Sharp are concentrating on releasing eco-friendly LCD TVs and their new DH77 model from the slim line Aquos range has some impressive ‘green’ credentials with a variety of high end features.

The range has three screen sizes available; 32in, 42in and 46in, later in the year a 52in will be available, and all feature a dedicated green ‘eco’ button situated on the remote control.

The ‘eco’ button will allow a user to reduce the TVs energy consumption. The backlighting can be reduced by 15 to 20 percent without accessing screen navigational menus. What really stands out however, is the Optical Picture Control (OPC) feature which adjusts the backlight output according to the ambient quality of the room via a light sensor integrated within the TVs frame!

The LCD TVs in the DH77 range come with a 50,000:1 contrast ratio, Sharp’s "Natural Clear Panel" that’s said to produce high quality, clear images, three HDMI inputs and a USB port.

Telecom services provider Sprint are hoping to add wireless cellular connectivity to all your favourite gadgets, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

With this type of technology you could browse for restaurants on your GPS navigator or upload pictures directly from the camera to Flickr at anytime and any place.

Vice president of strategy for analytics firm Interpret, Michael Gartenberg says: ‘Sprint understands that we are getting to a point where almost every digital device would want to be connected to a fast ubiquitous network. Wi-Fi isn’t everywhere and consumers want the assurance of ubiquitous connectivity that wide area networks can offer.’

Through its partnership with Amazon, Sprint has already taken the first step towards creating this model.

Amazon has started off the first version of its e-book reader Kindle with Sprint’s wireless connectivity to help users download e-books over the air.

This kind of wireless capability is something other gadget makers are likely to jump at, Sprint is already in talks with many different gadget companies!

Gartenberg adds: ‘More and more we are going to see this become attractive to all sorts of vendors, especially if they can integrate it at a low cost.’

Each year the government compiles a theoretical shopping basket of goods which best reflect the current UK consumers spending habits and for the very first time Blu-ray discs make an appearance.

The Office for National Statistics announced on Monday the outcome of its annual review to reflect changes in lifestyle and the ‘shopping basket’ is split into five categories.  In the technology section the following are included; Freeview Box, MP4 Player, Blu-ray disc, TV rentals and DVD rental internet subscription.

Interestingly, the items removed from the technology section were; MP3 players, DVD film rental, TV, video and DVD rentals!

The device that was developed in Japan (where else) resembles a conventional set of headphones plugged into ears. Known as the Mimi Switch (Ear Switch in English), it connects to a micro-computer capable of controlling electronic devices of all shapes and sizes.

Using an in-built set of infrared sensors, the Mimi Switch is able to detect the smallest of movements in the ear caused by different facial expressions.

A mere wink, facial twitch or raised eyebrow is enough to activate the remote control to operate electronic gadgets such as iPods, light switches, dishwashers and TV sets.

Kazuhiro Taniguchi, creator of the Mimi Switch said: ‘You will be able to turn on room lights or swing your washing machine into action with a quick twitch of your mouth.’

‘An iPod can start or stop music when the wearer sticks his tongue out, like in the famous Einstein picture. If he opens his eyes wide, the machine skips to the next tune. A wink with the right eye makes it go back.’

‘The machine can be programmed to run with various other facial expressions, such as a wriggle of the nose or a smile.’

The scientist is planning to patent the new device in Japan and internationally before marketing it commercially in the next two to three years.

Samsung have decided to up its game by redefining the traditional bulky blu-ray player to an extremely sleek, slender and speedy slot loading blu-ray player instead.

It is loaded with features including Profile 2.0/BD-Live, Netflix and Pandora streaming, 1GB onboard memory, built-in Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, "Touch of Color" style accents and 802.11n Wi-Fi via an included USB dongle.

Its one of the flattest blu-ray players on the market at only 38mm thick which makes it ideal for bolting in place beneath a wall mounted television, but is also supplied with a stand for those who prefer their blu-ray players to be placed on a hard surface.

The Samsung BD-P4600 blu-ray player is due to be available in the UK from April 2009.

Panasonic, Sony and Philips have announced the establishment of a ‘one-stop’ licensing program for blu-ray technology and are currently working with other patent holders to achieve this.

