We're not sure who let Yahoo! into Intel's party in San Francisco, but the two sure are getting along great. Much to the chagrin of Mark Cuban, these two actually believe that there's a future in internet TV, particularly if you force it down people's throats. Intel spent the bulk of its time talking up the Media Processor CE 3100 (formerly known as Canmore), which would theoretically be installed within HDTVs and enable users to access internet-based content without the need for an additional set-top-box ('course, the STB is still optional). That's where Yahoo! comes in -- it's hoping that its Widget Channel will encourage users to utilize its services when watching re-runs or other lackluster material in order to get news, weather and other related information right on the living room set. Not that this is a totally new concept, but these two surely have the power to push it one step further. Lots more information and pictures in the links below.

Read - Intel / Yahoo preview plans for Widget Channel
Read - Images of the tech in action
Read - Gigabyte Intel box (first product to use the CE 3100)

Time flies when you're having fun, but not when you're waiting anxiously for a new piece of kit -- particularly one that has been delayed numerous times. For Europeans waiting on pins and needles for the release of the PlayTV DVR for PlayStation 3, your time has arrived. Before rushing out to get one, however, might we interest you a short unboxing and a brief overview? No pressure whatsoever, though.

What can we say? Intempo has launched a new pair of iPod-compatible speaker systems, and unless you're somehow just entering the market for one in the latter half of 2008, chances are you're already yawning. Nevertheless, the RDi-W (pictured) does distinguish itself somewhat by including support for DAB and wireless internet radio, and there's a 30-watt internal amplifier to kick out the jams. The much drabber Fusion keeps things small and simple by offering up just 25-watts of power and DAB / FM tuners. Expect the couple to sashay into e-tailers next month for £169.99 ($316) / £99 ($184).

Read - RDi-W
Read - Fusion

PlayOn wants to make sure you can get your daily dose of Barackrolls and Airwolf episodes beyond the desktop, while Hulu might not have a slick streaming set-top box of its own, this media server software turns flash video RSS streams into easily browsed folders for your DLNA-compliant hardware. PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and HP MediaSmart HDTVs being at the top of that list (with Nintendo Wii support planned by year-end) owners can grab the beta release of the software and stream low-res episodes of Psych, or any assortment of YouTube video they please. With Netflix support "just down the road" this could provide an end around for PS3 owners looking for streaming love, or Xbox 360 owners without Xbox Live Gold (we know you're out there.) Bad news is the beta only lasts 60 days and there's a $30 pricetag waiting at the end of the free lunch highway. Our experience was good, with no stutters in a Psych episode streamed via Wi-Fi to the PS3 (albeit with no choice of HD clips), but we'd wait for confirmation on the whole Netflix bit before dropping any dough.

Update: Getting 69-C00D36C4 / folder could not be accessed errors on your PS3 or Xbox 360, or waiting for 64-bit Vista support to dive in? PlayOn CTO David Karlton updated the official blog to let users know fixes and additional support is in the works, so keep an eye out for more news shortly if things aren't working just yet.


[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Yes, Toshiba seems resigned to some sort of HD disc-free existence, as it continues to mope about HD DVD's loss to Blu-ray and refrains from releasing a player for the once rival format, but let's set all aside for the moment. We got a look at Toshiba's new XD-E500 in action, and we must say: it does what it sets out to do. Most consumers will see a visible quality improvement when playing their DVDs, particularly in the realm of sharpness. Toshiba's new filters are "intelligent" enough to spice up the grass while leaving the sky and clouds free of noise, and while the contrast and color filters are less necessary, many consumers will enjoy their effect -- even if video purists would scoff at such alterations. As for usability, it couldn't really be much easier to flip on and off the three different enhancements, but there's also no customization of those modes to speak of. This $150 player isn't in any way Toshiba's Blu-ray killer, but thankfully the company actually seems to recognize that, and plans to market to Joe consumer who doesn't want to fork over the dough for a Blu-ray player or doesn't want to invest in a brand new video library, and won't be insulting videophiles' intelligence with claims to the contrary. If you're looking for something to magically make DVDs look like HD, this isn't it, but it bests Toshiba's best upconverter easily, and we'd venture to guess it's probably tops yours as well. All that said, Toshiba will have in store demos of the player at major retailers, and we'd highly recommend taking a gander for yourself before you take the plunge.

