televisions

Your yacht needs an HD satellite

Now that you've ordered your Porsche yacht, what will you do in it when not racing? Raymarine has just the antidote to your boredom with its satellite HDTV system.

The seagoing dish is made specifically to work in boats, according to Gizmowatch, with antennae that continually change angles for optimal reception. The package, which includes an HD DirecTV receiver, is designed for uninterrupted signals even in extreme weather and oceanic conditions.

Depending on the model, it can cost as much as $9,000. But that's a drop in the Atlantic compared with the $300,000 you'll be … Read more

AT&T goes with the MediaFlo

When Verizon announced at CES 2007 its partnership with Qualcomm's MediaFlo to bring V Cast Mobile TV to customers, we were so impressed that we awarded it the Best of CES award in the Cell phones category. Well it seems that Cingular/AT&T has jumped on the MediaFlo bandwagon as well: The nationwide GSM carrier has announced that it will use the MediaFlo technology to deliver live TV and video to its customers.

Just to jog your memory, the MediaFlo technology will allow cell phone carriers to broadcast television signals directly and independently to supported handsets via … Read more

Toy of the year: You be the judge!

Here they are...the five lucky finalists. Which one would you chose to be the winner of the Toy Industry Association's annual "Toy of the Year Award"?

Come Saturday night, in New York, the association will crown the winners in a variety of categories from "Electronic Toy of the Year," to "Outdoor Toy of the Year," to "Game of the Year."

The finalists for the "Electronic Toy of the Year" are: Cube World, with its "virtual" stick people in an interactive community; Kid-Tough Digital Camera, a toy … Read more

MeeVee adds personalized Web content

We checked out MeeVee in September, and cited its lack of integration with recording and viewing services. Today, MeeVee has strengthened its viewing service with two new features: personalized networks and community video. Essentially the site lets you pick out your favorite shows and then aggregates relevant videos from hosting sites like YouTube and EVTV1 (with several more on the way). Clicking on any of these videos will actually take you outside of the MeeVee site, but there's a helpful frame put on the top of the screen to direct you back. We're told MeeVee is moving to … Read more

Domo arigato, Mr. P.C.

No, the Japanese "I'm a Mac" ads do not include Hello Kitty, Pikachu, or anything with tentacles. But they're quite funny in their own right, if only because I have absolutely no idea what the actors are saying in them but can still pretty much grasp the message that they're trying to convey. It's interesting, too, to see how the Japanese ads are much more reliant on physical expressions and gags, whereas the British Mac ads that Candace blogged here a few days ago are all about the wit (not surprisingly).

Additionally, I am … Read more

Apple gives Brits their own PC vs. Mac ads

The Brits now have their own version of those funny Apple commercials pitting Mac against PC.

The commercials, which can be viewed on Apple's U.K. Web site, follow the same scenario as the American versions. The only strange thing is that instead of Bill Gates, "PC" bears a striking resemblance to Al Gore.

Come on now. Everyone who has seen An Inconvenient Truth knows that Gore is an Apple man.

Philips flubs pricing on new 63-inch 1080p plasma TV

Sometimes when things seem too good to be true, they're indeed too good to be true. Alas, such is the case for Philips' new 63PFP7422D 63-inch 1080p plasma TV, which was announced at CES with a price tag of $3,500. Turns out $3,500 is the price for the company's current 63-inch plasma model, which features 768p or 1,366x768 resolution. (Really, that makes it your basic 720p HDTV). The new price for the new set is actually $5,500. Oops.

For the record, I did have sneaking suspicion that the price was perhaps overly aggressive, but … Read more

Westinghouse introduces super-high-res LCD, 1080p models

First there was 1080p. Now there's something called "Quad Full" or 3,840x2,160 resolution, which Westinghouse showed off in a 56-inch LCD HD monitor at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. The company says that equates to a resolution greater than 8 megapixels and that the LCD offers "stunning, never-before-seen picture reproduction."

The Quad Full monitor may be the flashy headline act, but the real meat of the story is that Westinghouse is serving up several new LCD televisions, with a full lineup of moderately priced 1080p models in 42-, 47-, and 52-inch sizes. … Read more

HP MediaSmart TV marketeer nimble on his flacking toes

I met with HP this morning to hear how its new MediaSmart TVs work with your Media Center PC ecosystem. (Takeaway: the TVs will play your PC-stored digital media, but you have to use Windows Media Player 11, and FairPlay-protected media from the iTunes Store won't work. Also, the built-in 802.11n wireless networking is a much-needed high-bandwidth touch.) The highlight of the meeting, though, was when a member of HP's PR team stepped in to hand the PR manager giving the presentation a write-up of the just-announced Apple TV device.

In a heretofore-unseen display of marketing agility, … Read more

InFocus preps instant home theater

A handful of all-in-one home-theater projectors have hit the market over the last 18 months, and InFocus jumps into this interesting category with the InFocus Play Big IN1, an inexpensive DLP projector with an integrated DVD player and speaker to output sound. While the info on the unit is a little vague, InFocus says that they are also looking into having an iPod dock for playing back iPod videos, to go along with the DVD player "dock" that attaches to the bottom of the projector.

Here are the details so far:

Price: $499 (subject to change)

Availability: Spring … Read more