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Philips' "Cushion Speaker" is a Cushion and a Speaker for your Laptop

Paul Lilly — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:38:15 -0500

We haven't seen a product more aptly named since the PushUp, the tasty treat (not the exercise) from our childhood years. Now that we're all grown up, we prefer to spend our ducats on computer parts than ice cream, and that's where Philips' CushionSpeaker laptop stand comes in.

The name leaves little room for further description, but suffice to say, the CushionSpeaker is exactly what it sounds like. It's a cushion for resting your laptop on your lap and a speaker for blaring out your groovy music, all in one.

What's not so evident from the product's title is that the CushionSpeaker is made from heat resistant material, and the speaker is powered by your laptop via USB. We suppose that's because CushionSpeaker sounds a lot better than HeatResistantUSBPoweredCushionLaptopSpeaker.

No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: Philips via Engadget

New Philips Monitor to Detect When You take a Bathroom Break

Paul Lilly — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:30:07 -0500

There's been a major push this past year in being more energy conscious when it comes to computing, and one way Philips plans to do that is by making sure your LCD monitor doesn't consume more power than it needs to.

Called the Brilliance LCD, the upcoming display will feature a built-in sensor capable of detecting whether or not you're sitting in front of your monitor. Get up to grab a cup of coffee or go powder your nose and the monitor will dim its display, a move Philips says will cut power consumption by half. Once you return, the display lights back up and all is as you left it.

Because not everyone sits the same distance from their monitor, the sensor comes configurable for anywhere between 30cm and 120cm, and is completely independent of the host system's software or operating system.

No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: Philips

Philips Unveils Force Feedback Jacket at 2009 World Haptics Convention

Paul Lilly — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:55:59 -0500

Vibrating controllers may soon be considered old-school if Philips' new force feedback jacket catches on. The jacket, which was revealed by Philips at the IEEE-sponsored 2009 World Haptics Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, looks to bring a whole new level of immersion to multimedia content.

"We want people to feel Bruce Lee's anxiety about whether he will get out alive, causing a shiver to go up the viewer's spine and creating the feeling of tension in the limbs," said Paul Lemmens, Philips senior scientist.

To accomplish that goal, the jacket makes use of several physical actuators to affect the person wearing it, rather than relying on sound or motion-based vibration. There are sixty-four independently controlled actuators in all that extend from the torso on down to the arms, which are paired in arrays of four. Each array shares its own processor and is capable of being cycled on and off at a rapid rate of over 100 times per second, Philips says.

The concept may be more feasible than you think, at least from a power perspective. Philips claims the jacket can run on a pair of AA batteries for a full hour with twenty of the actuators being continuously triggered.

(Image Credit: Steve Brewster)

Philips' 56" HDTV Does 3D without the Funky Glasses

Paul Lilly — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:52:43 -0500

Autostereoscopic. Ever heard that term before? Philips hopes you'll be hearing a lot more of it, and yesterday announced a line of Quad Full Autostereoscopic 3D HDTVs during a 3D event in Hollywood.

A Quad-HDTV means it's screen resolution checks in at 3840x2160 (8.29 million pixels), or four times that of the highest HDTV standard, and otherwise known as 2160P. Combined with autostereoscopic technology, the end result is that 3D images can be made to look believable without having to wear those funky glasses or other specialized headgear. Instead, images target a specific eye, but rather than require a strict viewing angle, Philips says its 56-inch HD 3D display has a generous 160-degree viewing angle.

As expected, first-run products won't come cheap with early rumblings putting this TV in the $25,000 ballpark. But Philips isn't the only one pushing 3D technology - Toshiba and Sanyo have both said they're working on competing autostereoscopic displays, which could drive down the price if this technology takes off.

Anyone yearning to own a 3D TV?

