Sony debuts HD handycam
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SONY has released the worldâs first high definition handycam for the consumer market - the HDR-FX1. The device, which will be available locally and in the region from mid-November, at an estimated $US4500
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Sony is developing a wireless data transfer system for gadgets that is capable of sending pictures, video, and data over a range of a few centimeters.Transfer Jet is based on a Sony-developed near-field communications system that the company envisages being built into a range of different portable consumer electronics devices to enable transfer without wires. Effective data rates of about 375Mbps&#160;over a 560Mbps physical layer can be realized with the system, which puts it faster on paper than USB2.0 and IEEE1394 FireWire interfaces.A prototype of the system is on show this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In a demonstration, a digital camera equipped with Transfer Jet and about 45 images was placed onto a version of Sony&#39;s photo reader box that also packed the technology. After a short pause, the images began transferring and within a few seconds the VGA-resolution images were inside the photo reader and could be viewed on a television.Sony clearly sees big things ahead for the technology. During a CES news conference Steve Haber, a senior vice president with responsibility for mobile and imaging products, said Transfer Jet &quot;could also play a key role for Sony moving forward.&quot;Transfer Jet has been under development by Sony for a couple of years and there&#39;s about a year&#39;s worth of work left before it&#39;s ready for the commercial market, said Kentaro Odaka, general manager of Sony&#39;s communication technology laboratory, in an interview.Odaka said the technology is based on a completely new near-field system developed by Sony that isn&#39;t related to its already-popular Felica system. Felica is widely used in smartcards across Asia but lacks the data throughput for more demanding applications. Transfer Jet uses a 4.5GHz system that is different but similar to ultra wideband, he said. The system has no security or encryption because it operates over a distance of a few centimeters.Sony gave a few hints on where Transfer Jet might turn up. In the demonstration at CES it is embedded into a digital still camera and digital video camera. &quot;Look for Transfer Jet technology in a variety of new products in the near future,&quot; said Haber.
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Products include two cameras and photo viewer.
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Hard-drive video recorders support HDTV, while Blu-ray and HD-DVD wait in the wings. Plus: pricey headphones and cheap megapixels.
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Playing a bit of catch-up to rival offerings, TiVo Inc. will unveil Tuesday a new high-end digital video recorder that will be the company's first to support high-definition programming.
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Ahead: Larger HDTV sets, better color, more playback and recording choices.
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Sony debuted an innovative new bendable 2.5-inch display, one that is less than 0.01 inch thick -- not much thicker than a piece of paper -- and can display full-color video.
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... It's with much anticipation that I say this. I have a new product that may be familiar to those of you who used Radio 8, and in other ways may be completely new.  The idea is simple.  There's a convergence between big screen high-definition televisions, and photography as an Internet based activity. The purpose of this product is to smooth that convergence, to make it easy to set up a connection between the Internet and your television. To allow photography to come into your living room in new, powerful and easy ways. Think of it as the networked living room and you'll understand the vision. Some of the work I've done is technical, some is user interface, and some is working with media organizations to try to create a comfort level, or at least a spirit of Let's Give This A Try. In the latter case, it's much like working with the NY Times to get their news headlines and summaries to flow through Radio's RSS aggregator in 2002. Only this time we're working with photographs, and we think, the best news photographers in the world. And the pictures are beautifully high-def, they look really great when displayed on LCD and plasma screens. I use it with my 52-inch Samsung and 46-inch Sony. Of course what looks great on a wall, also looks great on a 15-inch Macbook or 24-inch iMac.   And while we connect those pros with your TV, it's equally important that we connect your friends and families too. One of the early testers found the pictures that Doc Searls uploads to Flickr a great revelation. Me too. That's because Doc is not only a great photographer, he's also a great story-teller. I find that I can follow the lives of far more friends visually than I can through text messages (which I love to do too!). Viewing great photos on bigscreen TVs, desktops and laptops -- that's one focus, but not the only one.  I wanted to provide a complete two-way tool for people who love Flickr, as I do.  Why Flickr? Well, they've got this great thing called an API. It makes it possible for people like me to make software that runs on a desktop computer that does things like automatically backing up your new photos every night, and providing a drop-folder on your desktop for quick uploads. (It understands tags too, it's incredibly simple.) We also made it easy to post pictures you like to Twitter. Why Twitter? It's that API thing again. They made it easy for us to love them. I wish more network service developers understood how powerful this outstretched hand is.  But that's not all! Not by a long shot. The reason all this will be so familiar to Radio 8 users is that it builds on the same engine, the one that was released as open source in 2004. So I've been working on other tools to drop into this base platform and once we have a good-sized base of people using it for "really simple photos" on the desktop, there will be other tools. And because it's an open platform, other developers can do the same. Not saying they will, but they can.  Anyway, I'm in the last stages, preparing the download site, and a FAQ, and tweaking the installer. One caveat, the first beta release is Mac only. That's because I'm doing all my work on the Mac, and this is a one-man show. Later we will work it out for Windows too, and with a bit more work and a bit more luck, for Linux.  It should be ready before the sun goes down today.
