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Forget split screen, 3D television technology used to provide two different pictures on full screen.

LG call them its "Dual View" televisions. Demonstrated by Microsoft at IFA in Berlin, the new TVs display two separate pictures on the same screen, and use special 3D-like glasses to ensure that each gamer only sees one of those images.

The technology will go on sale in a limited number of LG televisions. It works with LG's Cinema 3D range, including the new flagship LW980T. For now, LG's models are limited to the Xbox 360 console. The glasses will come separately, reportedly costing £20 in the UK for both pairs.

A similar television will be released in the UK later this year to work with the PS3, though it uses the more expensive active-shutter glasses, while LG's models use the passive glasses.

Samsung SE-208BW combines an external ODD with wireless connectivity to provide wider end-user benefits.

Along with offering typical combines an external ODD with wireless connectivity to provide wider end-user benefits, the hub features Samsung’s own APP to enable smartphone, tablet and PC users to wirelessly stream and play CDs and DVDs on their smart devices to listen to music or watch films.

It includes wireless access point and repeater functionality, boosting the signal of existing access points across the home. The SE-208BW serves as a backup solution by wirelessly connecting to a smartphone or tablet PC to backup photos, videos, contacts and other information without having to interface with any PC.

For TV's with DLNA compatibility, the SE-208AB comes with Allshare allowing users to view drive content through the TV menu to play and record multimedia files onto CDs and DVDs. It is engineered to be compatible with all major operating systems, including Win7 and Mac OS.

The external drive provides a variety of speeds across different data media types including: 24X CD-ROM, 24X CD-RW, 8X DVD reading and 8X DVD±R, 5X DVD-RAM, 6X DVD+R Dual Layer, 6X DVD-R Dual Layer, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW recording.

Video Electronics Standards Association reports dramatic increase in DisplayPort-equipped PC displays.

Over the last 12 months, PC displays making their way to market with DisplayPort have increased by 160 percent, reaching 78 displays from leading manufacturers such as Apple, Barco, Dell, Eizo Nanao, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Mitsubishi, NEC, Philips, Samsung and Sony.

DisplayPort is a high-bandwidth interface designed to work across the full line of PC components and offer backwards compatibility with legacy interfaces such as DVI and VGA, and with HDMI. DisplayPort significantly enhances display performance by doubling of the maximum data transfer rate to 21.6 Gbps, and increasing display resolution, color depths and refresh rates.

DisplayPort also enables more advanced features, such as multiple monitor support through a single DisplayPort connector; support for high-speed, bi-directional data transfer; audio enhancements including Audio Copy Protection and support for High-Definition (HD) audio formats such as Dolby, MAT, DTS HD, all Blu-Ray formats, and China's DRA standard; and improved support for Full HD 3D Stereoscopic displays.

"The availability of streaming media and HD-quality broadcast content over the internet means many consumers now demand a TV-like experience on their PCs," said Bill Lempesis, executive director at VESA.

Patent row with Apple continues as Samsung removes new tablet from line-up at Europe's biggest consumer electronics trade fair.

Samsung opted to remove the Galaxy Tab 7.7 from its IFA line-up in Berlin after a Dusseldorf court ordered it to stop selling the product. Despite the fact that the tablet is not even on sale yet, Samsung decided to honor the court order by removing it.

It had been unveiled at the show along with the new 5.3-inch Galaxy Note, a kind-of cross between smartphones and tablets in terms of its size.

Apple has accused Samsung, the biggest Android vendor, of "slavishly" cloning its iPad and iPhone devices in its tablet and smartphones. A ban was placed on the sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany in August, and the court will give its final ruling on September 9.

Apple and Samsung are also fighting legal battles in the United States, Australia and South Korea.

Sharp brings its monster 8K4K display to IFA.

Promising incredible images of 7680 x 4320 pixel resolution, 8K4K (Ultra-High Definition Television - UHDV) is something a lot of us are dying to see. Sharp showcased its prototype 8K4K, 85-inch display at the IFA trade show in Berlin, giving attendees a glimpse of the future.

