Considering we’re one financial slipup away from living out The Grapes of Wrath, we can now get excited when Sony crams higher-end features like network widgets into their budget-friendly, W-series Bravia LCD HDTVs.
Who needs Gi-Joe when you can build your own badass action figures with some Cat5 cable? Seriously, this is brilliant. I think it is worthy of an art exhibit.
LaCie’s newest ethernet disk isn’t only cool because it stores up to a whopping six terabytes in its stack. According to the company, it’s also a NAS that’s compatible with Apple’s Time Machine.
While we’ve already seen older iterations Netgear’s powerline-based networking products, it’s just today that the new Powerline HD Plus Ethernet Adaptor Kit ($US170) and Powerline AV Ethernet Adaptor Kit ($US150) have become widely available. Both systems transfer data at 200 Mbps over your home’s electrical wiring, but the big difference is that the Powerline HD Plus system includes a socket so you don’t miss out on the plug space. Now if only my apartment’s electrical were as reliable as its airspace, I might consider the purchase. [Netgear]
So you went out and bought Samsung’s solid performing, stylish Series 6 LCD TV recently? Well, you can officially start kicking yourself… now. Sammy has officially launched its Series 7, Series 8 and Series 9 TVs in Australia (more on the Series 9 to come), and what makes the first two stand out from the crowd is that they feature an ethernet port for direct access to web content on your TV.
The Series 7 LCDs, which we first saw back at CES in January, is available in 40, 16 and 52-inch screen sizes, and incorporates a superior speaker with separate sub to the Series 6 range. The Series 8 range comes in 46 and 52 inch sizes only, and has pretty much all the same features as the Series 7, except runs at less than two inches thick.
This would be great: Intel reps paid a visit to the FCC to lobby for making ethernet ports a requirement in new set-top boxes, meaning every set-top box would be IP capable. So connectivity like the cable industry’s tru2way dealio and home networking would go from bustable industry pact to government mandate. Odds of this happening? Well, there is a precedent like this, and FCC Chairmain Kevin Martin does enjoy stabbing the cable industryin the balls with burning pokers of openness, but nothing’s certain. [Ars]
Your house is wired for networking and you probably don’t even know it. Wires are wires, and the ones that give you power outlets every six feet aren’t much differen than the ones connecting your modem to your network. They’re already in the walls and can carry data as well as power, so think about using this Belkin Ethernet-to-powerline conversion hub to let you utilise the wiring you already have, converting the digital signals from up to three devices and transferring it through your house via a “powernet” to other devices.
Denon is selling the AK-DL1 cable to link up your Denon-link audio components, and apparently it’s able to “bring out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction.” How does it achieve this magic? By having “high purity copper wire and high performance connection parts” plus a woven jacket to “reduce vibration.” Vibration? M’kay… Best of all, if you’re a complete and utter sucker audio enthusiast, this 59-inch Ethernet cable will cost you just US$500. [Denon via Crunchgear via Oh Gizmo]
Most homes have coax wired into almost every room, but only newer ones have Ethernet wall ports. D-Link’s DXN-221 Ethernet adaptor works around this problem and comes with two units, both with a Coax F-Type connector to go into your wall, and an Ethernet adaptor to hook up to your networking on either side. The adaptor works in the 800-1500MHz range, which supposedly doesn’t interfere with your TV signal. All this can be yours in Q3 2008 for US$199 for two, and US$109 for individual adapters thereafter. D-Link doesn’t have images of this thing, so I made my own interpretation of what it looks like. [D-Link]
If the MacBook Air is the mother of all slimline notebooks, then these two must be her offspring: you may have to ferry them around a lot if you watch DVDs or use wired surfing while you’re on the road. While the Superdrive is a slot-loading 8x number in an aluminium jacket, and weighing just over a pound, the ethernet adapter looks to be a standard Apple white, and gives you that RJ-45 connector for 10/100BASE-T support that everyone’s talking about. Combined together they take up around 25 cubic inches we think, showing just how skinny the Air itself actually is at 52 cubic inches:
