Hasta La Gadget!

As ever, Sony’s IFA press conference was a veritable storm of products, but CEO Kaz Hirai was clearly the most excited about the company’s new 84-inch 4K TV, the Bravia KD-84X9005, and after beholding the thing for a bit alongside a scrum of fellow tech journalists in Sony’s booth at IFA, it’s pretty clear why. The thing is beautiful — and yeah, we can confirm, as Kaz suggested, that you really do want to stick out your hand and touch the picture when you’re standing in front of it, particularly, when the video cycles through images of the ocean, with water droplets hitting the screen.

At 84 inches, this thing is a beast, with at least a dozen or so folks standing comfortably around it to catch a glimpse of the display. The Bravia is surprisingly thin for such a beast. There are speaker bars attached to either side of the display, with a control panel along the bottom. The stand consists of two metal bars holding up what’s surely a weighty set. Check out our eyes-on video after the break.

Continue reading Sony’s 84-inch 4K Bravia KD-84X9005 hits the IFA show floor, we go eyes-on

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD

Sony’s 84-inch 4K Bravia KD-84X9005 hits the IFA show floor, we go eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s there not to love about Lomography and their various low-fi cameras. Sure, your smartphone probably has nicer resolution, but the analog flavor of these little cameras is hard to beat, even with Instagram’s retro effect filters.

The new Diana Baby 110 is Lomography’s newest tiny camera. The miniscule camera fits in the palm of your hand and produces technically flawed photos that lomographers will adore. The camera is compatible with a wide-angle 12mm lens or a 24mm standard lens, which are made out of plastic, hopefully not the cheap kind.

The Diana Baby 110 uses 110 film that’s available in color or black and white directly from the Lomography website. The socket on top will accept a flash, if you’ve got a PC Flash Adapter. The camera sells for $49 (USD) from Lomography, but for $59 you’ll get the kit with both lenses.

[via NOTCOT]

A decision on whether eight of Samsung’s smartphones will be permanently blocked from sale in the US has been pushed back until December 6, after the judge decided Apple’s demands would spark a flurry of motions and counter-motions. Apple had asked the San Jose court to bar handsets including the Galaxy S II and the Droid Charge, after Samsung was found by a jury to have infringed on the Cupertino firm’s patent design and UI technology. However, the Register reports, it seems that ban won’t be coming any time soon.

The tentative date for the injunction hearing had been penciled in for September 20, giving Apple and Samsung the chance to file post-trial motions. Now, though, Judge Koh suggests that it would be better to hear all of the post-trial motions in one go, rather than deal with them piecemeal.

“Having considered the scope of Apple’s preliminary injunction request, the additional post-trial motions that the parties have already filed and will file, and the substantial overlap between the analysis required for Apple’s preliminary injunction motion and the parties’ various other post-trial motions, the Court believes consolidation of the briefing and hearing on the post-trial motions is appropriate” Justice Lucy Koh

As for Samsung’s request that the preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 be overturned, after the jury deemed it not to infringe on Apple’s patents, that will be heard on September 20 Koh confirmed. That could also see Samsung dip into the $2.6m bond Apple was required to post in order to enact the injunction, claiming it missed out on sales revenue.

All eight of the devices Apple has asked to have blocked from sale are reasonably old, and delaying the hearing means Samsung sales are less likely to be affected overall. Apple has asked for a preliminary injunction on the devices while a permanent ban is decided, while Samsung is likely to counter that it should be allowed to make all possible attempts to challenge the ruling before that happens.

Apple’s Samsung smartphone ban demands delayed until December is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sony’s rolling out the new products thick and fast at its press conference at IFA, the latest beauty on display, this stunning 84-inch 4K Bravia TV. The new 3,840 x 2,160 LCD telly comes loaded with X-Reality Pro Engine to take care of the rendering, and a “10 Unit Live Speaker” system. If two dimensions aren’t enough, then the KD-84X9005 also supports upscaling for greater-than-HD passive 3D. No information on price at this time (Update: We’ve been informed we should hear about pricing next week at CEDIA, so stay tuned), but it should be available from the end of this year.

Continue reading Sony announces new Bravia KD-84X9005, 84-inch 4K TV at IFA

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Sony announces new Bravia KD-84X9005, 84-inch 4K TV at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After a bit of on-stage patter (and a rather pointless Wonderbook video), Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai officially pulled back the curtains on a slew of new Xperia handsets — the Xperias T, V, and J — at IFA in Berlin.

The Xperia T (previously known as the Mint, left) is the clear standout in this crowd with its 4.6 inch display, which also takes advantage of the company’s Mobile Bravia Engine to produce to eye-popping (some would say “lurid”) visuals.

Taking a look inside the T reveals a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Krait MSM8260-A chipset, and the whole package runs Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, though a Jelly Bean update is in the works. As previously reported, the flagship Xperia T also packs NFC and a 13-megapixel camera, which Hirai says can go from sleep mode to snapping shots “in just over a second.”

Sadly, the other two models didn’t warrant more than a sentence apiece from Hirai. The new Xperia V (center) packs support for LTE, and “highest level of water resistance” seen in a smartphone. Hirai didn’t dive into much detail about how exactly that works — he’s bounding from topic to topic like a madman — but expect more to come shortly. The slightly-tinier V keeps the same 13-megapixel camera and Ice Cream Sandwich build as its big brother, but Sony opted for a slightly smaller 4.3-inch display and a slightly different dual-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 processor.

Meanwhile, Hirai didn’t have much to say about the Xperia J (right) aside from pointing out that it’s cheap, which I suppose is better than nothing. A recent leak revealed that the wallet-friendly J features a single core 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 4-inch display, and 512MB of RAM, which explains why Hirai was so quick to talk about something else.

Of course, hardware is only part of the equation, and Sony has plenty of audio and video content at its disposal. Just to get people on board with Sony’s oft-overlooked Music Unlimited service, anyone who purchases one of these new Xperia handsets will get a 60-day premium service trial.

No word yet on pricing and availability yet, so on the off-chance you’re downright smitten with one (or more) of these things, you may be in for a bit of a wait. In the meantime, you may want to peek at these promo videos that Sony has whipped up to help keep the heartache at bay: