For each of the last many years, Sinofsky would go to the Las Vegas show and then provide detailed notes in an internal Microsoft blog post outlining various trends and adding observations and implications of what was shown at the consumer electronics event. Unlike in years past, however, one need not work at Microsoft to read Sinofsky’s trip report.

Sinofsky, who left Microsoft abruptly late last year, posted his thoughts Sunday on his newly launched blog, learningbyshipping.com.

Promising “snark-free CES observations,” Sinofsky noted several things on the rise and a few trends on the wane. In addition to some obvious trends such as the shift to mobile, Sinofsky honed in on the increased attention to design and quality that were pervasive at the show.

“Across the board products are getting better,” Sinofsky said. “That’s not to say there’s [not] a fair share of low-end and low-quality stuff, particularly tablets, one can see in the South Hall as usual. There is, however, a rising tide of quality.”

On this year’s not-so-hot list were storage devices (which he attributes to the rise of the cloud), cameras, media hubs and 3-D displays. But while those first three are being sidelined as other devices handle the same functions, Sinofsky said 3-D could make a comeback down the road.

“I’m still surprised by this a bit because the world is 3-D — it seems that the technology approach wasn’t working so I would not write off the concept just yet,” he wrote.

Of course, Sinofsky also paid attention to all the PCs running the Windows 8 software he spearheaded. Despite the lack of presence by Microsoft and several big name PC makers, Sinofsky said Intel and those PC makers that were there showed a powerful range of new devices.

Sinofsky also talked about the plethora of cases for tablets. “I really don’t understand why someone hasn’t built a tablet yet that has a really strong case, built-in stand, and a cover that also allows typing,” clearly a reference to Surface. “I said free of snark, not free of sarcasm :-),” Sinofsky wrote.

But Sinofsky didn’t just stick to PCs, writing about everything from the latest in TVs to areas like digital health and green technology. As with all Sinofsky blogs, you are best off sitting down in a comfy chair as it’s not a short report. That said, Sinofsky knows a thing or two about products, and it’s worth a read.

The Oculus Rift gaming headset actually transports you into that world.

The headset, created by Palmer Luckey, has built-in virtual reality technology that, along with custom-made game software, makes the wearer feel as though he or she is literally living in a video game.

The Rift headset has been in the works for a couple years now, but was one of the most buzzed-about items at CES this week, where the minds behind Irvine-based Oculus were giving private demos. I managed to try it out just before I left Las Vegas. While it may have been the last gadget I saw at the show, it certainly wasn’t the least.

I sat in front of a large computer monitor that showed Epic’s Unreal Engine-powered Epic Citadel, a first-person shooter game that’s used for demos across different devices. The Oculus Rift was fitted on my head, a controller was shoved in my hands and the game world that had been in front of me on the monitor was suddenly all around me.

I could turn from side to side, or 360 degrees, and I was still immersed in the world inside the video game. (It occurred to me as I was sitting there that for days the Oculus guys had the fun of seeing reporters enter their suite, put on these giant goggles and roll their heads around while they interacted with virtual people.)

By “walking” forward, or propelling myself with the controller, I could approach gun-toting characters within the video game, stare at them and walk through them. I could look up at the sky and down at the cobblestoned ground and see snow falling around me.

The Oculus Rift is not a computing device itself. It doesn’t have any high-powered processors in it and the games aren’t streaming inside of it. It’s simply the lens that’s putting you into that gaming world (although the tech is far from simple).

Also, cold water time: It’s not yet available to consumers. This was a Kickstarter project that initially set out with a goal to raise $250,000. It raised $2.4 million instead. The current asking price for the Rift is $300.

Right now, the company is working on getting thousands of kits into the hands of developers, to ensure there are games that work with the Oculus Rift. CEO Brendan Iribe, who joined Oculus from cloud-based game service Gaikai, declined to specify when it would hit the consumer market, except to say it’s something the company will be working on over the next several months.

But, based on my brief interaction with the Oculus Rift, I’d say this is something that should excite both consumers and console makers. While motion-sensor products like the Kinect have breathed some new life into consoles and are making games more immersive, the Oculus Rift takes it a step further and makes virtual reality, well, a reality.

(Top photo courtesy of Evan Ackerman of Dvice.com.)

The event looks like a pretty big deal, judging by the invitation alone. The thick card stock features a hologram flipping back-and-forth between the Disney Infinity logo and a 3-D view of the Magic Kingdom.

You can also tell it’s important based on the speakers. Presentations will be made by both John Pleasants, the co-president of Disney Interactive, and John Lasseter, the chief creative officer of the Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Lasseter is also the principal creative adviser for Walt Disney Imagineering.

The event will take place in Hollywood, Calif., at El Capitan Theatre, a fully restored 1926 movie house owned by the Walt Disney Company.

The unveiling of Infinity could be tied to an unannounced gaming initiative code-named “Toy Box.” Very few details are known about the secret project, but according to the New York Times, Toy Box is a console game that has “extensive mobile and online applications in which various Pixar and Disney characters will interact with one another for the first time.”

For years, Disney has aspired to do something big in the gaming space. But despite making several large investments, it has failed to gain much traction. Those investments include six console-based development studios, and in 2010, it purchased its way into social gaming with the $563 million Playdom acquisition. It also owns and manages a virtual world for children, called Club Penguin. More recently, it has been pushing into the free-to-play market around the world through smaller acquisitions and partnerships.

Despite some successes, especially on mobile with hits like Where’s My Water?, the Interactive division continues to drag down earnings. During the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 29, interactive revenue for the year decreased 14 percent to $845 million, and the unit reported a loss of of $216 million.

Google Google’s VP of Shopping Sameer Samat

At the top of the Shopping page, a photo shows a snowboarder floating down a mountain on a clear blue day, directing consumers to a page where they can compare the lastest ski equipment. Another link sends consumers to a Garnet Hill catalog, where they can see an electronic copy of the print version that normally clogs mailboxes.

A deeper dive into the Shopping experience reveals that some of the product pages have a blue button in the top right-hand corner that could easily be mistaken for Amazon’s “Add to Cart” yellow button.

Despite these visual cues, said Sameer Samat, Google Shopping’s VP of product management, in an interview with AllThingsD, the company has no aspirations to open a store. “We aren’t planning on being a retailer,” he said. “We don’t view being a retailer right now as the right decision.”

Behind closed doors, some have wondered if Google was building up the infrastructure before making the move into selling physical items. Along with the updates to the site, another recent announcement that got people chatting was when Google announced last month that it acquired BufferBox, a locker service where consumers can safely pick up packages.

Samat said that BufferBox had nothing to do with becoming a retailer; it was about helping other retailers to become more competitive.

“We are trying to provide a level playing field for retailers,” he said, adding that there are some companies that have managed to do both tech and retail well. “How’s the rest of the retail world going to hit that bar?”

Of course, one of those companies is Amazon. The technology powerhouse has been working for almost two decades at building out the infrastructure to store merchandise all around the world. It has also built a first-class consumer-facing business that sells and distributes nearly anything you could need, as cheaply as possible.

To compete, retailers — and especially brick-and-mortar companies — are faced with either investing heavily in technology or teaming up with a technology partner like Google. At least, that’s Google’s pitch: “I think it’s great that Amazon and others, like Rakuten, are upping the bar,” Samat said, but Google is just trying to partner with retailers to “create a level playing field.”

Over the past year, the Google Shopping team has been busy adding improvements to the site.

This summer, Google completely overhauled its shopping experience. While the move has remained fairly below the radar for consumers, it has been very controversial among merchants. In fact, Samat jokes that at some point he’ll receive “The Least Popular Dude” award.

That’s because in the new system, retailers must pay to ensure that their products show up within Google Shopping. Previously, merchants could upload their data feed for free. This is the first holiday season in which retailers have had to pay to participate, and despite the service being so new, many retailers are reporting good results.

Google has made some major technology improvements, too.

It built an imaging system that creates 360-degree photos of the products. While it’s still not like being in the store, you can get a better sense of the product when you can see an item from all angles. Look for the “3-D” swivel icon on the product image to get the 360-degree view. It’s not available for that many products at this time, but Google did put together a Holiday Toy Collection, featuring 3-D images for each of the items.

