In a few years time, kids will be clutching their sides and laughing at the thought that their parents used to watch TV on massive great boxes that filled up half the living room.
We know this because a new report tells us that LCD TVs are the future, with worldwide ownership of the slimline goggleboxes overtaking lardy CRT TVs in 2010.
According to a new analysts iSuppli, sales of LCD TVs are positively hurtling along, with shipments expected to rise by 74 per cent to 46.7 million units this year – way up on their original estimate of 41.9 million units.
After wheeling out their extrapolation-o-meter and pulling assorted levers and flywheels, the company predicts that LCDs will account for 48 per cent of TVs shipped in 2009, while chunky old-school CRTs will struggle with just 42 per cent.
By the next year, the report predicts that LCDs will account for a hefty 56 per cent of all TVs shipped.
Sales of rear-projection TVs and plasmas look set to remain a small part of the overall market, claiming just 3 percent and 7 per cent of the market respectively in 2009.
Style over picture
Although punters are happy to plunge headlong into the lithe, angular world of the LCD TV, many still believe that the ‘umble CRT TV still provides better picture quality – and what’s more, they cost less.
However, declining LCD TV prices brought about by improvements in manufacturing continue to bring the once stratospherically-priced TVs into the economic reach of your average punter, with the average price of 32-inch and 40/ 42-inch LCD TVs falling by 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively in the last five months.
LG.Philips remain the raging King Kongs of the LCD TV manufacturer jungle with the biggest slice of the market, followed by Samsung, China’s Chi Mei and Acer-owned AU Optoelectronics.
In the fourth quarter, South Korea produced nearly 45 per cent of the world’s LCD TVs, with Taiwan grabbing 40.1 per cent.
“Would you like a single piece of sheet music that contains all your favourite pieces, and never needs to be turned over?”
The universal piece of music wasn’t even the first prize winner in this competition. It was a contest sponsored by one of the world’s leading e-paper technology designers, Plastic Logic, which has demonstrated a flexible sheet of A5 “paper” that has the contrast and readability of real paper, the flexibility of soft cardboard, and the power consumption of a watch. And the prize went to something that is, in the end, “just a book.”
When you invent a new technology, you always start off by producing something which you know has a market already, and which you think you can do better.
Sony has whipped out its first laptop equipped with a next-generation Blu-ray optical disk drive, saying that it will be available in Japan next month.
The AR-Series will also come with a HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) output for hooking up the lappie to a HD-ready TV or Full HD desktop display.
Powered by Intel Core Solo U1400 (1.2 Ghz)/U1300 (1.06 Ghz) the pint-sized PC will sport an Intel 945GMS Express chipset, 512MB RAM, 20/30 GB hard drive and 69 key QWERTY keyboard.
French outfit Archos has launched what they claim is the first portable digital TV receiver/ recorder combining portable video recorder (PVR) functionality and two DTT (Digtial Terrestrail Television) tuners.
The built-in DVR records digital TV directly to the hard disk in MPEG2 TS format, and there’s an onboard Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) for scheduled recordings (so long as you can get reception, natch).
An optional 100GB version offers even more storage, which equates to, err, lots more videos, songs and stuff.
We reckon that someone whipping out a large, expensive multimedia device on a London train would soon have no trouble imagining filling in an insurance claim, but with no UK launch announced, perhaps the muggers will have to wait for now.
It looks like the days of chunky, clunky cathode ray tube TVs are numbered as worldwide revenues from slimline LCD (liquid crystal displays) TVs surpassed those of cathode-ray (CRT) televisions in the fourth quarter last year.
Sales were healthy for plasma-screen televisions, growing 31.3 percent to reach $5.29 billion in the same quarter, giving them the third-largest share of the market after LCD TVs and cathode-ray TVs.
Look out LCDs – here comes SED displays
MobiBlu’s soon-to-be-released DAH-1900 MP3 Player (256mb/512mb/1gb) claims to have the longest battery life of any MP3 player in the entire known universe.
The display can be used to stream song lyrics for pub-like solo singalongs, courtesy of an editable Auto Lyric system.
For nippy transfer of files from a PC, the DAH-1900 offers a High-Speed USB 2.0 interface at up to 40 Mbps transmission speed.
Available colours
Creative Zen Vision:M
The player’s a versatile chap too, with the Vision:M outgunning the iPod by supporting a wider range of formats, like MP3, WMA and PlaysForSure audio formats and MPEG1/2/4, DivX and XviD, Motion JPEG and WMV for video.
Sony NW-A1000
The palm sized player (88 x 55 x 19 mm) comes with a built in 6GB hard drive and supports MP3 files as well as Sony’s ATRAC3 and ATRAC3+ audio formats. Battery life is claimed at 20 hours (although several reviews have found that figure to be wildly optimistic).
Apple iPod Nano
It wasn’t that long ago that lugging around a projector was the first step on the painful route to a guaranteed hernia, but thanks to the wizardry of boffins and the onward march of technology, projectors are no longer the size of small houses.
The TDP-FF1A (try saying that with a mouthful of tea) also comes with a handy USB port to let photographers directly display their photos straight off the camera.
Also shown off at the September IFA 2005 in Berlin was Samsung’s neat Pocket Imager SP-P300M projector.
The attractive LED projector sports a contrast ratio is 1000:1 with an impressively high claimed bulb life of 10,000 hours.
Creative are set to take on Apple’s video-enabled fifth-generation iPod with their new Zen Vision:M player, due to be announced tomorrow.
Creative claim that the rechargeable battery can keep punters entertained for four hours in video-playback mode – twice as long as the iPod’s two hours.
It’s a shame seeing a company as, err, creative as Creative coming up with a design so obviously ‘inspired’ by the iPod, but perhaps it’s a sign that they’re signing up to a philosophy of, “if you can’t beat them, join them.”
Following on from his review of the 
With support for more than ten monitors, UltraMon adds a raft of user-configurable tools to help users get a manly grip on their acres of screen real estate.
These little fellas let you quickly shunt programs across to other screens with a single click, or maximise a single window across the entire desktop.
The program also lets you stretch desktop wallpapers and screen savers across multiple screens or set a different picture and screen saver for each screen, which can look way cool!
