3D Box Office Revenue More than Doubled in 2010

According to a study done by iSuppli, the global box-office revenue for 3D movies in 2010 more than doubled to $6.1 billion, up from $2.5 billion generated in 2009. The 3D format launched in 2005. The international market accounted for $3.9 billion, or 63.9 percent of the market, up from 53.8 percent in 2009. The rest of the 3D movie market, or 36.1 percent is represented by North America, including the United States and Canada. The surge in international 3D box office revenue was almost threefold, up from $1.4 billion in 2009, driven by a corresponding hike in investment of digital 3D technology by key international exhibitors, in tandem with the influx in new 3D movie releases.

3D surged in cinema last year

More than 30,000 3D screens now exist in the world as of June 2011, more than double the number at the same point last year; at least one in four of the world’s screens are now 3D-capable. The global market still is dominated by U.S. products, which accounted for more than 90 percent of revenues coming from international 3D screens.

Edimax Launches 3G-6218n 150Mbps Wireless 3G Portable Router

Edimax Technology has announced the launch of the 3G-6218n 150Mbps Wireless 3G Portable Router in India. One of the main features of this model is that users can create a Wi-Fi hotspot wherever a 3G connection is available.

The 3G-6218n has a built-in battery, 3G/3.5G support, as well as cable/xDSL Internet support. The 3G-6218n Wireless 3G Router allows converting an Internet connection from either a 3G/3.5G USB modem card or a cable/xDSL modem into a Wi-Fi network. When both these options are not available, users can share an Internet connection via a smartphone with Internet tethering capability.

Edimax Launches New Router

This enables users of major smartphone manufacturing companies like - iPhone, HTC, Blackberry, Nokia; and Sony Ericsson to create their instant Wi-Fi hotspots. The router also consists of an inbuilt rechargeable Li-ion battery, which allows up to 4 hours of wireless connectivity to multiple users in case an electrical outlet is unavailable.

• A few features of this router are:
• Smartphone Internet tethering capability
• 3G/3.5G and Cable/xDSL support
• 3G/3.5G and Cable/xDSL connection fail over
• Built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery
• Green Ethernet technology
• Hardware WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button
• 1 x 10/100Mbps Ethernet port for WAN or LAN
• 1 x USB port for 3G/3.5G USB modems
• Compatible with IEEE 802.11b/g/n standards

Creative Creates Multi-Core Sound Core3D Processor

The sound card business doesn’t see the same level of development as the GPU market, for example. This has been the case over the last couple of years with only a few vendors designing cards and audio processors. Most users seem content with the quality on onboard audio solutions on motherboards these days. Taking the processor approach, Creative has designed a new multi-core audio and voice processor called Sound Core3D.

More processing power thanks to four cores onboard the processor.

The solution will be available as an external device and an integrated chip on Creative’s vendor devices which can also include consumer electronics. Gigabyte is one of these vendors who will be using the chip on some of their solutions in the future. The chip is based on a 56-pin QFP package. The Sound Core3D chip uses four cores, 4 and 6-channel audio 24-bit DACs and even a headphone amplifier output. There is support for the usual digital outputs as well as a digital microphone in. The APU has been designed in conjunction with THX. The chip also has the usual set of enhancements for echo cancellation, noise reduction and normalization of audio.

A Hands-On of LG's Cinema FPR 3D TV

3D is back and it’s bigger than ever before. This is not the first time the world has witnessed the wonders of 3D. In the earlier half of this decade, graphics card manufacturers started bundling 3d glasses to be used with their graphics cards and monitors. Things weren’t impressive and the hype quickly died out. 3D Cinema Zone at the LG Headquarters Now, close to a decade later, things have been heating up again. Watching movies in 3D at cinemas is a common thing. At home however, things are somewhat different. TVs are still pretty expensive and the technology hasn’t matured as yet. LG invited us to their headquarters in the heart of Seoul, South Korea to get our hands on the technology itself. The demonstration at their Cinema 3D Experience Zone was to highlight the weaknesses of the shutter glass and the advantages of using passive glasses. The scene so far 3D TVs are still expensive and the content isn’t available yet. Quite a lot of people seem to get headaches after watching 3D content for more than 15 minutes or so. There are a few issues with the current active shutter glasses that are used by most manufacturers other the obvious headache issues. The 3D glasses being used are somewhat heavy because of the batteries and the circuitry required in the glasses themselves. Wearing them for long periods of time can get a little tiring. Active shutter glasses turning dark when placed sideways There are some other issues as well. The polarized glasses also block out a lot of the light which means that the TV needs to be even brighter. There’s also the problem of flicker which causes the headaches. Crosstalk is another issue where the two images being rendered leak into one another, which causes a kind of blurring which can be really annoying as well. LG's new 3D FPR Technology LG has designed a new technology to counter the problems being faced by early adopters of 3D. It’s called FPR (Film-type Patterned Retarder). LG has chosen to go with a somewhat simpler approach where passive 3D glasses are used. There isn’t a need for batteries anymore and there are electronics in the glasses themselves. Most of the work is done by the display itself. Because of the way the FPR technology functions, brightness levels are a lot better than expected. LG's FPR display with passive glasses still work when placed sideways The TVs based on the new technology will be tagged as Cinema 3D TVs. There hasn’t been an official date for the launch of the TVs in India or any sort of pricing, but we can only hope to see it here within the next six months or so.