Jared Moya
September 2nd, 2006, 09:01 AM
"Media centers" that turn your set into a big-screen PC may be the next couch-potato paradigm shift as manufacturers ready for Windows Vista
Consumer electronics have come a long way since 1933, the first time a television set was displayed at the International Radio Exposition in Berlin. Or maybe not.
A look at the newest products on display at this year's IFA (from the German Internationale Funkausstellung), which runs Sept. 1-6, reveals that many of the latest devices have the same fundamental purpose as the Loewe model that amazed Berliners in 1933. They let you watch TV.
In fact, the overwhelming first impression a visitor gets upon arriving at the exposition, which fills 26 huge halls and bills itself as the largest in the world, is that there are an awful lot of TV screens. Whether it's on cutting-edge handheld DVD players, mobile phones, tricked-up PCs, or giant LCDs, the predominant medium on display at the Berlin show is good ol' moving pictures. (And for whatever reason, half the screens at the expo seem to be showing the children's animated film Finding Nemo (DIS), the most popular demo movie.)
Look closer, though, and there is real progress to report. The coming debut of Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Vista operating system, scheduled for January, has given a shove to development of so-called media centers, boxes that look like DVD players but boast the functions of a PC.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2006/gb20060901_669606.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories
Consumer electronics have come a long way since 1933, the first time a television set was displayed at the International Radio Exposition in Berlin. Or maybe not.
A look at the newest products on display at this year's IFA (from the German Internationale Funkausstellung), which runs Sept. 1-6, reveals that many of the latest devices have the same fundamental purpose as the Loewe model that amazed Berliners in 1933. They let you watch TV.
In fact, the overwhelming first impression a visitor gets upon arriving at the exposition, which fills 26 huge halls and bills itself as the largest in the world, is that there are an awful lot of TV screens. Whether it's on cutting-edge handheld DVD players, mobile phones, tricked-up PCs, or giant LCDs, the predominant medium on display at the Berlin show is good ol' moving pictures. (And for whatever reason, half the screens at the expo seem to be showing the children's animated film Finding Nemo (DIS), the most popular demo movie.)
Look closer, though, and there is real progress to report. The coming debut of Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Vista operating system, scheduled for January, has given a shove to development of so-called media centers, boxes that look like DVD players but boast the functions of a PC.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2006/gb20060901_669606.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories