On July 21, 2010 Corning announced it will invest approximately US$800 million to construct a new LCD glass substrate facility in the China (press release). Corning will locate the new facility in the Beijing Digital TV Industry Park within the Beijing Economic Technological Development Area. The manufacturing plant will have up to Gen 8.5 glass-melting and finishing capabilities with groundbreaking planned for September and production expected to commence in the first half of 2012.
Corning’s investments include expanding capacity its Eagle XG LCD glass substrates and Gorilla glass. The company has restarted an expansion project at its Taichung, Taiwan LCD glass facility and is ramping up idled capacity at its facility in Shizuoka, Japan to manufacture Gorilla glass. Now, Corning will expand further in Taichung with additional capacity projected for the first half of 2012.
Corning expects Gorilla glass sales to exceed US$200 million this year in its Specialty Materials segment, and estimates that sales could reach approximately US$1 billion annually by 2011. Demand for Gorilla glass is coming primarily from TV cover glass applications.
LCD TV is expected to continue its growth as market penetration grows in markets such as Asia and South America. The technology replacement cycle in mature markets is expected to accelerate according to Corning.
Corning also expects China to become one of the largest consumers of LCD TVs as well as a major region for LCD panel manufacturing especially for TV applications in the next several years. Corning has a long-term commitment to the China market.
Interestingly Corning noted higher-than-expected retail demand for LCD televisions, notebook PCs, and desktop computers resulting in an improved outlook throughout the remainder of the year. Corning believes annual LCD glass demand could be at the higher end of its forecast range of 2.9 billion square feet to 3.1 billion square feet this year. Corning has increased its forecast of capex to approximately $1.2 billion in 2010, up from its previous estimate of $1 billion.
The iPad natively supports MP4 video playback, and that’s it. If you have a lot of AVI, DivX or MKV files it will take a good part of your life to convert them to MP4. But there is a more efficient way. Not all, but a good many, videos are encoded in H.264, which is the codec that is compatible with iDevices. The AVI, DivX or MKV are just wrappers. Change the wrapper to MP4 and you’re ready to rock with your iPad in no time. That’s the idea behind Avidemux 2.
Avidemux can change the wrapper to AVI, MPEG, MP4, OGM, FLV and MKV. I’m no expert when it comes to this type of stuff but I randomly picked out an AVI file (The Book of Eli
, Amazon affiliate link) and tested it. The file was about 736MB in size. The source video for this particular sample was encoded in Xvid. Avidemux wanted to build a VBR (Variable Bit Rate) time map to sync the video and audio; that took 50 seconds. A packed bitstream was detected so Avidemux wanted to unpack it and that took another 26 seconds. I then picked MP4 for format and AAC for audio and left video as copy. I then went up to the file menu, save, and then save video. Make sure to append the .MP4 to the file name. After just five minutes I had an MP4 version of the original AVI file. The video worked but it was far from perfect with pixelation that was barely watchable (see picture above). I thought it may have been due to poor GPU performance since I was running my MBP at maximum battery savings mode. I changed the setting to maximum performance, logged out and back in, ran the video again but the result was the same.
So I redid the process with different settings. The AVI file was encoded in Xvid so instead of keeping the video as copy, I chose MPEG-4 ASP (Xvid). Avidemux unpacked the bitstream again and that took 26 seconds but the encoding portion now took a bit less than 22 minutes. This time the video quality was better and the video was quite watchable, but the video wasn’t as smooth as the original AVI. There was a bit of pixelation and the color was a bit off; patches of green appeared surrounding some video elements. There might be other settings that could be modified to get better results but my initial thoughts regarding Avidemux isn’t completely satisfying. I could also be doing something wrong. I am certain your experiences will vary. You might get better results with videos that are encoded in H.264, but I am not sure.
Avidemux makes use of a more efficient method of changing video file formats. Instead of re-encoding the entire video Avidemux changes the wrapper. In some cases this can be done in just minutes but your results will vary. This test was conducted on a 2009 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro with a 2.8GHz CPU and 4GB of RAM.
Consumer Reports on the iPhone 4:
… it sports the sharpest display and best video camera we’ve seen on any phone, and even outshines its high-scoring predecessors with improved battery life and such new features as a front-facing camera for video chats and a built-in gyroscope that turns the phone into a super-responsive game controller. But Apple needs to come up with a permanent—and free—fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4.
Consumer Reports says it cannot recommend Apple’s iPhone 4 because of an antenna design flaw. On July 12th, the publication announced its judgement on the iPhone 4′s antenna issue. Mike Gikas, a Consumer Reports writer:
Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4′s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software.
This is the first time Consumer Reports has not endorsed an iPhone since the original model was released in 2007. The magazine conducted internal testings of three iPhone 4s purchased at three separate retail locations in the New York area. The tests were completed in a controlled environment (radio frequency isolation chamber) using a base-station emulator with other AT&T phones including the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre. The iPhone 4 exhibited the well publicized antenna issue, but the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre didn’t:
When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side-an easy thing, especially for lefties-the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.
Apple has sold 1.7 million iPhone 4′s in the first three days of its release. Almost immediately there were reports of reception issues and a bit later the issue focused on a certain spot toward the lower left portion of the stainless steel mid-section that was designed as an external antenna for better signal reception.