There are at least a couple of hints that the photos aren’t a completely smooth-running operation yet. Google had to purchase all of the toys in the collection in order to take the photos, and, as Samat found out, those Lego kits don’t build themselves.

Google’s goal of becoming a retailer’s best tech friend may sound noble, but it is also smart. Amazon is already a starting point for many consumers on the Web, especially when it comes to shopping. Google obviously wants to be the first destination people visit for pretty much anything.

Additionally, the Seattle company is encroaching into other territories, including consumer electronics, like the Kindle Fire, which, coincidentally, runs on Google’s Android operating system. Amazon also distributes digital content and provides back-end cloud services to enterprises.

Google is not the only technology retailers can turn to if they are feeling competitive pressure from Amazon. Just down the road is a major player in the retail services space: eBay. The San Jose-based company has spent more than a year making inroads into the space, by forming tight bonds with a number of big retailers and by acquiring a company called GSI Commerce, which provides a lot of the back-end services mentioned.

Looks like it’s not just the consumer’s pocketbook that businesses are after anymore — it’s the retailer’s purse strings, too.

FarmVille deserves recognition for its role in social gaming history. The three-year-old game, which has been played by 100 million people, was one of the first social games on Facebook to capture a mass audience.

Amazingly, after all this time, FarmVille continues to attract more than 18 million players a month, making it Zynga’s sixth-most-popular game. It also brings in more revenue than any other Zynga title, accounting for 29 percent of the company’s revenue in the second quarter.

As such an important brand to the company, it makes sense to experiment with creating sequels — which have become the lifeblood of the traditional videogame market. But for the same reasons stated above, it will also be a delicate balancing act. One false move may irritate a legion of players, who have invested thousands of hours and significant amounts of money in the original game.

What’s more, Zynga desperately needs to prove right now that it can turn its past successes into franchises that will continue attracting players for many years to come.

Based on what I’ve seen in a brief online demo provided to me by the creative director and Zynga’s VP of games, the new game has a shot.

FarmVille 2 looks and behaves differently from the original.

In the first iteration, users were motivated to return to harvest crops before they wither. Zynga’s CEO Mark Pincus has famously talked about how its players were so passionate they’d set their alarm clocks to wake up in the middle of the night in order to plow their fields. But in the sequel, withering will not be a central theme.

In the sequel, there are much more realistic scenarios, including classic resource-management challenges. Players must make sure to have enough water to keep their crops alive, and must get fertilizer from the cows to make crops grow. To get eggs, you must feed your chickens; and to get milk, you must care for the cows.

The resources, including the eggs, milk, wheat and fruit from the trees, are then used in your farmhouse kitchen to make scones and other tasty treats that can be sold at your own roadside stand.

Instead of acting out some of these scenarios in solitude as in the original game, in FarmVille 2, the relationships on the farm are symbiotic — without one, the other is not possible.

“We wanted this very tactile and touchable experience,” said Tim LeTourneau, Zynga’s VP of Games. “We are embracing the technical advancements to make the screen come to life. The animals are fully animated and respond to your touch. You have a world that comes to life at your finger.”

In other words, coins don’t just fall out of the sky, LeTourneau said; you have to sell things in the market in order to earn them.

The game is also Zynga’s first developed entirely in 3-D, thanks to Adobe Flash 11.

For instance, shirts and pants are pinned to a clothesline, where they sway in the wind; a rocking chair actually rocks; a campfire crackles and wind chimes jingle in the breeze. Navigation is also vastly improved, making the game far less tedious to play. Instead of having to click on each individual parcel of land to plant new seeds or water, users can click and drag the mouse around on the screen. The movement, which Zynga calls “painting,” looks like a motion borrowed from a touchscreen, not a PC game. Additionally, to move different elements around on the board, far fewer actions are required. Now players must only right-click and drag.

The combination of better graphics and navigation results in much more active and fun game play. When relocating a cow from one side of the farm to another, the beast’s eyes bulge in surprise while the animal is suspended in the air, like a several-ton animal undoubtedly would.

“They don’t hate it, but they don’t love it either,” said Mike McCarthy, FarmVille 2’s creative director.

But the game is not mind-blowingly different — it’s still a game about a farm, as it should be.

Many of the tasks are the same in the two games, and even some of the colors and textures will be familiar. Still, the updates represent many positive changes that should attract some of the 100 million original FarmVille players — who have since retired their work gloves — back to the game.

Zynga is also sensitive to its original players, who are still playing the first FarmVille.

A year ago, it rolled out Mafia Wars 2, which pretty much put an end to the once very popular franchise. Original players of the game felt snubbed when the new version came out and it didn’t live up to expectations. All the time they’d spent on the previous version ended up being a total waste.

LeTourneau, who joined Zynga from Electronic Arts where he worked on the long-standing Sims franchise, said they took that experience into account when developing FarmVille 2. ”Although it’s a sequel, it’s not intended to replace FarmVille,” he said. “It’s not a continuation; it’s a reimagining of FarmVille. We are taking advantage of all the things we’ve learned about social games, and using the technology that’s available to create a new and different farming experience.”

For original FarmVille fans, there will be no way to transfer your accomplishments from one game into the next. Instead, Zynga will keep that version alive by continuing to create content updates for the players who still like it.

One very noticeable difference between the two games is that while the original was about creating a sprawling farm, this one is about the attention to detail. In other words, bigger is not necessarily better. Instead of creating vast spaces to mass-produce more crops, this one is about nurturing each and every tomato and pumpkin. Mini-competitions within the game challenge players to see who can grow the largest crops, like the exhibits you see at county fairs. In this game, strawberries can hit 12 pounds, so imagine how big pumpkins can get.

But just when you may find that too tedious or claustrophobic, players can zoom out and see the countryside. There’s a village off in the distance that’s not available today, but promises additional subplots where you can meet friends, trade goods and visit carnivals and county fairs.

Lastly, this is still a social game, so if you are looking for something different in that regard, you won’t find it here. There are still plenty of ties to your friends on Facebook. You can visit other friends’ farms, where you can potentially find a final ingredient you may need to complete a recipe. Friends are also allowed to visit your farm, where they can be “Farm Helpers.” Each action performed by a farm helper accelerates progress on the farm, including harvesting crops and feeding animals.

But most fun of all, it seems Zynga has learned a mechanic or two from more traditional videogames. At the end of each level, all of the players’ crops grow instantly — with a big “pop,” everything blooms. Not only is it a visually stimulating moment, it’s one that players can strategize around to make sure everything is watered and planted to get the biggest bang possible.

“All of these games are about progression, and feeling the reward and success of that progress,” LeTourneau said. “We want the level-up moment in the game to feel exciting.”

FarmVille 2 is live today on both Facebook and Zynga.com, and will be available in 16 languages, unlike the original, which only launched in English. There are no immediate plans for a mobile version, but with painting motions included in the game play, it only seems like a matter of time before it rolls out on phones and tablets.

Red Robot’s Co-Founders Pete Hawley (left) and Mike Ouye (right) standing in front of the company’s booth at PAX.

“Gamers are lazy,” said Pete Hawley, Red Robot Labs’ co-founder and chief product officer. “You can’t expect them to get off the couch.”

A year ago, the Mountain View, Calif., company attended the Penny Arcade Expo (a.k.a. PAX) in Seattle to launch its first game, Life is Crime. That weekend, three Red Robot employees hustled to make the convention a virtual game board, getting attendees to virtually commit more than 20,000 “crimes,” in addition to hospitalizing more than 1,000 people and stealing $35 million from real places.

The company is back at PAX this weekend with a much larger presence — 15 employees. It also secured a very small kiosk, which you practically need a map to find, given its far corner location behind Sony’s massive PlayStation booth.

But despite the company’s larger presence on the show floor, location-based gaming is still in its infancy, with many of today’s concepts still centered around checking into locations, like Foursquare. But Red Robot co-founder and CEO Mike Ouye said the company believes that there will be a much larger opportunity in the future for what they call “playing the planet.”

