displays
Latest
Samsung SDI creates new 3D AMOLED display
Looks like Samsung's got a new display technology they want to get into cellphones and handhelds; their 4.3-inch active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) promises to be the "the world's highest definition" portable 3D display. There they go with that world's-blank crap again -- ok, we get it Samsung, jeez, you're a worldwide innovator. But for crying out loud, at least tell us just how high resolution this thing is, and what exactly it does differently than other portable 3D displays, okay? Keep an eye out, we're sure to hear more about this soon.
Samsung's 3.5-inch Hybrid Touch Screen Panel LCD
Some behind-the-"screens" work just completed by Samsung will soon enable many of the portable devices you enjoy to offer thinner and lighter touch panel displays. The Korean electronics giant has announced a new LCD technology called hTSP (Hybrid Touch Screen Panel) that will allow manufacturers to incorporate touch screen functionality directly into the TFT fabrication process, whereas most current touch-sensitive applications require a separate, sensor-laden printed circuit board (PCB) attached to the top of the display. So far the company is able to create LCDs as big as 3.5 inches using the new method, meaning that you can expect to see hTSP-sporting smartphones, PMPs, and nav devices on store shelves in the near future.
NEC's 42-inch PX-42XM4J business plasma
Japan's NEC Corp. is offering a new 42-inch plasma display designed for corporate deployment whose 3,000:1 contrast ratio and 1,400-candela/square-meter brightness should make it a hit in keiretsu boardrooms nationwide. Which is a good thing, because at almost $4,500, the PX-42XM4J -- with its 1,024 x 768 resolution -- probably wouldn't attract today's consumer looking for that all important 1,080p designation. Interested Japanese IT directors can start filling out their requisition forms in triplicate right away, as NEC's new PDP is available immediately.[Via Impress]
Dell 2407WFP goes on sale in US
We know, we know, you're freaking sick and tired of us talking about the Dell 2407WFP, and probably for good reason. But what can we say, we love them big-booty monitors, so head on over to Dell's site if you've got the itch to drop $949 US on a screen that'll light up that life with 1920 x 1200 pixels. That's a lot of pixels friend, you should at least consider it.P.S. -For those wondering, unfortunatel the monitor's ship date is still listed as unavailable, so don't buy if you're expecting to get the thing overnighted, ok?[Thanks, master_of_fm]
Seven from Sony: new BRAVIA flat-panel LCDs
Even though we've all gone out and bought HD-DVD players already (not really), Sony is trying to woo consumers over to the Blu-ray camp with a snazzy new line of BRAVIA-brand flat-panel LCD TVs, five of which sport the coveted XBR designation, and five of which offer 1080p resolution for maximum enjoyment of the BDP-S1 that Sony is hoping you'll pick up this summer. All of the XBR sets -- the 46-inch KDL-46XBR3 and KDL-46XBR2, 40-inch KDL-40XBR3 and KDL-40XBR2, and 32-inch KDL-V32XBR2 -- feature a built-in ATSC tuner plus one VGA, two HD component, and three HDMI inputs, along with the usual flurry of patented picture enhancement technologies, with the XBR3s sporting that shiny piano black bezel which is so popular nowadays that it's showing up at some of the finest bars along the Jersey shore. Rounding out the bunch are the 46-inch KDL-46V2500 and 40-inch KDL-40V2500, which also give you 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, but no digital tuner, one less HDMI input, and no option for interchangeable, multi-colored bezels as with their XBR2 counterparts. Prices for these models -- which will all be available in September -- range from $2,500 for the 32-incher up to $5,300 for the stylin' 46-inch XBR3 (pictured), and of course, whatever you end up paying for that Blu-ray player.
