Samsung is getting into the e-book reader bandwagon with its Papyrus. There isn’t that much technical details available for the Papyrus but there are some:
No WiFi? OK, then you’d expect it to have some WWAN connection. But nope. Not on the Papyrus. And that will doom the Papyrus unfortunately. (more…)
Peek Pronto is out. What’s different from the original Peek? Push email. That means you get email on your Pronto (almost) immediately. Exchange is now supported. All you business folks out there should be happy. Your company will be replacing your expensive BlackBerry with one of these cute little things. Texting is new and it is unlimited. UNLIMITED. That means you texting freaks out there (I saw you guys and gals on TV!) that text hundreds if not thousands each and every day should tell your parents pronto to get a… er… Pronto. They will love you for it. Search is supported. Word and PDF files can now be seen. The original Peek was $49.95. The new Pronto is $79.95 and comes in gray, gray and gray.
What’s not different? The monthly service price. It’s still $19.95/mo. No contract. Still nice. Oh, there aren’t any taxes or surcharges or extra government fees, etc. that you see on your monthly cellular bill. It’s just $19.95/mo. More videos after the jump.
TAG Heuer Meridiist Specifications
Display (Main): 1.9″ TFT LCD
Pixel Format: 240×320
Display (Top): OLED
Pixel Format: 96 x 16
Camera: 2MP (1600×1200) CMOS with Mechanical Slider for On/Off
Connectivity: Bluetooth, miniUSB 1.0 (as Mass Storage), Modem, GSM, GPRS
Audio: MP3, AAC
Picture: JPEG, GIF, BMP
Video: Record and Playback (format unknown)
Battery: 950mAh Lithium Ion (28-day standby, 7-hour talk)
Dimensions: 112 x 46 x 15.5mm
Weight: 155g
TAG Heuer: You can pre-order your Meridiist now. What’s a Meridiist? It’s TAG Heuer’s high-end mobile phone that incorporates a 1.9-inch LCD for its main display and an OLED for another display on top. The 1.9″ LCD sports a 240×320 pixel format resulting in a very high resolution display.
The “Time Unit” integrates a watch on top of the Meridiist that allows you to use it as… well… a clock. And a chronograph and caller identification. The OLED display is protected by a sapphire crystal glass. There’s a video where a super-rich person who is ultra-dumb is driving and using the Meridiist–don’t do this at home kids!
The Meridiist sports a 2MP digital camera incorporates some special custom software that maximizes the image quality and color rendering. The phone has 2GB of memory so you can store about 5000 pictures on it.
Other features include a fairly extended 28-day standby time and 7 hours talk time. The target customer is clear: the upper crust. You have a choice of rubber, calfskin leather or genuine alligator leather, which is “sourced exclusively from breeding farms” and is “cut, sewed by highly qualified craftsmen.” If I actually did order this expensive phone I would definitely choose the “Black rubber” option and won’t be part of slaughtering alligators or baby cows just to have some leather on my phone.
The case is made of 316L stainless steel that is hand-brushed and polished. After that the case is coated with Titanium carbide to make it extremely durable.
There are only 11 stores, worldwide, that will carry the Meridiist: Singapore, Dubai, New York (2), Manhasset, Los Angeles (2), Beverly Hills, Seef-Rivoli, Manama-Rivoli and Doha-Rivoli. Price? If you have to ask…
Samsung N120 Specifications
Display: 10.1″ Wide TFT LCD
Pixel Format: 1024 x 600
Webcam: 1.3MP
Storage: 3-in-1 Memory Card Reader
Connectivity: USB (3), Bluetooth (option)
Other: Full-size Keyboard
Battery: 6-cell (up to 10.5 hours)
Availability: April 2009 in Europe
A full-sized keyboard in a netbook? You bet. Samsung‘s N120 may be a 10.1″ netbook but thanks to the enormous bezel width on each side of the LCD the company was able to cram a full-sized keyboard into it. Another special feature of the N120 is the battery: it’s a 6-cell and it can last up to 10.5 hours. That would mean about 9 hours in real life and that’s quite a long time.
Source: Netbook News (translated), Engadget
Sharp started it. Samsung ended it. Sharp slapped Samsung with a LCD patent infringement lawsuit back in late 2007. Samsung countered with its own infringement suit in June 2008 claiming that Sharp infringed on Samsung’s LCD patents. Well, it’s over now: a Tokyo court gave Samsung the victory.