This year, Red Robot is here to show off its new fantasy game, Life is Magic, which will be launching soon for free on Android and iOS. In the fantasy land, players pan around a map of the U.S. to discover dungeons, where they must fight monsters. To purchase armor or new weapons, they virtually visit shops that exist in the real world, even if the stores — say, Best Buy or a candy shop — wouldn’t normally sell those items.

Given what Red Robot has learned over the past year, the game has two elements that the company believes are very important.

The first is to make it appear as if the player is in an actual fantasy land, while using real-world geographic data. Red Robot Labs does not use Google Maps. Rather, it has taken some of the underlying data found on maps, like lakes, rivers and mountains, and then places a fantasy-land overlay over that. Players may still feels like they are in Seattle because of the geographic layout, but also like they have escaped to a different land.

The second important aspect of the game is solving for gamer laziness.

In Life is Magic, players can travel to anywhere in the U.S. — without actually getting on a plane, taking a bus, or walking. Even if they aren’t really at the Starbucks on the corner, they can still interact with other players there. But the farther away the player goes from their real-world location, the more energy points they will need to conduct a task (those energy points can either be earned or purchased).

“It’s less about where you are, and more about where you can go,” Hawley said, given that 50 percent of mobile gaming happens in the home.

Ouye added that Red Robot is also licensing its technology to other game developers, including its maps, 3-D rendering capabilities, and points-of-interest database. Ultimately, he envisions having enough data from those games to make a “location interest graph.” A location interest graph would be able to reveal such data as the most popular app or the best gamers for a given area.

Three companies are currently licensing Red Robot’s technology, and the company has two internal games in the pipeline that will launch by the end of the year, including Life is Magic.

Red Robot has raised $15.5 million in capital from an impressive list of investors, including Benchmark Capital, Shasta Ventures, Rick Thompson, co-founder of Playdom, and Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive.

At our D: All Things Digital conferences, we’ve taken an interest in the cloud, including showing off two of the leading game streaming services — Otoy and OnLive.

(That’s OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman in the photo, demoing the service at D: Dive Into Mobile in 2010.)

Earlier today, in an epic fail of communication by Perlman, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based OnLive drastically reformed itself — mysteriously laying off its staff and then saying a new company had bought the pioneering start-up’s assets and could be hiring an unknown number of employees who had just been dinged.

Said OnLive, in perhaps one of the most ridonkulous statements I have ever seen:

“We can now confirm that the assets of OnLive, Inc. have been acquired into a newly formed company and is backed by substantial funding, and which will continue to operate the OnLive Game and Desktop services, as well as support all of OnLive’s apps and devices, as well as game, productivity and enterprise partnerships. The new company is hiring a large percentage of OnLive, Inc.’s staff across all departments and plans to continue to hire substantially more people, including additional OnLive employees. All previously announced products and services, including those in the works, will continue and there is no expected interruption of any OnLive services. We apologize that we were unable to comment on this transaction until it completed and were limited to reporting on news related to OnLive’s businesses. Now that the transaction is complete, we are able to make this statement.”

Forgive us if we can’t begin to understand the pointless machinations that went on.

On the other side of the coin is Otoy, an innovative Los Angeles-based software provider, which demoed its cloud-based 3-D rendering service called Octane Reader at D10 this summer, along with its game-streaming offering.

Otoy was founded in 2008 by Jules Urbach, Alissa Grainger and Malcolm Taylor — and they seem to be doing just fine as an independent start-up in the space.

Here’s the Otoy demo, as well as the two times OnLive came to D:

Otoy at D10 in 2012:

OnLive at D8 in summer of 2010:

OnLive at D: Dive Into Mobile in late 2010

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120818/gaming-the-clouds-heres-the-d-demos-of-otoy-still-standing-and-onlive-who-knows/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120712/not-so-super-mario-nintendo-3ds-demand-fades-as-sales-cross-five-million/ http://allthingsd.com/20120712/not-so-super-mario-nintendo-3ds-demand-fades-as-sales-cross-five-million/#comments Thu, 12 Jul 2012 22:11:47 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=229719 Nintendo confirmed today that it has sold five million of its 3DS portable game players in the U.S. since the device went on sale 15 months ago.

Based on Nintendo’s previous sales figures, it shows that demand has been on the decline for the hardware since the beginning of the year.

Here’s the math:

If Nintendo said in January that it sold four million 3DS devices in the U.S. last year, that means it has sold only one million devices so far this year. Since the device didn’t go on sale until April 2011, it sold about 500,000 units every month for eight months last year. In contrast, it has sold one million units, at an average of 167,000 a month, for the past six months.

In June, it disclosed that it sold 155,000 Nintendo 3DS systems and 150,000 of its original DS systems. It sold 95,000 Wii consoles.

The data was released jointly today by the NPD Group and Nintendo, and spells bad news for the Japanese game company, which is struggling as the world shifts to social and mobile games.

But Nintendo is no stranger to the cyclical nature of the games business, and continues to bank on upcoming hardware releases to spur additional sales.

Last month, the company announced the Nintendo 3DS XL, which will be available on Aug. 19 for $199.99. The handheld gaming device features screens that are 90 percent larger than the previous 3DS. Both devices allow users to view images in 3-D without the goofy glasses. It will also launch the New Super Mario Bros. 2 on Aug. 19, and says its holiday lineup will include hand-held debuts for both Luigi’s Mansion and Paper Mario.

Later this year it will release the Wii U, the company’s next-generation console.

The good news to take away from today’s announcement is that there are now five million 3DS owners in the wild, and they will likely continue to purchase new games. In addition, there are still many people who own the original DS. In October, Nintendo said it had sold a total of 50 million portable gaming systems in the U.S.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120712/not-so-super-mario-nintendo-3ds-demand-fades-as-sales-cross-five-million/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120628/these-start-ups-arent-goofing-off-when-it-comes-to-microsofts-kinect/ http://allthingsd.com/20120628/these-start-ups-arent-goofing-off-when-it-comes-to-microsofts-kinect/#comments Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:05:45 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=225930 Most people are familiar with Kinect today because it is the motion-controlled accessory for the Xbox that allows you to wave your hands around to virtually play tennis or dance without using a controller.

But since it came out a couple of years ago, a number of ideas have sprouted up for applications beyond gaming.

Microsoft decided to support this grassroots movement by hosting a special Kinect edition of TechStars, which gives entrepreneurs 13 weeks and $20,000 to get off the ground.

Eleven companies were chosen from nearly 500 applicants to participate in the program, which took place in Seattle; today, the founders made 20-minute presentations at Microsoft’s headquarters in front of a roomful of investors, in hopes of raising their first round.

The ideas varied dramatically, but for the most part, no one was playing around.

Many of the concepts revolved around the health care industry. Jintronix, for example, is trying to make it easier and less expensive for patients to continue physical therapy. Another idea, from Styku, was targeting e-commerce companies to create more efficient ways to try on clothes when shopping online. Lastly, and most goofy, were the folks from Freak’n Genius, which is allowing just about anyone to create cartoons and animations using real-life body movements. (Pictured on the right, Ubi Interactive demonstrates how it can turn any surface into a multitouch screen using Kinect.)

Here’s a brief description of the 11 companies that presented today:

• Jintronix: Uses Kinect to track a patient’s movements to make physical therapy cheaper and more accessible.
• Manctl: Uses 3-D technology to make it cheaper to make orthopedic molds for creating shoe insoles, or to fit bras more accurately.
• Ikkos: Founded by an Olympic coach, the company is creating a way to train athletes by using the Kinect to track a user’s movements.
• Kimetric: Uses Kinect sensors to track consumer behavior inside of retail stores.
• NConnex: Enables consumers to create 3-D models for interior decorating or remodels.
• Styku: Created by executives of Tukatech, which creates software for the fashion industry, is now making it possible to virtually try on clothing to find the perfect pair of jeans.
• Ubi Interactive: Is using 3-D multitouch technology that turns any surface, including a coffee table or window, into a digital sign or game of Angry Birds.
• Voxon: Giving artists and game designers the tools to create “holographic” entertainment and education.
• Zebcare: Monitors senior citizens in the home to assure that your loved ones are safe.
• Freak’n Genius: Makes it fun and easy for anyone to create animations using your whole body.
• GestSure Technologies: Allows surgeons to navigate MRI and CT scans in the operating room while maintaining sterility.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120628/these-start-ups-arent-goofing-off-when-it-comes-to-microsofts-kinect/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120521/this-just-in-3-d-isnt-a-crucial-television-feature/ http://allthingsd.com/20120521/this-just-in-3-d-isnt-a-crucial-television-feature/#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 17:46:19 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=210600 Sales of 3-D TV sets might be inching up, but that still doesn’t mean that many consumers are watching 3-D content at home.

