Hasta La Gadget!

With LG predicting a 3D television market in excess of 30 million units by 2012 and Samsung busily promoting its related world’s firsts, you’d better believe that these powerful South Korean “chaebols” have their government’s full support when it comes to delivering 3D content. Just today the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced its drive to start beaming 3D broadcasts in Full HD quality sometime in 2010 — licensing begins in January with first broadcasts expected mid-year. Unlike those 3D satellite broadcasts tested in Japan and the UK, Korea will deliver its 3D content through its terrestrial networks. Of course, Korea’s pay-TV providers want in on the action too, with CJ HelloVision set to offer 3D content through its video-on-demand offerings in the next “week or two.” CJ HelloVision will initially target about 300 households with plans to extend the service to 1,000 homes by 2012. Viewers will need yet another set-top box to view 3D content likely limited to “cartoons” at first. Pricing has not been set and it’s entirely possible that 3D VoD titles will be free at first in order to build momentum and to ensure viewer lock-in of the all important child demographic.

Korean 3D television broadcasts in Full HD just weeks away originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t know what exactly China Mobile is putting in its manufacturer partners’ tea during contract negotiations, but considering how rapidly China’s largest carrier has grown its OPhone line into the most desirable single-network lineup of Android handsets in the world, we’d strongly recommend they continue to do it. Rumors of an LG entry back in August have now come to fruition in the form of the GW880, a full touch handset launching this month featuring a solid 3.5-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, and support for a pair of pretty important homegrown standards — TD-SCDMA for 3G and CMMB for mobile TV tuning. For comparison, LG’s only other announced Android phone — the GW620 Eve for global distribution — steps down to a HVGA display, so yeah, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got a Mandarin lesson in a couple minutes.

LG bows its GW880 OPhone for China Mobile, we start packing our things originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a hot minute since we’ve heard anything about LG’s Monaco, but now it seems as if the wait for this to transition from presentation slide to reality is almost over. Unfortunately, Windows Mobile 7 won’t be onboard as previously rumored, but prospective Telus customers can look forward to LG’s S-Class interface sprucing things up somewhat. Other specs purportedly include a Snapdragon processor, WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, though nitty-gritty details beyond that are nil. Peep that read link if you’re lusting for a few more angles, and don’t kid yourself — you are.

LG’s Monaco (IQ) spotted in Telus garb, rocking WinMo 6.5 and Snapdragon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve teamed up with the HD Guru himself, Gary Merson, to publish the absolute best five TVs you can buy right now. As you’ll see (and might already notice above), there are some surprises on the list.

Panasonic Z1

Panasonic’s flagship HDTV is its thinnest 54-inch plasma HDTV ever, with only 1-inch depth. They did it by eliminating a third sheet of glass found in all other plasmas except Pioneer’s Kuro, and bonding the anti-reflective coating directly top glass. The Z1 employs SiBEAM’s 60GHz 1080p for wireless glitch-free images sent via the included transmitter/media box from up to 30 feet away. The Z1 has THX picture mode and a custom calibration mode, plus nice bonus features including VieraCast Internet connectivity for YouTube and Amazon VOD and an SD card reader for photos. The Z1 delivers amazing performance with full 1080 line motion resolution, accurate HD color, deep black levels and 96Hz for judder free movie viewing.

The sexiest HDTV of 2009, the TC-P54Z1 will set you back $4000.

Update: Many of you have commented that you prefer Panasonic’s excellent Viera V10 series, and to Gary’s credit, he gave the TV his highest rating, and is including it in his top 10 list, which he’ll publish next week. There’s nothing wrong with that TV, and if we indicated six here, it would certainly be shown. It has the same NeoPDP panel as the Z1, but it’s not the same picture, because it has the third separate piece of glass with anti-reflective coating.

Pioneer Kuro Signature

You know it’s been a weird year for TVs when not one but two of our top picks are no longer being manufactured, but are still being sold. Pioneer’s sweetest (and last) Kuro line is technically a monitor: There’s no tuner or audio. But the Signature models offer the deepest black of any high definition display on the market—without any white-letter-on-black-background halos occasionally seen on LED-based LCD TVs. The Signature models features hand selected parts, 2.5-in. depth, Custom Calibration, 72Hz refresh and control over the internet via its Ethernet connection. The Pioneer uses a single top sheet of glass to minimize internal reflections, with the anti-reflection coating bonded directly to the surface.

