IKEA reinvents HDTV with Uppleva (video!)

IKEA is coming to the rescue of wives everywhere who are fed up with the endless mess of tangled wires in the living room with its Uppleva HDTV. Yes, IKEA is making it's own HDTV, and it's pretty wonderful. First, the tech: 1080p LED display, Wi-Fi-ready, 400Hz, FM radio, DIVX HD, with three USB inputs and four HDMI inputs as well. So, what makes this television so special? It's the fact that the actual display part is just that - a display. All of the goods are built into the surrounding furniture, which is also part of Uppleva. For example, the television also has a Blu-ray player built-in - but it's located beneath the monitor, in the console area. All the wiring is built into the furnite, so it's not visible.

You can add in your own components, of course, and the wiring is handled the same way, allowing everything to be neat and tidy. Also cool? There is a vast array of colors and designs. Uppleva is modular, so you can build it out in any way you see fit. Expect it to launch in the fall for 6,500 Swedish crowns (that's $960 to those of us in the USA.) Wanna get a peek at how it works? Check out the video after the break.

Click to continue reading IKEA reinvents HDTV with Uppleva (video!)

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Tversity Adds Entertainment Diversity to Your Wii, PS3 or Xbox 360

We can’t wait to try Tversity, free software that will add even more entertainment options to your already multi-tasking PS3, Wii, or Xbox 360. Tversity allows you to stream just about any multimedia from your PC to your TV via your gaming console. Basically, if it can be played on Windows Media Player, it can be played on TV. The software also allows you to stream internet media—audio, video, RSS feeds, podcasts and images—for television viewing. This can be done by entering websites of your choice, or using Tversity’s audio and video guides. And that’s only some of this freeware’s features! Sounds like exactly what we’ve been looking for. We’ll report back after giving Tversity a test run…

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TVersity

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Chip Chick

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DivX And The Future Of The Digital Home

Gear Live reader Davis Freeburg writes in:

As early adopters who’ve downloaded a DivX movie file know, their video file is second to none.  There is no unreasonable wait, the quality is fantastic and it’s highly portable throughout the home.  Born in the wild wild west of the P2P revolution, DivX has recently tried to shake their bad boy image for a more corporate look with a recent IPO.  In an interview with Jordan Greenhall, DivX’s CEO, he discusses the impact that piracy has played on their negotations with the studios, the future of DivX on the Xbox 360, the PS3 and the Wii and his plans to bring media convergence into the digital home.

One of our favorite quotes from the piece is Jordan talking about what it could mean if Microsoft added DivX playback to the Xbox 360:

The pressure would certainly be on and then it’s a matter of the politics of each organization. I would argue that on a pure market competitive basis, if Microsoft stepped up and put DivX on the Xbox, they would have a significant competitive advantage and the onus would be on to reduce that advantage by licensing DivX as well, but that doesn’t imply however the Sony would have the forethought to do it.

Read More | Jordan Greenhall Interview

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