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A new digital camera from Sony gives photographers a way to record where they took their snapshots by saving the G.P.S. coordinates.
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Tiny AVCHD device uses Secure Digital memory card for storage.
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(InfoWorld) - As in previous years, the IFA international consumer electronics show in Berlin has been a platform for manufacturers to launch innovative gadgets aimed at tech-savvy consumers. This year's event, which runs through Wednesday, is no exception. Texas Instruments Inc. introduced an enhancement to its DLP (digital light processing) projection technology that enables HDTV sets to display 3D (three-dimensional) images. Viewers, however, need to wear special "shuttered" glasses that allow each eye to see only alternate images. Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV demonstrated a 42-inch 3D display that can be viewed without special glasses. The prototype is equipped with a dual-mode control that allows users to display HD content in both 3D and 2D formats on the LCD (liquid crystal display) screen. DisplayLink Corp. showed how its network display system can be used to connect up to three wide-screen HD monitors to a single PC over a USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 connection. The ability to connect up to six monitors is planned, the company said. Digital photo frames appear to be in demand, judging by the number of new products unveiled at IFA. Toshiba Corp. launched the seven-inch DPF7XSE digital photo and video frame. The aluminium plate frame contains an 800 x 480 pixel display that can show MPEG-4 and DivX video files or photos accompanied by sound from MP3 or WMA audio files played through a pair of one-watt speakers. It is also equipped with 256M byte of internal flash memory, a USB 2.0 port and a multi-format card reader. Philips showed seven- and ten-inch digital photo frames powered by integrated rechargeable batteries. The frames have USB ports and slots for an array of cards formats, including SD (Secure Digital), Compact Flash, Memory Stick and Memory Stick Duo. Parrot SA's DF7220 digital photo frame can display pictures transferred by card, USB or via a Bluetooth wireless connection. Sandisk Corp. unveiled several new memory cards in Berlin, including a 4G-byte Ultra II SDHC Plus card and the 8G-byte Ultra II Memory Stick Pro Duo, featuring read and write speeds of up to 10M bits per second. The SDHC card will retail for around $80 and the Memory Stick for $160. Worldwide availability is planned for October. For mobile phones such as those from Sony-Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Sandisk announced an 8G-byte Memory Stick Micro (M2) card. It has begun shipping the card to phone manufacturers and mobile phone network operators for evaluation, and plans to sell it in the fourth quarter. Pricing has not yet been determined. For mobile phone users who need to use two different mobile phone networks, Matsunichi Communication Holding Ltd. in Hong Kong unveiled a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phone equipped with two SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) slots. Both can be active at the same time: dual-SIM adapters for other phones simply select one of two SIMs each time the phone is powered off and on again. The D620 also comes with features found in most higher end phones, such as a camera and media player. For consumers on the go, Philips introduced a new range of slim rechargeable power packs to power up MP3 players, notebook computers and other portable devices. The Power2Charge line of chargers, which use USB (Universal Serial Bus) sockets to connect the devices, can provide up to 15 hours of portable power for applications up to 5 volts. The chargers are designed with folding plugs and LED (light-emitting diode) indicators. The Power2Go range includes a charger that can provide 60 hours of backup power for applications up to 20 volts.
