LG offers full Scarlet sight and sound experience

If you've already set your sights on an LG Scarlet HDTV, do consider going all out by pairing it with the companion HT953TV home theater system. Tuned by audio expert Mark Levinson, the 1,000W 5.1-channel kit not only bears the series' signature lighted cutout, it's also sports Touch Lighting. This technology is said to boost backlit touch-sensitive controls that "literally follow the users' fingers" (according to LG, of course).
We knew it's all about high-fashion design when it comes to lifestyle products. However, there's more than meets the eye beneath that curvy and glossy shell. As with all new 2008 home theater entries, it will upscale DVD to 1080p video quality. In addition, the HT953TV has USB, iPod and analog mini-jack (think earphone plug) inputs which enable music playback from just about any multimedia player under the sun.

Priced at S$1,599 (US$1,051.97), the HT953TV will be available in Asia end this month.

HTC Diamond images leaked

As we mentioned earlier, the frequency of rumors is set to rise as HTC's May 6 event in Europe draws near. So it comes as little surprise that pictures of the new HTC Diamond have been leaked.

Italian site NewsMobile has digital renderings of the manufacturer's new handheld from every angle. The back of the device has a geometrical pattern not unlike the Nokia Prism. Like many of the other HTC PDA-phones, the images suggest it comes with only one connector, a mini-USB port for charging, syncing and connecting a wired headset. Rumored specifications indicate that the diamond will have 4GB internal storage, 128MB RAM and a 528MHz Qualcomm processor. We are also expecting a new version of HTC's TouchFLO application.

Just one more day (two, if you consider the time difference) before all is revealed, so hang in there as we bring you the full story then.

Via Brighthand

The future of PC design

Since it was first shrunk from a room-sized machine to the familiar desktop-sized box, little has changed when it comes to the CPU component of a PC. Sure, there have been enthusiasts who literally think out of the box and have created amazing designs to hold the essential computer components, but the average consumer has had to be content with a boring rectangle chassis.

Microsoft's NextGen PC Design competition recently harnessed the collective creative juices of PC designers to rethink how a PC chassis will look like in the future. The competition is now closed, though a winner has yet to be announced. You can check out the finalists here.

Frankly, some of these creations are way too wacky to be practical. Some of them would look unbelievably gorgeous in the living room, but we seriously doubt any of them will hit mass production anytime in the future. Another consideration is the difficulty in upgrading as some chassis look impossibly small or cramped. So what do you think? Will we see some of these designs hit mainstream, or will boxy CPUs stick around forever?

Online music: Same tunes in a different package

Can you recall the last time you actually paid for music on your mobile phone? If you even need a second to think about this, you are not alone. The digital music market is hardly new and people have been downloading and sharing music for ages. Music sales online and via mobile channels were worth an estimated US$2.9 billion in 2007, according to IFPI which represents the recording industry worldwide.

Some other interesting statistics were also released in the recent Digital Music Report for 2008. There are more than 500 legitimate digital music services worldwide with over 6 million tracks collectively and the ratio of unlicensed tracks downloaded to legal tracks sold is about 20:1. Online sales account for 67 percent of the digital market in the US, while over 90-percent of Japan's digital sales are on the mobile platform. The report also highlighted that China has huge potential, but is largely held back by rampant piracy and poor returns to rights owners.

Last week, Nokia launched its second online music store in the APAC, offering a-la-carte downloads and a buffet-style jukebox service on the PC. A Time magazine article said that LG will be launching a service similar to Nokia's Comes With Music this mid-year. iTunes, on the other hand, is already available in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Numerous online music service models are sprouting up and consumers are getting more choices than they ever had. However, the biggest hurdle the record labels and phone makers now have to overcome is getting the price model right for their music (and dropping DRM). Each track on the Nokia music store in Singapore costs S$2 (US$1.47), while iTunes Australia offers a single song at A$1.69 (US$1.59). Compare this to US$0.99 per tune on iTunes in the US, and you wonder why the difference is so great. The question is, how much would you pay to own the music? Or would you rather IM your buddy to ask if he has the song?

Picture credit: Sony Ericsson

Charge the PC on the patio with a solar table

A fair amount of attention has been paid to the idea of solar-powered laptops as a perennial source of energy on the go, but there's no reason that the concept shouldn't be applied to desktops too as the greening of homes continues worldwide. Canada's Intelligent Forms Design addresses this need and--much to our liking--does so from the patio at the same time.

Its weatherproof SOlo Lounge Table (not a typo) not only charges the computer with built-in solar panels, according to Boing Boing, but it can also keep you updated on its status through Bluetooth signals sent indoors. The charging will continue even if the table is partly shaded, albeit in a diminished capacity, because other parts of the solar array will keep working.

None of this comes cheap, of course--US$14,000, to be exact. But if you plan on expanding your solar ensemble, there's a natural matching lounge chair in the Power Cube 600.

Via Crave CNET

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