Interactive TV Poised for a Rollout
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I want my IPTV? Internet Protocol, the language of most online communications, was supposed to have revolutionized the way we watch television by now, enabling a wide range of multimedia bells and whistles: from multiple camera angles to on-screen Web searches while viewing Gilligan's Island to see which actors are still living.
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Columnist Craig Mathias sees some promising technologies on the horizon for wireless video in the home that could eventually end up in your office.
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Beginning on Jan. 5, this public television station will  add independent and short films to the lineup, turning its movie night into an interactive experience.
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Company is developing a fiber network that will deliver TV and data to homes.
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Makers of gaming consoles want part of the on-demand-video future.
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The energy-hog televisions are losing ground to their cheaper counterparts. But developers hope that will change with improved technologies.
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Times are a-changing in TV Land, and this company is on the cutting edge.
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Samsung is close to producing a lighter, thinner, better television.
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Internet TV, mobile TV and video on  demand may be the talk of the technology sector but when it  comes to buying decisions at this week&#39;s IFA electronics fair,  television sets are set to be bigger business than ever.
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Gadgets have always taken center stage at the Consumer Electronics Show, but this year more than ever, even the coolest devices seem to be mere means to an end -- access to content and services whenever and wherever you want them.For years the underlying trend at CES, held in Las Vegas from Monday through Thursday, has been convergence, the increasing connection among communications, consumer electronics and computer industries. This year the stakes have been raised, with new mobile services, devices that connect to wireless broadband networks, and deals between content and entertainment companies and computer vendors.With the addition of Web 2.0 services and content into the traditional convergence mix, expect the term Convergence 2.0, which pops up occasionally, to be used more frequently in the future.The diverse array of gadgets and standards at the show can be a barrier to convergence, however. Industry executives acknowledge that despite -- or because of -- the various connectivity technologies on the market, making products work together is still a complicated and daunting task for consumers.As usual,&#160;Bill Gates set the tone with the initial CES keynote&#160;Sunday, although this year was the Microsoft co-founder&#39;s final appearance at the show. Gates and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division President Robbie Bach unveiled new partnerships for Microsoft&#39;s MSN, Xbox Live, and Mediaroom IPTV services.They also announced that NBC will use Silverlight technology for video playback and on-demand access to events. In addition, Microsoft is working with TNT, Showtime, and CNN to provide IPTV-based services, and announced deals with MGM and ABC to bring content to Xbox Live.&quot;XBox Live is attracting virtually all the content people because of the volume we&#39;ve got there and they see this group of very engaged users spending a lot of hours and finding new media in that environment,&quot; said&#160;Gates, in an exclusive interview&#160;with the IDG News Service. &quot;Our announcement with NBC on the Olympics is about our innovations in this Silverlight, where you can view interactive content, multiple video streams.&quot;Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang underscored&#160;the importance of mobile services in his Monday keynote, introducing a new look for the company&#39;s Go mobile Web interface, and new technology to let third-party developers build mobile widgets for the mobile platform.One sign that the concept of convergence has been juiced up: the head of the largest chip maker in the world spent most of his keynote time talking about future &quot;personalized&quot; Web experiences. &quot;Increasingly, computing and communications are coming together, bringing a new level of capability and intelligence to the Internet experience,&quot; said Intel CEO Paul Otellini in a Tuesday keynote. &quot;The personal Internet of tomorrow will serve you, delivering the information you want, when you want it, how you want, wherever you are.&quot;Otellini demonstrated the Canmore system-on-a-chip platform, due out in the second half of the year, which enables high-resolution imaging and broadcast TV for consumer electronics devices. The chip includes the Intel Architecture processor, and an audio-visual unit that supports 1080p high-resolution imaging and surround sound.Qualcomm, meanwhile showed off a prototype of what it called a Windows-mobile based &quot;pocketable&quot; computer running on its recently released 7201 chip. The screen, at 800 pixels wide, is designed to view Web sites designed for regular PCs, rather than versions altered for ultramobile PCs. Connectivity features include HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), GPS (Global Positioning Service), Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.Small computing devices are often ultramobile PCs (UMPCs), a term marketed by Microsoft, but vendors use a variety of terms.Intel was showing off prototypes of UMPCs based on its upcoming Menlow chips. A Lenovo device was running Red Flag Linux OS, and sported a 4.8-inch touch screen as well as a camera. Other devices at the booth included small handheld PCs with touchscreens, from Toshiba and Clarion.For all the UMPC prototypes being showed here, though, industry insiders were quick to acknowledge that the market has not taken off as quickly as had been expected. One reason UMPC sales have not increased dramatically, at least in the U.S., is that wireless bandwidth for mobile devices up to now has been slow, they say.&quot;A true ultramobile experience is being able to put a device in a handbag, go have a picnic in the park, pull out your mobile device and easily surf the Web, said Alp Sezen, a sales director for Via Technologies based in Fremont, California. &quot;Right now, you can&#39;t get that experience.&quot;&quot;It will take a year or two for the mobile wireless experience to get better,&quot; he said. &quot;Wi-Max, and the opening up of Verizon&#39;s EV-DO network in the third quarter this year will help give a better experience for ultramobile users.&quot;Sprint Nextel and its hardware partners, meanwhile, said they are on track with WiMax plans for the second quarter. Nokia and Samsung officials said they will have devices that will operate with WiMax in the second quarter, and Motorola said it is working on a device that will operate over Sprint&#39;s EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) cellular network, Wi-Fi and WiMax.For short-range wireless connectivity, devices incorporating the new 11n Wi-Fi standard were also on display. Netgear, for example, unveiled a two-radio 5GHz 802.11n for less than $130. The company also released an 11n router with five Gigabit Ethernet ports.One development that might end up making things easier for consumers puzzled by all vast array of gadgets and standards -- not all of which are interoperable -- was the decision by Warner Bros. to go with Blu-ray Disc, rather than HD DVD, for high-definition movies. The announcement, on the eve of the show, sparked thoughts that the high-definition format war may be over.Of course, Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products,&#160;put up a brave front&#160;at a news conference. But Philips Consumer Electronics also threw its full support behind Blu-ray, adding a Blu-ray DVD player, the BDP7200 DVD to its product lineup.(Additional reporting by Martyn Williams, Dan Nystedt, Elizabeth Montalbano, Agam Shah, and Nancy Gohring in Las Vegas.)&#160;
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Company is working on flexible display technologies.
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PlayStation 3 users will soon be able to record and playback digital TV on their games console.
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With over-the-air television broadcasts switching from analog to digital in just over a year, converter boxes are expected to be among the hot devices on display at next week's CES.
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The devices, which will be available soon, will offer better picture quality than earlier models.
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The HDTV technology company is moving a key part of its future in house.
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It may soon be easier to watch "Sesame Street," "Masterpiece Theater" and other public television programs in sharp, digital images.
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The software maker's years-long interactive TV finally hits the milestone and the effort is gaining steam.