A Set-Top Box That Pops

Syabas, makers of the Popcorn Hour network video player, recently unveiled the Popbox. This new home media player features 20 media partners, including Blip.TV (for video content), Twitter (for social viewing), and Clicker (for locating premium video from all over the Internet). Lots of these network video players are showing up now, but Popbox seems to have perfected the interface: It's nice to look at, intuitive, and easily searchable, which is more than I can say for some other entrants in this market. Popbox is expected to be available in March for $129

Internet Radio Revived

Internet radio has been around for a few years now, but British company Pure has put an innovative twist on it with the Sensia. With a colorful touch interface, a stylish design, and an endless library of stations from all over the world, the Sensia is one of the most entertaining gadgets I saw at the show.

Revolutionary 2010 Car Tech from Ford

         

There are five-way controls on either side of the steering wheel similar to those found on mobile phones and MP3 players.  Two small color LCD screens are on either side of the speedometer. The left side displays the vehicle functions; the right side displays the entertainment, phone and data controls. An 8-inch touchscreen LCD is at the top of the center stack, a customizable interface allows the driver to choose a display that allows for quick easy access to everything they need with one touch.

Ford has updated its Sync technology and made a new driver interface and dashboard design called myFord Touch where it had its debut at CES 2010.

myFord Touch, marries voice recognition, graphic screens and touch controls on the steering wheel.  The new console will first be available in the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX.  Starting in 2012 it will be available for the Ford Focus.

The Sync technology, from Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Auto platform, is meant to connect your electronic devices to a voice-command system in your car. It also uses interface controls that are familiar to customers, to connect drivers to the vehicle’s functions.

To connect your gadgets the media hub on myFord Touch has two USB ports, an SD slot and RCA audio/visual input jacks. With a USB broadband modem connection the car accesses WiFi.

The SD slot is home for the navigation system data, for  map-based navigation to the graphical turn-by-turn directions that are standard with myFord. By putting the navigation data on an SD card it saves you from having to upgrade the old map information.

The new Ford's MyFord Touch: FAQ

Ford is making waves at the Consumer Electronics Show with MyFord Touch, a re-envisioned dashboard for multimedia, navigation and connections to the Internet. But while it's nice to ogle the technology's features or panic about safety, there are plenty of practical questions to answer.

What is MyFord Touch and how is it different from Ford Sync?
Sync, a joint effort between Microsoft and Ford introduced in 2007, communicates with phones via Bluetooth to provide communication, media playback, navigation and diagnostics. MyFord Touch is a new interface for Sync, essentially redesigning the car's dashboard around it.

What's so great about the that?
Some of the MyFord Touch excitement actually has more to do with Sync itself, which will soon support hands-free control of mobile apps. Features exclusive to MyFord Touch include video playback, photo backgrounds imported via SD card, control over ambient lighting colors and the ability to access the Web by plugging in a 3G/4G modem or parking the car at a Wi-Fi hotspot.

What does it look like?
In my brief hands-on, there was never a time when I couldn't immediately access options for entertainment, navigation and phone connections. There are also buttons on the wheel for controlling these options, and the car's instrument panel has additional screens for easier viewing of MyTouch features. Response time with the touch panel was a bit sluggish, but Ford says this will be improved before release.

What's all this about apps?
Ford has a development application programming interface available now to select developers. These developers can integrate the apps into Ford vehicles and release an update on mobile phone app stores that unlock the functionality. On display at CES were Pandora, Stitcher (a build-your-own talk radio service) and Twitter (Tweets are read back to you by a computerized female voice). These are controllable by voice or with the car's buttons, with more apps to come. Eventually, Ford wants to open app development to a wide network of developers.

What cars will include MyFord Touch?

The first supported vehicles will be the 2011 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX (branded MyLincoln Touch), followed by the 2012 Ford Focus. MyMercury Touch vehicles are also planned.

Will MyFord Touch come standard in these cars?
Yes, but there will be three tiers for the interface. The top tier, being shown at CES, has an 8-inch resistive touch screen, capacitive buttons underneath, plus two additional screens in the instrument panel. The middle tier has has only one screen in the panel, and the bottom tier replaces the 8-inch screen with a 4-inch non-touch screen, accompanied by buttons on either side.

HDTV, 3D TV's & more 2010

The 3D Revolution Is Here. Get Ready for 3D, More LEDs, OLEDS, Pixels, and Web Services.

I don't think it's a false start this time: The 3D-product plans for the coming year represent the initial salvos of the coming 3D revolution. Panasonic's 3D demos were among the most convincing. But the best implementation I saw, unfortunately, is one that won't be coming to market anytime soon: Sony showed its 24.5-inch 3D OLED HDTV as a technology demo only.

http://www.techhive.com/article/186451/hdtv_overview_ces.html

HTC HD2 Coming to T-Mobile US This Spring

The Best Windows Mobile Phone Yet

Since the HTC HD2 launched in Europe and Asia, the blogosphere has been buzzing about whether it would launch stateside. What's so hot about this smartphone? It has a superslim design, a 4.3-inch display, and a powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processor. It is by far the best Windows Mobile phone we've ever seen, and one of the best of the show. The HD2 will land on T-Mobile this spring. http://www.pcworld.com/article/186166/htc_hd2_coming_to_tmobile_us_this_spring.html

Boxee Gets Boxed

D-Link is the first vendor to come out with a dedicated piece of hardware for the lauded Boxee home media management software. The box is oddly shaped, but it won't take up much space when it sits next to a TV. It streams Internet video and connects wirelessly to your computer, so it can play back media files, such as music, photos, and video, on your TV. You get Boxee's cool user interface, as well as a long list of supported file formats; you can play virtually any kind of video on it. The Boxee Box will be available for $199 in the second quarter of this year.

Pocket Megazoom Camera

Sony's 10X-optical-zoom Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V shoots 1080i video and offers GPS capabilities, a digital compass, a revamped Sweep Panorama mode, and wireless file sharing via TransferJet. Casio's 10X-optical-zoom EX-FH100 has a rapid-fire mode that snaps 40 shots per second and shoots RAW-format images. And Samsung's 7X-optical-zoom CL80 has an AMOLED touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity, and an innovative design.

info Sony's DSC-HX5V Cyber-shot, Casio's EX-FH100 Rapid-fire, Samsung CL80