Source: Engadget, Wall Street Journal
Kodak OLED Wireless Photo Frame Specifications
OLED-Info: Do you want to be the only person on your street who can say you got one of the coolest OLED digital photo frames for absolutely nothing? Kodak‘s OLED Wireless Photo Frame is the only digital photo frame that makes use of an OLED display. And you can win one of these uber-expensive (about US$800) by doing one of three very simple things: One option is to follow OLED-Info on Twitter and tweet “Entering into the OLED-Info kodak OLED photo frame contest. To participate, follow @oledinfo and retweet this message”. Second is to blog about and finally you can also subscribe to OLED-Info’s RSS. Winner will be randomly picked. The last day to enter is April 28, 2009 so there’s plenty of time but don’t let this chance get away.
Here’s a video I took during CES 2009 with the product manager going over the features of the OLED Wireless Photo Frame (make sure to click on the HQ button to view the higher quality version):
On March 20, 2009, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) announced that Asanga Padmaperuma, a scientist at PNNL, and his colleagues have designed, synthesized and tested a new blue phosphorescent OLED material with a power effiency that is at least 25% enhanced relative to today’s typical blue OLED material. By combining red, green and blue OLED materials a white OLED can be manufactured. White OLEDs can be used for general lighting. Lighting consumes about 20% of the electricity that is generated in the United States. Shifting that from CCFL to LED and then finally to OLED can significantly reduce the energy consumption by lighting. In addition, with a more efficient blue OLED material we can expect longer-lasting OLED displays as well as the potential of OLEDs to be used as the backlight in LCDs.
Source: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, OLED-Info, OLED-Display, Engadget
Sharp LC-52AE6 Specifications
Display: 52″ ASV TFT LCD
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Pixel Format: 1920 x 1080
Contrast Ratio: 15000:1 (dynamic)
Brightness: 450 cd/m2
Frequency: 120Hz
Viewing Angles: 176/176
Other: Ambient Light Sensor
Connectivity: HDMI (3), S-Video, Composite (3), Component (2), VGA
Power Consumption: 180W (175kWh/year)
Dimensions: 124.9 x 84.1 x 31.6cm (w/stand)
Availability: May 15, 2009 in Japan
Price: ¥390,000 (about US$4000)
Sharp just introduced its A Series of LCD TVs that include three sizes: 52″, 46″ and 40″. The largest of the three is the LC-52AE6 that sports a 52″ ASV (Advanced Super View) TFT LCD panel sporting a 1920 x 1080 pixel format. All A Series models feature 120Hz frequencies that reduce motion blur. Brightness of the 52″ LCD TV is a decent 450 cd/m2 and viewing angles are very good at 176/176. The LC-52AE6 has an ambient light sensor that is integrated into the unit that checks how bright the environment is and adjusts the backlight appropriately. Although this is a power saving as well as a picture enhancing technology, I like to have absolutely control over the brightness of my TV. The LC-52AE6 consumes power at annual rate of 175kWh or 180W.
Source: Sharp (translated), Impress, Engadget
Laptop: Want the closest thing to a perfect netbook? Laptop reviewed the N110 and stated that, “Samsung has created a near-perfect netbook in its N110.” High praise. So what did Laptop like?
The ergonomics on the N110 improved over an already decent NC10. The touchpad improved: it was extended from 2.3 x 1.1″ to 2.5 x 1.3″ and makes it quite a bit more usable. Battery life improved to about 8 hours. Great keyboard: 95% full-size with nice tactile feedback and a full-size right Shift key under the Enter key (I would really like all keyboards to be like this!).
The display remains the same at 10.2″ with a 1024×600 pixel format. If you are one of the few who would rather have the NC10, Amazon has it for a tiny bit less at $425.98.
Bang & Olufsen (B&O) BeoVision 4 103″ Plasma TV Specifications
Display: 103″ PDP
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Pixel Format: 1920 x 1080
Availability: July 2009
Price: About US$136,000
B&O‘s BeoVision 4 103″ plasma TV is huge. Using Panasonic‘s 103″ PDP (plasma display panel) the guys over at B&O enact a hefty premium over Panasonic’s own TH-103PF9 103″ plasma TV that goes for $70,000. But the 103″ from B&O has a very nice aluminum frame and a couple of other tricks. The BeoVision 4 103″ plasma TV incorporates technology that allows the huge TV to automatically calibrate colors and brightness: brightness is auto-calibrated every 120 hours, a nifty feature. The BeoVision line includes 50″, 60″ and now 103″ versions. B&O’s 103″ plasma TV is clearly aimed at the filthy rich because not only will that $136,000 price tag dent anyone’s wallet from the very beginning, the enormous amount of energy that this thing will be consuming for years to come will have a severe impact on the monthly electricity bill.
DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim. Subscribe via RSS.