That’s according to the latest data from the NPD Group’s retail tracking service. Sales of 3-D TVs in the U.S. grew 74 percent in units over last year, with 3-D TVs accounting for 11 percent of all flat-panel sales in the first quarter of 2012, the report says.

But despite the growth in sales, and the fact that some consumers are wowed by 3-D demos, “just 14 percent of consumers … say 3D is a ‘must have’ feature while 68 percent say it’s a ‘nice feature to have they may use in the future.’”

The obstacles to greater 3-D penetration are the usual suspects, NPD analyst Ben Arnold says. The overwhelming majority of consumers consider 3-D glasses a drawback to the technology, with glasses-free 3-D still far from being perfected; 14 percent say the lack of 3-D content is a deterrent (though that reason is weakening, as more content creators put out 3-D programs).

Cost is also a factor when it comes to newer, souped-up TVs. NPD says the average prices of 3-D TVs in April were 33 percent lower compared to April 2010, but a recent report from IHS iSuppli says that average prices of 3-D LCD TVs actually crept up a teeny bit from December 2011 to April of this year, to $2,492.

So why buy a 3-D TV if you’re not going to use it for 3-D? Well, for one thing, as noted here, “3-D” has been shifting from the main selling point in TV marketing schemes to an add-on feature that happens to be included in high-tech TV sets, so some consumers are buying 3-D-equipped TVs even if they’ve not totally bought into the tech.

And the underutilization of fancy TVs isn’t really a new thing: Turns out that 3-D engagement levels might be in line with some of the data we’ve seen surrounding “smart” TVs, or Internet-connected TVs. Despite the fact that Internet connectivity is often cited as an important factor for consumers making TV purchases, TechNewsDaily reported earlier this year that only half of all people who own Internet-ready TVs have actually gone online through their TVs.

(Image courtesy of Salminari on Flickr; thought bubble courtesy of AllThingsD)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120521/this-just-in-3-d-isnt-a-crucial-television-feature/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20120503/masterimage-aims-to-take-3d-from-the-big-screen-to-the-tablet/ http://allthingsd.com/20120503/masterimage-aims-to-take-3d-from-the-big-screen-to-the-tablet/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 12:00:51 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=202627 Though reasonably popular in the movies, electronics makers are still struggling to convince the masses that 3-D technology is worth using in the real world.

The technology has been built into everything from cellphones to TVs and laptops, but remains largely a niche in each category.

MasterImage 3D, a company that already does 3-D technology for the cinema, is turning its attention to tablets.

As is the case with a number of other 3-D phones on the market, MasterImage can create 3-D displays that don’t require special glasses. Its technology puts a special layer over traditional screens to create a second image, and then switches rapidly between the images to be seen by the left and right eyes.

The result is an impressive image that can be used to create the illusion of bubbles or confetti that appear to shoot out several inches from the screen. It’s equally adept at displaying 3-D Hollywood movies or playing adapted 3-D versions of existing games.

Unlike rival technologies that alternate line by line, MasterImage alternates smaller groups of images, a feat that the company says allows it to produce brighter images and allow 3-D to be shown regardless of which way the device is held.

Of course, the big challenge remains convincing consumers that they even want 3-D technology in the first place.

“A lot of people, their exposure to 3-D has been minimal,” said VP Matt Liszt. “It’s not a day in, day out experience and that’s what this can change.”

Another issue is that the amount of content for such devices is growing, but still relatively small.

MasterImage, which is based in Hollywood and has offices in Korea, has been talking with anyone who will listen — game makers, book publishers and studios.

“We’re not naïve,” Liszt said.

MasterImage hasn’t announced any deals with tablet makers, but says it has held advanced talks with a number of manufacturers, and hopes tablets using its technology will be on the market by early next year. For now, it is showing off a Qualcomm reference design that includes its display technology.

Updated, 11:45 a.m. PT, to note that the company has offices in Korea, but is based in Hollywood, as well as to say that the company has not announced any deals with tablet makers, but hasn’t said if it has signed any pacts.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120503/masterimage-aims-to-take-3d-from-the-big-screen-to-the-tablet/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120426/ditto-raises-3-million-for-3-d-tech-that-lets-you-virtually-try-on-before-you-buy/ http://allthingsd.com/20120426/ditto-raises-3-million-for-3-d-tech-that-lets-you-virtually-try-on-before-you-buy/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:15:12 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=200042 Ditto has raised $3 million from August Capital and other individual investors to continue developing its 3-D technology.

The e-commerce site uses 3-D to allow shoppers to virtually try on glasses before they decide to buy them.

To do so, visitors must record a short video of themselves to create a 3-D image, which they call a Ditto.

The image is a little spooky as your head swivels right and left to see how the glasses look on your face and wrap behind both ears. But it does do a good job of deciphering whether a pair of Vera Wangs or Ray-Bans would look better on your face.

The company plans to use the capital to develop its technology and add to its team.

Ditto Secures $3M Round for Designer Eyewear eCommerce Site

Site lunches with 3D virtual fitting technology to transform the way we shop, try-on, and buy opticals and sunglasses

Mountain View, CA – April 26, 2012 — DITTO, an eCommerce site for designer eyewear that uses patent-pending 3D virtual fitting technology, today announced that it has closed $3 million in financing led by August Capital. Angel investors, friends and family also participated in the round.

DITTO is a website that allows consumers to record a short video with their webcam to create a 3D virtual self, or “DITTO”. Users can virtually try-on eyewear in 180-degree views to see how a particular style looks and fits their face before they make a purchase. DITTO.com also integrates social media features, allowing the user to post side-by-side snapshots of their DITTO in different glasses to Facebook to poll friends for opinions.

The site offers an extensive selection of designer frames, with more styles and sizes than most retail and optical stores. The curated brand selection on the site includes Persol, Chloe, Ray-Ban, Tag Heuer, Vera Wang and others. Frames are sold at suggested retail prices ranging from $110 to $1,800 and high-quality anti-reflective coated prescription lenses are included at no cost on optical glasses. These exact lenses often cost more than $150 at retail locations. Customers receive their new glasses within 10 days with free shipping, free 90-day returns and first-class customer service.

“Great eyewear changes your mood and your persona,” says Kate Endress, cofounder and CEO of DITTO. “Yet buying them at stores leaves you with limited selection and, to date, buying online hasn’t been a viable option because of one big question: Do they fit? We couldn’t be more excited to launch DITTO.com, which we believe will take online shopping for eyewear to the next level. Through partnerships with some of the world’s best brands, our proprietary technology and phenomenal customer service, we are going to make buying glasses as much fun as wearing them.” I love this last quote you say about ‘buying glasses as much fun’

“Ecommerce has dramatically evolved across multiple categories including fashion and accessories, yet eyewear remains extremely challenging to market and sell online. DITTO’s innovative technology eliminates the hassles and impediments associated with buying eyewear online as well as in-stores by giving consumers the ability to not just see how they look and fit, but also ask a trusted source to help select which frames to buy,” explained Howard Hartenbaum, general partner at August Capital and founding investor in Skype. “We are thrilled with the investment and believe DITTO has the right model, technology and team to build a great company.”

Hartenbaum is joining the company’s board. DITTO plans to use the new funds to further develop its technology, add to its team, and market to customers.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120426/ditto-raises-3-million-for-3-d-tech-that-lets-you-virtually-try-on-before-you-buy/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120229/radical-camera-lets-you-pick-whats-blurry-and-whats-not/ http://allthingsd.com/20120229/radical-camera-lets-you-pick-whats-blurry-and-whats-not/#comments Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:04:59 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=179513 The consumer point-and-shoot camera has just been reinvented—not tweaked, or remodeled, but actually re-thought from top to bottom. A Silicon Valley start-up called Lytro is shipping this week a camera that looks like no other and actually lets you focus or refocus your pictures on a computer after you take them.

