ARCHOS, the company that "invented the PMP", is to bring out a touchscreen smartphone based on the Android operating system.
The new ultra-thin Internet Media Tablet (IMT) will allow playback of HD video while offline.
High Definition TV News
The cost of VUDU’s basic 250GB VUDU HD player has been halved to USD $150.
According to the on-demand internet provider the move is not a sign of looming financial problems. It stresses that the dramatic price cut is due to positive factors.
The US House of Representatives has approved a delay in the cutoff date for analog television broadcasts.
The delay is to give more time to the estimated 6.5 million people unprepared for the switchover to digital broadcasts.
The city of Coulommiers near Paris is the first in France to make the switch over to digital TV as part of a pilot project ahead of the full national transition.
France Télé Numérique said 94 per cent of households in the city of 14,700 were equipped with at least one digital TV set 20 days before the switchover.
The number of HDTVs in European households is set to rise from 59 million now to 170 million by 2013.
What’s more encouraging is the number of HD channels distributed in Europe should go from the current 130 to more than 600 in the same period, according to a study by NPA Conseil and Euroconsult.
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DiBcom is to launch a new platform that offers device manufacturers a solution to the problem of multiple standards worldwide for fixed and mobile TV.
Known as Octopus, the platform is based on a programmable architecture that enables one design to be seamlessly and cost-effectively targeted at many existing and upcoming mobile TV standards.
Nearly two-thirds of US viewers want to watch Internet-based streaming video on their home HDTV, according to research.
The results endorse the growing trend for set manufacturers’ to launch internet-connected HDTVs, as was evidenced at last month’s CES.
A bill intended to delay the US’s transition to digital TV has been defeated in the House of Representatives.
An estimated 6.5 million Americans are not yet prepared for the switch, which now reverts back to the original date of 17 February.
Demand for HD content has helped drive sales of Freesat devices past the 200,000 mark since the UK service was launched last May.
While the figure is impressive, it further highlights the gulf that has opened up between the US and Japan and the rest of the world.
BSkyB has added 171,000 new customers in the second quarter and reduced churn to below 10 per cent.
It will be hoping to build on the interim results for the six months to 31 December 2008 helped by the the news that further investment is to be made in HD programming. The announcement that the price of the Sky+ HD receiver is to drop to £49 will undoubtedly provide a massive boost to that ambition.