Last week I was at the IFA press event in Malta. It’s pretty much the European version of CES, but unlike that show, it actually comes at a time when folks are interesting in buying cool new toys. One of the interesting aspects of this press event is that they showcase some of the products and trends that will be topical in the fourth quarter. This year had a lot to do with the fact that most of the TVs currently in the market were about to be made obsolete. Why? There are three major changes in upcoming sets that will make current models look antique.
Tag Archive: Harman
Harman Kardon HKTS-18 5.1 Review
Summary
The HKTS 18 home theater speaker system combines identically voiced, magnetically shielded two-way satellite and center channel speakers with a 10-inch, 200-watt subwoofer for high-performance sound that complements the design of Harman Kardon receivers and DVD players, as well as today’s flat-panel video displays. Advanced features include a line-level Sub/LFE input, audio-sense or external-trigger on/off and a multicolor LED power indicator. Wall-mount brackets for the center and satellite speakers are included.
Harman/Becker GPS Warns of Speeding
Harman/Becker Automotive Systems has announced a new in-car GPS system for the U.S. market, the Traffic Assist Highspeed 7934. Set to be offered exclusively through Office Depot, the unit offers more-or-less standard mapping and navigation features, plays music over a set of integrated stereo speakers, and—get this—even offers voice warnings when a driver is speeding.
“We recognize that there are a variety of choices when it comes to mobile navigation,” said Ralf Hoellmann, Harman/Becker Automotive Systems’ VP of sales and marketing, in a statement. “Drivers will notice right away the Becker difference—quality German engineering backed by more than 60 years of automotive electronics experience.”
Harman to Be Acquired for Nearly $8 Billion
Audio equiment maker Harman International—makers of Harman-Kardon, AKG, JBL, Lexicon, Revel, Mark Levinson, and other well-known brands of consumer, auto, and pro audio gear—announced today (PDF) the company will be acquired by private equity fims Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) and Goldman Sachs Group’s private equity firm for about $8 billion.
Under the deal, Harman stockholder would receive about 4120 in case for each share they own, which is a 17 percent premium over Harman’s closing stock price on April 25. As an alternative, stockholders could opt to exchange some or all of their stock for shares in the new company to be formed by KKR and GS Capital Partners.
Harman Debuts New JBL iPod Product
Harman Multimedia, at MacWorld last week in San Francisco, unveiled a new iPod speaker dock and
Harman Gets a PhatNoise Deal
The Harman Consumer Group, which owns the brands JBL and Harman Kardon among others, today said they would be acquiring PhatNoise out of Los Angeles. PhatNoise is best known for their after market PhatBox car MP3 player hard drive.
PhatNoise’s team will join the Harman Consumer Group’s engineering group in designing digital media systems in the automotive environment. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Toshiba Launches Satellite M45 Notebook
Starting at 6.2 pounds, the notebook runs 14.2-inches wide, 10.5-inches deep, and features a wedge design 1.1 to 1.7-inches high. The Satellite M45 15.4-inch diagonal wide-aspect panel, with a1280×800 TruBrite native resolution, provides vivid images for viewing DVD movies in their original wide-screen format and accomplishing productivity tasks. Toshiba’s DVD-SuperMulti drive reads andwrites to most CD and DVD formats, while the Toshiba Express Media Player enables one button access to CD and DVD playback without booting the Microsoft Windows operating system.
The Toshiba Satellite M45 is equipped with next-generation Intel Centrino Mobile Technology (formerly codenamed Sonoma), featuring the Intel Pentium M processor 730 running at 1.60GHz, 512MB of SDRAM, a 80GB hard drive for the Satellite M45-S331 or 100GB for the M45-S351, the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 chipset for powerful multimedia speed and performance, and Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG (802.11b/g), giving consumers wireless access to the Internet.
Acura, Cadillac, Land Rover To Feature DTS
The 2005 Acura RL will include a DVD-Audio system with DTS multi-channel sound as a standard feature, while Land Rover’s 2005 Range Rover and the 2005 Cadillac STS will each offer optionalDTS-equipped surround audio system.
The 2005 Acura RL will come standard-equipped with an Acura / Boseâ DVD-Audio system, including DTS capability. Additionally, the 2005 Range Rover will optionally offer a Harman / Kardonâ rear-seat entertainment system, which can play discrete DTS multi-channel music as well as DTS-encoded DVD-V content. The 2005 Cadillac STS will also feature an optional Boseâ Studio Surround system, including a six-disc CD/DVD changer with a discrete 5.1-channel DTS decoder.
Toshiba intros new Media Center Laptop
Satellite 5205-S705 users are able to watch and record their favorite television programs directly to the notebook, store and access digital images, video files, and play DVD movies anytime and anyplace. Toshiba’s latest wireless-integrated multimedia notebook PC also allows users to enjoy industry-leading 3D graphics and convenient Internet access at home, work or a local public hotspot.
In addition to recording digital content, Satellite 5205-S705 customers can take advantage of the built-in DVD-Multi drive to burn CDs and DVDs and can be used as a second hard drive.
