Wired: David Pogue spent some time with Steve Jobs (Steve is eating a lot of ice cream… lucky him!) after Apple’s iPod Show that was held in San Francisco on September 9, 2009. David asked Steve Jobs why the new iPod nano can record video but can’t take still photos. Steve said the reason was technical: sensors that can record video are very thin and can easily fit inside a device like the nano. On the other hand, image sensors with enough resolution for stills and autofocus like the one found in the iPhone 3GS are thick–too thick to cram into the Nano that is only 0.2 inches thick. iFixit confirms…
Kyle Wiens, iFixit CEO (check out the tear down of the new iPod nano), confirmed the explanation:
The camera in the iPhone is thicker than the entire nano. The AF lenses really bulks it up.
So although you can take 640 x 480 (VGA) videos at 30fps on the nano, you will not be able to take still pictures. My guess is that the next major development in lens technology will be to make an AF still-image sensor much thinner without any quality degradation. When that happens you can also expect even thinner devices that may sport two of them: one facing forward and the other facing backward for video phone calls and taking pictures or videos. I think within the next 6-9 months the AF still-image sensor will become thinner. And the next generation iPod nano and the iPod touch will have capabilities to take pictures and video.
Akihabara News: On September 29, 2009 Sharp unveiled its LED AQUOS line of LCD TVs. The LED AQUOS line consists of four sizes: 40-inch LC-40LX1, 46-inch LC-46LX1, 52-inch LC-52LX1 and 60-inch LC-60LX1. Incorporating the company’s new UV2A TFT LCD manufacturing technology that enhances contrast, improves response times and lowers manufacturing costs, the LED AQUOS LCD TVs feature LED backlight technology and a contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. The combination of a LED backlight an the UV2A technology makes the LED AQUOS line of LCD TVs the industry’s lowest when it comes to power consumption.
Sharp is a bit late to the LED backlight integration into LCD TV game but by combining it with its UV2A TFT LCD manufacturing technology, Sharp may have something more to offer than your run-of-the-mill LCD TV with a LED backlight.
DigiTimes: Global OLED revenues were US$192 million in the second quarter of 2009 according to DisplaySearch. The record-setting US$192 million in revenues represent a 32% Q/Q and 22% Y/Y growth. Mobile phone main displays will continue to be the leading application for OLED with about $3 billion in 2016 and OLED TV, surprisingly, will be the second largest application with about $2 billion.
About 15 mobile phones that make use of OLED technology in the main display were released in 2009. Samsung, Nokia and Sony Ericsson were the leading companies to incorporate OLED technology into their mobile phones. All of these mobile phones made use of Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays.
Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) was the top OLED supplier with a 38% unit shipment market share, followed by RiTdisplay. With just a couple more months left in 2009, we are expecting LG Electronics to incorporate a 15-inch AMOLED into a commercial OLED TV, making it the largest and besting Sony’s XEL-1 OLED TV by 4 inches. The 15-inch AMOLED is manufactured by LG Display. Sony did announce a much larger 20-inch OLED TV back in 2008 but will not be commercialized until 2010 at the earliest. In mid-2010, high-end notebook PCs will begin making use of AMOLED displays.
DPReview: Ah, exactly the camera that I have been waiting for since having seen the PEN EP-1 from Olympus. Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-GF1 packs a 12.1 megapixel Live MOS sensor with an ISO sensitivity up to 3200 in a rangefinder body.
Video? No problem! How does 720p at 320fps sound? The video is packed in AVCHD Lite or Motion JPEG format. Although 1080p recording capability is cool, I am not sure that most computer systems or TVs out there can display 1080p very well. And for most people the difference between 720p and 1080p is subtle enough that they won’t know the difference. The display is a 3-inch LCD probably with a VGA-class resolution. And of course you need to be able to connect this little wonder to your HDTV and you can do that via an HDMI connection.
You’ll need to wait until October to get the chance to buy one of two kits: one with a 20mm f/1.7 prime lens and the other with a 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens. Both will be priced at US$899.95. Compare this to the Olympus PEN E-P1 that’s going for US$800. Choices choices.
Hop on over to PhotographyBLOG for a gallery of GF1 sample shots and DPReview has a hands-on review. You can now get the GF1 for $899.95 from Amazon.
StreetInsider.com: Sharp announced on September 16, 2009 the development of a new method of precisely aligning liquid crystals (LCs) used in LCDs to improve contrast and save energy. UV2A is a photo-alignment technology that will be a world’s first and will be incorporated into Sharp’s next-generation ASV (Advanced Super View) TFT LCD panels that will be manufactured at the company’s TFT LCD fabrication plants located in Sakai (G10) and Kameyama (Plant No. 2, G8). Is UV2A the technology that will help Sharp to sell more TV sets?
Sharp’s UV2A technology is a combination of a special material that responds to UV (ultraviolet) radiation, UV exposure equipment and processing technologies. Changing the direction of the UV radiation changes the alignment of the LC molecules, which are about two nanometers in size. The UV radiation has a control parameter at the picometer level so the LCs can be precisely aligned. With precise LC alignment light leakage, a common problem for LCDs that makes black a mere dark gray, can be greatly reduced improving contrast. Sharp’s new technology also has the potential to improve aperture ratios, in other words more light can come through from the backlight. This in turn has a lot of benefits: the company can use lower-power backlights for the same level of brightness or increase the overall brightness by using the same power backlights. By using a lower-power backlight the LCD TV set can consume much less power.
