W. European TV shipments continue falling during Q3 2012, with a sharp drop of over -15% Y-o-Y as global TV shipments dip by -7% Y-o-Y to reach 58 million units NPD DisplaySearch reports.

The analyst says flat panel TV growth is also lower than expected in emerging regions, while N. America and China represent the only pockets of growth  (3% and 13% Y-o-Y respectively).

DisplaySearch attributes the growth in the US Market to the upcoming holiday season, since many retailers are gearing up for Black Friday and pre-holiday sales and promotions by building enough inventory to satisfy demand.

One early adopter issue with 4K/Ultra HD TVs is the lack of content taking advantage of the format. Sony seeks to allay such worries with the Bravia XBR-84X900-- the TV ships with a pre-installed 4K content delivery system.

Sony promises it will even include exclusive "full-length feature Hollywood productions" recorded in 4K resolution. It fails to mention the names of the films in question, but Sony does own, well, Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The TV also carries Sony's own X-Reality PRO picture engine, which the company claims upscales regular video content to "near 4K quality."

Other than the content delivery system, the Bravia XBR-84X900 is similar to the recent glut of Ultra HD TVs-- it is 84-inch in size and handles resolutions of up to 3840x2160 with 8 million active pixels. Just like the 85-inch sets Toshiba, LG and Samsung have on offer...

Go 4K TV: What the Heck is it and What Can I Watch? (Sony Blog)

The 2012 LG Smart TV with Google TV (G2 Series) lineup gets a couple of updates-- the latest Google TV version and access to the OnLive cloud gaming application.

New Google TV features include voice search, allowing users to bark out orders like "Breaking Bad!" to the LG Magic Remote microphone. The TV & Movies app gets a name change to "Google TV PrimeTime" and a choice of over 100000 movies and TV shows via content sources such as live TV, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and HBO Go.

Customers can also automatically pair Android mobile devices to LG G2 TVs via wifi, allowing the streaming of YouTube content from smartphone or tablet on the TV.

Meanwhile the OnLive app provides access (via either demo, purchase or rental) to around 200 games over the cloud, without the need for an additional console.

Go LG First to Launch Next Google TV Update

According to Digital TV Research internet-connected TVs will reach 569 million worldwide by 2017-- up from 105m in 2010 and a forecast 212m units for 2012.

The report covers 40 countries and forecasts connected TV penetration will total 21.4% of global TV sets by 2017, up from just 4.7% on 2010 and 8.9% in 2012. Norway should have the 2nd highest 2017 penetration rate (37.7%) as it closely follows the US (38.1%).

The US currently leads in 2012 connected TV numbers with 78m units, a numbers set to reach 147m by 2017.

Another contender is set to join the 85-inch Ultra HD (or 4K resolution) TV fray-- Samsung announces it will show off such a TV on January 2013 at CES.

The company gives precious few details of the TV, which it claims will be "the world's largest commercialised UHD LED TV," other than "innovative dimming technology" and "powerful and dynamic range of sounds."

Samsung is a bit late at joining the 4k/Ultra HD category-- Sony, Toshiba and LG already announced similar TVs back at IFA 2012.

At CES 2013 Samsung will also show off the 2013 Smart LED TV range (7500 and 8000 series), 55-inch Super OLED TV and a camera accessory for Smart TVs lacking a built-in peeper.

Go Samsung at CES 2013

Sanus now ships one of the largest iPad mount lines we've seen yet-- one complete with mounts attaching to walls, beneath cabinets, any flat surface or any metal (via magnet).

The line has 4 different models. These are the VTM1 (for desk, under-cabinet, on-wall or magnetic surface mounting), VTM5 (desk, under-cabinet or magnetic surface), VTM6 (on-wall or magnetic surface) and the VTM7 (magnet surface mounting).

All the mounts are compatible with the iPad 2 and 3rd generation iPad, with a magnetic case and Sanus "MagFit" technology ensuring the tablet is safely secured.

Go Sanus iPad Mounts