For my money, the first-generation shuffle was the most boring iPod ever. Somehow, though, the absence of a screen seems more forgivable when the player shrinks to the size of a slightly obese postage stamp. That's the second-generation iPod shuffle and it shipped today after having been announced in September. It runs its one gigabyte of flash memory for 12 hours per charge. The one available color is silver and the price is $79. Even those of us who already have an iPod (I'm trying to hold the line at one) may be sorely tempted to add another one. You might want to keep one in your other suit. Or your second-favorite handbag. Or in all dozen pairs of faded, ripped, stained Levis. Or something.
Custom installers might disagree on things like the best speakers and the slickest control interface, but they all agree that the place to see the latest and greatest gear is the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association's annual Expo.
John Chance was a typical Sound & Vision reader - at least, until a year ago. That's when he turned his love of A/V gear and do-it-yourself projects into a custom-installation business. Back in 2002, this New York City fireman designed and built an addition for his house that included a home theater.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the folks at SpeakerCraft think it's quite possible you've never seen a more beautiful rear - speaker, that is.
NeoDigits says the company is now shipping the only DVD player on the market with built-in upscaling that's capable of providing output resolutions up to 1080p through HDMI and component connections. The new H4000 can also send 1080i or 720p via the player's VGA/RGB-HV outputs.
Would you like to fling HDTV around your living room without wires? Seven major names in consumer electronics have banded together to do just that with the forthcoming WirelessHD standard, according to TWICE. They want to transmit high-def signals up to 32 feet using the 60GHz frequency band, also used by the military, universities, and offices. Up to 7GHz of that band would support simultaneous streaming of three 1080p signals. There would be no compression—at least, none in addition to the usual MPEG-2 and other HD codecs—so there would be no compromise in picture quality, in contrast to current low-bandwidth wireless video schemes. Look for WirelessHD in HDTVs, of course, but also in DVD players and adapters for set-top boxes. The WirelessHD Consortium includes LG, Matsushita, NEC, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba plus newcomer SiBEAM, the startup providing the underlying technology. The spec will be finalized in 2007 with products to follow in 2008. For updates, hit the official site.
