T&A: As trends go, the success of recent 3-D movies like Avatar and Up, makes for a compelling reason for TV networks to jump on the bandwagon. Sports network ESPN has announced that it will launch the world’s first 3-D TV network called ESPN 3-D.

A 3-D production camera used by ESPN for the Ohio State college football telecast taken on Sept 12, 2009 in the Ohio Stadium in Columbus (a.k.a. The Horseshoe).

The first planned telecast is the 2010 FIFA World Cup match between South Africa and Mexico on June 11, and will follow up with 24 World Cup matches in 3-D over the following weeks. The network plans to broadcast a minimum of 85 live sporting events on the channel over the year.

Other planned 3-D broadcasts include the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, college basketball and football contests.

Separately, Reuters reported that documentary network Discovery has joined ranks with Sony Corp and IMAX to launch a dedicated 3-D channel in the US in 2011. Expect the three-way partnership network to feature documentaries in natural history, space, exploration and adventure.

Despite all these announcements from the different networks, you might wonder if viewers at home are equipped with the right tools to enjoy the 3-D experience at all. Basically, TV sets need to be 3-D ready and viewers need special glasses to merge the stereoscopic signals from these broadcasts. Until we hear more, the jury’s out on this one for now.

Paolo Manzano, Managing Editor, HWM Philippines

Paolo (HWM Philippines): 3-D TV is an interesting concept. I have personally seen a rough approximation of the technology thanks to NVIDIA’s 3-D Vision. I imagine that the experience, in this case, would be roughly the same.

However, at least in the context of the Philippines, 3-D is quite a long time away for the mainstream consumer. As it is, while LCD and even LED panels have been enjoying brisk sales, the impetus towards providing consumers with massive HD content in the form of affordable Blu-ray players and consoles, media such as Blu-ray discs and games, as well as the all important HD TV broadcasts are still in infancy and lacking far behind what is available in developed countries. This needs to catch up first before consumers can even begin thinking of a world in 3-D.

Another barrier of entry is pricing, not only of the panels, but also of the glasses needed to create the effect. The initial costs for a family of five to enjoy a 3-D movie on Saturday nights are staggering, with perhaps the TV coming in at USD$2,500 to USD$3,000 and the glasses being priced at around USD$100-150 each.

This does not include the costs of enjoying media such as a live 3-D broadcast or a set top box that can actually read and decode the necessary signals needed for the effect.

When hardware is replaced by AR - check out some interfacing ideas of the future (image source: techon.nikkeibp.co.jp)

T&A: Nikkei Tech-On has a feature on augmented reality (AR), which is not to be confused with virtual reality (VR).

VR is basically turning what is real-world into virtual environments (a movie like Tron and Second Life come to mind).

AR, basically, is layering computer information over what we see in the real-world, such as when a weatherman talks about the weather in front of a green screen, or when custom officers read biometric info over transit passengers.

We’ve been seeing quite a lot of AR-related news of late, particularly from games and toys. However, what differentiates AR to VR these days, is that AR seems to be built around human activities more. (more…)

T&A: If you’re ever transiting or visiting Bangkok, at least you now know you’ve got free Wi-Fi at the Suvarnabhumi international airport. Earlier this year, the airport installed a planned 126 new Internet kiosks around the airport, featuring 10Mbps speeds for tourists.

The free Wi-Fi service, however, goes up to 1Mbps and is accessible from the Concourses and Baggage Claim Areas within the Passenger Terminal building. Passengers have to show their boarding passes at Airport Information Counters before being given a username and password.

If they wish to access free Wi-Fi elsewhere in the vicinity, they will have to buy special Internet cards from the service provider Milcom — either online, via WLANNet or from any Milcom retail agents in the duty-free area. For this service, the rate’s at 250 Baht (USD 7.47) per hour of usage, and passengers can buy services for 1-3 hours of usage.

In the region, both Singapore Changi International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport also provide free high-speed wireless Internet services.

T&A: Knowledge at Wharton has released a feature predicting a possible shake-out in the social media network space.

Basically, with Facebook’s recent purchase of FriendFeed, Friendster’s refocus on the APAC region and MySpace.com owner NewsCorp reshuffling some execs, there’s buzz that this could be the first signs of a shake-out.

According to Wharton, while there is still growth in this sector, expect a round of consolidation, restructuring and reinvention soon.

One of the biggest reasons for this prediction is that there are too many social networking sites — one of the signs for this is when there are aggregation sites which compile social profiles from multiple networks.

Wharton also shared some insights into Friendster, which announced plans to expand into Singapore, Philippines and other APAC countries in January.

HWM Indonesia

HWM Indonesia: We’ve been bombarded with tons of social media network sites for the past decade.

The potential of getting a vast amount of traffic in a short time is so alluring that all kinds of social media network sites are set up, from a very niche social network (e.g. www.temankuliah.com for the Indonesian audience) to a global social network (e.g. Friendster or Facebook).

The sites that offers the “portability” (e.g. accessible on mobile phones) and “quality of relationship” (e.g. interaction with your friends through games or comments) will differentiate themselves in the long run, thus maintaining or even growing their members through recommendations/ invitations from existing members.

Without deep pockets, the bigger sites, of course, will be expensive to maintain.

Despite the heavy traffic, monetization is still difficult although the idea is catching up with advertisers. However, shake-ups will continue with the current small pool of advertisers.

Here's a Smartbook prototype from Freescale Semiconductor that unfolds to provide keyboard and mouse functionality.

A modular Smartbook concept that enables customization.

T&A: Nikkei Electronics Asia has released a report comparing the potential pricing differences among different portable computing devices hitting the market over the next few months.

One of the key predictions is that the low prices of smartbooks might cut into the netbook market.

Basically, as the small yet delicate functional gap between smartphones and netbooks entice more players into this segment, manufacturers of Smartbooks, mobile internet devices and more will gradually segment the market for portable computing devices even further.

Not only that, within the netbook space, the ultra-thin notebook, or consumer ultra low voltage (CULV) notebooks are also attracting a lot of attention.

The Smartbook is the brainchild of Freescale Semiconductor and Qualcomm Inc., first unveiled at Computex Taipei in June 2009. Here’s a promo video on what exactly a Smartbook entails:

(Editor opinions: 2)

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