The popularity of Blu-ray went ballistic during 2008, with sales and rentals of Blu-ray content discs almost tripling in the US and quadrupling in the UK.
US sales notch up $750 million
Laughing in the face of an overall downturn in the U.S. home entertainment market, the entire Blu-ray Disc market in the U.S. totted up to a hefty $750 million last year, up from $270 million in 2007.
The pen-pushing Eurocrats in Brussels are ready to ban large screen plasma TVs if a new EU standard goes through this spring.
The EU is displeased with the vast energy needs of plasma screens, which are thought to hog four times as much power than regular screens, and produce four times as many carbon emissions.
With the dust settling on last week’s annual CES tech fest, we take a look at some of the gadgets and gizmos that caught our eye.
Top of the pile – and incidentally a recipient of CNet’s ‘Best In Show’ and ‘Peoples’ Voice’ awards – is the hugely innovative and exciting Palm Pre smartphone. Just when we thought Palm were ready to slide into oblivion, they pulled out a stunning new phone with an interface that makes even the iPhone look out of date.
Taking time off from stuffing their faces with turkey and mince pies, nearly 4m Britons waddled away from the dinner table to go online and spend more than £100m on Christmas Day.
According to figures issued by the IMRG, around 3.8m consumers turned their backs on Wallace & Gromit and the Dr Who special to log on and splash out a record breaking £102m online – an average of £26.80 per shopper.
We must admit that our expectations were running low for Palm’s do-or-die press launch yesterday, but we’ve been left blown away by their hugely impressive new Palm Pre handset and WebOS operating system.
Palm Pre handset
Featuring a 3.1-inch accelerometer-sensed 320 x 480 multi touch display with full QWERTY keyboard in portrait orientation, the phone packs in all the features conspicuously absent from previous Palm OS handsets, including 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS with turn by turn mapping, Bluetooth with stereo A2DP and EV-DO Rev. A 3G.
When we first clapped eyes on Sony’s delightfully slick Sony Vaio P subnotebook, we almost cried with desire and want.
The shiny slimline device measures up at a pocket palpitating 9.6 x 4.7 x .78 inches and packs a positively ludicrously lush 1600 x 768 pixel resolution, 8.9 inch display, crammed into a featherweight 1.4 pounds device.
In part one of our Asus Eee 901 review we gave you some background on the little beauty and what you get inside. Read on for more details and the conclusions and scores.
In all of the excitement of the holiday season, it looks like we forgot to bring you this part two. If you’ve been sitting on the edge of your seats in anticipation, you’ve probably got a pretty numb bottom!
Connectivity
The Eee should have enough ports and connectivity options to suit most needs, sporting 3xUSB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11b/g and 802.11n Wi-Fi, Ethernet port, SD card slot and D-Sub video output.
Looking fabulously over the top with their quasi-military-lines, mass of glowing buttons and proliferation of function keys is the new G Series range of PC gaming peripherals from Logitech.
Americans are starting to feel the love for watching videos online in a big way, with YouTube proving by far and away the most popular video site.
According to market researchers ComScore, American web surfers watched 12.7 billion online videos through November, a hefty leap of 34 percent against the viewing figures a year ago.
After the first bout of Celeron-powered 7 inch screen mini-laptops, we’ve seen the platform develop with a second wave of 9 and 10 inch Intel Atom-powered netbooks, and now the third wave bolts on more consumer-friendly features while keeping the price low (ish).