Panasonic PZ81 Freesat Plasma TV Range

We touched on this briefly when we announced the launch of the Freesat service, but we thought it would be the ideal time to take a look at the range of Freesat inclusive HD TVs that are being launched by Panasonic. Available, we believe, sometime in June these TVs represent pretty much the entire hardware range that the average tech savvy consumer can actually get excited about.

The PZ81 series offers three different models of plasma television; the 42 inch, 46 inch, and 50 inch versions. The televisions obviously come with a built in Freesat tuner as well as the features that have made Panasonic televisions some of the more popular entries to the market – 3 HDMI outputs, Ethernet port, SD slot, and the V-Real 3 processor.

We believe there will also be two smaller LCD Freesat televisions although these won’t be available until some time in October.

Freesat has launched with a reasonable 80 channels of SD and HD televisual entertainment and this figure is due to increase to more than 200 by the end of the year. The release was a somewhat quiet affair and, in our opinion, there were very few reasonable pieces of hardware available at launch. The set top boxes represented pretty much the entire range, with no televisions and no PVR options available as yet.

A Limitless Supply Of Virtual Bubble Wrap

You can rely on the Japanese to create gadgets that amaze and enthrall. Puchi Puchi is the latest creation from Bandai, the Japanese toy manufacturers and could be considered either a kid’s toy or an executive stress relieving toy. Whatever you consider it to be, you have to concede to its sheer brilliance.

Puchi Puchi is the term that the Japanese use to describe the noise that bubble popping makes and each Puchi Puchi has 8 buttons that closely resemble bubble wrap packaging. By pressing one of the buttons, it simulates the noise and action of popping the bubble but without ever having to destroy any plastic – a limitless virtual supply of bubble wrapping!!!

To say that Puchi Puchi has caused a stir would be a major understatement. They were first released in Japan in September 2007 selling an astonishing 1 million units within the first 48 hours of being released. Since combing to Europe, they have gained the adulation of celebrities like Jonathan Ross.

At just £6 each they’re a damn site cheaper than buying new electrical goods just to get the bubble wrap and they’re available in three colours – clear, blue, and pink. Oh, and the Puchi Puchi rewards regular users by playing a surprise sound when you’ve pressed it several times (a doorbell is the only one I know of).

HTC Touch Diamond – Competition For The iPhone?

The iPhone was far and away the must have gadget of the last year for many people. Touch screen goodness and a good set of features made it truly stand out from the crowd, although the millions of people that will seemingly buy anything with the Apple logo also helped its popularity I’m sure. Recent news on the iPhone is that it’s now unavailable in the UK but an updated 3G version will be available very soon.

In the meantime, here’s a potential competitor to salivate over. The HTC Touch Diamond is expected to be released in less than a couple of months although no firm information on networks and pricing have been released. Murmurs have indicated that Orange will be the first to offer the Touch Diamond at a sim-free price of £400 or, if you’re willing to sell your soul on a monthly basis, you could get the handset free.

As well as offering a full touch-screen interface with 2.8” display, it will have built in A-GPS software to use with any satnav application. It will also have a 3.2MP camera and 3G data meaning that users will be privvy to speeds of up to 7.2MBps. FM radio and built in WiFi and bluetooth round off an impressive set of features that is designed to make the Touch Diamond compete with the latest incarnation of the iPhone.

The Portable Camo Hard Drive – Don’t Put It Down In The Garden

It’s not often that a hard drive manufacturer has the cunning foresight to create camouflaged portable hard drives is it? And, if we’re being completely honest, there’s probably a damn good reason for that. But we’re not ones to shun the pointless because there will undoubtedly be somebody somewhere that has been keenly awaiting the introduction of a camo drive. Well, put your acrylic paint and brushes away, because Iomega has developed the hard drive that you can lose in your garden.

