Hasta La Gadget!

We just made our way to the LG booth here at the Consumer Electronics Show and found this multifaceted gizmo that the company is dubbing the Scanner Mouse. It does exactly what you think — works as a mouse and scanner. You might recall something similar from back in the day, but LG is looking to commercialize the idea. The bottom of the rodent has a clear (glass or plastic sheet, we’re not sure) packed with five LEDs for the camera to see the image being reflected off of the mirror inside. To kickstart the scanning process on a Widows or Mac machine, you simply press the scan button and huzzah — the software will activate and display the area the scanner is hovering over. Thanks to the dual lasers found on the top and bottom of the underside, you can actually rotate the mouse in any direction and it’ll pick up whatever it’s looking at — it’ll even translate copy on a page into editable text within a document editor. It also functions as a proper mouse (duh!), featuring a scroll wheel as well as left, right and back buttons. The software, in case you were wondering, couldn’t be any simpler to use. Formats such as JPEG, TIFF, PDF and PNG are exportable to your favorite social networks, and you’ve got basic editing functions to make your scans just right. Head on past the break to see an in-action demo.

Continue reading LG LSM-100 Scanner Mouse hands-on

LG LSM-100 Scanner Mouse hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft shows off Home Server ‘Vail’ app for Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI’s new tablets felt like prototypes, but the device pictured above is truly far out — it’s the MSI Butterfly, one of several whimsical concepts the company teased about a week ago. We actually ducked into MSI’s booth right before it covered the whole display with a giant plexiglass box and got some reasonable snapshots, but nothing remotely resembling a proper hands-on, so you’ll have to make do with the gallery below and whatever dreams may come.

MSI Butterfly and Angelow all-in-one PC concepts, eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When the Philips’ 56-inch 21:9 3D TV was released in Europe with no US ship date in sight, darkness fell over our home theater world. Then, Vizio announced its own 21:9 3D TV and we knew it was all going to be ok. They say when it rains it pours though, and now it’s looking like JVC will release its own 50-inch 21:9 full HD 3D TV in the US sometime in the third quarter of 2011. Other details are scarce, but JVC’s talkative CES booth attendant also mentioned the TV might be sold in varying sizes and might feature internet connectivity. The possibility of internet connectivity was also supported by a few screens teasing an integrated information bar, which appeared on the left-hand side of the screen without blocking HD content. Needless to say, we’ll be keeping a close eye on this TV as more news emerges, and in the meantime bide our time dreaming of the ultra-wide CinemaScope-style movies we could be viewing in late 2011. Oh and if you’re curious that’s JVC’s newly-announced TH-BC3 soundbar positioned right below it carrying a sweet paper iPhone 4.

JVC shows off prototype 50-inch 21:9 full HD 3D TV, says it could hit US later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Currently the only way to feed your 3DTV full HD 3D (1080p per eye) is to watch a Blu-ray disc, which is great and all unless you’re a sports fan, than not so much. Motorola and others have been working on ways to deliver Full HD 3D via typical broadcast delivery avenues — yes, we also want to know what happened to 1080p60 2D — but at the CES Bloggers Lounge Verizon and Panasonic were demoing said 3D format over a Verizon FiOS TV lab setup. The press release and embedded video (after the break) were short on details, but Verizon did tell us that it takes twice the throughput of 1080p 2D — which isn’t actually the case, but what do you expect when you don’t get to talk to the engineers? We assume the demo is using H.264 Multiview Video Coding like Blu-ray uses — especially since the demo was on a Panasonic Blu-ray player — but many in the industry question this codec’s application in the broadcast world since ESPN claims that its backwards compatibility with 2D isn’t as valuable as Dolby and Sensio’s way of encoding full HD 3D, which are more efficient. We’re very skeptical that this demo will actually amount to any foreseeable measurable benefits to consumers, but are reassured that both companies like 3D enough to spend the time to get together and make a demo happen.

Update: Verizon PR responded and confirmed that the demo is using the same format as 3D Blu-ray; H.264 Multiview Video Coding.

Continue reading Verizon and Panasonic demo broadcast Full HD 3D at CES

Verizon and Panasonic demo broadcast Full HD 3D at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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