Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

We have seen how LCD technology has revolutionized our daily lives, from cellphones to television displays.  All of this occurred less than a decade ago, when we made our transition from CRT displays to LCD displays.

Recently, researchers from Sony and the Max Planck Institute in Germany have unveiled the result of their research by demonstrating a flexible video screen.  Some have come up with numerous applications of this technology such as foldable computers and reusable newspapers where you can upload the content of a newspaper onto a device equipped with one of these screens.

See what separates this new flexible display from its predecessors after the break.

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Sony’s latest model in their Reader family, the PRS-700 gives consumers the opportunity to choose how they would like to experience reading electronically.  It is much closer to an actual “book” experience, but with all the cool e-reader add-ons.

The PRS-700 features an interactive touch display, that allows readers to actually flip pages simply with the slide of a finger.  You can also look for terms in a book or a document, take notes on the virtual keyboard, or even use the stylus pen to highlight text you find especially important or interesting.  This PRS-700 has plenty more features, check them out after the break.

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Looking for the next video format war?  It might be in the last place you want it: movie theaters.  Sony announced Thursday that has teamed up with Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount Pictures to promote the new Sony-developed digital projection setup.  This came only a day after five major studios including Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount Pictures as well as Walt Disney Motion Pictures, Universal Studios and Lionsgate Films were announced to be part of a deal with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners ("DCIP") to expand digital screens.  The DCIP deal would try to upgrade 20,000 screens across the U.S. and Canada, while the Sony deal has plans to use put its system into 9,000 screen across North America, Europe and Asia.

According the to most recent MPAA numbers from 2007, just under 5,000 screens across the U.S. use digital systems, with 6,455 screens worldwide.  Both deals want to increase that number, but it might get a bit tough if there are multiple proprietary formats.  The last thing we need is another format war.  More after the break.

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Today, MySpace unveils the all-new MySpace Music alongside new BFFs: EMI Music, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group (NYSE:WMG), and Sony ATV/ Music Publishing. 

Users can do all the playlist making, swapping, downloading, streaming, etc. to their hearts’ desires.  Expect to be enticed by MySpace Music partners McDonald’s, Sony Pictures, State Farm, and Toyota.  We can expect free downloads from Mickey D’s, State Farm playlists and Toyota Tuesdays where anything can happen.

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Sony announced their latest series in its VAIO notebook lineup - the VAIO TT series. Sony says that these notebooks would be the world’s lightest with Blu-ray disc technology. TT notebook models weigh around 1.3kg and measures only an inch thick.

But certainly, being thin and lightweight are not all there are to the VAIO TT notebook series. TT units to be released later would have various features specific to each of the notebook models. The Sony VAIO TT notebook series also feature an 11.1-inch widescreen display powered by the XBRITE-DuraView LCD technology partnered with an energy-saving LED backlight.  In addition, there is an HDMI output connector for connecting the notebook to an HDTV.  These Sonys use Intel’s Centrino 2 inside which should help with power consumption.

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Seems folks like a bit of music with their mobile phone, who knew?  Sony Ericsson ("SE") announced they will join the growing list of manufacturers that offer some kind of music service with their phones.  Designed to compete with Nokia’s cleverly named “comes with music,” SE plans to begin the service in Sweden, then expand to Western Europe.

The service will be an all-you-can-eat unlimited music subscription and should roll out mid-way through 2009; Rome wasn’t build in a day.  Nokia’s service starts up next month in the UK.  Nokia’s plan is expected to cost 70 pounds extra, though there is some belief the cost will be rolled into a contract price.

Manufacturers chase customers

Hit more to see if this phenom is coming to the US

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Nokia is poised to release its new “Comes With Music” phones on October 17th in Britain.  The phones will come with a subscription music service that will allow users to keep any song they obtain through it for 12 months.  The service will come with every phone, with nothing mentioned about payment.  So far, three major studios have signed on for the project: Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group.  Seems like a fairly good push to start with.

According to the Reuters reports, the music companies are hoping this will diminish the popularity of Apple’s iTunes Music Store.  I don’t see why, but music publishers don’t seem to really like Apple too much lately.  Maybe they don’t like making slightly less money?  iTunes is the biggest music seller out there at the moment (well, in America at least, not too sure about worldwide), but this Nokia subscription plan may take a bit away from that.  If the iPhone and other lower-end phones have shown anything, it’s that people don’t mind listening to music on cellphones.

There are a few problems with the service that can be a bit off a turn-off with the service, though…

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The Sony Reader seems to have found a nice way to get an edge over the Amazon Kindle, while they may both be good devices its hard to really think that they are really hitting the mainstream market. However it seems that Sony may soon be changing that fact with the introduction of the Sony Reader into Target stores. As of now the Sony Reader PRS-505 is available at Target at both retail locations and online. The Reader is retailing for $299.99 and for a limited time will come with a coupon for a copy of “The Other Queen” by Philippa Gregory.

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The NS appears to be aimed more at the low end market with its starting price at $650.  It comes with 3GB of RAM and maxes out at 4GB.  If you want to watch Blu-Ray movies, that is going to cost you.  The price jumps up to around $1,000 for the Blu-Ray model, but that also includes a boost in RAM to 4GB instead of the standard 3GB.  For that cost difference, you could almost pick up a PS3.  There does not appear to be a configure-to-order feature for the NS on Sony’s site.  The NS weighs in at a hefty 6.4 pounds and has a 15.4 inch display.  Unfortunately, the display has a resolution of only 1280x800 which means even if you get the Blu-Ray option, you will not be able to watch movies at full 1080P resolution on this screen.  That being said, it is usually very difficult to see the level of detail that 1080P offers on such a small screen.  The NS comes in white, blue and silver.

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Sony just added both Amazon Video on Demand and Dailymotion content to their BRAVIA Internet Video Link.  Content by these providers will be available starting today.  The Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Link is a component that brings Internet video to certain BRAVIA HDTVs.  It can be purchased for a little over $200 at Amazon.com.  Sony already has several other online content providers on its Internet Video Link including CBS, Sports Illustrated and YouTube. 

Of particular interest is you can get Amazon Video on Demand content right from the television after a registration process.  This allows for a streamlined process of picking up movies from Amazon without the use of a computer.  Keep in mind, that the Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Link only works with some of Sony’s televisions and will not work on non-Sonys.

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