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Canon May Pursue SED Display Technology after Winning Legal Battles

Paul Lilly — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:19:23 -0600

Three years ago, SED televisions were thought to be on the verge of competing with LCD HDTVs and plasma displays. By utilizing thousands of tiny electron guns for each phosphor pixel, SED looked poised to offer a compelling high definition solution with wide viewing angles and deep colors in a display as thin as LCD. But any plans to storm the market were quickly squashed when Applied Nanotech took Canon to court for illegally sublicensing its patents.

Fast forward to today and Canon is finally in the clear to launch SED-based televisions after having won the patent suit. Douglas Baker, Applied Nanotech's chief financial officer, admitted "it would probably be a futile effort" to try and appeal the case in the U.S. Supreme Court, so the only thing stopping Canon at this point is, well, the fear of being laughed at.

"At times like this, new display products are not introduced much because would laugh at them," Tsuneji Uchida, Canon's president, told Financial Times.

Uchida did say that Canon has been working on a cost competitive SED production process, so perhaps SED TVs might finally one day materialize. But first, Canon will need to set aside any fears it has of criticizers laughing at them. We hear picturing them in their underwear helps.

VIA Launches VIPRO Touchscreen PC, Not Targeted for Home Use

Paul Lilly — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:09:59 -0600

VIA, a one-time major player in the enthusiast motherboard chipset market and a current producer of low power processors (VIA Nano), has largely been overshadowed by bigger players in nearly every sector it competes in. So while VIA might be having trouble finding some love in the PC market, the company hopes it can fare better in less traditional areas with its new VIPRO VP7710 fanless touch-screen panel PC.

"Amid growing public acceptance of intuitive touch screen technologies, the VIA VIPRO addresses an increasing demand for cost effective, intelligent displays in commercial applications such as ticketing, ATM, vending and information kiosks as well as sophisticated fleet deployment infrastructures in transport, delivery and logistics enterprise," VIA states in a press release.

VIA opted for heavy steel and aluminum to construct the VIPRO's chassis, which serves to protect the 10.4-inch TFT display from shock, vibration, and other potential calamities. The touch screen also resists both water and dust, making it ideally suited for outside use.

From a hardware standpoint, the VIPRO comes with either a 1.6GHz VIA Eden or 1.0GHz C7 processor, up to 1GB of DDR2 memory, support for both IDE and SATA 2.5-inch hard drives, and integrated VIA UniChrome Pro II graphics. Additionally, a second display can be added via a VGA port.

Hit the jump to see a YouTube video of the VP7710 in action.

LCD Firms Plead Guilty to Price Fixing, Ordered to Pay $585 Million

Paul Lilly — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:26:29 -0600

Sharp, LG, and Chunghwa have each agreed to plead guilty to a price-fixing conspiracy related to LCD display panels and will pay $585 million in criminal fines, the Justice Department said. The plea agreements were filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California.

"These price-fixing conspiracies affected millions of America consumers who use computers, cell phones, and numerous other household electronics every day," said Thomas Barnett, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the Justice Department n Washington.

The extent of the losses as a result of the alleged price fixing conspiracy remains unknown, but Barnett said he expected to outline the damages at the time of sentencing. According to the Justice Department, LG Phillips, who plead guilty to participating a conspiracy from 2001 to 2006 to set LCD panel pricing worldwide, will be hit the hardest and ordered to pay $400 million. That ranks as the second highest criminal fine ever imposed for price fixing.

Sharp will pay $120 for its alleged role in three separate conspiracies with unnamed partners who sold price-fixed panels to Dell for monitors and laptops, Motorola for Razr phones, and Apple for use in iPods. Chunghwa will pay $65 for participating with LG and other unnamed co-conspirators.

The Justice Department warned that the investigation is ongoing, meaning more charges could be brought against individuals from each firm or from other firms.

Leaked Images Show New 23 Inch LCD From Dell

Paul Lilly — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:15:42 -0600

Tech news site Engadget got the early scoop on a new Dell 23-inch LCD monitor courtesy of an anonymous tip, one in which our neighbors to the north can already purchase. Available for $419 on Dell's Canadian portal, the SP2309W widescreen display packs a pretty impressive spec sheet.

Dell's billing the monitor as an out of the box "video conferencing solution with excellent functionality and convenience," and towards that end the 23-inch LCD comes with an integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam. Other notable specs include a max resolution of 2048 x 1152, a 2ms response time, 1000:1 dynamic image contrast ratio, a 160-degree viewing angle, a 98 percent color gamut, and VGA, DVI-D, and HDMI inputs.

