Okay, we get it. With all the new electronics that stretch from smartphones, handheld consoles, and ebook readers to laptops, desktops and tablets, we’re all guilty of ignoring the good ‘ol boob tube these days. We know we have. (Although when the flatscreen’s showing actual boobs, we do tend to drop our iPhones.) Anyway, Logitech is looking to change all that with the Revue, their Google TV-based set top box, and they’ve been putting out a series of teaser ads to drum up the hype before the stated fall release. All par for the marketing course, and the ads do give out a clear message. Despite the supposed-to-be-cute theme, the TV with the big eye and mouth that keeps popping out of nowhere is a bit freaky though. We haven’t been this freaked out by a TV since Poltergeist.
Check out the ads after the break.
We’re not sure exactly how big Twitter’s going to be on an HDTV, since its already on everywhere else from phones to laptops, but that’s the new thing over at Panasonic. Aside from featuring support for other common net-connected HDTV services such as Skype, YouTube, News and weather service updates, and Netflix and Pandora support, you can now view and post Tweets using a Viera CAST HDTV in your living room. In case you somehow lost your phone, can’t access Twitter using a computer, or don’t mind seeing your buddy’s “taking a dump” status message flash on your fancy big screen.
After coming up with more and more connected players with the WD TV Live and Live Plus—both connect to the net, offering streaming media, while the WD TV Live Plus supports Netflix and other paid content—they toned it down a bit with the WD Elements Play, a drive-based media player that drops the price if you don’t mind losing the connectivity.
Gamers have known this for years: There are loads of different surround sound gaming speaker kits, but Logitech’s Z-series have always been awesome. Of course, this will still probably pale in comparison to their older $400, 505-Watt Z-5500 set, but the Z506 is being offered as a more flexible set that can take any entertainment device, including portables, set-top boxes and game consoles aside from a PC—all for a cent under $100.
A new audio/video cable technology is being developed by Sony Pictures Entertainment, Samsung, LG, and Valens Semiconductor to replace HDMI as soon as next year. Known as HDBaseT, the new cable tech will be able to carry audio and video signals as well as power over standard Cat 5e/6 Ethernet cables.
