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CES: Sharp Press Conference

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For now, i am skipping the Casio press conference, so let's head over to Sharp.

Daisuke 'Doug' Koshima takes the stage first and mentions that they are confident that they will "weather the storm." He is talking about the economic crisis and Sharp plans to be a strong competitor in 2009. Doug Koshima mentions that their new facility in Sakai City is expected to be done by 2010. He mentions that they feel that LCD will remain dominant in flat-panel technology in the near-future. Their TV's will be in full HD (1080p), thin, use LED backlighting, while still remaining energy efficient. OLED technology is promising but is not completely ready yet. The Limited Edition Sharp Aquos LCD TV has an "unprecedented picture quality" and has a huge screen. It maintains these things, while still being ultra-thin and being 30% more energy efficient than before. He leaves the stage.

In comes, Michael Troetti. He told us that Sharp was one of the top 3 LCD manufacturers throughout December. In 2008, they had a 10% increase in unit growth. Michael mentions that LCD prices drop every year... I didn't know that... The Sharp Aquos LCD TV will have 1080p HD, while using the standard 120hz technology. "Sharp has the unique position of being a leader in both LCD and Blu-ray technology." The Aquos Advantage program was introduced in 2007 and is free for large-screen Aquos owners. So far, there are more than 150,000 members in the Aquos Advantage. He mentions that they are the "official HDTV of Major League Baseball." He ends his speech talking about recycling their products and about the environment. I started to yawn a bit. He leaves.

Bob Scaglione enters. He mentions that their 108 inch LCD TV is still the largest LCD display. Reveals the Sharp Aquos with a built-in Blu-ray player. I talked about that here. Their TV's will be using Superlucent Advanced Superview Panels over the standard Conventional Panels. Their Sharp E77U will have 1080p, use 120Hz and will have 5 HDMI inputs. The E77U will come in 4 different sizes: A 65, 52, 46 and 40 inch model. The Sharp E67U series will also have 1080p and will support 2 sizes of 40 and 32 inches. The 32 inch model will be projected towards video-gamers and it will have a new Vyper Drive technology, whatever that is. The E67U will also have 4 HDMI inputs. The Sharp Aquos Blu-ray players will have: a low power consumption, Aquos Pure mode and 2 models, the BD-HP22U and BD-HP16U. These players will support Bd-rom profile 2.0. The Sharp Aquos home theater system will have a built-in Blu-ray and will project sound using a 5.1 channel audio. He concluded by showing 2 new Sharp iPod docks.

Question time. They clarify that the release date on the Blu-ray players will be in February. Sharp mentioned that 32-inch displays may be benefiting from the economic crisis because it is a decent size for everyday use. I notice that everyone asking questions have weird accents and i understand why the Sharp representatives have a hard time understanding / answering the questions. Someone asks if there are going to be cheaper LED backlighting models. The obvious answer was, of course, yes, in the future. Another question was if Sharp will be releasing Blu-ray recorders in 2009. They answered no and said because of certain copyright protections, so they will be concentrating on Blu-ray players. Sharp predicts that in 2009, people will make the shift from 32 to 42 inch sets. They are, obviously, backing the Sharp Aquos 100%.

Sharp Press Conference: http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/press_conf_detail.aspx?video_key=35865
Sharp pictures: http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/new-sharp-products-2009-press-conference/



CES: LG Press Conference

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Finally, i am able to watch the LG press conference, so let's start it up.

Michael Ahn is the first representative to get introduced to the stage. He mentions that even though everyone is going through the economic crisis, LG still managed to make 13 billion dollars last year and that it exceeded their primary goal for 2008. He also mentions the use of TruMotion 240Hz technology. After that, he exits the stage.

The father of HD, Dr. Woo Paik, takes the stage. Some technologies they will be implementing on their products are: wireless HD, 3D entertainment, [the aforementioned] TruMotion 240Hz technology, LED backlight, and 2 microphone background noise cancellation. They will be creating TV's with wireless HD because his wife complains about all of the wires (insert laughs here). They will do this by using a wireless receiver to transmit the data. The receiver will transmit at 60 frames per second and have a data transmission of 3gbps (Gigabits per second). He mentions that 3D is the next big wave of entertainment. He invites the crowd to visit the 3d-displays at their booth. TruMotion (240Hz) will eliminate all levels of blurring caused by fast moving objects on the television set. LG's LED's will have a contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. They will also have a new technology called IOL, which is Integrated Optical Lens. They use 2 microphone noise cancellation (more on it later) in the LG Cookie. This technology  greatly reduces background noise. All of LG's products are increasingly saving energy. A slide comes up that lists some of the LG watch phone's specs. It will have a touchscreen, up to 2 hours of talk time, will weigh 84 grams, Bluetooth, Water-resistant and 3G. Woo Paik's LG watch phone rings in the middle of his speech. I'm pretty sure it was planned. He then played a song on the LG watch phone and mentioned that it's something that you would see in a James Bond movie. Soon after, he leaves the stage.

