BUSINESS
March 7, 2012 | By Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Finally, iTunes and the Apple TV set-top box will now be able to stream video in full, 1080p high definition. The update to full HD, from 720p resolution video, was announced Wednesday by way of a software update to iTunes and a refreshed Apple TV box -- each introduced alongside the day's thunder stealer, the new Apple iPad . The new Apple TV looks just like the old Apple TV -- on the outside, they are the same. On the inside, in the guts of the little black hockey puck of a device, the latest generation has one notable difference: its processor.
BUSINESS
February 21, 2012 | By Nathan Olivarez-Giles, Los Angeles Times
Ever yell at your TV? Well, someday soon, it's going to talk back. In what could be the biggest boost to couch potatoes since the remote control, Google Inc. is developing a technology that would allow a viewer to tell a TV, by voice, to change the channel or even seek out a favorite show or movie. No more having to get off the sofa to look for a remote. Soon, TVs may even reply to your commands, like the new Siri-enabled iPhones. The first steps of making all this a reality are already being taken by some of the biggest names in the tech industry: Google, Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc., Microsoft Corp.
BUSINESS
February 11, 2012 | By Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
Chinese consumers are buying 3-D television sets in record numbers. But they may have nothing more exciting than cooking shows to watch. The Chinese government inaugurated the nation's first officially sanctioned 3-D TV channel last month, on the first day of the new Year of the Dragon. At the same time, however, the government's effort to eliminate TV's "vulgar" and "immoral" influences cut prime-time entertainment programming by 70%. According to the government, the 3-D channel heralds a "new milestone in the history of the development of broadcasting and television in China.
ENTERTAINMENT
December 18, 2011 | By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times Television Critic
In the beginning was the television set, and everything that was called television came through it from out of the air, antenna to antenna. Then the pictures began to arrive by cable and satellite, and that was television too. And then the Internet rolled in, with its viral clips and webisodes, and a growing number of new gadgets vied to do what your TV did - your telephone, your tablet, your Roku or your Xbox, each with its own new opportunity....
ENTERTAINMENT
July 2, 2011 | By Chris Erskine, Los Angeles Times
The things my father laughed at, I laugh at. I was reminded of this recently when I read of Peter Falk's passing. Like to think they're up there somewhere, chewing on life and cigars, both of them in their rumpled overcoats. I still have my father's old overcoat, which I wear once, maybe twice a winter in L.A., weather willing. You know, when it plunges into the low-70s. Falk was hilarious in "The In-Laws," but his most real and human work was done in that Columbo overcoat.
BUSINESS
February 4, 2011 | By Nathan Olivarez-Giles, Los Angeles Times
Most TV manufacturers may have given up on plasma technology, but the public has not. Shipments of plasma sets jumped nearly 30% worldwide last year, to 19.1 million from 14.8 million the year before, according to research firm DisplaySearch. The reason: price. Plasma sets are "the most affordable large flat-panel TVs for many consumers," said DisplaySearch in releasing its survey Thursday. Forty-two-inch HDTV plasma sets commonly can be found for less than $500 in retail outlets, and 50-inch models often sell for about $600.