Asia and Pacific: TOKYO EDGE: November's coolest gadgets
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)
Think of it as TiVo on steroids - Sony Corp.'s Vaio X can record up to seven channels of television simultaneously. To understand the Vaio X computer, it's best to think of it as three things packed into one black, shiny box. On one side, it's a multimedia personal computer, with two 250 G-byte hard disk drives and a television tuner. Also packed into its tower-PC-sized case are two video server boards. Each unit contains three analog TV tuners and is connected to a 250G-byte hard disk drive. Those two boards plus the tuner in the PC make seven TV tuners. It all means that users can bring up a grid-like EPG (electronic programming guide) screen that, instead of looking forward, contains the past 5 days of television. Then, at the press of a button, watch any program on demand. The Vaio VGX-X90P goes on sale in Japan on Nov. 20 and will cost around US$4,930. No details of overseas sales have been announced.
Web: http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGX-X90P/ (Japanese)
JVC HDD camcorder JVC GZ-MC200
The latest gadgets to feature a miniature hard-disk drive are Victor Co. of Japan Ltd.'s GZ-MC100 and GZ-MC200 digital still/movie cameras. They each have the same specifications but different form-factor cases - the GZ-MC100 is built into a thin case that is held upright with a monitor that hinges out from the side, while the GZ-MC200 is more like a square that is gripped with the hand and has a lens that swivels to point forward. They come with a 4G-byte MicroDrive and a pretty good movie mode: a built-in MPEG2 encoder chip supports 720 pixel by 480 pixel wide-screen format video. Up to two hours of video can be recorded at this resolution. There is also a 2-megapixel still image mode and 10X optical zoom. JVC will offer both products in Japan, Europe and the U.S. starting in mid-October. The GZ-MC100 will cost US$1,230 and the GZ-MC200 will cost US$1,360, it said.
Web: http://www.jvc.jp/co./dvmain/gz-mc100_200/ (Japanese)
Sony Double HDTV Projectors
Sony Corp. has announced the first two projectors that will use its second-generation Silicon Crystal Reflective Display (SXRD) technology. SXRD is Sony's answer to Texas Instruments Inc.'s DLP and the second-generation panels are ca-pable of delivering a picture that, at 4,096 pixels by 2,160 pixels, is double the resolution of current versions and double that of HDTV. Two projectors featuring the panels are scheduled to go on sale in Japan in March: the SRX-R105 and the SRX-R110. The main difference is the brightness; the latter model offers a brightness of 10,000 lumen, which is double that of the former model. They are both aimed at digital cinema and other professional applications and are expected to cost US$76,200 and US$126.226, respectively. No details on sales outside of Japan have been an-nounced.
Web: http://www.sony.co.jp/SonyDrive (Japanese)
Olympus HDD Player
Olympus Corp., a major manufacturer of cameras, is making an entry into the hard-disk drive market with a combination music player and photo viewer. The MR-500i incorporates a 20G-byte drive, a 1-megapixel digital still camera and has a 3.7-inch VGA resolution (640 pixels by 480 pixels) touch screen display. A companion product, the MR-100, has a 5G-byte drive and supports music playback only. Both will go on sale in Japan in November and will also be put on sale overseas early next year. The MR-500i will cost around US$568.
Web: http://www.olympus.co. jp/en/
Intel presents the world's first Wi-Fi surfboard
Surfing the Waves...and the Net: An Intel Centrino mobile technology wireless surfboard, the world's first Wi-Fi surfboard, debuted at a sports festival in the United Kingdom in June, where a wireless "hotspot" allowed surfers to connect to the Internet and check out the latest surf and weather reports. The 9' 4" Gulfstream longboard features a tablet PC sealed in a water-tight plastic shell.
Asia and Pacific: Juniper showcases assured QoS
By Geoffrey P. Ramos, Computerworld Philippines
Network equipment manufacturer Juniper Networks Inc. staged the first working demons-tration of a real-time video conferencing between Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea that provided an assured quality of service (QoS) on demand.
The video conferencing service, which rode on the infrastructure of Korea Telecom, Hutchison Global Communications of Hong Kong and equipment maker Polycom, was the first demo of an assured QoS, one of the key services that are expected to be offered by a global service interconnection alliance among carriers, software and equipment vendors.
During the demo, Juniper offi-cials showed how improvements in video and audio quality between two cities can be controlled in real-time over the public Internet infrastructure. Previously, QoS was a big headache for users of network bandwidth-dependent applications such as video conferencing, Voice over IP and content streaming, among others.
Using an emerging interface standard between networks and customer applications, Juniper demonstrated how QoS and other policy-based controls can be set up and maintained in real-time. The demo used Juniper's SDX-300 Service Deployment System and Polycom's video conferencing system to automatically upgrade session bandwidth and QoS based on appropriate video service requirements, network resources and subscriber service options.
Metro Ethernet
A key part of the service was the Metro Ethernet interconnection between Korea Telecom and Hutchison. This service is the world's first multipoint-to-multipoint international Ethernet service and it allows customers to get a "plug-and-play" access anywhere in Hong Kong or Korea, said Andrew Kwok, head of Hutchison's international carrier business.
