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LG and Dolby Laboratories signed an agreement that grants LG a license to embed Dolby Mobile technology into its handsets. LG would be the first handset maker to incorporate Dolby Mobile into handsets bound for the global market. Dolby Mobile is an audio processing technology platform designed to deliver rich, vibrant audio and dramatically improve listening enjoyment. Built on Dolby’s extensive portfolio of technologies, Dolby Mobile has been optimized for mobile applications.
Dolby Mobile is designed to allow customers to optimize and tailor audio for an enhanced entertainment experience. LG plans to apply Dolby Mobile technology to a wide range of multimedia features on its phones.

Seoul, Korea and San Francisco, July 30, 2008-LG Electronics (LG), a worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, and Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB), the global leader in technologies that are essential elements in the best entertainment experiences, announced that LG would be the first handset maker to incorporate Dolby® Mobile into handsets bound for the global market. The companies signed an agreement that grants LG a license to embed Dolby Mobile technology into its handsets.

Dolby Mobile is an audio processing technology platform designed to deliver rich, vibrant audio and dramatically improve listening enjoyment. Built on Dolby’s extensive portfolio of technologies, Dolby Mobile has been optimized for mobile applications.

“Being the first company to incorporate Dolby Mobile technology into handsets for the global market reinforces LG’s role as a leader in the mobile industry and in multimedia phones,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “We believe this technology will raise the bar for audio quality on multimedia phones and expect Dolby Mobile to help us create a new trend in the mobile phone industry. LG is committed to providing our customers with the best features available and our new collaboration with Dolby helps us deliver on this pledge.”

“LG shares our passion for cutting-edge innovation. This agreement combines LG’s vision and resources with Dolby’s pioneering leadership in entertainment technology to deliver the next generation of mobile entertainment,” said Bill Jasper, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dolby Laboratories. “Our broad experience and success working with LG in the past gives us great confidence as we move forward.”

Dolby Mobile is designed to allow customers to optimize and tailor audio for an enhanced entertainment experience. LG plans to apply Dolby Mobile technology to a wide range of multimedia features on its phones.

Some of the Dolby Mobile features that LG plans to incorporate into its phones include:

Mobile Surround, which delivers a realistic surround sound experience using headphones
Sound Space Expander, which creates a wide, rich, and spacious soundstage experience especially suited to music playback
Natural Bass, which adds powerful boost and bass extension
High-Frequency Enhancer, which enhances music and other content by restoring high-frequency effects
Graphic EQ, which helps tune the audio experience for different content types
Sound Level Control, which helps level out audio for a more consistent playback volume
Mono-to-Stereo Converter, which improves the playback experience of user-generated content
The companies held a signing ceremony earlier today in Seoul to officially kick off their collaboration. Dr. Woo Young Kwak, R&D Center Head of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, and Stuart Mitchell, Senior Vice President, Sales at Dolby Laboratories, attended the ceremony.

LG plans to begin launching high-end multimedia phones that incorporate Dolby Mobile technology from the fourth quarter of this calendar year.
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Sony is said to be among the first manufacturer to take advantage of Centrino 2’s ability to switch between graphics chips with its Vaio Z570. Back in the days, “thin & light” (<4lbs) laptop users complained about having to choose between a decent graphics chip and a better battery life. The solution was to make manually switchable graphics: the user had to physically move a switch, and then reboot to use a different graphics chip. As we covered during the Centrino 2 launch, things ate getting better: the system can now switch between integrated (low power) and discrete (high performance) graphics without rebooting. This is indeed a huge progress, as most people would not reboot, unless they direly needed more battery life.

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When does the NFL football season start? Let’s see, Thursday, September 4th says NFL.com. That’s actually not too far away. It cannot come soon enough and when it gets here this year, it’s going to be broadcast not only on television but also on a computer near you.

