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Sunday, January 9, 2005
Show #108
Please note: the show now begins one hour earlier, 11a-2p.
Today: Coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show continues!
toc | toc
Today’s news items
An iTunes Music Store user has filed a lawsuit against Apple saying it violates state and federal anti-trust laws by offering music that can only play on the iPod, and preventing music from other stores from playing on the iPod.
Apple is suing Mac rumor site Think Secret for revealing details of a sub-$500 Mac that will allegedly be unveiled next week at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. Apple claimed that the information posted on Think Secret in November and December of this year, and earlier, could only have been obtained by someone who had signed a confidentiality agreement with Apple, which makes me think the rumor must be true!
The city of Los Angeles is suing travel sites Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, and Travelocity over hotel taxes. The city claims the sites pay taxes based on the wholesale rates negotiated with hotels, but charge customers tax based on the marked up retail price. The sites not only pocket the markup on the room rate, but the extra tax. Orbitz says the lawsuit has no merit and will aggressively defend itself.
More news on our Internet habits from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. According to the study, eight million American adults say they have created blogs and readership is up 58%. 27% of Internet users say they read blogs regularly, 12% say they have posted comments, but 62% of Internet users do not know what a blog is.
11a-Noon
Scott Wilkinson from Ultimate AV Magazine has the latest home theater and big screen TV news from CES.
News at CES
- Numerous 1080p HD displays in plasma and LCD
- New processing chips from:
- Faroujda
- Silicon Optics Realta
- Runco DLP projectors
- Sony SXRD (their version of LCOS) Qualia line
- TI DLP chips, dropping the HD nomenclature, now named 720p & 1080p
- Sony Qualia LCD flat panels now using red green and blue LEDs from LumaLEDs, Triluminous - looks really great
- Plasma claiming 65,000 hours before they lose half their luminance
- LCD reaching 55 inches, LG 65 inches
- Philips LCD flat panels using new flourescent backlights that scan to improve black and contrast
- Yamaha Digital Sound Projector, single speaker to simulate surround, sounds amazing - not as good as real surround $1299
- Watch for a big announcement from Toshiba tomorrow (I’m guessing it will be something about the new SED displays).
Andrew Crispin-Moore from Hub Digital Living magazine
- Phantom is not a phantom
- Gizmondo handheld gaming device, ARM processor, GoForce GPU, GPS, Windows CE
Bill in Maine - Polaroid PhotoMax 640 camera issues
He still uses this old camera for web pictures, but can’t install the software on XP. It’s a serial camera, so he’ll need at least a driver to connect to it. Try using this TWAIN driver for it. Then use Photosho, Picasa, or any TWAIN compliant imaging program to import pictures.
If that driver doesn’t work, search www.driverguide.com for a more suitable one.
Username: Driver
Password: All
Noon-1p
Karen in Riverside - wants a TV for over the fireplace
She has a bulky Hitachi 53″ projection set and would like to hang a plasma or LCD over the fireplace. How about a front projection system? Hang a screen over the mantle and put the TV in the back of the room.
Eli in Alhambra - 64-bit XP won’t install
Shuttle motherboard, 754 socket, Athlon 3200+ - but the new 64-bit beta edition of XP blue screens when he installs it. I’d suspect that there’s a driver that doesn’t work.
If you really want to get into this you can download the MS debugger. The help file tells you what all the stop codes mean. If you’re lucky the BSOD will tell you the driver it thinks caused the problem.
Gabriel in Riverside - Blind Tivo user looking for computer interface
He can’t see the Tivo controls. You can control Tivo from a PC if you hack it and install Tivoweb, but ReplayTV does this without hacking.
He was also looking for iPod speakers. If you are willing to spend $300 the Bose SoundDock sounds best, but for a portable system I recommend Altec-Lansing’s im3 but you’ll find numerous alternatives at Apple’s iPod Accessories page.
iPodlounge.com is a good resource for reviews, and infomation about ipod accessories. mp3mooch
Jimmy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana - looking for Digital Media Receivers
He’s tried the PrismIQ - take a look at the Roku sound bridge, too.
Sean Carruthers from Hub Digital Living magazine and Call for Help Canada
- Sharp Aquos 45″ LCD
- Olympus m:robe MP3 players with built-in cameras
- MP3 players with color screens and photo display technologies
- New Robosapien not available until September, for $200. Also Robopet.
Nick in Rhode Island - use the Tivo Home Media Option
To help Gabriel control his Tivo, Nick recommends the HMO will let you control the Tivo somewhat from the PC. You can schedule from the PC.
Accenda talking remote might help.
1–2p
Laurie in Oceanside - can’t remove the JavaByte virus
Make sure to turn System Restore off before running the disinfection program, then turn it back on. This is a particular problem with Microsoft’s Java. It’s worth uninstalling it and installing the Sun JVM from www.java.com. If you are already using Sun’s Java go open your Control Panel, click on Java, then clear the cache.
For some reason JPEGs are showing up chunky and in negative. She should update her video drivers. If she’s using AOL turn off the AOL image compression.
Alex in Illinois - Flat Panel monitors viewing angles and response times
Response time is the most important factor on LCD screens. It is hard to really tell the difference and really is not noticeable. Goto a store and look at the different LCD monitors.
Patrick Norton stops by to tell us about automotive and other news from CES.
- Covering CES for PC Magazine.
- Sirius and XM are growing in subs
- In 2006 Sirius plans to add three video channels
- Delphi’s got a home RF repeater
- Raysat mobile satellite TV and Internet access
- Delphi has done a deal with a cable company to transfer video recording from your Tv to your car. Or stream up to four channels from your hard drive based car stereo system.
- Sirius smallest satellite receiver ever, built in FM transmitter, $130 StarMate
- iPod adapters for cars, in dash DVD player from Clarion shows iPod info and interface, Apline, and Monster, too.
- Read his work at ExtremeTech.com, CNET, PC world, CPU, MacAddict
Robin Liss from CamcorderInfo.com fills us in on the latest camcorder news from CES.
- All the manufacturers are lowering prices
- 30x optical zoom from Panasonic PV-GS35
- Panasonic’s 3CCD PV-GS65 is under $500
- Sony has dumbed down their camcorders, none of the 2005 camcorders have an external mic input
- Sony has also changed the shoe to be smaller and proprietary
- JVC has focused on low-light and video quality
- HD, Sony’s HDR-FX1, but nothing new
- Kodak EasyShare 1 with Wi-Fi, can connect to your home printer or upload to Ofoto, preview at www.digitalcamerainfo.com
- Sony T33 replaces T1
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