No word yet on when Dell plans to make the display available in the U.S.

Flexible 135-Inch Plasma Coming in 2009, Still Not Soon Enough

Alex Castle — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:57:40 -0500

Shinoda Plasma Corp is showing off a huge, flexible, prototype plasma display at the FPD exhibition in Japan, with plans to sell it commercially starting next year.

Unlike traditional plasma screens, with light-emitting cells located between sheets of glass, Shinoda’s display will use cells inside of incredibly thin glass tubes. These tubes allow the screen to be thinner than current plasma displays, and also allow it to be flexible.

The screen of the prototype is 3 meters by 1 meter, and only a millimeter thick. As if that weren’t enough, the screen is light (1.4kg) and energy efficient (600 watts) as well. Sadly, the technology isn’t ready for use in TVs and monitors yet—it can’t display resolutions higher than 960 by 360 pixels, but we should start seeing it in public display capacities as early as next April or May.

Assuming this technology does become suitable for consumer displays, how do you think it’ll change the commercial landscape? Tell us your thoughts after the break.

Samsung Boasts the World's Thinnest LCD, Measuring 7.9mm Thick

Paul Lilly — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:29:25 -0500

If thin is in, then Samsung moves to the front of the class. The company just put its prototype 40-inch LCD on the runway at the Korea Electronics Show in Seoul last week, a scintillating model which measures just 7.9mm thick. That's enough to earn 1/10th of a millimeter worth of bragging rights over Phillips, who showed off what was previously considered the thinnest LCD at 8.0mm at the IFA exhibition in Berlin this past August.

So how did the two companies fit all those electronics into an ultra-thin frame? The answer is they didn't. Instead, each company's respective prototypes moved the tuner and much of the electronic inner-workings into an external box located near the screen. Whether this approach ultimately leads to a consumer product remains to be seen, as neither company has talked about making their LCD commercially available.

EETI to Ramp Up Development of 12.1" Multi-Touch Panels in Anticipation of New Demand

Paul Lilly — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:30:28 -0500

Whether looking forward to groping HP's new touchscreen laptop or getting touch-feely with a rumored touchscreen Eee PC, multi-touch panels look to be the new hot technology on the block. In anticipation of this upcoming demand, Taiwan-based Egalax_empia Technology Incorporated (EETI) has begun developing multi-touch panels for both netbooks and notebooks. The company expects to kick production into high gear by the end of 2008 for 7-inch panels, says DigiTimes.

EETI had started working with US-based Cypress Semiconductor back in April to develop capacitive touch panels, and that forward thinking might soon pay off. In addition to riding the netbook craze, the company plans to churn out 12.1-inch panels for notebook applications as well.

We hear the makers of monitor wipes are ecstatic at what could become a new trend.

We Covet the Awesome $4600 30" LED LCD from Lacie

Paul Lilly — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:51:29 -0500

The LED revolution has begun, and we're not talking about those flashing lights emitting from your PC's chassis. Display technology is seeing a shift towards LED backlighting, one in which Dell says will account for all of its notebooks by 2010, and the notebook market as a whole is expected to see 30-40 percent penetration by next year. On the desktop front, Lacie is already there and the company's newest display lays out a spec sheet that's hard not to drool over.

Lacie's new 700 series, which has its sights set on professionals rather than gamers, is available in 20, 24, and 30-inch form (models 720, 724, and 730 respectively). Each model sports an RGB-LED backlight the company claims will "mimic real life by embedding some of today's most advanced display technologies."

On paper, Lacie appears to be right. The 700 series sports ultra-wide gamuts of up to 123 percent of Adobe RGB, a backlight stabilizer technology capable of adjusting settings in real time, and 14-bit Gamma Correction lookup tables which, according to Lacie, allows the displays to produce improved gradient rendering without banding and smoother color transitions "that are 64 times more precise than on consumer-quality 8-bit monitors."

As for pricing, brace yourself. The 4:3 720 model will run $1600 sans hood, or $2040 with. Tack on a color meter and the tally comes to $2290. The 16:10 724 version runs $2300 ($2930 with hood, $3180 with color meter), and the flagship 730 smacks you in the wallet for $4600 ($5850 with hood, $6110 with color meter).