tv

Apparently it's not enough to have a mirror that sends text messages or even engages us in conversation. We need one that'll run Windows too.

Facing stiff competition in its mainstay telly business, U.K.-based Mirror Media has created a line that incorporates a PC into its reflective TVs in sizes ranging from 20 to 36 inches with frames in wood, metallic and other finishes, according to Chip Chick. It remains to be seen, however, whether they'll be able to create the ultimate convergence appliance by including a radiator.

A device made to find and use open areas of the spectrum band has received a failing grade from the Federal Communications Commission.

The companies involved likely don't feel too bad, after all, it was the FCC's idea to begin with. Last December, the commission called for suggestions for wireless devices that would sniff out and use the portions of the spectrum not utilized by TV broadcasters. Thus, the White Space Coalition was born, which includes Dell, EarthLink, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft and Philips Electronics.

Apparently the prototype the coalition submitted didn't cut it. Not only did … Read more

Pity the fool who is stuck in a hotel room needing to surf the Web, but without a laptop or Web-accessible handheld device.

I was stuck in just that situation this weekend. I went to meet an out-of-town friend at her fancy downtown San Francisco hotel and wanted to look on Yelp for some local bar recommendations. We turned on her huge thin-screen wall-mounted TV and selected the Internet option and were told we had to pay $9.95 for an hour instead of getting free access as she was supposed to be getting with the room.

After a quick … Read more

At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, Samsung showed off a plasma TV that got data from an 802.11(n) link.

At CES in January 2008, you should expect to see a lot of TVs demoed with WirelessHD, a wireless protocol with a lot more bandwidth.

That's the world from John LeMoncheck, president and CEO of SiBeam, the chip company that has devised the spec and will come out with chips based on it. (I spoke to him a few days ago at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit). Several consumer electronics manufacturers will likely show off TVs and … Read more

There's a new social network/video discovery service on the way. It's name is Knocka.TV, and I've got to hand it to them--the service isn't even open to the public yet, and there's already a play reel of nearly 30 video clips on the landing page that make it look like a lot of fun. It looks like a hybrid of Joost, StumbleUpon, and YouTube, with some TV-like qualities such as timeslots and user-controlled programming (akin to MTV's Total Request Live and Direct Connect). There could also be a social networking component with … Read more

My, my, Lonelygirl15 sure has come a long way. Not so long ago, everyone thought the too-cute videoblogger was, well, a too-cute videoblogger. Then some online video fans with a shocking amount of time on their hands deduced that she was likely an actress in a staged series of video episodes. (They were right.) Now, leading lady "Bree" (played by Jessica Rose) has gone all professional on us--the new MySpaceTV video portal will be hosting Lonelygirl15's season finale.

Season finale?

On Friday, MySpaceTV--which launched in June and has been rolling out content deals ever since--will broadcast the … Read more

Sumitomo Chemical has agreed to buy Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) for approximately $285 million, giving the OLED industry a shot in the arm.

OLEDS, or organic light emitting diodes, are light sources made form organic materials. With OLEDs, you could turn a wall or a window into a light fixture, according to Universal Display, another OLED company.

OLEDs don't use a lot of power, but they can degrade over time. So far, companies like Samsung have mostly used them for screens in cell phones. Sony is coming out with a small OLED TV for the Japanese market and may … Read more

This vid's been making the viral rounds in my Twitter friends list and such, accompanied by claims of "greatest prank ever" and what-have-you. Personally, I think it's clever, but I can't seem to believe that people actually fell for it--and the camera angles and quality are suspiciously professional, not hidden-camera caliber. Still good for a few laughs, though.

The British not only have superior television (in general) but now they can watch it online too.

The BBC launched a new on-demand service called iPlayer on Friday that lets people download from the Internet shows like "EastEnders" and "Planet Earth" that they may have missed on the telly that week. The shows represent as much as 70 percent of the BBC programming, about 400 hours of programs, according to Reuters.

Unfortunately, the free service is only available to people in Britain and on computers running Microsoft XP.

You would think that with … Read more