Loyal All-in-Wonder users from years past have probably been watching the progression of AMD's revised version of the card with extreme interest. After such an absence, however, we understand the need to be cautious before snapping this up for your upcoming HTPC. HotHardware recently received one of these units for testing, and while it was only deemed "entry level" in the gaming department, the multimedia performance was smiled upon. To quote, "the [card] did an excellent job presenting digital video content in a quality manner without creating excessive power consumption in order to do so." As expected, the unit wasn't recommend for everyone (read: non-TV buffs), but those who'd utilize the built-in ClearQAM support probably can't go wrong for $199. Hit the read link for a whole gaggle of test results.

Barely a month after Mitsubishi launched its iSP 149 series of LCD HDTVs, the company is trotting out three new lineups over in Japan. The higher-end MZW series includes the 46-inch LCD-46MZW200 (¥400,000; $3,643) and 40-inch LCD-40MZW200 (¥300,000; $2,732), both of which pack a 1080p 10-bit Diamond panel, 120Hz technology and an October 21st release date. For those with tighter spaces (and smaller budgets), the MX / MXW series spans from 19- (¥100,000; $910) to 42-inches (¥280,000; $2,550), with the most expensive sets offering a Full HD display and the lesser ones topping out at 1,366 x 768. Oh, and it looks as if Funai won't be the only one delivering a Blu-ray / LCD combo, as Mitsu's already working up a concept. Peruse the links below for all the machine translated nitty-gritty.

[Via Impress]

Read - MZW series
Read - MX / MXW series
Read - Blu-ray / LCD combo concept

It only takes a glance to realize that Boston Acoustics' Horizon i-DS2 iPod boombox is merely a cleaned up version of the knobby Duo-i, but we must say, the new look is pretty sleek. Built to function with any dock-connecting iPod, this 60-watt speaker system includes twin 3.5-inch full-range drivers, a composite video output, USB connector and an auxiliary input for plugging in other DAPs / PMPs. The unit itself arrives in glossy white or glossy black, though users with an itch to customize can select from a variety of P.O.P. metal grilles. On paper, the unit isn't too shabby, but the $179.99 price tag is somewhat of a drag.

"Entry-level" and "1080p projector" don't often go hand-in-hand, but Sanyo's mashing the two terms together with its PLV-Z700. The Full HD beamer provides a 1,920 x 1,080 native resolution, 1,200 ANSI lumens, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, twin HDMI 1.3b ports (along with an array of others) and a variable iris that can "control lens iris adjustment every 1/60th of a second." Unfortunately, the most tantalizing tidbit has been omitted for now (yes, the price), but word on the street has it shipping to the UK in October.

[Via AboutProjectors]

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.
Last year, Switched On discussed the KeySpan TuneView and the DLO HomeDock Remote, two products that allowed remote control of an iPod using small screens on a remote. One of the limitations of those products was that they each required their own docks instead of working with any of the scores of iPod docks already on the market. At CES 2008, though, a company showed a product that not only allows you to use your iPod -- and many other devices -- as a wireless remote with the iPod dock you may already have. Even more unusually, the company that sells it is not one well associated with these speaker docks, such as Altec Lansing, Bose or Logitech, but rather It is iSkin, a company that made its name selling silicone cases for iPods.

iSkin's music product line is called Cerulean, the most flexible configuration of which is the $129 TX+RX (transmitter / receiver). The transmitter, like those bundled with iPod wireless headphones for years, allows you to use your iPod as a remote, sending music to any Bluetooth stereo speaker. But not only does Cerulean free the iPod from the dock, it frees the dock from the iPod.

