Crave

(Credit: ILVE)

Can't be away from the TV screen for long?

Australia's ILVE has a solution for you: an LCD TV built into a rangehood.

While it's certainly not the most heinous attempt at integrating a home appliance with electronics, I honestly can't think of a worse way to watch TV: standing over a hot stove and craning my neck ceilingward. Ouch.

Designed by Italian Marco Valerio Agretti, the Vela rangehood is stainless steel and glass and does fancy stove-assisting duties like increasing the interior fan's speed as the temperature over the stove rises, filtering out grease, and self-cleaning.

But the appliance seller is light on details when it comes to the LCD hardware. We do know it's a 10-inch LCD panel, and comes with a remote and RCA cable outlet and DVD input.

(Via Engadget)

Rear-projection is only popular in really big screen sizes.

(Credit: CNET)

A press release describing a new report (PDF) says that rear-projection HDTVs, including DLP-based microdisplays, now serve only a niche market of people who want 60-inch or larger televisions. The report by Quixel research shows that in the second quarter of this year, the 60-inch and larger screen sizes accounted for 86 percent of sales of all rear-projection HDTVs; up from 32 percent in 2007. The firm's spokesman says that the reason has to do value. "The market has changed and there is no value for 42-inch, 46-inch, and 50-inch MD RPTVs, but there is great value in the screen sizes above 60 inch," said Tamaryn Pratt, Quixel Research principal.

... Read more

In a time when CNET's two top-rated HDTVs of the year are Panasonic's TH-50PZ800U and Pioneer's PDP-5020FD, we have to wonder why a salesperson would recommend flat-panel LCD HDTVs at the rate that J.D. Power and Associates claims in a recent report.

Pioneer's Kuro PDP-5020FD, one of our top plasma HDTVs

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The report, which surveyed more than 2,000 shoppers on their experience in big-box electronic retailers, a specialty television retailer, a mass merchant, and a warehouse store, found that retail salespeople recommended LCDs over plasmas at a three-to-one rate.

Sure, plasmas have a long list of supposed failings: they're allegedly bulky and power hungry, and have image burn-in issues and leaks, and a short lifespan. However, most of these problems--image burn-in being the most common with early plasma sets--have been resolved on modern plasma displays.

According to the report, however, "37 percent of salespersons warned their customers that images may be permanently burned onto the screen of plasma TVs." The lifespan argument doesn't hold up either, as both LCD and plasma lifespan claims are basically the same now at 60,000 hours each. And, with LCDs still costing more at equivalent screen sizes, it's certainly convenient for retailers to promote the LCD technology over its less expensive rival.... Read more

As desktop PCs fall further out of favor in the U.S., peripheral manufacturers are having no problem picking up the slack elsewhere.

China is poised to pass the United States in just three years to become the second-largest market for flat-panel monitors, according to a report released Tuesday by DisplaySearch. DisplaySearch is a market research company that tracks the display business.

(Credit: ViewSonic)

The EMEA region (which refers to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) will continue to provide LCD monitor makers the most lucrative market, with just over 30 percent of all shipments heading there by 2011. Greater China will represent 22 percent of the worldwide monitor market, with the U.S. slipping to just under 18 percent of the market, according to DisplaySearch's latest Quarterly Desktop Monitor Shipment and Forecast Report. Asia Pacific follows at 15.6 percent, and Latin America at 12.2 percent.

The display business generated $107 billion last year, which includes LCD TVs, monitors, and notebook displays. Though monitors are the second-most profitable LCD application, they're actually the most popular in terms of number of units sold worldwide.

The desktop monitor market is driven largely by commercial purchases, as opposed to those by consumers. The U.S. is a mature market, and the upgrade process of switching to newer crops of LCD monitors is slower here than in a market such as China, where many businesses purchasing monitors over the next few years will be doing so for the first time.

Virgin Mobile USA will now offer a flat-rate, unlimited calling plan to compete with the big four cell phone operators in the U.S.

Starting July 1, the new prepaid service called "Totally Unlimited" will include free nationwide calling with no roaming charges for $79.99 a month. For $10 more a month, Virgin Mobile users can add unlimited text messaging, IM, e-mail and picture messaging.

Because it's a prepaid service, Virgin's customers won't need to sign a contract. And at $79.99--or $89.99 with the messaging plan--Virgin Mobile's plan is less expensive than most of the other flat-rate offerings on the market.

Verizon Wireless announced in February that it was offering a $99 plan for voice. AT&T and T-Mobile followed with their own plans, which cost $99 and include text messaging. Sprint Nextel then revealed its flat-rate service, which includes unlimited voice, text messaging, e-mail, Web surfing, video, and other premium services for $99 a month.

"'Totally Unlimited' for 79.99 per month is simply a better value than postpaid plans offer," Bob Stohrer, chief marketing officer for Virgin Mobile USA, said in a statement. "It is simply not necessary to sign a two-year contract to get real worth with your wireless plan."

Virgin's unlimited plan comes as the company struggles to grow its customer base. At the end of the last quarter, it reported its net additions fell by 94 percent.

