Are moviebooks the new ebooks? Do we actually want them?

ViewSonic have just released two new palm-sized media players: the VPD500 and VPD400 with 5inch and 4.3inch screens respectively. These little devices, ViewSonic tells us, bring movies to our hands and the glories of audiovisual world to our commute. Episode six of Summer Heights High anyone?

But though the machines look pretty glamorous, are we actually going to use these little pieces of movie-displaying engineering?

Follow on after the jump

Eastenders, Torchwood, the news and oh, that guy with the centre-parting who likes American Pie 1&2 'winked' at you.

Yes: meet the future.

Match.com and BT are pairing up and bringing internet dating from the quite small screen in your bedroom to the rather larger screen in your sitting room, in an attempt to lure the millions looking for love over the computer back to the television.

Why? To make it "easier" for you to find Mr/Ms Right obviously.

Kate Taylor, relationship expert at match.com, says: "Being able to search for love on the box, from the comfort of your own couch, means that finding love really couldn't be easier and you don't even have to take off your slippers."

Ah! of course, because you *do* have to take your slippers off to go on your lap-top. Other benefits of this move as suggested by BT include: you don't have to switch on your computer & you can go on match.com from your living room.

Follow on after the jump

If you're short on last-minute gadget presents for Father's Day, forget the idea of getting him a nice pair of speakers and make up for your tardiness by getting Dad not just one gadget but a giant wall of them. We're talking about the Man Wall from Hybrid Space Furniture.

Despite having written about HDTVs for a long time, and even compiling an in depth guide to buying one, I've never had my hands on one for longer than a week. This all changed when LG delivered the delightful looking LG 42LH5000 to my house to my (and my flatmates) unequivocal delight. But once I'd unpacked it from its mounds of bubble wrap and peeled off the stickers would I find it a joy to use, or would the manual be more complicated than the Gaza peace treaty?

Read on to find out about my experiences with it.

So you're thinking of buying an HDTV? Congratulations, you'll be entering the world of hi resolution imagery, and getting a picture so sharp it will make you want to start attacking your old TV with your fingernails .

But what should you buy? With three main technologies on the market, you're entering a confusing world of LCD, Plasma and OLED, not to mention pixel ratios, bezel size, and of course... price. Well we aim to clear up the confusion, and we're going to use short little words to explain all those baffling terms.

3DTV was big news at CES 2009, but since the initial furore and the many,many promises we heard, their hasn't been anything new in that area recently. Well that could be about to change big time, as last night the UK experienced their first 3D broadcast on live TV- and one that didn't necessitate the use of those uber stylish chromatic glasses.

SKY teamed up with popular group Keane to produce a 3D show of their Abbey Road gig, and it was broadcast to anyone who owned a Sky+ HD box and had a compatible 3D-capable TV set. OK, so not that many people got to watch it in reality, but the mere fact that it happened is exciting enough.

Last night we managed to get a sneak preview of the latest release from Seagate, their brand spanking new Freeagent Theater Media Player. It looks very stylish, with a black gloss finish, and is designed to be a dock for your Seagate hard drive (or any USB compatible device) that plugs straight into your TV. Though they call it a HD player, it surpisingly has no HDMI port.. but it does have a nifty 8x zoom feature you can use on images AND movies.

See a bigger pic after the jump.

All in one controllers sound well and good in the packaging, but once you've Stanley knifed your way through the interminable mounds of plastic you realize just how much you're going to hate your new device. It may say that it will control everything from your TV to your light fittings, but have you ever tried setting it up? Intuitive is not the keyword in this respect.

Well the XSight is an all in one remote that not only promises to manage up to 18 devices at any one time, but says it will SET ITSELF up. Yes you read that right.

Screw the fact that having your Freesat, hard drive and Blu-ray all in one box means you've got more space, the more exciting things is that there'll just be one plug to deal with. La awesome.

The DMR-BS850 features a 500GB hard drive, Bluray writer and twin Freesat tuners, so you can watch one HD channel whilst recording another. There's an SD card slot and USB and DV connectors, so you can pull footage straight from your camera and dump it on the hard drive.

