Hitachi's 1.5 inch ultra-thin LCD TVs are now available in North America. The company is kicking things off with the 42-inch Director's Series Model. For more information, head on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link.

While Sony's Blu-ray format now has an undisputed monopoly over the high definition video market, recent reports from the NPD Group noted that sales related to the standalone Blu-ray player have been rather anemic over the past few months. In our full article, you can find out NPD Group's analysis on the situation and why the Blu-ray format still doesn't seem to be picking up despite its lack of competitors.

Only want your data to be seen by your eyes and your eyes alone? Fujitsu has just announced a software solution that might pique your interest.

The company has just announced the launch of the PC log-in kit that is composed of the PalmSecure authentication sensor embedded in a PC mouse. Find out more on this in the full article.

The impressive XEL-1 OLED TV from Sony wouldn't be available until December 1 in Japan, but direct sales website Sony Style for the region is already taking pre-sales for the home entertainment product. First announced a couple of months ago, the TV set sports a 3-millimeter thin 960x540 resolution display and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

Pricing has not changed as the organic light-emitting diode TV is still pegged at 200,000 Yen or roughly around US$ 1,807. The full details can be had via the "read more" link below.

Sony Entertainment announced today a new home entertainment gadget called HDMS-S1D Digital Photo Album. This was designed specifically to allow users to archive, organize, and watch slide shows of their digital photos in high definition.

Expected to launch later this month, HDMS-S1D will cost around US$ 400. We know it's price is quite steep especially when you compare it to a PlayStation 3 console or even two PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite.

But before you shoot down Sony's latest baby, just take a look first at these features and specifications:

• Offers several methods for importing photos: multiple flash memory card formats, CD, DVD, USB, and Ethernet.
• Photo collections can be managed with the supplied remote control and the device's intuitive interface.
• Photos can be organized by date, special occasions such as birthdays and travel (using pre-selected icons), or into as many as 3,000 different photo albums.
• Provides the ability to review, edit, rotate, delete, and arrange photos for a slideshow or digital scrapbooking with Sony's x-Application features.
• x-Pict Story HD: creates professional quality slideshows, eliminating the need for PC-based photo editing. Slideshows can be created by selecting from 30 pre-loaded music tracks and transition styles. For personalization, you can add up to five songs from your own CDs. The software also allows for connection to a compatible printer for making prints of your photos or scrapbook pages directly from the device.
• Uses Sony's face detection technology to locate faces in photographs and adjusts the slideshow transitions around the location of faces.
• x-ScrapBook: uses face detection and event-clustering technology to make scrapbook-style layouts of photos with a common trait like photos of children, or pictures grouped by events such as a party or vacation.
• When family or friends request copies of the photos they’ve seen on your HDTV, you can select and save those photos to CD, DVD, or flash memory card.

Interested parties can purchase HDMS-S1D Digital Photo Album online from SonyStyle.com or in Sony Style retail stores across North America.

   

If you happen to own a Toshiba-built portable DVD player with the model number SD-P1600, we've got urgent news. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is sending out word that the AC adapter included with these players, model number ADPV16, is being recalled due to recently reported safety issues.

According to Toshiba, they had received word that two of these adapters had malfunctioned, which resulted in their connected DVD players to overheat. While the players in both incidents suffered only minor damage, the company felt they were a big enough burn hazard that they've ordered the mass recall of all 142,000 adapters currently in circulation.

The player model was distributed in North America from the period of January 2005 through April 2006, at an estimated retail cost of US$ 200 to US$ 230. Users are advised to check the bottom of their player if it belong to this particular model number. You can also check the adapter model by reading its side. We'll also provide for screenshots to help you check.
 
Owners who confirm that their player is indeed of this build are advised to stop using the player, and to contact the Toshiba Customer Solutions toll-free number at (877) 290-6064, between 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., or to visit their main site (via the read link below). If you happen to know anybody who has this DVD player model as well, we advise you to tell them too.

We have just received word via press wire that computer manufacturer Acer has joined North America's HD-DVD Promotional Group. While this news sounds routine in the ongoing format wars, what makes it intriguing is that Acer just announced last week that it joined the ranks of the Blu-Ray Disc Association as well. Acer's Mobile Computing Business Unit Vice President Campbell Kan had this to say regarding this latest partnership:

Acer is pleased to join the North American HD DVD Promotional Group to help bring the freshest technology to more consumers worldwide. We are confident that our comprehensive HD DVD notebook offers will meet consumers' demand and expectation for true high definition experience. I look forward to further promoting the merit of HD DVD, in close collaboration with the Group.

Now, in case you're wondering, Kan was also there when Acer made their earlier announcement to join the BDA. Here's his quote from that particular press wire (dated August 30):

With increasing demand and expectation for richer media content, Acer is adding Blu-ray Disc technology into our notebooks and enabling users to experience high-definition content, playback and storage. Acer is pleased to be joining the Blu-ray Disc Association and to continue empowering our users to benefit from the freshest technologies available.

We're not sure what this means for us, but we do hope we'll be looking at plenty of choices for both disc formats in Acer's upcoming line of PCs and laptops. Drop by in case we hear more regarding the company.

You gotta hand it to Kotaku and their users for finding cool stuff like this. A fellow named Simon was able to take a snapshot of this Crash-themed hummer in Bristol, UK and man, does that one look sweet or what?

As much as we all love the fun-loving and naughty Bandicoot, very few people would probably do this to their hummers. Thank the heavens that there are people who do love the critter that much so we can all enjoy seeing Crash.

On October 2, Crash's latest adventure, Crash of the Titans, will launch in North America. It was initially planned for the Nintendo Wii, but will be ported to the Sony PlayStation Portable, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS.

It was announced by Verbatim and its parent company Mitsubishi Kagaku Media that they will be releasing the world's first Mini Blu-ray Recordable/Rewriteable (BD-R/RE) media.

These disks are three inches in diameter with a storage capacity of 7.5GB. The manufacturers say that it provides one hour of continuous video capture time on a single side at a resolution of 1920x1080i. If you choose to record at 1440x1080i, then you can even get as much as two hours of video capture time. 

The disks will be made available this August in Japan where it will be launched along with the new Hitachi BD-compatible camcorder which uses the said media. North America doesn't have to worry about being left out because Verbatim will also be providing the disks in the U.S. as soon as the new BD-compatible camcorders become available locally.

If that's not enough to make you want it, the disks will also be coated with the proprietary hard-coat finish of the Verbatim BD media which is said to provide "superior anti-static and anti-scratch properties for added protection against scratches, fingerprints and dust particles".

It seems like Blu-ray players are beginning to get cheaper, especially now that the move is being spearheaded by Sony itself. It was only this month when the company confirmed the US$ 100 price drop for its BDP-S300, officially bringing its price down to just US$ 499.

Anyway, online site DigiTimes was able to get a copy of Japanese-language newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun and found out that Funai Electric will be shipping its 42-inch full high-definition LCD TV and next-generation Blu-ray Disc (BD) player in North America this coming Fall.

While there are no official announcements regarding pricing, we are pretty sure that the BD player will be tagged lower than that of Sony's BDP-S300. Funai is known for making low costs electronic products and consumers in North America recognize its products under brand names Sylvania, Emerson, and Magnavox.

Regarding the HD LCD TV sets, it was reported that the panels will be adopted from Taiwan-based players while the TV itself will be assembled in China. The first batch of shipments will be around 100,000 to 200,000 units.