Not only that, but the company is promising that pictures you take with the camera today will be able to be manipulated after the fact in additional ways in coming months. For instance, you’ll be able to snap into focus everything at once, regardless of depth. Or change the perspective from which the picture is seen, and switch a photo back and forth between 2-D and 3-D. That’s why it calls the images “living pictures.”

This $399 camera, also called Lytro, can do all this because it is a so-called light-field camera, which is based on a different technology from traditional digital cameras. In simple terms, it uses a modified sensor, plus proprietary software, to capture and process more, and different, information about the light hitting its lens than other cameras do. This includes the direction of light rays. The result is a richer picture file that software, on the camera and on a computer, can use to manipulate images in new ways. Lytro doesn’t even classify its camera by the familiar megapixel measure. Instead, the company says it has a resolution of 11 megarays—in other words, it can capture 11 million light rays.

The Lytro can focus or refocus pictures after they’re taken. Photo credit: Eric Cheng / Lytro

Just as the technology is very different, so is the camera itself. It looks sort of like a short, square, pocket-size telescope, with a nonprotruding 8X zoom lens on one end and a touch-screen viewfinder on the other. It has only two buttons and a zoom slider. It starts instantly and is instantly ready to take the next picture, because it doesn’t need to perform autofocusing. It can be purchased in three colors at lytro.com. The base model can hold about 350 pictures. There is also a $499 model that can hold 750 pictures.

The company provides a free desktop app and a free online service, where you can view, share and manipulate the pictures.

I’ve been testing the Lytro and found it does just what it says. I was able to take rapid-fire shots that looked good on my computer, and that could be focused and refocused, uploaded to the Internet and shared. I consider it a revolution in consumer photography, with more benefits to come.

The Lytro camera is lightweight and small enough to fit in a pocket.

But as in most revolutions, there are some downsides and trade-offs to the Lytro, at least at launch. For instance, it doesn’t shoot video. Its “living pictures” can’t be imported into standard photo software, only to its own accompanying software. And that Lytro software—necessary to store and share the photos—works only on Macs; a Windows version is due later this year. (However, Lytro pictures uploaded from the Mac software to Lytro’s photo service, or to Facebook, can be viewed and refocused on Windows PCs and mobile devices via a Web browser.)

The pictures can be exported into the standard JPEG format for use in other software, but then they lose their ability to be refocused.

Also, the company is still working on tools for editing the photos, so, for now, you can’t do common things like cropping, or changing brightness or contrast. The camera lacks a flash, though this is partly offset by its unusually large f/2 lens, which is always fully open, letting in a lot of available light, even when zoomed. Also, the camera doesn’t come with a charger. You have to charge it, slowly, by plugging it into a computer, or, more rapidly, by using one of a list of approved chargers from other devices, such as an iPhone charger.

Importing the pictures can be slow, because a lot of processing is involved and the files are relatively large—about 16 megabytes in my tests. Photos you “star” on the camera as favorites get processed first.

But the main drawback to the Lytro I discovered is that it takes a while to learn how to spot and frame pictures that show off the camera’s refocusing abilities. Also, in many common situations, such as taking a simple picture of a single face or object, the refocusing ability just doesn’t come into play, since it works best when there are multiple objects arranged so that some are in the foreground and some are in the background.

The company offers videos to help you learn this new type of photography. In them, for instance, a host advises that it is good to get very close to an object in the foreground—so close, that it looks blurry in the viewfinder. One is at http://vimeo.com/37336723. You can see the refocusing in action at a sample gallery at Lytro.com.

After a few days, however, I was able to get interesting pictures whose focus could be changed to bring out details. For instance, I took a picture of a cup of coffee perched on a car hood. Afterward, when I tapped on the viewfinder on the image of the coffee, it became sharp. When I next tapped on a blurry concrete-and-brick step in the background of the photo, it suddenly became sharp—instead of the cup—and a crack in the concrete that hadn’t been visible appeared.

In another case, I took a shot of a bush about eight feet in front of a fieldstone wall. With a simple click, I was able to make either the bush, or the wall, crystal clear.

When I uploaded these pictures via my Mac to Lytro.com, the company’s free photo-sharing site, or to a test account on Facebook, I was able to change the focus again—even on a Windows PC or an iPad—and so will my friends who see them. You can email friends links to your Lytro.com photos.

The Lytro took almost no pictures that were out of focus. But in a couple of cases, where I was more than six inches away from a simple object that was out of focus, clicking on it brought it into focus. However, the Lytro can’t correct motion blur.

There are two shooting modes. In Everyday Mode, the optical zoom is limited to 3.5X, and the area in which refocusing works is fixed. In Creative mode, the Zoom is at the full 8X, and you can tap on the viewfinder to set the point around which the picture can be refocused.

The Lytro comes in three colors, with the red version capable of holding 750 pictures.

The battery is sealed, but battery life was good. The company says you can take 400 to 600 pictures, depending on usage, between charges.

The camera is 4.4 inches long, 1.6 inches in height and width, and weighs about 7.5 ounces. I found it fit in a jacket pocket easily. The front of the camera is aluminum and the rear is rubberized. The power and shutter buttons are on the rubberized part. So is a touch slider built into the surface for controlling the zoom.

The touch screen has only a few icons, which you make visible by swiping upward. One swipe changes from Everyday to Creative mode. In Everyday mode, tapping the viewfinder image sets the exposure.

The Lytro is an exciting and novel leap in digital photography, but because it still has some missing features, like flash and a file format that works in other software, buyers should consider it a second camera, at least for now.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120229/radical-camera-lets-you-pick-whats-blurry-and-whats-not/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120117/ces-hangover-what-you-might-have-missed/ http://allthingsd.com/20120117/ces-hangover-what-you-might-have-missed/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:59:28 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=164272 The Consumer Electronics Show is over. We came, we saw, we conquered … but we couldn’t possibly write about every one of the more than 20,000 products showcased in Las Vegas last week. Here are a handful that stood out at the show:

Nintendo Wii U
The gaming company didn’t have a spot on the show floor at CES, but Nintendo offered private demos of its upcoming Wii U console, the successor to the popular Nintendo Wii.

The “new Wii” comes with a 6-inch tablet-like motion sensor control that offers a full touchscreen and alternative views of the game being played on the TV set. While using a larger controller to play games might seem cumbersome at first, the interactive options it adds can be fun. The new console also works with the standard Wii controllers, as well as the Wii Nunchuk and Balance Board. It supports 1080p HD output, and the games in the demo were remarkably crisp and clear.

But there are still more questions than answers about the Wii U. Its launch date is still pegged to sometime in the later part of the year, but exactly when and how much it will cost is still unknown. And while Nintendo was the front-runner in motion-sensor gaming with the Wii, Xbox Kinect, in the meantime, has been setting new gaming-console standards with its gesture-control technology, content partnerships and even basic voice command.

When asked about content partnerships in the works, Nintendo declined to comment on any specifics. As for voice-recognition technology, Nintendo also declined to say whether it would be added to the Wii U prior to launch; the company did point to some audio capabilities built into the tablet-like controller, and said it is exploring all kinds of possibilities right now.

Samsung Dual-View 3-D OLED TV
That’s quite a mouthful for a television set, so let’s simplify it: This is a TV that lets you watch two programs at the same time on the same screen — and not by creating separate boxes within the screen. Instead, users wear active-shutter 3-D glasses, and each wearer has a different 2-D image projected to them, or even a different TV show or movie.

What about audio, you ask? Good question: The audio for each program is streamed right through the glasses, so you’ll hear your own program, while your significant other sitting on the other side of the couch will hear his or her choice of entertainment.

A dual-view screen has a certain appeal for gamers, and both Sony and LG have introduced such screens for gaming purposes.

For the average TV watcher, this is notably both high-tech and isolating.

LG’s Blast Chiller
You might have heard about this one by now. We still think it’s cool, no pun intended.

