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Bravia Cell Phone Flip Flops
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Smartphones, Misc. Tech, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,
Sony Ericsson has come up with a new concept in phones, the Bravia W44S, which opens both vertically and horizontally. It can handle digital audio on its dual 16mm stereo speakers, video reception on a 240 x 432mm screen, CDMA EVDO, a 3.2 MP camera with auto-focus, a 128 voice polyphonic ringtone, and a MS pro duo slot built-in for 115 Mb flash.
We admit that the W44S looks pretty nifty with its moon phases calendar/clock, but since it’s only available in Japan for now, we’ll just consider it another teaser from Sony Ericsson and hang on to our merely vertical cell phones.
Read More 
| Mobile Mentalism
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Invoca Remote is KNG’s Gift to Couch Potatoes
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Accessories, CES, CES 2007, Home Entertainment, Misc. Tech, Wireless / WiFi,
KNG (Cash N Gold), another featured exhibitor at the CES 2007, has taken the universal remote to a whole ‘nother level. The Invoca 3.0 voice-activated remote has the ability to learn commands from your existing remote no matter what language you speak or what accent you have. It is preprogrammed with 4 voice commands: “power,” “power up,” “power down,” and “previous.” Input the brand name of your current remote and it will automatically find the model number. The Invoca comes with rechargeable batteries and a charging case, and is available at retailers at a MSRP of $49.95.
Read More | KNG America
Apple Releases 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Wireless / WiFi, USB,
Apple has quietly upgraded their WiFi router line, releasing the AirPort Extreme. The main feature of the new model is that it features 802.11n wireless, which provides twice the range and five times the speed than 802.11g. The unit is 6.5-inches square, and 1.2-inches tall - but seems to leave a bit to be desired. For instance, there are only three ports for connecting other devices to the AirPort extreme, while most other routers have four. Also, the ports do not support Gigabit ethernet, which is another downer for a product using the term “extreme” in its name. On the plus side though, it does have a USB port for connecting a USB printer or external hard drive. The best part though? It also comes with an 802.11n Enabler, which unlocks the 802.11n capabilities of the newest iMac and MacBook Pro models, which shipped with WiFi cards capable of 802.11n speeds. We suspect you simply run the Enabler, and your Core 2 Duo iMacs and MacBook Pros will fly. The Airport Extreme Base Station ships in February for $179.99 USD.
Read More | AirPort Extreme Product Page
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Audiovox Mini-Tuner Makes Satellite Portable
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: CES, CES 2007, Misc. Tech, Portable Audio / Video, Transportation, Wireless / WiFi,
Audiovox is another honoree at this year’s CES with its XM Mini-Tuner CNP2000. Claiming to be the only portable cartridge tuner in the satellite radio world, it can be moved back and forth from your home theatre system, office, DVD player, car, or even clock radio. Insert the tuner into a dock station or directly into a portable “mini-tuner” product. Contact Audiovox for price and availability if you want to Howard ex-Sternalize your life.
Read More | Audiovox via CES 2007 Awards
CES 2007: Creative Announces X-Fi Wireless Dock for iPod
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: Apple, CES, CES 2007, Features, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,
Creative made something of a surprising announcement with their Xdock Wireless product—a “Made for iPod” wireless music dock. The system allows you to push your iPod music out to multiple receivers simultaneously, each of which can drive their own independent speaker sets. The receivers all add X-Fi’s Crystalizer upconversion, which ostensibly improves the quality of even lower-encoded music. No word yet (that we’re able to find, at least) on if they’ll be releasing a similar system that’s compatible with their own Zen Vision:M MP3 players, which use a different dock on the bottom, but the system also includes a remote and video out.
