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IFA 2009
Fraunhofer slims down its ultra flat loudspeakers to less than one inch
By Jeff Salton
18:20 September 24, 2009 PDT
It seems the world has become obsessed with ‘skinny’ – watch your diet, exercise more and aspire to be ‘model thin’. But skinny isn't always better when it comes to speakers – good sound reproduction needs room to vibrate. However, at IFA, Fraunhofer scientists (in cooperation with Sennheiser electronic) presented a completely new concept for ultra-flat loudspeakers that still deliver full sound reproduction. What’s more, these speakers can be integrated inconspicuously on walls or in furniture because they're only 24mm thick (0.94-inch). Read More
Video: DivX demonstrates DivX Plus HD
By Gizmag Team
03:21 September 15, 2009 PDT
After seeing CE devices that were certified for DivX Plus HD playback at IFA 2009, wondering what exactly what DivX Plus HD was, and finding next to no information about it on the web, we decided to go straight to the source. In short, it's a bunch of nifty stuff for both high-definition content consumers and creators, but if you want to know much, much more, click through for the video of Tim Hanlon talking to DivX at IFA. Read More
Dyson DC31: looks cool and sucks at the same time
By Jeff Salton
02:48 September 14, 2009 PDT
Looking more like a power tool that just transported from the Starship Enterprise, the latest hand-held vacuum from Dyson has a 10-minute battery life and a digital V2 motor that delivers constant, strong suction - ideal for small cleaning tasks around the home or in a car, boat or caravan. The DC31 has a dual power mode that gives the operator a six-minute burst of power for higher suction at the flick of a switch. Dyson demonstrated its two models, the DC31 and the DC31 Animal to our team at IFA this month, and gave Gizmag's Kate Seamer an exclusive interview. Read More
Facevsion's FXexpress Pro brings 1080p video conferencing to the mass market
By Gizmag Team
06:37 September 13, 2009 PDT
Full HD video conferencing has been available for some time - provided you can afford to spend over $20,000 on a product like Cisco's TelePresence 500. Until now that is. FaceVsion's FXexpress Pro is an ExpressCard-based hardware accelerator with an HDMI input, capable of encoding and decoding 1080p H.264 video at 30 frames per second in real-time for 1080p video conferencing - and it's available for under $200. Gizmag's Tim Hanlon talked to Facevsion at IFA 2009 - click through for the video. Read More
Mercedes-Benz Vision S500 Plug-in Hybrid
By Gizmag Team
15:34 September 10, 2009 PDT
Having launched its S 400 HYBRID, currently the most fuel-efficient luxury-segment saloon with a petrol engine, Mercedes-Benz is set to show its Vision S 500 Plug-in HYBRID technology vehicle in Frankfurt next week. Aimed at demonstrating the company’s scalable and intelligently organized set of hybrid systems, and previewing the next model, the compact 15-kW electric motor hardly differs from the S 400 HYBRID, yet is three times more powerful and can be elegantly incorporated into the housing of the 7G-TRONIC seven-speed automatic transmission. Read More
LG’s Roboking robotic vacuum cleaner gets smarter
By Paul Lester
11:18 September 10, 2009 PDT
Ever since Electrolux introduced the couch-potato to the Tribolite, vacuum cleaner manufacturers have been coming up with progressively smarter, more efficient ways to automate this common chore. iRobot has been busy refining the Roomba and Dyson came up with something that looks more at home on the battlefield in the DC06, but this time it’s LG’s chance to get involved and the new Roboking promises intelligent cleaning using a range of advanced sensors. Read More
Ellion's LazBox-110 plays all the formats for under $100
By Tim Hanlon
04:57 September 10, 2009 PDT
We've seen HD media players like the Western Digital WDTV and the Popcorn Hour A-110 before, but Ellion's LazBox 110 packs best-in-class functionality into a small form factor at a mass market price. Read More
The Olympus LS-11 portable audio recorder
By Darren Quick
01:13 September 9, 2009 PDT
IFA brought us the Olympus LS-10 last year, so it’s only fitting that IFA 2009 saw Olympus touting the imminent arrival of the LS-11, a feature-packed audio recorder that fits in the palm of a hand and boasts sampling rates of up to 24-bit/96kHz with PCM recording. It also gives users a choice of three file formats – WMA, MP3, and WAV – and even allows sound files to be edited in the device. Read More
Aiptek's tiny PenCam Trio HD records 720p video, 5MP stills, and audio
By Darren Quick
22:27 September 8, 2009 PDT
