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Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Corp. showed Tuesday a camcorder that takes video at digital high-definition quality for the home.
The 2 kilogram (4.4 pounds) HDR-FX1, set to go on sale next month in Japan and before the end of the year globally, sells for about 400,000 yen (US$3,600; euro 3,000).
It can play current digital video cassette tapes for format compatibility with older models. But Sony will also start selling a video cassette that's best suited for high-definition digital recordings.
Sony plans to ship 5,000 of the camcorders a month in Japan. It did not give a sales target for other nations.
"Recording precious images at the best visual quality is important and the demand for that is sure to spread around the world," Sony Vice President Shoji Nemoto told reporters at a Tokyo hotel.
A more affordable model is likely to follow, Nemoto said, but he declined to say when that would be available.
The high-end offering, which Sony said was a world first as a high-definition camcorder for consumers, is instrumental for profitability at a time when camcorder prices are rapidly coming down, according to Sony.
The HDR-FX1 showcases Sony's newly developed computer chips that can efficiently process digital images, the Tokyo-based company said.
Sony showed a live video image of
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The National Hydrogen Association and the U.S. Department of Energy are launching the second university student design contest. Potential participants are teams of graduate and undergraduate students enrolled at a college or university. The contest begins on September 15, 2004 and entries are due on January 14, 2005.
The last year's contest theme was Hydrogen Fuelling Station. R. John Efford, Minister of Natural Resources Canada commented: "The winners ... are demonstrating the ingenuity and innovation ... need[ed] to make hydrogen an energy choice for the future".
This year sponsors are looking for innovative designs for Hydrogen Power Parks. Power Parks address the need for back-up power, grid load reduction, distributed power generation and/or hydrogen dispensing. Power Parks don't have a set definition, but they often utilise some or all of the above components.
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Whoever coined the phrase "never work with your wife" had certainly not encountered Charles and Ray Eames, remembered as one of the last century's most fruitful design collaborations.
In work spanning fourdecades, this husband andwife team created a series of ground-breaking film sets, buildings and exhibitions in addition to their renowned furniture design.
It is the enduring popularity of the furniture that we remember, but during their long careers they were involved with so much in the design world: from architecture, furniture, sculpture, painting, child's toys, fabric design and material for school courses, lectures and corporate events.
"Recognising the need" Charles Eames said "is the primary condition for design".
Who in the 21st Century does not know an Eames' design, though they probably cannot identify it as such?
Their furniture pieces have been used in films, offices, advertisements, pop videos, promotional shots (who remembers Peter Mandelson in the Eames lounger?).
Early in their careers together, Charles and Ray identified the need for affordable, yet high-quality furniture for the average consumer - furniture that could serve a variety of uses.
For forty years they looked at ways to meet this challenge, exploring and experimenting with modern materials and processes.
They identified tha
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Apple engineers literally weighed every choice in order to keep the centre in the centre. That’s because smooth, effortless adjustment is accredited to attaching iMac to its foot at the centre of gravity.
So the iMac G5 smoothly tilts up and down from 25° to -5°. Formed into shape from a single 8mm thick piece of anodized aluminum, the foot also makes a cozy place to tuck away your keyboard and mouse when not in use.
The engineers put the iMac on a diet, helping it lose more than 4 pounds in its 17-inch incarnation, and a whopping 15 pounds on the 20-inch. So move it from the living room to the kitchen on a whim. Its two-inch thin case(1) and small footprint make the iMac G5 a delight to showcase anywhere in your home.
Remove the back cover on the iMac G5, and you’ll discover that perfect order is not just a requirement, but also candy to the eye. Thoughtful touches abound its dense layout, since Apple engineers considered the placement of every bit of technology — several times. Inside, you’ll find enough modern technology to make even nerds drool. That’s a 1.6 or 1.8GHz G5 processor, 533 or 600MHz frontside bus, 256MB DDR SDRAM running at 400MHz and NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB graphics memory. So you’ll be able to play Worlds of Warcraft, Doom III and other fantastic entertainment.
What’s more, that two
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ABI Research identifies two new competitive threats to the dominant cellular handset vendors. First, major brands from the larger consumer electronics market are entering the cellular handset market. Second, the analysts see an emerging trend among mobile service providers to source handsets directly from Original Design Manufacturers, particularly in Asia.
These threats are explored in the latest update to the ABI Research Wireless Handsets Quarterly Service, which details global trends in wireless handsets.
Sharp Electronics Corp., long a major name in electronics from air conditioners to TVs, has increasingly been encroaching in the cellular handset market in two ways.
First, although they have not been conspicuous as a manufacturer of cell phones in the domestic U.S. market in the past, Sharp's handsets are starting to appear there in numbers high enough to register as a growing market share.
More importantly, Sharp has a major hidden presence in the fastest-growing segment of the handset market, because they make many of the camera modules that are incorporated in handsets from other vendors. This gives Sharp the enviable advantage of enjoying a double revenue stream from the handset market.
Lance Wilson, ABI Research's director of wireless research, said that while Sharp has begun to take market share,
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