Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

We spoke here a just over a month ago about Philips latest entry into affordable PMP territory to rival the iPod Nano with the GoGear Muse. Now we have their answer to the iPod Touch, the GoGear Connect, an Android powered PMP.

Although only a prototype has been shown the specs speak for themselves for what could be a great little number if you’re looking to avoid the Apple’s dominant hardware. Sporting a 320x480 capacitive touchscreen, Philips have said it will be running Android 2.1. Other gubbins include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro-SD slot and GPS. It will also have a camera on the rear side of the PMP but no details yet as to what MP it will be. The Connect will be available in 8, 16, 32 and 64GB storage sizes.

Although it’s prototype seems to be on show now, it isn’t believed to be launched until IFA in September by which time its competitors, ie Apple may already have new hardware out and available by then.

As you may have guessed (despite the recent flurry of mobiles on our blog) we love a good telly and this one looks like a great one coming from those super-relaxed Dutch folk at Philips. This is a contrast ratio beast.

The 2 models will both have Full HD capabilities, available in 32”, 40” and 46”(9000 series) and 37”, 40”, 46”and 52”(8000 series) both have a 0.5ms response time and a staggering 10million : 1 dynamic contrast ratio thanks to those lovely little LED's showering the screen in light.  The 9000 also dishes a super fast 400Hz refresh rate whilst the 8000 a lesser 200Hz(you say lesser but it’s still great) Both series also pack Wi-Fi which can stream video direct from a DLNA enabled PC.

What else makes these great is that both series of TV will be ready for the 3D revolution. However this function wont be given as standard with the initial release. If you want it, you’ll have to upgrade with a a pack containing a wireless transmitter and “Active Shutter” glasses.

The launch has happened today in Spain so details of a UK release and price are still unavailable at the moment but should be around soon.

The Muse is Philips fairly decent but average current PMP doing what your average PMPs do, but it looks like it’s getting an upgrade to try and make it a little less average and to compete with the Zune HD(obviously STILL not out in the UK so there’s a market hole that needs filling)

The new and improved Muse will certainly look nicer with its polished silver finish and lack of frame that the current model has. Housed in the Muse is a nice and bright 3.2” touchscreen with all your general options of MP3/MP4 playback etc. What makes it a Zune competitor is the fact it has HDMI out to offer playback on your telly. It comes with 16GB of storage and also houses an SD slot.

Launch date should be soon(I’ve read April) and will retail at around £90 - £100.

Philips have just launched their new phone, the Xenium X530. This is touted to have an ultra long life allowing you to talk for 8 hours at a time. It also has tri-band GSM/EDGE, a 2.2 inch internal TFT 240 x 320 pixels 262K colors display with a 1 inch OLED external display, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP connectivity, music player support, an integrated FM radio with RDS, and a 2MP camera.

No word on pricing yet.

via unwiredview

Philips has expanded its range of Prestigo universal remote controls with the new Prestigo STR9320. Personally I use the Logitech Harmony One but I find it has one major flaw and that is the lack of dedicated coloured buttons which are used on TVs and Sky in the UK.

The Prestigo STR9320 has fewer buttons that the Harmony but it does include these dedicated coloured buttons. I also think it looks pretty nice.

One concern is that the form Philips SRU8015/10 does not have the best review, certainly compared to the Logitech Harmony One.

Featuring a 2.8-inch touch sensitive full colour screen, the STR9320 will allow users to to control up to 20 devices from one handset.

There are 300,000 devices in the Prestigo memory that you are able to sync up, and it's all done on the remote without the need for complicated programming sequences or codes.

The touchscreen area on the remote allows you to set up activity based keys, which will activate all the necessary devices without you having to do it individually. For example, "watch a film" would turn on the DVD player and adjust the TV to the right channel.

Furthermore, the Prestigo touchscreen can be personalised with channel icons for fast and easy access of favourite TV channels.

The SRT9320 comes with rechargeable batteries and a mains charger adapter so there's no worry of searching around for new batteries when they go flat.

No word on pricing but we should be seeing this on our shelves from the end of March.

via Pocket Lint

The Philips’ Cinema 21:9 HDTV is finally official and set to hit UK shops in June for €4000 which will work out a little over £3,500!

Granted if it was 12 months ago it would work out closer to £2k which would be quite reasonable for such a niche LCD.

This monster is a 56-inch ultra-widescreen and will be the world’s first HDTV set to deliver a true cinematic experience with its 21:9 aspect ratio.

Are you a massive movie fan? Does it grind your gears when watching a movie that is letterboxed? Well if so then Phillips may have the perfect solution for you. A new Ultra Widescreen (21:9) LCD TV that will use the full screen for movies shot in 21:9 aspect ratio.

For those of you not in the know most movies are shot in 2.39:1 or 21:9 aspect ratio which is commonly branded as Panavision, and most Widescreen TV shows will use 1.85:1 aspect ratio which is 35 mm US and UK widescreen standard for theatrical film. Older Standard ratio TV was shot in 1.33:1 or 4:3.

All widescreen TVs currently sold use 16.9 which is fractionally smaller than 1.85:1. So therefore anyhing shot using the wider 2.39:1 requires that annoying letterbox technique.

Personally it is quite annoying when you buy a expensive large TV and then half of the screen (slight exaggeration) is taken up with 2 black lines.

However with a screen of 21:9 you will have the reverse problem and all 1.85:1 recordings will need pillar boxing!

Oh life is so complex!

Anyway, it is good to see Philips giving us a choice. This will obviously have a big appeal to film geeks however I strongly suspect there will be a heavy premium on this as the screen is a non standard size. I am assuming the cost of LCDs has fallen so much partly due to the supply of screen which all conform to a certain size? Hence I can go into a shop and get a 32" LCD for the same price as a 26" LCD as 32" screens are more mass produced and therefore produced at a lower cost?

I could be chatting rubbing there though, though I am pretty sure that's how economies of scale worked when I did my GCSE's 10+ years ago!

Via: Engadget

Telefónica plans to start testing a 3D IPTV service in São Paulo this year, according to local reports, using a TV supplied by Philips which does not require special glasses to view the 3D image.

Telefónica will offer the service to residents of the region of Jardins in São Paulo, as these clients are connected to a fibre optical network which has the transmission capacity to deliver 3D IPTV. The biggest challenge for the service is that it is currently only possible with the specially developed Philips television the WOWvx-powered 1080p 52-inch Philips 3D HDTV, which currently costs around €18,000. However Philips believes that the television will be much cheaper in the near future: "Today the technology is aimed more at corporate applications," said Renato Secco, Director of the company's Brazilian subsidiary. "Inside three or four years it will be much more accessible to the consumer."