Tegra iFixit has done it again. The good folks at iFixit took a brand new Zune HD and had a close look inside. There are many pictures in the teardown but I will share with one of a few that really interest me as a display geek. The picture showing NVIDIA’s Tegra processor shows that it was manufactured in Korea. You can also see that the Zune HD, like almost everything else electronic, was assembled in China. I would like to see this change: just as biodiversity is important to the well being of biological organisms, manufacturing diversity is important to the well being of the electronics industry. But I digress; back to Tegra.
720p HD This little chip enables the Zune HD to be very capable when it comes to displaying and outputing video. The Tegra is a low-power graphics processor that can process HD video and graphics for the GUI. As you may have already seen the Zune HD’s GUI is very attractive but also quite responsive. One major feature of the Zune HD is its ability to output 720p HD video via the HDMI connection. In addition to incorporating Tegra, there are many other technologies that makes me think Microsoft may have jumped passed the hardware capabilities of the iPod touch. By a mile.
You can find more information on Microsoft’s Zune HD site. Source: iFixit
Cheaper US$329 is no more: you can get the 160GB Apple TV for just $229. And Apple got rid of the 40GB version. A lot of people want the Apple TV to pack in a lot more features like DVR, a Netflix capability, or even the ability to watch Hulu on it. But I’m not one of them. (more…)
EVA’s InterView is a dual LCD display you can flip. It sports two 17-inch LCDs with a 1440 x 900 resolution, each. The unique feature of the InterView is that you can flip the LCD over. Want in on the flip action? It’ll cost you US$640. Of course you can use the dual 17-inch as a single display with a 2880 x 900 resolution. But you shouldn’t. If you’re expecting a seamless experience you’re not going to get it. Look closely at the big fat bezel in the middle. You should only use the InterView in dual window mode. So forget about using this has your ultra-wide gaming monitor.
Source: Engadget
Back Online Corning announced that it has repaired its damaged LCD glass plant in Japan that was damaged due to an earthquake last month. The company estimated the revenue impact of the damaged plant of about US$22 million. On a calendar basis, demand for LCD glass is stronger in the second half. The reason being that demand for LCD goods such as LCD TVs, LCD monitors, notebook PCs, netbooks, etc. are strongest in the fourth quarter. The entire LCD supply chain is preparing for a strong fourth quarter and the LCD glass supply disruption in Japan didn’t help, but how big was the impact to the overall supply chain?
Co-Location There are only two major LCD panel manufacturers in Japan: Sharp and IPS Alpha. Although Sharp is ahead of its competitors in terms of LCD fabrication plant generation at 10 the overall glass area input capacity is small… [private] relative to giants like LG Display, Samsung, AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). IPS Alpha is also quite small in terms of glass usage. Corning’s Japan-based LCD glass supply disruption would have certainly impacted Sharp and IPS Alpha but would have had minimal impact on the four largest LCD suppliers. Co-location of LCD glass manufacturing began with G6 (Gen. 6) TFT LCD fabs as the size of the LCD glass substrates made it difficult and costly to transport over long distances. A large portion of LCD glass demand is supplied locally in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. [/private]
Source: The Inquirer
You can now buy the U2410 on Dell’s online store for US$599. Sounds kind of expensive until you realize what the U2410 really is. It is a 24-inch LCD monitor sporting a 1920 x 1200 resolution, 178/178 viewing angles, a response time of 6ms, a 1000:1 contrast ratio with a 96% Adobe RGB or 100% sRGB color gamut. You can also connect many video sources to the U2410 via DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, component, composite and VGA. And the most important feature, at least for me, is that the TFT LCD panel is of the IPS variety. IPS stands for In-Plane Switching and is a wide-viewing technology that is used by brands like Dell, Apple, NEC, etc. to target color professionals. With very wide viewing angles (178/178) and very small color shifts (due to low contrast shifts) an IPS LCD monitor is a must if you need accurate color. But the problem has been price: IPS LCD monitors are quite expensive. Well, not the U2410: you can grab an IPS LCD monitor for just US$599. But maybe there is a reason why it is a bit cheaper. (more…)
I’ll be on the All Sports Talk Radio.com show tonight at 8pm PDT doing the TECH TALK segment. This is a live sports talk radio show that discuss various sports related topics such as the MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, UFC, etc. The topic will be, “Choosing The Best TV for Sports”. Call in (1-347-215-9970) and ask me all your questions. My friend Sung Song Sdog co-hosts the radio show and will be giving out a whole bunch of gift cards, a New Era Cap and a lot of other goodies too.
I wrote about Stantum‘s touch technology a couple of times before (Resistive That’s Better Than Capacitive, Notes: DisplaySearch Emerging Display Technologies Conference), but this was the first time I had the opportunity to see it myself. I was quite impressed with what Stantum has accomplished using resistive technology to offer a multitouch solution. I think RIM should talk to these guys for their next version of Storm.
Photo source: TrustedReviews
A fast netbook? I’d like to see it to believe it. Acer is claiming that its Ferrari One is that fast netbook. The Ferrari One sports a 11.6-inch LCD with a 1366 x 768 resolution and is powered by AMD’s new Congo platform that combines a 1.2GHz Athlon X2 L310 CPU and ATI‘s Radeon 3200 GPU. Connectivity options include WiFi, Bluetooth, VGA and an additional XPG port for external graphics. Ship date is October 22 and the price is a hefty £435 (about US$724). (more…)
150 Foot Digital Signage Display Electronic Communication Displays, based in Bellevue, Washington, installed a 150-foot LED display for Emerald Queen Casino located in Tacoma, WA. The digital signage display features 3200 square feet of LEDs totaling over 300,000 pixels and two miles of cabling. The display was manufactured by Optec Displays based in City of Industry, CA. The LEDs in the 120-foot display has a 28mm pitch and five diodes per pixel that generate more than 12,000 cd/m2 of brightness! Talk about sunlight readability! (more…)
This is my thesis: Advanced technologies you see on high-end LCD TVs will trickle down to LCD monitors, notebook PCs and eventually to your smartphones. LCD technology is unique in that it is the only display technology that is being used for the largest of TVs to the small display on your mobile phone. And that’s why this trickle down theory for displays can only be applied to LCD technology. So, what do I mean by advanced technologies? Here’s a partial list:
It used to be that a TV was classified as a display with a tuner. That’s how most people watched TVs a while back: via a tuner to catch terrestrial broadcasts. But that’s not how we watch TV today. A lot of us watch TV via cable or satellite. Some of us use our computers and log onto Hulu. In countries such as Korea and Japan there are quite a few folks that watch TV on their mobile phones. The way we watch TV is very heterogenous and that is why any device that is capable of displaying video will need to have advanced display technologies that were originally designed for LCD TVs for an optimal viewing experience. So let’s get down to specifics. (more…)
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