Multimedia

Nowadays most of us take portable media players pretty much for granted but back in the 1980s, when Sony released its first personal cassette player, they were revolutionary. Thirty years on and cassettes have all but gone and, despite numerous other worthy contenders, Apple holds the media player crown. For many, however, the Walkman is still regarded as the media player of choice and Sony has just revealed a new addition to its iconic family, the supermodel-thin S750. The audio and video player features noise canceling, audio enhancement technologies, a Karaoke mode and 50 hours of audio enjoyment on a single charge. Read More

Computing on the move has taken off big time. No longer bound by the shackles of a deskbound screen, we are now working on smartphones, playing on tablets and surfing on netbooks. We need such devices to be both powerful and low on power draw. The latest to answer such needs is Samsung, announcing its most recent foray into the world of mobile chip manufacture – Orion. The 1GHz ARM-based Dual Core chip supports various storage and memory configurations, is HD and 3D ready and has GPS included. Read More

Toshiba Europe has chosen the IFA consumer electronics show to unveil its 10.1-inch Android media tablet powered by NVIDIA's Tegra II processor. The Folio 100 features an onboard camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (with a 3G model in the pipeline) and a HDMI port for viewing content on a big screen television. The company has also announced the development of an one-stop portal to access and share online content over numerous device formats. We couldn't resist the opportunity to take a closer look. Read More

Digital photo frame manufacturer Pandigital has announced its entry into the world of the e-reader with the 7-inch full color Novel. The multi-touch Android-based reader features a gigabyte of internal memory, is powered by an ARM Mobile processor and has two reading modes. Users will also benefit from the company's partnership with Barnes & Noble, giving access to over a million titles as well as services such as the book-lending LendMe technology. Read More

For a good while now the Eee Keyboard PC from ASUS has been is a recurring state of "coming soon" but the company has made things a tad more certain by issuing an official launch statement. Connecting the keyboard-computer hybrid to an external monitor, projector or HD television gives users yet another portable web-enabled multimedia entertainment center or stylish boardroom presentation solution. Read More

Text-based searches might be great for hunting down relevant chunks of text-based information, but searches for multimedia content can be a little more hit and miss. Searches that rely on manually assigned metadata and often misleading titles can return off topic results, while searches that require the unpacking of compressed data can slow up the search. DIVAS is a new multimedia search engine that addresses these problems by using digital "fingerprints" that, according to its developers, return more reliable results. Read More

For those that like their entertainment as personal as possible, iTVGoggles has released an update of its ITG-Vidix video glasses. Along with offering a virtual screen of 50” and up to three hours on a single charge, they also feature 2GB of internal memory, a MicroSD slot and a built in media player. Read More

Portable navigation company Mio has announced a new product at CeBIT 2010 which is set to further blur the boundaries between GPS navigation, entertainment and Internet devices - the Mio Moov V780. Not only will users be able to find their way around but with the flick of a finger they'll be able to scroll through photos, watch high definition videos or play their favorite music. There's even the option to view digital TV thanks to an integrated receiver. Read More

JVC and Kenwood has produced its first in-car navigation system since last years merger and it certainly offers more than directions for getting from A to B. As well as boasting virtual 3D maps and fast response times, the AVENUE MDV-313 features a 6.1” touchscreen LED backlit display, integrated DVD player and TV tuner, as well as USB and SD card slots and optional iPod connectivity. Read More