Posted 10/26/09 at 02:00:12 PM by Paul Lilly

There's slender, and then there's Samsung's disgustingly thin 40-inch LED TV panel measuring just 3.9mm thick, or a third the size of the company's previous panel. We say "disgusting" only because some of us are still bitter over dropping a couple grand on a bulky rear-projection earlier in the decade.

The super-slim backlit LED display boasts a 120Hz refresh rate, full HD resolution support, and a 5000:1 contrast ratio. It's also the world's thinnest LCD panel, measuring 7mm slimmer than Samsung's full production LED TV panel and about 45mm thinner than conventional LCD displays. Prior to today, LG held the title with its 5.9mm LED TV.

So when and where can you buy one? Good question - Samsung hasn't released the 3.9mm panel yet, but according to Akihabaranews.com, the company hopes to do so very soon.

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Posted 08/21/09 at 06:38:22 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Ford’s quest for contour-hugging brake lights has led to a major breakthrough in the development of flexible LEDs. A group of international scientists has developed a new process for manufacturing ultrathin, flexible LEDs. The inorganic LEDs developed using this technique are not only slender and flexible like their organic counterparts, but just as durable and bright as inorganic LEDs are expected to be. Ford, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy jointly provided funds for this project.

The team behind this project consists of researchers from institutions in the US, Singapore and China. The new LEDs, though fully inorganic, possess qualities associated with both organic and inorganic LEDs. "We wanted to see if we could use inorganic LEDs in ways that exploit some of the processing advantages of organic LEDs,” John Rogers, a materials scientist at the University of Illinois, told the journal Science.

LEDs can be made to be almost transparent using the new technique in which LEDs are placed at a considerable distance from each other. The technique can be used to make figure-hugging LEDs to be fitted onto buses. It could also make it possible to weave optical electronics into textiles.

 

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Posted 08/03/09 at 04:30:53 PM by Paul Lilly

Is that a projector in your pocket, or a Nikon Coolpix S1000pj digital camera? Perhaps both, if the latest rumor turns out to be true.

According to NikonRumors.com, the Coolpix S1000jp will be the first digital camera with a built-in projector that allows users to project photos or movie clips onto any flat surface at up to 40 inches in size. In addition to an LED projector, the Coolpix will also include a projector stand, a multi-function remote control, and other goodies.

Other details remain sparse, although preliminary specs show the new digicam sporting an effective resolution of 12.1 megapixels, a 5x Zoom-Nikkor lens, and a 28mm (equivalent) wide-angle coverage.

Look for availability sometime this September at an as-yet unannounced price.

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Posted 06/07/09 at 12:44:40 PM by Pulkit Chandna

LCD prices are on the wane, but Hitachi may have found a way to effect a steeper fall in LCD prices.  A tech website is said to have learnt that Hitachi’s new HFCL technology could pave the way for more energy-efficient and cost-effective LCDs. 

Though the new LCDs will utilize two to three times less lamps than their CCFL counterparts, they will offer superior brightness. Their superior watt output and use of fewer lamps make for a terrific energy-saving cocktail.

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Posted 06/04/09 at 04:30:24 PM by Andy Salisbury

This week NEC announced a 43-inch, curved monitor that will sport a 2ms response time.

The CRV43 “ultra-widescreen” display will pack a native resolution of 2880x900, and thanks to LED backlighting, feature a response time of just 2ms. For those of you that are looking to get one of these for yourself, start saving now – it’ll cost you $7,999.

Though, for those of you that have gaming running through your blood, no length is too great in order to have the baddest rig on the net. And, adding this to your setup will without a doubt put you near the top of the stack.

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Posted 03/04/09 at 11:07:02 AM by Paul Lilly

Dell has announced a new 24-inch LED widescreen display the company says will help cut energy costs and environmental impact. In addition to LED technology, energy saving features of Dell's new green G2410 display include the use of "recycled materials and other environmentally preferable components," less than 0.15W of power consumption when in sleep mode, manufacturing free of PVC, BFR, CFR, arsenic, and mercury, and reduced waste due to up to 20 percent slimmer panel than comparable models.

The G2410 sports a 1920x1080 screen resolution, which might be disappointing for some gamers hoping for 1920x1200, however it's enough for movie buffs to get full 1080p content. Other specs include a 1000:1 contrast ratio, 16.7 million color support, a 5ms response time, and 250 cd/m2 brightness. Connectivity options are limited to VGA and DVI-D.

The G2410 is available now for $349.

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Posted 11/14/08 at 06:07:06 PM by Andy Salisbury

Major notebook vendors like Dell and Apple are going to have a much easier time delivering those beautiful LED backlit screens in the near future, as the price of LEDs are projected to go down by 50%.

While the amount of notebooks that actually had LED backlighting in them was only 5-6% in the first three quarters of this year, that’s expected to shoot all the way up to 25% during this fourth quarter. Even still, it’s projected that up to 40% of notebooks will have LED backlighting in 2009.

At the current rate, it looks like LED backlighting will be standard sometime real soon. That’s a bright future that we look forward to.

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Posted 10/09/08 at 09:51:29 AM by Paul Lilly

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).

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