Panasonic has finally stopped making VCRs for its domestic market. The company disclosed that it ceased production of the outdated tape-based recording and playback devices at the end of last year. Once its existing inventory is exhausted, the company will stop selling the players in Japan.
Samsung's 55-inch OLED TV unveiled at CES will arrive in the UK market sometime this spring, Samsung told CNET. It had originally been expected only closer to summer. The set was very impressive at the annual electronics show in Vegas, with deep black color reproduction, rich colors, and a claimed sub-8mm thickness.
Mobile analysis firm Xyologic may have gauged the real size of Google TV's user base and shown a problem getting adoption of its support for third-party apps. Of the 64 apps exclusive to the TV-sized platform in Android market, only 4,793,300 people have one or more of these apps installed, making it possibly representative of the entire Google TV base. The number could be lower given that only 4,441,000 have the six preloaded apps on their devices.
Samsung's AV product lead Chris Moseley in an interview Monday was dismissive of the threat posed by a possible Apple TV set. In the chat with Pocket-lint, he insisted that image quality was the primary factor and that Apple wouldn't have the image scaling or "world-renowned" picture quality. He downplayed the interface and software features, normally the highlight of Apple's devices, as backseat elements.
Boxee may be planning on introducing a subscription-based DVR service for its recently introduced Live TV tuner. This is suggested by a survey the company sent out this weekend, asking users how much they would be willing to pay for the ability to record 300 hours of TV per month. The options range from $5 to $15, though a Not Interested option is present as well.
When its fiscal year ends in March, Japanese camera maker Olympus is expected to post a 32 billion yen net loss (about $412 million), BusinessWeek reported on Monday. This is worse than analysts expected and largely due to writing off equipment in the Thailand factory floods that affected camera and hard drive makers alike. Company president Shuichi Takayama said Olympus may want to find a partner in order to boost capital.
Google's big Google TV news, or part of it, may have been detailed early in news on Sunday. The Android TV platform's YouTube app is being updated with a much stronger emphasis on channels ahead of original content plans. Matching up is a new discover feature that lets viewers find content by the category rather than just the channel.
An upgraded Apple TV media hub might come sooner than thought after signs emerged that multiple stores ran low on stock. Amazon, Best Buy, Buy.com, Radio Shack, and Target all show the device either as out of stock or taking weeks to ship. Apple and others do have supply, but it follows a pattern of third-party resellers usually running out first.
Google made the unusual choice of a Facebook posting to hint at "big announcements" coming for Google TV on Monday. The company wouldn't give any clues as to its plans. It's unlikely to include any minor OS updates, since it recently updated to Android 3.2.
Netflix has let a low-profile SEC filing reveal that it had privately settled a lawsuit. The dispute, which was resolved last year but would only be settled with a $9 million payment this year, accused Netflix of breaking the Video Privacy Protection Act and other consumer protection laws by keeping subscribers' video rental histories even after they cancelled. Customers who had resubscribed later found their past histories and queues intact, even though the VPPA required that it be purged in less than a year.
A joint research paper from the Departments of Economics at both Wellesley College (Brett Danaher) and the University of Minnesota (Joel Waldfogel) has suggested that BitTorrent movie rips and other Internet piracy wasn't hurting movies after they were exported to other countries. In instances where a US movie hadn't been pirated in advance of its international release, revenue from the movie was typically seven percent lower than it was when those abroad could bootleg the material. US sales also didn't necessarily go down with torrents in effect, the authors found.
KT, Korea's largest wire-line operator and Internet services provider, has begun limiting web access to Samsung's Smart TVs. KT took the step a day after it warned Korean TV makers that it could not give Internet-enabled TVs a "free ride" over its network. The service provider wants compensation for the alleged heavy traffic the TVs create, claiming it slows down Internet service to its other customers.
Instagram finished the week with a significant update to its app (App Store). The 2.1 update now has Lux, an image adustment option that automatically brings out details in highlights and shadows in a rough equivalent to high dynamic range (HDR) shooting. Similar to the tilt-shift effect, Lux can stack with other filters.
Using a network of Facebook event pages, a wiki and a spreadsheet in Google Docs, the anti-censorship group Fight for the Future is planning to launch large-scale crowd-sourced protests on Saturday against what they call the "European version of SOPA," known as ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). Over 200,000 people have committed to participate in 200 cities, mostly in Europe but with scattered protests in Canada, the US and elsewhere.
