Discovery, Sony & IMAX Announce Plans for 3D Television Network

The main problem, which others also complain about, are the 3D glasses which make your eyes and the brain behind them go crazy. Avatar was a 3D movie which, despite being almost three hours long, managed not to provoke that many headaches.

With all this in mind I can’t but wonder if a 3D TV network could be successful or not. Would you like to watch 3D shows all day long? Could your eyes take all the extra strain or would you settle for regular TV shows and go for 3D movies only on special occasions?
I am asking you all these questions as three major names in the entertainment business, Discovery Communications, Sony Corporation and IMAX Corporation have decided to create a TV network dedicated to only 3D content. The announcement, made at the CES 2010 in Las Vegas today is certainly surprising but also very logic. More and more 3D shows and games are being conceived already which means a 3D-based TV network is bound to happen.
The 24/7 dedicated 3D TV network is planned for the U.S.A. and it sounds pretty promising. After all, the names behind this joint venture have lots of 3D shows worth seeing. On the other hand, I’d still be waiting for autostereoscopic 3D TVs that don’t require the use of any special glasses to watch such shows.
With a dedicated 3D TV network in place, more consumers will probably start moving on to 3D panels capable of bringing their favorite 3D content to their homes. Discovery, Sony and IMAX will be equal partners in this first 3D TV network and they will bring lots of shows to the table including natural history, space, exploration, adventure, engineering, science and technology, motion pictures and shows for children.
Actual details about the future 3D TV network have not been unveiled at this time but we expect to hear more about it in the very near future.

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Android 3.0 Honeycomb Coming in March As Manufacturers Prepare Their Android Tablets for Launch

Besides the upcoming iPad 2, which is one of the most expected tablets of 2011 and then get launched in the following months in various markets. Sure the iPad and the iPad 2 will probably still get an impressive mind-share again, but it’s not 2010 anymore, and this time around we’ll have plenty of other tablets in stores to choose from.

Android seems to be, just like in the smartphone business, the main adversary of Apple in this new tablet PC niche. But we’re waiting for Android 3.0 (or is it 2.4) Honeycomb to hit, an Android version custom-made for tablets, and a more appropriate iOS rival. According to Digitimes Android 3.0 will be launched in March 2011 which means all those Android tablets that will be shown at CES 2011, will only hit stores at some point later.
Digitimes has it that ECS, Asus and MSI are all preparing tablet PCs to be shown of at CES next year. ECS will have 7- and 10.1-inch Windows 7 and Android tablets at CES sporting multitouch displays, Intel Atom CPU or ARM-based processors from Marvell or Samsung, wireless modules and up to eight hours of battery juice.
MSI is expected to showcase a 10-inch Wintel-based tablet PC while actual sales of a NVIDIA Tegra 2-based model will start in April or May, right “after Google releases Android 3.0 in March.”
Last, but not least, Asus will have three tablet PC lines: Eee Reader, Eee Note and Eee Pad. The Eee Pad will come in various sizes, from 12-inch Windows 7 machines made for enterprise to 10-inch Windows 7 and Android models probably made for general consumers. These tablets will start selling for $499-599 at some point in March at the earliest, although everything needs to be properly confirmed first. And since we did talk about 7-inch tablets and how Steve Jobs doesn’t like them, it seems that Asus will have such Tegra 2-based Android tablets too later next year

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Chrono Trigger To Get Mobile Game Port In Spring 2011

There are few RPG’s more revered than Chrono Trigger, and for good reason. It was the first to do so many things it’s hard to even begin listing them, but the most important thing it did was make you care about the characters. And we don’t know about you, but we played the recent Nintendo DS port to exhaustion. And we’re just about ready to play through it again.

Luckily, Square Enix know for a fact that people can’t get enough of Chrono Trigger’s nostalgic goodness and are lining up what we can only surmise is an upcoming mobile phone port of the game, judging by the teaser site that’s been put up. The release date isn’t that hard to pinpoint either, just take a big old gander about an inch upwards. The vagueness part, that we can’t help you with. Nor can we offer more information, as there isn’t any more available, except lively speculation that the App Store will play host to it. Us, we’re just happy anything Chrono Trigger-related is coming out.

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Intel’s Sandy Bridge

They’re calling it Sandy Bridge, and by all indications, the newest chip from Intel is going to be a really big deal. You haven’t heard about these from us since April, so it comes as a pretty big surprise that they’re already poised to hit market

What drove this push is the discovery that people given test products of the Sandy Bridge line almost universally raved over their capability. Thus Intel, deciding to give the people what the test market clearly wanted, put a whole lot of cash and effort into cranking up Sandy Bridge.
The biggest difference between the Sandy Bridge material and the current Nehalem product we’re working with these days is a matter of size. Sandy Bridge architecture goes all the way down to 32nm, whilst the Nehalem measures at 45nm.
So when will we see Sandy Bridge material? Too soon to say, though there’s at least some evidence they’ll start shipping by the end of the year.

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Samsung Needle Slim 3″ Thick HDTV

Samsung is once again making the rounds online by announcing the slimmest HDTV in the 40-inch category. Comparable with Sony‘s XEL-1 OLED or Panasonic‘s Neo Eco PDP TVs, the new Samsung Needle Slim is a 3mm thick (that’s just over a tenth of an inch) Full HD LED Backlight TV that features a 120Hz LCD panel and a 5000:1 contrast ratio.