It is hoped that the less expensive and simplified process will encourage more companies to develop blu-ray products.

Previously, companies wishing to build blu-ray disc hardware had to acquire a number of licenses including a separate license for CD, DVD and blu-ray functionality. The new program will combine all the separate elements together into one single license and subsequently aims to reduce license costs by up to as much as 40%.

The new independent licensing company funded equally by Panasonic, Sony and Philips will be set up in the USA, with branches in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Amazon’s new version of the Kindle e-book tablet is a user-friendly device that could finally carve out a place in consumer electronics for a technology that’s struggled to gain traction, one reviewer has said.
 
According to David Pogue of The New York Times, the new Kindle – a wireless device that can hold about 1,500 books from an available library of more than 230,000 books, has emerged as the most convenient and eye-friendly way to read written words electronically, though it doesn’t signal the death of “real” books or, as some feared, audio-book sales.
 
‘It’s all a thousand times more convenient and more exciting than loading books from a PC with a cable, as you must with Sony‘s Reader, the Kindle’s archrival. As a bonus, the Kindle includes a simple Web browser, great for quick wireless Wikipedia checks and blog reading. Amazon calls it the Kindle 2, but Kindle 1.1 would be more like it; the changes are fairly minor. Fortunately, they’re exactly what was needed to turn a very good reader into an even better one.’
 
The Kindle 2, introduced this month is slimmer than its predecessor and costs about $359.
   
One criticism of the Kindle, Pogue said is that ‘Its list of available books, though long, is far from ‘complete.’’
 
‘You don’t have to look far to find important titles still among the missing; they include all Harry Potter books; “The English Patient”; and “The Associate” or anything else by John Grisham.’

Overall the reviews of the Kindle e-book have been positive, but can you really beat the feeling of opening a new book to read?!!

Certain movies simply are THE perfect showcase to highlight the truly outstanding sound and picture quality achievable  only on a blu-ray disc, and the stunning Warner Bros film The Dark Knight proves this yet again by receiving another accolade to add to its already growing collection!

The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) Japan have given top honours to The Dark Knight as the number one blu-ray disc in 2008, having previously been awarded by the DEG North America as ‘Best Picture’ in January.

The film which also picked up Best in Picture Quality (Live Action), was commended by the judges (comprising of hardware manufacturers and home entertainment journalists) as having "Outstanding image quality that justifies its acclaim as the 2008 Blu-ray title of the year."

Other winners included The Nightmare Before Christmas for best animated picture quality, Ghost in the Shell for best sound, and Biohazard Degeneration for best Blu-ray interactivity.

LG has confirmed it will be bringing a series of Android mobiles to the UK in 2009, and that it will play a big part in pushing mobile social networking.

Although the much expected slew of Android handsets never showed up at this year’s Mobile World Congress, LG confirmed that 2009 will still be the year of Android for the company:

Head of marketing for LG Mobile in the UK, Jeremy Newing said:

‘We have a huge interest in using it for social networking handsets, as these are going to be big pillars of our strategy for 2009.’

There has been some criticism over LG’s strategy to use Android for the first time on the KS360, a QWERTY-based mid range handset, but Mr Newing believes the economic downturn has made this the ideal handset for the job:

‘The KS360 will be brought out in a 3G version, as well as an Android model too. We chose this lower-end handset as we’re in a recession, and customers want a value proposition while still expecting a similar level of functionality, so the handset has to be right for the price point.’

However, Newing also says that LG’s new S-Class interface, which uses two chipsets to help keep the animation and transitions running smoothly without lag, will also be used to varying degrees in a large number of LG phones, as well as the new Windows Phone interface making a big impression in the UK next year:

‘We will have a similar UI to the S-Class in more handsets, running the same two chipsets; the reason we haven’t done it before comes down to a lot factors, such as the size of the components.’

According to GFK research, Samsung has claimed the number one position in the UK for television sales for the second year running.

Andy Griffiths, VP of CE for Samsung UK is predictably thrilled and said “It just shows that Samsungs offering in this market is stronger than ever.”

As reported by us in an earlier blog, Samsung is expected to the first brand to release LED LCD TVs into the UK featuring Yahoo’s new TV widget platform in March 2009.