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 by today’s standards; it’s far thicker than my Samsung Trace and wouldn’t even fit comfortably anywhere in my big ol’ Helio Ocean. Well, Philips’ 9@9j isn’t the sveltest of phones, it looks like, but it’s a cool capability to have if you’re, say, on a business trip and don’t want to try finding a plug in the airport. Although I have to take issue with the name. It doesn’t even make sense in 1337speak. MWC 2008: Philips Xenium 9@9j phone has AAA battery backup [Tech Digest] → 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 attractive screen and supports Windows Media and MP3 files and can display pictures and video in full, beautiful color. Seriously. It’s a really nice screen. → 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: www.philips.com Why it’s cool: ‘Cause it won’t put me in hock for life. And I’m dying to watch my Blu-ray copy of X-Men 2. Plus it looks pretty sweet, so that must mean it’s awesome! → 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 receiver/DVD player plus two speakers and a subwoofer. Both systems use Philips’ Ambisound virtual surround technology to give you 5.1-channel audio from only three speakers. Both units look pretty hot and both have HDMI connectivity and HD video upconversion built in. Price: HTS6100, $599; HTS6515D, $499 In-store date: May 2008 Site: www.philips.com Why it’s cool: All-in-one home theater systems that use virtual surround can be hit or miss. These certainly look pretty cool, though we’ll have to test them out to see if they live up to the overblown descriptions in the press release. → 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 whole 10 hours of battery life for music. $59/$79. GoGear SA3225/3245: 2GB or 4GB of flash, 1.8-inch screen, 15fps video (still mostly worthless!), 20 hours of battery life for audio and 5 for video. $69/$129. GoGear SA5245/5285: 4GB or 8GB of flash, 2.8-inch screen, 30fps video, 25-hour battery for audio and 5 for video, also available in a Bluetooth-enabled version for wireless listening. GoGear SA6145/6185: 4GB or 8GB of flash, 3.5-inch screen, 30fps video, 16 hours for audio and 4 for video, $149/$169 (not bad for 8GB!). GoGear SA6545/6585: 4GB or 8GB of flash, 4-inch 16:9 screen, 30fps video, 16 hours for audio and 8 for video. The 6585 also has video-recording capability and TV output. $179/$199. All of them have FM tuners and voice recorders. They support MP3 and WMA, while the 5245 and 6585 also rock the AAC. All but the 3xxx series do protected WMA and protected WMV, and they all do regular WMV. In-store date: All are available in Q2 2008 except the 6145/6185, which is available now. Site: www.philips.com Why it’s cool: I can’t say I’m particularly excited about anything here, though it’s nice that Bluetooth is popping up in more media players. But boy, how ’bout those sexy product names, huh? → 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 include “native MP3 decoding for loss-less direct streaming from many advanced music phones.” That sounds to us like lossless Bluetooth transmission, but that’s unlikely in cans that cost only $129. The SHE9850 and 9800 in-ear headphones look like pretty standard fare; they block out noise passively and kick the crap out of regular earbuds. According to the press release, they benefit from an “Angled Acoustics design that adjusts the angle of the speaker tube to ensure a naturally comfortable fit for all ears.” Can’t wait to shove that into my sensitive canals. The 9850 come with memory foam tips in addition to the standard silicone. Last and least, the SHE3620 Bubbles series consists of regular ol’ earbuds that come in “fun” colors like pink, green, and blue. These are low-end ‘buds, for sure, but they come with an adapter that lets you plug in another pair of headphones. (Take that for song sharing, Zune!) Price: SHB9000, $129; SHE9850, $99; SHE9800, $79; SHE362x, $14.99 In-store date: March ’08. Site: www.philips.com Why it’s cool: The headphone market is so crowded with also-rans… There’s not much to distinguish any of these, though the SHB9000 is mildly intriguing. → 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 remind her how successful you’ve become. No word on how easy it is to remove 17 hours worth of ear sweat from the screen but that’s a good problem to have, am I right? Available in Asia only but at least we now know that the technology exists in our portion of the Universe. philips xenium 9@9 [Ubergizmo] → 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 2400-2483.5MHz frequency range, so you shouldn’t have to worry about interference from your other wireless doodads. Its 30-foot range is Bluetooth-like and 50mm driver should ensure that it doesn’t sound like feedback from a concert sound check. Its battery is rated at six hours per charge. Yes, headphones are nearly impossible to write about unless you’ve used them extensively. At least there’s a nice picture for us to look at. Correction! Ilya has many talents, one of which is to call me out when I screw up, like I did here. That should read 30-meter range, which has nothing to do with Bluetooth at all. A thousand apologies. Philips goes wireless with SHD9100 headphones [Pocket Lint] → 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 sea breeze to an approaching helicopter.” → 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 technological means of keeping their noses clean. Most of the solutions function as digital detectives, comparing the video fingerprints of copyrighted content with uploaded content for a match. Some of these companies include Audible Magic, Advestigo, Gracenote, MotionDSP, Philips, and iPharo. YouTube has implemented Audible Magic, although I haven’t noticed a difference. MySpace also incorporated Audible Magic but took the added step of banning re-uploading content violating copyright (“Take Down Stay Down” initiative). http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/452319854 However, while computers are great for solving well defined problems at a dizzying pace, they don’t always do that well when the rules become murkier. Judgments need to be made about whether playing a song or video constitutes “fair use” and simply changing a few characters of the title can fool more basic filters. That’s