Best & Worst of CES – British computer-oriented site vnunet.com summarized their coverage of the recent Consumer Electronics Show with a “Best and Worst” list. Some of its items were: Video monitors of all sorts getting thinner yet, Palm’s Pre being perhaps the first real competitor to Apple’s iPhone, Green technology is now hot, certain exhibits such as Samsung had absurd “No Photos” rules, hotel room prices came down as the show dates approached, and nearly everyone gets the “CES Flu” as a result of the crowds and weather.
Tampa Offers Obsolete Electronics Dumping Day – On January 11 the Tampa, FL Solid Waste Department offered its first Electronics-Only Collection Day in advance of the federally-mandated switch to all-digital TV Feb. 17. Motorists lined up all day to drop off as many as five TVs or computers at once. “I saw TVs from the 60s,” said one worker. Another such day is scheduled in April.
3 Times More 3D at CES – While most pocketbooks are much less deep than they used to be, exhibitors at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas were out to show depth everywhere. Home theaters, webcams, live TV and cell-phone-size screens got the 3D treatment. Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and LG all had 3D displays at their exhibits. Toshiba showed a system that does not require any glasses for the 3D effect. The Panasonic system used battery-powered 3D glasses that alternately blocked each eye’s view to achieve the 3D effect instead of polarized or anaglyph glasses. But none of the products is for sale as yet and there are few 3D discs and no 3D telecasts. Panasonic wants to solve that problem by creating standards for both broadcasts and discs, possibly using Blu-ray in the process. Hollywood – which has been doing well with its reintroduction of improved 3D in some theaters – would need to support the new 3D consumer standard.
Local Libraries Come In Handy in Economic Squeeze – Some families are halting home subscriptions to Cable TV, Netflix and high-speed Internet. Instead, they are going to their local library for book and movie needs and not spending a dime. Librarians says they haven’t seen such a surge in useage in over a decade. A library in San Clara , CA said that users checked out 10.5 million books and materials last fiscal year- up 10% over the previous year. In some California libraries the increase is 25% to 30%. A user reported,. “We can walk out with a stack of DVDs and books and it doesn’t costs us anything. That’s the best best part. The movies are not new releases but we don’t have to pay for it.”
Cambridge Audio Receiver Has Full HMDI 1.3b Reception – At CES Cambridge Audio launched the Azur 640R AV Receiver, which has a Cirrus Logic/Crystal chip set, with twin 32-bit DSPs and full support for Dolby Digital Plus, DTS- HD Hi-Res and Dolby TruHD and Master HD audio formats, as well as SACD and DVD-Audio. The receiver is 7x100W per channel, has stereo direct mode, lip sync delay feature, optional bi-amping, multi-room capability and a trio of HDMI inputs. The SRP will be $1800.