Image Credit: Philips

Philips Shows Off Its Snazzy Touchscreen Remote

Paul Lilly — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:09:27 -0500

In what's sure to elicit Tim Allen-like grunts, Philips has unveiled its Pronto TSU9800 touchscreen remote control. The new models retains all the same features as the previous model (TS9600), but upgrades to a bigger full-size 6.4-inch VGA display. Also new to the TSU9800:

Two more buttons + optical rotary wheel
Pronto Link support (allows a homeowner to control home theaters, lights, temperatures, security, and multi-room audio systems via a single remote)
Advanced two-way functionality by receiving feedback from RS-232 or IP-controlled devices in real-time

Philips is offering an optional accessory allowing users to mount the remote to any wall or table top, and will also make available two extenders for integrating into with home controls.

No word yet on pricing or availability.

Image Credit: Philips

Philips Leads the Charge for 3D on Blu-Ray

Paul Lilly — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:54:34 -0500

Blu-ray may have won the high-definition format war, but the spoils haven't exactly been anything to brag about. Saddled with high prices, consumers have been turning the other cheek in favor of upscaled DVDs and an increasing emphasis on movie downloads, which looks to get even more popular this fall. But that could all change if 3D movies prove popular for home setups.

Leading the charge is Philips, who will demonstrate 3D on Blu-ray later this month at IFA 2008.The demo is expected to show how Philips' 2D-plus-Depth content format can be applied to Blu-ray, which would open the door for 3D movies to be shown on a variety of displays. Whether or not that matters to home theater buffs remains to be seen, but with a growing amount of 3D movies released on the big screen, those that missed the theater debut would still be able to relieve the experience at home, minus the ginormous screen.

Does this give Blu-ray the edge it needs to gain popularity points?

Image Credit: Philips

Philips amBX Gaming Peripherals

Michael Brown — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:43:45 -0500

We’ll try anything that immerses us more deeply in a game. We dig hardware that breaks down the barriers between a fantasy universe and our everyday real world. But we had to suppress a giggle when Philips first demonstrated its amBX system of colored lights, whirring fans, and vibrating wrist pads.

Maybe it’s a cultural thing. European men of all ages run around the beaches at Cannes wearing bathing suits that would get an American male laughed at. Go to Amsterdam and you can smoke hallucinogenic herbs at most any coffee shop without raising an eyebrow. Come to think of it, Amsterdam is just 66 miles from Philips’ headquarters in Eindhoven. Hmm. Could that explain how this bizarre concept got off the drawing board, into a factory, and onto retailers’ shelves without someone asking, “Why?”

Yes, we’re kidding, but bizarre might be too timid a word to describe the amBX (it’s pronounced am-bee-ex, by the way). The wrist rumbler—think force-feedback for your wrists—wasn’t ready for prime time, but Philips did manage to ship us an amBX-equipped 2.1-channel speaker system, a pair of desk fans, a control unit with a built-in “wall-washer” light, and the software to go with it. We eagerly plugged the entire shootin’ match into our Nvidia test bed, and much hilarity ensued.

The amBX concept reminds us of the lava lamp of the 1970s, except this light show isn’t necessarily random. Clusters of LEDs mounted in the wall-washer unit, atop stereo speakers, and in columnar enclosures without speakers glow, flash, pulse, and sparkle to add context to what’s happening on the screen. The small, variable-speed fans—capable of spinning at up to 5,000rpm—blow air at you in a similar fashion. Philips takes pains to emphasize that games need not be amBX-enabled for a gamer to enjoy amBX effects, but the experience is clearly, well, it would be a stretch to say better, so we’ll just say different, when playing amBX-aware games.

Philips sent us one of the only games currently supported: the old-school—and piss-poor—THQ adventure game Broken Sword: The Angel of Death. It didn’t take long for the effects to make their appearance; in fact, by the time the title character made his ghastly debut, the fans had spun up and blown our notes off the workbench. Wow! Wasn’t that exciting!
We had the same reaction to the lights. We placed the wall-washer unit behind our 23-inch ViewSonic monitor but quickly discovered that without a white wall onto which it could project its three independent sets of multicolored lights, you couldn’t even tell it was on. We were only mildly more impressed after we stuck a panel of white cardboard behind it. The LEDs in the speakers, meanwhile, glow and flash with varying intensities of only one color at a time (red, green, blue, white, and so on). These lights don’t require a vertical surface to bounce off, but they didn’t project enough light to change the environment unless the room was almost completely dark.