Looks like Aiptek is trying to put an entire movie production and screening system in people’s pockets. Complementing its new range of pocket-sized pico projectors at IFA 2009 was the PenCam Trio HD, an ultra-slim camera that boasts 1280 x 720p HD video resolution, 5MP still image resolution, and a dictaphone function for recording audio. Read More
LG’s flagship SL9000 ‘BORDERLESS’ LED TV
By Darren Quick
03:53 September 8, 2009 PDT
LG unveiled its flagship SL9000 ‘BORDERLESS’ LED TV to a string of 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' at IFA 2009 this week, where it stood out from the pack with a uniform, seamless surface from edge to edge, with no visible frame. By using a special sheet of laminate film LG was able to eliminate the gap between the screen and the bezel and also reduce screen glare. The SL9000 is also extremely thin at just 2.9cm, with the end result being a TV that appears to be a continuous sheet of smoked glass. Read More
Grundig’s latest TVs turn any USB drive into a PVR
By Darren Quick
22:46 September 7, 2009 PDT
Grundig has just come up with a replacement for your Tivo or similar recording device, and the odds are you already have it – well, part of it anyway. By adding USB-recording technology to various models of its new TVs, which it had on show at IFA 2009, Grundig has turned any standard USB flash drive or external hard disk drive (HDD) into a personal video recorder (PVR). The only catch is you will only be able to watch the recorded content on a compatible Grundig set. Read More
Looqs casts its line into the digital media stream with its MeeSeries media streamer
By Darren Quick
19:34 September 7, 2009 PDT
Media streaming is a technology threatening to break into the mainstream in a big way over the next few years. One company who certainly hopes it does is Looqs, a new entity that was showcasing its media streaming wares at IFA 2009. Its MeeSeries Media Streaming system lets users stream multimedia throughout their house - nothing too exciting about that I hear you say. But what sets the Looqs products apart is its ability to stream not only video content to a TV, but also photos and online content to multiple digital photo frames. Read More
Acer Aspire Z5610 is a serious all-in-one desktop
By Darren Quick
00:20 September 7, 2009 PDT
Acer unveiled a big brother to its recently-released Veriton Z280G all-in-one desktop at IFA 2009 in the form of the Aspire Z5610. The new all-in-one unit features a larger 23-inch multi-touch display with 1920 x 1080 resolution, 5ms response time and 1000:1 contrast ratio. While the Veriton Z280G is more suited to basic home and office use, the Aspire Z5610 is aimed at more demanding multimedia users. Read More
Altec Lansing’s Orbit USB 360° sound portable speaker packs a punch
By Darren Quick
18:13 September 6, 2009 PDT
Laptop speakers generally aren’t the most impressive sound reproduction devices going around so travelers either have to put up with poor sound quality, rely on a set of headphones, or pack a set of (often not so) portable speakers. Altec Lansing appears to have overcome this annoyance by unveiling its Orbit USB ultra portable speaker at IFA 2009 this week. Read More
Samsung's 11.6-inch Ion-powered N510 netbook
By Tim Hanlon
06:42 September 6, 2009 PDT
Samsung has announced the imminent release of the N510 netbook. The N510 is powered by the Nvidia Ion LE platform, a scaled-down version of the Nvidia Ion platform designed for Windows XP and DirectX 9.0 that retains the benefits of a discrete GeForce 9400M - including 1080p video playback. Read More
Toshiba's Regza SV series LED-backlit HDTVs
By Paul Ridden
06:27 September 6, 2009 PDT
Toshiba has chosen IFA 2009 to confirm that this month Europeans will be able to get their hands on two new full 1080p HD televisions in its Regza range, a 46in and a 55in. As well as being LED backlit for the first time, these new SV models also sport a sensor that monitors ambient light and constantly readjusts image settings so that the viewer automatically gets the best possible picture. Read More
Panasonic’s 2.25:1 PT-AE4000 home cinema projector premieres at IFA 2009
By Darren Quick
03:59 September 6, 2009 PDT
The Panasonic 2.35:1 PT-AE4000 is to projectors what the Philips Cinema 21:9 is to HDTVs. Aside from being something that most of us can only drool over and never hope to own, the PT-AE4000 is aimed at serious home theater enthusiasts and audio video professionals who are looking to eliminate the Cinemascope issue - a problem that sees the picture frame either shrunk down to ensure the entire width is visible, the edges cropped, or the image squished together making everyone on screen look thinner than Kate Moss. Read More
