Sony Leaves Rear-Projection TV Market

Sony is dropping its money-losing rear-projection TV business worldwide to focus on two flat panel technologies - liquid crystal display and organic light-emitting diode, the company said Thursday. According to Sony Corp. spokesman Shinji Obana, sales of rear-projection TVs had been declining recently as LCD TVs gain in popularity and get bigger. In October, Sony lowered its global sales forecast for rear-projection TVs - which uses a projector to create images on large screens - to 400,000 from 700,000, which is down from 1.1 million the previous fiscal year. By contrast, Sony expects to sell 10 million LCD TVs this fiscal year through March, up from 6.3 million the previous year.

Sony sells 85 percent of its rear-projection TVs in the U.S., and about 10 percent in Europe, according to Obana. Production at the three plants that make the rear-projection TVs in Japan, Mexico and Malaysia, will be halted, Obana said. The decision to abandon rear-projection TVs underlines Sony's strategy of focusing on LCDs and OLEDs at a time when competition is heating up in flat TVs.

Source: AP

Apple to Launch iPod with Automatic Volume Control

Listening to music non-stop has never been easier since the iPod came along. But future versions of Apple's MP3 player are to be adapted to prevent users from playing tracks at full blast through their earphones for too long. Amid growing fears that listeners could cause irreversible damage to their hearing - the highest setting is as loud as a chainsaw - Apple is developing an automatic volume control. A new patent reveals that the next iPods and iPhones could automatically calculate how long a person has been listening and at what volume, before gradually reducing the sound level. The device will also calculate the amount of "quiet time" between when the iPod is turned off and when it is restarted, allowing the volume to be increased again to a safe level. The patent states: "Since the damaging effect on users' hearing is both gradual and cumulative, even those users who are concerned about hearing loss may not behave in a manner that would limit or minimise such damaging effects."

Listening to volumes below 70 decibels is considered safe. But iPods can currently reach volumes of over 100 decibels - the equivalent to standing 10ft from a pneumatic drill - and enough to cause permanent damage after just 15 minutes. Some MP3 players can even exceed 120 decibels. In April, Apple revealed it had sold more than 100million iPods worldwide and was expecting, by the end of this year, to have sold more than 4.5million iPhones. Its patent application, however, is the first time Apple has acknowledged concerns over the risk the iPod poses to hearing and comes after a series of damning studies highlighted the potentially damaging effects. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) has led calls for restrained listening and claimed that many young people aged between 16- and 24-years-old are at risk of hearing damage from listening to loud music.

Source: Daily Mail