The self-powered speakers in which Philips has integrated amBX aren’t bad—the satellites deliver crisp highs and satisfying mids—but they’re nowhere near the realm of the best from Klipsch, M-Audio, or even Logitech. But we have a real problem with the subwoofer; not so much with the way it sounds but rather with the way it’s constructed: The speaker cone faces up to form a perfect bowl in which to spill your refreshing beverage. Even if you’re a neat freak and never drop anything in there, dust will inevitably filter through the metal grill to rest on the cone and inexorably color its sound.

You’ll need only one cable to plug the entire system into your PC’s USB port, but you’ll have to wrangle seven more into the control unit to get everything working.

You can purchase amBX systems in a variety of configurations: There’s a $200 “starter kit” that includes the wall-washer control unit and two lights, sans speakers; a $300 “pro-gamer kit” that includes the wall washer, a subwoofer, and two satellite speakers with integrated lights; and a $100 “extension kit” that adds the wrist rumbler and two fans. If you want to go all out, Philips offers the $400 “premium kit” that includes everything—this is what we reviewed, minus the wrist tickler.

Philips has clearly sunk a great deal of time and effort into the amBX, and we’re not talking just about marketing hype: The company has been working on the idea since 2000. It has developed a sophisticated user interface that can be used to create custom effects sequences; there are plugins for Windows Media Player, so you can use the system while listening to music or watching movies; and the company is actively courting developers to support the technology in new games. Gas Powered Games’ upcoming RTS epic Supreme Commander will be one of the first.

Maybe we would have enjoyed Philips’ amBX peripherals more if we’d been in an altered state of consciousness during testing. All cynicism aside, we do think there’s the kernel of a good idea here, so we’ll keep an eye on this technology as it progresses. We’ll let you know if it gets any better; for now, it’s pretty damned hokey.

Philips 230WP7

Katherine Stevenson — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 15:52:55 -0600

Philips’ 23-inch LCD won’t win any beauty contests. It’s not ugly, per se, but its silver and black plastic chassis looks and feels a bit chintzy. Fortunately, it offers the full complement of adjustment options—a generous 7 inches of height clearance (by way of a telescoping neck), along with swivel, tilt, and portrait functions. It also offers four USB 2.0 ports. Onscreen display (OSD) buttons across the front bezel are comprehensive and fairly intuitive; or you can perform all the same functions using the bundled SmartControl app, which adds an embedded tab to your Display Properties windows—nifty.

As with the display’s physical appearance, we were initially unimpressed with its DisplayMate performance. One of our first tests is always the Dark Screen, which reveals how well a screen can produce a deep, uniform black. In this, the 230WP7 appeared splotchy and uneven, with signs of backlight showing through at various places.

But the 230WP7 redeemed itself with strong grayscale skills, producing smooth, accurate gradations of up to 256 steps. Its color reproduction of high-res digital photos and video was solid when viewed straight on, but the picture loses a lot of contrast and depth when viewed off-axis. Like the HP LP2465 that we reviewed in our September roundup, Philips’ LCD had some trouble reproducing a stream of image patterns in the speed test Pixel Persistence Analyzer. Rather than moving across the screen in a steady, rapid fashion, the images stuttered at regular intervals.

The stutter was not immediately apparent in our game tests—in fact games looked pretty darned good on Philips’ screen (again, when viewed straight on), but when we moved our character sideto-side across the screen (to mimic the action of the benchmark), we observed an almost imperceptible periodic hitch.

Month Reviewed: November 2006

+ Caramel Corn: Fully adjustable ergo stand; four USB ports; good grayscale performance.

- Candy Corn: Flimsy bezel; poor off-axis; slight hitch in side-to-side action.

VERDICT: 7

URL: www.consumer.philips.com/lcdmonitors