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GE shows off 1TB holographic discs but Wolf Blitzer remains skeptical

by Richard Lawler posted Oct 1st 2009 at 11:04PM

We're confused as to how technology that was supposed to be available in 2006 can still be featured at an Emerging Tech conference in 2009, but so it is for General Electric's attempt at holographic storage. Predicting drives for archival purposes in two or three years with consumer products around two years after that, manager Peter Lorraine claims Blu-ray has "two to four years of life to go" and expects licensees to clean up with speedy 3ms access time, 1TB+ storing (up from a mere 200GB), backwards compatible hardware. The latter portion, plus other breakthroughs in cost and reliability are listed as reasons to believe the market will catch HVD anytime soon, but right now it's about as likely returning to a matching 2006-era MySpace page or believing Wolf was staring at anything other than a mark on the floor on Election Night.

[Via Physorg]

Comcast denies possible purchase of NBC, claims it can only offer a window

by Richard Lawler posted Oct 1st 2009 at 4:27PM

Surprising absolutely no one who has ever waited for a repair or installation, an internet rumor Wednesday suggested Comcast is in talks to take advantage of an oddly scheduled window of availability to purchase NBC Universal. Whether it shows up on time is still up in the air, but with ownership of the media group divided 80/20 by GE and Vivendi the rumored deal would be worth $35 billion, with around $7 billion due Vivendi during this annual period when it can exercise a put option on the shares it owns. Time Warner and DirecTV owner Liberty Media have also been rumored as suitors, can anyone imagine NBC and Syfy under the same umbrella as Versus?

GE microholographic storage promises cheap 500GB discs, Blu-ray and DVD compatibility

by Thomas Ricker posted Apr 27th 2009 at 2:53AM


Ah, holographic storage -- you've held so much promise for cheap optical media since you were first imagined in research papers published in the early 60s. Later today, GE will be trying to keep the dream alive when it announces a new technique that promises to take holographic storage mainstream. GE's breakthrough in microholographics -- which, as the name implies, uses smaller, less complex holograms to achieve three-dimensional digital storage -- paves the way for players that can store about 500GB of data on standard-sized optical discs while still being able to read DVD and Blu-ray media. Better yet, researchers claim a price of about 10 cents per gigabyte compared to the nearly $1 per gigabyte paid when Blu-ray was introduced. The bad news? We're talking 2011 or 2012 by the time microholographics devices and media are introduced and even then it'll only be commercialized for use by film studios and medical institutions. In other words, you'll likely be streaming high-def films to your OLED TV long before you have a microholographic player in the living room.

Update: And out pops the press release.

Video: GE bringing 3D HD baggage screening to airports

by Darren Murph posted Mar 27th 2009 at 12:19AM

Certain airports have already taken the whole "walk through the metal detector" thing to the next level, but things are about to get stepped up once more thanks to TSA certification on a new product from GE Security. The CTX 9800 DSi, which happily sits in the company's explosives detection systems (EDS) line, is now free to waltz into airports in order to "protect travelers with advanced high-definition 3D imaging baggage screening technology." We're talking 360 degree, finely-detailed views of baggage contents, which will undoubtedly cause immense embarrassment when a given TSA agent sees your prime selection of underwear, nose hair trimmer and pink nail polish. Here's hoping this won't slow security lines down even further, and if you're interested in seeing what all this thing can do, just mash play on the video above.

Gallery: Video: GE bringing 3D HD baggage screening to airports

GE quietly delays premium HDTV line

by Darren Murph posted Mar 24th 2009 at 9:04PM


General Electric came clean with its intentions to delve into the wide world of HDTVs last September... and then the economy, as well as GE itself, fell apart. Earlier this year, we were actually clued in on some of the details surrounding the Tatung-built sets, but now we're hearing that the company is pushing everything back by around three months. GE maintains that the setback is due to "marketing rather than operational or manufacturing issues," though we all know right about now isn't the greatest time to introduce new high-end televisions. We also get the idea that GE may use the time to better implement connected HDTV features given just how prevalent those were at CES, but again, we're really just shooting in the dark here. Oh, we forgot to even ask -- does anyone care that GE's getting back into the TV biz, let alone that its forthcoming sets are delayed?

GE lets loose premium details about premium HDTV line

by Darren Murph posted Jan 21st 2009 at 11:59PM


When we heard last September that General Electric was aiming to enter the "premium" HDTV market, we all had a brief laugh and continued on about our day. Apparently, our doubts are completely unfounded. According to an interview with numerous GE executives tied in with the initiative, the GE-branded sets will be serious contenders. In fact, bigwigs are hoping to make their sets "a top-tier brand that rivals the likes of Sony, Samsung, and Sharp." The secret sauce is the differentiation, as GE is looking to stuff internet connectivity, wireless audio and many other "advanced features" onto its sets in order to show up rivals. Among the early prototypes shown at CES earlier this month was a 46-inch HDTV with a GLT edgelight that utilized white Luminus LEDs and GLT's lightguide blades. It's also looking to expand into wireless video boxes with 1080i support, which means the sky really could be the limit here. Obviously, we're keeping our skeptic hats on until a commercial device hits the market, but you can definitely color us intrigued.

[Image courtesy of DecoRadios]

General Electric partners with Tatung for "premium" GE-branded HDTVs

by Darren Murph posted Sep 23rd 2008 at 12:19AM


Who says there are too many players in the HDTV realm? With current mainstays partnering up like it's going out of style, we've found two firms that see something no one else does. General Electric has just announced a joint venture with Taiwan-based Tatung in which the pair plans on making two million HDTVs annually when production gets going in 2009. The two hope to capture at least 5% to 10% of the global TV market in due time, and according to Peter Weedfald, president of North America and global chief marketing officer for the JV, the resulting product will be a "premium brand" that will be "very competitive with current leadership brands." We'll be interested to see what all becomes of this, and hopefully we'll have some prototypes to gawk at come CES / IFA / CEDIA 2009.

[Image courtesy of VintageTVSets]

The CableNET Booth tour at The Cable Show

by Ben Drawbaugh posted May 19th 2008 at 2:29PM Featured Story


All of the coolest stuff at The Cable Show was on display at the CableNet booth. The Motorola Tuning Adapter was there, but it was only one of about 30 small demos. The rest were from a entire range of companies showing off how cable can be the center of the connected home. There were software vendors showing off their tru2way award winning games -- which made us wonder if they were the only one -- Moxi's had its long overdue DVR for MSOs, GE and Next Alarm were hoping to help big cable get into the monitoring business, Sigma Designs had a triple HD tuner chipset, and finally Samsung was showing off its tru2way DVR and software called SeeNSearch which adds Internet links to the program guide and lets you access web pages directly from the guide for display on your TV, but interestingly, isn't tru2way.

Gallery: The CableNET Booth tour at The Cable Show

  • CabelNET Booth
  • CabelNET Booth5
  • CabelNET Booth
  • CabelNET Booth
  • CableNET Booth

CNET pans the GE 22730 digital converter box

by Steven Kim posted Apr 17th 2008 at 7:34AM

GE 22730 digital converter boxNo need to worry about how you're going to stack equipment on the curvy GE 22730 digital converter box -- it won't be staying in the system that long. At least, that's the recommendation from CNET. They were hard pressed to find anything to like about the unit, and even the eight-day EPG suffered from an unintuitive layout. Frankly, we're a little surprised that such a simple device could come up short in so many areas; the poor video quality and sub-par number of channels pulled in are especially glaring. We guess there's something to be said for Microtune's complaints, so even converter box coupon holders should do a little research before cashing in.

[Via TVSnob; Image courtesy CNET]




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