BOE @ 8 According to The Wall Street Journal, BOE Technology Group, a Chinese display supplier, announced on August 27, 2009 that the company would lead a consortium to investing about US$4.1 billion to construct an 8th generation LCD fabrication plant in Beijing. The construction will take a little over two years to build.
A Major LCD TV Market China is becoming the go-to location for LCD plants. Not because the cheap labor: LCD panel manufacture requires very little human intervention. The main reason why major LCD manufacturers are going straight into the heart of China is because of demand: China’s demand for LCD TV is expected to hit 20 million units in 2009. That’s a considerable jump from 15.7 million units in 2008. By 2011 there will be three major LCD TV markets: North America, Western Europe and China. These three markets will account for about 90% of the worldwide LCD TV market. LCD TV penetration in China will hit 50% in 2009 and that number will grow to almost 70% in 2010. Of course China is also making it very tempting to do business there with low-cost land. Another benefit from locating LCD production in China is the increased efficiency in procuring parts, driver ICs for example, since the country is an electronics supply chain global center.
Top Players LG Display announced earlier in the week its intentions of constructing a LCD plant, also 8th generation, in Guangzhou for a total investment of more than US$3 billion. LG Display shipped 2.5 million LCD panels into China in 2008. With a LCD fab located within China the total number of LCD panels that will serve the China market will undoubtedly increase significantly. Samsung has also expressed interest in building a LCD plant in China.
Source: WSJ
gScreen’s Spacebook is quite geeky but quite tempting. The Spacebook is unlike any other. And that includes the Lenovo W700ds. The Spacebook sports two 15.4-inch LCDs! These LCDs will sport LED backlights. I’m not sure if gScreen will do it but if the company provides a 1920 x 1200 option on each of those 15.4-inch LCDs then we’re talking about a massive 3840 x 1200 of total resolution. Of course just the mention of that is making some of you have eye spasms. Interestingly enough gScreen is based in Alaska–must get cold working up there. Specs include:
gScreen is planning to have its Spacebook available during the holidays via Amazon. The company is also working on a dual 17- and 13-inch version.
EeeReader That name is just a guess on my part. It’s probably not going to be that. Asus is getting into the ebook reader action. According to DigiTimes, Asus is planning to introduce an Eee PC-branded ebook reader by the end of the year according to Jerry Shen, president of Asus. The ebook reader market is getting quite crowded. Here is a partical list:
US$99 There are, of course, considerably more brands and ebook readers but you get the point: there are choices, lots. So what does Asus bring to the table? The Eee PC brand. Remember what Asus did? To exaggerate just a little, Asus caused the netbook big bang. The company did that by bringing together cheap components into a tiny notebook PC, rebranded it as a netbook and sold it for considerably less than even the cheapest notebook PCs. Now we’re looking at a 20 million netbook market in 2009 (I think). Can Asus do that with ebook readers? I hope so. I look forward to a full-functioning touch-capable 3G-enabled E Ink-based ebook reader for US$99 that I can pick up at any electronics retailer or at a bookstore. Remember to make one specifically designed for students that can take physical abuse: drops, kicks, spills, dust, magic markers, etc. How do you differentiate from other cheapo ebook readers? Make it cheaper!
Source: DigiTimes
Smartbook Sharp‘s NetWalker PC-Z1 is a 5-inch smartbook. The 5-inch LCD sports a netbook-like 1024 x 600 resolution but using about half the space. That’s some small pixels! Make sure your eyes are up for it. Not only are the pixels small, the NetWalker itself is pretty small: 161.4 x 108.7 x 19.7 – 24.8mm. For folks in the US, that’s: 6.35 x 4.28 x 0.77 – 0.98-inch. The weight? Just a featherlight 409g or 0.9lb. In that small and light chassis is a Freescale i.MX515 CPU running at 800MHz. Other specs include: 512MB of memory, 4GB flash storage, WiFi BG, USB (2), microSDHC expansion. The OS is Ubuntu.
3 Seconds That’s how long it takes for the NetWalker to boot–pretty darn fast. Of course, a MacBook that’s sleeping will wake up even quicker. I wonder if the PC-Z1 has a sleep feature; if it does it would come back to life in an instant I’m thinking. You want it to last too and it will, for 10 hours.
Big Ugly Cylinder There are a couple of things I’m not liking about the NetWalker. The LCD could certainly have been bigger. I don’t know why the bezel on the sides have to be so thick; it is massively thick, and ugly. The second thing that I immediately noticed was the big fat cylinder in the middle. Sony has been using this design for its netbook and notebooks but those are much bigger units so cylinder doesn’t look so big relatively speaking. On the NetWalker it looks gigantic! Sure you get 10 hours with that humongous cylinder but isn’t there a prettier way?
¥44,800 That’s about US$500 and will be available in the Japanese market on September 25. In my opinion the NetWalker needs to walk a bit more and lose that fat right in the mid-section. It also needs to lose a few yens and come down to about ¥30,000 or US$320.
Source: AkihabaraNews via Engadget
BenQ‘s M2700HDS is a 27-inch LCD monitor with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. Brightness is 300 cd/m2, response time is 5ms and contrast ratio is 1000:1. Connectivity includes USB (2), VGA, DVI, HDMI (2), Composite, S-Video, and Component. The M2700HDS is being billed as an ideal monitor and TV. But I disagree: Where’s 120Hz for reduced motion blur? How about LED backlight with local dimming for enhanced contrast? It will also require a S-IPS or S-PVA LCD panel. The M2700HDS will probably work reasonably well for both monitor and TV tasks but it isn’t ideal for a TV. By a long shot.
