LAS VEGAS, USA (AVING Special Report on ‘CES 2009′) — Samsung Electronics unveils its new flagship full-HD digital camcorder ‘HMX-H106′ at CES 2009, which features an internal 64GB Solid State Drive(SSD).

Samsung’s renowned SSD technology offers a substantial advantage over the use of Hard Disk Drives (HDD) in a digital camcorder, providing consumers with higher performing and more durable internal memory. In comparison to HDD, Samsung’s SSD technology is more lightweight and compact, operates silently with very low heat emission, and features no moving parts, which significantly reduces overall power consumption and enhances reliability. No moving parts also make SSD technology more durable and resistant to shock and vibrations, which pose a considerable thr…

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SEOUL, Korea (AVING) — Samsung Electronics and Yahoo announced a new Internet-based service to Samsung televisions available in the spring of 2009. Select models in Samsung’s 2009 flat-panel HDTV line-up will be powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine, a fifth-generation applications platform that enables TV watchers to interact with and enjoy a rich set of TV Widgets.

TV Widgets make it easy to interact with Internet content and services to complement and enhance the traditional TV viewing experience. The lightweight Javascript and XML applications bring content, information and community features available on the Internet within easy reach of the remote control. The new televisions will be displayed at CES 2009 in Samsung’s booth.

Select models in Sam…

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LAS VEGAS, USA (AVING Special Report on ‘CES 2009′) — Samsung Electronics expects to reveal its fitting wall mounting system for these new generation of ultra-thin LED backlit LCD HDTVs at CES 2009, which really start to look like a normal picture frame when hung on a wall. The company promises to reduce wall damage considerably with this new mounting system and Samsung’s new ultra-slim LED TV.

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SEOUL, Korea (AVING) — Lenovo unveils the latest additions to its Idea brand of personal computers for consumers at CES 2009.

(Picture: Lenovo’s latest IdeaPad Y Series laptop ‘Y650′ expected to be unveiled at CES 2009)

The new PCs push the envelope in the pursuit of thinner and more stylish designs, and combine these attributes with unique features like facial recognition and high-definition entertainment technologies to give consumers a computing experience like no other.

There are four new IdeaPad laptops – the IdeaPad Y650, one of the thinnest and lightest 16-inch laptops, the Y550 and Y450 laptops with a similar family design to the Y650, and one of the thinnest all-in-one desktop PCs, the IdeaCentre A6002. With the explosive growth of …

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SEOUL, Korea (AVING Special Report on ‘Hi Seoul Winter Festival’) — Insadong, a favorite shopping spot among foreigners, usually refers to the area from Anguk-dong Rotary to Tapgol Park in Jongno 2-ga, past the Insadong Intersection. The notable features of Insadong are the countless alleys that branch out from the main street.

Over forty percent of the nation’s antique stores are in Insadong. The antiques sold tend to be more valuable than those sold on other art streets in Korea. Most of the stores sell old books, pictures, calligraphy and traditional Korean ceramic ware.

On weekends, Insadong is closed to vehicular traffic. Insadong takes on the appearance of a flea market where antiques, accessories, artworks and books are sold and bought.

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NEW YORK, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ — Web software company, W&R Studios,
announced today that it will be launching a new free social bookmarking site
dubbed, Dwellicious. The new site will allow consumers to bookmark properties
from around the web and learn more about the property’s valuation, surrounding
neighborhood, and schools.

Dwellicious “smart” bookmarks will update users with any changes that are
made to the property such as price, new photos, or whether the property has
gone off the market. Bookmarked properties can also be monitored via an RSS
feed.

Dwellicious will also make it easy for consumers to share and discuss
their bookmarked properties with friends, family, or real estate professionals
with one click sharing to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

“Dwellicious is a simple but powerful idea,” stated Dan Wo…

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Growing Portfolio of Autodesk Creative Tools for Mac OS X

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — To coincide with the annual Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) announced today that it has expanded its portfolio of Macintosh 2D and 3D software tools for entertainment, multimedia and design professionals. The three new 2009 products for Mac OS X are Autodesk Toxik procedural compositing software, Autodesk Mudbox digital sculpting and texture painting software, and Autodesk ImageModeler image-based modeling and photogrammetry software. As well, 2009 versions of Autodesk Maya 3D modeling, animation and ren…

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CHICAGO, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ — InStep Software, LLC, a leading provider
of real-time software products and solutions, announced today that Minnesota
Power, a division of Duluth, Minn.-based ALLETE, Inc, has selected InStep’s
eDNA historian software to support their enterprise power delivery reporting,
asset health monitoring and analysis needs.

