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Samsung says its new 8K TV chips will eliminate bezels
A simple chip could help bring 8K TVs into the mainstream and make them more awesome at the same time. Samsung has unveiled a single display driver IC chip with enough bandwidth (4 Gbps) to allow true 8K images to be transmitted to 8K display panels without the need for other components. That will eliminate the need for a bezel (where electronics are normally hidden), allowing for true all-display TV sets.
Call for Heroes: Pompolic Wars no longer vaporware, possibly shovelware
Did you forget about Call for Heroes: Pompolic Wars? Don't worry, so did we.This PC port was supposed to come out at the end of last year, but disappeared off the face of the earth instead. We know many of you are RPG starved, though, so you may be glad to know that media for the game has finally surfaced.IGN has some screens of Data Design Interactive's upcoming Wii game, but we're not sure when to expect the title. As you can probably deduce from the images, Call for Heroes also fits into the fantasy genre, and involves fighting demonic hordes to save the world -- your usual fantasy fare. Yet, you may find yourselves weary of this game; after all, DDI is the company responsible for traumatic titles such as Ninjabread Man and other shovelware. The PC version (which released last summer) also got an average score of 25% on Metacritic, which is a pretty bad sign.You can judge for yourself whether or not this game looks good, though, by checking out the screens posted after the break.
Shovelware: A cause and effect
Wii owners certainly can't complain about the number of third-party games available for the console. As MTV's Stephen Totilo puts it, where there was once a game drought for Nintendo systems (specifically in the N64 and GameCube eras), there's now a flood. What Wii owners can complain about, however, is that a lot of these Wii games are nothing but shovelware. But, how do these games end up on the popular console? And, is it even ultimately a bad thing that they do?
Samsung's new mobile DDI promises better daylight viewing
Samsung has just revealed a new mobile display driver IC (DDI) which claims to deliver clearer images in broad daylight, and while this sounds like a promising development, we're gonna wait to see it in action before passing judgment. What makes this so-called "intelligent" DDI different from the ones currently driving LCD screens is that it contains a built-in photo sensor that detects 32 levels of ambient light and uses a proprietary algorithm developed in conjunction with the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology to adjust properties such as brightness and saturation at the individual pixel level. Basically, the new DDI promises to optimize display viewing in direct sunlight while at the same time reducing power consumption by ramping down the brightness in lower-light environments. Our skepticism stems from the fact that this tech doesn't sound like it really does anything to combat sun glare, and since we always keep our brightness maxed out anyway, we're not sure how much benefit we'd get from an auto-adjusting screen. Like we said, though, we'll wait until we see one of these Samsung-powered displays in action before completely dismissing its effectiveness, and it sounds like we won't have to wait too long, either -- mass production of the new mobile DDIs is scheduled to begin before the end of the year.[Via Digital World Tokyo]
