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http://www.mpeg-4.philips.com.

Windows and PPC only I'm afriad.

I2C is an alternative to RS-232. Actually, it's an alternative to RS-422. SMBus has some usefulness as well but I2C, I think, is closer to "where it's at".

The (Royal Dutch) Philips company is putting quite some effort into flexible display technology for some years now.

Here the Sales Pitch on their own website. There's not an awfull lot of information, but they do have some nice pics and movies (N.B. Link was broken when I checked; I'm not sure if this is a Mozilla problem or the sites). They really should put more on their websie because they are really doing some cutting edge work there...

The (Royal Dutch) Philips company is putting quite some effort into flexible display technology for some years now.

Here the Sales Pitch on their own website. There's not an awfull lot of information, but they do have some nice pics and movies (N.B. Link was broken when I checked; I'm not sure if this is a Mozilla problem or the sites). They really should put more on their websie because they are really doing some cutting edge work there...

The (Royal Dutch) Philips company is putting quite some effort into flexible display technology for some years now.

Here the Sales Pitch on their own website. There's not an awfull lot of information, but they do have some nice pics and movies (N.B. Link was broken when I checked; I'm not sure if this is a Mozilla problem or the sites). They really should put more on their websie because they are really doing some cutting edge work there...

30"?

Pffft... 52"

after surveying the pc portable audio player scene, i'd have to say that the ipod is arguably the best portable hdd audio player out there right now -- pc or mac -- and i don't even own an apple. let's see what sets it apart...

• it's the smallest and lightest hdd player/recorder on the market
• its software is feature-packed (includes basic PIM and games), intuitive, and upgradeable (OV is not out of the question)
• it's got both usb2 and firewire
• it's got award-winning industrial design
• it comes with a recharging docking station
• standards-based synching that actually works as expected
• other subtle details here and there that i can't think of right now -- details that only perfectionist apple would pay attention to

That's Philips, with one L, not two. The Phillips with two LL in the middle is a petroleum company.

But thank you! My plans for world domination may now proceed...

Here is a page that describes the fact that Dolby supports AAC, but it doesn't look like it has anything to do with "Dolby Digital Surround sound".

I agreed with all the previous posters that if a drive doesn't support Mount Rainier already, don't count on a firmware upgrade being available in the future.

Philips latest 4x DVD+RW drive DVDRW416K is the first DVD+RW drive supports Mount Rainier. Note that it was just announced at CeBit last month and it's not shipping yet.

Do consider that if Mount Rainier is important to you, alternatively you might want to consider DVD-RAM. The new Panasonic LF-D521 can read and write DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW, and the drive can be had for $160-$199. DVD-RAM media is quite a bit more expensive than DVD-RW/+RW, and incomaptible with existing players, but for random access data storage it's far more reliable and simple. DVD-RAM has the same defect management and drag-and-drop rewriting that DVD+MRW promised, but it's here now (actually it's been around almost as long as DVD-ROM has). It's a good choice for random access data storage if it fits your need.

What I wonder is how reliable traditional (non-Mount Rainier) packet writing on DVD+RW is. Minor defects on a traditional packet-writing CD-RW can render the whole disc unreadable. I wonder if the same is true for traditional packet writing DVD+RW. Does anyone here has a solid answer to that?

I agree with the DVD idea. get one of these http://www.dvdrecorder.philips.com/
hook it up to your VCR. Most people are suggesting stupid solutions with Video cards and Video editing software which end up costing around the 600$ mark anyway so for this extra ease of use you cant go wrong. Hey and its Phillips a cool electronics company.

Philips is accepting applications for beta testers for their new mp3 jukebox. 50 units will be given free to beta testers. To qualify, all you need is to answer a survey, where you GET TO TELL THEM HOW IMPORTANT OGG SUPPORT IS TO YOU! So let's fill them up with Ogg Vorbis votes. Apply for the beta test now!

I went shopping for remote controls and checked all the models out at the local Home Theater store. Let me tell you, a remote should be easy to use and functional. This is not it. Anything more than a Hometheatre Master MX-500 is a waste.

Ironically, Philips makes a $149 programmable touchscreen remote (with a decent number of programmable hard buttons like the HomeTheatreMasters)--the Pronto Neo.