That’s right, the league that used to fear the internet video market is making a stark reversal of their policy and will begin streaming complete game broadcasts over the web in a partnership with NBC. This isn’t going to be some cheap feed without analysis or pizazz, it’s going to be the whole enchilada. What is on television will be on your computer, including John Madden’s extraordinary genius and Al Michaels’ stoic cynicism. Not only that, but the devoted site at NBC.com will also feature highlight clips, views from multiple cameras, live statistics, and blog content.

This is all part of the NFL and NBC’s new “Sunday Night Football” program, which took over the big game schedule of ABC’s “Monday Night Football” two years ago. This means that you won’t be able to use the service to watch out-of-market games or catch them after they’ve aired, it’s just a simple way to watch the games on Sunday nights if you can’t get to a television. The extras might be the ringer, though. With advertisements being figured out now, there’s plenty of money to be made and if the NFL gets this right, everybody will be happy.

Read the press release, via Crunchgear

This is where we call out by names the actions and companies that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin crack.  Technology is an odd realm where PR speak doesn’t hold a lot of water if the 1s and 0s don’t line up.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week:

iphone 3G stock - Apple seems to be going to the Nintendo Wii’s model of avoiding any price deterioration: keep the darn thing out of stock.  Almost 3 weeks after launch and finding a phone is harder than finding Waldo.  Heck, there is even still lines in most stores to pick one up.  This doesn’t seem to be settling down; and it is looking like a huge customer grab for AT&T.  Amazing, either demand is just huge or Apple is playing with the supply figures and screwing with everyone’s lunch hour.  Either way, crack is involved.

Phone market - Yes, making a phone is very hip right now.  Want proof?  Check out this offering from Casio (disappointment: it is not a watch phone).  Yes, we think phone computing is going to explode and be the personal computer of the future.  No, we don’t think it is a good idea to drag ever single brand into the phone arena.  Casio, you make hot camera’s, watches and calculators, but lets keep out of the phone bizz, kay?

Not that I am just picking on Casio, Garmin‘s stock got a taste yesterday of a phone delay and the missing revenue from Q4.  I have strong reservations on how far Garmin can get into the phone world with Nuvifone.  The idea is nifty, but just how many folks will commit is a figure that worries me. 

Vista.  Oh Microsoft.  In a battle to turn around public sentiment on Vista, so far down the line, your “fight back” ads are interesting.  They show us you can’t control PR, bloggers, or even the common man from spouting off in favor of anything else.  Sure when you get as big as you are, it gets tougher to find allies.  But you are Microsoft.  Rebrand, repackage.  You want to make the Vista negative experience go away?  Take your marketing dollars and actually launch something called Mojave.  It sounds cool, I’d buy it - you know if it didn’t have Vista’s issues… Crackheads.

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GPS stand alone companies.  If there is any doubt that Google wants more than a piece of the action in mapping/navigation, take a look at this.  The Google Mobile team has always worked to pump up advances and transit directions is the next stop.  I’ve been whining about the path I see Google on headed right to voice-prompt navigation. 

Why?  Easy.  It is an advertising smorgasbord (funny word, smorgasbord - try saying it without doing an impersonation of the chef from Muppets).  Google loves to connect advertisers to free services and this one is screaming for it.  Companies like Garmin and TomTom need to start emphasizing the things Google can’t do; and those seem to be dwindling fast.

And finally, why do blogs like to pick on each other so much?  Take the BGR vs Crackberry war.  Fun stuff.  “I’ve had the Bold for 19 months,” “oh yeah, well I’ve got a video of the Thunder, and it rocks,” “No, Thunder is half baked and everyone hates it, and your blog.” While I think it is great to have some competitiveness, there is plenty of room for most bloggers.  Besides, who cares about blackberry anyhow?  Crackheads.  Ok, fine, a lot of folks care.  But they are crackheads too.  You all need a support group.

See something that made you say, “hmmmm” (just like Arsenio Hall)?  Let us know in the comments.

