This post was written by Jim Marino
LG’s BD300 Blu-ray is a very classy-looking player. The most impressive thing about the BD300 is the amount of features you get for your money, including support for BD Live and a pleasing array of multimedia formats. Also bringing a smile to our chops is its slickness and ease of use, with immaculate onscreen presentation and lightning-quick loading times. It’s only flaws are the lack of DTS HD Master Audio decoding and less-than-perfect picture quality that falls short of the high standards set by other players in its price range.
Traxdata MultiMedia Drive offers digital connectivity, uses less electricity and almost definitely gives you more storage. The best and worst that can be said about the Traxdata in terms of design is ‘unobtrusive’. The MultiMedia Drive simply does not offer enough to distinguish itself over similar products by LaCie and Iomega, who offer more compelling products for less. If the drive actually goes on sale at just under £100 though, it might be a worthy alternative to what’s already out there.
Samsung’s DVD 1080P7 is a single-disc, mainstream DVD player. Compared to other mainstream DVD players on the market, it is very inexpensive and worth buying. Considering its very inexpensive price, this DVD player comes with great features for the money. The negative points are its display which displays the cumulative time, and not the current track that is playing. And no HDMI cable, no USB Input which even cheaper models, such as Phillips has. Nevertheless this DVD player is definitely worth the money.
DiVitas Networks’ newest mobile UC platform moves beyond the usual fixed mobile convergence features to include secured instant messaging, presence and visual voicemail. Such features made up for a disappointing setup experience. The management interface was not intuitive, and it lacked any integrated help resources to guide the user. DiVitas representatives claim a single server can handle up to 500 mobile users, depending on configuration. Pricing for the DiVitas solution is based on the number of users licensed within the system.
Viewsonic is targeting the ‘budget’ market with the VX2260wm, though you wouldn’t think so after a glance at the specifications. It’s nicely designed. Despite grievances with some areas of the VX2260’s performance, it’s important to remember that it’s very well priced for a 1080p display and it would be rather unrealistic to expect perfect performance at this price point. In this light it’s a capable display and, if you’re looking for a true widescreen and full HD experience without breaking the bank, it’s one of the best around.
Pioneer continues to churn out some of the best TVs on the market with Kuro PRO-151FD. The company has managed to eke out even more impressive black detail, delivered a slightly thinner panel with better energy efficiency, and made improvements in behind-the-scenes technology. Kuro PRO-151FD offers rich and realistic color reproduction, amazingly deep black levels, and video processing. One unusual feature is that in the Pure mode the set converts images to a 72 Hz video processing rate to remove motion blur. It’s a little pricey, but the Kuro PRO-151FD outdoes its predecessor.
Intel is looking at harvesting free energy to power devices such as mobile phones, as well as researching other technologies to reduce power in electronics devices and data centers. At an event late last week focusing on its “Eco-Technology” developments, the company’s CTO, Justin Rattner, outlined a series of long-term initiatives into power saving and generation. Most of the technologies discussed are under development in Intel labs and are unlikely to reach the marketplace in products for at least three to five years.