Some links:

Photo

Customized screen examples

Amazon $169/free shipping

BlueDo.com $149 (where I bought mine)

I really like it.

..also a "glossy" at http://www.remotecontrol.philips.com/library/ipron to/SPEC_iPronto_TSi6400.pdf

• The res is only 640*480 tho, a bit too blocky for my liking..
• Intel X-Scale processor - no mention of speed
• touch screen - "high sensitivity" - Mmmmm
• 64 MB of non-vol flash memory
• 64 MB of RAM
• built in mic, 'phones socket and "speakers" - no mention of a line out or better, I guess you'll have to live with the headphone out..
• PCMCIA slot with removeable 802.11b wireless card
• 8 "direct access" buttons

well i guess this would be must-have item in the wired home, but for me the biggest problem is that it is too big. for what it offers, yes it is a good unit.. but what if DON'T want to browse the web on my remote? i think that the PRONTO TSU3000 would be a better choice, simply because it's smaller, does only the remote functions and can be carried in a pocket (MUCH easier to lose under the sofa cushions)

Suchetha
(of course i won't be buying one until there is a MASSIVE price drop)

In case $1800USD is too rich for your blood they do offer a greatly stripped down version for $20 and there's a free demo (registration required).

I'm not sure if these would, but the higher model probably would be able to, as you're able to view networked cams, etc on them. Of course, I've been drooling over the damn things for a few months now, and the $1699 price tag means a lot of drool....especially since no one seems to want to buy drool.

Well, that IS possible. Philips offers software for your Palm to do just that.
Here is the link to download the software (eval. version).

For unintelligible statements in a story description like the one above, CowboyNeal should be sent to:

• KinderCare's Hooked on Phonics Class
• Jail -- Do Not Pass Go...
• Iraq -- To work as a translator for Baath

If anoyone has bothered to read the PDFs about these chips you'll see that UV and sunlight will damage the chips. Plus, it appears that they have a life cycle of 6 months. Plus I think a pair of pliers would do the job so much faster (just crush the chip). Now for the evil thought- if the chips are programmed to report if they've been bought or not, how hard would it be to reprogram all the RFID tags in a store that they've been paid for?

If anoyone has bothered to read the PDFs about these chips you'll see that UV and sunlight will damage the chips. Plus, it appears that they have a life cycle of 6 months. Plus I think a pair of pliers would do the job so much faster (just crush the chip). Now for the evil thought- if the chips are programmed to report if they've been bought or not, how hard would it be to reprogram all the RFID tags in a store that they've been paid for?

Philips, Philips Student Site
I got paid roughly 600EURO a month in 2001. Had a great time at Philips NatLab, soon to be the High Tech Campus. I am dutch, but I know they accept foreign students too.

Disclaimer: I don't work there anymore.

Philips, Philips Student Site
I got paid roughly 600EURO a month in 2001. Had a great time at Philips NatLab, soon to be the High Tech Campus. I am dutch, but I know they accept foreign students too.

Disclaimer: I don't work there anymore.

There is also the Mount Rainier format (CD-MRW) which, according to Philips, "enables native OS support of data storage on CD-RW. This makes the technology far easier to use and allows the replacement of the floppy. This is done by having defect management in the drive, by making the drive 2k addressable, by using background formatting, and by standardizing both command set and physical layout. The new standard is promoted by Compaq, Microsoft, Philips, and Sony and is supported by over 40 industry leaders: OS vendors, PC-OEM's, ISV's, chip makers, and media makers."

Back in 2000 I wanted to upgrade my 4x4x24x CD-RW drive, but was initially going to wait until CD-MRW technology was on the market... after a few months, I purchased a plain ol' 24x10x40x CD-RW drive. To my knowledge, CD-MRW still is not a viable retail option.

Philips remote control division has recently released a remote based on Linux and Java. You would think Microsoft hates that if they cared.

Via broadband Internet access, the Streamium MC-i200 connects to the huge number of radio stations currently online

If the box won't connect to the 'huge range... currently on line', but only a smaller, Philips authorised, range, then that's false advertising, which, in Europe, anyway, is illegal. So before wasting time hacking the box it would be worth dropping a line to the Advertising Standards Authority or your national equivalent, or to your local Trading Standards office.

