Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

Just in case you didn’t get your fill of tall-ass monolithic 2001-lookin’ portable audio device docks, Philips has a new cop on the beat: the not-yet-announced Docking Enterainment System DCM270. Besides playing CDs and docking your GoGear (or wait — is that a YP-K3?), it’ll even play nice with your iPod, something Apple’s decidedly punier Hi-Fi can’t attest to. More on it soon.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Displays, Gaming, HDTV, Transportation

If you’re incensed about wasting your weekend (and part of last week) cruising around in futility trying to locate a Playstation 3 or Nintendo Wii, the GamerBUS can provide the ultimate painkiller — provided you live around the Virginia Beach area, that is. If you’ve got 63 friends or so, and you’re not claustrophobic, you can pack your posse into the 37-foot customized RV and get your game(s) on. Sporting a bevy of comfortable seating options, sixteen Xbox 360 “gamer stations” (pictured after the jump) with their own 23-inch Philips HDTV, and all the CAT5 cable / electricity you could ever need, this redefines the party on wheels. Essentially offering a mobile gaming LAN, the bus operators will gladly wire up a 16-person system-linked round of Halo 2 (or a variety of other titles) while you provide the Cheetos and air fresheners. Although weekday hours boast an understandable discount, weekend rates range from $125 to $150 per hour, depending on how long you occupy the vehicle. Notably, no connection has been drawn between this newfangled gaming service and the Va Beach entrepreneur trickster hitting it big on vulnerable ATMs.

[Via Digg]

Continue reading GamerBUS provides mobile Xbox 360 LAN parties

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Lovers of gadgetry, power tools and razors apparently aren’t the only consumers easily appeased by the “more is better” mantra, it seems medical purchases can fall prey to its magic spell as well. Philips just busted out the new Avalon FM20 antepartum and FM30 intrapartum monitors (fancy med speak for pre-birth and birth) which can track not one, not two, but three fetal heart traces. That means mothers of triplets can have all three of their precious chilluns monitored at once, throughout the delivery process. In other baby news, a Japanese toy company has created a Mickey Mouse toy that plays soothing music for newborns, and can even create noises that can be heard by the baby while in the womb. Mickey will be hitting US shelves next February for $43.

Read – Philips triplets monitor [Via Medgadget]
Read – Mickey Mouse baby soother [Via Spluch]

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ll be the first to admit, if we were a featured character in a prime-time soap surrounding cataclysmic events, we’d be killed off early in the first season — we’re just no good to anybody in emergency situations. Now we’ve got a chance to make it all the way to a sophomore slump, with this new “Just-In-Time Support” (JITS) device which provides audio and video instructions to untrained bystanders (besting that audio-only version from Philips), allowing them to administer CPR and diagnose the victim. The JITS, which is being developed by some University of Utah researchers, is currently a prototype, but in test runs on dummy victims, untrained users managed to match American Heart Association guidelines while using the device. The kit includes defibrillator pads and an anesthesia mask, along with a video screen that gives live feedback in regards to what actions to take — sounds like a good time with or without an emergency to attend to.

[Via medGadget]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Announcements, HDTV

Want to find out who won that Samsung HL-S5679W DLP from last time on Engadget HD? Want a chance to snag a Philips 42PF9631D 42-inch plasma this time around? We thought you might. Head on over to Engadget HD to get entered, you don’t want to miss your chance for a free 42-inch friggin HDTV, right?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Displays

In a slug-fest destined for Betamax v. VHS proportions, the adaptive ambient lighting battle roy-ale is about to go down in The Netherlands. Dutch upstarts, ARE (Ambient Reality Effects) are looking to undercut cross-town rivals Philips, with a low-cost Ambilight alternative. For a, uh, not so low-cost $255, ARE will send you their Basic Starter package to project color behind your TV or computer monitor for hot, mood enhancing fun without the risk of flashback or scuffles with the 5-0. The kit contains a USB controller, software, and a single “high quality” LED strip fitted with 10, multi-colored RGB LED light sources for placement behind your display. The controller supports up to four strips to bring the economic hurt on Philip’s Full Surround Ambilight action. So best stock-up on canned foods folks ’cause when word gets out there’ll be pandaemonium — sure, it’ll be pleasant and soothing, but pandaemonium nevertheless.

