Posted 09/17/08 at 09:48:12 AM by Paul Lilly

OLED spreads its wings further into the consumer sector today, as Koday has unveiled what it claims is the first consumer-available wireless OLED picture frame. And it will be available just in time for the holiday shopping season, provided you have an extra grand just taking up space in you wallet.

The new frame sports a 7.6-inch diagonal panel, and because it uses OLED technology it can boast a superior 180-degree viewing angle to existing digital frames currently on the market. But lest anyone balk at the price tag (who are we kidding, go ahead and balk!), it also comes with a built-in memory card reader, USB port, and 2GB of internal memory Kodak says is capable of storing up to 10,000 images. And those pictures will be beamed through a widescreen 16:9 display at an 800x480 resolution.

So choose your poison - thousand dollar keyboard or thousand dollar picture frame?

Read More

Comments 

4

TAGS 

Kodak, display, oled, consumer electronics, digital picture frame

Posted 09/02/08 at 02:39:17 PM by Paul Lilly

Sony just announced a new LCD television so thin that it makes even sickly looking Hollywood stars appear chunky by comparison. The 40-inch LCD TV in Bravia's ZX1 series measures just 28mm thick, and that's at its fattest portion. The thinnest portion measures a scant 9.9mm.

In order to build a chassis so thin, the new display utilizes an edge LED backlight. White LEDs come arranged on four sides of a light guide plate, boasting a contrast ratio of 3,000:1. A wireless connection to bridges the separate display and tuner components. To go with the ultra-skinny television, the company developed a dedicated wall-mounting unit 19.5mm thick. When hung on the wall, the distance between the front surface of the TV and wall is less than 50mm.

The KDL-40ZX1 will launch in Japan in October for about ¥490,000 (roughly $4,507 USD).

Read More

Comments 

1

TAGS 

lcd, sony, tv, television, display, hardware, Bravia ZX1

Posted 08/07/08 at 05:12:15 PM by Paul Lilly

Hollywood has been on the touch computing bandwagon long before Microsoft debuted its surface technology, and while we may never see a computer like the one Tom Cruise used in Minority Report to hunt down future criminals, or be engulfed in a virtual holographic cone like Michael Douglas in Disclosure, we are starting to see some real life groovy demonstrations of the emerging technology.

The newest example comes from the high tech marketing gurus at Obscura Digital, who recently showed off its VisionAire project. On its blog, Obscura describes the artsy demonstration as "our standard multi-touch framework [integrated] with the Musion system we have in house," but instead of actually touching anything, the presenter gestures in mid-air to control the windows and objects seen floating around.

Catch the video here, then fire up your Wii to be reminded how far the technology still has to go before being ready for home use.

Read More

Comments 

0

TAGS 

display, consumer electronics, Hologram, multi-touch, obscura digital

Posted 08/07/08 at 11:05:09 AM by David Murphy

Rarely do you see a 22-inch display float near the price points of superior 24-inch panels. It’s just unheard of, for a smaller display would have to offer some kind of fantastic upgrade over what we typically find in this size classification to be worth the additional cost. How about an extra dimension?

Zalman’s ZM-M220W is the company’s first 3D display and it’s every bit as expensive as some of the best midrange monitors we’ve tested. We appreciate Zalman’s attempt at breaking through the fourth wall using a 3D technology that’s far cheaper than what we’ve seen on similar displays. But we would still trade this extra dimension for a better-looking picture in a heartbeat.

Check out our full review of Zalman's 3D display after the jump!

Read More

Comments 

0

TAGS 

monitor, Zalman, display, 3D, reviews, build a pc, ZM-M220W

Posted 08/06/08 at 09:00:58 AM by David Murphy

It’s a shame to test an LCD monitor that’s able to create sharp whites and rich blacks, only to watch it struggle to display common color gradients. And it’s downright frustrating given our benchmarking process. We first test a display’s ability to produce detail in blacks and whites. And in that race, NEC’s 24WMCX finishes toward the front—a noteworthy start.

Read More

Comments 

0

TAGS 

lcd, monitor, display, flat panel, nec, hardware

Posted 07/31/08 at 10:44:01 AM by Paul Lilly

While Dell stays busy jazzing up its Studio line of laptops and desktops with various color schemes, the OEM let loose another product but without all the fanfare. Available now is Dell's S2409 24-inch widescreen LCD panel, representing the company's first 16:9 aspect ratio display. That puts the screen resolution at 1920x1080 (as opposed to 1920x1200 for 16:10), matching the 1080p output of most high definition content including Blu-ray movies. Other notables include:

• HDMI with HDCP
• 1000:1 contrast ratio
• 0.276 mm pixel pitch
• 5 ms response time (gray-to-gray)
• 16.7 million colors

Read More

Comments 

7

TAGS 

lcd, display, hardware, build a pc, rigs, 16:9, montior

Posted 07/22/08 at 03:13:31 PM by Paul Lilly

Ever get that eerie feeling you're being watched? Forget what your therapist told you, you have every right to be paranoid. NEC Corp. has just developed a new 50-inch plasma display that not only likes being watched, but watches back. On top of the display sits a tiny camera capable of identifying a person's age and sex, and it can perform the same trick with a group of viewers. Armed with that information, the display can then target advertisements based on the predominate demographic. For example, if most of the viewers are determined to be senior citizens, it might show an ad for the Jitterbug instead of Apple's iPhone.

"Changing advertising products in accordance with the viewer would bring advertising closer to the purchaser," said Hiroshi Takahashi at NEC's solution business promotion division.

And he's right, but is that a good thing? Imagine stopping near a billboard with your longtime girlfriend and as you bend down on one knee to propose, the display starts belting out a "Viva Viagra!" jingle. Or Herpex. Interested parties need only hold their cell phone over a special device and the display will feed them a URL, coupons, and any other pertinent information, but depending on what's being advertised, you may want to wait until your girlfriend's not looking.

The 50-inch display will make an appearance later this summer at an annual festival in Tokyo run by Fuji Television network and be presented as an entertainment device. Visitors will know they're being watched, but will they like it?

Read More

Comments 

5

TAGS 

tv, display, nec, hardware, consumer electronics, plasma

Posted 07/21/08 at 06:23:56 PM by Paul Lilly

For the all the benefits organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have to offer, high costs have kept the technology from becoming commonplace. And when OLED devices do emerge, they tend to command a premium, putting them out of reach for mainstream consumption. But while the world waits for a breakthrough to bring low-cost OLEDs into the marketplace, Toshiba and Matsushita (Panasonic) might already be there.

According to a report from Japan's Nikkei BP, the two tech giants say they are poised to become the first Japanese companies to mass-produce OLED screens. Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co. (60 percent owned by Toshiba and 40 percent by Matsushita) appears ready to churn out 1 million 2.5-inch organic screens per month by fall of 2009, and will target mostly handheld devices like mobile phones and GPS navigators.

The 2.5-inch screen size remains the sweet spot for many portable devices, and if the two companies' claims turn out to be true, we could see a deluge of OLED devices rolled out in a very short time period starting in late '09

. 

Read More

Comments 

2

TAGS 

toshiba, technology, display, gadgets, hardware, consumer electronics, Matsushita, OLEDs