Weekly wrapup, 7-11 January 2008

by Steve O'Hear

January 13th, 2008 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | No Comments

Here’s a summary of the week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.

Top digital lifestyle news

last100 CES coverage This week’s digital lifestyle news was dominated by the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas.

Bill Gates gave his final CES keynote before retirement, with Microsoft talking up its digital living room stronghold (XBox 360, Media Center and Mediaroom), while at the same time mocking the AppleTV.

However, Microsoft and Apple face much competition, with a flurry of products announced at CES that bridge the gap between the PC and TV, or bring Internet content directly to a television. Highlights included the SlingCatcher (Sling Media), D-Link’s newly launched PC-on-TV Player, TiVo Desktop 2.6 (TiVo), and Internet-connected TVs from Sharp, Samsung and Panasonic.

Taking aim at Sonos, Logitech-owned Slim Devices announced the Squeezebox Duet music system, a networked audio receiver and accompanying controller, designed to make it easy to listen to your digital music collection, as well as access online music services and Internet radio, throughout the home.

More CES coverage:

In other news, Sony BMG confirmed it will begin selling tracks without DRM — in a hybrid offline/online offering, and through Amazon’s digital music store.

We also reported on promising viewing figures over the holiday period for the BBC’s iPlayer, as well as rumors that Sling Media will soon announce a version of its SlingPlayer for iPhone.

More digital lifestyle coverage:

That’s a wrap. Next up: Macworld!

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.