Plugging the Cerulean Bluetooth receiver into practically any iPod dock opens a door for many Bluetooth stereo music sources -- such as MacBooks and notebook PCs, digital music players from Sony and Samsung, and many cell phones. When used with a subscription service such as Rhapsody, the Cerulean lets you create playlists from thousands of songs or listen to YouTube music videos on your notebook with better audio quality, but there's even one more trick up its sleeve.

If you've been putting off that purchase of Popcorn Hour's evolutionary A-110 HD media streamer or all new B-110 motherboard, here's a decent compilation of facts and opinions to help you make up your mind once and for all. The cats over at DigitalReviews took the time to not only detail, test out and report back on the newest duo from the company, but it also revisited the original (and heralded) A-100 in order to give a better comparison. Overall, critics did tend to prefer the A-110 over its predecessor, but the minor list of changes made it a hard sell for folks teetering on upgrading. The B-110 was seen as an even tougher sell, with only the hardcore DIY crowd likely to even find it worth investigating. Nevertheless, we won't spoil the rest for you -- head on down to have a look for yourself.

[Thanks, Anton]

Oh Toshiba, has it really come to this? After a humiliating loss to Blu-ray, Tosh just unveiled its new $150 XD-E500 DVD player. It's no run o' the mill DVD player mind you, this unit touts Toshiba's new eXtended Detail Enhancement (XDE) technology -- that super-duper resolution upconverting tech meant to fill the void between ubiquitous upconverting players and Blu-ray. Unfortunately, the player demonstrated offered just "subtle but noticeable sharpening of the image" when compared side-by-side (in a controlled demonstration) with an unnamed $70 upscaler -- to its credit, Tosh did not try to compare its new player with an HD-capable Blu-ray machine. Still, more than twice the price for "subtle" hardly sounds like a compelling purchase to us.

Update: Official press release is now out which, oddly enough, helped us upconvert our 480i/p cynicism to full-blown 1080p/24fps skepticism.

Now look, we're not sure if this was someone's drug-induced fever dream or not, but if it did really go down, it might be the best thing that's happened at the entire 2008 Summer Olympics. According to the Dirty Red Commie, sometime on August 17th between 2:00 PM and 3:13 PM Mountain Time, Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000 appeared on NBC's broadcast of the summer games. The DRC says they were simply static -- no hilarious jokes or animated banter -- but cut out during local commercials, giving him the impression that this was coming from the NBC mothership rather than his local station. Apparently a video of the action was set to go up on YouTube, but was "copyright-killed before it was even done processing." If anyone out there on the interblogs is able to confirm this, we'd love to hear from you.

Update: While not exactly proving the authenticity of this, we've now got video of it after the break.

Update: Aaaaaand... the video has been taken down.

Not a lot here that you can't already make out for yourself, but we'll give ya the down low, anyway. The Crystal USB Desktop Speakers are powered via USB 2.0 and only pack 1-watt per channel, yet somehow, they're touted as "audiophile" grade. The product description rambles on in embarrassing fashion about just how amazing these things will sound, but seriously, we'd just be happy with the decently cool looks (yes, we're being generous here) and relatively low $39.99 price tag.

[Via Random Good Stuff]

Color us stumped and incredibly excited. We've discovered this totally useless yet endlessly amazing DVD player / Terminator head out in the wilds of the internet, but finding any information deeper than people exclaiming "this is awesome" is, in a word, difficult. Look, we're not saying that we want to find the company that makes these, order 100 of them, rip out their guts and replace them with those electronic rat brains, swap the eyes for stereoscopic cameras, tack on Darth Vader-esque voice boxes, and then mount them to the unkillable bodies of an army of robotic warriors we've been building, but... uh, well... okay you got us.