Hasta La Gadget!

Corning and Samsung were the best of friends well before even the Lotus Glass deal, but the relationship just got a little cozier. The two have agreed to build a plant in China’s industry-heavy Wuxi New District focused on making glass to cover LCD panels in laptops and desktop displays. The roughly $600 million factory will be a major production hub for Samsung, not just an expansion: it’s planning to stop some of its glass production in South Korea and send that work to the new facility when it opens. There won’t even be signatures on the agreement until sometime later this year, so the plant itself is still a distant prospect — but while the two haven’t outlined their exact strategy, the new plant may be the ticket to toughening up that future Series 9 laptop with a touch of Gorilla Glass.

Filed under: Displays, Laptops

Corning and Samsung plan LCD glass plant in China, may toughen up a few laptop screens originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’d rather spend your time actually using your touchscreen tablet, instead of wasting hours buffing away fingerprints, 3M’s new Natural View Fingerprint Fading Screen Protectors might be just up your alley since—like an old soldier—fingerprints will just fade away. More »

LG has announced a new series of IPS monitors, the 23- and 27-inch IPS7 series, with a mishmash of specs aimed at mobile, HD and professional users. Foregoing WQHD resolution in favor of plain jane 1920 x 1080, the panels feature a so-called Cinema Screen design with a 1.2mm (.025-inch) bezel, half-inch depth, a mobile high-definition (MHL) link, fast response times and color calibration software for professionals. If it’s trying to to tap the pro market, the monitors lack some features like dual-link 2560 x 1440 resolution and 10-bit, 1.07 billion color graphics like the Dell U2711 or HP ZR2740w, for instance — but then they could turn out to be considerably cheaper than those rivals. We’ll just have to wait to find out the pricing.

Continue reading LG outs IPS7 Series monitors: 23 or 27-inch IPS, minimal bezel, MHL mobile link, 8-bit 1080P

Filed under: Displays

LG outs IPS7 Series monitors: 23 or 27-inch IPS, minimal bezel, MHL mobile link, 8-bit 1080P originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Summer in Paris — you can’t walk a block on Champs-Élysées without locking eyes with at least one camera-equipped tourist. But Steve Mann’s shooter wasn’t dangling from his shoulder and neck; it was mounted on his head, with a design strikingly similar to Google’s Project Glass. Unlike that mainstream Mountain View product, however, Mann’s version has reportedly been around in one form or another for 34 years, and was designed with the objective of aiding vision, rather than capturing stills and video or providing a bounty of database-aided readouts. It’s also street-ready today. While on vacation with his family, the Ontario-based “father of wearable computing” was sporting his EyeTap as he walked down the aforementioned French avenue, eventually entering a McDonald’s to refuel after a busy day of sightseeing. He left without his ranch wrap, but with seriously damaged hardware.

What allegedly occurred inside the restaurant is no doubt a result of the increasing presence and subsequent awareness of connected cameras, ranging from consumer gear to professional surveillance equipment. As Mann sat to eat, he writes that a stranger approached him then attempted to pull off his glasses, which, oddly, are permanently affixed to his skull. The man, at that point joined by one other patron and someone that appeared to be a McDonald’s employee, then pushed Mann out of the store and onto the street. As a result of the attack, the eyewear malfunctioned, resulting in the three men being photographed. It wouldn’t be terribly difficult for police to identify those involved, but this encounter may have greater implications. McDonalds has since launched an investigation into the matter and seems to be denying most of the claims, but it’ll be some time yet before the full truth is uncovered. Still, the whole ordeal got us at Engadget thinking — is the planet ready for humans to wear video recorders, and will it ever shake a general unease related to the threat of a world filled with omnipresent cameras? Join us past the break for our take.

Continue reading Editorial: Engadget on EyeTap, Project Glass and the future of wearable cameras

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Displays

Editorial: Engadget on EyeTap, Project Glass and the future of wearable cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some would say monitors aren’t anywhere nearly as exciting as something like, say, a shiny new Galaxy S III or Google’s novel slate, the popularly priced Nexus 7 — but, you know, sometimes you just need to get some actual work done. And for those of you who are crazy about relatively large monitors, ViewSonic’s unveiled its 27-inch VX2703mh-LED offering. Priced at $299, the ClearMotiv II display boasts a decent 1920 x 1080 resolution with a 10,000,000:1 MEGA Dynamic Contrast Ratio, built-in SRS Premium Sound speakers, as well as DVI, VGA and HDMI ports. Equally important, the outfit’s touting the screen’s eco-friendly features, with a mercury-free LED backlighting, an ECO-Mode setting and, naturally, a power-saving feature to help keep that monthly electricity bill to a minimum. The VX2703mh-LED is expected to hit North American shelves later this month; in the meantime, you can check the gallery after the break to gaze at it from mostly every angle.

Continue reading ViewSonic outs 27-inch VX2703mh-LED monitor with 1080p, SRS Premium Sound

Filed under: Displays

ViewSonic outs 27-inch VX2703mh-LED monitor with 1080p, SRS Premium Sound originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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