Peter Reiner comes on stage and he mentions that LG is trying to fit the consumer's needs. They are focusing on: their picture quality, being user friendly, having an exquisite design, while at the same time being eco-friendly. LG's Blu-ray players will feature Cinemanow, Youtube, Netflix. He introduced 9 new LCD HDTV's and 3 Plasma-screens including the magnificent LG LHX, which is LED-backlit (for the 7th time in 2 posts). He reveals 2 new Blu-ray players and 3 Blu-ray home theater systems that will try to meet the consumer's lifestyle needs. He exits.

Ehtisham Rabbani gets on stage. He tells the crowd that in 2008, LG sold 35 million mobile handsets. This comes out to an average of selling 1 phone every second, in the US. He states that mobile phones are replacing landlines. Shows us the LG Incite, which is a touchscreen smartphone that runs on Windows Mobile. The LG Decoy was the world's first mobile phone with a built-in Bluetooth headset. The LG Lotus has a 2 megapixel camera, a full QWERTY keyboard. The LG Dare is a touchscreen phone with a 3.2 megapixel camera and has a video recorder capable of capturing up to 120 fps (frames-per-second). LG will allow you to recharge your phone at CES using the sun. This technology will cause your phone to fully charge in under an hour.

I might skip a couple of press conferences, since it's taking longer than i thought. If i have time after i will go back and do the ones i miss. I will be biased towards which press conferences i watch because i actually want to see some specific ones =). Anyways, LG was a good way to start off the CES press conferences. "What happens in Las Vegas, shouldn't stay in Las Vegas." That was the last thing said at the LG press conference. Remember, Life's Good.

Video of the LG press conference: http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/press_conf_detail.aspx?video_key=35862
3 LCD picture from LG press conference: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/live-from-lgs-press-conference/
LG Dare picture: http://www.cellularwirelessplans.com/lg-dare-cell-phone.html

CES: Samsung's Thin Blu-ray Deck, Asus Eee Keyboard, LCD TV's by Samsung, Sharp and LG

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CES 2009 news now.

 Thin is officially in, with pretty much everything at CES 2009. Samsung has just shown off their 2 new Blu-ray decks and they are extremely thin, as you can see in the picture, on the left side. One of them is "a wall-mountable 1.5-inches thin (BD-P4600) and the other is a low-profile, sleek tabletop deck (BD-P3600), and both stream Netflix and Pandora. These both look amazing and will be available in the "first half of 2009."

Asus has shown off, to the world, their new keyboard. A 5 inch touchscreen on the right side of the keyboard, signals to the user that this is not your regular keyboard. "The keyboard is powered by Intel's Atom processor and incorporates a selection of USB and video ports around the back. It has solid state storage and, or course, Wi-Fi connectivity." Did i mention that it also has "an Ultra-Wideband Wireless HDMI port." Wow. Right now, the keyboard is just a prototype and the battery lasts for only around 90 minutes. Asus mentioned that it will increase the battery life for up to 3 hours when it becomes publicly available. Who needs a laptop when you have the Asus Eee keyboard, built-in with everything you need. Although, if you don't use an external display you may look weird, seeing how the 5 inch screen is located in an awkward position. Currently, there is no price for this wonderful keyboard.

TV-time and Samsung is up first. They have shown 3 new LCD's with 240Hz technology, which is 2 times above the current standard. The LNXXB: 8000, 7000 and the 6000 are all extremely thin, measuring in at around an inch. This TV will have a "built-in ethernet for Netflix streaming." There is a small difference in the 3 new LCD's. The 8000 will be the only one that will use 240Hz. The 7000 is the same as the 8000, except for it being 120Hz, which is the standard. The 6000 will consume "40% less power, featuring an optimized energy savings mode and a power indicator menu." Now, if only we can fuse the 6000's energy-saver with the 8000's 240Hz power. Maybe next year. These 3 LCD's will also be available in the first half of this year.

