Hey princess, look over here — daddy’s got a pair of new LG W30 Color Pop monitors for you. These sticky-sweet parfaits of sugar-liquid crystal come all the way from South Korea. Do you know where that is? Sure you do, just below that little man with the bouffant hairdo and Elvis specs. These 37-mm slim monitors are available in your choice of Oreo Black, Jelly Pink, Blueberry Purple, Applemint Green, and Hawaiian Blue and ship with a glossy, two-tone frame to further unsettle your mother’s sense of refinement. They come in medium (18.5-inch, 1366×768 pixels) and big (21.5-inch, 1920×1080) sizes and begin shipping in the US come September and worldwide later in the year. Just for you, ’cause you’re worth it honey.
Details are exceedingly light (almost dangerously light, in fact), but the Modula color therapy lamp is simply too soothing to overlook. The three-ringed lamp is built with a slew of multi-color lights (LEDs, we’re guessing), all wired up to be controlled via Bluetooth. The video demonstration shows a Sony Ericsson W880i doing the dirty work, but there’s no indication of how exactly end users are supposed to accomplish the color changing once it arrives. Those in the camp of “buy now, ask questions later” can get their pre-order in through the read link, but considering that only an EU-friendly 230V version is currently available, those on this side of the pond will need to invest in some serious converters to make it all compatible. The pain? Just €199 ($281) for hours upon hours of endless entertainment.
The Dynabook UX / NB200 netbook has only been out for a few months now, but already Toshiba’s looking to score a few more buyers with two new hues. Originally launched in white, brown and black, Tosh has decided to queue up a pair of fresher, brighter colors for those looking for something a bit different. Now, you can expect the lappie to start making the rounds in “silky pink” and “blue,” though we get the feeling these will hit the UK first. Head on down to the read link for a hands-on gallery, but don’t expect any exciting new hardware — it’s still the same ole 1.6GHz Atom, 1GB of RAM and 160GB hard drive that we’re so painfully used to seeing.
Seriously Nintendo, what is it? Do you hate freedom? Are you still bitter about the US reception to your underwhelming GameCube? Whatever the case, we’re never going to forgive you for this one. After waiting for years for a Wii in anycolor other than glossy white, it seems that only the Japanese will be able to enjoy the sleek, sexy and altogether drool-worthy black Wii console. In fact, a rep for the Big N informed GameDaily that there are “no plans to have other colors of the Wii in the United States.” As for us? We’re plugging our ears and pretending this “individual” has no idea what he / she is talking about. And weeping, uncontrollably.
Colorware‘s well known for offering up all sorts of consumer electronics in all sorts of hues, but the outfit has definitely stepped up its game with the Stealth MacBook Pro. This limited edition piece is an all-black 15-inch MacBook Pro with a matte display, 3.06GHz CPU, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 256GB SSD, an 8x SuperDrive, zero gloss finish and a SofTouch coating that’ll make it downright impossible for your fingers to stop stroking it. Reportedly, these will be limited to just ten units, and each one will cost a not-at-all affordable $5,999. See Apple, this is what you get when you voluntarily axe the BlackBook. Opportunity, lost.
Research into color-changing nanoparticles could pave the way for a new kind of display technology. A breakthrough promises tiny molecules that can change color in response to an external magnetic field that can be used to create outdoor displays and posters.
“We have developed a new way to induce color change in materials that can be fabricated on a large scale and is pretty close to commercialization,” says Yadong Yin, an assistant professor of chemistry at University of California, Riverside, who led the study that included contributions from South Korean scientists.
The technique centers on polymer beads, called magnetochromatic microspheres, which are dispersed in a liquid such as water, alcohol or hexane.
Inside the beads are magnetic iron oxide nanostructures. Changing the orientation of the nanostructures with an external magnetic field helps produce the change in color of the beads.
The process is similar to the way electrophoretic displays, more commonly known as electronic ink, work. The two systems share common properties such as being bistable (stable in two distinct states), being readable in direct sunlight and consuming very little power.
To fabricate the polymer beads or microspheres, researchers mixed magnetic iron oxide particles into a resin. The resin solution was then dispersed in either mineral oil or silicon oil, which transformed the resin into spherical droplets in the oil. An external magnetic field organizes the iron oxide particles into periodically ordered chains that display a reflective color if viewed along the direction of the magnetic field.
“For instance, in a vertical field, the particle chains stand straight so that their diffraction is turned ‘on’ and and corresponding color can be observed from the top,” say the researchers in their study. When the field is switched horizontally, the microspheres are forced to rotate 90 degrees to lay down the particle chains so that the diffraction is turned off. The microspheres then show the native brown color of iron oxide. Depending on the direction of the external magnetic field there can also be intermediate stages.
As the final step, the liquid system which holds the particles is exposed to ultraviolet radiation to polymerize the resin droplets and make them into solid microspheres. This allows for switching between two states. The solid state allows for the color information to be frozen and retained for long times without the need for additional power.
Yin did not explain exactly how many colors can be obtained from the display but said the system can handle a reasonably wide range, though switching to colors at the opposite ends of the spectrum could be a challenge.
Yin sees applications such large outdoor displays that can be expensive to do with LCDs or other display technologies. “If you want a huge LCD display outside the house it can be uneconomical,” he says. “We can do it for much cheaper with this new technology.”
The displays are reflective, so they can offer high visibility even in strong sunshine, says Yin. The new material also can be used to make environmentally friendly pigments for paints and cosmetics.
Here’s a quick video that shows the rotation of the microspheres in a vertically changing external magnetic field. The color is switched between on (blue) and off states.
Photo: Colorful microspheres/University of California, Riverside
Remember when iRex single-handedly revolutionized the e-reader industry last fall? Remember “Seeing Is Believing?” We didn’t either, until the company reminded us of its continued existence with the announcement that it’s developing a new color e-book reader that uses subtractive color mixing to display text and images three times the brightness of existing displays. While this won’t be the first color e-ink tech we’ve laid our eyes on, the promise of print-quality color e-books is certainly tantalizing. Your move, Sony.
Hear ye, hear ye! The abomination you see above can be yours today for the low, low price of just $374. Or, you can send in your own DSi, have it abused as such and returned to you for the even lower price of just $174. Don’t ever expect it to forgive you, though.
When Dell said its Mini 10 TV tuner was coming this summer, well, we didn’t expect it to be so soon. The company’s dropped us a line to say we should expect to see it as a customization option starting sometime today, presumably along with the external antenna that’s needed when the signal’s low. The cost is an extra $50 and it’ll net you over-the-air ATSC — that’s the new HD format, for those who haven’t been keeping track. Additionally, a seventh color, passion purple, is being added to the library, and if your heart’s set on cherry red, you’ll be happy to know they’re now a part of the (PRODUCT) RED portfolio, meaning Dell will donate $5 to the Global Fund with each purchase. No pics of the new hue just yet, but if any of these new additions sound enticing, you might wanna hit cancel on that late-night order we caught you placing.
Color e-ink displays are starting to become less of a curiosity and more of a reality, but if the rumor from DigiTimes proves true it’s going to be another year or so before we start seeing them en masse. PVI, makers of displays for the Kindle and Sony Reader, has apparently indicated that its attempts at creating a color display have been more or less unsatisfactory and it’s going to take until 2010 at least to get its hues sorted out. That’s the bad news. There is some good news, though, indicating that Sony’s working on its own 8.5 x 11-inch reader utilizing the same screen as the Kindle DX. Since the last rumors about that display was pretty-much on the mark, we wouldn’t be surprised if this one proved true as well — and we can’t wait to see what Sony charges for it.
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Color e-ink