Panasonic are sure 3D Blu-Ray will be launching next year. This apparent self-assuredness, comes from Panasonic's attempts to obtain acceptance of its new 3D system to be the standard way to achieve 3D pictures from existing Blu-Ray discs.

Panasonic have been busy showing off its 3D equipment for a while now, namely with its Plasma 3D Full HD home theatre system, demonstrated in CES with a mahooosive 103-inch plasma hooked up to a special 3D Blu-Ray player. What makes this Blu-Ray player special is its ability to process twice the data as a standard Blu-Ray player, but at the same speed. The reason for this is to deliver full HD images to each eye at once, using electronic glasses. So to put this in simple terms, it's essentially playing two full HD movies simultaneously. These special glasses achieve the 3D Blu-Ray effect using Active Shutter technology that directs the right image to the right eye. The result - full quality 3D images.

Everyone is getting involved in net/TV combos nowadays, and it seems Philips are next up to the stand. After the proliferation of web enabled TV's we saw at CES 2009, Philips better have something good up their sleeve. They're competing with Sharp's enabled range and Samsung's collaboration with Yahoo, so what tricks are Philips planning for us?

Net TV is their new Internet entertainment system that will be featured on their 8000, 9000 and Cinema 21:9 Series TV's. This feature allows users to tailor web content according to their needs, and they can do it all through their TV remote control as the service is full integrated. Yes, that's right- no wires, keyboards or additional set top boxes neccessary!

3DTV was all the rage at CES this year, and whilst the idea of owning one at home is getting closer, cinemas still hold the monopoly for 3D films. Cineworld is showing that it's embracing the digital revolution with news that it has signed an agreement with NEC to double the number of digital screens it owns.

They aim to own the largest amount of 3D screen country-wide, and this will give them 144 screens to feature movies on.

Plasma TVs have a bit of a bad rep when it comes to those all important issues of saving money, energy and ultimately the planet. So Panasonic thought it'd do some damage control by unveiling a range of energy saving, eco friendly plasmas. The plan - to make plasma TVs more energy efficient and rake up sales. The claim - that its range of TVs slices the energy consumption of a standard plasma TV by half and are also a quarter of the thickness. Panasonic hopes this move will encourage and boost plasma TV sales by 50 percent, as more economically aware customers start to pay more attention to getting those green credentials.

I maintain that when it comes to televisions, you don't know what you're missing until someone points it out to you. I feel a bit like that with the new Philips 21:9 - I was perfectly happy watching my movies with black bars at the top and bottom, but after seeing them fill the screen on the 21:9 screen it was like the scales had fallen from my eyes - basically, Philips have ruined watching films on my sofa for ever.

Standard TV is currently 16:9, where as films are shot in closer to 21:9, which is why you get the bars. Philips new TV will allow you to watch films as they were intended to be shown, as well as auto adjusting any 16:9 TV content. It comes with Ambilight Spectra, which appears round the side and top of the telly, and although it's no taller than a 42-inch, the actual diagonal measurement is 52-inch, so it's quite a bit wider. You can check all that out in a video over the jump.

Sony's new ZX1 is the thinnest. Thinner than Paris Hilton. Thinner than a wafer thin Paris Hilton, in fact. It's the world's thinnest LCD TV, measuring just 9.9mm thin.

It's got a wireless receiver hub which all your bits, bobs and PS3s plug into, and from which the signal gets beamed to your telly, which is why it's so super thin. Is that cheating? I can't decide.

You might have been under the impression that the super thin Sony OLED TV was already available in the UK - after all, it has been touted at every trade show since January 2007. But in fact, Sony has waited until today to unveil it in the shops in Britain, as well as unveiling a monstrous price tag.

Measuring just 3mm thick, with a screen size of 11-inches (ah, yes, the famous mixed measurements) the Bravia XEL-1 is set to cost £3489. The same model in the US costs $2,499 or an equivalent of £1,750. Rule Britannia, no?