Video: Sony’s Massive 280-inch (711cm) 3D LED Display
The world needs more 280-inch screens.

Dell’s Net Income Drops 54%
Ouch! That’s gotta hurt.

Amazon Preparing Better Kindle Ebook Management System In 2010
Hope that means books stop disappearing from the Australian Kindle store…

Hansa Smart Shower Has Three Options, One Is For Your Crotch
That sounds like a shower fit for a King!

Adidas Imperial Stormtrooper Sneakers
I’ll take enough for an army. My army.

Windows 8 Expected In 2012 According To Roadmap
Hope it has a better name than Windows 8…

Apple Denying Support to Smokers?
…. I’m not touching that with a 10 foot pole.

What exciting tech will you be playing with this weekend? New phones? Laptops? Tell us about it in comments…

If you want to get in on the Giz AU Wave action (and who doesn’t, let’s be honest!), drop me an email at nick@gizmodo.com.au with your wave details and I’ll add you to the list!

[Telstra Exchange via APC Mag]

The first 100Hz LCD TV sets were shown off by Samsung back at CeBit back in 2006. Using advanced processing powers, the TV analysed each frame, and then created a composite frame in between the two to smooth over motion blurring. This essentially allows the picture to run at 100 frames per second, which translates to smoother pictures.

If that sounds a bit confusing you should check out this old post explaining the NTSC version of the same technology, 120Hz. The difference between the two is that NTSC traditionally runs at 60Hz, where as PAL runs at 50Hz, and so both techs simply double the frame rate. It’s argued though that 120Hz, which is a multiple of the 24p frame rate of movies, is therefore superior for watching films.

The simple rule today is that if you’re buying an LCD TV, make sure it has at least 100Hz technology on board. There’s another, newer version of the tech called 200Hz, but as a minimum requirement, having 100Hz is a must.

History of TV is Giz AU’s month-long look back at the development of the world-changing medium and its influence on our daily lives.

The T91MT has an 8.9-inch 1024×600 screen with a 256-level pressure sensor, runs on an Atom Z520 processor with 1GB RAM, a 32GB SSD and all the standard wireless and connectivity. It weighs 960 grams with the battery, which is pretty sweet, and comes preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Multitouch does come at a bit of a premium though, with the T91MT set to set you back $999.

[Asus]

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen Gets Its Very Own App Store
I’ve had a quick look at it – being able to translate a word on the fly is awesome.

Rumour: Apple Tablet Delayed For OLED Upgrade
Oh, please. OLED is still way too expensive for this to be true.

Everything You Need To Know About Chrome OS [Liveblog]
Very interested to see how the world takes to Chrome OS…

Apple Exec Wants You To Puke All Over His Mind-Bending Deck
Somehow I don’t think he really does. Nice design though…

The AVIC-F10BT isn’t just an in-dash satnav – it’s a complete in-car entertainment system. On top of its 7-inch touchscreen display, the AVIC comes with dedicated cables installed into your glovebox for connecting an iPod or USB device, a DVD player and SD card behind the screen and built-in stereo Bluetooth. There are so many different elements to this product that the only real way to review it is to break it down into sections.

Entertainment
In the glovebox of the car is an iPod cable. It’s quite long, so you could run it all the way to the back, although you probably wouldn’t. Once you plug in your iPod or iPhone, it starts charging and all control goes through to the AVIC system. And it’s a very familiar interface – you get most of the same menus as your iPod, album art and a big “clickwheel” (although it’s really just a big four-way button on the touchscreen that looks like a clickwheel. It’s not a complete translation of your iPod though – there’s no support for Genius or Genius mixes, which is a bit of a shame.

But that’s made up for by the fact that the AVIC supports video. Sure, for safety reasons it’s restricted to when you have the handbrake on, but just the fact that you can play back video from your iPhone on your display is fantastic. If you have rear screens in your car, you can use the AVIC to send video from your iPhone to the rear seats while you use the satnav.

Of course, there’s also the built-in DVD player which will do the same thing, as well as play back CDs (both audio and MP3). The SD card also plays back music, and although I didn’t get to test it, the specs say it’ll play back DivX and H.264 files via either the SD or DVD slots.

There’s also the ability to play stereo Bluetooth through the system, and if your car has steering wheel audio controls, you can get them wired up to control the AVIC, although the car I was driving didn’t have them.

Being a Pioneer car, the audio playback was pretty awesome, but most of that was the speakers. In terms of controls, the touchscreen managed most of it, although there are dedicated volume and track forwards and back buttons on the bottom of the screen.

Bluetooth
The Bluetooth functionality is a godsend. My last car had a Motorola Bluetooth hands-free kit installed that used the car’s speakers, and despite being valued at a few hundred dollars, it had nothing on the AVIC’s Bluetooth. For a start, the AVIC has a screen, which lets you see details a more traditional Bluetooth system could only dream of. Once you’ve paired up your phone, you can see your signal strength and your network on the screen. But the killer is the ability to copy your contact list from the phone over to the AVIC’s 2GB of internal storage, which means you can easily call anyone on your contact list with a few presses of the touchscreen. You also get missed calls, recent calls and a shortcut to your home number easily located on the phone’s main screen.

Considering the legal implications of using your phone while driving these days, this is almost worth the price of admission in itself. OK, not quite, but it’s still the best implementation of installed Bluetooth I’ve played with.

Satnav
There’s a lot to be said for navigation on a seven-inch screen. It’s easy to view, easy to control and, well, that’s pretty much it. Considering I’ve long been lamenting the fact that satnavs tend to be fairly stagnant in terms of new features that are actually useful, having a device with such a big screen was quite refreshing. It uses the latest WhereIs maps, which shows off things like golf courses on the screen as you drive past them. It’s also big enough that it can display your music track information (and album artwork) on the screen at the bottom, even with the satnav running.

