i escape

Be still, our hearts! After watching the wireless HD / HDMI sector fumble along for years on end, a team of mega-corps have finally agreed to push their self-interests aside and collaborate on a standard. WHDI creator AMIMON has joined forces with Motorola, Samsung, Sony and Sharp in order to form "a special interest group to develop a comprehensive new industry standard for multi-room audio, video and control connectivity" utilizing the aforementioned Wireless Home Digital Interface technology. Reportedly, the group will have a standard completed before 2009 dawns, but we all know how easily these things can get pushed under the rug. Nevertheless, the overriding goal here is to "enhance the current WHDI technology to enable wireless streaming of uncompressed HD video and audio between CE devices such as LCD and plasma HDTVs, multimedia projectors, AV receivers, DVD and BD players, set-top-boxes, game consoles and PCs." A tall order, sure, but one we're elated to see taken on. Full release after the break.

[engadget]

With a 80GB hard disk inside you can rip your CD collection in a variety of MP3 bit rates. You can also make use of your PC if you have a large collection of music on it, either by copying the files directly on to the system’s internal disk or by hooking it up to your home network (wired or wireless). Philips provides a really simple and foolproof application to set your computer up as a media server.

The ‘Music Follows Me’ feature is pretty snazzy. If you’re moving from the room with the music Centre to one with a Station, hitting the ‘Music Follows Me’ button allows the music to be paused, and then continued on the Station in the other room. A well-designed, two-way remote control features an LCD screen that mimics the ones on the two systems perfectly. The system it controls can be altered manually on the remote itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display

Also among the improvements is a USB slot on the top of each player which allows you to plug in a thumb drive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive or your iPod, browse, play and copy tracks to and from the base station’s hard disk, with a dedicated iPod cradle available as an optional extra.

[gadgettastic]

Ratoc has released a new mini wireless audio amplifier known as the RAL-AMP01 for the PC. It communicates using the 2.4GHz USB transmitter and has a data rate transfer of 4Mbps, tops. Other features include :-

• Output power of 2x10 Watts
• Impedance of 8 O
• Frequency response of 20Hz~20kHz(-0.3dB)
• RCA input/output
• Speaker output terminal
• Mini output (3.5mm) jack

Pretty small despite packing in quite a decent performance, the RAL-AMP01 will retail for approximately €240.

[ubergizmo]

We believe you are going to be positively bowled over by this technological masterpiece. Here's how it works. Simply place The Wireless Outdoor Speaker indoors or outdoors. Then plug your CD player, iPod, or TV into the rubberised transmitter unit that accompanies the Wireless Speaker. When switched on the unit sends the signals from your audio device to the speaker. The result: high quality, crystal clear stereo sound wherever you are in the house or garden. No messy wires. And no lugging your hi-fi up and down the stairs.