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Hitachi announces 0.74-inch thin 32-inch LCD television
While we wait for the commercialization of those crazy-flat, high-contrast OLED televisions from Sony, Sharp and now Hitachi are trying to tempt us with super-thin LCDs of their own. Either way, we're good. Hitachi's 19-mm (0.74-inch) thin 32-inch LCD television was just announced but won't be revealed until CEATEC Japan 2007 gets underway. Not bad... not a scant 3-mm OLED mind you, but not bad. CEATEC kicks off on Tuesday so be sure to check back then for pictures and specs.
Toshiba still whittling away at their fuel cell prototypes
We can't say portable fuel cell power has really "arrived" yet -- perhaps when it no longer doubles the mass of the device it's attached to, then we can talk. But at least Toshiba isn't giving up on the technology, and they showed off some prototypes at CEATAC 2006 to demonstrate the fruit of their many years of labor. It doesn't look like they've managed to do much slimming since the last time we saw a couple prototypes this June, but the unit they've slapped onto the V30T looks promising, and the laptop version (peep after the break) seems at least more integrated than the last one we saw. No more word on when these things are going to get real and start providing us with that power-cord nirvana we've always dreamed of, but it's nice to know that we could always swipe one of these at a temporarily unguarded tradeshow booth. You know, for emergency use. Or something.
Fujitsu shows off color e-ink tablet concept
It's all well and good to drool on color e-ink prototypes from afar, but Fujitsu has already managed to squeeze a whole VGA display into a 4.7-inch x 6.3-inch handheld unit. The concept sports 4096 colors, 32MB of built-in memory and a miniSD slot, but weighs a mere 6.2 ounces. We're not sure about the exact thickness of this thing, but it's pretty dang thin -- hardly thicker than a mini USB port -- and we'd kick Sony's oft-delayed PRS-500 to the curb in a heartbeat to view the comic adventures of a Jewish Ryu on this Fujitsu device when or if it hits the market.
Pioneer launches PDP-5000EX for June
It's been a while since we heard about Pioneer's "world's smallest" 50-inch 1080p plasma at CEATAC 2005 (which was knocked down a couple of months later by Fujitsu & Hitachi's 42-inch 1080p plasma), but they may yet be the first company to actually get theirs on the market. Pioneer's launching their PDP-5000EX 1080p Pure Vision Black 1080p set in June with component, composite, HDMI, and HDCP DVI inputs. Of course there's no telling what it's going to set you back, but they just better hope Fujitsu & Hitachi don't swoop in for the kill and release theirs first.[Via NewLaunches]
