NOOK Media a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble has collaborated with Samsung Electronics America to offer NOOK’s reading software on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4, 7-inch version. As part of the partnership owners of the new “Samsung Galaxy NOOK” will have access to Barnes & Noble’s content, of more than three million books, leading magazines and newspapers. Customers will also have the option to buy the “Samsung Galaxy NOOK” or NOOK eReader (NOOK GlowLight).
Based on forecasts for 138 countries, global digital TV installation is set to accelerate over the next few years up to 2020. Homes with digital TV will increase to about 1.68 billion within the same period; 2014 alone will see an increase of 131 million, according to The Digital TV World Household Forecasts report from Research and Markets. Digital cable TV will become the most popular accounting for 33.6% of the world's TV households.
Since the introduction of Pay-TV, service providers and content creators such as movie studio have struggled to maintain security of their content while at the same time trying to offer viewers the flexibility to access contents from anywhere. The main solution has been to offer a propriety set-top box for each point of access – a box in every room. That has worked for the past few years but the increase in mobile technology has thrown up another challenge; viewers want the option to access the same Pay-TV content on their mobile devices, thus removing or by passing the access control set
Vodafone has joined a global trend to be the next telecom operator to offer home telecom and entertainment services. They have partnered with Entone to use their video networking platform EnterLink to offer the service. According to Entone, Vodafone will be working with Entone and its system integration partner Divitel in the Netherland.
Anyone buying a new computer will go for a 64-bit desktop. For mobile, Apple iPhone and iPad latest models are all 64-bit, other mobile devices are about to go 64-bit with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 64-bit mobile processor. Now, STMicroelectronics is getting ready to offer home appliance manufacture 64-bit processor for their appliances, based on the latest ARMv8-A cores, STi8K Systems-on-Chips (SoCs) architecture.
TiVo has joined the list of hardware manufactures to partner with Control4 to allow users central management of their home’s automation and entertainment systems. Starting with the Roamio range of TiVo’s set-top box (with DVR, multiscreen and streaming services) customers will be able to manage their TiVo system from within Control4, along with their lighting and other connected services.
The advance in communication technology has seen a convergence in home and car entertainment systems. As an indication the to this growing area of collaboration the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association), said they are expecting a record number of car manufacturers at 2014 CES showcasing their latest car technologies both inside and out. A total of nine manufacturers are expected: Ford, Kia, Toyota, Audi, Chrysler, General Motors, BMW, Mercedes and Mazda.
The CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) judges have done their examination and have release the 2014 International CES list of Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Award Honorees. The judges look products across 28 consumer electronics product categories; they have also added extra categories this year: 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing and Wearable Technologies. The "Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Award" honors products and solutions that demonstrate outstanding design and engineering advancements. The CEA said they saw a record number of entries this year (See Photos).
Google seems not to have given up on making a much bigger impact on the television and home entertainment market than it did with the Google TV. Their latest attempt is Chromecast TV, a television dongle that transform your ordinary TV into one that can connected to the internet directly and smarter. Chromecast TV is Promises to be a simple and intuitive solution to having a smart TV and only priced at US$35.
There are millions of homes in the UK with televisions that cannot connect to the internet directly. Therefore, any access to internet TV (Over The Top) services is done via the computer or some other smart devices such as a phone or tablet. With access to Youview still subject to availability in some areas, households now have another option from Sky called NOW TV.