[Via Pocket-Link]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Displays, Household

This being a digital picture frame, we’re sure you don’t need much introduction. What’s new is that Philips is trumping their previous 7-incher with this new 9-inch PhotoFrame, giving you that much more LCD real estate for displaying embarrassing childhood memories and too-cute family moments. The frame also ups the ante with dual card readers, we suppose to allow for intense memory card hot-swap action. There’s also a little bit of internal memory if you want to be boring about it. The frame comes in a “Modern” and “Classic” design (we figure we’re looking at the mod version here), and both can of course be wall mounted. No word on price or availability, but we’re sure you’ll be able to get in on the action soon enough.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

While it’s not quite as exciting as those computer-free and base station-free WiFi Skype phones that have been cropping up of late, Philips’ new VoIP841 phone at least can do its thing without a computer — and does it in style. The new phone bests its VoIP321 predecessor with a color screen and a whole lot more sexy. Of course, we expect this phone to trump the former on price as well, so you’ll have to ask yourself if those pretty little notification icons are really worth the extra green. All you need to make calls with the VoIP841 is a broadband connection to hook the base into, after that the DECT protocol takes over and you can roam your house in freedom, with cute little Skype graphics to keep you company. The phone should be available for the 2006 holiday season.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

As part of its “extensive” coverage of this year’s International Meeting on Information Display in Korea, AVING has a brief write-up on a 42-inch LCD monitor from LG that can switch between 2D and 3D modes at the touch of a button. And by “brief write-up,” we mean just that; it’s literally a one line mention of the HD-capable set, with no explanation as to how it performs this amazing feat. We suspect that the company has been working with Philips and implemented its WOWvx 3D technology, which provides auto-stereoscopic images without the need for those silly-looking, 50′s era blue and red glasses. There’s a good chance that this monitor will be on display again at CES, though, in which case we promise to provide you with the full deets (or at least a post containing a little more of the technical jargon that you love).

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Features, Handhelds

We had a chance to spend some quality time this week with ARINC’s eFlyBook, essentially an iRex iLiad all gussied up in aviation trim. True, we know the subject matter may not interest the lion’s share of our readers, but finding appropriate vertical markets may prove crucial to the short-term success of the iLiad and products like it — besides, the eFlyBook is a dead ringer for its unbranded sibling, so if you’re in the eBook market, do read on.

Speaking from a pilot’s perspective, the $899 eFlyBook gives major bang for the buck for one simple reason: it eliminates reams of books and binders that all but the most casual flyboys need to have at the ready. Reams, people. To make matters worse, the documentation is subject to fairly frequent updates. The eFlyBook rocks a subscription model that automatically updates loaded charts via a link to a PC — you get six months for free, then $249/year thereafter. ARINC’s loaded a custom app onto the iLiad to manage their charts in an intelligent way, though the software was a bit flaky (read: sluggish, partially non-functional) at the time of our encounter and an update is promised in the next couple weeks.

For those of you doing some very early comparison shipping between the iLiad and Sony’s oft-delayed PRS-500, ARINC has already done some of that footwork for you. In talking with their development lead, it sounds like they went with the iLiad as their OEM device primarily for two reasons: sixteen native shades of gray (versus the PRS-500′s four) and built-in WiFi. Whether those factors are important to you is another matter entirely, but they’re interesting points to consider nonetheless.

Now that we’re finally on the cusp of widespread consumer availability, what did we think of the iLiad as a consumer device? First and foremost, enough cannot be said about the sheer beauty of the display. We would swear up and down that we were looking at a sheet of laser-printed paper behind a sheet of matte glass — yes, it’s that good. In fact, you can use a sheet of paper right now to get a very good idea of the kinds of pros and cons you’ll run into. Legibility increases with good lighting and decreases (rapidly) in poor lighting. Viewing angle is virtually 180 degrees; the background is very white and the text is very black.

Working against the iLiad, however, is a laughably poor refresh rate — yes, we know it comes with the territory for this display technology, but there are several screens in the device (when searching text, for example) where interactivity is a must. Refresh rate aside, ARINC’s software was pokey at best, though that can hopefully be attributed at least in part to its beta status. We also weren’t too happy with the cheesy dark grey casing, which made the $900 device look $150 at best and detracted from its stunning centerpiece. Overall, we’d say the tech shows promise, but the public at large is best off waiting for the next generation. Color e-ink isn’t terribly far off, DRM wars are yet to be resolved, and we just know some of y’all are holding up for Apple to get into the game, anyway.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handhelds

If you’ve had your eye on the iLiad eBook reader from Philips spin-off iRex — and also have a need for a lot of boring aviation-related documents — then you may be interested in a new product called the eFlyBook from ARINC that combines both of your passions. Little more than an iLiad pre-loaded with such exciting fare as the US Terminal Procedures Publication, US IFR High & Low Enroute Charts, and an Airport Facility Directory, among others, the eFlyBook is one of the only ways Americans can curently get their hands on iRex’s debut product, pilot or no pilot. You’ll recall that the iLiad is a 400MHz device with an 8-inch, 1,024 x 768 screen that sports both a CF and SD slot for user-supplied content, so besides all the flight documentation, flyboys can also load up the ‘Book with their own novels and magazines to read while letting auto-pilot do all the hard work. Available to order immediately, this rebadged version of the iLiad will set you back a cool $900, plus whatever it costs to update the aviation docs once the included six-month Charts & Data subscription expires. Not the cheapest way to get your eBook on, but until Sony rolls out its own proprietary reader, your options here are still few and far between.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Wireless

Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Others, GSM

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Laptops

Some of the best do-it-yourself projects are ones that give you the functionality of an expensive commercial product on the cheap, and such is the case with RafkeP’s MoMoLight “Movie Mood Light” mod, which lets you endow your laptop or PC monitor with the same type of peripheral lighting found in Philips’ Ambilight displays. Unfortunately, also like many of the best DIY projects, this one requires no small amount of electronics knowledge and programming skills, as you have to modify your own micro-controller, procure and install your own cold-cathodes or LED strips, and then tweak the necessary software to get the effects synced with the on-screen action. Luckily RafkeP has taken at least some of the hard work upon himself and posted the directshow filter he wrote for real-time analysis of on-screen colors, making the build a lot easier once you’ve assembled all of the hardware components. It’s still not gonna be a cakewalk to get everything functioning properly, but when you consider that a real Ambilight set costs several thousand dollars, being able to get similar results for under $90 is probably enough incentive to give this project a shot.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Peripherals, Storage

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

We’ve had our eye on Philips (that’s Royal Philips Electronics to you) spinoff iRex Technologies ever since we heard that the company was developing a Sony Reader-like e-book device with some pretty compelling features, but there’s been no word on the so-called iLiad since it failed to ship last month as we were expecting. Well now iRex has finally updated its website with some new information about the 400MHz, multi-format reader, and the news is not so good if you’re hoping to get your hands on one of these any time soon — consumers will have to wait until at least September to order a model with “extended functionality” being designed for the general public. Businesses, on the other hand, can start placing their orders for the regular, “less-functional” models within the next month, with Europeans getting a shot at the e-ink-based ‘books a month ahead of the rest of the world. We’re hoping that along with the new features promised in the consumer version, iRex also manages to shave a few bucks off of the cost, as that $800+ pricetag we previously reported is pretty steep no matter how much you like to read.

[Thanks, Alex]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Peripherals

Philips has been peddling its SmartMX contactless payment system for a while, but things are really looking up now that SanDisk wants to get in the game. They’re now working with Philips to include the SmartMX tech in their TrustedFlash microSD cards, allowing any phone with a microSD slot to make payments. The details are a bit slim, but it looks like you would have to buy TrustedFlash cards loaded with “credits” in order to make payments, which frankly doesn’t sound like much of a step towards convenience for consumers, but rather a boon to SanDisk and Philips who will no doubt be taking a cut. However it works out, the industry is clearly marching towards contactless and phone-based payments, let’s just hope it works out as an actual plus for the people who are carrying around the phones and making the contactless payments.

[Via Gadget Review]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Wearables

When Philips was looking for medical applications for their flexible Ledfoil disks, they were probably hoping to find a market of more than 200 people, but luckily for sufferers of the rare Crigler-Najjar syndrome, they happened to come across Dutch student Philomeen Engels. Engels, a recent graduate of the Delft University of Technology, had the idea of creating a wearable light therapy device using the Philips tech, which would free Crigler-Najjar patients -- whose bodies cannot break down the potentially lethal red blood cell by-product called bilirubine -- from the 12 hours they must spend inside converted sunbeds each day. The device, known as the Ledwrap, contains twelve Ledfoils between two layers of cloth and can act as either a sleeping bag or a rather bulky bodysuit for more freedom of movement -- well, as much movement as an extension cord allows, since the LEDs require too much juice to run on batteries. Engels hopes to have the first Ledwraps on the market within a year, although that may be a bit optimistic, as the prototype has yet to undergo the rather non-trivial task of actual medical testing.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

href="http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dist=newsfinder&siteid=google&guid=%7BF38B6A1D-363A-4642-9610-5EB71DEA4B6F%7D&keyword="> vspace="16" hspace="4" border="0" align="right" alt="" src="http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/04/patent.jpg" />It’s
been a mixed day over at Philips: on the one hand, they had the pleasure of announcing a new offspring, href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/19/philips-spins-off-liquavista-to-develop-thin-electrowetting-disp/">Liquavista,
but now they’ve been forced to air some dirty laundry concerning fellow consumer electronics manufacturer Kodak, taking
the NY-based company to court for allegedly infringing upon a sixteen-year-old patent. Philips claims that while
several digital camera manufacturers license the JPEG compression technology protected by patent number href="http://tinyurl.com/q6bk3">4,901,075 (refer to the schematic above for all of the technical details), Kodak
refuses to do so, even though many of their products supposedly take advantage of the "Huffman codeword"
magic outlined within. Financial details of the suit have not been made public, but Kodak doesn’t sound like it’s going
to budge, saying that it will defend itself "vigorously."

