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Home cinema racks that incorporate speakers are few and far between, but this new model from Sharp not only offers built-in audio, but is the first to the market to come fitted with an upscaling DVD player. The attractively titled ANPR1500H accommodates up to a 46" screen and boasts 300W of power through the 2.1 front surround speakers.You'll find HDMI output for the best image and sound quality and there's support here for digital formats like DivX, MP3 and WMA. These can presumably be viewed either by burning them to disc or by connecting external storage to the USB-host on board. Elsewhere there's an FM digital tuner and clock/timer so it certainly appears to cover all bases when it comes to modern A/V options and provided these work well could eliminate quiet a few extra boxes around your TV. It's available now from major outlets and independent retailers in the UK, and comes with a suggested retail price of £599, which considering what you're getting isn't half bad. - Paul Lester [Sharp] Sharp home cinema TV table

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Most of us are fed up with ads and the ad folk know it, which is why they really are stretching their devious little brains to find new ways to intrude on our lives. Frankly, it doesn't get much more intrusive than armpit advertising, or 'pitvertising'. Deodorant maker Right Guard, has taken advertising to new - smelly - places by hiring male models in special jackets with LCDs in the armpits to hang out on London's public transport. That way, while holding the handles while standing on the Tube, commuters get an eyeful of deodorant commercials - direct from the armpit. If you see one of these Pitvertisers, feel free to nick their telly.-Martin Lynch [Textually.org] news advertising fun

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'Slim' seems to be the new black for LCD screens at the moment, with Asus beating BenQ for the title of 'world's slimmest' with its new 22" widescreen display. It's just 45mm thick and is pretty stylish with a circular stand and thin bezel; though we're not sure we like the chunky trim the logo is set on. There are plenty of fancy words in the official press release to try and wow consumers, including diamond-cut corners, a diamond-cut glass surface and light-in-motion II dynamic lighting effects. The latter sounds interesting and works by shining LEDs built into the base up at the main screen to add ambience and a bit of dynamism. You'll find an HDMI input, lightning quick 2ms response time and up to 4000:1 contrast using Asus' Smart Contrast control. Multimedia fans will be pleased to hear that it supports a range of aspect ratios for establishing full-screen playback along with some sort of video intelligence technology which is supposed to correct and adjust an image to optimise quality. It certainly seems powerful and versatile enough to suite a wide range of applications and we're actually quite keen to see this one in action, though it's not exactly cheap at a suggested retail price of £270. - Paul Lester [Asus] asus LCD monitor

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With HD monitors hitting low-end TV sizes the race is on to see what else you can add to the mix to differentiate your desktop display from your rivals. In the case of AOC, it has added a multimedia player in the shape of a 4-in-1 card reader and proprietary player software to its 22in HD 2230Fm display. The monitor uses the company's HD3 technology which allows you take card-based content, slot them into the card reader and then play them back using the monitor's 'user-friendly menu and remote control'. Obviously this removes the need for hooking it up a PC or DVD player but then, it's highly likely you'll have it hooked to a PC anyway. "While consumers are using cell phones for MP3 players, internet browsers, TVs, navigation devices, and phones, AOC determined that consumers deserved a display that would act as more than just an HD monitor or TV, so we developed HD3," said Robert Velez, Marketing Manager of AOC. "We're very excited to be the first to bring HD3 technology to the market with the 2230Fm. AOC has taken over 40 years of display manufacturing experience to create this new way for consumers to enjoy a wide array of video options with a built in media player, and top-level performance regardless of whether it's being used as an HDTV, monitor or Digital picture frame." The 720p display also features a 20:000:1 contrast ratio, 2ms response time, DVI-D and HDMI with HDCP ports, a USB 2.0 hub and low profile integrated speakers. Shipping in the US first it costs around £200.-Martin Lynch news monitor PC

from @ Gizmodo UK

A recent study by Ofcom shows that the UK is doing surprisingly well in the 'let's go digital' stakes. The total number of households that now has a digital set as their main television is now at 87.2%, and with more and more people now replacing their secondary TV, over two-thirds of the 60 million screens in the UK are now digitally capable.The stats are split between the three main forms of digital TV, namely freeview services, Sky and cable television. The most popular is predictably freeview, with 9.6 million homes now hooked up with a digital tuner to expand the range of terrestrial channels. Sky subscribers are up by 332,000 over the last twelve months and now populate 8.3million households, and the recent push towards Sky+ has had an impact of an additional 262,000 subscribers, which is around 38% of its customers. SkyHD incidentally is only up by 43,000 to 465,000 subscribers, which goes to show that people are still a little hesitant to pay extra for the fairly limited range of HD channels on offer at present. It's encouraging news as we head towards the anticipated abolition of all analogue channels by 2012, and shows that us Brits aren't scared to get involved with new technology. - Paul Lester [OfCom] digital TV Sky HD

from @ Gizmodo UK