why 5-year-old BayTSP has decided to keep humans in the loop. The WSJ takes an in depth look at the company. The Journal reports that BayTSP has hired more than 20 “Video Analysts” to watch videos and report copyrighted content starting at $11 an hour. Their searches are helped by BayTSP’s software, which most likely gives them a head start on what to look for. The company’s most notable client is Viacom, which it supplied with the data for their 100,000 video DMCA takedown request last year. Viacom says it pays BayTSP more than $100,000 each month for the service. The takedown requests have resulted in over 230,000 clips being removed from YouTube for Viacom. BayTSP says its error rate on Web videos is only around 0.1%. Despite these efforts, video piracy remains rampant both on Google video search and many other social video sites. Once content is taken down, some users simply re-upload them to the site. MySpace is apparently countering this behavior through a file blacklist, but other video providers are certainly concerned with pushing away potentially valuable content and users. Content providers have continually leaned on the heavily manual DMCA safe harbor clause, while copyright holders clamor for embedded filtering. Google has → 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 1.5 hours, including yesterday when an annoying douche sat in front of me and thought he was the next Great White Rapper. This definitely isn’t your run-of-the-mill portable DVD player either. It has a few tricks up its sleeve. → 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 means, it’s certainly one of the cheaper 52-inch LCD TVs available, coming in at $2200. Also, by year’s end, Vizio will be offering a 40-inch LCD HDTV that uses Sony and Samsung’s S-LCD technology. No word yet on price, but this is sure to keep increasing Vizio’s market presence as a strong competitor in the HDTV world. Sure there are plenty of TVs to choose from, but only so many are priced for those on a budget. Vizio-brand 52-inch LCD TV to arrive next month [DigiTimes] → 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 backing the new format. Although CDs didn’t become commonplace until the 1990s, the first CD player in 1982 wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be. At $900 with discs costing about $30 a pop, even with inflation it’s still a somewhat affordable stereo component that started making its way into homes everywhere. Hit the link below and give it a ready. I think it’ll force you to appreciate the Compact Disc a lot more. History of the Compact Disc [Silicon User] → 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 SoundBar puts out a full 5.1 surround sound in one system and the subwoofer adds the oomph we’re always looking for. I watched a few minutes of X-men 3 and it sounded pretty good in the hotel room the demo took place in. I was also told that the next generation Ambisound system will be Blu-ray rather than that old forgotten standard DVD technology and we should expect it in ’08. One of the great features of this system is the fact that it only has three wires: one for the juice, HDMI output that upscales to 1080p, and a connection to the subwoofer. The SoundBar is shipping now and retails for $799.99. Keep checking our feed for more Philips goodies, including a head-to-head comparison with an Ambilight FlatTV and Samsung LCD TV. → 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 picture change. The 300 micrometer displays use a TFT on metal foil to ensure the matrix doesn’t crack yet remains pliable. When can we expect to see this next to the toilet? Give it about 5 years and someone — probably Sony — will come out with something actually usable. LG.Philips LCD claims first flexible color A4-size e-paper [DigiTimes] → 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 serial extender, which is a rack-mounted piece of equipment that adds four addressable IR ports and four serial ports to your existing setup. Yeah. This thing is serious. So serious that it demands a $1836 price-tag. Absolutely no idea why you’d spend close to two grand on a remote control, but if you can afford it, go ahead and live in excess. It’s probably hella useful for those with a sophisticated home theater. Philips releases Pronto NX PowerLite remote control [Geekzone via Slashgear] → Read More
DLO, recently acquired by Philips, announced today an updated version of its popular iPod case, the Jam Jacket. Like the old Jackets, the product is designed to protect your DAP from dings and damage by encapsulating it in a rubberized sleeve. Pretty standard stuff. As a point of innovation, however, the new Jacket features a headphone management system that allows you to spool your headphone cord and store the buds when not in use. It’s built right into the back of the case and it strikes me as a really good idea. The Jam Jacket is available now for $19.99. DLO → Read More
With the VOIP8411B, Philips jumps into the hurly-burly world of Skype handsets. Fortunately for the Dutch conglomerate, its handset is the best looking of the bunch. It doesn’t do anything that other Skype handsets don’t do—make Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut phone calls—but it also works as a POTS handset. Remarkable! → Read More
Royal Philips Electronics today announced that it will acquire US-based Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO), which designs, markets and distributes a gazillion-and-one accessories namely for Apple’s iPods. This includes docking stations, FM transmitters, cables and cases. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2007, upon which DLO will become part of the “Peripherals & Accessories” business unit of Philips’ Consumer Electronics division. No word on what the deal cost Philips financially or otherwise. While DLO does make some accessories for the Zune and other devices, again a majority of its products are for use with iPods. So, I figure this means Philips will have DLO make accessories for the company’s GoGear MP3 players, which could really help Philips sell some units in the US to people that would normally go for an iPod for its accessory options. Or maybe DLO will just keep on keepin’ on with the tons of iPod stuff. → Read More
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