In an effort to boost its customer base and compete more effectively with the bigger players, Virgin Mobile has supposedly been in talks to combine forces with another mobile virtual network operator called Helio. Virgin Mobile and Helio, which is owned by SK telecom and EarthLink, both use the Sprint Nextel network. Helio, which is geared toward tech-savvy hipsters, already offers flat rate plans.

Virgin Mobile, which addresses the cost-conscious youth market, also competes with regional providers like Leap Wireless International and MetroPCS Communications. These providers have been offering unlimited voice services for a long time. But because they are regional operators, they charge roaming fees when customers are outside their coverage areas.

The flat-panel TV industry is coming of age in the U.S. at a less-than-desirable time.

As energy costs, food prices, and mortgage defaults are on the rise, the first things to go for many consumers are luxury buys. Tightening one's budget can mean ruling out the purchase of a larger TV.

Vizio will face stiffer competition this year.

So what's an industry to do?

Give consumers more lower-priced options, according to Paul Gagnon, who monitors the television industry for DisplaySearch. He expects the top-tier TV brands (Samsung, Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, et al) to move in this direction, since TVs in smaller sizes and ones with fewer bells and whistles are going to be a lot more attractive during tougher economic times.

The current economic environment "puts pressure on brands to occupy that middle ground," Gagnon said. "It makes the focal point in the second half of the year on more aggressive price point products, like 32-inch LCD and plasma." LG put out the first 32-inch plasma last year.

Basically, if you shop for a television at Wal-Mart Stores, Circuit City, or Best Buy, your best bet is going to be on newer, smaller sizes because that's where much of the price competition between brands will be. And when TV vendors fight, we all win.

And though the top TV guys are going to be squabbling with each other over consumer dollars and jostling for position on store shelves in the next couple months, they'll at least be united in one purpose: attempting to take down Vizio. The upstart TV maker experienced unbridled success last year selling mainly through club stores and significantly undercutting the top-tier brands on price.

Everyone is gunning for Vizio--it's apparent in both the price competition, and in the snide remarks and left-handed compliments the marketing execs of the traditional top brands make at TV industry conferences. But Vizio isn't alone. Syntax-Brillian (under the Olevia brand) and Westinghouse are also making inroads into territory occupied by the top names in electronics.

"As flat panel transitions to a mainstream, mature category, big brands are looking at more entry-level markets," said Gagnon. "Sony, Samsung are certainly going to try to play head to head with Vizio on their turf. Price points will get pretty aggressive."

Sony actually started this a year ago, when it launched a specific line of TVs for Target and Wal-Mart. The experiment has gone well, as Sony has already said it's expanding the number of models it will sell through those channels this year.

The average price difference on similar models and screen size between Vizio and the mainstream brands was $200 last year, according to DisplaySearch. Competitors will try to narrow that price advantage to $100 this year, and cross their fingers that having a brand name will help them recapture market share.

(Credit: Appliancist)

Stoves may not immediately come to mind when you think of cool gadgets, but that perception could change when you see the Izona CookSurface from New Zealand-based Fisher & Paykel. The colors alone make it look like something out of Tron. An LED indicator tells you how hot the burner is, according to Appliancist, and beside that there are dials to control the flame. But the coolest feature isn't digital at all: The pan supports retract. This means that, when not in use, the CookSurface looks entirely flat. The result is much more surface area to do stuff like cut your vegetables and, of course, impress anyone touring your kitchen.

(Source: Crave Asia)

If you've been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to own the thinnest flat-panel LCD TV, now's your chance.

Hitachi's 1.5 LCDs are just that thick.

(Credit: Hitachi)

Though already available in Asia, the 1.5-inch-thick TVs from Hitachi are now available in the U.S. The sets come in three different screen sizes, 32 inches, 37 inches, and 42 inches.

One of the secrets, by the way, of how Hitachi managed to slim down the TVs so much is that they took out the ATSC tuner. And although it is definitely the thinnest LCD TV, it's downright bloated when compared to Sony's impossibly thin OLED TV, which measures a mere 3 millimeters thick.

See my colleague David Katzmaier's take on the latest TV from Hitachi here.

Panasonic has been tapped to pinch-hit for Pioneer.

The two television makers said Wednesday they had come to an agreement in which Panasonic will produce the panels for Pioneer's plasma televisions.

(Credit: Pioneer)

The news comes a month after reports surfaced that Pioneer was pulling out of the plasma business. When Pioneer confirmed it would be finding someone who could make the panels more inexpensively than it could, there was a sense of dismay and disappointment among fans of its Kuro technology. Pioneer plasma TVs are generally regarded by experts--including CNET Reviews' David Katzmaier--as having the blackest black levels of any TV on the market.

In a joint statement, the two companies said they will build a new type of panel that integrates Pioneer's Kuro technology and Panasonic's NeoPDP, which it currently uses in its Viera TVs. Panasonic will have the panels sporting the new, combined technology ready for Pioneer by the second half of 2009.

Panasonic is the largest producer of plasma TVs, so the panels should be more affordable for Pioneer, which is trying to cut costs. Neither has said how much the panels will cost.