End in sight for DVD-R wait
Philips has finally committed to a launch date for its debut DVD recorder - the DVDR-1000. However don't chuck out your VCR just yet as it is not due until 2001, a mere two and half years after Philips first paraded the model at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The recorder uses the DVD+RW format, also favoured by Sony and Thomson, and is capable of archiving up to two hours of DVD quality video on to 4.7 gigabyte discs.
Philips reckons that the format's trump card is its compatibility. Apparently DVD+RW discs can be read by most current DVD players, unlike rival recordable discs, the Panasonic-backed DVD-RAM and Pioneer supported DVD-RW.
Philips has also stressed its commitment to the beleaguered Wap mobile phone format by unveiling a pair of new models. Due on sale in October are the Az@lis and Xenium Wap models. Both sport voice activated dialling, a carousel user interface and emotional icons (thumbs up, smiley faces) that can be sent as SMS messages. A new facility is voice Wap: users can shout "internet!" at the phone and its Wap browser automatically kicks in. The smaller of the pair, the Xenium Wap, is targeted at business users and boasts an impressive seven hours talk time. It will retail for around £100. The Az@lis is a pay as you go phone available from BT Cellnet.
The company is also launching its first ever MP3 music products. Due in stores now is the tiny £250 Rush personal player which comes with a 64MB SmartMedia card capable of archiving around an hour's worth of CD-ish quality tunes. Philips is also touting a CD personal, the £230 eXpanium, and a CD home deck, the £280 FW-M55, which will play back CD-ROMs that hold MP3 files. An audio unit with hard disk storage could be on the cards for 2002. Also coming soon are the ToUcams, a series of web cameras that look like a bird and are designed to nest on the top of your PC.
TiVo - old hat?
The UK launch of the TiVo personal video recorder system might only be weeks away. But it's already starting look like old hat compared to what's on sale in the United States. Across the pond, TiVo's great rival Replay has just started shipping a new PVR with a capacity of 60 hours - more that twice the storage of both other US systems and the Sky/Thomson unit. The 60 gigabyte Replay unit goes on sale in October priced at $799.
Meanwhile Philips has confirmed that it is eager to launch a personal video recorder in the UK, but not this side of Christmas. At a briefing in Holland, the company hinted that it was likely to launch a TiVo system some time next year, probably integrated into a digital TV set-top box.
Box of tricks
Next year Nokia will be gunning for that space under your television with an all-in-one box that offers digital TV, internet access and personal video recording on to a 20 gigabyte hard disk. The Media Terminal, expected next summer, uses the Linux operating system, the Mozilla web browser and Intel's x86 computer architecture.
It will be available in two incarnations: one designed for Digital TV networks and another that's compatible with ADSL broadband services.
Like the Sky/TiVo box, it will allow viewers to pause and replay live broadcasts and make timed recordings: in this instance, via the Nokia Navibars user interface.
Nokia is unwilling to confirm a price for the Media Terminal largely because it hasn't signed a deal with a digital TV network. An agreement with ONdigital, BSkyB, or NTL could see the product subsidised and on sale for around £200. Without a deal, the unit will deliver free-to-air digital programmes, not subscription ones like Film Four and Sky Sports. And it could retail for as much as £600.
