Television

Sony’s L-Type Vaios Bring Three Kinds of Sexiness to your Home

Sony’s latest range of Vaio PCs, the L-Type, look to be a pretty sexy proposition. Top dog is the LT, with a 22-inch screen that you can wall mount and watch digital and analog TV on. The LM is 19 inches and does digital TV, while the LJ is a 15.4-inch desktop model with a…

Sling Media to be Acquired by EchoStar for $380 Million

Sling Media, the company that brought you the Slingbox and SlingPlayer software, has been bought by EchoStar. The corporation, which owns the DISH pay-TV network, has valued Sling Media at $380 million, and the sale should take place before the end of the year. Full press release is below. EchoStar Announces Agreement to Acquire Sling…

What Features Do You Want in the TV Set of the Future?

Westinghouse, the company whose PR flacks try to make us think their old TVs are new but we’re not fooled, keeps the press releases coming anyway, and in their latest missive they’ve done a poll, asking people what features they’d most like to see in TV sets of the future. The top answer? Voice recognition.…

D&G Medicine Man Watch, Colorbars Cure Drab Style

We’re not generally big Dolce & Gabbana buyers, but we love broadcast style. This Medicine Man watch is almost tempting enough to drop the $264. Constructed of stainless steal, the watch features quartz movement, a wonderfully pretentious “indigo” backlight and 50m of water resistance. What do you think, readers? Hot or not? Short answer: hot.…

Hands-on with the Philips Aurea (Verdict: One for the Boudoir)

Philips’ Aurea TV has been all over IFA, but what does its target market (Hey Lay-deez?) think about it. Well, while Jesus got a hunger for its form, Lindsay, Philips’ PR person, and I had a discussion about where we would put it if we had one. And the verdict? In our bedrooms. Lindsay’s bedroom…

NBC is Bringing Back American Gladiators!

Oh, man. The show that best combined ridiculous “technology” with over-the-top “athleticism,” American Gladiators, is coming back to TV. Yes, NBC is resurrecting the early-’90s classic, a show that many of us grew up on. If you weren’t scared of Nitro when you were a kid, you’re a bigger man than I. This could easily…

Sharp Unveils “Experimental” LCD TVs Just 20 mm Thick

Sharp has unveiled a new LCD TV, described by its president as “experimental.” And if you thought that three-and-a-quarter inches was thin, then try three-quarters of an inch. Mikio Katayama, President of Sharp, didn’t go into too much detail about the new screens, but this is what he did say: https://gizmodo.com/sharp-unveils-d64u-the-thinnest-aquos-lcd-tv-line-ever-289540 Screen thickness: Between 20…

Loewe Connect Series TVs Offers Built-In Network Media Player

Loewe’s network media center concept promises an intelligent TV set in a modern design. Loewe Connect has 3 sizes ranging from 32 to 42 inches, each with a built-in network media player, USB port, Ethernet port, WiFi and an integrated HD tuner. An additional model labeled the Connect Media DR+ has a built-in HDD recorder…

Building B Promises the One True Set-Top Box, Without Wires, PCs or Details

The do-it-all set-top box market’s about to get even more crowded, the newest kid on the block coming from start-up Building B. Their hook: wireless delivery of traditional TV content in HD, plus VOD and web video without a PC. The catch: They’re not so forthcoming with the details in regards to the tech it’s…

Dish Network’s ViP622 DVR now supports external USB 2.0 Hard Drives and requires a one time $39.99 activation fee. TiVo’s eSATA support isn’t official yet. Time to wake up, TiVo. [Zatz Not Funny!]

LG Makes a 71-inch, 24-Carat Gold TV

If you thought you couldn’t afford a standard 71-inch TV, LG’s 24-carat gold 71-inch TV will have you throwing up your arms in defeat. The display is part of a set of gold speakers, DVD players, and subwoofers—all made out of gold and all ridiculously extravagant. We suppose the profit margins are much higher selling…

Sirius SCV1 Satellite Tuner Brings Satellite TV to the Car

Sirius’ SCV1, also known as Sirius Backseat TV, is their latest product that receives three channels of TV programming as well. The three channels—Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network— are all geared to keep kids entertained in the backseat while you’re listening to regular Sirius music in the front seat. The SCV1 brings in 130 channels…

Walt Disney Calls BS on “Baby Einstein Melts Your Baby’s Mind” Study

Reporting scientific research in the mainstream media is generally difficult—results have to summarized and simplified for non-scientist folk, and more often than not, wind up sensationalized to make for better headlines. Walt Disney’s claiming that’s exactly what happened with the widely reported (and mocked) results of the Baby Einstein study. I’m not a scientist, so…

Disney Flix Camera (Plus iPod Docks and TVs)

Along with that news is the Disney Flix Video Cam that includes Disney Director software, packed with storyboards, sound effects, character voices, and music, guaranteeing your rug rats are able to cobble together movies of at least the same quality as the straight-to-video kind of Cinderella IV or whatever. Along with this, there are the…

The Futurama Trailer

It’s shaky, the audio is bad and a few heads block the screen now and again. But it’s the Futuruama trailer from ComiCon, celebrating its return to television. Enjoy. [crunchgear]

First Useful TV Packaging In History Transforms Into a TV Stand

Wouldn’t the packaging for a big-screen TV be the perfect size for a TV stand? Yes, and a clever designer decided to do just that. We knew there were some tricky designers working on various packaging techniques for electronics devices, judging from all the puzzle-like intricate packing schemes we’ve seen in the hundreds of devices…

Sony’s Location Free LF-V30 Gets HD and Vaio Branding

It won’t stream HD, but Sony’s newest LocationFree TV (and Slingbox competitor) will take HD video sources by component cables, down sample them to QVGA, and spit em across your network or the internet to laptops running the Location Free TV clientware. (I believe Sling does higher res on a LAN, and their Pro unit…

Cable Companies To Charge More For Box Rental, Thanks To CableCard

The good news is, as of July 1 cable companies are required to ship new cable boxes that use new bi-directional CableCards, a move mandated by the FCC to support CableCard-based alternatives such as TiVos and Vista Media Center PCs. The bad news is: Everybody’s gonna pay for it. By next January, set-top box rentals…

Transparent LCD Screen from Active Inc will Transform Shop Windows

Behold what could be the future for display screens in your local shopping emporia: a see-through composite LCD display. Developed by Active Inc, a Tokyo-based company that makes optical components. How does the technology work? Well, not a lot is known at the moment, but Active Inc’s R&D department has been seeing how liquid crystal…

Altec Lansing’s Powered Theater is First Foray into Home Theater

Altec Lansing enters the home theater market for the first time with its Powered Theater line, shipping in August. Designed to be big on sound and small on space, Powered Theater comes in two flavors: the advanced two-piece PT8051 or the bigger, single-piece PT7031. Thanks to their slim forms, the units should complement home theaters…