Sharp's new BD series TV's will have a built-in Blu-ray player. There will be 5 different sizes ranging from 32 to 52 inches. They are going to be 1080p compatible and we will actually see the smaller versions (32, 37 and 42 inchers) around this month. Next month, we will see the larger, 46 and 52 inchers. Unlike most gadgets at CES, Sharp was not focusing on thinness when they created these TV's. The prices for the TV's are $1,099, $1,299, $1,899, $2,299 and $2,599 USD. I think you should know what costs what.

To round off the current CES news, LG has announced a dozen of new HDTV's. There are 9 LCD's in between the 19 and 60 inch size range, with LED and TruMotion (240Hz) technology and "the wireless capabilities that are becoming all the rage" says Engadget. The other 3 are the LH50, PS80 and the almighty LHX slim LED-backlit TV. Let's talk about the LG LHX now. So, the LG LHX LED-backlit LCD TV (lots of capitalizing there) is officially the thinnest LED-backlit TV on the market. I won't force you to say the long name again but this TV will be a massive 55 inches. So, this TV will sport the 240Hz techonlogy and will be only 0.97 inches thick. LG is looking to be a strong competitor this year. So far, it seems that they are one-step above everyone else. It'll be nice to see if LG's sales increase again this year, just like they did from 2007 to 2008.

Samsung Blu-ray Decks (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5124091/samsung-bd+p36004600-super+slim-fine+looking-wall+friendly-blu+ray-decks
Asus Eee Keyboard (and picture): http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/01/07/asus_eee_keyboard/
Samsung's 3 LCD's (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5124124/samsung-goes-full-led-backlight-with-series-6000-7000-and-8000-high+end-ultra+thin-lcds
Sharp's New Aquos (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5124135/sharps-aquos-bd-series-hdtvs-include-built+in-blu+ray-players
LG's Dozen HDTV's: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/lg-kicks-out-a-dozen-hdtv-product-lines-at-ces-2009/
LG' LHX LCD TV's (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5125345/lg-led-lcds-are-official-lhx-is-thinnest-lcd-with-led-backlight-240hz-wireless-hdmi

MSI X-Slim 320 Price, Google Router Rumours, 6-Year Old Drives Himself to School, HTC Touch HD and Iolite

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So, today i should not have had school due to freezing rain and snow, but the school board didn't cancel the buses. I was stuck at school all day and did the same thing that i usually have to do there: work, sleep and more work. So, these next couple of days will be brutal for me. I have lots of blogging to do. Luckily, during lunch today, i did all of the research for my CA next week. So yes, i have lots of blogging to do. It is CES this week and instead of pulling everyone's press conference summaries, i figured that i might as well make my own. I'm going to to LG's after i do 2 lengthy blog posts. I expect at least 5 blog posts today. Wish me luck. Before i talk about anything CES-wise, i'm going to talk to you about regular stuff. Non-CES stuff.

2 days ago, i mentioned that MSI is making a MacBook Air-killer, the MSI X-Slim 320. MSI has recently announced that the price of their X-Slim would be in between, just $700 and $1,000 USD, which is much cheaper than the MacBook Air's base price of $1,800. This laptop is just 3/4 of an inch (1.98 cm) thick, weighs 2.9 pounds and still manages to have a 13 inch widescreen. It's extremely thin and weightless, just like the MacBook Air. What may be a problem though, is the fact that it is running Windows Vista, which is terrible. Other than that, it looks good to me.

So, there is a new rumour that the search engine king, Google, is developing it's own router. See. I told you Google is planning to take over the Internet. That's all that has to be said about this. Keep in mind that this is just a rumour and has not been confirmed. Although, Google "won't comment on the story."

So a 6-year old from Virginia has just done the impossible. Well, technically, it's not impossible, but the chances of this happening is pretty slim. He drove himself to school. Yup, a 6-year old drove himself to school. The kid's name is undisclosed in the article, so we'll call him 'Boy.' So, Boy missed his school bus in the morning and while his parents were sleeping, he took the Ford Sedan to school. How the boy got the keys in the first place and how he knew his way to school is beyond me. Anyways, he drove almost 6 miles before getting into an accident. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. But, get this. After he got into the accident, he got out of the car and started to walk to school. Now, that is a warrior. Boy ended up being taken to the hospital by the cops and Boy ended up telling the police that he "learned how to drive by playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam." Boy even mentioned that he wanted to get to school because "he did not want to miss breakfast or PE." Unfortunately, "the parents of the 6-year-old are both charged with child endangerment and the kid and his 4-year-old brother were both put under protective custody. The mom is currently being held without a bond, while the father was released on a US$ 5,000 bond." Talk about amazing.

