Philips, Funai Sign New CE Rights Agreements

By Greg Tarr On Jan 29 2013 - 10:19am

Osaka, Japan – Funai Electric said Tuesday that is has signed an agreement with Royal Philips Electronics to transfer the Philips audio, video, multimedia and accessories businesses to Funai.

Under the terms the new agreement, Funai will pay Philips $201.6 million and a brand license fee for an initial period of five and a half years, with an optional renewal of five years.

The deal for the audio, multimedia and accessories businesses is expected to close in the second half of 2013.

Philips Expands Soundbars, Adds Wireless Multi-Room Audio

By Joseph Palenchar On Jan 7 2013 - 12:49pm

The $249-suggested AW3000 single-chassis stereo speaker from Philips is among a family of Fidelio-series networked speakers that stream music from PCs and from Apple and Android smartphones.

LAS VEGAS — Philips is expanding its selection of soundbars here at CES, where it is also launching a wireless multi-room-audio system that uses smartphones and PCs as music sources.

Two of the new soundbars are the company’s first with detachable speakers that can be used as battery-powered wireless surround speakers.

Other new audio products, designed and built by Philips but marketed in the U.S. by P&F USA, include a new premium Bluetooth speaker, an iPod/iPhone-docking nostalgia radio, and a transportable iPod-docking music system with DJ functions.

Philips TVs To Add Portico Content Service

By Greg Tarr On Dec 7 2012 - 2:22pm

All 2011 and later Philips-connected TVs in the U.S. will receive the new Portico content service from Net2TV beginning today.

Atlanta — P&F today announced the launch of Portico on 2011 and future Philips-connected televisions in the United States.

Portico is a free service from Net2TV that will give connected Philips TV owners access to new Internet-delivered programming.

New programming, which is to be refreshed daily on the Portico service, includes WSJ Live from the Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Discovery’s Revision3 and Chow.com.

Philips Launching Lightning-Equipped Speaker

By Joseph Palenchar On Dec 5 2012 - 12:14pm

The Philips DCM2067 Lifestyle Music System features FM/CD player and retractable Lightning dock.

Atlanta – Philips unveiled some of the industry’s first tabletop docking speakers with Apple’s new eight-pin Lightning connector.

A quartet of docking speakers shipping this month from the company will dock with the iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPod Touch, and seventh-generation iPod Nano to play back their music and charge them. The speakers are not designed for use with the Pad Mini or fourth-generation iPad.