Apr/100
Apple iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter
Look, there’s no arguing that Apple charges a boatload for its first-party adapters, and this isn’t the first time that one of those overpriced dongles has caused an uproar (Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter, anyone?). But when the company trots out an iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter and promises to enable users to “see their videos and slideshows on the big screen,” it should probably make a few clarifications. Instead, more than a handful of consumers are revolting over on Apple’s own webstore, noting that any video laced in any type of DRM (iTunes flicks and Netflix streams included) won’t output at all. Contrary to popular belief, this adapter doesn’t actually mirror the iPad’s display, which is fairly absurd in our eyes — teachers are even stating that Apple’s own Pages and Keynote apps won’t output via the dongle, making this effectively worthless for blowing up presentations for all to see. We (sort of) get the DRM thing, but not including support in your own presentation app? Unacceptable. A tipster has noted that Apple informed him that “it’s up to the app makers to enable the video out function,” so we suppose all that’s needed to solve a lot of controversy is for some switch to be flipped in some direction. Any other hang-ups with this thing that the world should know about?
Apr/100
Panasonic Authors Avatar in Partnership with Twentieth Century Fox
This is all great news for the fans of Avatar and especially for collectors, who will be able to get their very own copy of the movie, either on Blu-ray or DVD, in a feature-only format. The R&D facility Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory, or PHL, has authored the Avatar DVD and Blu-ray disc without any special features, promotional content or trailers, in order for the flick and corresponding menu to occupy all the space on the discs, thus increasing its video and audio quality.
“We are proud to offer filmmakers a complete end-to-end Blu-ray encoding and authoring solution of the highest quality in order to deliver a breathtaking cinematic experience in a home video format to consumers worldwide,” said Jeannine Patton, Vice President and General Manager at Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory.
Since Avatar has opened the new era of 3D in cinematography, it is only normal that the movie should also come into our homes and with the highest possible quality. The Blu-ray disc and DVD featuring Avatar are surely keepers. Later on, when the 3D TVs will be the only ones available, most of us will probably want to take a look in the past at the movie that started it all.
“AVATAR really pushed the boundaries in terms of cinematography detail and color space, so it was vital that the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the movie really brought the beauty of Pandora to life. In working with one of our long-term partners, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, we are delighted to have created AVATAR on Blu-ray and DVD in amazing high-quality, and we’re confident that AVATAR fans will enjoy re-living the Pandora experience from the comfort of their own homes,” concluded Patton.
Apr/100
The A10 Android Smartphone with Garmin Navigation
As some of you will surely remember, only a couple of days ago, Garmin introduced on the US market the Garminfone, an Android smartphone providing extensive navigation capabilities. And now, the company is back with yet another offering (or, better said, the same offering in a slightly different packaging and branding), namely the Garmin-Asus A10 Android smartphone, a device that comes pre-loaded with Garmin navigation software and that will become available solely in Europe and Asia Pacific.
Targeting mostly pedestrians, the A10 has a bright, 3.2-inch HVGA touch screen, electronic compass and long-lasting 1500mAh battery. Moreover, the smartphone comes pre-loaded with detailed maps so that users do not have to pay and wait for third-party maps to download from a server, nor will they lose their turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation if they are out of cell phone coverage. In addition to pedestrian navigation, the A10 is ready for use in an automobile out of the box, and it comes with a powered audio mount that magnifies the volume of the device’s voice commands.
Additional features include a powerful WebKit browser with multi-touch, a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus capability that automatically geotags images with an exact location reference. The built-in accelerometer will quickly change the display so that screens may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode.
Moreover, as any serious Android smartphone, the A10 integrates Google Mobile Services with one-click access to Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, calendar, contacts and Android Market, where users can find more than 30,000 applications to expand and personalize their phone to fit their lifestyle. Android applications that have location-centric content are also able to utilize the A10’s enhanced GPS capability.