Source: AkihabaraNews
Sony announced on August 26, 2009 its new S Series Walkman. The S Series Walkman sports a 2.4-inch LCD with a 320 x 240 resolution. Integrated speakers are part of the equation and will pump out music from MP3, WMA (DRM), AAC (non-DRM) and Linear PCM audio files. AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline Profile, MPEG4 and WMV (DRM) videos are supported too, at up to 30fps. There are two versions: 8GB and 16GB. You can playback music for 42 hours and 6.5 hours of video. Voice and FM recording are available. You can pre-order at Amazon
Source: AkihabaraNews
AppleInsider is reporting that September 9 will most likely be the date when Apple will unveil new iPods. New versions of the iPod nano and iPod touch will have integrated cameras, similar to what you get on the iPhone. I would think it would be reasonable to expect the inclusion of user-selectable auto focus and video recording.
Source: AppleInsider
FLO TV? gdgt is reporting that Qualcomm is developing a “FLO TV Personal Television” that would work on the company’s FLO TV network. The FLO TV network is available on a limited number of phones (Samsung, Motorola, LG) from AT&T and Verizon in the US. FLO TV is based on terrestrial TV broadcast technology rather than via cellular data networks: it makes sense because it works, is fast, and therefore quality is much better than from a relatively pokey 3G connection. I’ve been to South Korea a couple of times in the last couple of years and have seen people watching TV on their mobile phones almost everywhere you go: walking on the streets, in the subway, cafes, etc. Of course the technology used in South Korea is a little different: the TV signals are brought to you by satellite.
Bad Move Will a portable device the size of an iPhone that works on the FLO TV network be successful? I doubt it. It’s like Corning coming out with its own TV. Corning might the best LCD glass substrate maker but as a TV brand, I don’t think it’ll go very far. Or how about an Intel-branded notebook PC? Actually, that might work. But my point is: Qualcomm should stick to being a component supplier making cellular baseband chips and its Mirasol displays. Stay away from branded goods Qualcomm.
The Right Move How about coming out with a reference chipset for a little adapter with an antenna for the iPhone and the iPod touch? I think that would work much better. Qualcomm can license its technology to Logitech for instance. Sports is really big in the US and most folks want to watch it live. Connect the FLO TV adapter on the iPhone, extend the antenna and you’re in business! The adapter can be made for other devices like Microsoft’s Zune HD.
Specs The concept drawing you see above was created by frog design, based in California. And here are some specs:
How long does the average baseball game last? Don’t read, guess first. If you answered 2 hours and 54 minutes (in 2008) you’d be right. Almost 3 hours. Interestingly enough 3 hours is about the average length of college football and NFL games. Basketball is not as long with an average of around 2 1/2 hours. The 5-hour FLO TV time sounds like it’ll be good enough for almost any sport event.
Books Galore Over a million public domain books are available in EPUB and PDF formats, thanks to Google Books. Sony should be happy; it’s newest Reader Daily Edition supports the EPUB format (PDF too). You can now download them. All. Don’t have an ebook reader? Don’t worry, you can use your computer too. I had to check it out.
Can’t Beat Free I went to Google Books, typed in “LCD” (of course!) and found something that piqued my interest: Flat Panel Displays: Advanced Organic Materials by Stephen M. Kelly. I was curious how much this free book would cost if I wanted to purchase it to have and to hold. On Amazon it goes for a US$179
Average Quality This is a small excerpt from page 5 of Flat Panel Displays. As you can see Google has done a decent job of scanning and applying OCR so it is searchable. But there is a problem, I think. Try reading a book or just a chapter that looks like this. I don’t think you’ll like it or even stand it. Maybe it will look better on an E Ink display on a Reader Daily Edition or a Kindle but it does not look very inviting on my MacBook LCD. On the other hand, the books that are available on Overdrive.com look fantastic. It uses Adobe’s Digital Editions program and limits the time you can read it and limits the number of pages you can print out–quite reasonable in my mind.
For Study Google Books will certainly be diligently used by students from elementary through grad schools whose primary purpose is to study. People who enjoy reading for the simple pleasure of reading will probably stay away since the act of reading the less-than-ideal scan for many hours will require frequent visits to your optometrist. With no restrictions on the number of downloads, no time restrictions, no print limits, etc. Google Books will become a magnet to those who require studying on a budget.
What Not To Fix I like my white MacBook with its polycarbonate “legacy” style. Everything is white: I like that. Yes, there are different shades of white, but the entire surface of the MacBook is a simple white. Sure, the aluminum unibody MacBook Pro‘s look cool, but I think it lacks a certain elegance: a single color versus two colors. For instance, the chassis is aluminum (and aluminum color), the keyboard is black, the display has a black border and the back of the display is aluminum. Two colors isn’t that bad, but compared to a mono-color MacBook, I’ll take the later. (Rant: The cover glass on the display has a major flaw: the dust inside the display tend to gravitate in between the LCD and the cover glass. And there is no way to get it out. This happens on the iPhone too. I hate it. Absolutely NO cover glass on the MacBook please–unless Apple and Foxconn decide to assemble these in Class 1 or better clean rooms.) If you want the antiglare option on the 17-inch version you get a black rubber border around the aluminum-colored plastic bezel. I like the antiglare display but I don’t like the rapid color changes within that short distance. The antiglare 17-inch MacBook Pro looks like it got hit with the design-complexity stick, a small one and gently.
Here is the list of 10 fixes that I would like to see in the new MacBook:
DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim. Subscribe via RSS.