Remember, as Lessig points out, the law is also code, and has APIs you can use.

> but the effect of Rambus royalties is insignificant at best.

Ah yes, the "it only costs us a couple of bucks, why worry" argument. So, when DRM laws get passed, and all the DACs on your sound card have to support DRM and they start costing $7 per unit on the sound card instead of a couple of cents, don't worry? And the same in the CD/DVD drive.. And then the video card makers find out about one of the partners in the AGP spec have a patent on something or other and video cards cost $15 more for "royalties", and then the network cards, and so on and so on, and then all together that brand new PC costs an extra $100 as a result of legislation and royalties, we just should suck it up because it's only a bit here and a bit there?

>I read a while ago about the cost of RDRAM. The cost premium has not so much to do with Rambus royalties as it does low yields during fabrication.

So that's the buyer's fault that they have an inherently less efficient production process? And almost nobody was paying Rambus royalties, because almost nobody besides a couple of Rambus' best friends was/is making RDRAM anyway, since DDR SDRAM is cheaper and faster.

>The story mentioned that in the total cost of a 128 or 256 MB RIMM, some 3-5 dollars was the royalty.
>This was also when memory prices were significantly higher per meg.

The price of a DIMM on a per meg basis will not have any effect on the royalies that go to RAMBUS as a result. If a DIMM cost $25 before and $30 now, when its price would have dipped to $10, it'll still cost $15.

> Maybe $3-5 pisses you off a whole lot, but in exchange for great memory design (RDRAM is damn good for P4) I'd say its a small price to pay.
>I didn't here you complaining that Philips owns the CD standard.

Maybe that's because Philips didn't sit on a council to decide what the next audio system to replace cassette tapes was going to be, secretly patent a whole pile of technology around CDs, then push everyone to adopt CDs, wait a few years for CDs to become firmly entrenched in the marketplace, bring out their own SuperCD(TM) format, watch it tank, and then turn to Sony and all the others who used the "jointly developed" CD standard for all of their devices and go "Hey guys, we've got this patent we never told you about on the CD format to do with X. As a result you all owe us $5 a player. Large bills preferred. Thanks."
No. Instead Philips developed the standard themselves with Sony's help and both licensed it to everyone, up front, with clear and open terms . And, Philips is rather adamant about defending the standard as well. All of these "copy protected" audio discs aren't allowed to use the "Compact Disc" logo, you'll notice. Philips won't let them.

In fact, if you search on the FCC web site for "2.4 GHz", you will find a presentation about WiFi that lists "Listen to MP3 music" as one of the possible uses. Clearly they are not against it.

And for those people looking for a music appliance with builtin wireless, here is a stereo system that is supposed to come out in Q1.

HP may be one of the first, but many of the big electronic brands are developing home av components around wireless networking. I'm surprised its taking them this long to make good on the possibilities of this!

Actually, I just recieved some spam-like email this morning inviting me to sign up to betatest philips new 'Streamium' wireless network boombox. The betatest signups are open for a bit longer and can be reached here if you'd also like to sign up. The whole idea of wireless networked multimedia appliances sounds interesting, and I wouldn't mind being able to try one out. (No, I don't work for these guys, yadda yadda. . .just commenting. :)

Sorry I suck. Here's the correct URL.

http://www.audio.philips.com/betatest.asp.

Why not enter their beta test contest and see if you can get one for free?

There go my chances of being selected!

why not simply buy an existing chip manufacturer and start from there?

If you know how much legal trouble an european based company has to go through before it can take over a US based chip-company, imagine how much trouble it will be for a china-based company!

Philips already has a version of this called the JackRabbit (no 32) that appears similar but without the DVD player. Here is a link to a pdf describing the product.

If this device could also act like a Pronto and you could also control your stereo, tv, dvd, etc. When (if) they get zero-config networking into electronics. A device such as this would be all you would need to control all your devices around the house. I was really hoping Apple would have come out with something like this. Their digital hub strategy would work much better with a product such as this. Security issues aside, with added features and capabilities, such a device would be great in a digital/wireless home.

Philips wants five thousand dollars for the Red Book, and requires that you sign an NDA. But if you want to learn the details you can buy the actual international standard, IEC standard 60908, for CHF 226 (about $156).