Amazon might bring the Kindle to Japan and overturn the status quo for e-readers in the country, according to claims made Friday [account required]. Japanese business paper Nikkei heard that the mid-tier Kindle Touch would be the flagship and could come as soon as April. Pricing at 20,000 yen ($258) would be steep relative to the $150 US Kindle Touch 3G, although it would include native, free 3G through NTT DoCoMo instead of roaming on AT&T.
After its ups and downs, the Moxi DVR hardware is slowly being phased out at retail, maker Arris announced. The hardware cannot be purchased anymore, and program guide data and technical support for the DVRs will go dead at the end of the day on December 31, 2013. Arris will focus on its partnerships with cable providers, such as with Shaw Cable in Canada.
Amazon won't split its streaming video service from Prime Instant Video in the near future despite rumors to the contrary. Brad Beale, Head of Digital Video Content Acquisition at Amazon, said during a Wednesday interview with GigaOM that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Previously, a letter to shareholders from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings mentioned that he expects Amazon to introduce a service that would undercut its own.
Roku's international plans became real Friday after it began UK and Ireland. The Roku LT and Roku 2 XS are now available for £50 and £100 respectively (60 and 120 euros). British customers are simultaneously getting BBC iPlayer to catch up on the past one to two weeks of TV shows.
More if indirect support for an early March iPad 3 launch came Thursday night through assertions that Apple was in "crunch mode" rounding up apps to demo the tablet. The rumor's sources at The Next Web had Apple stepping up the process of finding apps that would showcase the new iPad's very high resolution display. Apple was focusing on "graphics-oriented applications with high-definition assets," the tipsters said.
Netflix has updated its Android app (Market to add Facebook sharing in those countries that support it. Canada, Ireland, Latin American countries, and the UK now let viewers share what they're watching or check others' habits directly from the app. American users can't yet get access as Netflix is waiting on a bill easing video privacy permissions.
Apple has been exploring the idea of a 3D iOS interface that reacts to its surroundings, a newly-published patent application reveals. Called Three Dimensional User Interface Effects on a Display by Using Properties of Motion, the document notes that products like the iPhone have the benefit of numerous different sensors, such as accelerometers, compasses, cameras, and GPS receivers. "However, current systems do not take into account the location and position of the device on which the virtual 3D environment is being rendered," Apple writes. The company also mentions "physical and lighting properties of the user's environment" as factors that could be taken into account for presenting "a more interesting and visually appealing" interface.
Samsung may apply its Galaxy smartphone branding to a dedicated camera if a recent trademark filing with the USPTO is any indication. The "Galaxy Camera" name it's seeking would likely involve an Android-powered compact digital camera with a significantly larger lens, perhaps similar to the Polaroid SC1630 we had a chance to check out at CES. The filing falls under the "Cameras and Camcorders" section of the patent office and therefore wouldn't be a phone.
Apple is facing a rare instance of foreign patent trolling this week after a discovery that Swiss firm SmartData has sued it over a lone patent. The accusation, quietly filed earlier in the week in Apple's home court district in San Jose, alleged that the Apple TV, the iPhone, and the iOS Remote app violated a patent for a "modular computer." Using Remote on the iPhone to control content on the Apple TV copied the technology, the plaintiff argued.
Lytro's infinite focus camera has been torn down by the FCC, revealing its internal components. Behind the 1.5-inch display hides a Marvell Avastar 88W8787 system-on-chip that contains both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios. This is interesting, as it indicates the camera has the hardware required to be controlled over a wireless link or share its photos online.
New Nielsen data about TV viewing habits has shown that cord-cutters, or those who drop paid TV in favor of Internet viewing, are often decreasing their viewing habits as a whole. Someone who has broadband but only watches traditional TV over the air watches less than half that of a regular cable subscriber, at nearly 123 minutes a day on average instead of 257, but still uses it much more than Internet streaming. These viewers typically saw no more than 11.2 minutes a day of streaming video, which was over double the five minutes of a cable subscriber but far from a direct substitute.
The long-awaited and promised TiVo-enabled HD DVR from DirecTV is finally available nationwide. Previously, the set-top was only available in 10 markets. The box is unique in combining the TiVo interface and peanut remote control with DirecTV's HD content lineup.