Unfortunately, its presence doesn't mean we can expect to see anything like this on the market for a long time yet. Trials of 8K4K broadcasting aren't even planned to go ahead until 2020 in Japan, and there's not a whole lot of content that could be displayed on a prototype like this TV now anyway, nor is much in production.

Sharp isn't likely to offer an 85-inch "Super Hi-Vision" television until 2022, according to reports, but the interest in 8K4K is global. The BBC will erect three screens in the UK during the 2012 Olympics to show 8K4K footage of events, reportedly at the BBC's Pacific Quay building in Glasgow, its Broadcasting House in London and the National Media Museum in Bradford.

The SE-506AB optical disc drive is powered by USB.

Featuring a glossy anti-scratch surface, the SE-506AB is 12 percent smaller than Samsung's conventional Blu-ray drive to accommodate today's hectic mobile lifestyle. Samsung ODD's exclusive AV connectivity technology is featured on the new SE-506AB allowing users to easily connect and play content via AV connectivity function on multimedia TVs with an available USB port.

It is compatible with all major operating systems, including Windows 7 and Mac OS. A USB power interface eliminates the need for a separate electrical outlet.

The external drive provides a variety of speeds across different data media types featuring BD Quadruple layering. Specific speeds include: 6X BD-ROM, 24X CD-ROM, 24X CD-RW reading and 6X BD-R, 6X BD-R Dual layer, 4X BD-R Quad layer, 8X DVD±R, 5X DVD-RAM, 6X DVD+R Dual layer, 6X DVD-R Dual layer, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW recording.

Vestel and BitTorrent Inc. showcase the world's first BitTorrent Certified Digital TV at the IFA show in Berlin.

The new prototype TV enables consumers to find, play and share all types of personal media, independently produced content and internet files directly on their TV.

By becoming BitTorrent Certified, consumer electronics makers can leverage the speed of the BitTorrent protocol and key downloading, transcoding, sharing and file-shifting features to make it easy for their customers to find, get and play all files on any certified devices.

The certification ensures consumers that any content will play back. The BitTorrent ecosystem is an integrated solution of software, devices and content, all orchestrated to move 100+ million PC users into the living room via certified TVs, Blue-ray/DVD players, media extenders, NAS devices and more.

"Consumers want all types of personal media and Internet content in their living rooms and the TV remains the most desired device for consuming this digital media, regardless of source," said Hakan Kutlu, deputy general manager responsible for marketing at Vestel.

"BitTorrent certification helps our TV line meet this consumer demand and ensures that Vestel products remain at the forefront of technology innovation and adoption."

Samsung has confirmed the existence of the Nexus Prime smartphone.

The company has uploaded the User Agent Profile file for a device dubbed "Nexus Prime," long rumored to be the first Android phone with Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.

For those keeping count, the device now officially known as Nexus Prime is the "GT-I9250."

The GT-I9250 is currently in the process of getting both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth certifications, and launch date is expected in late November.

Samsung's UAP shows a 480 x 800 WVGA resolution screen and an ARM11 processor but those are likely not accurate.

1.7 million game keys are leaked.

AMD, in a promotion with Codemasters, was giving away 1.7 million Steam download codes to consumers who purchased certain AMD video cards, but those codes have now been stolen.

The servers holding the codes were missing an .htaccess file, which are used to restrict access to certain areas on a server.

Read the original post on the leak, via the Steam forums:

unfortunately,
complete AMD promotion key list leaked to internet

i assume that proper course action will be simply blacklist every key
and remove them silently from accounts then tell users to re-register new ones

or ... do nothing

in short never put .sql database with game keys on webserver
where simple missing .htaccess can leak it

You may have heard this weekend, activation keys for free Dirt 3 game vouchers shipping with a few AMD products were compromised. The keys were hosted on a third-party fulfillment agency website, AMD4u.com, and were not on AMD’s website. Neither AMD nor Codemasters servers were involved.

The Yahoo! Board of Directors have fired CEO Carol Bartz today.

Replacing Bartz is current CFO Tim Morse, in an interim position.

There was no word on whether Morse was a likely candidate to remain CEO into the future.

Says Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board:

The Board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the Company's leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities. We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders.