Dell quietly announces 2407WFP
Say it loud and proud, Dell, you're finally bringing the 2407WFP to the Yoonited States. Looks like among the other things Dell brought to the table yesterday, the US launch of the latest version of their 24-inch monitor was included, however quietly (it still doesn't appear to be up on their site, but according to CNET they've definitely loosed the thing). As we well know, It's not a whole lot different than its predecessor, the Engadget-gold-standard 2405FPW, but this one -- for better or worse -- adds HDCP to the mix. CNET says you'll pony up $949 to get one, but before you do you'd better make sure you're emotionally prepared to erase that desktop color mode for good.[Thanks, Pramit]
Quixun's QHD-M30W 30-inch behemoth
Watch out, Apple n' Dell. You two are officially no longer the only pair to offer those behemoth 30-inch monitors to screen real estate-hungry power users across the world. Seeing a split market that could easily afford one more, Quixun ("Quick Sun?"), a Japanese firm we'd never heard of until today loosed their QHD-M30W on the East, a WQXGA (2560 x 1600) 30-inch LCD the likes of which we've only seen, um, twice: in Apple's 30-inch Cinema Display, and Dell's oft lauded 3007WFP. On the specs end, expect a 300cd/m2 brightness, 400:1 contrast ratio, and 12ms pixel resonse -- yeah, not gamers' specs, but you're not buying this thing for its millions of pixels first, remember? It'll run you ¥198,000 ($1,765 US) in Japan, a helluva lot less than what you'd pay for even the "budget" $2,200 Dell, but more like Apple, it's only got a single dual-link DVI port, none of them fancy TV inputs.[Via Impress]
Logitec intros USB touchscreen "faceplates"
As you've probably noticed, the Photoshopping skills around here aren't what you'd call top-notch, so we're thinking that maybe attaching Logitec's upcoming USB touchscreen to our monitor might help us give you the realistic product mock-ups and goofy photo-illustrations that you deserve. Coming in 15-inch or 17-inch varieties, respectively, the LTP-15UBK and LTP-17UBK (or LTP-17U, in white) simply attach to your existing LCD with velcro strips, and let you manipulate your pointer with either a finger, a la an ATM machine, or the included pen, as with a graphics tablet. Both models will go on sale in late June for an undisclosed sum of money, but we're not sure if these will even be available outside of Japan, so you may have to put up with our crappy Photoshops for just a little while longer.[Via Everything USB]
Sanyo Epson's "Photo Fine Vistarich" enables extreme-viewing-angle LCDs
Researchers at Japan's Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corporation have just developed a series of small LCDs that, unlike most traditional displays, are almost perfectly viewable even at extreme 90-degree angles. Available in sizes ranging from 2.4-inches to 10.1-inches, the displays will be employed in any number of portable devices, from cellphones to PDAs to PMPs, although the best use we can think of is to put them on cameras, which should make it a lot easier to see what you're shooting when you need to take pictures over a crowd. As for the use of this so-called "Photo Fine Vistarich" technology in devices that we're viewing personal/secure information on, well, we're not necessarily sure we want to make it easier for everyone on the subway to peep our Treo screen. Sanyo Epson says production of these displays will begin this fall, which mean we should probably see corresponding products on the market before the end of the year.
Longhorns to snatch "world's biggest HD display" title from Dolphins?
It's been a bad year for the Miami Dolphins: first they lost Heisman Trophy-winning running back Ricky Williams for the upcoming season, and soon their "biggest HD display in the world" may have to play second fiddle to a new scoreboard being installed this summer for the University of Texas Longhorns. At 7,370 square feet, the 134-foot by 55-foot 'board being built for the school by Daktronics (who also manufactured the Miami display) has a slightly larger screen area than the current 7000-sqaure-foot title-holder, but nitpickers may argue that since the UT model will be almost a foot shorter diagonally, that it doesn't qualify as the "world's biggest." The argument may turn out to be moot, though, as a horse track in Tokyo is supposedly planning to install a ridiculous 197-foot-wide monster of a screen later this year that will overshadow all who came before it. UT's project comes as part of a multi-million dollar overhaul of their stadium, which will also include several other large displays, a new sound system, and a $150 million renovation of the north end zone meant to enable a 90,000 person capacity.[Thanks, Brian]
DisplayPort's back -- with Dell, HP, and Lenovo
Ruh roh, just when you knew for a fact you were all settled in with the latest generation of video interconnects for your laptops and peripherals, then VESA comes along and gets three of the most influential companies in the PC business, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, to rally behind its new video interface: DisplayPort. Ok, so it's not that new (we wrote about it last year), but it looks like it's finally ready to rumble starting May 8th. We called up VESA to get the skinny on the port, and they were kind enough to hit us up with that graphic and the following deets: it'll not be backward compatible with with DVI / VGA (ouch), it'll have wire-line encryption developed by Philips -- that's not compatible with HDCP (double ouch), but has a very small plug and scales well (eh). So why create DisplayPort when we've all already settled into DVI / HDMI with or without HDCP for plugging in our plasma or LCD TVs or monitors? Well, because VESA wanted the market to have a unified, license-free video interconnect standard that did a few things current systems don't do, like have a standard low power, low pin count, low profile connector for use on portable device internals and external monitors alike, or scale indefinitely to resolutions, color depths, and refresh rates possibly yet unthought of by systems integrators. Ok, fair enough, but where were these guys in 2001, huh? You know how we feel about nascent standards trying to butt in once we've all finally gotten settled on something decent.