Runner in the latest leg of the thin flatscreen telly race, the new Samsung Needle Slim is not yet on sale, but since it looks like a production ready prototype we’ll have to take Sammy’s word for it that the company is actually planning to roll it out soon. Hence why rumors have it the thin 1080p resolution display will be released in Japan just in time for the holidays season, with a follow up at CES in Las Vegas come January for the US to have a better look at it.
Although there aren’t any other details concerning Samsung’s Needle Slim series, we’ll have to agree that the South Koreans have managed to get to our hearts with it. We’re craving for one in the office, looks sleek!

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Dell Streak 7, aka The Looking Glass Tablet Makes An FCC Appearance

More and more evidence is coming that suggests the Dell Streak 7 is going to be announced during CES and the most recent has arrived in the form of an FCC filing. And interestingly enough, the filing is showing the Streak 7 as having support for both T-Mobile and AT&T.

Anyway, while nothing is official in terms of an upcoming announcement, that should be happening soon enough as CES is set to kick off very soon — next week. And while we here at TFTS have covered this device in the past with some regularity, some may recognize it by the other codenames — the Looking Glass and the not quite as exiting M02M. Anyway, as for this most recent bit of information, this comes from the FCC and the filing confirms that the Streak 7 will have support for UMTS bands II, IV and V which means AT&T and/or T-Mobile. Of course, that differs slightly from the recent images which were showing T-Mobile branding.
Still, we cannot forget those images which came from the Streak 7 television commercial which showed the device with a Netflix app. And as we have already seen — Android does not have a Netflix app just yet. But back to the task at hand here, the FCC filing.
This listing also confirms that the Streak 7 will have Wi-Fi 802.11n as well as Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and a memory card and SIM card slot. The one downfall here is that it seems the back panel is not removable and that means a battery that is not user-changeable.
Otherwise, the device will be powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and feature a 7 inch display along with what many believe will be Android 2.2 in terms of the operating system. The other unknown is whether the device will be able to make voice calls. Granted, the other popular 7 inch Android tablet (the Galaxy Tab) cannot make them (here in the US) and that would lead us to believe the Streak 7 will also be a no in terms of voice. That said, the Streak 5 can and that throws a monkey wrench into the whole assuming thing.

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Samsung’s Newest Shot At World’s Thinnest Blu-ray Player

Samsung has long been about making electronics as thin and space-saving as possible, but their push to make the thinnest Blu-ray player has reached new heights with a model they’re looking to show off at, once again, the 2011 CES show. And why are they sufficiently excited about a Blu-ray player to fit it into the biggest electronics show on earth? Simple: the device measures just 23 millimeters thick (about .9 inches, for those of you who don’t speak metric).

The device, which hasn’t been specifically named yet, isn’t just a super-thin Blu-ray player, but also a fully-featured one: it will offer up support for 3D content, the ability to upconvert 2D into a strange almost-3D, and internet connectivity

so you can use it as a streaming box too for access to things like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, among others. Samsung also says that the player will be the thinnest such player commercially available when it goes to launch.
Interestingly, commercial interest in Blu-ray is starting to pick up: sales of Blu-ray players doubled from this time last year going up to over 400,000 units, and 3D compatible players made up 15 percent of that. While most people probably aren’t too concerned about just how thick their Blu-ray player is, as opposed to things like “what it does” and “how well it works”, it’d still make a nice conversation piece. And, it’s also kind of interesting to watch Samsung’s progress on this whole “thinnest Blu-ray player ever” quest of theirs. In fact, in 2009, they reportedly put out a 39 millimeter thick model, and 2010 saw them wheel out a  29 millimeter thick model. Eventually, at this rate, their player will be only slightly larger than the disc itself.

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Dell Streak 7 & Motorola Cliq 2 Coming to T-Mobile on January 19?

The Dell Streak 7, Dell’s latest Android tablet, has been involved in a series of controlled leaks in the last few days so we’re not surprised to see it appear in new rumors. And this Android tablet is in great company today, as it joins the Motorola Cliq 2, an Android handset also rumored to be launched by T-Mobile USA soon.

The Dell Streak 7 is a 7-inch Android tablet, the successor of the not-so-popular Dell Streak 5, and a device that’s expected to be unveiled at CES, or around that time in early 2011. There are no official details about the Dell Streak 7 so far, but we did see an ad concept for it, and the device has also been spotted with the FCC.
The Motorola Cliq 2 is the successor of the Motorola Cliq, which was the first Android handset made by Moto and the predecessor of the highly acclaimed Motorola Droid.
Both these devices are now said to be launched on January 19 in the USA and T-Mobile seems to be the designated carrier. Pricing details have not been leaked yet, but if this rumor turns out to be true then we can expect a proper press release to hit the proper channels at some point in the very near future.
While the Motorola Cliq 2 won’t be the kind of iPhone-killer you expect, the Dell Streak 7 might be a great iPad alternative. But aunching the Streak 7 in January will be a challenge both for Dell and T-Mobile considering that not only will CES 2011 bring us a lot of tablets, some probably worth buying soon, but, most importantly, the next-gen iPad will also be announced at some point in January. The iPad 2 will probably set the tablet tone for the year to come, and its imminent announcement could hurt other tablet sales, Dell Streak 7 included.

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