Into Tech

A feature film on London is to be produced by BBC Radio 4, with screenings on digital TV and at cinemas.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - LG Electronics said on
Monday it expects retailers to charge about $60 for equipment
that will enable consumers to make the analog-to-digital switch
on their televisions.

The date for the first stage of the digital switchover is revealed, with Whitehaven in Cumbria the test area.

LONDON (Reuters) - Almost 80 percent of homes had some form
of digital television at the end of 2006 as the country
prepares for the switchover from analogue, with the popular
Freeview service leading the sales, Ofcom said on Wednesday.

More than half of all TV sets in the UK still do not receive digital TV, media watchdog Ofcom says.

Pinnacle TV has decided there’s money in Macs after all, launching its first two TV tuners for Apple systems.

The two USB tuners are the Pinnacle TV for Mac DVB-T Stick and the Pinnacle TV for Mac Hybrid Stick. The first one is a digital TV tuner and allows us European users to watch, time shift and record our fave TV and radio shows.

The hybrid has both digital and analogue TV tuners and can act as a video capture device too, which is handy. Both come bundled with the Elgato EyeTV Lite software, an AV adaptor cable, mini-antenna and remote control.

Shipping this month, they cost £60 and £90. Oh yeah, they come in black and – you guessed it - white.-Martin Lynch

news technology gadgets apple TV mac

Those lucky Japanese shoppers. From next month they will be able to get their grubby little mitts on the world’s first laptop with an integrated HD DVD burner.

There are already HD DVD readers in some laptops, like the Qosmio G30 but the new G30A/97A will have the first HD DVD writer. Other notable features are dual 160GB hard disk drives, 1GB of Ram and a big 17in widescreen display with a resolution of 1920 x 1,280 pixels for showing off those high-def movies.

It will also sport the all-important HDMI input and a digital TV tuner. It is priced at over £1,600 in Japan which means you can easily add another £500 to the tag by the time it gets here later in the year. 15Gb write-once discs will be out there for around £6 - again, that’s there, not here.

One last thing, don’t fool yourself that this will be suitable for mobile working as it weighs in at nearly 5Kg.-Martin Lynch

news technology laptop toshiba HD DVD entertainment

Almost three out of four UK households now watch digital TV, says media watchdog Ofcom.

Samsung’s line of ultra edition cellphones is about to expand with the release of the SCH-B630. A slider, the cellphone has a few features that make it stand out from the pack, specifically its 3.0-megapixel built-in camera and ability to pull down DMB digital TV broadcasts all within a 12.9mm (0.5 in.) thin body. Even more advanced is the fact that it has a TV-out port so you can watch DMB broadcasts on your TV should your TV not have the proper antenna. All this talk of DMB probably means that the cellphone will be exclusive to Korea for a little while. More lovely pics can be found inside.

Truthfully, it’s not a terribly exciting-looking cellphone and appears to be a basic slider, albeit one with a 2.12-inch display. Incidentally, the already-here Samsung M610 has a slightly larger display (2.22-inch) and is also a little thinner at 11.9mm (0.47 in.). Expect to see standard Bluetooth support and microSD card slots aplenty. No word when or if the cellphone will make it stateside but by the looks of it, it’s really not all that “ultra.” – Nicholas Deleon

Samsung SCH-B630 DMB Phone [SlashPhone.com]

The BBC is to be given the details of millions of pensioners so it can help them switch to digital TV.