It was apparent at this year’s CES show that appliance makers think we want fridges that tweet and washing machines that send messages to smartphones when the laundry is done. While interconnectivity within the home is still in its teenage — if not even earlier — stages, there was one feature of LG’s refrigerators that seemed quite smart: The Blast Chiller is a compartment that chills cans of soda or beer in about five minutes, and can cool down a larger bottle of wine in about eight minutes. It will be available in LG’s new line of refrigerators — price is unknown, but current models cost around $2,500. The Blast Chiller was definitely a favorite with conference-goers — likely because, by the end of the week, many may have wanted a cold beverage.

Corning Gorilla Glass, the Sequel
You might wonder where glass fits in at a tech show, but this isn’t just any soda-lime glass: It’s the ultra-thin, chemically strengthened Gorilla Glass that forms the displays of many smartphones and tablets, and even coats some laptops. Last week, Corning showed off Gorilla Glass that was 20 percent thinner and just as durable (which I was unable to break with a metal stick, as you can see from the photo here, although you might not want to use my arm strength as your gauge).

Gorilla Glass can be used to create stronger, brighter product displays, the company said. Last year, Corning had also said that it believed the future of glass was “3-D” or flexible glass that can be used in different form factors, including keyboards and kitchen countertops. At CES, the company showed how Gorilla Glass 2 can be used in home appliances and dashboard display systems.

Sleeper Pick: “The Patch”
As anticipated, armbands, accelerometers, exercise gear and health-and-fitness-focused apps dominated the digital-health section of CES this year (and even Jawbone’s UP armband made an appearance). But if you’re not ready for a full-time commitment to some of these devices, BodyMedia and Avery Dennison have come up with a temporary adhesive patch to test your resolve. Meant to be worn on the back of the left tricep for up to seven days, the patch combines the sensors of BodyMedia armbands with Avery Dennison’s wearable tech to aid in weight-loss management.

The patch is still awaiting U.S. regulatory clearance, so it may not be available until the third quarter of the year, or later. I’m told it will be less expensive than BodyMedia’s armbands, which run from $150 to $179 (and now work in conjunction with a new digital-wellness platform from fitness guru Jillian Michaels.)

But in future-form, a potentially inexpensive, disposable patch that has some of the same sensory capabilities of an armband could be an interesting fitness “gadget”: Slap it on, forget it’s there while you exercise, save the data and throw it out.

(Blast Chiller photo courtesy of Flickr/LGEPR)

MORE CES NEWS:

• Complete coverage
• HP’s Former CTO: Ultrabooks Are Nothing New, webOS Still Has Life Yet
• Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)
• What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)
• Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market
• Why Rhapsody Is (Probably) Bigger Than Spotify — In the U.S.
• Microsoft Beefing Up CeBit Presence Even as It Pulls Back on CES
• Inside the CES Lost & Found
• FCC Chairman Has New Tablet, but Same Script: More Spectrum!
• Verizon Wireless: We Want to Connect Five Devices for Every Subscriber
• Ultrabooks From HP and Lenovo That Are (Kinda, Sorta) Different
• Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video)
• Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question
• T-Mobile Expands Bobsled Messaging Service
• Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)
• Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year
• Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game
• More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone
• Exclusive: New Boss Acknowledges Windows Phone Still Has “Awareness Problem”
• And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!
• Interview: T-Mobile CEO Says No Second AT&T Deal Out There
• Grover Is at CES and I Am Missing It
• BlueStacks Bringing Android Apps to Windows 8
• Why the Future of TV Won’t Be Here Soon
• Nvidia’s Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways
• Dynamic Dual Coverage: Ballmer’s Last Act in Vegas and the BCS Championship in 3-D
• Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote
• Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV
• Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV
• Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share
• Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)
• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
• AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works
• LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way
• LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum
• Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia
• CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret
• Belkin Bringing Mobile TV to Lots of Cellphones, Will Anyone Tune In?
• Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service
• There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!
• CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out!
• Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2
• RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES
• Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops
• At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year
• Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120117/ces-hangover-what-you-might-have-missed/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120110/walt-and-katie-take-a-tour-of-ces-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20120110/walt-and-katie-take-a-tour-of-ces-video/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:38:22 +0000 Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret http://allthingsd.com/?p=162717 Walt walks the CES floor with Katie, and finds less “newness” at this year’s event, noting that the absent Apple looms over the show.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120110/walt-and-katie-take-a-tour-of-ces-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120109/samsung-unveils-super-55-inch-oled-tv/ http://allthingsd.com/20120109/samsung-unveils-super-55-inch-oled-tv/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:27:21 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=161951 At CES each year, Samsung Electronics’ press conference generally sweeps across multiple industries, touching TVs, smartphones, home appliances and digital-imaging products. This year was no exception, with the electronics giant focusing on TVs, mobile devices and connectivity across home appliances.

After an introduction from Samsung Visual Display president Boo-Keun Yoon, the company launched into its TV offerings for 2012 and beyond.

Samsung first showed off the ES 8000 LED TV, a smart TV with a dual-core processor that allows for multitasking — for instance, if you’re watching a movie on Netflix and want to check on hockey scores through NHL Game Center, you can toggle easily between apps.

And since TV makers always think bigger is better, Samsung is offering smart TVs up to 75 inches.

Samsung first introduced TV apps two years ago at CES; this year, the company is expanding the TV app offerings on its smart TVs with new content partnerships. The number of TV apps available has grown from 500 to 2,500 over the past two years, Samsung said. It has also introduced Smart Hub, improving the user interface of its smart TVs.

Now, Samsung says Media Hub, which is its mobile platform for apps and entertainment content, will be coming to TVs, as well. (This is already too many “Hubs” for us, but we’ll keep listening.)

Because no CES conference is complete without 3-D: 50 percent of Samsung’s TV models this year will be 3-D TVs, and the company believes consumers “love” 3-D in the home. In the past, Samsung has partnered with companies like DreamWorks to bundle 3-D movies with TVs; now, Samsung will offer streaming 3-D content, like “Battlestar Galactica,” through the Media Hub.

In the middle of the event, a virtual Angry Bird made its way on stage to make an announcement on behalf of Samsung: Angry Birds will be available for free on Samsung smart TVs! (PS: It’s also available on the Roku 2 box for a lot less than a smart TV. Just a tip.)

Emphasizing family-friendly usage and connectivity in the home, users can also now upload photos, videos and memos directly to the TV using “Family Story” features.

In the future, there will also be voice chat, voice gestures and face-recognition technologies in its TVs. With a demo video, Samsung showed how face recognition logs in users to access their own profiles, and how voice control can power Web browsing (demoed using Microsoft’s Bing search engine). Since the Internet evolves much more quickly than TV sets do — most consumers hold onto a set for five years or more — Samsung is offering a “Smart Evolution Kit” for easily upgradable TVs.

And, in a take-that-LG move, Samsung has rolled out a 55-inch “super” OLED TV, with an emphasis on “super,” the company says, because it has a dual-core processor, an ultra-slim bezel, a super-fast motion-response time that eliminates blur and has no need for a color filter. Oh, and by the way, it’s also 3-D. Samsung’s Tim Baxter said during the event that Samsung makes 90 percent of all OLED displays used worldwide.

LG also unveiled a 55-inch OLED TV this morning at its press -conference, as well as 3-D smart-TV offerings.

MORE CES NEWS:

• Complete coverage
• HP’s Former CTO: Ultrabooks Are Nothing New, webOS Still Has Life Yet
• Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)
• What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)
• Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market
• Why Rhapsody Is (Probably) Bigger Than Spotify — In the U.S.
• Microsoft Beefing Up CeBit Presence Even as It Pulls Back on CES
• Inside the CES Lost & Found
• FCC Chairman Has New Tablet, but Same Script: More Spectrum!
• Verizon Wireless: We Want to Connect Five Devices for Every Subscriber
• Ultrabooks From HP and Lenovo That Are (Kinda, Sorta) Different
• Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video)
• Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question
• T-Mobile Expands Bobsled Messaging Service
• Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)
• Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year
• Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game
• More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone
• Exclusive: New Boss Acknowledges Windows Phone Still Has “Awareness Problem”
• And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!
• Interview: T-Mobile CEO Says No Second AT&T Deal Out There
• Grover Is at CES and I Am Missing It
• BlueStacks Bringing Android Apps to Windows 8
• Why the Future of TV Won’t Be Here Soon
• Nvidia’s Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways
• Dynamic Dual Coverage: Ballmer’s Last Act in Vegas and the BCS Championship in 3-D
• Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote
• Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV
• Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV
• Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share
• Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)
• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
• AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works
• LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way
• LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum
• Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia
• CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret
• Belkin Bringing Mobile TV to Lots of Cellphones, Will Anyone Tune In?
• Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service
• There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!
• CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out!
• Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2
• RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES
• Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops
• At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year
• Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120109/samsung-unveils-super-55-inch-oled-tv/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120109/lg-55-inch-glasses-free-3-d-tv-is-on-the-way/ http://allthingsd.com/20120109/lg-55-inch-glasses-free-3-d-tv-is-on-the-way/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:03:39 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=161746 As we reported earlier, expect 3-D to be featured alongside “smart” — meaning Internet-connected — TVs at CES this year, as TV makers try a variety of tactics to push high-end television sets with lots of bells and whistles.

