CES 2008

(Credit: Eye-Fi)

Wireless memory card company Eye-Fi just announced a partnership with Lexar to develop future products. According to an announcement on Tuesday at CES, Eye-Fi will combine its wireless technology with Lexar's flash memory and branding to produce a Lexar wireless SD card.

I spent some time with the original Eye-Fi Card back in November, and was pleased with what I saw. For a first effort at a new consumer device, the Eye-Fi Card worked as advertised and wirelessly uploaded photos to both local computers and online photo sharing sites with minimal fuss. Hopefully this will remain the case as wireless Lexar cards start to ship. The branding and interface might be slightly different, but since both products will use the same basic Eye-Fi technology, they should be similar and fairly direct to use. The original Eye-Fi card can't access public hot spots (hotspots must be registered on the card before it can connect), but perhaps future Lexar/Eye-Fi cards will see expanded Wi-Fi compatibility.

Red BlackBerry Pearl 8130 for Verizon

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Pretty in pink (apologies for the blurry shot)

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Catching Verizon Wireless and Sprint off-guard, Research in Motion showed off some upcoming colored models of the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130 for the respective carriers at CES 2008. The red version will go to Verizon, joining the silver Pearl 8130, while the powder-pink model will land at Sprint along with the purple Pearl. No specific release dates were given, but I'd guess the launch dates aren't too far away--February at the latest.

Will MyGig receive lossless audio over WiMax in the near future?

(Credit: CNET Networks)

At a party during CES, we sniffed out potential new technology from Harman International that combines wireless transmission with lossless audio. We stumbled on a display unit using the MyGig entertainment system, built by Harman for Chrysler, labeled Harman Wireless. A Harman representative on the scene said that he couldn't tell us anything about the technology, so we talked to him for as long as we could to try and get a few details. From what we could piece together, Harman is working on a device that will use some kind of wireless technology, possibly WiMax, to receive lossless audio and play it back in the car. Our Harman representative talked about the low audio quality of MP3, and how Harman would prefer a higher-quality audio format which would use all the potential of its audio hardware. We couldn't determine much from the unit on display, as it looked like a MyGig unit, and we were ejected from the room when a group of Harman clients came in for a demonstration. But we will be on the lookout for new announcements from Harman.

(Credit: Westinghouse)

Westinghouse Digital is showing off a wireless LCD flat-panel TV here at CES--but the model is currently targeted for use in the digital signage market. The LCD uses PulseLINK's integrated CWave UWB (ultrawideband) Wireless HDMI protocol to broadcast a full bandwidth HD video signal from a separate base station (to which the video sources are connected). As a result, the only wire needed for the panel is the power cord--a near ideal solution for store windows and other retail locations where clutter and wires are unacceptable. Westinghouse is touting the commercial applications now, with hopes that the technology will soon be able to trickle down to consumers' living rooms in the near future. In the meantime, we'll take the opportunity to remind the company that this "first fully integrated wireless HDTV" was actually beaten to the market by Samsung wireless plasma TV, which was announced at CES 2007--and has been available at Best Buy for the past few months.

A prototype of the Open Interface (now Qualcomm) SoundAbout Lossless Bluetooth audio board.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

Despite its widespread adoption, the current Bluetooth audio standard (A2DP) isn't pretty. The lackluster audio quality currently achievable using Bluetooth is fine for noisy applications such as car audio or wireless workout headphones, but degraded Bluetooth audio has kept the technology from crossing over into the world of high-end audio and home theater components. With any luck, 2008 will be the year that the A2DP Bluetooth audio standard gets pushed aside by a superior audio codec called SoundAbout Lossless.

Watch the Qualcomm Soundabout Lossless video on CNET TV.

Developed by Open Interface (recently acquired by Qualcomm), the Soundabout Lossless Bluetooth audio codec offers low-latency (as low as 2 milliseconds), low-complexity, lossless audio streaming. We had a chance to demo the Soundabout Lossless for ourselves and were blown away by the audio quality and wireless performance.

With the increasing share of Bluetooth audio products on the market, it makes sense that the concerns over streaming audio quality will need to be addressed eventually. If nothing else, Soundabout Lossless could be the key to finally creating the perfect pair of high-end, wireless headphones.

Just plug the speakers into an outlet and you're set to go.