At £75 it isn’t that unreasonably priced and offers 250GB of storage and USB 2.0 connectivity. Clearly, it’s unlikely that you’re ever really going to have a need for a woodland camouflaged portable hard drive but if you just can’t get enough camo gear, or are sick of those boring, modern silver and black designs then the latest offering in the Iomega eGo line is definitely, possibly, for you.

Protected by an Iomega Power Grip, the drive is said to offer extra ruggedness and durability but it does lead you to question just what Iomega think you are actually going to do with a portable hard drive. There can’t really be any serious and legitimate uses for such covert periperals can there?

Iomega via Gizmodo

TorrentSpy Ordered To Pay $110m In Damages

TorrentSpy, the now defunct torrent sharing website, has been ordered to pay the equivalent of £56m to the Motion Picture Association of America. The site indexed millions of torrents of music, images, TV, and films but the site was plagued by court action throughout its life. Eventually, in a bid apparently designed to protect its users’ privacy, TorrentSpy closed its doors in March of this year.

Valence Media, the parent company of TorrentSpy, as well as its owners Justin Bunnell and Wes Park have filed for bankruptcy. Understandably, the MPAA sees this as being a major victory in their fight against online copyright laws. They began legal action against TorrentSpy in February 2006 and the site was later ordered to being tracking users and submit its findings to the MPAA. In order to prevent this from happening, American users were blocked from using the site.

Dan Glickman, chairman of the MPAA stated that “the demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios.” While the torrent sharing technology itself is perfectly legitimate and speeds up downloads by breaking data into smaller packets, the infringement of copyright laws obviously isn’t legal. Legal action is ongoing for many other Torrent index websites as the MPAA and other organizations attempt to stop the illegal downloading of content online.

Gear4 Bass Station iPod Speakers - Ugly But They Sound Good

There’s a mass of iPod speakers and speaker docks available on the market, making choosing the right one a seemingly difficult task. The Gear4 Bass Station is one of the latest to be released and despite its simplistic looks it packs a fairly incredible punch. It’s also not a particularly portable option weighing 3kg but that’s primarily because it combines an impressive 35W of sound output with a seriously capable 5 inch subwoofer hidden under the bonnet.

Make no mistakes, the Gear4 Bass Station is unlikely to win any design awards, except perhaps an award for the most inoffensive and plain uninteresting design award. But, looks aren’t everything, and crank it up loud sound quality counts for a lot – or, at least, it should.

The sound quality is truly immense with every note from every instrument and accompaniment played with crystal clear quality. From deep bass to high treble you will really struggle to find fault with the quality of the output.

Currently, this unit will set you back about £100 but if excellent sound quality is what matters, as well as a far from unreasonable power output. However, if you’re buying for show, then you definitely need to look elsewhere because this is, at best, dull in design.

100MB Broadband Coming Soon To Bournemouth Residents

I’m sure there are plenty of incredible reasons to live in Bournemouth, and H2O have released news that offers yet another. H20 intend to pioneer super fast broadband cables that run through the sewer system within the Dorset town with more towns to be announced in the near future. Companies have been toying with methods to deliver improved Broadband speeds to the country’s residents, and using the sewer seems one of the more viable and cost effective methods.

Work will begin on the network that is currently being offered to businesses, within the next 6 months. This means that residents will be able to enjoy super fast broadband (a term regularly thrown about by Broadband providers already) of up to 100MB.

Ofcom has been at the head of research to develop methods that offer improved Broadband. This action has been taken because the UK has one of the poorest Broadband options in Europe. In other European countries residents can already enjoy the kinds of Broadband connection that H20 wants to develop.

Increased Broadband, like this, will mean greater possibilities of on-demand HD TV and other services that are currently restricted by poor Internet connections. Virgin Broadband currently offers residents up to 24MB broadband and aim to increase their entire network to speeds of 50MB by the end of this year.

