Video

Pioneer has announced two new members of its Elite Series of AV receivers, which are said to be the most powerful home theater amplifiers the company has ever produced. The similar-looking SC-55 and SC-77 9.1 channel receivers both feature a new Class D digital amplifier, capable of delivering huge audio output while drawing much less power than traditional models. They also benefit from Marvell Qdeo video processors, and technology that automatically tweaks the output depending on which display is chosen. Read More

The James Dyson Awards for young inventors are always a treasure trove of fresh ideas and up-and-coming innovators - so we caught up with 8 of the Australian finalists and got them each to deliver us a 2-minute 'elevator pitch' explaining their designs and the inspiration behind them. The videos after the jump highlight some of our favourite entries for this year's prize, including the winners. See if you can guess which of these young contestants took the prizes! Read More

While a lot of online video has made the move to HTML 5, there are still plenty of Flash videos floating around that leave iDevice users with a “Please Upgrade Flash” message on their displays. With Apple seemingly unlikely to ever support Flash on its iOS devices, Skyfire came to the rescue last year with its Skyfire browser that allows Flash video to be viewed on said devices. Realizing that, despite its lack of Flash support, most people are generally quite happy using Safari, Skyfire has now released a standalone Flash player for iOS devices called VideoQ. Read More

An ambitious solar energy project on a massive scale is about to get underway in the Arizona desert. EnviroMission is undergoing land acquisition and site-specific engineering to build its first full-scale solar tower - and when we say full-scale, we mean it! The mammoth 800-plus meter (2625 ft) tall tower will instantly become one of the world's tallest buildings. Its 200-megawatt power generation capacity will reliably feed the grid with enough power for 150,000 US homes, and once it's built, it can be expected to more or less sit there producing clean, renewable power with virtually no maintenance until it's more than 80 years old. In the video after the jump, EnviroMission CEO Roger Davey explains the solar tower technology, the Arizona project and why he couldn't get it built at home in Australia. Read More

Despite the facts that there isn't much appropriate 3D content, and the viewing angles required for the 3D effect are limited (as was described in our Nintendo 3DS review) the list of glasses-free 3D gadgets increases. The HTC EVO 3D smartphone was the latest addition, but certainly won't be the last. Perhaps not many readers have heard of the Chinese manufacturer Gadmei, although there is at least one reason to become acquainted with it. The company has released its P83 portable media player (PMP), which is capable of displaying 3D videos and images that are viewable without glasses, and is certainly one of the most inexpensive devices of its kind offered so far. Read More

We've been looking forward to this ride for a looooong time; this is a truly significant motorcycle. Ducati has stamped its authority on the Adventure bike segment in the only way it knows how. The new Multistrada 1200 S is vastly more powerful and exciting than anything else in the segment. In fact, it's more powerful and exciting than an awful lot of pure sportsbikes. What's more, with its traction control, ABS, fly-by-wire throttle mapping and electronic suspension adjustments it boasts the most technologically advanced computer system we've ever seen on a streetbike - while still being marvellously simple to ride. Loz Blain and Noel McKeegan strap the boots on for the latest in our HD Video Road Tests. Enjoy! Read More

The update to version 2.1 of NXP Software's popular CineXPlayer movie viewing iPad app sees an improved interface that now offers a thumbnail view instead of just a text list and lets users start transferring and watching an unconverted movie straight away. One of the most interesting additions, however, is the ability to watch 3D movies - either with anaglyph (red/blue) glasses, or glasses-free with the use of GRilli3D's overlay film. Read More

The world’s most poorly organized technology tradeshow, Computex Taipei, finished on the weekend, and one of the many wonderful products lost amongst the clutter caused by the dysfunctional organization was the Kingston Wi-Drive, a rugged Flash-based portable storage solution with built-in wifi that allows three Apple device users to stream different file types simultaneously without any performance disruption. The additional 16GB (US$130) or 32GB (US$175) storage and convenient file sharing make it a perfect companion device for the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. Read More

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and a moving picture worth even more. Now a company in the UK is enticing businesses to go beyond the confines of eye-catching text, colorful graphics and product photos with TV in a Card. The brainchild of Russell Lawley-Gibbs and Robert Green, a standard TV in a Card folder has A4 (297 x 210 mm / 11.7 x 8.3 inches) dimensions and opening the cover reveals a 4.3-inch, 320 x 240 resolution, 16:9 aspect LCD display powered by a custom board with built-in storage for about 30 minutes of video footage. Read More