Sony Bravia VE5 is Watching You, Quietly Judging

Recently Sony announced plans to release the highly energy efficient line of VE5-series Bravia LCD televisions, which will include, among other features, technology that will automatically power down the picture if no organic human life forms are present in the room.

The VE5’s energy-saving Presence Sensor technology will use motion and light sensors to allow the TV to silently watch your every move and wait for its moment to strike. Then when everyone leaves the room it will commence its plan to quietly judge you for your lack of eco-awareness, and turn off its picture.

When you return, the VE5-series TV will turn its picture back on as if you’d never left, ensuring that you are none the wiser of the cold, emotionless consciousness of your appliances.

No word yet on whether the VE5-series will initiate the automated defense protocol if intruders are detected.

The VE5-series will include other energy-saving features as well. A zero-watt standby switch will allow you to manually turn the TV off. This highly advanced technology, inspired by recent advances in light switch technology, cuts the flow of energy to the TV by actually turning off all of its components when the switch is flipped to the “off” position. What will they think of next?

The VE5-series will also automatically change the level of backlighting on its LCD screen depending on the brightness of the room it is in, ensuring that no energy is wasted on unecessary lighting.

And finally, the eco-friendly series of TVs will make use of Hot Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (HCFL) technology, which promises a 40% reduction in energy consumption.

With all of these energy-saving features, the Sony Bravia VE5-series of TVs exceed Energy Star energy-efficiency requirements.

Other features include a USB input, Bravia 2 Engine technology, 24p True Cinema, 4 HDMI inputs, and more.

The VE5-series will be available in 40, 46, and 52 inch models, and will be available this Spring or Summer. No price has been set yet.

Game Sales Grow

The video game industry is growing stronger with Nintendo’s Wii leading the way.

With the video game industry raking in billions of dollars every year, it is becoming a powerful entertainment force that rivals the film and television industries. With games reaching higher qualities in gameplay and high definition graphics, and the Wii’s appeal to a new and broader audience, it’s no wonder that the sales statistics are so high.

November 2008 statistics below:

The 10 best-selling games for November 2008, according to the NPD Group’s sales figures:

– 1. Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) — 1.56 million

– 2. Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360) — 1.41 million

– 3. Wii Play W/ Remote (Wii) — 796,000

– 4. Wii Fit (Wii) — 697,000

– 5. Mario Kart (Wii) — 637,000

– 6. Call of Duty: World at War (PS3) — 597,000

– 7. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Wii) — 475,000

– 8. Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) — 410,000

– 9. Resistance 2 (PS3) — 385,000

– 10 Wii Music (Wii) — 297,000

The top-selling game consoles for November 2008:

– 1. Wii — 2.04 million

– 2. Nintendo DS — 1.56 million

– 3. Xbox 360 — 836,000

– 4. PSP — 421,000

– 5. PlayStation 3 — 378,000

– 6. PlayStation 2 ¢â‚¬â€œ 206,000

The percentages for November 2008:

– Software: $1.45B (+11%)

– Hardware: $1.21B (+10%)

– Accessories: $255M (+7%)

– Total Games: $2.91B (10%)

Strong sales across the board will only be higher in December as we buy boatloads of gifts during the holiday season. Where other industries are seeing slowdowns, the gaming industry pushes forward and doesn’t look back.

When the compiled 2008 statistics are released we will see how much the industry has grown over the last year. Some analysts say that the video game industry will trump the film industry and become understood as a mainstream media. Evidence of it’s mainstream growth is apparent in all the attention we see gaming consoles garnering on the news and other television shows.

Cheers to 2008, and here’s hoping for an even better 2009!

MvixBox Brings your TV and Computer Closer Together

Last month, MvixUSA unveiled what is quickly becoming one of the top gadgets on a gadget-lover’s Christmas gift list.

The MvixBox is a Linux server that can hold two SATA-II hard drives with 1.5TB worth of memory each. That is quite a lot of storage space for whatever you want to do as a media server.

The MvixBox is also an Apache server that supports HTTP and FTP, and allows the user to manage it via your browser and use it as a web server. There is even an Ethernet port that allows you to stream HD files to the user’s media network.

When it is connected to a normal PC, you will find it as a separate disk drive where you can drag and drop all your favorite media files. It would appear that devices like the MvixBox are really blurring the line between television and computers.

The MvixBox is available at a price of $299, and includes the Torrent Client Blog iTunes Music Server UPnP media server. Hard drives are not included with this, nor is the MX760HD, a device that links the MvixBox and streams video to a television.

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Watercooler’s TVLoop

Where would social networks be without television? I would imagine that there would be less to talk about.

Watercooler Inc, an extensive network of online fan communities, has recently started up TVLoop.com. In its own words, TV Loop allows you to Connect with other fans, Share your love for your shows and Play games. The last one seems a little unrelated.

TVLoop already has 15 million subscribers that it picked up from other social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, and hi5. So, if you like to watch television, and want to talk about it with someone else, TVLoop is the way to go.

The best part of it is that TVLoop actually has television shows on it. Most of the shows are taken from other network sites that have the most recent episodes on them. There are also other non-essentials, such as quizzes, quotes, and photos.

TVLoop is probably the way of the future when it comes to social networking, as well as sites about television.

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