The eDNA product suite will integrate with several critical power delivery
systems and applications including their EMS, IT assets, and substation
equipment. The software will be used to collect, store, display and report
this information to a wide variety of users throughout the company. The
software will be implemented in a redundant high availability configuration
and will support secure access by users.

Minnesota Power’s Tom Chambers says, “We look forward to working with
InStep as w…

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Integration and Convergence Significantly Enhance the Consumer Entertainment and Connectivity Experience in the Home

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — 2009 International CES — Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that it will showcase a variety of new technologies for digital video, wireless and mobile communications devices to advance the concept of a fully connected digital home at this week’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Broadcom(R) technology is designed to enhance the way consumers use consumer electronics (CE) devices to share digital content throughout the home, and its demonstrations at CES will touch all facets of the home entertainment ecosystem.

“Our message at CES is clear - the time has come to combine the television with the Interne…

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- 2009 Suzuki SX4: First car priced below ,000 with standard

navigation

- Suzuki’s consumer base of ‘confident explorers’ made more confident with the help of Microsoft and Garmin

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ — Having appeared on several prestigious consumer automotive industry lists in 2008, including Kelley Blue Book’s “Top 10 Coolest Cars Under ,000,” Suzuki’s SX4 generates a state-of-the-art buzz at this year’s Las Vegas-based Consumer Electronics Show (CES), beginning January 8.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060829/LATU016LOGO-c)

The SX4 adds a fully integrated standard navigation system for the 2009 model year, marking the first time…

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According to Verizon filings with the SEC, their acquisition of Alltel will close on January 9. Verizon will pay .9 billion and acquire .2 billion in Alltel debt, but will be acquiring about 13 million customers — creating the largest wireless phone company in the country, with 83 million customers (AT&T has 74.9 million, Sprint has 50.5 million, and T-Mobile has 32.1 million). Verizon has stated they will retain some call center positions after the acquisition, but many redundant positions at Alltel will be eliminated.
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User uid://1118311 submits this Torrent Freak report, which profiles a new startup named Spotify, a product from the developer of uTorrent. According to TorrentFreak, Spotify was created by some of the money made when uTorrent was sold to BitTorrent — the idea being to create a competitor to piracy. The service streams 160kbps quality MP3s immediately from a huge catalog of major label music, in part using P2P technology. From creator Andres Sehr:

The service doesn’t work with iPods or other media players, which doesn’t strike us as much of a piracy alternative, though the social music-sharing aspects of the service look promising. Since it was in closed beta in the U.S., some users note you may be able to successfully sign up if using a UK proxy server.
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The Chicago Tribune is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Sprint and Clearwire’s Mobile WiMax offering, citing a mid-to-late 2009 launch date for “Clear” in the windy city. That’s a shift from repeated reports that both Chicago and Washington DC would go live shortly after the launch of XOHM in Baltimore. “Clear” and “XOHM” will ultimately become one product as part of Sprint and Clearwire’s joint venture, which aims to reach 140 million people within thirty months. The completion of the network will be greatly aided by a .2 billion cash infusion from Comcast (.05 billion), Intel ( billion), Time Warner Cable (0 million), Google (0 million), and Bright House Networks (0 million.)
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Timothy Butler of Open For Business e-mails us to note he’s done a little digging, and found that AT&T has been downgrading its EDGE/2G service to the weaker 1900 MHz band. While 3G/HSDPA customers won’t care, EDGE/2G was previously using the 850 MHz band, which provided better coverage, particularly indoors. Sure, upgrading your network to faster speeds is great, but there’s still a lot of traditional 2G/EDGE customers under long-term contract out there (including first gen iPhone, RAZR and Blackberry users) who may find they’re now seeing slightly less robust coverage. AT&T’s solution, of course, is to push customers toward newer gear that supports HSDPA.

Update: An AT&T tech writes in with his thoughts:

Update 2:Author Timothy Butler responds:

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Back in 2007, the government announced it would be giving each household in the United States two coupons to help pay for digital adapters, made necessary by the February 17, 2009 transition from analog to digital television. According to the Associated Press, there’s still millions of households unprepared for the shift, yet the program funding these subsidies is almost out of cash. The NTIA had a .34 billion funding ceiling for the program, and is now saying that unless they get more cash, they’ll have to start putting consumers on a waiting list.

Anybody willing to bail out the government’s digital conversion program?
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