philips

Philips makes a few portable DTV models, including the 9-inch PVD900/37 shown above, as well as the step-down 7-inch PVD700/37 and PET729/37, which combine a portable DVD player with a 7-inch DTV.

The PVD900, which online costs a little more than $150, looks and feels like your typical inexpensive tablet-style portable DVD player (sans DVD player). That doesn't mean it's ugly, it's just fairly basic and generic-looking, though at 9 inches diagonal, its screen is larger than some of the portable DTVs we've reviewed previously. The TV is also surprisingly lightweight (1.5 … Read more

With the transition to DTV not yet a year old, you probably haven't invested in a new portable DTV that pulls in over-the-air digital signals. Good news! You can now win one--a new 9-inch Philips PVD900/37 portable DTV--in our Crave giveaway of the week.

While the wide-screen PVD900 doesn't have HD resolution--it offers 600x220-pixel resolution--you can view HD stations. Its other features include a built-in QAM tuner for receiving unscrambled digital cable stations (yes, you can hook this up to a cable connection in your home) and up to 3 hours of battery life from a single … Read more

Some call it seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Others just call it the winter blues. But whatever you call it, if you happen to be one of the millions of poor schmucks who live in colder northern states, you may be aware that you're hitting the peak gloomy season, and it's not particularly fun.

One way to combat SAD is simply to get outside and absorb as much sunlight as you can during the daylight hours. However, sometimes it's just flat out too cold outside or that little thing called a job--if you're lucky enough to have one--keeps you in the office cave.

That's where something called light therapy comes in, and several companies sell small light boxes to combat the winter blues. The product I've been testing out in my windowless office in New York is called the GoLite Blu, which is made by Apollo Health but has the Philips brand on it (Philips Respironics bought Apollo in 2007).

The GoLite has been out for a while and uses something called Bluewave technology. Philips describes the glow the GoLite produces as a low-intensity blue light (470nm), but it's actually quite intense at the brightest setting. You're not supposed to look directly at the device, but instead shine it more at the side of your face for about 15-30 minutes a day (you can adjust the timer as well as the intensity of the light).

According to Philips, "using the right wavelength of light, you can trigger your active hormones naturally, boosting your mood and overcoming those down feelings, whatever the season."… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Last year we reviewed a few new portable DTV units from no-name manufacturers that did OK in our tests, but fell short in terms of battery life and resolution. That's why we're intrigued with Philips' upcoming PET749, which combines a portable DVD player and DTV in a $179.99 (list) unit with a higher resolution 800x480 display.

While that's not HDTV resolution, it is a notch up from the 480x234-pixel resolution you see on many of the generic portable DTVs cropping up on Amazon and other sites (we reviewed the Envizen Digital Duo Box Pro ED8850A). … Read more

Philip McKinney is vice president and chief technology officer for the Personal Systems Group at Hewlett-Packard, where he oversees the group's long-range technical strategy and research and development. At the Showstoppers press event at CES, McKinney was walking around with a couple of new latops PCs and a new portable VGA pico projector.

Larry Magid and McKinney talked about these products, but Magid couldn't help but ask about HP's slate PC prototype that Microsoft Steve Ballmer showed off during his keynote address. McKinney wouldn't go into much detail about this unannounced product, but Magid got at … Read more