Hasta La Gadget!

Don’t quite have the funds — or room — for the circular B&O Play A9 speaker ($2,700)? Libratone’s new AirPlay and DLNA-equipped Loop might catch your eye. The $500 satellite dish-like rig packs two ribbon tweeters and a bass radiator, which together pump out enough volume for moderately sized rooms. While the Loop is tiny enough to sit on a nightstand, it also comes with a detachable wall mount. You can even connect devices to it via ad-hoc WiFi if you’re away from an actual network, thanks to PlayDirect — just like the Zipp. As with all Libratone speakers, the unit’s sound characteristics are adjustable via a free app (Android and iOS) and the swappable wool speaker grille comes in a variety of colors ($50 each). The Loop is up for pre-order now in “Pepper Black, “Salty Grey” and “Raspberry Red” if you’re interested enough to bring it full circle. It’ll hit doorsteps and retailers by the end of the month.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

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Source: Libratone

Toshiba’s overall TV division may be ailing, but it’s innovations like this that’ll keep it from completely decaying. Displayed at the company’s CEATEC booth here in Japan are two new 4K HDTV displays — the 40-inch 40V and 50-inch 50V. Outside of devilishly-thin bezels and native 4K resolutions, the company’s not talking specifications. What it’s focusing on instead is the concept: it’s dreaming of an Ultra HD range of displays that can operate as televisions and as pro-grade reference monitors. After all, budding editors who are being tasked with cutting together 4K footage certainly deserve a monitor that won’t cut corners, right?

A company representative informed us that while the displays weren’t perfectly color accurate, they were far superior to rivals. Plus, the ability to easily toggle between reference mode and various other living room-accepted modes will enable a level of A/B testing that’s pretty tough to get right now. Naturally, both monitors looked stunning up close, and if we’re being candid, we’re fallen in love with Photoshop all over again after seeing it displayed on these guys.

Mat Smith contributed to this report. %Gallery-slideshow99599%

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Grand Theft Auto Online, the multiplayer gaming environment for billion-dollar title GTA5, could encounter launch day hiccups given a greater-than-predicted crowd eager to take part, developers Rockstar North has warned. The online arena, which will allow up to sixteen players to compete against each other simultaneously, could well be swamped with gamers after sales of […]

The time has come: As announced earlier this summer, Microsoft is shuttering MSN TV, a service it’s operated since 1997. Originally known as WebTV, the box (naturally) brought the internet to many a living-room set — it was something of a pioneer back in the day, really. Nostalgic types can still turn to the Xbox 360 and the PS3 for their browser-on-the-big-screen needs, of course, and MSN TV holdouts will want to switch their email addresses to Outlook and copy saved content to SkyDrive, stat. For more details, hit up the ultra-comprehensive FAQ page via the link below.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft

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Via: GigaOm

Source: MSN TV

It’s not as if Toshiba’s TV division has been totally silent recently, but it apparently hasn’t been making enough noise to justify the continued employment of its full, 6,000-strong workforce. Although it’s not quite ready to give up, the Japanese manufacturer is scaling back its TV operation heavily: losing half of its staff globally and closing two of its three TV factories in favor of more outsourced production. The cuts are intended help Toshiba meet its target of $101 million in cost savings and the company hopes its TV division will return to profitability this year — but as you’d expect, at a much smaller scale than it once had.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

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Source: Reuters