Terabytes of storage, Wi-Fi cameras, and new Sony MP3 players are on the horizon.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
PC World
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
12:10 AM
TOKYO -- If a look out of the window doesn't confirm it, a definite sign that summer in Japan is over can be seen in the wide array of gadgets coming our way soon from Asian electronics companies.
As the run up to the end-of-year shopping season begins to build steam, the competition is starting, and this year looks like it will be dominated by flat-screen TVs, digital video recorders, cell phones, and digital audio players.
Shoppers in Japan have a new product to look for: an HD-DVD video player. Toshiba and other format supporters previously promised to launch players in the United States and Japan this year, but those plans have now been shifted. It looks like only Japanese consumers will see them before 2006. The new HD-DVD format offers much more recording space than do current DVD formats, and that means it's possible to store an entire high-definition movie on a single disc--something that hasn't been possible previously.
A competing format, Blu-ray Disc, is due out sometime next year, and there'll also be more HD-DVD players, so look for a fierce competition between the two unless any last-minute deal is announced to merge them.PC World's Melissa J. Perenson has been keeping up with developments; browse her " Burning Questions " columns to get up-to-date.
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So, why the large capacity? The answer is high-definition television. When the recorder is in HDTV mode, the 1TB of recording space works out to a much more sensible range of 68 to 128 hours of programming. Other features include dual tuners so you can record two channels at once. The Hitachi DV-DH1000W will be available from late October in Japan only, and the company is planning to produce about 5000 units per month. It will cost about $2087.
Now, here's a good idea: Nikon has developed a couple of new digital still cameras with built-in wireless LAN adapters. At a basic level, the Wi-Fi connection can be used in place of a USB cable to transfer images to a computer for storage or to a Wi-Fi printer for printing. Slightly more interesting is the possibility of setting the camera to automatically transfer each picture to the PC immediately after it's taken.
The connection can be either direct or through a network. The Coolpix P1 and P2 cameras are largely identical, except for their resolution. The P1 is an 8-megapixel camera, while the P2 is a 5-megapixel model. In practice, this means full-resolution images from the P1 are 3264 by 2448 pixels, while those from the P2 are 2592 by 1944 pixels. Look for them in late September. The P1 will cost $550 and the P2, $400.
Sony's latest Walkman players were probably the company's biggest challenge yet to Apple Computer, at least before Apple unveiled the IPod Nano. In response, Sony's announced five new players and jukebox software that ties into an online music store.
Sony's new lineup includes three flash-memory-based models with capacities of 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB, and two hard-drive-based models with capacities of 6GB and 20GB. The new players closely mimic Apple's IPod Minis in terms of capacity and the type of storage used (or they would have, had Apple not killed off the hard-drive-based IPod Mini a few hours prior to Sony's announcement).
Among the functions on Sony's hard-drive-based players is an Artist Link. Clicking the Link button while a song is playing highlights stored music from similar musicians and genres. There are also several shuffle modes in all the players, including a Time Shuffle that plays all the stored songs from a selected year, and a mode that randomly plays songs from the top 100 most listened-to tracks. Also new is the Connect Player jukebox software, which has an interface that bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple's ITunes software and has many of the same functions.
The new Walkman players will be available in Japan beginning in October. International launch plans have not yet been set.
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The icing on the cake is that's Panasonic's new plasma TV also has more impressive specs than the company's current model: It's a full HDTV panel, and it consumes 26 percent less power. It will cost $8925 in Japan. Panasonic plans to sell it overseas, but there's no launch schedule or pricing yet worked out.
I like the idea of getting my home-country news when I'm traveling, so Sony's Location Free TV system has always interested me, but its $1000-plus price tag has been a turnoff.
Now it's getting much cheaper, with a Location Free TV Base Station that will stream entertainment from your living room directly to your PC screen. For people with laptops, this makes much more sense than having to take Sony's portable display along on trips. With a broadband connection at home and Sony's Windows-compatible software on your laptop, you can watch local TV or other content streamed across the Internet to you wherever you are, as long as you have a decent connection.
Sony says its Location Free TV Base Station will even work with the Connexion by Boeing onboard airline broadband system. The base station will be launched in Japan in October and will cost $300. U.S. launch plans haven't been announced.
Nintendo has added a new member to its GameBoy family with the launch of the GameBoy Micro . The Micro is easily the smallest member of Nintendo's hit GameBoy family, as its name suggests. At 3.94 inches long by 1.97 inches deep by 0.67 inch thick, the device is smaller than a deck of cards.
Nintendo says that despite its diminutive size, it has about the same power of previous GameBoy models. It includes a 2-inch color LCD and buttons for both game control and menu selection. You can use face plates to change the look of the device.
The Micro's launch was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Nintendo's Mario Bros. game. Audio and video files can also be played through an adapter. The GameBoy Micro hit U.S. shelves on September 19 and costs $100.
A stroke of design genius, or perhaps desperation? Decide for yourself after seeing Sony's Network Walkman digital music players, which were inspired by jellybean candy .
The bean-shaped players, which will go on sale later this year, have colors to match various jellybean flavors: tropical ice is blue; cotton candy is pink; licorice is black; and coconut is white. They play MP3 and ATRAC3plus files and have a one-line organic light emitting diode display. The battery lasts 50 hours. A 512MB model will cost $130, and a 1GB model will be $180. Both will be available in the U.S. in October. Sony will also launch versions of the player in Europe.