(Credit: CNET)

Almost everyone who's into home theater loves surround sound, but even the staunchest audiophiles have to admit that the inevitable result--a room full of criss-crossing speaker cables--sours the deal. Just about every manufacturer is on a quest to kill the wires, but the solutions so far have had drawbacks--single speaker surround-sound systems just doesn't sound as good as a full 5.1 system; wireless rear speakers usually still have wires, exhibit an audible hiss or compression artifacts, and/or often use the interference-prone 2.4GHz wireless spectrum. Neosonik's solution avoids most of these pitfalls by using an AV controller (to which you plug in your sources) that wirelessly distributes the audio to all of the speakers, each of which contains a built-in amplifier and a wireless receiver. The wireless speakers need to be plugged into a power outlet, but the whole system looks a whole lot nicer than a standard wired installations.

Watch the Neosonik Wireless Home Theater video on CNET TV.

The Neosonik AV controller.

(Credit: CNET)

We couldn't get a clean shot of the back panel, but rest assured that there are six HDMI inputs.

(Credit: CNET)

Neosonik transmits its data in the 5Ghz spectrum, but does not use the same technology as traditional Wi-Fi. The proprietary wireless audio transmission technology is called as Airpower AV, which is tweaked to improve reliability and latency (Neosonik claims a very impressive 6 nanoseconds delay). In the future, Neosonik intends to license the Airpower technology to other manufacturers, with the idea that any Airpower-equipped device could be seamlessly integrated into your existed Airpower system.

Yes, even the sub can go wireless.

(Credit: CNET)

We stopped by Neosonik's suite for a demo and were not disappointed. While the two wireless stereo systems that were set up worked perfectly, we were most impressed by the full 5.1 home theater setup. All five speakers plus a subwoofer were connected wirelessly and they synced up perfectly--we didn't hear a single hiccup even when the room started to fill up with journalists. The idea of having your living room filled with speakers is never going to appeal to everyone, but eliminating the need to run speaker cable really make a difference in term of aesthetics.

On the video side, the system is capable of transmitting HD video, although not quite as cleanly as with audio. While the Neosonik system has enough bandwidth to transmit uncompressed audio, HD video is transcoded to h.264 in the receiver, presumably to lessen the bandwidth demands. Our quick demo of Corpse Bride on Blu-ray in 1080i didn't reveal any glaring flaws in term of video quality, but we can't imagine it will preserve all the detail of Blu-ray and HD DVD discs that videophiles have come to love.

The Neosonik technology is impressive--especially on the audio side--but our major skepticism is whether it will actually come out in 2008. We've written about Neosonik at CES in 2007 (and before in 2006), but we've yet to see the product actually hit the market. (Likewise, a similar wireless implementation from Avega Systems remains a no show in the consumer marketplace a full two years after its CES day in the sun.) Neosonik claims it is "taking reservations from retailers" for summer delivery--which at least sounds like a serious step in the right direction--but we'll believe it when we see it.

The Creative Xdock HD takes iPod video to the big screen.

(Credit: Creative)

Creative has announced plans to release the Xdock HD, an HD-quality iPod video dock. The Xdock HD is due for a spring release with a retail price of $399. Four bills might seem like a steep price for an iPod dock, but the Xdock HD has some serious technology under the hood.

First and foremost, the Xdock HD provides a means to play iPod video content at 720p or 1080i resolution. This feat is accomplished by Creative's own video upsampling technology, which transforms your puny iPod videos into HD-worthy gems.

The second great asset of the Creative Xdock HD is its ability ... Read more

The Lumix FX55 is a newer camera, but Panasonic hasn't yet detailed its upcoming WiFi-equipped model.

(Credit: Panasonic)

Panasonic announced a partnership Monday by which customers will be able to use forthcoming 802.11-equipped Lumix digital cameras to wirelessly upload photos to Google's Picasa photo-sharing site.

Panasonic announced the partnership at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Buying the camera comes with a 12-month subscription to use any of T-Mobile's 8,500 wireless hot spots for free, similar to an earlier deal that Nikon announced with the telecommunications company.

Panasonic didn't share further details about the Wi-Fi-enabled camera.

Verizon Wireless SMT5800

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)

Today, Verizon Wireless added a new smartphone to its lineup, and it looks to be a goody. Manufactured by HTC, the Verizon Wireless SMT5800 takes after the HTC Vox in design and boasts a compact cell-phone-like form factor yet manages to pack in a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. There's also an alphanumerical dialpad on the exterior of the device.

The features are pretty much standard fare. It runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition and has a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 (with support for the A2DP profile), and EV-DO. Onboard memory is 128MB Flash/64MB RAM and comes equipped with a microSD expansion slot. The Verizon Wireless SMT5800 is available online starting today and will be in stores on January 21 with a price tag of $249.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates and discounts.