Came back from the Philips presser yesterday after my monitor literally burned up. OT: Hey, all you electronics guys out there, could my monitor and my Roomba charger burning—with the smoke, the smelling, and the melting—within the same three or four days be connected? Coincidence?
Anyway, came back from the presser and learned a few cute little things. The Philips-Nike partnership is now over and those little hockey puck MP3 players will now be branded only Philips. The company also updated their flash player with OLED screen, the sa178. Nothing big. They just upped the capacity. They also unequivocally do not support DRMed AAC. And their new motto is Sense and Sensibility. Or Simplicity and Sense. Or Senseless Marketing.
Finally, they showed something pretty cool. The WAVS700 is a portable audio device that plugs into the wall and can stream music wirelessly, either through a dedicated music server or your PC. There’s also the RC9800i, which is their sexy remote which works with just about everything. These devices are part of their Connected Planet initiative which they designed to offer streaming audio—and video, later, we assume. It seems like a direct threat to the Sonos folks of the world. Ease of use and compatibility will out the real victor, we believe.
Generally, Philips is riding on their Ambilumiintellibrite TV system that casts a delightful glow behind their fat plasmas. I’ve got to admit that the colors made the picture a bit nicer but I’m not going to base my purchasing decision on a strange glow emanating from my TV. Generally, it seems that the company is streamlining its product line and the result is a set of interesting also-rans with a few stand out products.
