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Sony BDP-S470 3D Blu-Ray Player Preview
February 13, 2010
Over the last couple of months, the world of 3D movies and TV has taken huge strides forward. The world’s first real 3D-ready TV’s have been launched as well as movies such as Avatar 3D taking it to the big screen in a hugely successful way. Well here’s a promising addition to the ongoing saga. The Sony BDP-S470 3D Blu-Ray Player. First shown at CES, the 3D-ready, Blu-Ray Player will be capable of playing 3D-ready Blu-Ray movies without any firmware updates. Talking of firmware updates, PS3 users are still waiting on their 3D update for the Playstation 3 console. Is this a step in the right direction as far as gaming as well as movies is concerned?
One of Sony’s biggest targets this year has clearly been to maintain the quality design of all of their products. This device does indeed continue that trend. Though minimalistic aesthetically, it is sure to be a perfect match for almost nay home theater set up due to the plain yet sleek design. As with the Sony BRAVIA 3DTVs also announced at CES, it follows the “monolithic design concept” which they say is a key feature of their home entertainment products for 2010.
Continue reading »Zath’s Technology & Gadget Roundup (12/02/2010)
February 12, 2010
Well it’s the end of another week and as always there’s been a lot going on in the world of technology and hi-tech gadgets, luckily some of our favourite websites have not let us down as they’ve covered some of them this week, here’s some of the stories that we liked most, along with a few of our favourites from Zath and the thoughts that come to mind from reading them!
O2 Testing 4G Mobile Broadband Network in the UK – the one thing that puts me off buying a mobile broadband device right now is the fact that I see such variable coverage and often poor download speeds when using my mobile phone, so news that we could be approaching a time of 4G mobile broadband coverage which would see much faster browsing and download speeds is a very promising thing, although I’m guessing it’s still a few years off just yet, so I’ll probably end up using the 3 Mobile Broadband voucher code to save £54 afterall, but there’s hope for the future!
Continue reading »Apple Mac Mini Review
January 27, 2010
Last week I bought myself an Apple Mac Mini and after a few mishaps regarding video adapters, I finally got it up and running towards the end of the week. Needless to say I was growing ever more impatient as it was sat on my desk doing little more than collecting dust and awaiting the arrival of the correct adapter.
Having been an avid Windows user for my entire life up to this point, I was originally apprehensive about switching. Obviously, I have had the odd experience with Mac OS X before and was impressed to say the least, but I have not had the opportunity before now to explore the entire operating system. Anyway, on with the Mac Mini review!
Even before I had torn through the Mac Mini’s packaging on delivery, you could tell just how tiny the machine was. The entire box was easy to carry in one hand which is remarkable considering this is no lightweight in terms of performance or build quality. I opted for the basic model as I decided the extra juice was unnecessary for my purpose with the machine.
Continue reading »LaCie LaCinema Mini HD Announced (1080p Home Media Center)
January 25, 2010
The network media streaming market is continually developing with exciting new products being released year on year… Arguably the pick of the bunch in 2009 was the LaCie LaCinema Classic HD or perhaps the Dell Inspiron Zino HD, which took content from a computer and displayed it on a TV. Simple enough, but there were definite improvements that could have been made on the product.
The beginning of 2010 has seen the release of LaCie’s LaCinema Mini HD player which plays full high definition content at 1080p and bringing a welcome low-cost option to this particular market. The first noticeable feature of the Mini HD is the inclusion of built in 802.11n Wi-Fi alongside the standard ethernet port.
Continue reading »New Sony Blu-Ray Players Announced (CES 2010)
January 7, 2010
These stylish new blu-ray players from Sony were announced at this year’s CES along with the Sony Bravia HD & 3D TVs. They are capable of playing full 1080p 3D movies. Although some of the TV’s have built in Blu-Ray players, this is a great addition for anyone who would rather not opt for that option.
They also feature Sony’s new Monolithic Design Concept and catch up TV functionality. All of this combined creates an exciting TV experience. Personally, I am extremely grateful to Sony for bringing this level of functionality to televisions. With all the progress in the mobile and computing areas, it is a welcome change to see such vast improvement in the TV department.
Continue reading »LG’s CES Press Event Roundup (CES 2010)
January 6, 2010
LG held their CES press event earlier today, and after moving past sales figures for the past year (yes, LG are still booming in the recession), we got to some pretty interesting technology…
LG TVs
A particular point of interest was wireless technology in TV’s. All LG TV’s will be wireless ready in 2010. If you’re not familiar with wireless TV, it does what it says on the tin, allowing you to stream 1080p video to your HDTV remotely without the need for a host of wires ruining the view. It’s certainly a promising technology, and definitely beats the good ol’ cable organiser!
To go along with this, LG also announced improvements to their ‘Broadband Services’, bringing 35 different internet services directly to LG TV’s and hard drive equipped Blu-Ray players. They call this ‘DivX TV’, and I love the idea, as it helps cut out the set top box or PC you’d normally use and allow you to bring these directly to your TV.
Continue reading »Marvell Smart…Smartbook Announced! (CES 2010)
January 6, 2010
Don’t say I didn’t warn you about Smartbooks in 2010! Smartbooks are on the rise, and ever present at this year’s CES. Marvell have a new smartbook on display, and it looks very interesting… The first thing that’s striking is how incredibly thin the device is – it’s thinner than the Macbook Air with the screen measuring a very respectable 12.1”.
Under the hood, it has an Armada 510 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, and the demo can handle 1080p video without a hitch, which is a good sign for a Smartbook. At the moment, a demo model is all that this is, but it shows what we could be seeing from Marvell in the near future and the design is definitely spot on.
Continue reading »LaCie LaCinema Classic HD – 1080p Home Media Center Server
November 25, 2009
We’ve had VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray but I think the next big step forward is surely towards the world of the hard drive, and as they increase in number, ability and prominence and decrease in price and number of potential problems then we can expect to see them being accepted more and more.
And so the scene is nicely set for the LaCie LaCinema Classic HD which was released this week and boasts all of the features you would expect from as top of the range model including things like full High Definition playback, networking capabilities and the potential to act as a Home Media Server.
Continue reading »New Apple iMac Update (October 2009)
October 27, 2009
Ever since the release of the original iMac, the main selling point has been its simplicity – no tower, just a screen with a computer built in. Over the years, there’s been quite a few generations of the iMac, in fact it doesn’t seem that long since the last Apple iMac update, but the simplicity factor still remains. The new iMac comes in two models, with a 21.5” configuration and a huge 27” configuration. Shortly after the new models were released, I was fortunate enough to get down to the Apple store to check it out, and I loved what I saw…
Xbox 360 Price Changes – Down and Up!
August 27, 2009
Following on from Sony’s announcement of the new PS3 Slim and with it, a price cut down to £250 at this year’s GamesCom, Microsoft have now announced that the Xbox 360 will be having a price change effective from Friday 28th August.
The ‘Pro’ console which comes with a 60GB hard drive will no longer be available for sale, leaving the ‘Arcade’ and ‘Elite’ consoles available on the shelves. The Elite will still keeps its 120GB hard drive but will lose the HDMI cable that was bundled with previous sets. The price of the Elite will come down to £200 – definitely a cheap Xbox 360 given what you get for your money!
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