Hasta La Gadget!

Giant LCDs require giant robots. On a tour of Samsung’s LCD factory in Cheonan, Korea yesterday, I got to see how cutting-edge TVs are put together – and it was the closest to Cyberdyne Systems I’ve ever encountered.

According to our Samsung guide, LCD TVs have four basic parts: there’s a layer of liquid crystals sandwiched between two sheets of glass, all placed in front of a backlight unit. The back sheet of glass has colored pixels embedded in it; the front sheet has transistors that alter the liquid crystals’ state to hide or reveal the filtered light.

At Samsung’s factory in Cheonan, it takes about ten days to make an LCD TV. I got to see the last part of the process, which takes four hours: assembly. Down a nearly endless, white hallway I peered into several large windows to find giant robots – and the occasional white-garbed Samsung quality control worker – hauling and assembling 46″ screens.

Sony and Best Buy announced Tuesday that they will partner on a new line of audio products, dubbed Altus.

The Altus line will include wireless music systems, as well as speakers and home theater products, the companies said. Most of the products are currently available for pre-order on sonystyle.com and will be in Best Buy stores in September.

They will include two iPod docking systems.

The $700 ALT-SA31iR will include an iPod/iPhone docking station and two high-output wireless speakers. It will also feature an AM/FM tuner, and an S-AIR remote control with LCD display. That display will show album, artist and track information.

Its smaller counterpart, the AIR-SW10Ti, will include a compact docking station with two built-in speakers and a wireless subwoofer. It has a maximum output of 60 watts RMS and includes an infrared remote control and FM tuner. It will also be able to transmit wireless audio with other Altus and S-AIR products. It will retail for $400.

Both products are available for pre-order and will be in Best Buy stores in September.

On the wireless PC front, Sony is introducing two multi-room packages.

Space–nay–the universe, at your fingertips! It’s a dream many have had. Sadly, it’s not possible quite yet–unless your universe is made up of home theater equipment. If so, there’s a product you may be interested in–the Logitech Harmony 900, launched today for $399.99.

This universal remote can take charge of the entirety of your home system. Unlike remotes that use only infrared, the Harmony 900 penetrates theater components on the other side of walls and inside cabinets with an RF radio inside and an RF-to-IR receiver transmitter. It’s like the Superman of remotes.

Also, check out these reviews at PCMag.com to learn about the 900’s brothers, the Harmony 1100 and the Harmony One.

Forgot to set your DVR before heading out of town for the weekend? If you’re a FiOS TV DVR customer with a smartphone, you’re in luck. The company announced Monday that it is expanding the number of customers who can remotely set their DVRs via cell phone.

Any FiOS TV DVR customers can now program their DVRs via an Internet-enabled phone. In April, Verizon announced that FiOS TV DVR customers could program their devices via the Web, but only subscribers of Home Media DVR, which lets users watch shows they’ve taped on up to six TVs throughout the house, could program via the Internet and smartphones.

“Now, if you’re a FiOS TV DVR customer, you can use the Web site or a cell phone to review, change or add recording requests, delete recorded programs, browse and search TV and video-on-demand listings, set parental controls and more,” Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe wrote in a blog post.

Verizon also expanded access to its Media Manager download, which lets customers view photos, play music, and stream videos from the PC to FiOS TV DVRs.

“Until now, Media Manager has only been available to certain subscribers, but now we’re opening up the service to any TV and Internet customer who also has a DVR. There’s no extra charge,” Rabe wrote.

Those certain subscribers include Home Media DVR customers that also had FiOS internet. Now it’s open to all FiOS TV DVR customers who also have FiOS Internet.

To access Media Manager, sign into your Verizon.net account and download the program. Then, select the “Media Manager” option on the FiOS TV Interactive Media Guide.

TiVo on Wednesday added the ability for video podcast providers to publish their shows directly to certain TiVo machines. The DVR service provider also added hundreds of new, free Web videos to its library.

The additions are available to TiVo Series3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL subscribers. They include hundreds of new podcast channels from outlets like CBS, FOX, Oprah, and G4. Podcast creators can publish original content, meanwhile, via RSS and H.264 video.

TiVo users can watch the videos directly or set up rules to record preferred shows as they are published. They can also stream podcast content from shows not available from TiVo by entering the URL for a video podcast in the “Video On Demand” menu.

“What makes this announcement unique is that everyone has the ability to publish their content to the TiVo DVR,” Evan Young, senior director of broadband services for TiVo Inc., said in a statement. “With a robust library of Web videos already available through the TiVo DVR, and the ability to enter the URL for other podcasts you want, this announcement puts the control in the hands of the user to search for and retrieve exactly what they want to watch and from the comfort of the couch.”

Broadband-connected HD subscribers can start accessing this feature today via their DVR’s. Available podcasts are searchable via TiVo Search.