Source – BBC Technology News

Next Gen Console Wars – An Update

A lot is always made of the console wars. While Sony had pretty much the run of the battlefield with its first PlayStation, Microsoft and Nintendo have more recently staged serious bids to overthrow the all conquering heir. The Nintendo Wii remains the most popular console worldwide, with the Xbox360 holding firm in second place. However, the PS3 is gaining a real head of steam with news that it has now outsold the Xbox360 in the European market.

The Nintendo Wii was a hugely innovative games console, thanks to the Wii Mote. As a result of this, it is seen as bridging the gap between games consoles and the whole span of generations. Older consumers, as well as much younger, would be more inclined to play the Wii than either the PS3 or Xbox360.

Xbox360 gained a lot of the market share from its fiercest rivals, Sony, by releasing considerably earlier. By the time the PS3 was released, Microsoft’s system already had a plethora of high quality titles available. What was more, the Xbox Live networking play had also attracted large numbers of people.

Sony is estimated to have now sold approximately 16 million unites worldwide (compared to 19 million Xbox360s and 25 million Wiis). Billed as being more of an all-in-one home entertainment system the PS3 is more expensive than the Xbox360 but it represents one of the most affordable and realistic methods to purchase a Blu-Ray player.

As reported by BBC News, Sony believes it will overtake the Xbo360 in the near future and reclaim its crown as the leading games console within its ten year lifespan. Kaz Hirai, the head of the gaming console division at Sony, believes this will be achieved thanks to an improved line up of available games brought about by developer’s learning the technology behind the system.

Sharp X-Series Launches With Wireless Option (In Japan)

The area behind the television in our house is a space where nobody dares venture. The great wire graveyard where dust collects at an alarming rate could, though, be a thing of the past very soon. Sharp has released its first wireless television in Japan – the X-Series uses a Wireless High Definition Interface (WHDI) to do away with games console, DVD player, and even satellite connection wires.

A seperate box is provided, which is used to route the TV inputs through. This box can be placed up to 100 feet away from the TV and even works through walls using a 5GHz band. The X-Series of Televisions offer the wireless technology as an optional extra, rather than a standard feature.

Sharp has partnered with Amimon to create and distribute the technology behind the wireless TV. Chip manufacturer Amimon claim that WHDI enables 1080p high definition quality to be broadcast at speeds of up to 3GB/s with a range of up to 30 metres.

The X-Series is quite a breakthrough in TVs. The range offers 37” to 46” displays and was released under the banner of being the then world’s thinnest LCD TVs.

If the technology is effective enough, and affordable enough, it could spell the end of ridiculous lengths of cable between many of the devices attached to your TV set. I, for one, wait with baited breath.

Freesat Launch Products Look Limited

In light of the news that 98% of the population would be able to receive free satellite through the new Freesat service released today, we thought it may be prudent to look at the equipment that was immediately available. Unfortunately, there is only a handful of manufacturers making equipment at the moment but Freesat does run on open standards so other manufacturers are likely to join in the party once they’ve seen how successful the launch actually is.

The Standard Definition Freesat box offers an affordable way to receive all the standard definition channels. Bush, Grundig, Goodmans, and Humix all manufacture these as well as the High Definition boxes. Prices range from about £50 upwards.

If you want to watch High Definition channels through Freesat on your new Plasma or LCD TV then you will need an HD box. Humix is also promising the release of an HD box that incorporates the functions of a PVR so you can record, pause, and rewind live TV.

Panasonic are in the process of developing and launching High Definition TVs with built in Freesat receivers. While you will still need a satellite dish to receive the channels, this presents a good opportunity to buy a new HD TV with a good freeview package that is due to expand and include a lot more channels in the very near future.

In my opinion, it’s a fairly major mistake that no PVR option will be available at launch. However, if you just want a good freeview type offering and aren’t concerned with recording or any of the other features offered with a PVR then Freesat looks to be a superb option. The boxes are all relatively similar and you may want to wait until Panasonic release their impressive looking range of Freesat TVs.

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