The International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) 2008 kicked off in Korea yesterday, and both Samsung and LG Display brought along their latest OLED-based displays for a little screen-quality sparring. LG tried valiantly, with their 19-inch OLED panel, but Samsung’s smaller, 14-inch panel fought back with the lower power-requirements of AMOLED while their larger 31-inch full-HD panel won the war of inches.
The smaller Samsung AMOLED is also capable of high-definition resolution, though that’s of arguable use with a diagonal screen size of just over a foot. Still, it all bodes well for the larger-scale panels that Samsung promised will reach commercial viability in 2009.
Samsung also brought along a 15-inch Blue Phase mode LCD, with improved image quality over previous prototypes, and a number of large, super-thin sets including a 7.9mm-thick 40-inch LCD TV and a 9.8mm-thick 52-inch TV. It remains to be seen when commercial products based on these technologies will reach the marketplace.
[via OLED-Info]
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Written by Chris Davies on October 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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It’s all about the research from Microsoft today. As well as their Oahu multitouch concept, the software giant is also exploring the possibility of an “Instant On” operating-system, which would give access to the browser, IM client, DVD and media player within eight seconds.
However users would not have access to the full range of Windows options and applications, for instance files and data. Part of the survey asks would-be users to judge how useful they would consider solely having use of web browsing media playback and instant messaging.
The concept is, of course, similar to that seen on many notebooks and motherboards, but they all use a custom Linux build created primarily for speed with a limited feature set. Given Microsoft’s less than positive attitude to Linux, it will be interesting to see by what method their own Instant On service would be delivered.
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Written by Chris Davies on October 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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Dell have announced a new gaming PC exclusively for Best Buy, the Alienware Aurora Desktop. Fitted out with an AMD Phenom X4 9550 2.2GHz quad-core processor, dual ATI Radeon HD 4850 video cards with a total 1GB of GDDR3 RAM, and 4GB of DDR2 RAM, the Aurora will only be available at Best Buy retail locations and through their online store.
Storage is courtesy of a 500GB, 7,200rpm hard-drive and there’s a DVD burner though no Blu-ray option. Connectivity includes gigabit ethernet, eight USB 2.0 ports (two on the front panel), two Firewire ports, two S-Video ports and a total of four DVI ports from the two video cards.
The PSU is a 750W model and the OS is Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit. However the two customer reviews (at time of writing) on Best Buy’s site aren’t particularly glowing - in fact, from the sound of it, the only thing glowing is the overheating graphics. One reviewer suggests that the Radeon, at idle, sits at 78 degrees, and that crashes and freezes are commonplace
The Alienware Aurora Desktop is currently available, priced at $1,699.99.
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Written by Chris Davies on October 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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We already know Intel’s 80GB X-25 SSD is fast, but what if you’re more interested in supercharging your games console than you are your notebook? ExtremeTech have ripped the standard HDD from their PS3 and replaced it with Intel’s solid-state drive, then run through the benchmarks to see what effect it has on game loading speeds and other activities.
The answer to that is a mixed bag. In the case of game loading, it depends on whether it’s a downloaded title or one on disc; the former will see speed increases of up to 40-percent, while the latter is more affected by the Blu-ray drive than it is the storage. Once installed, startup and loading times are also decreased, with ExtremeTech finding anything from 25 to 40-percent improvements.
As a viable upgrade, then, the Intel SSD makes a lot of sense. As a financially realistic one, however, it falls well short; Intel are currently asking anywhere up to $700 for the drive, where the console itself (with an identical capacity 80GB HDD) costs just $399.
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Written by Chris Davies on October 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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Microsoft’s Surface multitouch table is all well and good, but unless you’re a regular drinker, hotel guest or TV host you probably won’t have much contact with it. Thankfully that could be changing; a recent Microsoft survey is quizzing participants on the idea of a table-top computing device codenamed “Oahu”, which would offer the same multitouch input but in a far more compact format.
