Altec Lansing has been keeping itself fairly busy since introducing its
brand new look a little over a year ago, and it’s now back at CES with a new batch of audio products to keep things rolling. Leading things off is the inMotion Compact (iMT320) iPod speaker system, which is a slightly smaller, slightly cheaper followup to the company’s inMotion Classic speaker system, and includes some nifty features like a folding leather-like cover that also doubles as a speaker stand — look for it to be available in February for $80. That’s complemented by the Octane Plus 2.1 Speaker System (pictured after the break), which will also run $80, and three new headphones in the company’s MUZX DNA line that’ll cost just $20 apiece but still promise “a full ranged, balanced sound.”
DirectX 11 has been chewed up and spit out by desktop GPUs over the past few months, but until CES 2010, laptops at large were left out of the raving. This week, AMD has introduced what it’s calling the world’s first mobile graphics with DX11 compatibility, and the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 — which just so happens to be featured in ASUS’ recently revealed G73jh — is leading the way. The HD 5800, HD 5700, HD 5600 and HD 5400 series are all new at the show, and each one comes with baked in support for ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology and helping tech-adoring geeks find their soulmates (as is clearly shown above). Hit the source link for more details on each, and figure on seeing these filter out to new ultraportables, mainstream rigs and gaming lappies in the seconds, days and weeks ahead.
Since we can’t drool over sets without release dates forever, our attention at VIZIO’s CES event turned to flat-panels we actually expect to hit shelves in 2010. Still, we couldn’t have expected a sneak peek of the company’s planned iPhone remote control app (video after the break,) and the shock of seeing a 22-inch VIA & WiFi packing 22-inch LCD nearly overshadowed the massive 72-inch 3D set picture above. Also represented were a new soundbar surround package with HDMI 1.4 / Audio Return Channel due in May, a video-prioritizing wireless router and powerline networking setups, and of just to round things out, some iPod dock / touchscreen clock radios.
We managed to track down the guys from Canada’s Allerta and got to spend some time with a couple dummy models of the soon-to-be-released inPulse smartwatch for BlackBerry. Design-wise, it’s very attractive, with a brushed metal body and a leather band. As a bonus to early orderers, the first 1,000 sold will be custom-milled on a CNC router — ironically, it’ll actually be more cost-effective for them to do it that way while they build up production volume. In terms of functionality, it will launch with support for displaying text messages, caller ID, new e-mails, and BlackBerry Messenger messages (yes, it supports BBM!). It’ll give you information on who the message is from and a preview of the message’s contents. We couldn’t get a hard shipping date, but rest assured we’ll let you know as soon as we do — for now, our hands-on gallery will have to suffice.
Drummers from Pink Floyd, Radiohead and The Police are joining other musicians to drum for peace in Sudan as part of an international campaign to press world leaders to prevent more bloodshed in Africa’s largest nation.
The Sudan 365 campaign, launched on Saturday, calls “on global leaders to take urgent diplomatic action over the next 365 days to prevent all-out conflict returning to Sudan,” a statement by the organisers said.
It comes as Sudan marks the fifth anniversary of the North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended a devastating 22-year war between majority Muslim north Sudan and the mainly Christian and animist south.
The CPA also paves the way for Sudan to hold its first general election in 24 years in April ahead of a key referendum on southern independence in 2011.
Celebrity drummers are taking part in a “beat for peace” film that features a drumroll starting in the war-wracked nation “and being picked up and passed like a baton between drummers in over 15 countries” – including Brazil, Egypt, France, Japan, South Africa and the United States.
Drummers will include Radiohead’s Phil Selway, Stewart Copeland of The Police, Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, as well as Egyptian musicians Yehia Khalil and Mohammed Munir and Ghana’s Mustapha Tettey Addy.
Nine organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the US group Save Darfur have joined efforts to organise the campaign along with the drummers.
Gatherings are due to take place in a dozen cities across the world on Saturday when the film will be launched on www.sudan365.org and the front page of YouTube, organisers said in a statement.
“I wanted to be involved in this project because I think music is such a powerful way of bringing people together,” Selway was quoted as saying.
“Hopefully this film will show that together people can make a huge noise and through this film I hope people’s focus will be brought back to what is happening in the Sudan over this very important next year,” Selway said.
Five years after the end of the north-south civil war, the political situation remains tense between the two sides while south Sudan continues to be rocked by bloodshed and deadly tribal clashes.
At least 140 people were killed in the remote Wunchuei region of southern Warrap state over the past week, the United Nations reported on Thursday.
The dead were from the Dinka people, and local sources suggested they were killed by a rival Nuer group, but this could not be confirmed.
Since 2003 the volatile region of Darfur in western Sudan has also been the scene of a devastating civil war in which 300,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
“The next 365 days will be critical for the people of Sudan,” said drummer Jamie Catto, founding member of 1 Giant Leap and Faithless, and the brainchild of the film.
“This global drumbeat is a cry for positive action from world leaders to prevent conflict from returning.”
Egypt’s Mohammed Munir added: “Sudan has experienced too much pain and suffering in the last three decades. Now is the time to make sure that the future is one of peace and prosperity for all those in Darfur and the rest of Sudan.”
You’re watching a movie on television but really want to step away to fix a sandwich. Or nature calls when the game is tied and there are just a few seconds left.
Samsung does not want you to miss any of the action, so the South Korean electronics giant is coming out with a remote control with a built-in TV screen.
The “All-in-Premium Remote” resembles an elongated iPhone with a screen for viewing about the same size as the screen on the popular Apple smartphone.
“You can actually use it to put the image that you’re watching on to the remote and take it into another room,” said a Samsung spokeswoman, Kimberly Unland.
The touchscreen device can come in useful in ways other than satisfying hunger pangs or calls of nature.
“Like say you’re watching something and someone else doesn’t want to watch it, or say there’s two games you’re following on at the same time,” the Samsung spokeswoman said.
“Or if you’re watching say Blu-ray on the TV you can watch something different on the remote,” Unland said.
“It’s also a standard TV remote with all the functions you would normally get,” she said, although you can “also use it to get files, pictures, audio and video from your PC to your TV.”
Unland said she didn’t know the range of the device but you could probably not watch “at your neighbor’s house.”
The “All-in-One Premium Remote” is scheduled to come out later this year with Samsung’s new 9000 series high-definition TVs.