One of LG's new Cinema 3-D Smart TVs: Glasses still required.

LG Electronics is no exception to the trend, as the company today unveiled a new line of high-resolution 3-D TVs — part of its Smart TV line — and a 3-D TV with an 84-inch screen.

But what about that glasses-free 3-D? It may come sooner than previously expected, says Seog-ho Ro, LG’s head of global strategy for home entertainment. LG already sells a not-exactly-cheap, 20-inch, glasses-free 3-D monitor and will display another small 3-D screen this week at the annual tech show in Las Vegas.

The company tells AllThingsD that it will have a 55-inch pilot version of its glasses-free 3-D display technology ready for 2013 and hopes to bring it to market by 2014. While it’s too early to know an exact price point, LG confirmed that it will be “expensive,” despite the fact that the company considers its current 3-D TV line to be cost competitive.

Toshiba, which has brought glasses-free 3-D gaming to laptops, has also confirmed that it plans to make “big” glasses-free 3-D TV screens available in the U.S. sometime early this year.

Because of technical obstacles, glasses-free 3-D TV has been relatively slow coming to large screens — it can be hard to experience the 3-D effects from viewing angles other than directly in front of the screen.

Until glasses-free, or autostereoscopic, 3-D becomes mainstream, companies are looking to convince consumers that 3-D glasses really aren’t all that bad (we’ll let consumers speak for themselves on that). LG, for instance, is pushing its new “passive” 3-D glasses that are 20 percent lighter than previous versions and can snap on the front of regular spectacles. LG says it has realized that consumers don’t want to pay for relatively expensive active-shutter 3-D glasses and that it is “getting aggressive about passive.”

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• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120109/lg-55-inch-glasses-free-3-d-tv-is-on-the-way/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120106/at-ces-2012-3-d-is-riding-shotgun-to-smart-tvs/ http://allthingsd.com/20120106/at-ces-2012-3-d-is-riding-shotgun-to-smart-tvs/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:48:29 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=160499 After years of flogging 3-D TVs at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, television makers are trying a different tactic.

For 2012, they are focusing on making TVs “smarter” by enabling them to connect to the Internet for apps and video services on the Web.

But that doesn’t mean 3-D is going away. It’s just riding shotgun with smart TVs.

Smart TV is not a new concept, of course. Up until now, it has been defined as Internet-connected television achieved through a separate box or device that connects to the TV and streams Internet content, or via a computer-like processor built directly into the TV.

On the showroom floor in Las Vegas next week, electronics makers including Samsung Electronics, Sony and LG Electronics are expected to show off more television sets that bring Internet connectivity to entertainment centers for the home. Yesterday, Google announced that LG will join the list of companies supporting Google TV; Samsung, Sony, and Vizio Inc. have also adopted Google’s Internet TV technology.

With Apple rumored to have a possible Internet-connected HDTV in the pipeline, TV makers are making all kinds of pushes to bring to market devices that offer consumers a full range of options. For many consumers, the answer for now will still be external devices that offer easy, upgradable solutions, like the Microsoft Xbox, Apple TV, Google TV and even Roku’s latest gadget.

Analysts believe that Internet-enabled TVs will begin to take a larger share of the market by default, eventually becoming a check-off item for consumers, rather than a special feature. Some 60 percent of new televisions being sold in 2012 are expected to have Internet connectivity. According to NPD’s DisplaySearch, connected-TV shipments are expected to reach 138 million globally by 2015, accounting for 47 percent of all flat-panel TVs.

So where does 3-D fit into all this?

TV makers will still be touting 3-D at CES 2012, as many smart TVs will also include 3-D capabilities. Samsung Electronics, for instance, says that more than half of its 2012 TV models will support 3-D. “Our commitment to 3-D is only deepening,” says Ethan Raisel, director of communications at Samsung.

Tim Alessi, Director of New Product Development at LG, estimates that around 20 percent of all LG TV units will support 3-D, and notes that 3-D is featured in 50 percent of the company’s lineup for this year.

But despite the fact that 3-D TV sales in 2011 showed some encouraging gains — with an estimated 21.5 million 3-D units reported to have shipped last year and sales showing significant gains from quarter to quarter — the forced exuberance over three-dimensional screens has been tempered a bit.

That’s likely because it doesn’t matter how well 3-D TV units are selling — for the consumer, anyway. “It’s not really the penetration that matters, it’s the use,” says Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. “You’d be hard pressed to find a 3-D TV owner that actually uses it in 3-D mode even once a week. That’s not a formula for building consumer momentum.”

For TV, 3-D presents a three-headed monster: To start, there are the technical and psychological obstacles of those pesky 3-D glasses — and while autostereoscopic (glasses-free) 3-D technology is being worked on in many R&D labs, industry experts all agree that quality 3-D without glasses is at least a few years away.

Secondly, 3-D presents a chicken-and-egg dilemma that doesn’t exist with smart-TV features — the question of where the viewable content will come from. Many content creators have been holding off on making 3-D programs. The Discovery Channel and ESPN made headlines two years ago when they announced 3-D channels; but in terms of sports, 3-D has been relegated to key events, due to high production costs.

An increasing number of 3-D movies are available on DVD, but moviemakers that hopped aboard the 3-D train early — think Pixar Animation Studios and DreamWorks Animation — were likely doing so to plant a flag in the ground for when 3-D finally does hit critical mass in the living room, says Scott Steinberg, head of strategic consulting firm TechSavvy.

Sony Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer even said recently, regarding the company’s 3-D TV push, that he hadn’t realized all of the challenges in getting 3-D content in place.

And the third issue affecting the uptake of 3-D has been the cost of the sets. On average, the cost of 47-inch to 50-inch 3-D TV sets is $400 more than similar HDTVs, according to a 2011 report from Retrevo. And while the entire consumer electronics industry has been hurt by a weak U.S. economy, TV sales have been hit particularly hard.

Steinberg says that for the average American household, television purchasing is about being practical right now. “It’s much more important to have the maximum-value TV with Internet capabilities and apps, than to invest in a still-unproven technology like 3-D.”

A December 2011 report from Parks & Associates on consumer purchasing intent also indicates that smart TVs are what’s grabbing the interest of consumers right now.

Even that report points out that smart TVs won’t deliver the killer blow to 3-D. As smart TVs are punched up with even more features — from apps to motion remotes to voice-command capabilities — more middle-class households looking to purchase smart TVs may buy in to 3-D, whether they’re actively looking for it or not.

Whether consumers actually want to sit in their living rooms and wear 3-D glasses to watch TV remains to be seen. For now, TV makers will still insist that they do.

MORE CES NEWS:

• Complete coverage
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• Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)
• What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)
• Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market
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• Verizon Wireless: We Want to Connect Five Devices for Every Subscriber
• Ultrabooks From HP and Lenovo That Are (Kinda, Sorta) Different
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• Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question
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• Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)
• Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year
• Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game
• More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone
• Exclusive: New Boss Acknowledges Windows Phone Still Has “Awareness Problem”
• And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!
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• Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV
• Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share
• Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)
• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
• AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works
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• RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES
• Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops
• At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year
• Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120106/at-ces-2012-3-d-is-riding-shotgun-to-smart-tvs/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20120103/youre-one-of-the-four-million-3ds-owners-now-how-do-you-watch-the-3-d-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20120103/youre-one-of-the-four-million-3ds-owners-now-how-do-you-watch-the-3-d-video/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:11:55 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=159188 Let’s say you’re one of the four million owners of a Nintendo 3DS. Maybe you’re an “Ambassador,” which means you bought the 3-D handheld shortly after its launch last March. Or perhaps you got sucked in by the new software titles this holiday season. Either way, you may be aware that earlier this month, Nintendo released a system update that allows 3DS users to record up to 10 minutes of glasses-free 3-D video in continuous or stop-motion style.