The Signature models are available at scattered retailers around the country in the 50-inch size (PRO-101FD) for about $3000 to $3500, and 60-inch size (PRO-141FD) for $4000 to $4800.

Samsung LNB8500

The 8500 series is Samsung flagship LED LCD TV. It feature packed with thin 1.6-inch depth, white LED local dimming backlights for improved uniformity, dual-chip 240 Hz plus a scanning backlight for excellent motion resolution and the best black level of any LED LCD observed to date. The 8500 features four HDMI inputs plus internet connectivity with Flickr, YouTube, weather, news and other widgets. It also has a PV+C input for connection to your computer or HTPC. This is a benchmark LED LCD to judge against every other make and model.

All this performance comes at a price. The LNB8500 series comes in 46-inch (UN46B8500) and 55-inch (UN55B8500) screen sizes, currently on Amazon for $2620 and $4020, respectively.

LG LH90

This LG has all the hot LCD performance features video freaks crave, including white LED dimming backlights for excellent black levels, wide viewing angle LCD IPS panel, accurate color, and 240Hz (120 refresh + scanning backlight) for excellent motion resolution. This LG also has all the tweaks anyone could ask for including ISF CCC mode for calibration, THX certification and LG’s “picture wizard” for user set-up without calibration discs or external test signals. The LH90 isn’t the thinnest LED LCD, but it more than makes up for it with its price.

The LG LH90 series is available in 42-, 47- and 55-inch screen sizes at street prices that are considerably lower than many competitors’ edge lit 120 Hz LED edge lit models. The 42LH90 is online for $1200 to $1500; the 47LH90 sells in the $1700 range; and the 55LH90 goes for $2200 to $2800. In case you couldn’t tell, the LH90 series is the value/performance leader of the pack.

Sony XBR8

A comparable model never replaced Sony’s 2008 flagship model in 2009. It is the only HDTV available with separate red, green and blue LED backlights (rather than all white), with local dimming for deep black levels. Though slightly thicker than other TVs in its class, the XBR8 has accurate HDTV color, enough brightness for a beach house, a non-glossy anti-glare screen coating (rare for 2009), 120Hz refresh rate and Sony’s Bravia Engine 2 signal processing.

You can still find the XBR8s—we spotted the 46-inch KDL-46XBR8 for under $2200 and the 55-inch KDL-55XBR8 for under $4000.

Gary Merson is the HD Guru, the industry’s leading HDTV journalist. He’s been reviewing TVs for well over a decade, and recently wrote a guide to choosing an HDTV.

We’ve been hearing talk of thoroughly Google-branded phones since before Android was announced — and if you want to get really technical about it, you could argue that it’s already happened twice in the form of the Dev Phone 1 and the Ion. Thing is, those are strictly developer-oriented one-offs based on existing models, and TechCrunch is reporting in a rather authoritative tone today that Google’s just about to launch a consumer phone all its own designed to in-house, no-compromise specifications with signs suggesting that either Samsung or LG would be responsible for OEM duties. Allegedly, the device was supposed to be at retail in time for the holidays but ended up getting pushed back into early 2010, at which point we can expect a big marketing push — but the question is, why? Google had a heavy hand in the design and development of the chunky, geeky HTC Dream, so we already know they’re probably better off leaving the details of the industrial design to the guys who’ve been doing this for a while — and with strong new partnerships with Verizon and Motorola just now bearing fruit, it’s safe to say that Big Red wouldn’t be a launch partner. Our most interesting theory here is that AT&T — which has gone totally radio-silent for all things Android in the past six months — is responding to the probable impending loss of its iPhone exclusivity by scoring a coup on a gorgeous, aspirational device with the Google logo all over it. Given the time frame that TC’s suggesting, it sounds like we wouldn’t have to wait long to find out what’s what.

Filed under: Cellphones

Google-branded phone coming early next year? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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