Hi-tech homes reign in Spain

There seems to be no crisis for Spain's audio-visual consumers, according to a new study, 'Televidente 2.0' from The Cocktail Analysis, reveals Rapid TV News.

The report analyses technology equipment in homes, online video consumption, downloads and streaming, audio-visual content on 3G mobile phones, DTT, pay-TV and video games.

One of the most important conclusions of the report is that most Spanish homes now have traditional computers (83%), laptop computers (82%) and flat TV sets (80%). Some 72% of homes have video game consoles and 50% own new generation consoles such as PS3, Wii or XBox 360.

Two new products are showing how the storage world is starting to flirt with TV, writes The Register. Buffalo's DriveStation AV and Western Digital's WD TV Live Plus HD media player are respectively friendly with and completely dependent on a TV.

The DriveStation AV is a single 3.5-inch SATA drive offering 1TB, 1.5TB or 2TB capacity, in a shiny black horizontal case sporting blue and red capacity LEDs. It connects via USB 2.0 to PCs, notebooks, Macs, games consoles supporting USB 2.0 such as the PS2, and HD TVs with USB ports.

WD's product is a box that sits between a high-definition TV and media-storage entities, which can be Ethernet, USB or WiFi-connected Macs, PCs, notebooks, camcorders or digital cameras, or streaming media sources on the Internet such as Flickr, Netflix or YouTube. Its whole point is to be connected to an HD TV and use its screen as the control interface.

Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS users can get their hands on a free satnav application, thanks to Skobbler, states PC Advisor.

Skobbler, which offers visual and audio navigation, utilises OpenStreetMap, a Wikipedia of free maps that currently has some 250 000 users creating and updating existing maps.

The company also encourages users to make corrections and update the maps, to make "outdated and poorly detailed maps a thing of the past".