On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Carol for her service to Yahoo! during a critical time of transition in the Company's history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop. I would also like to express the Board's appreciation to Tim and thank him for accepting this important role. We have great confidence in his abilities and in those of the other executives who have been named to the Executive Leadership Council.

On the 19th, HP slashed the price of its 16GB base model to $99 from $499 MSRP in a firesale intended to liquidate all remaining stock. The move worked and HP was said to have sold out all of its inventory.

The company also added that it would no longer create webOS-based hardware, as the company moves increasingly into the software business.

Last week, in an unlikely move, HP said it will build more TouchPads, in an effort to "meet unfulfilled demand" and complete cancelled orders with suppliers.

This week, Digitimes sdys HP will sell up to 200,000 more TouchPads, which will be available by late October.

It appears that HP ran some numbers and it is cheaper to build and sell the rest of the tablets at a big loss than deal with contract termination fees from their major suppliers. Additionally, they likely would have left companies very angry with thousands of unused TouchPad parts, and strained relationships.

Finally, the source says HP sold 900,000 TouchPads to date, meaning when all is said and done, there will be over 1 million TouchPads in the wild.

The struggling content company hits another roadblock.

Over the last year, AoL, in its effort to transition into a digital media company, purchased Arianna Huffington's "Huffington Post" for $300 million and Michael Arrington's "TechCrunch" for $30 million.

This week, a "war" between the two editors has erupted, leaving AoL on the verge of losing Arrington.

In being acquired, Arrington was promised editorial independence and Huffington was told she would have full primacy in editorial matters, for the whole company.

Earlier this week, Arrington started a venture capital firm to invest in tech companies and Huffington used it as an excuse to take over editorial control of TechCrunch.

Says Arrington of the move:

As of late last week TechCrunch no longer has editorial independence. Some argue that the circumstances demanded it. I disagree. Editorial independence was never supposed to be an easy thing for Aol to give us. But it was never meaningful if it shatters the first time it is put to the test.

We’ve proposed two options to Aol.

1. Reaffirmation of the editorial independence promised at the time of acquisition. Given the current circumstances, that means autonomy from Huffington Post, unfettered editorial independence and a blanket right to editorial self determination. To put it simply, TechCrunch would stay with Aol but would be independent of the Huffington Post.

Sony is putting a former US government official in charge of cyber security, effective today.

Philip Reitinger, was previously director of the U.S. National Cyber Security Center. He has also held positions in both the Justice and Defense Departments and at Microsoft.

His job with Sony as Chief Information Security Officer will make him responsible for cyber security throughout the company.

This, of course, comes months after multiple serious data breaches. The biggest attack targeted the PlayStation Network and resulted in personal information, including credit card numbers and CCV codes, being stolen.

Another compromised details of several million Sony Online Entertainment customers.

Making matters worse. Sony tarnished their reputation further with multiple bungled attempts to get their services back online.

No doubt they hope Reitinger's reputation will improve stockholder and consumer confidence. Given the company's size, any actual change will no doubt take a lot of time, effort, and money.

GameStop may soon start selling the full range of iOS mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad.

Currently speculation revolves around the video game retailer getting into the iOS market when the new iPhone is released later this year. That would make sense considering the amount of buzz every iPhone release gets.

According to 9to5Mac, GameStop announced thir plan privately at a trade show last week.

The GameStop website seems to confirm the rumor. There is already a page saying:

Did you know that GameStop now buys your old iPod, iPhone and iPad devices?

Trade them in at GameStop for in-store credit. Perfect for trading toward games, accessories, systems and more. Bring in your old iPod, iPhone or iPad and a Game Advisor can assist you. Plus, you’ll score PowerUp Rewards points on every item traded.

According to the Taiwanese daily DigiTimes, Apple will ship over 86 million iPhones by the end of the 2011.

DigiTimes, using supply chain checks, says the company will ship 86.4 million phones, up 81.9 percent year-over-year (YoY).

Analyst Luke Lin does say, however, that other companies are growing shipments at a much quicker pace, including Huawei at 484 percent YoY, ZTE at 330 percent YoY, LG at 250 percent and Samsung at 191 percent YoY.

Nokia was the big loser of the year, falling from 100 million to 74.4 million.