shown are not yet designed for home use, and instead are being positioned as business applications: in-store signage and advertising, architecture and CAD displays, and prototype user interfaces. Most of the televisions require no glasses, and produce a reasonable 3D display. In the displays I’ve… → Read More
Ooooh Heaven is a place on Earth! You know the day is off to a good start when Philips releases some digital voice recorders! Their Digital Tracer line has been updated with the 660, 860 and 880 models with up to 2GB of memory with speed control for transcription and USB recording support. It also records directly to MP3 and can do direct FM radio recording. Wait! There’s more… oh. No… → Read More
2008 is the first year that the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin has included so-called “white goods” in addition to the traditional media and entertainment products on display. Particularly interesting to me were a collection of high-end wine coolers like those pictured above, and the Philips Perfect Draft beer fridge. Stick a pony keg inside the Perfect Draft and you can… → Read More
Philips has expanded its Active Crystals product line with a few new items. Above you see Naughty Raymond and Happy Laura, two cute accessories for your digital life. Simply pull off their heads to reveal the 2 GB USB key buried within. → Read More
The Philips Essence is a television that is only 38 millimeters thick. It has a 100Hz display that provides a 2 millisecond response time. At only 36 pounds, it is ideal for wall mounting and even includes a self-leveling mounting kit so you won’t need to venture into Home Depot. → Read More
At IFA 2008, Philips announced the CinemaOne, an all-in-one home theater system. It’s targeted at smaller rooms — bedrooms, dorm rooms, etc — where a full-blown theater system is unlikely to fit. The CinemaOne is the little brother to Philip’s fancy SoundBar, and includes their new FullSound technology to produce a surround sound experience with fewer speakers. → Read More
On display at IFA — though sadly not yet out of the research labs — is a new flat panel television display that is a whopping 8 millimeters thick. That’s about the thickness of a Euro coin, for those with Euros handy to use as a reference. In the image above, you can see the support bracket at the bottom, and you can see the front and back of the unit reflected in mirrors at… → Read More
LED LUX is the name of the technology in the new 42PFL9803 television unveiled by Philips today that uses LED backlighting to produce more natural black colors. With individual dimming control over 128 areas, LED LUX produces blacks that compete with plasma televisions, with a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. → Read More
The ShopLab at the Philips research center is a prototype retail store room used to test lighting technology to improve the sales experience for both the establishment and the customer. First up is the Show Window, a series of projectors displaying on the exterior showcase windows. These projectors show a rotating collection of images on the glass, behind which sits the showcase products. As… → Read More
Philips, the progenitor of PSV Eindhoven in Holland, has released a few new digital audio players that may please the Sansa-loving crowd. They’re names are forgettable, with a hodgepodge of seemingly random numbers mixed together in a blender, but know that they’re all part of the GoGear family. GoGear, if you remember, had a heck of a showing at CES in January. As for these particular… → Read More
The Philips X800 that Peter told us about last week has been confirmed according to GSM Arena. It’s a tri-band GSM/GPRS device running Windows Mobile with a 2.9-inch display that covers most of the face. It’ll also have a 2-megapixel autofocus camera, Bluetooth, and memory will be expandable via microSD. Battery life looks okay, too, at 850 hours of standby time and 8 hours of talk… → Read More
[photopress:scaled.IMG_1398.JPG,full,pp_image] Every year at CeBIT they have a special hall dedicated to cool design. This year we found a lot of great medical gadgets including this odd finger prosthesis made of wire and plastic. You’ll also find a hands-free faucet and two baby scales made of balloons. Most of this stuff won’t really effect our daily lives but it’s cool to know… → Read More
With HD DVD out, manufacturers are free to release Blu-ray products without fear of the format dying. It still could and probably will, but that’s neither here nor there. Philips & Lite-on Digital Solutions will be the first to bring a stand alone Blu-ray disc drive to the PC/laptop market with the Lite-On DX-DX-4O1S in Q2. The drive will read Blu-ray discs at 4x, single-layer DVDs at… → Read More
I really don’t know why we don’t see more of this melding of the new and old school. Sure, there are products on the market that let you charge your phone with batteries or through the car’s cigarette lighter, but these are aftermarket solutions. This one has a slot for an AAA battery built in, letting you rock out with 3 more hours of talk time. Of course, a AAA is a bit chunky… → Read More
[photopress:IMG_0651.JPG,full,center] So this is a clock radio. Not very exciting, right? It plays music, tells the time, and kind of sits on your bedside table waiting to be hit every morning at about 6:30. But wait… what’s that? A 7-inch TFT LCD? A USB port? SD slot? This is no ordinary clock radio! The AJL308 is actually a photo frame masquerading as a clock radio. It has a very… → Read More