Joytech's portable LCD for the 360
The JoyTech 9200 Digital LCD Monitor for the Xbox 360 (full specs here) looks like it has pass-through possibilities for modders (watch somebody build it right into the case), but it's too bulky to be sleek, and too small to replace that 80'' plasma in your living room. Still, slapping it over the vent holes on your console might be a good way to test your over-heating issues. How do they get away with advertising this thing as "high-definition" when it has a 800x480 display? I guess with a 9'' screen, it doesn't really matter. Of course, if you only have $180, anything would be an improvement over the miserable displays in our recent "Most Pathetic 360 Setup Contest." [Thanks, GP2S]
Philips spins off Liquavista to develop thin Electrowetting displays
A bunch of venture capitalists have been poking around Philips' R&D labs lately, and it seems that they like what they see. New Venture Partners has joined with the Dutch electronics giant to spin off several companies based on technology first developed by Philips Research, with the first collaboration, Liquavista, being announced today. Based on a thin-display technology called Electrowetting, Liquavista will attempt to integrate its products into DAPs, cellphones, watches, and other portable devices where high brightness and rapid refresh rates are valued (which is like, all of them). Electrowetting supposedly provides better brightness and response time than competing reflective display technologies while using essentially the same manufacturing techniques, and according to a handy comparison chart on MobileRead, is just about the best thing ever. Skeptics will be able to peep the displays for themselves in early June, however, when Liquavista will present some prototypes at the Society for Information Display's 2006 exhibition in San Francisco. [Warning: PDF link][Via MobileRead]
Wall o' 30-inchers
We rarely take the time to highlight someone's rig -- and when we do, it's usually not their rig, per se, but their heads. Well, step aside, oh masterful 24 display Virginia Tech workstation, you're old news with your 31,457,280 pixel array of twenty four 1280 x 1024 displays. No, the new crown goes to a man known only to us as Crazy Jon (trust us, that's no misnomer). Dude cobbled six NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB video cards and three 1,000-watt power supplies to take on a wall o' what appears to be Dell 30-inch 3007WFPs. Twelve, to be exact. By our math that's 49,152,000 pixels -- and about $26,400 just for the displays alone. Oh, and did we mention that Crazy Jon already had five Apple 30-inchers on his desk? We love you, Jon. Seriously though, can we come over sometime?[Via Make]
Matrox Triplehead2Go reviewed
It's hard feel sorry for a reviewer who had to spend a few hours seated at a three monitor setup trying to gauge how "immersed" he felt in his favorite FPS titles, but we've gotta give the intrepid Wil Harris some props for pulling himself away from F.E.A.R. long enough to write up a review of the Matrox Triplehead2Go. Sounds like the device does work as advertised. Meaning, it splits a VGA connection into three VGA connections and tells your computer it's hooked up to one big 3840 x 1024 display. All the software seems to work fine for the various desktop configurations, and while there aren't too many games that can handle 3840 x 1024 out of the box, the included software can help get most common games up and running, and can even be extended by users to cover other titles. As for gaming, the setup comes highly recommended if you've got the graphics power to handle the added resolution. For productivity, the analog connections and further signal degradation due to three-way splitting makes the Triplehead2Go not be such a hot choice. So hold out for DVI if you must, or throw down your $300 (plus a few LCDs), jump in and get fragging.
Sony Bravia S2000, V2000 720p HD lines continue expansion
Seems that Sony just can't help themselves: Every time we take another look, the company beefs up its Bravia S and V lines with new models, sometimes in smaller sizes, sometimes in larger ones (not that we're complaining). This time, Sony's added a nice range to the LCD line, with models from 32 to 46 inches. All models have a 1300:1 contrast ratio, 1366 x 768 resolution, a 178-degree viewing angle and an 8ms response time. The V series also includes Sony's "live color" enhancement technology. All models are due out next month, with pricing in Japan expected to run from about ¥250,000 ($2,113 US) for the 32-inch S2000 to ¥490,000 ($4,143 US) for the 46-inch V2000 model.
Boffins at Oregon State create transparent circuits?
Dude, screw the transparent OLEDs, it's all about transparent circuits, which some Oregon State University scientists seem to have created. The significance, of course, is clear (ahem): you save a lot of space in devices -- especially portables -- when your circuit board is your screen, not mounted on a wafter in a package on a board behind it. Apparently the scientists even expect clear, glass-mounted indium gallium oxide circuitry to ultimately be cheaper to produce than silicon. The military's in on the gig too, the Army Research Office is a project sponsor (as is HP and the National Science Foundation), probably for the project's obvious heads-up display uses. Will we, um, not see this gear any time in the near future? Hard to say, they're only up to 26 transistors in a single array as of yet (compared to the hundreds of millions in chips nowadays), but we'll be waiting.[Thanks, James F]
German researchers develop another transparent OLED technique
Looks like Fraunhofer's researchers aren't the only Germans able to get in on the transparent OLED thing. It appears some researchers at the Technical University of Braunschweig are claiming to have developed a technique for embedding OLED pixels on layers of transparent TFTs, creating see-through displays that could be manufactured cheaply with flexible plastics capable of withstanding extreme temperatures. Apparently the transparent displays, which were up to (and over) twice the brightness of today's displays, should be ready to rock in two years -- just in time for us to renovate the Department Of Precrime set we use act out Minority Report in during our lunch hour. Is it now?
Quake 3 in 10240x3072
This setup might be enough to make any hardened gamer weep with envy. Especially hardened gamers who've just splashed out on a new monitor themselves (we're not bitter). Running Quake 3 at a resolution of 10240x3072, this custom multi-panel display consists of 24 monitors powered by 12 Linux servers, created as part of a wall-based user interface research project. Warcraft II has also made it big, but at 3840x2160 it looks positively tiny next to the Quake 3 setup.[Via Opposable Thumbs]
Rig of the Day: Do you have enough displays?
Sure, the G5 Power Mac on the floor is cool, as is the iPod and the Xbox 360. But check out the four image-spanning displays! Is that TUAW on the Cinema display, with my Munsters post front and center? Seriously, could you run Photoshop on this setup or what?"Untitled" posted by scorpioca77.If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We'll select an image every day to highlight.
