NXP brings HDMI 1.4 to Mobile Phones

NXP Semiconductors today announced a new HDMI 1.4 transmitter solution, TDA19989, which enables consumers to transfer HD multimedia content from their mobile phones directly to a television via the TV remote control. The TDA19989 features ultra-low power consumption, a small form factor, and support of full HD (1080i/p). The device supports the newly introduced HDMI 1.4 Type D micro-connector and provides an additional embedded Consumer Electronic Control feature, which enables users to control their mobile phones through their TV remotes.

With the explosion of high-definition (HD) multimedia content, it is common for devices to support 10M pixels+ camera sensors. HD content support is becoming one of the major criteria when selecting a NXP Semiconductors. “NXP has also reduced the HDMI low-power transmitter budget to sub-100mW, allowing for more than 7 hours’ HD video streaming on battery via HDMI. In addition, the introduction of this new interface is a key element for Open Source developers to leverage HD availability on mobile phones.”

To further reduce BOM cost and ease of design, the TDA 19989 provides additional embedded features such as CEC (Consumer Electronic Control). This feature eliminates the need of any additional device to handle CEC and enables CEC-connected devices to be controlled by only one remote control.

NXP worked on a Zoom OMAP34x-II mobile development platform (MDP) from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) to demonstrate the Consumer Electronic Control (CEC) feature. The Zoom OMAP34x-II MDP is based on TI’s proven OMAP3430 applications processor.

Fred Cohen, director of the OMAP wireless ecosystem at TI, said: “The CEC feature takes ease of use to the next level by allowing the control of portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, through existing TV remote controls. Sitting on a couch, for example, a user can play, stop or fast forward a movie on an HD phone connected through HDMI to an HD TV. This capability brings new use cases to the mobile market, and helps consumers connect to their phones and other consumer electronic devices in a whole new way.”

Fire hazard forces Toshiba laptop recall

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Japanese electronics maker Toshiba has recalled 41,000 laptop computers worldwide because of a fire risk, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

"The notebook computers can overheat at the notebook's plug-in to the AC adapter, posing a burn hazard to

The computers involved are the Satellite T135, Satellite T135D and Satellite ProT130.

The safety commission said that Toshiba has received 129 reports of the computers overheating and deforming the plastic casing area around the AC adapter plug.

It said there had been two reports of minor burn injuries and two reports of minor property damage.

Toshiba offered a software program for download at laptops.toshiba.com/about/consumer-notices.

The program detects whether the computer is overheating and disables its external power.

Japan's next gizmo brainwave-controlled cat ears

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A team of Japanese inventors have come with a new device that blends the country's fascination with cuteness and its penchant for experimental high-tech -- brainwave-controlled cat ears.

The fluffy headwear reads users'

"We were exploring new ways of communicating and we thought it would be interesting to use brainwaves," said Neurowear's Kana Nakano.

"Because the sensors must be attached to the head, we tried to come up with something cute and catchy."

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"But falling costs have allowed people like us to seek interesting ways to use the sensors," he said.

"Existing toys featuring brainwaves focus on controlling brainwaves. Meanwhile, Necomimi can reveal a user's state of mind. In that sense, we are proposing a new communication tool."

Current BlackBerry Users Will Not Receive BlackBerry OS 10 Update

Today, RIM confirmed that current BlackBerry owners will not receive the much anticipated Blackberry OS 10 update. The only way to get it will be to purchase a new Blackberry handset.

Considering the new features of this firmware, and the types of phones for which it is built, this news will come as no surprise to those who have kept up with the new OS. Yesterday, RIM previewed Blackberry 10 at Blackberry World 2012, releasing an "Alpha Dev" phone to developers. The new phone is stylized after popular smartphones, featuring a full touch screen with no physical keyboard.

With these radical new modifications, the software would be infeasible on the smaller and much differently built BlackBerry devices of the past. Although this consequence was probably inevitable, it is bound to disappoint fans who already own BlackBerry devices.