Kodak validated rumors and said Thursday that it would stop making what most consider its core products. It plans to shut down production of still cameras, pocket video cameras, and digital photo frames within the first half of this year. The shift would leave it to inkjet printers and other photo printing.
Sony took its time at the CP+ camera show to outline much of its future Alpha and NEX roster. The company promised a full-frame Alpha camera to replace its long-in-tooth A900. No details were given to DPReview or others at the show, although Sony's frequent sensor partnership with Nikon could point to a camera based on the D800's 36.3-megapixel sensor.
An incidental rumor floated next to talk of a purported iPad 3 case back has raised the possibility that Apple's expected A6 chip isn't quad-core. Citing unnamed sources, The Verge claimed that it would stay dual-core but have a "significantly more powerful" graphics core. Although not mentioned, it's presumed the clock speed, architecture, or both would be upgraded with the new chip.
Swann has announced two miniature surveillance devices designed to look like everyday ballpoint pens. The HD PenCam and PenCam 4GB both capture videos and images onto digital media. The pen then plugs into a USB port to transfer the recorded shots onto a computer.
Sigma on Wednesday both remade and added to its camera lineup. First off, the company's new CEO, Kazuto Yamaki, revealed that the high-end SD1 DSLR will be renamed to SD1 Merrill and get a very significant price drop, from $9,700 to $3,300. Yamaki said the reduction is due to the lower production costs of the 46-megapixel APS-C sensor, though no performance compromises have been made.
Boxee in a direct criticism contended that cable companies were being anti-competitive in lobbying to drop a requirement that basic cable stay unencrypted. The Boxee Box designer argued that the request, which would let a TV provider require a set-top box or slot-in card to get any signal at all, was only meant to shut out free alternatives and force customers to buy or more often rent equipment. Company chief Avner Ronen argued that it would block devices like the Boxee Live TV add-on and that there was no real upside.
Luca Visual FX has launched four new plugins for Final Cut Pro, Motion, and After Effects. The first of these, Grunge Effects, is split between overlays and transitions. Both sets consist of animated textures, and despite their specialization, the transitions can potentially double as overlays.
Sony is attempting to reinvigorate consumer interest in its 3D products in Australia by introducing 3D lending libraries in its Sony Center stores. The new Sony 3D Library offers users who own 3D-capable TVs the opportunity to loan 3D digital imaging products including video cameras, as well as 3D movies and 3D games. The first of its kind program is offering users the opportunity to try the items out for three days free of charge and is available to customers regardless of whether their 3D TV is a Sony Bravia or otherwise.
Final Cut Pro X, a radical re-thinking of professional video editing that initially sparked more a revolt than the revolution Apple intended, has gone on to win PC Magazine's "Editor's Choice" award after a review of the program and the features restored and improved by its third free update. The latest version, released at the very end of January, restored multi-cam editing, broadcast monitoring and richer XML support to the suite, enabling Final Cut Pro 7 projects and third-party plug-ins. In doing so, it has begun to silence its critics.
Apple has sent out notifications to iOS developers that future updates to apps now require higher-resolution, 960x640 (Retina Display) compatible screenshots or the apps will not be approved. The change is a minor one (previous guidelines suggested, but did not require, Retina Display-level screenshots) and reflects the company's burgeoning base of iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and fourth-generation iPod Touch users, all of whom have higher-resolution screens.
Olympus brought out two specialized point-and-shoot cameras ahead of the CP+ show. Leading off is the SZ-31MR, one of the longest-ranged compact ultrazoom cameras with a 24X (25-600mm equivalent) lens. The camera makes up for the blur likely at the far end of its zoom both by using a 16-megapixel, backside-illuminated CMOS sensor and two previous-generation TruePic V chips that give it better low-light performance on top of improving camera speed and image processing.
Olympus ended rumors Tuesday by trotting out its highest-end Micro Four Thirds camera to date. The OM-D is consciously styled after the classic OM-4 film camera but, in place of the mirrors and optical viewfinder, has a 1.44-megapixel electronic viewfinder instead. It's billed as one of the few mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras to have its EVF in a more natural position above the lens, rather than at the corner on a camera such as the Sony NEX-7.