The system will be released in Spring for $199, with additional receivers available for $99. Not a bad way to wire your iPod throughout your house pretty quickly and affordability.
iMedia Ergonomic Chair Awarded CES 2007 Honors
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: CES, CES 2007, Design, Home Entertainment, Movies, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,
Plug your iPod into this CES 2007 honoree. Empower Technologies’ iMedia ergonomic chair features 5.1 Digital Surround Sound with 5 speakers, a 10-inch woofer, a 505W RMS 6-channel amp, Dolby ProLogic decoding, a wireless remote, and 4 digital and 2 analog inputs for connection to video and game systems, and DVD players. The chair has a tactile transducer so you can not only hear the beat, but also feel it. We’re thinking it looks pretty cool, but we are waiting for the Empower ottoman to go with it.
Read More | Empower Technologies via CES 2007 Awards
CES 2007: HDTV Convergence STB Awarded Home Network CES Honors
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: CES, CES 2007, Home Entertainment, Internet, Misc. Tech, Movies, Music, Video Games, Wireless / WiFi,
Ubicod has been awarded a CES 2007 Best of Innovation in Home Network honoree with its HDTV STB (set-top box.) Get the Internet anywhere in your home, remotely record your home entertainment center, utilize its live TV playback function, or plug it into your PC or laptop. You can also transfer multimedia files to other A/V devices and create a UTV photo slide show. Just don’t ask it to play the violin. The STB supports ATSC (U.S., Canada, Korea, Taiwan) and DVB-T/s (Europe,) and utilizes MPEG-4 encoding.
Check out the UMH700H’s demo and contact Ubicod for price and availability.
Read More | Ubicod via CES 2007 Awards
Able Planet Scores Six CES 2007 Awards
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Accessories, CES, CES 2007, PC / Laptop, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,
Able Planet has won 6, count ‘em, 6 awards at this year’s CES. The winning products are:
- Clear Harmony Noise-canceling Headphones
- Able Talker and Clear Harmony Noise-canceling Wireless Headphones
- Able Talker Assistive Listening Device
- Clear Harmony voiP Headsets
- Clear Harmony Headphones 200 Series
- Clear Harmony Gaming Headphones
The devices utilize LINX technology which the company claims enhances sound and speech quality, filters out background noise, reduces distortion, restricts electromagnetic interference, and increases loudn ess perception without increasing volume. Able Planet’s headphones/sets can be used in computer and language labs, PCs, stereos, and CD, DVD, and MP3 players.
Read More | Able Planet via CES 2007 Awards
CES 2007: Avega Aios Networked Audio Platform
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: CES, CES 2007, Features, Home Entertainment, Wireless / WiFi,
Avega Systems was at CES Unveiled tonight, showing off their Aios Networked Audio Platform. The concept is simple and eloquent: Wi-fi enabled speakers that allow for synchronized playback of music or any other audio source, throughout your house. It sounds a bit like Sonos, and it has its similarities. However, the Aios system is a hardware platform, and Avega won’t be manufacturing their own speaker systems. Instead, they’re working with several different speaker manufacturers, and you’ll likely see Aios-capable speakers in retail channels by mid- this year. Better yet? They say that you’ll see two- and four-speaker sets in the sub $200 range.
The Aios platform includes software that allows you to configure your Aios speakers. The system is intuitive—if you add speakers to an existing setup, the software will detect them and let you create a profile for them. Each speaker attaches to the network with its own IP address, and elects a “leader.” One of the points that stand out with the Aios system is the incredibly low latency—under 5 ms, which allows for distributed real time DVD playback and gaming, along with some innovative UPnP capabilities, that allow for streaming audio through other devices, like your cell phone, without an active PC on the network.
Some very cool things to look for, and hopefully a relatively affordable, customizable and easily expandable distributed audio solution for your house.
CES 2007: Zune Wireless: In The Wild!
Posted by Sparky Categories: CES, CES 2007, Features, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,
Here at Gear Live we got our Zune‘s at the official launch in November of 2006, and have been eagerly awaiting our first “in the wild” sighting of another Zune to try the wireless features outside of a “test scenario.”
Now don’t get us wrong, we love the Zune, but market adoption has been rather slow - but today in the SeaTac airport on our way to CES we encountered “ALIENSPAWNER” and had a chance to transfer a few tracks back and forth. Hit the jump for a picture of him with our Zune.
Click to continue reading CES 2007: Zune Wireless: In The Wild!
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