Haier America (?!) this week used CES as its platform for getting into the wireless MP3 player market. It unveiled a new line up of flash and hard drive based portable media players which make use of online services like Rhapsody to collect content wirelessly. This players are called the ibiza Rhapsody and it is available now in at least a 30GB hard drive model.The ibiza Rhapsody players for Haier let you, in summary, have “Wi-Fi enabled access to unlimited digital entertainment possibilities. With the ibiza Rhapsody, consumers can now enjoy the Rhapsody digital music service, AOL Video and other digital content from just about anywhere there’s an available Wi-Fi hotspot.” You can also directly subscribe to a variety of podcasts from the player and enjoy an integrated FM radio.
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I had a chance to meet with the nice people from Actiontec, who showed me their latest device, the zControl.The zControl is a “home management system” that allows you to control devices in your home such as the lights, powered shades, garage doors, even your thermostat!
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SE2 labs think that high-end custom installs are getting too complicated. If you go it alone you’ve got a bewildering array of choices when it comes to amplifiers, video processors, projectors, sound sources etc and that’s before you’ve tried to make them all talk to each other.
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bioMETRX has just dropped an announcement, saying that it will be launching the development of several new smartTOUCH products that will target consumer travel and residential markets later this year. According to Mark Basile, CEO of bioMETRX, “As consumer interest for fingerprint technology in everyday products increases, our product offerings will increase as well. Our primary goal is to take everyday consumer products and transform them for today’s lifestyle by incorporating the security and ease of use of our proprietary smartTOUCH finger activation technology. For example, identity theft through mailboxes has been a growing problem in the United States. Our smartBOX concept mailbox is being designed to solve this type of identify theft.”
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