The mystery Viacom video deal was attached to Amazon Tuesday in a leak Tuesday. While the terms of the deal weren't known to Reuters, it would be part of a rumored plan to offer Internet subscription video as an option separate from a Prime deal. As hinted by Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, the deal could be made public as soon as this week, although whether or not that would include the new Amazon service wasn't mentioned.
Architects can take their designs to the next level, creating fly-throughs that offer physical simulation of light, reflections, time-of-day adjustability, water and sky renderings to achieve extremely realistic presentations based on Google SketchUp drawings with e-on Software's LumenRT 2, now available for Mac and Windows. The plug rendering solution for SketchUp uses an entirely new rendering engine that brings Vue environmental technology to design drawings.
Telus' Optik IPTV service got much more control over non-traditional viewing on Tuesday. Optik TV for Xbox 360 takes advantage of the fall Xbox 360 Dashboard update to use the console as the set-top box, including for remote DVR viewing if there's a traditional DVR on the same network. The support includes full Kinect motion control.
Pentax has introduced yet another set of rugged point-and-shoot cameras, the Optio WG-2 and WG-2 GPS. Both feature backlit 16-megapixel sensors capable of shooting 1080p video at 30fps, while a "microscope" mode utilizes a ring of six LEDs to light shots as close as 1cm from the lens.
Alien Skin Software has announced that Exposure 4, the latest version of its photography effects plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom, will launch this month. The software provides accurate film simulation as well as a range of effects with customizable parameters. The new release will feature a completely redesigned interface, as well as new controls for effects, and a text search feature. At release, a full Exposure 4 license is expected to sell for $250, while upgrade license will be sold for $99.
AT&T has now released the U-verse iPad app (free, App Store), meant as a companion to the TV watching experience. U-verse TV subscribers can get extra information and bonus content through the app on the TV show they're watching, such as photos, cast and crew data, similar shows, a synopsis, and more. The app will also turn the iPad into a remote control and a guide, letting users schedule DVR recordings and see what's coming up.
Today's deals from DealNN include discounted cameras, printers, and more. Ecost.com has recently lowered the price of the refurbished Olympus 14MP Digital Camera, complete with 3-inch LCD display, 5x optical zoom, 4x digital zoom, HD movie mode, and SD/SDHC memory card slot. Currently featured at DealNN, this camera has now dropped to $69.99 in price and offers savings of up to $110.
Adobe has uncovered more details of Creative Cloud, its upcoming online service. The service was originally announced in October, but until now has been largely kept under wraps. Access will cost at least $50 a month under a one-year contract, but grant users access to the apps in Creative Suite 6; by comparison, current CS5.5 bundles start at $1,299 up-front, and can cost as much as $2,599 for the complete collection.
Canon has introduced three all-in-one Pixma printers, the MX372, the MX512 Wireless and the MX432 Wireless. The two wireless enabled devices both support AirPrint allowing users to print directly from an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The printers are also accompanied by a companion mobile app, Canon Easy-PhotoPrint that is available for both iOS- and Android-based smartphones and tablets and now allows users to print PDFs created directly on the devices, not just photos as previously.
Canon brought Wi-Fi to more of its point-and-shoot cameras on Tuesday. Both the Elph 530 HS and Elph 320 HS can both send media directly to Image Gateway, an in-between album that in turn lets users share to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. An iOS app, CameraWindow is coming in March that promises to keep compact cameras relevant: it will let owners send photos and videos directly to the Apple devices both for safekeeping and to upload to the same social sites.
The most performance-minded camera in Canon's lineup for the CP+ show Tuesday was unveiled as the SX260 HS. While the model name is slightly off from leaks, it confirms talk of a leap from 14X to 20X zoom in the body. The design comes outfitted with both a 12.1-megapixel CMOS sensor that helps in low light as well as a DIGIC 5 chip that improves image quality and allows for 1080p video.
Canon picked Tuesday to bring out no less than six new PowerShot A-series cameras to boost its entry level. At the top, the A4000 IS and A3400 IS each have firsts: the A4000 IS has a long 8X zoom, while the similar-resolution A3400 has a 5X zoom but is the first A-series with a touchscreen that can be used to focus or take the shot. These and the other new cameras in the line all have 16-megapixel sensors and 720p video support.
