Electronista is reporting today that Syabas, the company behind the Popcorn Hour media hub, will be showing off the newly dubbed Popbox at the upcoming CES event, a media hub that should surpass the Popcorn Hour in every way thanks to a newly finished user interface overhaul.
The new interface includes “infopops” which show off the weather, Twitter feeds, and other data. The interface also includes a cover-flow-esque visual thumbnails selection for videos, music and other data, as well as universal search.
More notably, the interface can handle Flash, Java and QT meaning Netflix is now available. Also available is Hulu, CBS and ABC content, which can now include the in-video ads required for playback. Facebook, Twitter, Shoutcast MP3, Revision3 and other Popcorn Hour content will rollover to the new box.
For video, full 1080p at 100Mbps is now supported, along with the standard MPEG formats, H.264, VC-1, WMV, MKV, XviD and other containers. The player can also support most subtitle files, including Microsoft’s proprietary one. For streaming, the Popbox can recognize iTunes via Bonjour, and DLNA and UPnP sources.
The device has no built-in storage but has USB ports and an SD slot.
The Popbox should be available in March and will cost just $130 USD.
Pics via Electronista:
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Sony has announced the price of its first ever touchscreen Walkman media players, part of the NX-X1000 series.
The NW-X1050, which will hit Japan on April 25th, will sell for $400 USD and has 16GB of built-in flash memory while its higher capacity brother, the NW-X1060, will sell for $500 USD and will include 32GB of memory.
Each player supports Wi-Fi and will allow playback of YouTube videos and the downloading of podcasts. Also of note, the players have integrated FM and 1Seg TV tuners and will allow recording of content if broadcasters support it.
The media players have nice OLED touchscreens and for audio support AAC, MP3 and WMA. For video files, MPEG-4, H.264 and WMV are supported.
EX earphones are bundled with each player and offer integrated noise reduction.
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LG has showed off two new plasma HDTVs dubbed the Xcanvas bobos 42PQ60D and 50PQ60D. The larger model boasts an unprecedented 1,000,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a 600Hz refresh rate.
Both models have built-in USB ports that allow users to playback many file types including WMV and DivX videos.
According to the source, “speakers are built into either TV, each of which is just over 3 inches thick. For efficient energy use, an ambient light sensor will dim the backlight of each set as conditions dictate, and the feature is said to reduce as much as 60 percent of a conventional plasma HDTV’s energy use.”
The TVs are set for release in Korea beginning mid-February with prices equivalent to $1,022 and $1,460 USD, respectively. There was no word on whether the TVs will have North American or European releases.
