Many-Faceted Speaks: 360-Degree Speakers Pump Out Sweet Sounds from Anywhere in the Room

from Gizmodo by Charlie White

Here's a wild idea for a design concept: put together a speaker with 12 sides, otherwise known as a dodecahedron, and you'll get a 360-degree blast of music. These spacey-looking Quasar speakers send their sound all over the place, so no matter where you are in the room, their sweet audio will be spilling out from within their crystalline confines, heading right for your ears.

Designers Emanuele Patton & Michele Menescardi dreamed up these delectable dozen-sided baubles, where the idea is you can place these non-directional speakers wherever you want, and you won't be able to tell where the sound is coming from.

We're not sure how this will affect what audiophiles like to call the "soundstage," but if these babies sound anywhere near as good as they look, they'll probably kick some serious ass. If JVC or whoever else actually decides to build them, that is. [Yanko Design] http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2007/08/27/360-degree-speaker/

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Copyright Protection To Move From Cable To In-Home Networks

from GigaOM by Om Malik

An arcane little agreement between Hollywood studios, consumer electronics companies and CableLabs — the industry group that helps set the technology standards for the cable operators — could have long-term ramifications for how we (the people) consume digital content inside our homes.

The agreement centers on Digital Transmission Copy Protection over IP technology (DTCP-IP), which is meant to protect content that comes over digital cable and is then pushed around over in-home IP networks.

The approval permits CableLabs licensees under DFAST, CHILA, and DCAS to protect pay-per-view and video-on-demand transmissions against unauthorized copying and unauthorized Internet retransmission, while assuring consumers’ ability to record broadcast and subscription programming, in digital formats, for personal use.

DTCP is the creation of DTLA, also known as “5C,” after the five companies that got together in 1998 and proposed the standard. Hitachi, Intel (INTC), Matsushita (MC), Sony (SNE) and Toshiba came to together to jointly develop the DTCP technology for the protection of audiovisual and audio content against unauthorized interception or retransmission in the digital home environment. (More on their Wikipedia page.)

All the parties involved are spinning it like this is a great thing for the consumer, but whenever incumbents and Hollywood are involved in something, there is a good chance the consumer is getting shafted. If you have any additional insights, please let us know via the comments section. Of course, you can always email us.

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Boston’s Uncommon Angels

from GigaOM by François Schiettecatte

A few weeks ago I was invited to attend a CommonAngels breakfast. CommonAngels is a Boston based group of angel investors and these breakfasts take place every six weeks to hear presentations from entrepreneurs looking to have their ideas funded. Members of CommonAngels are allowed to bring a guest along and I was lucky to be invited.

CommonAngels is composed of 70 private investors and several dozen limited partners in two co-investment funds. This group is fairly unique in that they have a small permanent staff of three people who manage the group, taking care of the putting the breakfasts together, managing the deal-flow, due diligence, board memberships, and so on.

This group is self selected. To join, you need to fulfill certain criteria and go through an approval process. Since its inception in 1998, CommonAngels has funded 33 companies with over $37 million from CommonAngels and over $100 million from co-investors. Rounds are typically in the half to one million dollar range, but can go higher.

They take a very hands on approach to the funding process, and will only fund companies in their areas of expertise. Entrepreneurs present their plans at these breakfasts where the group asks questions and critique the plan.

If a company was funded by CommonAngels and needs bridge or continuation funding, they can present again and the board member will take part in the presentation. If there is interest in funding the company, the group puts together a due diligence committee to dig deeper into the company and the plan. If the company is funded, the group is present on the board.

What is interesting here is that this group is very hands on and involves itself very intimately in the company and its development, rather than just “throwing money over the wall.”

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Pano Logic's Pano: virtual XP or Vista in a box

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Check it CIOs, Pano Logic just announced their new Pano virtualization device which brings XP and Vista to your users without the need of a PC. According to the feisty startup, their new virtualization solution can cut your Total Cost of Ownership by 70% for a promised savings of $3,200 per desktop over three years. While you can ace the desktop PC, you'll still have to make the initial investment of $20 per month per device (one per user) with perpetual licenses available. The Pano device has no CPU, memory, operating system or drivers -- at least not in the way those items are typically perceived by your IT staff. A "Pano Logic chip" manages the virtualization. In other words: no client-side malware or hiccups for fewer deskside visits -- everything is managed centrally from your VMWare Server installation. The device does pack the required jacks for a VGA display (up to 1600 x 1200 pixels supported), USB keyboard and Mouse (3x total USB), 10/100Mbps Ethernet, and a pair of mini-jacks for audio in/out. Of course, the system is entirely dependent upon lickity quick, uncongested pipes so if you're sporting a latency above 5-ms, you can forget about Pano's virtualization. Check out the business minded, ass-end of the Pano after the break. [Via PCMag]

Continue reading Pano Logic's Pano: virtual XP or Vista in a box

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Chinese Solar Cos. Post Mixed Quarterly Results

from Earth2Tech by Adena DeMonte

Speaking of solar buzz, this week a couple of the big solar players from China released their second-quarter financials, with mixed results.

Shares of China Sunergy (CSUN) tumbled more than 20% Friday after the solar cell manufacturer, which went public in May, said it swung to net loss of $3.54 million in the latest quarter. In the same period a year earlier, the company posted a profit of $1.84 million. China Sunergy blamed tight polysilicon supply, which it expects to continue throughout 2008, for the loss. Despite higher revenues, the cost of goods sold more than doubled to $53.5 million, compared with $24.6 million in the year-ago quarter. Separately, China Sunergy said CFO James Shaofeng Qi has resigned from the company for "personal reasons."

But Trina Solar (TSL), a Chinese solar panel maker, did well this quarter. The company took in $7.2 million in net income compared with $1.13 million in the prior year, thanks in part to strong sales in Europe. When it comes to polysilicon supply, Trina says they've entered into contracts covering some 90 percent and 60 percent of their 2007 and 2008 feedstock requirements, respectively.

Earlier this month, Suntech Power (STP), another Chinese solar cell manufacturer, reported second-quarter net income of $41.3 million, up from $26.5 million a year ago. JA Solar (JASO) of Hebei, China, reported second-quarter net earnings of $9.99 million vs. $2.33 million in the comparable period in 2006.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting on Solar EnerTech (SOENE) to release its latest results. The Shanghai-based company, whose shares are Bulletin Board traded, said today that it's going to be late filing its financial report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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