RIMs choice to upgrade BlackBerry software to a more modern and marketable form has been compared to Microsofts migration from the enterprise oriented Windows Mobile, to the more mainstream Windows Phone. This change, while not a disaster, could be thought of as a small failure. iOS and Android dominate the market, with Windows phone lagging far behind.

What remains to be seen is how these changes will end up affecting RIM’s position. If some BlackBerry fans are excited about these new changes, there are certain to be others who will not be. However, considering where RIM is right now, new customers are probably the real goal.

While business users may stick with BlackBerry for the various infrastructures it offers, how lay users will respond is unknown. Will the new design and overhauled OS be enough to pull them over, or will it just bore a market with too many superior devices to care? Only time will tell.

Source:SlashGear

Do you have an old Gigabyte Motherboard or Graphics Card stashed up somewhere in your storeroom

Click on the picture above to find out more!!!

Eleven Years of Goog11e

On Sunday September 27 2009, Google, the number 1 search engine in theworld, celebrated its 11th birthday with a new logo, featuring an extra“l” to the name Google (anyone saw it?).PCWorld has an article discussing the search and advertising giant’s eleven year history.For most users out there, Lycos, eXcite and Yahoo was probably thesearch engine of choice before Google made its debut in 1998. Googlehas certainly come a long way (thanks to 2 men, Larry Page and SergeyBrin) since its inception as a Stanford University research project in1998, to the global, multi-billion dollar company it today is. Google’sa classic “rags to riches” fairytale if you ask me.

A brief look at Google’s 11 years:

Early Days: 1998
Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin dropped the original BackRubmoniker in favor of Google, a play on the mathematical term "googol"Google.com domain registered and with a healthy $100,000 investmentfrom Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, the two Stanford students rentedout a $1,700 a month garage space in California's Menlo Park Growth & Expansion: 2000
Google reached a milestone of one billion pages indexed, and alsoexpanded to support over fifteen languages including Chinese, French,German, Japanese and moreYahoo! revealed that they will be using Google as their default search provider The Written Word: 2003
Google acquired Pyra Labs, creators of the Blogger service, whichallowed the masses to publish their thoughts online with ease Google Print was launched: Now known as Google Book Search, the serviceallows users to view excerpts from thousands of books in digital form Email, Google Style: 2004
Google introduces Gmail Google moved to its Mountain View, California "Googleplex" headquarters, where the company still resides today Mapping The World: 2005
Google released Google Maps and subsequently Google EarthRelease of the iGoogle customizable home page, Google Reader RSS feed manager and Google AnalyticsOptimized mobile versions of Gmail, Blogger, and Search were also released A Message From Chad & Steve: 2006
Google acquired online video site YouTube in a massive $1.65 billion stock transaction The Growth Continues: 2007
Google Maps made its way to Australia and the Google Docs suite of tools being made available in several additional languages Gmail made available to all, no longer requiring an invitationGoogle introduced Google Street, an addition of street level photography to Google Maps Going Full Circle: 2008
Google celebrated its 10 anniversary
Google announced open source Google ChromeGoogle released Android, an open-source mobile OS Google At Present: 2009
Google unveiled its Wave service in May this yearGoogle announced plans to release Google Chrome OS News via [PCWorld]

Dell UltraSharp U2711 release soon

Wefound a driver released by Dell themselves (DELL_U2711-MONITOR_A00-00_R247058.exe) , dated 30th November 2009 on their own Support site.

Upontaking a look atthe driver files,it isnoted that the U2711 has:

- VGA output
- DVI output
- HDMI output
- DisplayPort output

And the resolutions of the panel:

[1920]
HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1920,1080"

[2048]
HKR,,MaxResolution,,"2048,1152"

[2560]
HKR,,MaxResolution,,"2560,1440"

It's probably firm that the panel on the U2711 would be the same one found in the 27-inch iMac.

That display isa LG LM270WQ1 16:9 IPS panel with LED backlight, andhas amassive 2560 x 1440 resolution.