Here is a list of potential benefits from Sharp’s UV2A technology:
The UV2A photo-alignment technology can be considered a breakthrough in precisely controlling LC alignment that will give Sharp an advantage in improving manufacturing efficiency, improved costs and better performing LCDs. Sharp’s technology leadership in many areas of LCD manufacturing has not ever been in jeopardy but there must be something done with the perception of the brand. Sharp’s market share is just in the mid-single digits in North America; the company will need to spend a considerable sum in marketing dollars to bring the brand up to the levels of Samsung, LG, and Sony.
Engadget: There is a new video out that shows you in more detail on how you can use Microsoft’s Courier. The voice in the video refers to an “Infinite Journal”. That’s a cool name, but I’m sure there is a limit, which can be hit it pretty quickly when you’re dealing with video. And interestingly video was not a media asset that was shown in the video. Nonetheless, I think Microsoft has developed a brand new approach to computing–quite innovative!
According to ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley, the operating system that Microsoft’s Courier is using is Windows 7. The UI runs on top of Windows 7 just like the cool Surface UI runs on top of Windows. The original idea came from Microsoft’s OneNote but focused for only tablets. You’ll need to wait a while since Microsoft is planning on a mid-2010 release. Another interesting tidbit is that Microsoft is considering building the hardware itself. If Microsoft keeps the Courier UI to itself and builds the hardware itself, the company might be moving toward the Apple model of having tight control to maximize user experience.
Wired Gadget Lab: Microsoft unveiled Courier, a tablet that sports two 7-inch multitouch screens, at IDF (Intel Developer Forum). The two screens fold like a booklet. Unfortunately the two screens are physically separate and a rather large hinge is in the middle. You can use your finger or a stylus to write, draw and do gestures. The picture above is a late-stage prototype. This coincides with rumors that Microsoft is developing a tablet with Surface-like features. Dell and Intel are also collaborating on a tablet due next year. Add Nokia, Fusion Garage, TechCrunch and HTC to the list of companies. If Apple brings out its much-rumored tablet device next year as well as Microsoft and others, we’re looking at an exciting 2010.
Schools might be the largest target market for a device like the Courier. Textbooks can certainly be replaced but I am sure we can all see other possibilities such as a notebook, a real one where you scribble and draw stuff on like the picture above. For art students, the display must have pressure sensitivity, a feature that capacitive touch implementations do not have. On the other hand most resistive technologies lack responsiveness and deteriorates over time. I have seen a multitouch resistive technology that was very impressive: Stantum. Microsoft and others should take a serious look at its touch technology. Stantum’s implementation allows for very responsive multitouch as well as many levels of pressure.
Drexel University just announced yesterday that more than 300 nursing students traded in their books for Apple’s iPod touch. The university plans to make vital medical information readily available to students and professionals via the iPod touch. The faculty focused on patient safety when they decided to switch to the iPod touch devices. The weight advantage alone might have been compelling: 40-lbs of books versus 4-oz of electronics. The iPod touch is used mostly for information consumption but the Courier concept can be used for both consumption and creation.
The shift from paper-based books and notebooks seems to be accelerating. We have Amazon to thank to prove that it is possible with its Kindle devices. But that’s just the start as you can see from what Microsoft has done with Courier and you can’t completely appreciate what the Courier can be until you’ve seen the video over at Gizmodo.
Photo courtesy: Engadget (I took the liberty of cropping, changing it to black & white, adding a bit of saturation, increasing contrast and reducing the exposure just a bit.)
Engadget: At first glance I thought the new EX495 was just an updated home server from HP. The EX495 replaces the EX487 (and the slower EX490 replaces the EX485). But I looked closer and realized this is a gem, with a price to match. The EX495 sports an Intel Dual Core CPU, 2GB of RAM and four HDD cages that can handle 2TB drives each for a total of 8TB. The actual data you get to use is 7TB due to the redundancy overhead. If that was all the goodies packed into the updated home server the EX495 wouldn’t be much news. The interesting parts are software.
Software Here’s a quick list of new software capabilities:
The Video Converter will save so much time and for that lone the EX495 is worth a serious consideration if you have a bunch of video files to store and backup in a safe place. Of course, if you have an iPhone or iPod touch the iStream app makes getting to your multmedia collection that much easier! I’m guessing it’ll work with Apple TV too.
Photo Courtesy: Akihabara News
Toshiba (Japanese) → Akihabara News: Hitachi threw down the gauntlet and introduced 25 new LCD TVs on September 16, 2009. Of the 25, I will focus on just one series–the ZX9000 that come in two sizes: 46-inch (46ZX9000) and 55-inch (55ZX9000). The ZX9000 series LCD TVs sport a 120Hz LED backlit IPS (In-Plane Switching) TFT LCD, a 500GB HDD, and LAN connectivity.
I am guessing the 500GB HDD is used for personal video recording duties while the LAN connectivity pulls content from the Internet via a video store (?). The 120Hz frequency should help combat motion blur (240Hz would almost completely get rid of it) while the LED backlight technology will undoubtedly endow the ZX9000 series with a slim profile.
I like black electronics and the ENVY 15 Beats Limited Edition from HP looks pretty good… except for the HP logo on the lid, the glossy LCD and the glossy lid. Other than the logo and the black, it is basically the regular ENVY 15, which isn’t regular at all with a powerful i7 CPU. The surface of the bottom half looks to be matte but the rest is too glossy. If you’re going to do a Beats Limited Edition, you have to make it at least look exceptionally cool. And that means lose ALL the gloss. There’s a way to do it: call the folks at Colorware.
HP, since you’re copying left and right, might as well check out what Colorware did with the last-generation MacBook Pro: Stealth MacBook Pro. This one has been sold out for quite some time and there’s a good reason: it is extremely cool. It uses the company’s SofTouch technology that adds a soft matte paint job and a zero gloss custom matte screen. HP, you should copy some of that too.
DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim. Subscribe via RSS.
