The Creative Xdock Wireless unveiled

At Consumers Electronic Show (CES 2007), Creative, a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products has made one of the biggest announcements of this year mainly focused on streaming music around your home. Creative has unveiled a device the Creative Xdock Wireless, which docks an iPod and plays music beyond cd quality via Creative X-Fi Wireless Receivers. The Xdock Wireless can be directly connected to a powered speaker system or home theater to display photos and play video or music in DTS surround-sound. So, in the crowd of I-Pods Creative seems to dominate with their X-factor.
While the official launch of the product Sim Wong Hoo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Creative, said, “We designed the Creative Xdock Wireless so an iPod can easily become the audio platform for your entire home. Your iPod goes in the Creative Xdock Wireless to play music through Creative X-Fi Wireless Receivers in as many rooms as you want - all upconverted to Xtreme Fidelity.”

Creative has equipped the Xdock Wireless with an analog audio input for other MP3 players and audio devices to take advantage of the integrated audio processing. It is also provided with an USB input. Along with that Xdock Wireless is also equipped with S-Video and composite video outputs.
The Creative Xdock Wireless is available in two prototypes, one is the latest Zen Vision media player which is designed for use with iPod video, iPod photo, iPod mini, and iPod Nano, will be available for $200 and the other will be specially designed for Apple’s video-enabled iPods. The Creative X-Fi Wireless Receiver will be available for $149. Both the products will be available in March this year.

Verizon Wireless launches V-cast Mobile Television Service

America’s second largest cell phone operator, Verizon Wireless announced Sunday it is planning a new service, V Cast Mobile TV, which will help people on-the-go to watch TV programs. The service is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2007.
With initial launch planned in several major U.S. markets, the ad-supported service will offer live content and other programming 24 hours a day from CBS, Comedy Central, Fox, MTV, NBC News, NBC Entertainment and Nickelodeon. Other content providers, including ESPN, are expected to join the lineup, the company said, which will take the total number of channels to ultimately 20.

The company will be partnering with MediaFLO USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, to deliver the content. MediaFLO USA operates a dedicated multicast network that delivers programming in a linear format.The service will be accessible on new V CAST Mobile TV handsets through a dedicated V Cast Mobile TV key.

John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Verizon Wireless, told a news conference at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show the service is intended to provide something for everyone. It will be in a TV-format.
The company did not reveal pricing details for the service. Samsung and LG Electronics will be initially making the handsets for the service. The handsets, the Samsung SCH u620 and the LG VX9400, will also have features like V Cast Music, V Cast Video, Mobile Web 2.0SM and Get It Now capabilities. The Samsung SCH-u620 will feature a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, Bluetooth support and enhanced speech recognition with dictation for multimedia messaging. The LG VX9400 also has Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera, integrated speakerphone and an external memory expansion slot for music, pictures and video clips.
Verizon Wireless already offers on-demand video clips via its V CAST multimedia network, but the MediaFLO service will be the carrier’s first live mobile television offering.