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Samsung to finally roll out flexible AMOLED displays for public consumption in 2012?
Samsung's been a frequent source of frustration, teasing us with its fabulous flexible displays for years, while never giving us a date when we could buy one for our very own. However, word on the web suggests that Sammy is finally ready to unleash its pliant panels upon the world in Q2 of 2012. Apparently, the company's mobile display division opened a new manufacturing plant with Ube (who produces the plastic substrate for the screens) last month to mass-produce bendy AMOLEDs for watches and phones. Let the countdown to the ductile display revolution begin.
NHK's flexible OLED is both literally and figuratively green (video)
When it's not pushing Super Hi-Vision, the hopeful 7,680 x 4,320 successor to HD, NHK also dabbles in small, flexible OLED panels. The Japanese public broadcaster recently showed off a 5-inch prototype display that, while bearing a heavy green tint and very noticeable rows of dead pixels, was still a significant improvement over a similar screen it demoed in 2009. Sure, it's not quite as flexible or vibrant as Sony's rollable OLED from last year, but it does seem to suffer from fewer bad pixels -- an important step towards maturation. Don't miss the video after the break which offers some pretty nifty glimpses at a number of bendable OLEDs. It's clear the tech is still a little wet behind the ears, but we're definitely getting closer to a future populated with TVs that roll up for storage and e-readers that fold like a paperback.
Flexible batteries get the graphene treatment, could be cheaper than other bendy batts
We've been talking about flexible batteries for years now, but a team of Korean researchers have presented a new solution to bendable energy sources that is not only more powerful than standard lithium-ion batteries, but also potentially cheaper to produce than its malleable predecessors -- and unsurprisingly, everyone's favorite wonder material, graphene, is at the heart of the innovation. The rechargeable battery contains a vanadium-oxide cathode, grown on a sheet of graphene paper, an unidentified separator, and an anode made of lithium-coated graphene. According to the folks behind the new power source, it sports higher energy and power density, as well as a better cycle life than the literally stiff competition. Similar advances have also out-performed rigid lithium-ion batteries, but have enlisted carbon nanotubes, a material more expensive to produce than graphene. Of course, like all technological advances, we won't be seeing these things for years, if not decades, so you might as well get used to ye olde standard bearer.
Bendable bicycle wraps itself around a pole - by design
Parking your two-wheeler in a shady neighborhood, but left your secondary lock at home? No problem -- to protect your wheels, just bend your bike around a nearby post and thread your U-lock through the whole kit at once. That's the idea behind UK designer Kevin Scott's folding bicycle, which is rigid enough to freely ride, but releases its flexible ratcheting mechanism when you push a lever on the side. The design won the 21-year-old student £500 at the New Designers exhibition in London this week. He's presently looking for partners to help commercialize the concept, which looks more practical than some, so we expect it'll be only a few years before you'll see his creation zipping down the street. One question, though -- why not go the whole nine yards and give it a built-in lock, too?
Ask Engadget: Best flexible keyboard out there?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Jeremy, who is desperately searching for a portable and malleable keyboard to take on the road."I love my little computing companion but I often find myself missing a full sized keyboard. I have been looking at several of these portable and flexible keyboards, but I can't seem to make up my mind about which I should buy. I don't want the keyboard to be overly expensive, but I want it to be good quality. Also, how difficult is it to type on these keyboards? Thanks!"To anyone who has been forced to use a cramped netbook keyboard for over a few minutes, you know how dire the situation can get. If you've literally rolled a keyboard into your arsenal, let us know which one made the team and how it's holding up.
Pilotfish's Ondo music editing mobile concept puts new twist on smartphones
It's been nearly three years since the Onyx tickled our imagination, but Pilotfish is looking to completely melt our brains with its latest concept. The Munich-based industrial design firm has just introduced its Ondo music editing mobile, which is half cellphone, half music mixer and thoroughly amazing. In theory, the phone would boast a small mixing panel, three removable recording sticks with internal memory and a bendable center to give music lovers the ability to insert pitch bends and relieve stress. Essentially, the trio of OLED-infused sticks serves two purposes: when installed, they're the main phone panel, and when removed, they can be clipped onto instruments for recording purposes. Afterwards, they can be swapped with other Ondo owners or edited on the fly right on the device itself. Needless to say, there's a better shot at you winning the lottery than seeing this thing hit mass production, but you can feel free to dream by checking the full release, Q&A and demonstration video just past the break.
Video: ASU's touch-screen ePaper display evokes the future from the past
With the Kindle back in the news, everyone's interested in showing off their E-Ink displays. Here we have the latest video from Arizona State University's Flexible Display Center. Their new bendy display is touch-sensitive (stylus or finger) and makes us long for Apple's old Newton for some reason. Check the video after the break to see why.[Via I4U News]
Flexicord cables get bent... and stay that way
Ever have a cable you wanted to strangle? Well you're not alone, apparently. A company called E-Filliate issued a new series of USB, HDMI, Cat5, S-Video, and composite cables called Flexicord at CES this year which will bend -- and stay -- in any position you please, thus eliminating that frustration you must feel every time you plug in your camera or hook up your high fidelity sound system. The cables act like pipe cleaner or Gumby, so you can twist and shape them as you please, though apparently Pokey had to be killed and dissected so the technology could be obtained. Enjoy your new cable, murderers.[Via Everything USB]
Networks of carbon nanotubes find use in flexible displays
Carbon nanotubes may very well kill you (okay, so that's very much a stretch), but you'll have a hard time convincing the dutiful scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to stop their promising research. Put simply (or as simply as possible), said researchers have discovered that "networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes printed onto bendable plastic perform well as semiconductors in integrated circuits." So well, in fact, that the nanotube networks could one day "replace organic semiconductors in applications such as flexible displays." Granted, there is still much to do before these networks are ready for product integration, but you can bet these folks aren't hitting the brakes after coming this far.
