Siano powers GPS Mobile TV revolution: Teams with world’s largest PND makers

• Author: Gadget Mania
• Filed under: Announcements, Gadgets, News, Portable Media
• Date: Dec 26,2009

Garmin, Mio and Navigon ship Portable Navigation Devices based on Siano’s state-of-the-art, multi-standard MDTV receiver chip technology

Leading mobile TV chip maker, Siano Mobile Silicon, announced that the world’s largest Personal Navigation Device (PND) makers, Garmin, Mio, Navigon and others – have integrated its leading MDTV receiver chips into their latest consumer GPS products. The design wins represent a major penetration of the consumer GPS market for Siano, further enhancing its position as a one-stop shop for MDTV chip solutions in emerging mobile TV markets.

Based on Siano’s family of high-performing receiver chips, the PND devices will offer a superior mobile digital TV (MDTV) viewing experience – enabling reception in the most extreme conditions to meet the high demands of PND users, such as crystal clear reception in tough urban canyons, and when traveling at high speeds. Siano enables all vendors with ‘free-to-the-user’ mobile TV viewing, transmitting television programmes from major terrestrial television channels. Representative of Siano’s global market reach, the navigation plus TV devices with Siano inside are available in Korea, Europe, China, and Brazil, supporting the different mobile TV technologies of these regions.

“Personal Navigation is a perfect fit for mobile TV roll-out.” said Alon Ironi, CEO of Siano. “Characterized by large screens, powerful graphics/video performance and mobility – digital television on-the-go is the ultimate complementary feature for navigation devices. We are excited to be working with the top global PND brands – and look forward to accelerating the adoption of mobile TV into GPS consumer markets worldwide.”

Michelle Abraham, Principal Analyst covering mobile TV at research firm In-Stat, added: “Mobile TV opens up audiences and markets for PND vendors. Given the consumers’ desire to access multimedia content on the go, combining GPS with additional entertainment services such as mobile TV is a must have criterion for PND players to maintain their competitive edge in the market.”

Siano will be demonstrating the latest in MDTV innovations at the upcoming CES exhibition in Las Vegas, 7-10 January, at the Hilton Central Tower.

Source: Siano Mobile Silicon

SuperPen Graphics Tablet

• Author: Gadget Mania
• Filed under: Announcements, Gadgets, News, Portable Media
• Date: Nov 21,2009

For aspiring graphic artists everywhere
Tablets are great for doing graphics work, or simply for use as an alternate input device. Use the pressure-sensitive wireless pen for drawing and editing images, or for performing typical mouse functions. You’ll also enjoy the handy pre-programmed shortcuts that are great for day-to-day functions such as cut-n-paste, web browsing (scrolling, forward, back, etc) or even opening documents and folders. The package also includes a cordless mini-mouse allowing you to switch between them at any time!.

True Touch SuperPen

• Easily Paint, Draw, Sketch, Sign, Markup documents
• Send Handwritten email
• Combines Keyboard, Mouse and Pen Functions into one integrated device
• All mouse functions in a pointing device
• Stylus pen with 512 levels of pressure
• Support for Microsoft Handwriting Recognition
• Hot Cells for launching applications and PenCommander functions
• Pen Scrolling for easy browsing of documents and pictures
• Remote, shared electronic whiteboard using Microsoft NetMeeting
• UC-Logic Pen Tools, including PenSioner, Annotate for Word, Annotate All, PenCommander, and PenMail
• Requires Win 98/2000/Me/XP, USB port
• Dimensions: 6″ x 4″ (work surface), 9″ x 9″ (overall)
• Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year

Price: $49.99 Where to buy: ThinkGeek.com

The time of the streamer

• Author: Gadget Mania
• Filed under: Announcements, Gadgets, News, Portable Media
• Date: Nov 18,2009

This is a time when network HD media players are starting to gain a serious market share. And their era is only starting these days.

Why am I saying this? Well, more and more people realize that they don’t really need a Blu-Ray or DVD player, because it’s not comfortable to use, when all you’re ever watching are movie that you’ve downloaded of the internet. Nobody admits to this, but basically everybody does it.

So why bother burning those movies on a DVD, when mkv files, which offer the same quality, are always available and you have a home network? Why not just stream those movies through your network (be it wired or wireless) straight to your new plasma.

Most of these HD media players (or “streamers”, as they are called) can play files via a wired Ethernet port. A few examples are Western Digital’s WD Live or Viewsonic’s Icybox. There are a few that can stream your content through a wireless connection – Asus’ new O!Play and Dell’s Zino HD are among these. Some of them even allow for a hard drive to be inserted, so you can play your content straight from it.

More about the best streamers on bestreamers.com.