Samsung Captures Three IDEA Awards, Extending Design Leadership

Samsung Captures Three IDEA Awards, Extending Design Leadership Digital technology leader awarded one gold award and two sliver; Brings five-year total to industry-best fifteen.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that it has been honored with three awards in the prestigious 2008 International Design Excellence (IDEA) competition. The awards, which include a coveted gold award and two sliver, were announced by BusinessWeek magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), raising Samsung's five-year total in the competition to an unmatched 15 awards.
Revolutionary digital camera
Leading Samung's change was the Touch Sight, a revolutionary digial camera designed for visually impaired people. The Touch Sight, designed by Samsung Design China, was honored with a gold award in the Communications Tools Concept category, one of just 35 gold awards from over 1,500 entries. Judges lauded the Touch Sight for its unique features and attention to detail. Product highlights includes a feature that records sound for three seconds after pressing the shutter button, allowing the individual to use the sound as reference when reviewing and managing the photos. Touch Sight also possesses a lightweight, flexible Braille display sheet which display a 3D image by embossing the surface, allowing the user to touch their photo.
" The concept was immediately compelling by raising the potential of greater communication between the visually impaired and family and friends,"side Thomas Garvey, associate professor at the Carleton University (Canada) School of Design and one of 20 world-renowned design experts comprising the IDEA jury. "The number of well considered details, the visual approach and the very comprehensive presentation materials lifted this concept easily into the top category."
ML-1630 & SCX-4500
Samsung won a silver award in the Computer Equipment category for its cutting-edge Black Printer Series (ML-1630 & SCX-4500), a personal mono laser printer that challenges traditional printer design with a simple, compact rectangular frame enhanced by high-gloss translucent materials. The Black Printer also avoids typical problems with cartridge replacement and paper jams with an upper side that can be opened in its entirety.Instant Video CameraThe Samsung Instant Video Camera rounded out the company's honors with a silver award in the Entertainment category. The Instant Video Camera targets the ever-increasing audience segment that enjoys producing personal videos, allowing users to edit and view filmed clips on the spot and produce an immediate result in the spirit of the classic Polaroid Instamatic.The IDEA competition is a celebration of the most innovative and exciting product designs and design concepts and focuses on sustainability, attention to detail and price point. Since 2004, Samsung has won 15 IDEA awards, the highest total among its industry peers and a testament to the company's commitment to excellent design."Design is the heart of Samsung's product development and it is something that brings experiential values to everyone for future life," said Mr. Kook-Hyun Jung, Executive Vice President of Strategic Design Team at Corporate Design Center of Samsung Electronics. "We are proud to have been recognized so consistently through the years by the IDSA and will use these latest awards as encouragement for continued excellence."

Portable Media Player

Apple iPod rules OK. Everyone knows that. Only a dag buys an alternative, untrendy MP3 player, right?
Well, perhaps. But remember the old advertisement for the also-ran car hire company: “We’re No.2-so we try hard”. There could be some truth in that.
We have been testing the proposition with a couple of little player to how they stack up as photo storage and viewing devices.
The SONY Walkman NWZ-A728 (RRP $269) is an 8GB flash memory player the size of credit card. The Sandisk Sansa View (RRP $227), also with 8GB of flash memory, is the same width as the Sony and about 24mm longer. They are both thin and light. The Sansa has a Micro SD memory card slot, for adding to the installed memory.
Both have the same size and resoultion LCD screens-6cm and 320*240-pixel resolution. And both display photos and videos, but they are also fussy about the image format and size.
We tried throwing large JPEGs, straight from a Sony compact, at both players and they refused to display them. It was obvious that we had to go through a conversion process to prepare photos for display. In the Sandisk case this means going to the website and downloading the image converter, which is a weird way of doing business. Since the converter is essential to prepare the images for storage and viewing, it ought to be included on an installation disc. In fact, the mini CD (there is no concession to Mac pixies) only contains the instruction manual.
Both players rely on Windows Media Player 11 to prepare music and video files, so Mac owners had best stick with their beloved iPods. This is Bill Gates territory.
We installed the Sandisk image converter and dragged and dropped the same JPEGs that didn’t work in their native form. The conversion was quick and, in the case of the Sansa player, the converter changed the files and then automatically saved them to the player, not to the computer. From that point they displayed perfectly, fitted nicely to the full screen.
We then copied the image files from the Sansa to the Walkman (being too lazy to crank up another converter) and they played perfectly there.
The screens on these devices are small-smaller than some of the LCDs on compact cameras. No one is going to be blowled over by either display.
Each company takes a different approach to the setting of brightness and contrast. The Sansa is very high contrast, which makes for subjectively sharp and punchy pictures. The Sony opts for low contrast and more realistic light and shade contours.
Some people will call this natural and others will call it dull. We prefer the Sony approach. And you can’t adjust the contrast and sharpness on either unit.
It’s hard to pick a winner. The Sansa is better value for money because it has more features than the Sony-voice recording and an FM radio for starters. The Sony is smaller with display characteristics we likeed. The Sansa is better looking but its shiny black surface will give CSI fingerprint experts a field day. Both cost about the same as a comparable iPod Nano, so perhaps the also-rans should try harder.