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Now is this a weird looking fireplace or what - it comes in the form of a briefcase which sends a message that this is highly portable, handle and all. Perfect for the upcoming winter (better be prepared than never, I say), the Travelmate makes it a snap for you to stay warm no matter where you are. No idea on what the Travelmate uses for fuel, but it is highly possible that it uses some sort of alcohol gel that other smokeless fireplaces make do with. Magnets will keep the glass sides in place, so you’ll have to remove those before you light it up. Make sure the glass sides are placed back in order to prevent any untoward accidents. The Travelmate fireplace ain’t cheap though as it retail for $3,300 a pop.

Product Page via BBG

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Sylvania jumps into the netbook game with the G MESO that will be powered by Intel’s Atom 1.6GHz processor. In addition, this tiny device will come with the following specifications :-

• 8.9″ 1,024 x 600 resolution LCD display with LED backlight
• 80GB hard drive
• 512MB RAM (black), 1GB RAM (other colors)
• Rated 4 hour battery life

You can choose from black, white, yellow and pink colors. Sylvania is currently targeting a $299 price point, although it remains to be seen whether Windows XP or Ubuntu Netbook Remix will be the operating system of choice. Interestingly enough, Sylvania makes light bulbs and affordable monitors, so it goes to show just how much of a commodity netbooks are at this point in time.

It’s hard to keep a good game down. It’s always been true, and this week it’s being proven yet again by the makers of the now infamous Facebook game, Scrabulous. When it was first announced that Hasbro had a problem with the game, they were smart and let it slide. The official word was that they would be coming out with their own, official version of the game, and that would take over the Facebook Scrabble real estate.

Well, Hasbro now has their version of the game up and running…and nobody is playing it. The next step that Hasbro took to corner the market was to finally inform Facebook that the application was in violation of their copyright and they really would rather it no longer be on the site. A couple of days ago, Facebook did what Hasbro asked and made Scrabulous unavailable to North American users.

It seems that people, not so shockingly, want their old game back. But now, a new game application has appeared on Facebook created by the same two Indian brothers that developed Scrabulous called Wordscraper. It may look like a completely new game, what with its circles instead of squares, but rest assured, it’s the exact same game. Sure, the bonus spots have been moved around, but this is still Scrabble and you can still play against your friends. What happens now is up to Hasbro; the new version isn’t as popular as its predecessor by any means, but they will have to determine if it is worth the backlash they’ll continue to receive if they shut it down.

Read more at Wired

From today onwards, the countdown for the 2008 Olympics starts from 10, 9, 8…..and will end on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics that is on 8/8/08 at 8pm. And for the very same moment, diamond jewelers from London, De Vere, are unveiling the 88 diamond-studded Olympic iphone to commemorate the event. Wondering why the recurrence of number 8 all the time? Cause in China, the number double 8 is considered to be a lucky number and also double 8 stands for double wealth. And so to respect their belief and woo all Olympic as well as iPhone buffs, De Vere has decked this 3G Apple iPhone with precisely 88 diamonds only. Caked in to the steel bezel surrounding the iPhone’s screen, this Olympied iPhone carries a tag of £4148 ($8224). If the price tag of world’s most expensive iPhone has burnt your fingers and heart, than I suggest this piece of cake doesn’t seem to be an unpleasant bargain either.
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This is definitely an alarm clock that I don’t mind waking up to - to the smell of freshly grilled bacon. The Wake n’ Bacon alarm clock concept requires you to place a frozen strip of bacon inside when you retire for the night. 10 minutes before the preset wake-up time, the device will get right away to cook that strip, where the smell will act as a catalyst for you to get your sorry rear end out of the bed. Of course, there is always the back up of the alarm ringing away should your hunger fail to stir you awake. I’m not too sure if you’d want your room to smell like bacon, and if you turn off the alarm, will you get your hand burnt in the process?

This is one arcade cabinet that will definitely elicit more than just a long sigh of admiration from geeks - it has been lovingly built based on the iconic blue Police Box which looks pretty ordinary on the outside but sucks you into a world of imaginary heroes and foes the moment you step inside. Of course, it won’t chew through your collection of quarters since it is a Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) machine, but still, this is one impressive hack.