Engadget: Finally, a video of the Nexus One. It’s blurry and is just the front screen, but the animated background is quite cool. What cool productive purpose can animated backgrounds provide… How about live updates of your Facebook wall or tweets or even RSS subscriptions?

The New York Times: Amazon was first with its Kindle. Barnes & Noble was next with its Nook. Now it is Borders’ turn. Borders is teaming up with Kobo (who is Kobo?) to introduce an ebook reader and ebook store. According to The New York Times, there will be more than one version of the ebook reader, all with wireless connectivity, and sold in Borders bookstores. The duo will focus on ePub formats in the ebook store, making the service hardware neutral. My bet is that the three (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders) will duke it out while a company that has nothing to do with books will beat them all at their game. Who could that be.

Autoblog: The 2011 Audi A8 is the first automobile to feature Google Earth. Insert a SIM card into the Multi Media Interface (MMI) or use a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone that has data connectivity and the 8-inch LCD will display 3D views of the driver’s surroundings in addition to satellite imagery, terrain and the ordinary maps. According to Audi, Google Earth will be integrated mid-year in 2010 after the A8 goes on sale. I hope Audi didn’t get an exclusive because I would like to see Google Earth on all the cars.

Slash Gear: The Notion Ink Smartpad is something else: WiFi, Bluetooth, UMTS/HSDPA, A-GPS, USB, HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone jack, accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, water sensor, 3-megapixel autofocus video-recording geotagging webcam, 16GB/32GB flash storage, SD card slot, 48-hour battery, 8-hour HD video playback, 16-hour WiFi-based web surfing, Android, capable of running three simultaneous 1080p streams.

Impressive, thanks to NVIDIA’s TEGRA system on chip solution. But what excites me most is Pixel Qi’s 10.1-inch TFT LCD that sports a 1024×600 pixel format. The Pixel Qi LCD is unique in that it can truly be used as both a regular full-color fast-response display as well as one that bests E Ink-based ebook reader displays by consuming very little power but able turn to the next page instantly and replay video. The LCD also sports an anti-glare coat that should help when using the Smartpad outside. I’m so glad that glare is going out the door. Since you’ll be using your finger the fine folks at Notion Ink working with Pixel Qi decided to make the display scratch-resistant and fingerprint-resistant using a oleophobic coating.

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, on the new Symbian UI:

Magical.

Nokia (PDF): Multitouch seems to be a requirement on Nokia’s planned Symbian UI slated for release in 2010. Nokia stated that the UI was the problem not Symbian and the new look looks nifty. The company also specifically noted capacitive touch technology-based large displays to be mated to Symbian. (I wonder who will work with Nokia, who has sued most LCD manufacturers?) Nokia has a few goals in mind with the new UI: minimize steps to request functions, improve Internet browsing experience, faster UI by threefold, increasing scrolling from 15fps to 60fps, and remove 350 user prompts.

Engadget: Cheaper materials, anodized aluminum exterior, great amount of stiffness, no bendy nonsense, antiglare LCD but not matte, bendy and clacky keyboard, no SD and ExpressCard/34 for $450, no Windows 7 for under $600. Still looks mighty tempting as your second take-anywhere notebook PC.

DIGITIMES: LG Display announced the commercial availability of its 23-inch 3D LCD sporting a 1920×1080 pixel format. The company’s “high performance 3D exclusive controller” processes more than twice the image data compared to other 3D LCDs. Up to now LG Display adopted its proprietary copper bus line only to its 30-inch 2560×1600 LCD panel.

The company has incorporated its copper bus line technology to the new 23-inch 3D LCD that improves resolution and picture quality. The 3D display can produce both 2D and 3D images and is user switchable. Since LG Display is a LCD panel supplier expect LG Electronics and other monitor brands to introduce 23-inch 3D LCD monitors in the near future.

Business Wire: The Libre eBook Reader PRO from Aluratek is different than 99% of the ebook readers out there: it eschews the typical E Ink display and instead makes use of a 5-inch reflective LCD. No, it doesn’t last as long as ones with an E Ink display but it does last 24 hours. I’ve thought about how long we really need for ebook readers to last. We really don’t need to have it last many days since it would be unusual to be without access to a power socket for days. You could be on a safari but then what are you doing looking at your ebook reader. An electronic gadget should last an entire day and that should be plenty. Most of us living in the modern world would have access to a power socket in about 24 hours. So the ‘limited’ battery power on the Libre eBook Reader PRO is of no concern to me. The standby time is 2 weeks.

The Libre is compatible with ePUB, TXT, FB2, MOBI, RTF, PRC and PDF formats. A SD slot gives you external storage (up to 32GB) and a 2GB card filled with 100 free ebooks comes with the purchase. You can display BMP, JPG, GIF and animated GIF images and listen to MP3 files too. I really like the price at just US$179 but the design can be improved somewhat.

Engadget: Paradigm Shift’s EER-051 and EER-071 ebook readers are based on low-energy consumption 5-inch and 7-inch LCDs, respectively. Both ereaders are expected to ship in February via Delstar for US$149.95 for the EER-051 and $199.95 for the EER-071.

Do we need an ebook reader that lasts a week? Are we willing to sacrifice color? The answer seems to be yes and yes for a lot of folks looking at how the Kindle has sold. But for me, it’s no and no. All I need is about 24 hours–about the time I would need to get to a power outlet even when I’m out and about. Color? Absolutely, because I want to read but not just black and white text.

DigiTimes: OmniVision Technologies will be supplying its 5 megapixel CMOS image sensor (CIS) to Apple for the next generation iPhone, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2010.

The 3.2 megapixel CIS that is used in the current iPhone 3GS is also supplied by OmniVision. The company uses Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to produce its CISes and will be increasing its production in Q1’10.

DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim. Subscribe via RSS.