Hasta La Gadget!

Competition in the consumer electronics industry has been fierce this week, as Panasonic and Samsung raced to launch their 3D HDTV’s and Blu-ray players. Samsung announced pricing and availability for its 3D products during a New York City event on Tuesday morning, while Panasonic held its own event the following day, where a Manhattan couple purchased the first 3D bundle at the Best Buy in Union Square.

Samsung certainly one-upped the competition with last night’s star-studded launch event, which featured a surprise concert by the Black Eyed Peas in the middle of Times Square–as well as appearances by Avatar director James Cameron and other celebrities. The Black Eyed Peas used Twitter to inform fans about the upcoming concert, but they weren’t allowed to tweet the concert’s location until 30 minutes before the show, at the NYPD’s request. A live stream of the 15-minute concert, which included the songs “Boom Boom Pow,” “Imma Be,” and “I Gotta Feeling” was available on Dipdive.com.

Anyone who watched the Oscars last Sunday knows that Samsung is about to start selling 3D LED HDTVs in the near future—some say this week. The company won’t be alone, though: Panasonic also plans to begin selling 3D TVs at Best Buy starting Wednesday.

High-definition 3D television is exciting stuff and, thanks to the record-breaking-success of Avatar (leaving aside its Best Picture and Best Director losses), Hollywood is fully embracing it for movies today and now for home consumption as soon as possible. Just as in theaters, you won’t get a 3D experience at home without the right content and proper glasses, and of course, a 3D-ready TV.

The question is, do you want one? Take our poll below:

Cablevision customers woke up to TV sets without ABC after talks broke down between the two companies over licensing fees.

Cablevision has now proposed binding arbitration to decide the matter, but ABC does not seem to be in favor of that route.

“Instead of issuing statements about arbitration, it would be more constructive for Cablevision to deal with the offer that’s on the table,” ABC said in a statement.

ABC said it sent its own proposal to Cablevision around 2:30pm Eastern time.

What’s going on? Cable companies like Cablevision must pay networks for the right to air their content. ABC claims that Cablevision charges its customers for access to ABC, but does not pass any of that money on to ABC. Cablevision says it pays Disney – which owns ABC – about $200 million per year to broadcast all of its content, but ABC now wants an additional $40 million.

Earlier this month, ABC said it would pull its shows from Cablevision if a deal was not reached by March 7, and it made good on that promise at midnight last night.

The move comes just hours before ABC is set to air the Academy Awards, potentially ruining a few Oscar parties in the tri-state area.

For more on this story, see pcmag.com.

On Thursday, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer spoke at the University of Washington supposedly on the topic of cloud computing. But the conversation also wandered into other topics, one that might include the future of the Xbox.

Like fellow reporter Chloe Albanesius, I listened to the speech, but Microsoft also provided a handy transcript a day later, on Friday.

In a question-and-answer session following the speech, Ballmer was asked about the collaboration the company takes with regard to hardware partners, and made the point that some hardware vendors don’t offer any diversity, and others do. In the case of the television, Ballmer argued, Microsoft uses both approaches, providing fixed hardware (the Xbox) as well as variety (software). Here’s the interesting quote:

“In the case of the TV we’ve got both strategies. We actually have a TV
implementation in some senses built into Windows,” Ballmer said. “It works really well
for small screen TVs that you might call a PC, but for that big screen
device here’s a piece of hardware that we build, there’s no diversity.
You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form
factors in the future that are designed for various price points and
options, but we think it’s going to [be] important.” (Emphasis mine).

To me, that certainly sounds like Microsoft may be considering new implementations of its Xbox technology, although it’s difficult to say whether that might additional hardware revisions, or simply closer integration of Xbox services with other devices, like the Zune, or with the partnership with the UK’s Sky TV that Microsoft also showed off this week.

Start saving your pennies, true believers, because those earth-shattering heroes from the house of ideas are now invading HDTV screens near you. (It’s fun to write like Stan Lee.) The comics juggernaut that’s never said no to a license deal has partnered with RTC23, a Florida-based company I’ve never heard of either, to offer HDTVs featuring Marvel’s mightiest. According to the company’s About Us page, RTC23 use the 8-to-10-second delay in powering on LED and LCD HDTVs to show  a pre-set image. So when you power on one of these Marvel sets, you’ll get 8 seconds of your favorite hero before the regular screen kicks-in.

The hero of your choice is also on the TV’s frame. The company is offering sets from 22 inches to 46 inches, and with LCD or LED screens. You can even buy a “collector package” of multiple TVs in case you feel the need to own them all. Maybe you should buy two collector’s packages, and poly-bag one set to keep it nice. (via Crenk)