Onkyo have announced a number of new home entertainment products, including two THX-certified receivers and two new “Home Theater in a Box” systems. The receivers - the TX-SR806 and TX-SR706 - both include the new THX Loudness Plus audio processing technology for improved low-volume-level listening, while the SR806 has THX Ultra2 Plus certification and the SR706 has Select2 Plus certification. Each can upscale HDMI digital video sources to a 1080p output courtesy of the Faroudja DCDi Cinema video processor, and the SR806 can also upscale analog sources to 1080i.
Over at CrunchGear they’ve got fed up waiting for Apple or another manufacturer to decide to build a low-cost, super-thin web tablet, and so they’ve decided to put together something themselves. Aiming for an eventual $200 price point, the spec would be straightforward: a reasonably-sized touchscreen, the bare minimum in terms of grunt (since all they want is web browsing and a little VoIP), a 4GB SSD for storage and all in something roughly as thin as a MacBook Air.
The Simpsons have been around long enough that they could slap their name on just about anything and it’d end up selling to several of their faithful fans. Well now they’re getting into technology and selling custom engraved iPods.
Granted, they will quite obviously cost a little extra, but this limited edition set is definitely worth a look. They are selling a few different styles that are engraved onto different sizes of iPods.
If you’re just dying to have a smart home, one way to get you started is a front door that works like a car door. It comes complete with a remote to unlock it, just like you would for your car.
Sony Ericsson has launched a trio of new Walkman phones, the W302, W595 and W902. Each focuses on music, although in the case of the W902 there’s also a very respectable 5-megapixel camera, 2.2-inch QVGA display and built-in stereo speakers. An included 8GB Memory Stick Micro M2 card has space for over 8,000 songs.
I admit that Konami has a lot of catching up to do in the US market when it comes to rhythm games. Yes, they helped pioneer the genre in Japan, however, with games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band on the scene, Rock Revolution has an uphill battle. Konami had a special press conference to debut their new game, and they made a horrible presentation. Hit the jump for a video clip from their E3 show.
It’s taken me a little while to warm up to the PSP, but thanks to the folks at Square Enix and a copy of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, I’ve barely put it down lately. I’ve never really had anything against Sony’s handheld, it’s just that I’ve been plenty entertained by my DS. Well rumors are now circulating that there may be another PSP model in production. No, I’m not talking about a new color, but a whole new model 3000.
In case you missed the big news last week, your Xbox 360 is going to be able to stream Netflix movies this Fall. Sure, with a little work you can get this functionality already, but it’s not nearly as smooth as what we’re going to get in a few months. Hit the jump for a video demonstration of the new service.
Jimi Hendrix definitely ranks very high on my list of favorite guitarists. Tunes like Purple Haze and All Along the Watchtower have been on my list of songs I’d hoped would show up in Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Activision has announced that at least one of those tracks will be showing up in GH IV.
Super Talent has taken their flagship MasterDrive SSD models back into the workshop and eked some more speed from them, increasing the rate at which each can write to its memory so as to ensure maximum performance in data-heavy applications. The three affected models - the 2.5-inch SATA-II DX and MX, and the 1.8-inch Micro SATA KX - all have read speeds of 120MB/s, but now their write speeds have risen to as much as 100MB/s.