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The latest offering from TiVo can record and display in HD, if you're willing to put down $799 to get that quality.  TiVo Series3 reviewed
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(InfoWorld) - Nothing's worse than delays when you're waiting for a hot new gadget. Just ask the tens of thousands of people who queued up all night for the PlayStation 3 when it made its global debut here in Japan Nov. 11. The console had originally been due out in the early part of the year but was held up by several problems. Judging by the lack of stock in stores, it's still difficult for people who want one to do so before the end of the year holidays. So it's nice to see Panasonic living up to the promise it made at this year's Ceatec show with the HDC-SD1 camcorder. This small-size high-definition video camera records straight to an SD card. If you hate dealing with tapes but want home movies in high-def glory this might be just the thing .... if you can afford it. By comparison, you could pick up three PlayStation 3 consoles for the price of this camcorder, assuming you can get your hands on them! Panasonic HD Camcorder The HDC-SD1 from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.Â (Panasonic) records AVCHD-format video directly to a SD (Secure Digital) memory card. A 4GB memory card, which costs around $200, can accommodate about 90 minutes of video when recorded at 6Mbps. The video is 1080i (1,080 horizontal lines, interlaced scanning), which is just below the 1080p (progressive scanning) system judged to be the highest of several video quality levels that fall within the high-definition bracket. It also has a 3CCD (charge coupled device) sensor behind the lens. It goes on sale in Japan in December for Â¥180,000 ($1,527) with a bundled 4GB card. Overseas launch plans have not been announced. Kenwood Media Keg Kenwood Corp.'s Media Keg provides yet more evidence that music players will get smaller and smaller until we can't see them anymore. The device, which has the snappy HD10GB7 model name, contains a 10GB hard-disk drive, measures just 44mm by 62mm by 17mm, and weighs 78 grams. It has a 1.5-inch OLED (organic light emitting diode) display on its front with a small keypad positioned directly under the display. You can play MP3, WAV and Windows Media audio files including those with Windows Media DRM10 digital rights management. It will go on sale in Japan in early December for around Â¥40,000 ($344) and while no international launch plans have been announced, the on-screen menu supports Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, and Spanish. TurboLinux Wizpy TurboLinux, perhaps best known for its Linux operating system, has a new MP3 player that is sure to interest geeks everywhere. The Wizpy does all the kinds of things you'd expect from a music player these days -- MP3, AAC, Ogg, JPEG images, and Divx videos -- and has a surprise: A partition with an install of the TurboLinux Fuji operating system. This means you can hook this up to a PC's USB port and boot into Linux and access installed applications. TurboLinux advertises it as your own OS in the palm of your hand and it certainly looks that way. The Wizpy will be out in Japan in February with no word yet on availability in other markets. There's no word yet on price. It weighs just 60 grams, which makes it lighter than most cell phones. Toshiba 8GB SD Card Hot on the heels of Panasonic's SD Card camcorder (see above) comes word from Toshiba that it will soon begin sellingÂ an 8GB high-speed SD (Secure Digital) memory card. The card will be available in January and supports the "class 4" high-speed data writing specification. Toshiba's new card should be able to hold about three hours of high-definition video from the Panasonic camcorder. The card will cost about Â¥40,000 ($340) in Japan. It will go on sale in Japan, North America, and Europe in early January. NEC Tough Laptop Drop it, freeze it, drench it -- do whatever you want to thisÂ new laptop from NEC. Well, almost anything. The "Shield Pro" FC-N21S laptop can withstand dust, extreme temperatures (between -20 and 50 degrees Celsius), water and drops of up to 90 centimeters -- just make sure that the machine is switched off and the lid is closed. The convertible-type PC has a 12.1-inch touch panel LED-backlit screen and runs on an Intel Core Solo processor at 1.2GHz. It will be available in January for between Â¥250,000 and Â¥300,000 ($2,165 and $2,600). A model with an 8GB solid state disk made up of flash memory chips will also be available. IOData Bath-proof HDD So, you're in the tub and have an urgent need to back-up data? Not to worry, IOData Device Inc.'s latest hard-disk drive is just the thing. There's a 1-inch hard-disk drive inside the case, which is waterproof and shockproof to one meter. Connection is via USB 2.0. There are two versions, one with 8GB of capacity and one with 12GB, and both will be available in Japan in mid-December for Â¥15,700 and Â¥21,000 respectively. IOData didn't announce international launch plans. R&D Corner: Samsung develops thinnest LCD Holding out the promise ofÂ even thinner cell phones, Samsung ElectronicsÂ said it has developed a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen that is no thicker than a credit card. The panel is 0.82mm thick and means, according to the company, that manufacturers will be able to trim up to 2.4mm from the thickness of a cell phone. That's good news for consumers looking for slimmer and sleeker handsets. The LCD panel should be in production in the second half of 2007 so will likely turn-up in cell phones late next year or in 2008. Â
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The machine has a 400GB hard disk drive, is capable of zapping video elsewhere in a home, and is designed to let consumers program recording remotely over the Internet--including via cell phones.
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Latest camcorders enable users to record on formats ranging from mini-DVDs to memory cards to hard drives. With Hitachi, users get all three.
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Canon Inc. (7751.T) unveiled a digital  video camera for home users on Wednesday that can record  high-definition movies, matching a product offered by rival  Sony Corp. (6758.T).
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In this exclusive video from the floor of CES, Wired's Daniel Dumas takes a look at the Sony HDR SR12, a sleek, image-stabilized camcorder that records full 1080p video to its internal hard drive.