[Via href="http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=consumerProducts&storyID=nN19246085&imageid=&cap=">Reuters]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Displays, Portable Video

A bunch of venture capitalists have been poking around Philips' R&D labs lately, and it seems that they like what they see. New Venture Partners has joined with the Dutch electronics giant to spin off several companies based on technology first developed by Philips Research, with the first collaboration, Liquavista, being announced today. Based on a thin-display technology called Electrowetting, Liquavista will attempt to integrate its products into DAPs, cellphones, watches, and other portable devices where high brightness and rapid refresh rates are valued (which is like, all of them). Electrowetting supposedly provides better brightness and response time than competing reflective display technologies while using essentially the same manufacturing techniques, and according to a handy comparison chart on MobileRead, is just about the best thing ever. Skeptics will be able to peep the displays for themselves in early June, however, when Liquavista will present some prototypes at the Society for Information Display's 2006 exhibition in San Francisco. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via MobileRead]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

In a move that would surely delight advertisers but enrage consumers, Philips is trying to patent a method for flagging digital TV content to not only prevent viewers from changing the channel during commercials in live broadcasts, but to actually lock out fast-forwarding capabilities during ads in recorded programs as well. Even worse, the patent specifically applies to the already widely-deployed Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) middleware system standard, meaning that many Europeans' current TVs would be susceptible to these Orwellian controls. Since the US version of this platform, OCAP, is largely based on the MHP architecture, it's not a stretch to imagine such flagging being applied to American sets as well. Although we're certain that a workaround would be developed if Philips' evil plan ever actually materializes, just the thought of our DVRs going impotent is enough to fill us with fear and trepidation.

[Via New Scientist]

Filed under: Handsets, GSM, GPRS

The Philips Xenium 9@9 series is traditionally a rather low-end group of candybar phones, but this new 9@9t isn't looking too bad. Sure, the miniSD slot, MP3 playback and 1.3 megapixel camera are fairly standard by now, but the phone features some sort of touchscreen, along with touting 30 days of standby -- if the text on the screen can be believed. The slim phone is also supposed to be tri-band GSM, but that's about all we have for info right now.

[Via Slashphone]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Portable Audio, Wearables

Any gadget that enhances two of your senses at once is worth at least a mention in these pages, so we hereby present you with the not-completely-unattractive-looking Varibel hearing aid eyeglasses. The manufacturers would take issue with calling it a hearing aid, however, as regular in-ear models pick up conversations as well as ambient noise, while the four mics on each arm of Varibel's glasses supposedly separate the two types of sound, enhancing the former while dampening the latter. Developed by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, these devices will initially be limited to a Dutch release, but because of Varibel's partnership with Phillips and Frame Holland, they may end up seeing a wider release. Integrate these with a pair of those bifocal-eliminating LCD glasses, and you've got something that actually makes us look forward to old age (well, kinda). [Warning: foreign language link, may be confusing to some].

[Via Roland Piquepaille]

Filed under: Handsets, Others, GSM, GPRS

We wanted to give this thing a chance, we really did — but the unforgivable GSM 900 / 1800 dual-band GSM radio was the final nail in the coffin for us. Don’t get us wrong, Philips’ new S660 might go on to make quite a splash in the international low-end market, but without support for any North American band, US consumers looking for a solid, inexpensive handset had best not get too attached. The S660 lacks any sort of expandability and brings a mere 128 x 128 display and VGA cam to the table, but offers a surprisingly solid (for its class) 128MB of built-in storage. Its 18mm of thickness is also bit pudgy by 2006 standards, but the lack of GSM 850 or 1900 is an error far more grave in our books.

[Via Slashphone]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Others, Misc

Offloading unprofitable mobile phone businesses seems to be all the rage in Europe as of late, with Philips now announcing that they’ll be transferring their operations to a firm going by “CEC” — or China Electronics Corporation, if you’re into longhand. Philips isn’t exactly a household name for cellphones here in the States, but they take in about €400 million (about a half billion USD) annually across the globe, so the deal is no small one. Similar to Siemens’ agreement with BenQ, CEC will be given a license to use the Philips name on its phones for the next five years, at which point they’ll have to go it alone (if they make it that long). Assuming all the usual regulatory stuff pans out, the money is expected to change hands before the year’s out.

[Via Geekzone]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.