Well, it may be glasses-free 3-D on the 3DS screen, but it’s not going to look right on most Web sites, as pointed out by the Consumerist.

Fortunately, Nerd Mentality spent some time over the holidays making two comprehensive video tutorials on how to upload and view Nintendo 3DS video on YouTube. There’s a Quick Guide for users who might already be pretty comfortable transcoding video into different formats and sharing it online; there are also two lengthy videos for watching your 3DS video on both Windows and Mac computers.

In short, the recommended specs for 3-D video on YouTube are H.264 1920×1080 Side by Side L/R, though Nerd Mentality points out that YouTube can only display 3-D video at a maximum resolution of 720p, even if it’s uploaded at a higher resolution. YouTube does support glasses-free 3-D, but you may still want to try viewing it with glasses.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120103/youre-one-of-the-four-million-3ds-owners-now-how-do-you-watch-the-3-d-video/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20111216/get-yer-free-nintendo-3ds-downloads-here/ http://allthingsd.com/20111216/get-yer-free-nintendo-3ds-downloads-here/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:38:23 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=154321 For consumers who were early purchasers of Nintendo 3DS, the gaming company’s 3-D handheld device, Christmas came early this year.

When Nintendo first announced a big 3DS price drop this past summer due to sluggish sales, it promised early buyers of the device — Nintendo 3DS “Ambassadors” — that they would be able to download new NES Virtual Console games at no charge before the games became available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public.

Starting today, even more free games are available to 3DS buyers. This time, they’re Game Boy Advance titles — remember Game Boy? — including The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Wario Land 4, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Mario Kart: Super Circuit and a handful of others, numbering 10 in total.

The games are available to customers in the U.S., Europe and Japan a day ahead of the highly anticipated Sony Vita handheld launch in Japan.

The Game Boy Advance is a handheld gaming console introduced by Nintendo in 2001, more than a decade after the original Game Boy was launched and a few years ahead of the popular Nintendo DS’s debut. The device had a 32-bit processor and was described at the time as Nintendo’s fastest-selling game system ever. The last new title for the Game Boy Advance was brought to market in 2008.

For the 3DS, Nintendo can’t give away games fast enough. The freebie games are part of an overall push to sell more of the handheld unit, which had struggled to gain traction since its launch in March of this year. Nintendo said the 3DS got a much-needed boost, driving hardware sales up 49 percent, when Nintendo’s Super Mario 3D Land game hit the market in late November as part of a bundle.

Also, to give credit where it’s due, 3DS is kind of a big deal in Australia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald!

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111216/get-yer-free-nintendo-3ds-downloads-here/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111206/do-you-really-want-a-3-d-laptop-hp-hopes-so/ http://allthingsd.com/20111206/do-you-really-want-a-3-d-laptop-hp-hopes-so/#comments Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:01:50 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=150914 Over the past couple of years, 3-D has been making its way onto PCs faster than consumers can say, “Wouldn’t it be great to watch a two-hour movie on my laptop while wearing battery-operated glasses?”

Tomorrow, Hewlett-Packard is launching the newest version of its HP Envy 17 with 3-D capabilities, alongside the new HP Envy 15 and Envy 17 notebook PCs, available through HP Direct.

For gamers, a 3-D PC offers different kinds of gaming options, and on a larger screen than a handheld device has. But do consumers — hardcore gamers aside — really want a 3-D PC? Let’s take a look at some of the technical specifics and other factors to consider when it comes to computers with 3-D options:

Hardware and glasses:
As the technology gets more advanced, more 3-D laptops are expected to come to market with autostereoscopic (glasses-free) screens. Toshiba, for example, recently introduced the Qosmio F750 (in Europe) and Qosmio F755 (North America); both laptops run Windows 7 and feature a 15.6-inch Toshiba TruBrite 1080p autostereoscopic 3-D display.

But most 3-D laptops — such as the Sony VAIO F 3D, the Origin EON15 3D, the Dell Alienware M17x R3 and the Dell XPS 17 with optional 3-D screen — currently have stereoscopic screens, which means users have to wear glasses to experience the 3-D effect.

Nvidia’s 3D Vision kit is commonly bundled with these laptops and includes a pair of the necessary glasses, as well as a 3-D vision USB controller/emitter.

The kinds of glasses consumers are supposed to wear vary, as well: There’s the “active” kind versus the “passive” kind. Nvidia’s 3-D glasses, for example, are active-shutter lenses (read: battery-operated) that create the 3-D image by rapidly shuttering the left eye and then the right eye. Passive — a.k.a. polarized — 3-D glasses are cheaper, look a lot like sunglasses, and work by allowing different levels of light into each eye. Note that these are different from the anaglyph cardboard glasses you might have worn at the movies as a kid.

So, if the 3-D viewing doesn’t give you a headache, the lack of standardization in this industry just might.

Content: It’s the chicken-or-the-egg problem: Hardware makers can’t sell 3-D products well without enough 3-D content for people to watch and play; content creators are hesitant to invest in making 3-D material when the format hasn’t yet been adopted on a mass scale.

But games may indeed be the shining star when it comes to 3-D on PCs. Game developers have been creating games with inherent 3-D capabilities for many years now; consumers just didn’t have the display options they now have to view the games. And 3-D PCs often include super-fast graphics cards that are optimal for game viewing.

In terms of content volume, Nvidia says its 3D Vision Kit includes software that converts “hundreds” of standard 2-D games to 3-D, including popular titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Battlefield 3.

Price points: Despite the fact that slowing demand for PCs has been pushing netbook and notebook prices down for consumers, 3-D laptop pricing still ranges on the high side. Dell’s Alienware M17x R3 and XPS 17 (with 3-D screen), Toshiba’s Qosmio F755 and the Sony VAIO F 3D all currently retail for around $1,500.

The bottom line: laptops with 3-D capabilities tend to be more expensive at a base price. Add in the cost of active-shutter glasses when they’re not bundled in — anywhere from $40 to $150 — and consumers are paying even more.

Where does the new HP Envy 17 3D fit in?: The new HP Envy 17 3D does have some nice features, such as a 17.3-inch 3-D, LED Radiance display with full 1080p HD viewing, backlit keys, an upgraded touchpad and a Blu-ray and 12.7mm DVD-RW slot. It runs Windows 7, has an Intel Core i5-2340M processor, and its list price is $1,599.99, which includes one pair of 3-D glasses (it does not work with the Nvidia 3D Vision kit). Hopefully, battery life will show improvement from the last Envy 17 3D, which some reviewers complained was short-lived.

Readers, what do you think: Would you buy a 3-D laptop?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111206/do-you-really-want-a-3-d-laptop-hp-hopes-so/feed/ 9 http://allthingsd.com/20111119/hey-luigi-real-life-mario-karts/ http://allthingsd.com/20111119/hey-luigi-real-life-mario-karts/#comments Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:36:46 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=145775 Nintendo has built two of the vehicles in the game Mario Kart 7, which launches on Dec. 4 on the 3DS, the portable game system that displays games in 3-D.

With the help of West Coast Customs, the auto body shop known from the MTV series “Pimp My Ride,” Nintendo was able to create real-life replicas of the classic Mario Kart and Luigi Bumble V Kart.

As in the game, Mario’s shiny red go-kart comes complete with a glider attachment for flying; Luigi’s kart is tricked out with a rear propeller for underwater navigation.

Here’s Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, posing in Luigi’s Kart:

And, here’s Mario’s Kart:

The karts will be on display at the LA Auto Show, Nov. 18-27 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and there is a contest for a chance to bring one home, via GameStop’s PowerUp Rewards program.

To win, PowerUp members must make a purchase or trade in a game at GameStop in December.

Early next year, an episode of “Inside West Coast Customs” will show how the vehicles became a reality.

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