Product Name: Philips BDP7200 Description: Philips’ latest Blu-ray disc player is the company’s first to incorporate BonusView and BD-Java, which gives you access to some fancy schmancy movie features and interactivity. The rest of the specs include 1080p upscaling and picture in picture. Price: $349 In-store date: April 2008 Site: http://www.philips.com Why it’s cool… → Read More
Product Name: Philips HTS6100 and 6515D Description: These two new home theater systems try to help you minimize clutter in your living room. The HTS6100 is a soundbar-style speaker with a built-in DVD player, iPod dock, and USB input as well as a separate subwoofer. (It’s a cheaper and smaller version of the company’s HTS8100.) The HTS6515D is a home theater in a box, with a central… → Read More
Product Name: Philips GoGear PMPs Description: Like a cop giving out tickets at the end of the month, Philips is definitely trying to fill some kind of quota…. The company released just about every variation of portable media player you can think of here at CES. Settle in, I’ll try to be brief. GoGear SA3025/3045: 2GB or 4GB of flash, 1.5-inch screen, 11fps video playback (worthless!), and a… → Read More
Product Name: Philips SHB9000, SHE9800/9850, SHE3620/3621/3622 Description: Philips shot a hot load of headphones all over music lovers at CES. The SHB9000 is a set of full-size Bluetooth headphones you can use with your music player, cell phone, or both. The headset portion has noise and echo filters, and it automatically adjusts volume depending on ambient noise. The headphone capabilities… → Read More
The Xenium 9@9 from Philips has an amazing two-month standby time. That’s roughly half as many months as 2000 Flushes lasts. If you decide to talk on this phone, you could do so for 17 hours. As such, I’ve decided that it’s a GREAT business phone. You could work two 8-hour days where you literally talked all day long and you’d still have an hour left over to call mom to… → Read More
Wireless headphones. Yeah, I’ve never had the best experience with them in the past either. Granted, this is like 1992 we’re talking about when I was trying to watch “Thundercats” without waking my parents, who expressly forbade me from watching shows staring talking cats. *Anyway*, Philips has what looks to be a good++ pair for around $350, the SHD9100. It works on the… → Read More
You know the Philips Ambilight feature that’s found on some of its flat panel TVs? Well that same technology is coming soon to a PC game near you, on steroids. Philips’ new amBX peripherals will include things like a rumbling wrist rest, surround speakers with built-in 16-million color synchronizing lights, and fans that sit on your desk “simulating everything from a gentle… → Read More
It’s no secret that video sites like YouTube benefited from added traffic generated by hosting copyrighted content. But as these sites get acquired, integrate advertising, or just want to avoid a billion dollar lawsuit, they seek to shed their seedy past to stay kosher with the big media giants they hope will feed them content and advertising dollars. There are a lot of startups offering… → Read More
Having traveled quite a bit in the last six months I really could have used a portable DVD player to drown out the roar of the engines, the terrible movie choices made by the airline, the crying baby two seats over, or the constant jibber-jabber from my girlfriend (just joking, M). While I haven’t had any flights during the review of the Philips DCP850, I have had a handful of train rides over… → Read More
I just finished spending a few months with a Vizio HDTV and for the price, you really can’t complain too much. Those with a thirst for the big screen and a small budget will be excited to know that Vizio will be selling its new 52-inch model online and at Costco stores next month. Word from Taiwan is that the set uses the same exact LCD panels used by LG Philips. Though not cheap by any… → Read More
SiliconUser has a great piece on the history of the Compact Disc. The most popular music medium to date, the CD actually has quite a complex history that makes for a great read. Turns out the idea for the Compact Disc was born in the 1960s and eventually evolved into a combination of emerging technologies. By 1979, a working prototype was shown off in both Europe and Japan with Sony and Philips… → Read More
We briefly take you away from your gadget-obsessed world to show you something new: these are called girls. You should find them outside your mom’s basement. Now back to your Xbox. Oh and they’re flossing the latest Active Crystal gear from Philips and Swarovski. → Read More
I had the pleasure of checking out a few of Philips upcoming products today in Times Square and I’m not lying when I tell you that I’m pretty darn excited about a few products. The Ambisound home theater system, for instance, caught me by surprise. The sound quality was on par with other top of the line systems and its streamlined design adds a touch of class to any media center. The HTS8100… → Read More
LG and Philips just announced that they’ve created the first A4-sized sheet of color e-paper, a massive step forward in the future of portable reading matter and/or pornography. Trust me — the first color e-paper device will not be used to deliver an illustrated version of As I Lay Dying to the masses. The sheet is completely flexible and uses power only to redraw the screen during a… → Read More
Those of you with pricey home theater installations may want to check out the latest offering in remote controls from Philips. The NX ProntoLite is a touch-screen remote control that can control basically anything with an IR port. A huge VGA screen lets you easily pick channels, control room lighting, and even stream music via a built-in server. Should you need it, you can control an optional… → Read More
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