Posts in Home AV
VoiceMe
Juniper Foo | Aug 30, 2004
One more reason not to leave your couch. Taiwan company HOTECH's VoiceMe lets you, literally, tell your telly, VRC, air-conditioner and just about any electronic device to turn on or off--giving your poor thumb a much-needed rest. VoiceMe can learn basically any infrared signal to work on anything you can operate with a remote control (except, unfortunately, on bratty kids). The catch: The manual states that it takes several steps to "train" VoiceMe before you can fully use it. And as voice recognition is not an exact science, we're expecting some capricious response to commands. Still, the potential for voice recognition as an interface is limitless. Credit cards that only work when they hear their owner's voice? Coming up next.
Price: S$159.90 (US$92.42)
Availability: Now
Device: Remote voice controller
Basic specs: 9V battery, 1m IR range, 5m ultimate speech input distance, 147 x 30mm, 130g
Sony Qualia 005
Juniper Foo | Aug 24, 2004
You know how just when you thought you'd taken the wrappings off the latest wow-wee TV, something better always comes along? Well, brace yourself. This time it's Sony with the launch of what it claims is the world's first LED flat-screen TV. What's different this time is LEDs being used as backlight. Apparently, this allows for truer and richer colors compared with your LCD TV which employs a conventional source of light. The Qualia 005 comes in two flavors--40 and 46 inch. But like all previous Qualia offerings from Sony, this one may not see light of day here. Bummer.
Price: US$7,697 for 40 inch, US$10,000 for 46 inch
Availability: Japan in November, globally end of year into 2005
Device: LED flat-screen TV
Basic specs: In 40 or 46 inch models, Emotion Engine, Graphics Synthesizer, DRC-MFv2 standard-TV-to-HDTV upscaler, Cross Media Bar GUI
Legato
Juniper Foo | Aug 13, 2004
Today's surround sound experience is the result of decades of evolution. There's just one blemish to this perfect picture--speaker cables, particularly to the rear and center speakers. Running wires in an existing home is just not something most folks would prefer doing if there was an alternative. Well, there is now, thanks to a newly minted Singapore company called 90dB. Claiming to be the first of its kind, its Legato system addresses the drawbacks of previous wireless speakers (low battery life, interference). We've seen it up close and we can tell you it looks and sounds promising. One box sits next to the master control and transmits to its twin near the speakers, good for up to 100m. Priced affordably, you should have change leftover for popcorn and drinks.
Price: S$249.90 (US$145.70)
Availability: Singapore now, the rest of Asia over six months
Device: Wireless speaker connection
Basic specs: 2.4GHz transmitter frequency, 87dB dynamic range, 100m line of sight, 7m through walls and ceilings, 1Hz-24kHz frequency response, 5Mbps data rate, integrated error correction scheme
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