There are a couple of other noteworthy aspects to the satnav – first off, it’s a learning device, so if you like to take a particular shortcut, it’ll start directing you that way when you next take that route.

The other big thing is a result of the device been installed – the device will actually track your position when you drive through tunnels. No beeps and messages about lost satellite reception. No confusion about underground exits. In other words, proper navigation wherever you are. And that’s awesome. It really is.

The AVIC-F10BT comes with SUNA traffic, although I have no idea where the TMC antenna is. It’s certainly not running along the bottom of your front windshield, and doesn’t need to be plugged in each time you want to use the satnav.

The Menu
The touchscreen interface is simple. The Home screen gives you the option of Music, Satnav or Phone. But if you press the home button again on the home screen, there’s a customisable page of shortcuts to key functions of the device. Things like navigate home or launching the FM radio. That means you’re no more than three presses from all the key functions of the device, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

There’s a dedicated button on the bottom of the unit that switches between satnav and music control. That may sound like an obvious inclusion, but it’s only when you’re using it that you realise how much sense it actually makes.

Verdict
This device costs $2999, plus installation. It’s the top of the range Pioneer AVIC system though, and offers the ability to control rear screens and audio output if you have a truly kickass speaker setup in your car. It also works with a reverse camera, which can be installed as an optional extra.

But despite all that, $3K still seems pretty steep. But there are a couple of things to consider – if you’re buying a new car, you’re likely to pay that much to get a satnav option, but you’ll probably miss out on the whole Bluetooth and iPod functionality. The other thing is that Pioneer have a cheaper option, which has a smaller screen and fewer functions, but maintains the core aspects of the device (iPod, Bluetooth and satnav) selling for under a grand (plus installation). Considering top of the line satnavs cost almost a grand, that’s incredibly good value. You do need a double DIN free in your car, but if you can spare it and the cash to get it installed, I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this system. It’s a complete solution for most of your in-car needs, and well worth the price of admission.

[Pioneer]

The T-Box is a twin-tuner DVR with a 200GB HDD and a 7-day EPG. On top of that, it will plug into the new 100Mbps fibre network to offer unmetered access to BigPond Movies and BigPond TV channels through the device, which sees it competing directly with the TiVo and Foxtel iQ. Of course, Telstra reckons that the T-Hub is a complementary offering to Foxtel (considering they own half of it), but the simple truth is that there’s no reason for anyone to own both.

The T-Box is going to be trialled by selected Melbourne customers over the coming months.

Telstra unveils Australia’s fastest cable broadband and new digital set top box

19 November 2009 – Melbourne will become home to Australia’s fastest cable broadband network after Telstra today announced the completion of an upgrade of the hybrid fibre coaxial broadband network offering an ultra fast, multi-user experience.

From 1 December nearly one million Melbourne homes will benefit from the upgrade to the cable network. The network download capacity increases to up to 100Mbps and the upload capacity to up to 2Mbps, offering an increase in bandwidth to share across multiple users and devices within the household.

Telstra also revealed a new television set top box incorporating two digital television tuners. To be known as T-Box™, the set top box features the ability to view and record free to air television programs up to seven days in advance, the ability to pause and rewind live television and seamlessly integrates access to BigPond internet content such as BigPond TV channels and the BigPond Movies download rental service.

Telstra Group Managing Director of Product Management, Ms Holly Kramer, said as the family home now connects multiple computers and devices like the new T-Box™ to the internet, increased bandwidth allows members of the family to receive a better internet experience when they are all online at the same time.

“The completion of this cable upgrade means multiple family members can surf the internet, play games online or download movies at the same time,” Ms Kramer said.

Ms Kramer said the new T-Box™, which will be trialled by Melbourne customers over the coming months, takes advantage of the increase in bandwidth to bring high quality internet television and movies downloaded straight to the home television.

“The Telstra T-Box will enhance the free-to-air digital TV experience by allowing customers to pause and rewind live television, access a seven day program guide to record upcoming programs and rent and download movies from BigPond® Movies.

“T-Box also gives users unmetered access to the seven BigPond® TV internet channels including live news, sport and online music all streamed directly to the television set,” Ms Kramer said.

Telstra also announced that its Velocity fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network has been upgraded to offer a network download capacity of up to 100Mbps into the home for sharing across multiple users within the household.

The upgrades to the cable and Velocity services will mean that the download capacity they offer is so fast that they exceed the capabilities of many internet sites and computers. This means the actual download speeds an individual customer will receive on the services will depend on factors including customer equipment, server limitations, Wi-Fi reception/capacity, and so will be less than the total capacity into the home.

Backlighting is where an LCD stores all its mojo. It controls the brightness, the contrast, and the overall performance of a display. Not all LED backlighting is created equal though. Fortunately, there’s this great post explaining the intricacies of the different LED backlight types.

According to Wikipedia, the first commercial LCD TV with LED backlighting was the Sony Qualia 005 back in 2004. It used RBG LED backlighting, although it lacked the more recent ability to dim different sections of the screen that many current LED backlit TVs do. This means that these televisions are able to show blacks as true blacks, rather than a dull grey colour, thanks to the ability to turn off the backlight altogether.

Yet despite LED backlit TVs launching five years ago, it’s only in the past 18 months that the market has really started to offer LED TVs. Now, almost all TV manufacturers are promoting LED as the next big thing in TV technology. And until OLED becomes big enough and affordable enough, it probably is…

History of TV is Giz AU’s month-long look back at the development of the world-changing medium and its influence on our daily lives.