“The following questions refer to a computing device called “Oahu” that has an innovative multi-touch screen. Oahu is a flat screen that sits horizontally like a table top. You can interact with Oahu by touching the screen, instead of using a mouse, and more than one person can interact with Oahu at the same time. You and others can move objects on the screen with your hands and touch icons to open up programs, games, or music. People using the device can also use their fingertips to expand and shrink objects on the screen. The screen recognizes people’s hand movements and touches and reacts accordingly. You can bring up an on-screen keyboard to input information. Oahu also works with other devices (such as digital cameras, cell phones, and MP3 players) by getting information from or sending information to them. Oahu is on with no waiting time to start up. Oahu can come as a freestanding table, placed into a piece of furniture, or built into a countertop. The type of Oahu devices we are asking about today are not portable but if they are furniture or tables, they can be placed anywhere in your home” Microsoft Oahu description
Microsoft describe Oahu as being a non-portable flat display that sits horizontally like the Surface. As with the original, multiple touch-points and gestures are recognized; it also synchronizes with mobile devices placed upon it and has casual gaming functionality.
Users responding to the survey are asked to rate their interest in its features, and how likely they would be to buy such a device should Oahu reach the market. Microsoft even suggest a target price of $1,499, which frankly seems like a steal.
Of course, research doesn’t necessarily mean actual products are going to follow, but given the public interest in Surface and the fact that Microsoft are releasing the SDK and running developer sessions devoted to it at PDC this month, it looks a little more possible.
[via iStartedSomething]
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Written by Chris Davies on October 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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HTC have announced the release date for their Touch HD smartphone. The Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro device, which has a 3.8-inch WVGA 800 x 480 touchscreen with haptic feedback, a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and 3G HSDPA, will be available in Europe come November 6th.
Other specs include GPS, a front-facing VGA camera for video messaging, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support and a microSDHC card slot. In a pleasant change for HTC, the Touch HD also includes a 3.5mm headphone socket.
Earlier this month, HTC disappointed US would-be Touch HD owners by revealing that the handset would not get an official release outside of Europe and Asia. The smartphone lacks US-spec 3G band support, without which it would be limited to EDGE speeds at most (unless in a convenient WiFi hotspot), and HTC predicted that by the time they had engineered a new version the handset would be outdated.
The MRSP for the HTC Touch HD is €649 ($881).
[via Unwired View]
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Written by Chris Davies on October 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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NVIDIA have officially announced the GeForce 9400M graphics chipset, the same found in the new MacBooks that Apple unveiled at yesterday’s event. The chipset differs from existing integrated graphics by virtue of incorporating both the full mainboard chipset, including memory and bus controllers, with the GPU; it promises 5x speed increases on both MacBook and Windows systems.
The GeForce 9400M includes sixteen graphics pipes (twice the amount in the 9300M) but still manages to take up just half the notebook mainboard space. It’s compatible with NVIDIA’s Hybrid SLI system, which allows users to switch between the integrated 9400M and a separate, discrete graphics card for boosted video performance (at the cost of battery life, of course).
It also supports full hardware high-definition video decoding and CPU offsetting, whereby general computing tasks take advantage of free processing cycles in the GPU. However only Apple have publicly signed up to use the GeForce 9400M; while they do not have an exclusivity agreement, Steve Jobs did predict that they would be using “a lot” of NVIDIA’s chips and, as such, could prompt a shortage should other manufacturers desire them.
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Written by Chris Davies on October 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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Occasionally it’s nice to glance into the distance and see what our friends in the Far East are enjoying (and then usually drool uncontrollably while cursing the current state of our own electronics). Today it’s the turn of the Sharp Softbank 9225H, a cellphone-cum-MID with a 3.5-inch widescreen VGA display and full QWERTY keyboard.
As well as making calls, messages and emails, the 9225H has an integrated 1-Seg TV tuner and music playback. I’d also assume - or at least hope - it can play video, too, since not doing so would be a real waste of that display.
A built-in 2-megapixel camera is there for imaging, though there doesn’t appear to be an obvious internal lens (it could be disguised in the black screen bezel). Storage is via microSDHC, and the whole thing is just 9.9mm thick. Don’t get too excited, though; it’s another gadget unlikely to make it out of Japan.
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Written by Chris Davies on October 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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