Entertainment gadget

.. r of hope this morning for a beefier domestic release. Satoshi Fukuoka, spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said that they are considering the 80 gigger specifically for the US and "other markets." He a ..

Sep 10th 2007 12:12AM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio, RobotsThe Sony Rolly SEP-10BT "Sound Entertainment Player" is here, people, and yet we're still just as unclear as ever as to exactly what it's utility is. Not quite a domestic robot, not quite a portable audio player, not quite a boombox, the Rolly flutters about, dancing and playing MP3, ATRAC, or AAC tunes via either Bluetooth with A2DP / AVRCP or its 1GB of internal memory.

Sep 7th 2007 2:51PM by Paul MillerFiled under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio, Portable VideoNow that all the RDF has worn off, a few of the hard facts about Apple's latest are coming to light, and one of the nasties has to do with video output. Apparently the new iPod classic and iPod nano don't get along too well with currently video docks and cables on the market -- that is to say, pretty much not at all.

After Sony blasted out a press release proudly proclaiming the honor -- and after the internet rubbed its collective eyes raw -- we've learned that Sony wasn't alone in receiving an honor from the Academy. The list of Emmy Award winners for "Peripheral Development and Technological Impact of Video Game Controllers" include Sony Computer Entertainment of America and .

Mar 20th 2007 10:46AM by Ben DrawbaughFiled under: HDTV, Home EntertainmentAt just about the one year anniversary of the format war, it looks like Toshiba is throwing the next punch. HD DVD will be one step closer to that magic price point of \$299, with that latest update of the MSRP of their HD DVD players.

Aug 28th 2007 5:36PM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Home EntertainmentChinese firm Venturer has apparently been hard at work on a budget HD DVD player, which it's claiming will be out the door and onto store shelves in the US by this holiday season. The SHD7000 should have ethernet, DVD upconversion, HDMI, but the thing only outputs to 1080i, despite supporting TrueHD audio.

Mar 29th 2007 12:28AM by Ben DrawbaughFiled under: HDTV, Home EntertainmentIn an interesting but unlikely turn of events, some Apple TV hackers enthusiasts are no longer able to obtain their new found access to their Apple TVs. More than one person is reporting that they previously enabled SSH and VNC access, but it is no longer accessible.

May 18th 2007 9:16PM by Nilay PatelFiled under: Desktops, Home EntertainmentIt's no secret that the Apple TV is just a stripped-down Intel Mac running a lightly-tweaked version of OS X, so simply getting an app to run on the system isn't really a big deal -- we've seen full installs of OS X running on the device at this point. On the other hand, if you're just using the Apple TV as a media extender, that processor is just sitting there wasting spare cycles when you're not using the device, so this little hack to run Apple's Xgrid distributed-computing client on an Apple TV seems pretty slick.

Aug 30th 2007 9:20AM by Joshua TopolskyFiled under: Features, HDTV, Home EntertainmentSharp has just wrapped a rather dry press conference at IFA, where it announced very little, but did rattle off a series of fairly benign and boring numbers (which we will spare you from). There were a few moments of excitement during the hour-long presentation, though mostly due to the thunderous bass of the company's sound and light show

Jan 7th 2007 10:00PM by Conrad Quilty-HarperFiled under: CES, Home EntertainmentDigeo, the company that makes Moxi DVR software, announced back in September that they were planning to enter the retail market by selling a High Definition DVR directly to consumers, rather than take the path of least resistance and continue to make deals with cable networks. According to Zatz Not Funny! Digeo plans to show two prototype models at CES, both with integrated CD/DVD players, along with a PC streaming feature and that whole recording video thing that DVRs tend to do.

Jan 14th 2007 6:00AM by Darren MurphFiled under: HDTV, Home EntertainmentJust when every patient, fence-sitting individual finally rejoiced that a single unit was being introduced to solve the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray dilemma, we had a hunch things wouldn't be perfectly peachy.

Sep 5th 2007 8:54AM by Darren MurphFiled under: HDTV, Home EntertainmentHere's some tantalizing news for those still refusing to choose sides in the perpetual format war. Turns out, LG seems to be readying its second HD DVD / Blu-ray standalone player for a fall release, and unsurprisingly, it's likely to be dubbed the BH200.

Feb 5th 2007 1:47PM by Darren MurphFiled under: HDTV, Home EntertainmentAfter the world's first HD DVD / Blu-ray hybrid player has been talked about forever, showcased at CES, rumored around a bit more, received a price tag, hit a potential production snag, shown up in stores anyway, withstood a review, and smiled real pretty for the camera, what else is there to do? Ah, yes, we must make things official. Nearly three weeks after LG's BH100 went on sale in a variety of big box retailers, the player is just now becoming an item that's "officially on sale," and should be taking over the DVD player section of your nearest Best Buy, Circuit City, and CompUSA locations.

Jan 9th 2007 3:59PM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Home Entertainment, Portable VideoIt's official, Viacom's Paramount Pictures will indeed offer its movies for download over Apple's iTunes service. Some 250 titles in fact, including Tomb Raider, Italian Job, Wrath of Khan, Chinatown, Zoolander, School of Rock, and Sum of all Fears.

Jun 15th 2007 11:51AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Home EntertainmentUniversal Remote's company name leaves little unsaid about what its core competencies truly are, and its latest professional-series remote recently got a bit of hands-on time with the crowd at Electronic House. The MX-810 Pro Wizard was purportedly designed to work with setups ranging from a single room to an entire home, and sports a color LCD, 44 hard buttons, RF / infrared compatibility, rechargeable Li-ion, and hot keys for powering up select groups of components.

.. mentioned, the PSP comes in piano black, but it also comes in Ice Silver. We plan to offer it in an entertainment pack, including a 1 gig card and Daxter. We're also offering the Family Guy Peter Griffin "Frickin' ..

Jul 23rd 2007 2:32PM by Ryan BlockFiled under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Portable Video, StorageWe got some very reliable information from an inside source on TiVo's newest DVR -- and guess what, it's called the TiVo HD (good luck trying to trademark that one, TiVo). Granted, we've heard most of this already, but our sources confirmed the TiVo HD will launch with a 160GB drive (or, as TiVo likes to put it, 160 hours SD / 20 hours HD), two CableCARD tuners, and possibly also an ATSC tuner.

Aug 24th 2007 6:34AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Displays, HDTV, Home EntertainmentThat boring piece of kit can be from none other than Sanyo. Too bad, 'cause this pig can hunt.

Jul 12th 2007 5:51PM by Darren MurphFiled under: HDTV, Home EntertainmentNearly 11 months ago to the day, Europe witnessed its very first HD DVD release, and while the battle over format supremacy has been heated and rarely slanted to one corner here in the US, apparently things are vastly different across the pond. According to the (biased?) information spat out by the European HD DVD Promotional Group, "HD DVD players have outsold Blu-ray players by a three-to-one margin in Europe's main markets so far this year," and moreover, it claimed to hold a staggering "74-percent" of the market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland for standalone players.

.. resEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:Last week's Switched On discussed the iPhone's controversial software-based keyboard in the context ..