Motorola envisions flexible handset keypads, displays
Granted, Motorola's latest patent application is really about a dreamy user interface system, but it's the allusions to a flexible keypad / display that really has our imaginations tingling. Put simply, the firm draws up plans to concoct rollable cellphone parts that have an "active and inactive" position. More specifically, a reservoir of electrorheological fluid could be used to stiffen the display or keypad when a call came in, and when the current was taken away, the phone could once more be rolled up and dropped into the smallest of pockets (or an M&M's Minis tube). A respectable idea, sure, but one that we definitely don't see happening here anytime soon.[Via UnwiredView]
Shinoda Plasma shows off slim, lightweight 43-inch display
Shinoda Plasma, a venture company spun from Fujitsu, was busy demonstrating a unique 43-inch panel at CEATEC that sports a pixel pitch of three-millimeters and is currently in prototype form. Reportedly, the device is made of "plasma tubes aligned and sandwiched between film-form electrodes," and it is based on the "same light-emitting theory as existing PDP technology." A boon to this, however, is its ability to be made much slimmer and lighter than current alternatives, as the flexible panel on stage was said to be one-millimeter thick and weigh just 1.76-pounds. Check out more pictorial delight after the jump.
Brando's illuminated, flexible keyboard ain't too pretty
We'll admit, we can't recall seeing a rollable silicon keyboard that deserved to be called gorgeous, but Brando's iteration isn't even close. 'Course, those enamored with glowing lights and plastic-y gizmos may not find much room to grumble, but all aesthetics aside, this thing is reportedly "strong, silent and indestructible." Moreover, the $27 device is said to be dustproof and water-resistant, can be connected via USB or PS/2 and comes in white, pink, blue and green.
Flexible displays created by stretching crystals
As researchers continue to forge ahead in their quest to create commercially viable flexible displays, a new team from Canada has apparently unearthed a breakthrough of sorts. Reportedly, the crew has been able to conjure up a full-color display which boasts pixels made from photonic crystals, and by "bonding them to an electroactive polymer that expands when a voltage is applied to it," the colors of the pixels change. According to André Arsenault of the University of Toronto, the newfangled devices "can be viewed just as well in bright sunlight as in indoor light," and if all goes as planned, we could be seeing a whole lot more of these promising units "in as little as two years" when the startup Opalux looks to fit these bendable creations into billboards, handheld gadgetry, and anything else it deems fit.[Image courtesy of MSNBC, thanks Alan]
Polymer Vision's Readius rollable display gets face time
Talk about a long time coming, as what is now Polymer Vision has seemed to finally put all the pieces together and produce an actual working product from the idea envisioned by Philips around two years ago. We knew the spinoff was looking to commercialize the product later this year, but after nearly 24 months of coming up empty, a bit of understandable skepticism begins to seep through. Nevertheless, the firm's rollable, pocket-friendly "Cellular-Book" was out and showing its stuff at 3GSM, proving that there's at least something there to put on store shelves. Although the unit on display was indeed a standalone device -- sporting 16 shades of grey, USB, "10-days" of battery life, 4GB of internal storage, and GPRS, EDGE, and DVB-H connectivity just like we'd heard -- Polymer Vision is actually hoping to integrate its e-paper technology into mobile handset displays in the near future. Sadly, there still didn't seem to be any hints of a release date for the nifty pocket reader, but be sure to click on through for the very long awaited pictures of the Readius in action.[Via Slashdot]
Polymer Vision plans to commercialize foldable paper this year
If there's one thing the business-savvy CEOs of the world know, it's that you don't want your competition to get too far ahead of you, and just as Plastic Logic announced its plans to build the first electronic paper plant in Dresden, Germany, Polymer Vision is trying to make good on its nearly two-year old promise. During 2005's IFA expo, Philip assured us all that we'd be blown away by the firm's rollable, bendable displays in a mere two years, and now that 24 months have nearly elapsed, a company spinoff is looking to make it happen. According to a German report, Polymer Vision is still on track for "commercializing the foldable PV-QML5 display" that we've all grown quite fond of. Planning to use the technology in e-books and electronic map guides, the initial 4.8-inch display will tout a 320 x 200 resolution, 10:1 contrast ratio, support for four gray tones, and be only 100 micrometers thick. Sadly, no hard dates were passed down as to when we could expect the first production batch to head out to consumers, but now that there's some serious competition brewing just a few miles down the road, we'd bet a good bit of effort goes into making that 2007 date a reality.[Via I4U]
Bluetrek unveils twistable ST1 Bluetooth headphones
It looks like Bluetrek is hopping into the Bluetooth headphone game, and while it faces some stiff competition, the ST1 sports a design entirely more pleasing to the eye than Etymotic's ety8 or Koss' Cobalt. Expected to make a showing at CES, these Korean-bound headphones feature a slim, bendable frame made to fit the heads of runners / commuters without gangly adornments cramping your style. It also boasts a trendy black / snow white color motif, Bluetooth v1.2 support, USB connectivity, operates "about nine hours" before its Li-ion needs recharging, and can supposedly last 400 hours in standby mode. Additionally, the play / pause, track direction, and volume controls are handily included on the earpieces, so you can control your playlists (on supported devices) without ever looking down. While we're not sure how much Bluetrek plans on charging for these snazzy wraparounds, we'll hopefully be getting a listen of our own before too long.[Via Engadget Chinese]