Apple has been less-than forward with this issue. Apple issued an initial press release stating that signal attenuation occurs on all mobile phones when held and suggested holding the iPhone 4 a different way. Read Apple: You’re Holding The iPhone 4 The Wrong Way. Obviously the tests conducted by Consumer Reports suggest not all mobile phones experience iPhone 4-like signal degradation when held. One of Apple’s suggestion is to purchase an iPhone 4 case. A quick aside: I do like the Vapor case from ElementCase. Read ElementCase Vapor iPhone 4 Aluminum Case: Helps Maintain iPhone Antenna Signal Strength. Gikas on Apple’s response:
You can’t just suggest people use their right hands or buy an aftermarket product. You have to fix it yourself.
Yes Apple, get with it.
The company then issued a statement pointing to a software bug, which was inaccurate and exaggerated signal strength. Read iPhone 4 Reception Issue: Signal Formula Error? This doesn’t fix the antenna issue but it does reset expectations. For example, the four or five bars you’ve been experiencing were actually one or two. So when calls fail you won’t be as disgruntled as before. This is a nice marketing trick: set low expectations or in this case reset to lower expectations. But the reality is still this: there is an antenna design problem. Wired.com’s Dylan Tweney:
Lab tests by Consumer Reports have confirmed what Wired and its readers have been telling you all along: The problem with the iPhone 4’s reception has nothing to do with how the signal-strength bars are represented, and everything to do with the phone’s faulty antenna design.
Consumer Reports recommend using duct tape, but I wouldn’t do that. I would instead get the Bumpers, a nice case (Vapor), or try… Colorware. If you look carefully the mid-section stainless steel is covered with beautiful paint. That might do the trick and solve the antenna issue. I would also choose the “Softouch” option just to make sure there’s enough between your fingers and the stainless steel antenna. It would also make it less slippery, a feature that feels good in your pocket but is the real culprit behind all cement face plants. The Colorware option is a terribly expensive one at US$250. And it’ll take three weeks to ship, once they get yours. You see, Coloware doesn’t have any iPhone 4 units to sell you so you’ll have to send in yours. If you can stomach not having your iPhone 4 for about a month and spending $250 to make it ultra-cool but without guarantees that it will solve your antenna problems, then, well… check this out: My OR3O concept.
The conclusion is this: It isn’t AT&T. It isn’t you. It’s Apple. But don’t all the best in the world have at least one fatal flaw? I’m Not Getting An iPhone 4, Yet.
Sources:
I like my high-tech gear bare, but the iPhone 4 might require a case. Not really to protect it from bumps and scratches but more to prevent it from signal degradation. It is difficult to find that perfect case since most degrade the aesthetics of the iPhone 4. I think ElementCase might be that case: it protects, looks good, and helps maintain the iPhone 4′s antenna signal strength, especially if you’re in a weak-signal area.
The Vapor case from ElementCase is CNC machined from a solid block of aircraft-grade aluminum. In other words this is a unibody aluminum case. The sexy block of aluminum is also anodized resulting in a hard protective coating. Sexy. Check. Protection. Check. And here comes third element: the Vapor is lined with a shock-absorbing material that ElementCase is claiming to be “very high tech”. Shock absorption is good, but that high-tech material also “helps maintain the iPhone’s antenna signal strength.” I hope it works.
ElementCase is taking Vapor pre-orders for a cool price of $79.95 and will ship July 12th. I think I prefer the ElementCase to Apple’s Bumpers but I can’t be sure since I haven’t had the pleasure of actually seeing or touching it. Be patient since shipping may take up to 2-3 weeks. More information can be found at ElementCase.
Sony → Photography Bay: The Sony NEX-VG10 Interchangeable Lens HD Handycam Camcorder makes use of the same APS-C Exmor HD CMOS image sensor used in the company’s latest NEX digital cameras. The image sensor is almost 20 times bigger than the sensors found in typical camcorders. Another exciting feature of the NEX-VG10 is the use of SLR lenses. And for just US$2000 you can shoot like the professionals, maybe even better. All of Sony’s E-mount lenses can be used and with an adapter you can take your pick from the wide variety of Alpha-mount lenses.
Unlike DSLRs that can shoot video, the NEX-VG10 can really shoot video: 1080/60p in AVCHD format (or 1080/50p for PAL) at up to 24Mbps. Unfortunately the film standard 1080/24p isn’t supported. But since the NEX-VG10, like the NEX digital cameras, are mostly about the chip and firmware I expect hackers the world over will get 1080/24p kicking in no time. Stills can be snapped too with 14 megapixels but only in JPG; RAW isn’t supported. Yet. Videos and photos are stored in Memory Stick or SD cards. Up to four hours of 1080/60p HD video can be stored using a 32GB card.
Sony paid a lot of attention to sound. Get this: a Quad Capsule Spatial Array Stereo Microphone is used to capture stereo sound. The 3.0-inch Xtra Fine TruBlack LCD viewfinder has 921,000 pixels. There is also an electronic viewfinder. The NEX-VG10 will be available in September and comes with an image-stabilized E18-200mm f3.5-6.3 lens. Pre-orders start on July 14th.