This service provides an interconnection service between the Metro Ethernet network of Korea Telecom and Hutchison, so a Hutchison customer in Hong Kong, for example, can go to Korea and get network access simply by plugging into an Ethernet port.
Kwok said the main advantage of the service is that customers no longer need to buy additional equipment to be able to connect to their corporate network. The Juniper technology also allows them to easily integrate future applications such as the assured quality of service for video conferencing and media streaming, among others.
Aside from the assured QoS for video conferencing, Juniper also demonstrated a working application for assured real-time bandwidth for media content streaming, parti-cularly movie video streaming.
The company showed how online content providers can easily manage policies in real-time so that their subscribers will automatically get as much bandwidth as they require to play a video over the Internet.
America: Media center gets a makeover
By Alan Stafford, Digital World (US)
Having mastered the home office, Microsoft Corp. is stepping up its efforts to take over the living room - and every other room - in your house. The company's Windows XP Media Center 2005 operating system, which will come preinstalled on Media Center PCs from companies like Dell Inc., Sony Corp., and Hewlett-Packard Co., acts as a media server that can feed audio and video to any receiving device within network range. But don't trash your TiVo just yet.
The new operating system lays a slightly tweaked version of the original Media Center interface on top of Windows XP Service Pack 2 underpinnings. PCs running it will begin shipping before the holidays. But is Media Center 2005 ready for your living room? To find out, I took a prerelease version out for a spin.
Microsoft says that only 21 percent of previous Media Center-equipped PCs owners used them in the living room. But PCs with the new operating system will be ca-pable of playing, recording, and redistributing multiple video and audio streams over a wired or wireless network to any PC or TV in the house.
The Media Center PC that I looked at had a single PCI card with dual analog TV tuners. Others, however, will be able to hold two tuner cards - one for analog TV and another for HDTV. With either type of tuner, you can watch, pause, and record live TV shows (using an integrated, online-updated program guide), and you can record two shows simultaneously. If you can get HDTV content into the box, Media Center 2005 lets you burn it to DVD with a simple right-click command, which last year's OS didn't permit. The new version even supports dual-layer DVD recording, al-though it won't span discs.
Microsoft admits that the video quality generated by last year's Media Center PCs was not so hot. But this generation of models, it says, will have comb filters in their TV tuner cards, which will help smooth out standard-definition signals; in addition, tuner cards will compress live TV signals at a 9-mbps variable bit rate, up from the fixed 6-mbps rate in last year's models. To my eyes, standard-definition video still didn't look great on either my HDTV or my PC monitor, though that's not unusual for standard-definition content.
Media center for the masses?
Media Center is still a computer operating system, so it takes a while to boot up. Although its interface is prettier and easier to use than its predecessor's, you have to resort to Windows occasionally. A Media Center PC running the OS doesn't work as well as many of the consumer electronics devices that it might replace, but it combines many of those devices' functions in one box and gives you the power of a computer, to boot.
Extend your reach
Want to watch Media Center con-tent on your bedroom TV? For about US$300, you can buy a Media Center Extender from any of a number of companies such as Dell, HP, Linksys, and Tatung. Extenders have wireless networking capabilities, and they come with a wide selection of outputs. If you own an Xbox, you can purchase the Media Center Extender for Xbox for $80.
Under Microsoft's revised digital rights management implementation, you can access even copy-protected audio and video. An 802.11a or 802.11g network has enough bandwidth to allow up to five devices to use Extender simultaneously - fewer if one or more of them are receiving video.
Europe: Reporter's notebook: Apple UK store opening
By Christopher Breen, MacCentral.com
It took flying nearly half way across the globe, but I was finally on hand for my first Apple Store opening - Apple's first European outlet, the Regent Street Store in London. Here are the details:
When I arrived just prior to The Store opening at 10 AM, the line to get in went around a very large block (I haven't heard a crowd estimate but it was easily over 500 people).(...)
The first person in line was a Texan who had been in line since Thursday night - through two very cold nights. According to a couple of Apple employees I spoke with this gentleman had little to no sleep during these couple of days. Several also spent a very cold night in line.
Much like with the San Francisco Store opening, Apple offered 300 black "lucky bags" that could be purchased for 250 pounds. These medium-sized duffle bags were supposed to contain items valued at at least 700 pounds. Among the items in a couple of bags I peered into were an AirPort Express, iSight, JBP speakers, and Apple software such as Keynote. A few of the bags contained "big ticket" items such as a PowerBook. Everyone who entered The Store while I was there received a free black T-shirt that carried the Apple logo and the single word "London."
Rumors swirled about that Steve Jobs would appear for the opening but was laid low with a cold. The Mayor of London did make the occasion, however. This is the first Apple Store to feature The Studio, a special area set aside to advise creative types. The Regent Street Store may also the longest Genius Bar of any Apple Store.
The Store was well stocked - complete with walls of iPod photos and the iPod Special Edition: U2 - and is laid out similarly to Apple's other big stores, such as the San Francisco, Chicago, and New York SOHO outlets, though the London Store is even more expansive. Like these Stores the Regent Street Store has a large theater with plush seats. Mac celebs such as Andy Ihnatko - who will be promoting his latest book The iLife '04 Book - are slated to appear in the next days.
If today's reception is any hint at how The Apple Store will be greeted in other European capitals, The Store has a bright future abroad.