U.S. Fund to Buy D&M for Up to 50.4B Yen

U.S. investment fund Bain Capital Partners LLC said Monday that it plans to spend up to 50.4 billion yen to take full control of Japanese audio equipment maker D&M Holdings Inc.
Bain Capital launched a tender offer the same day, planning to purchase at least 69.93 million D&M shares, or about 75 pct of the firm's total outstanding shares. The tender offer will be closed on Sept. 5. Bain Capital will buy the shares at 510 yen apiece.
U.S. investment fund RHJ International, D&M's top shareholder with a 49 pct stake, and Dutch electronics giant Royal Philips Electronics NV, the second largest holder with a 12 pct stake, are expected to sell their shareholdings in the Japanese company in response to the tender offer.
After the completion of the tender offer, Bain Capital plans to buy the remaining D&M shares. As a result, D&M will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. D&M shares are now trading on the TSE's first section.
Following the acquisition, Bain Capital intends to reinforce D&M's audio equipment and car navigation system operations in cooperation with Kenwood Corp. which is set to integrate its businesses with Victor Co. of Japan in October, to help D&M better compete with major electronics makers. Bain Capital is in tie-up with Kenwood.U.S. investment fund Bain Capital Partners LLC said Monday that it plans to spend up to 50.4 billion yen to take full control of Japanese audio equipment maker D&M Holdings Inc.
Bain Capital launched a tender offer the same day, planning to purchase at least 69.93 million D&M shares, or about 75 pct of the firm's total outstanding shares. The tender offer will be closed on Sept. 5. Bain Capital will buy the shares at 510 yen apiece.
U.S. investment fund RHJ International, D&M's top shareholder with a 49 pct stake, and Dutch electronics giant Royal Philips Electronics NV, the second largest holder with a 12 pct stake, are expected to sell their shareholdings in the Japanese company in response to the tender offer.
After the completion of the tender offer, Bain Capital plans to buy the remaining D&M shares. As a result, D&M will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. D&M shares are now trading on the TSE's first section.
Following the acquisition, Bain Capital intends to reinforce D&M's audio equipment and car navigation system operations in cooperation with Kenwood Corp. which is set to integrate its businesses with Victor Co. of Japan in October, to help D&M better compete with major electronics makers. Bain Capital is in tie-up with Kenwood.

A digital camcorder-To Keep More Great Memories

What do the old people watch, it seems like so nice. I can tell you: they are watching the previous scence and recalling their former times on DV. When you and your old mate sit on the sofa, a digital camcorder can take you back a happy moment.
With the growth of age, we mayn’t remember all things. But we can record some meaningful things by the digital video camera. For example:

childhood
performance
graduation
wedding
pregnant
having a child
travelling with family
old

A lot of things can’t be well recorded by the static photo, the high clear video camera can capture the more wonderfull life and moment in time. The digital camcorder complies with the ripid pace and the high efficient life style of morden city, condensation, no lack of intension. The digital camcorder will become the best select which record the times.
Recording the everything of the nice life by the digital camcorder, why not do that happily!