For all its troubles, Sony seems to be the first big tech company to embrace the idea of advertising as content. In this digital age, where we can fast-forward past ads with our PVRs, or go to places like YouTube where there aren’t any ads in the way, advertising has to be its own reason …
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October, 2006
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13 October
PDT Eye
Crave was tantalised by the idea of the PDT Eye-Theatre. Would it afford relief from squinting at the beautifully clear but frustratingly small iPod screen? Would it finally allow us to enter the William Gibson-esque world of virtual reality immerso-specs? And why does the set make us look so like Star Trek‘s Geordi La Forge? We also liked the price …
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5 October
What’s the difference between 1080 and 768 resolutions for LCD TVs?
Is there a big difference between 1080 and 768 resolutions for LCD TVs? I am trying to decide between two Sony TVs — the KDL-40X2000 and the KDL-40V2000. I was told that the key is to find out if the resolution is interlaced (i) or progressive scanning (p). I can’t see this on Sony’s Web site tech specs on either of …
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4 October
Sharp TU
It may be sooner than you want to think about it, but Christmas is coming. Before you know it you’ll be tucking into turkey, nursing hangovers and engaging in traditional arguments — like what to watch during the peak TV viewing season. With so many channels to choose from on Freeview, keeping all the family happy is going to be …
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September, 2006
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28 September
Denon DVD
If you want to watch films at near high-definition quality before the dust settles on the Blu-ray versus HD DVD hi-def format war, an upscaling DVD player is the answer. Denon has concentrated its efforts on upgrading existing technology before becoming involved in any next-generation infighting. The new DVD-3930 uses state-of-the-art technology, which Denon claims produces a picture that rivals …
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27 September
Ups and downs for iTunes in Europe
France enacts its controversial, and now watered-down, law as regulators in Scandinavia scrutinize the music service. France’s diluted iTunes plan becomes law But Socialist Party still hopes to revise it, likely forcing copyright-protecting tech to be freely interoperable. August 4, 2006 Norwegian watchdog scrutinizes iTunes DRM Consumer council accuses Apple of unfair practices. Apple says it’s protecting the interests of …
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26 September
P2P group seeks peace but talks tough
A newly launched peer-to-peer trade association has offered to sit down and negotiate with music industry lawyers, while it simultaneously denounced its adversaries as obsolete and “tyrannosaurical.” P2P United, a group of six peer-to-peer businesses, held a coming-out event Monday in Washington, D.C. The lobbying effort is designed to demonstrate to the U.S. Congress that peer-to-peer companies are legitimate enterprises …
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26 September
Legal P2P opens for business
For a few fearful minutes in late 2004, iMesh co-founder Talmon Marco thought Garth Brooks had sunk his company. Marco was in New York, showing off the technology behind the new iMesh peer-to-peer music service slated for release this Tuesday. The software was supposed to identify and block virtually any copyrighted song being downloaded from peer-to-peer networks. But this time, …
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21 September
BenQ W100: No more acid trips
The cheaper end of the DLP (Digital Light Processing) projector market is plagued by the dreaded ‘acid-trip’, or ‘rainbow’ effect, a kind of visual distortion that causes red, green and blue motion-blur artefacting when you flit your eyes across the screen. To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson (he of gonzo journalism fame), there is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a …
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19 September
Sky HDTV receivers: Software success story
New technology is often blighted by teething problems, as early adopters of Sky’s HDTV service will confirm — ever since Sky’s high-definition broadcasts launched earlier this year, its HD receiver boxes have been plagued by complaints from disgruntled consumers. Thanks to a recent firmware upgrade, however, subscribers have been reporting that these problems with bugs and instability could be a …
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