Remember the HTC Touch HD i talked about in one my first blogs? Well, it is now out in India. If you want to know all of the specs of the phone, just read my blog post about it, in the link. Moving along. The HTC Iolite was recently leaked. This 2.8 inch touchscreen phone has a 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS and Wi-Fi. Iolite may not be it's official name, since it may just be a codename. The Iolite will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 and will use TouchFLO3D, for it's touchscreen needs.

MSI X-Slim 320 (and picture): http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/01/msis-super-thin.html
Rumour: Google Router: http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/07/1844239&from=rss
6-Year Old Drives Himself to School (and picture): http://ps3.qj.net/6-year-old-misses-bus-drives-self-to-school-learned-from-GTA-Update-now-on-CNN/pg/49/aid/127768
HTC Touch HD in India: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/HTC_Touch_HD_Comes_to_India/551-97487-893.html
HTC Iolite (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_iolite_leaks_through_an_onilne_retailer_surely_looks_nice-news-724.php

Snoozing Through Macworld, PS3 Sales Jump in 2008, DivX 7 Released, Corsair at CES, Hitachi at CES

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So, when i got home from school, i quickly found a video of the Macworld keynote on Apple's official site, so i decided to watch it. It was pretty boring. I was yawning through most of the iLife and iWork stuff. At one point, i actually fell asleep and then i woke up about a minute into him talking about the 17 inch MacBook Pro. So, i had to rewind it a bit. You can view the Macworld keynote at this link. Macworld seemed kind of dull to me, but luckily, CES is already starting. Although, not the presentations. Right now, i think, is when you can try out the stuff that are on display there.

So, how did the Playstation 3 do in 2008, compared to 2007 in sales? Sony reported that in North America, they saw a 40 percent sale increase in 2008, compared to 2007. If we do some math, that is approximately 3.6 million units. During the 10-week holiday season, they also mentioned that their sales rose 130 percent compared to the 2007 holiday season. This is good news because i hope that Sony doesn't give up on this system. Since i'm hearing rumours that they might as well start the Playstation 4 production now, since the Playstation 3 is so upsetting. I still feel that 2009 will be an even bigger year and that PS3 sales will continue to increase.

So, this morning, DivX, released the new DivX 7. It will have "enhanced support for high definition video output and surround sound audio." It will show "high-quality digital video at up to 1080p HD resolution." It is now available on the new DivX website. I use DivX to watch any high-quality movies and then i use VLC media player for everything else, so this is good news. I've already downloaded it.

At CES this year, is Corsair. I trust Corsair, with my RAM needs. I have 2 GB of RAM in my current rig and that's thanks to Corsair. But, at CES, they showed it's new "Flash Voyager USB thumb drives." These USB's have an overwhelming 64GB on one single chip, damn 64GB? Yes. Uh-oh, looks like in 2009, there will be a war for which company can put more memory on USB sticks. Looking at this picture, they look to have a weird shape to them. But anyways, no price for this product was mentioned in the article from ZDNet.



Hitachi is at this year's CES and they are showing some new displays for us. "The 2009 line of UT HDTVs will expand primarily by carrying a more mainstream pricetag and now standard 1080p / 120Hz features." Hitachi has a new and thinner 35 inch LED backlit display, measuring about 15mm thick. Hitachi also had their 50 inch UT plasma from CEDIA on display. I don't know if the CEDIA was the same display that was shown last September, so yeah. Hopefully, i'll be receiving more news on that. I still think that the new LG and Samsung displays have surpassed Hitachi in every aspect. Anyways, CES is now here. Expect a barrage of blogs whenever i get the chance. For school, i have a Culminating Assignment that i have to write in-class on Tuesday, so i will be trying to finish all of that research either tomorrow or Thursday. Macworld out the window, luckily CES is there to pick up that slack.

Oh! By the way, thanks to everyone that has visited my blog ever since i started writing, just over a month ago. I received about 300 visits in first month. In the beginning, the visitors were slowly coming in, but for the last few weeks, i've been getting a lot of anonymous visitors, which is fantastic. I hope you like what i write because i love talking about tech and new news.

Playstation 3 Sales (and picture): http://www.gamespot.com/news/6202751.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;1
DivX 7: http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/divx-7-launches-with-enhanced-hd-support-498602
Corsair at CES (and picture): http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=675&page=6
Hitachi at CES (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/06/hitachi-unlimited-ces-theme-shows-some-realistic-boundaries-fo/