Hasta La Gadget!

Do you sense that? Winter is indeed coming this spring as HBO’s Game of Thrones will start its third season starting March 31. Seeing as we’re over a month away from Game of Thrones’ premier, HBO has started the hype train with a new 40 second preview.

The preview HBO published on the official Game of Thrones YouTube page is titled “Chaos” and highlights a number of important characters we were left with at the end of the show’s second season. Each character’s face is highlighted for a few seconds as Petyr Baelish describes the nature of chaos. “Chaos isn’t a pit,” he says. “Chaos is a ladder.” (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: DeLorean Hovercraft Caught In The Wild In San Francisco, Hacker Baffles Cops By Strapping Clue To A Cat,

In what seems like an effort to make the transition to OLED displays, Apple has hired OLED expert Dr. Lee Jeung-Jil from LG. Lee was a senior researcher of OLED screen technology at LG Display, and also worked with Samsung in the past. It seems that Apple will use Lee’s expertise to develop and manufacturer OLED displays for future products.

It seems that Apple is keeping mum about the news, but OLED-Info is reporting that the Cupertino-based company ended up snatching the OLED expert in hopes to develop higher-quality displays for future iPhone, iPads, and maybe even televisions one day. Of course, OLED displays were abundant in televisions at CES last month, so it could mean that Apple will use Lee to help the company build a television set sometime in the future.

OLED (organic light-emitting diode) has a number of advantages over regular LCD screens. For starters, OLED features brighter colors with deeper blacks, and it also offers wider viewing angles and faster response times. Plus, the technology can be used to create thinner displays that are very battery efficient, and it has been used to created flexible displays that could be in our future.

Of course, Apple hasn’t confirmed the hire of Lee at this point, and we’re not sure if or when they’ll officially announce it, but it certainly makes sense that Apple is moving further and further into the OLED kingdom, where we could soon see their mobile devices utilizing the new lighting technology.

[via AppleInsider]

Apple hires former LG OLED expert is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The TiVo Mini has yet to make its retail debut, but cable provider Suddenlink is now serving up the DVR extender for use with its own services. According to Zatz Not Funny, the outfit is pricing rentals of the boxes between $6 and $12 depending on a customer’s location, and presumably their service package as well. That rental fee nabs users the privilege of slinging live TV from a TiVo Premiere DVR on their network to another television set, in addition to searching for and watching recorded shows. While dynamic tuner allocation is on the hardware’s roadmap, it doesn’t appear to be switched on just yet. Waiting to pick up the hardware from retail shelves rather than take Suddenlink up on its offer? TiVo’s pint-sized offering is slated to ship this spring.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Zatz Not Funny

So, you are thinking that it is time you ditched that first generation LED TV in your living room, and move on with the times to one of those svelte and nearly bezel-less TVs from the likes of Samsung and LG? Perhaps, but then again, budget is always a constraint, especially in such economically challenging times for some. Sceptre has managed to strike a careful balance between price and performance all this while, and their latest Sceptre 32-inch LED HDTV is no exception, where you will be pleased to hear that it will be accompanied by MHL technology. Just what is MHL technology, you ask? Well, MHL technology has nothing to do with hockey, but it will enable smartphones and other compatible portable devices to connect directly to high-definition televisions and displays

This will be Sceptre’s first LED HDTV with MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) technology in the market, where the extremely svelte 32-inch looker is said to be specially designed to deliver the ultimate interactive home entertainment experience. In fact, if this model takes off wonderfully, do expect to see more HDTVs from Sceptre that will feature MHL technology. Imagine using your large screen TV in the living room as a display or speaker for your smartphone or compatible portable devices, not to mention the HDTV’s remote itself is capable of controlling the connected device.

Specially developed by the MHL consortium, MHL technology will rely on a single cable to support up to 1080p high-definition video and surround sound audio, and to sweeten the deal further, it can simultaneously charge the connected device.

What other specifications does this Sceptre 32-inch LED HDTV with MHL technology carry? For starters, it is a true 16:9 widescreen, has a 1920×1080 resolution and a rated LED backlight life of over 50,000 hours. Other integrated technologies include auto dynamic contrast enhancement, auto-volume level control, sound equalizer settings and surround sound capability. You can pick it up for $599.99 a pop if you are interested.

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[ Sceptre 32-inch LED HDTV sports MHL technology copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Some British cable subscribers will soon have a new master: international telecom giant Liberty Global has just acquired Virgin Media for $23.3 billion in cash and stock. The deal gives Liberty an even larger stake in Europe than it had before and, if you believe the new partners, creates one of the bigger broadband companies on the planet at 47 million homes covered across 14 countries. Liberty also sees Virgin as good at tackling the business and mobile spaces that have been its relative weak points. How this will affect the UK isn’t immediately apparent, although Virgin Media will continue to run under its existing name — that moebius logo isn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future. We’ll at least have some room to ponder the consequences when the buyout isn’t poised to close until sometime in the second quarter.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Liberty Global (PDF)