Other good sources of technical detail about the CD Audio format are:

• The Art of Digital Audio by John Watkinson
• Principles of Digital Audio by Ken Pohlmann

Philips Natlab in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, has also put some work into this field. See this link

Philips Has a dvd Tivo out right now!
Here

The largest ascynchronous project (to my knowledge)is the MiniMips that was developed at Caltech 1997 and has 1.5 M transistors. It was modelled after the R3000 mips architecture.
The best selling larg scale asynchronous circuit seems to be a micro controler that Philips developed and used in a pager series.

of how SACD works here

another location i found a good bit of information:

http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/buses/usb/pr oducts/otg/index.html

You're right to do that, especially with the new Blu-Ray DVD specification and Toshiba's and NEC's new blue-laser system, which hasn't been given a name yet. This is all according to an article in the New Scientist ( 2002-09-07, page 7 ).

Devices already exist to do this, without their kludgery of needing a laptop to actually do the IR transmission.

The Philips Pronto is the most popular of the fully programmable universal remote. You can control thousands of devices with the Pronto, including X10 modules to control lamps, fans, and other appliances.

It has a PC application to set set the GUI for controlling all the devices. It comes pre-programmed for many devices, and just about any other can be downloaded from various internet sites or manufacturers.

The GUI to program it has a bit of a learning curve. If they wanted to make that process even easier, they could have saved a lot of effort by just making a better config GUI, rather than re-inventing the hardware.

Another option, if you really want a PDA as your remote is the Nevo software for the new iPaq, which includes a more powerful IR transmitter.

The SACD logo can be seen as a 'S' and a 'P' for Sony and Philips when turned right. They both worked on it.

From what I understand, the plan is to get all CD's to become SACD's asap. Then after you own about 25 of these disks you'll be more willing to buy a SACD-player. Or they might just start selling SACD-only disks.
http://www.sacd.philips.com/http://www.sacd.philip s.com/b2b/technology/

how it works here

Try CD-MP3 player from Philips, I have the Expanium 301 model... this thing, like similar players mentioned in other replies, has been the MOST practical MP3 solution for myself. I also own a Rio 500 MP3 player, which I no longer use.... Here are the reasons why I absolutly love this thing:

- Very Practical: can play both MP3s and the CDs, this way I don't have to wait to either find a CD player to play the cd, or rip MP3, then xfer it to the player.

- Storage Capacity/Cost:
I have been re-cycling a single CDR-W for months.... it takes me literally minutes to burn upto 130+ 160kbps encoded MP3s. CDR-Ws are cheap!

- Battery life: The battery life for my Philips player has averaged just a little under 9 hours...

- Skip protection: Excellent! The best ever experienced with CD Players.... not sure about HDD based players though.... but this thing has never skipped... I have dropped it several times on our hardwood floor at home.... at the airport, on the street, and this thing just kept on playing, w/o missing a beat...

- Cost effective: The player cost me $89.00 + CA Tax no upgrades needed, no memory backups, or cables to worry about...

Here's more info: Philips eXpanium 301

DVD+RW drives were in fact designed for the entertainment industry. i guess you've missed the DVD+RW digital VCRs from Philips? there's a digital camera coming soon from Sony that also uses +RW and the 3"/8cm discs.

if you'll notice, many of the companies behind DVD+RW are part of the consortium. they helped contribute to the DVD standard (ala PHilips and Sony), they just left and formed their own alliance for this.

it's also worth noting that +RW was adopted by Microsoft and will be supported in future OSes/ OS updates.

while i'm not 100% positive, but i think that DVD+RW also supports portions of the Mount Ranier Standard (a standard for CDRW) so the drives handle errors and bad sectors instead of the software. there's also a few extra things that help the discs act more like floppies than CDRs which is why Microsot wants to support it .

We'll get this simplicity with Mount Rainier. From the Mount Rainer FAQ, "The purpose of the proposal made by the Mount Rainier group is to make CD-RW easier to use for data storage and interchange. The changes proposed will enable the operating system support of dragging and dropping data to CD-RW discs. Formatting delays will also be eliminated and the use will be comparable to using a hard disk or a floppy."

My question is: Are there any OSes that natively support Mount Rainier now?