Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Ikea's "UPPLEVA"

Here comes a rather unexpected move by Swedish furniture brand/discounter IKEA – they are moving into electronic. Of course IKEA found the perfect way in for themselves. Taking the mess of home entertainment systems as the starting point, the brand figured out that in order to get rid of it, they would have to combine the furniture and the electronics – that is exactly what they ended up doing.
“The range includes three designs, all of which incorporate an LED TV, 2.1 sound system with wireless subwoofers, Wi-Fi for smart TV features, and DVD / Blu-Ray players. The company is planning to launch in Sweden, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Denmark, Norway, and Portugal in the fall, with a worldwide rollout in spring 2013. The furniture is intended to hide away cables, and will come in a number of different color options.
A few specs on the system have been announced — the LED panels are full HD (suggesting 1080p) which Ikea says have a 400Hz refresh rate and come in four sizes, with four HDMI inputs, two USB ports, and support for DivX HD files. There’s also extra storage, which means that your Xbox 360 and PS3 won’t need to be left out.
The range, dubbed “Uppleva” (meaning experience) is designed to make your home entertainment simpler to use, with one remote to command the whole system. It’s built by Chinese manufacturer TCL, a company better known in the US under the RCA brand, or as Alcatel in Europe. The base model is set to cost about $995 with a 5-year guarantee, though it’s not clear what’s included at this price point, or how much the full version will cost.”

Friday, April 13, 2012

QLOCKTWO W - Time in Words


At the recent Baselworld watch and jewelry show in Basel, Switzerland, Biegert & Funk unveiled their QLOCKTWO W watch. This new wristwatch is the world’s first watch to tell time in words. For instance if it is 9:30, the watch will read: Is is a half past nine. The square watch face has 110 characters all placed neatly into a grid and when you press the stainless steel button on the side, the words light up to tell you what time it is. The watch will be dropping in Autumn of this year and it will be available in stainless steel and black. Also, the watch will be available in both the English and German languages, and it will cost approximately 550 Euros. If you are interested in the watch, check out the Biegert & Funk site.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Figure iPhone App - Pro Beats in Less than 1 Minute

Propellerhead Software presents their new $1 Figure iPhone App. While there are already numerous apps in the beat space, they thought they could make it easier, faster and simply more fun with Figure. From what we have seen so far, that might actually be true. The way beats and sounds are created in the app is the real innovation, rather than the musical output. Any amateur can actually start producing beats in the matter of a short time and enjoy the outcoming sounds.

“Playing bass, drums, and lead melodies on Figure all happens through the performance pads. These have been designed for touch control from the beginning. You can tap them like traditional keyboards or pad controllers or you can simply hold your finger down and let the rhythm wheels provide a pattern for you. You can easily tap into the sound-sculpting power of Thor’s filters, envelopes, and effects by adjusting each preset’s “Tweaks”. Don’t know what a filter or envelope is? No problem! Just move your finger along the same performance pad and listen to the changes in sound.”