First look: Samsung's tiny 1.8 inch S1 mini, the smallest external hard drive yet
03:54 September 6, 2009 PDT
Samsung's continues to add to their line of external USB hard drives, now adding the S1 mini line of USB powered 1.8 inch drives. Ranging up to 250GB in size, we had a chance to quickly test the 160GB version and came away particularly impressed. Read More
Metz mecaHome+ home automation from the TV for USD$270
By Gizmag Team
03:49 September 6, 2009 PDT
Metz demonstrated its new home automation management system at IFA in Berlin this week and there are some highly enticing aspects to its mecaHome+ methodology, most notably that it uses the Xcomfort wireless system from electrical engineering specialist Moeller (hence no wires) and it allows control of the home’s electrical functions to be managed centrally by a Metz television. Read More
Canon’s new EOS 7D DSLR and the first Hybrid Image Stabilization lens
By Gizmag Team
07:21 September 5, 2009 PDT
Canon’s new EOS 7D will be released later this month with a USD$1700 tag. Key features include eight FPS continuous shooting, 18-Megapixel Resolution and full HD video with variable frame rates and manual exposure control. Three new lenses were also announced, being the EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS and an interesting EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM featuring Canon's new Hybrid Image Stabilization (Hybrid IS) technology, which compensates for both angle camera shake and shift camera shake, and is designed especially for macro photography. Read More
ION Audio's entry-level digital DJ controller: the Discover DJ
By Tim Hanlon
07:19 September 5, 2009 PDT
The democratization of music is something Gizmag has been watching for some time. Just this year, we've seen software that teaches you to play guitar, drums and the piano (and you can check our music category for much more). Today at IFA 2009, we came across ION Audio's Discover DJ controller, a USD$99 product which turns any PC or Mac into a digital DJ setup. Read More
Ergorapido 2in1 – the pregnant battery-powered vacuum cleaner
By Gizmag Team
15:13 September 4, 2009 PDT
No, it's not really a pregnant vacuum cleaner, it's the latest AEG Ergorapido 2 in 1 – a battery-operated vacuum with a hand-held mini-vacuum in the handle that home appliance manufacturer AEG is showing at this year’s IFA in Berlin. The pick-of-the-litter is the EUR 210 (USD$300) Ergorapido plus which has an 18-volt lithium ion rechargeable battery and outperforms its sister models by 20%, enabling around 30 minutes of cleaning. Read More
Philips leads the marital aid industry out of the Dark Ages
By Gizmag Team
02:21 September 4, 2009 PDT
Sexual aids have been in use for thousands of years, coming in and out of official favor in different eras and jurisdictions, and indeed, many countries still outlaw them entirely. As our understanding of our sexuality has grown, sex aids have increased in their usage, with more than 40% of European couples already using them and another 35% interested and willing, but reluctant to enter what they perceive as a seedy sex store. Now Philips has created a range of sex toys specifically designed for couples, taking the genre mainstream for the first time. Bravo Philips! Read More
Altec Lansing MIX - digital boombox with multi music input
By Jeff Salton
21:48 September 3, 2009 PDT
Get one of these and become the life of the party, that seems to be the message from Altec Lansing with the launch of its new MIX (iMT800) digital boombox for party-goers and ‘unofficial DJ’s’. The MIX lets users connect three music players at once through its inputs – a 30-pin dock connector for the iPhone and iPod and also two front-facing 3.5mm jacks. No more plugging and unplugging devices during songs or arguments over whose music is on next. The unit has a built-in subwoofer, a seven-band graphic equalizer, FM radio and heavy-duty carry handles to enable you to take the MIX from party to party. There’s also a remote control with clip-on carabiner. Read More
Sony shows Vaio X-Series netbook at IFA
05:12 September 3, 2009 PDT
Sony has provided a glimpse of the next installment in its Vaio ultra-portable laptop line at IFA 2009 - the carbon fiber clad Vaio X series. Powered by what's billed as "an all-day battery", the slimline X-series is just over half an inch thick (14 mm), weighs 1.5 pounds (700 grams), sports a 11.1-inch display and backs the rugged credentials of its carbon fiber frame with what looks to be a very usable aluminum keyboard. Read More
Gary Noel
- November 22, 2009 @ 06:20 UTC
