Hidden within the usual litany of claims in a patent awarded this January—titled “Display Housing for Computing Device”, which covers their current portable displays—Apple describes a tablet display, with the display housing the computer device.

The patent describes several forms for these displays—most of them already in use in current Apple laptops—, describing displays attached to portable computers. However, one of the claims describes the display as a “housing for a computer device”, which would include the computer electronics within the display housing, sandwiched between front and back shells.

[0015]As a housing for a computer device, one embodiment of the invention includes: a front shell; a back shell coupled to said front shell to produce said housing, electrical components for the computer device being internal to said housing; and a foam stiffener provided internal to said housing to substantially fill unused space internal to said housing, thereby providing stiffness to said housing.

According to our patent expert R. Polk Wagner, Professor of patents law at University of Pennsylvania Law School:

What might be fair to say is that Apple’s patent is significant in that it shows something about the company’s thinking: that they are thinking about “portable computing devices” where the display (and/or keyboard) are larger than the volume required to house the components inside – thus allowing or even requiring a stiffener. Maybe this means Apple is thinking about tablets (i.e., “big iPhones”) or maybe they’re just thinking about further miniaturization of components / lighter weight in existing form factors. Hard to know.

So there you have it. To me, the patent claim quoted above leans clearly to a potential tablet device. In any case, remember that patents don’t have to materialize into products, but it’s always comforting to see Apple thinking about creating such a device. Or at least, contemplating the possibility seriously enough to cover all bets in a patent. [USPTO via Electronic Pulp]

Super Bowl Sunday is one of the biggest TV events of the year, and people are always interested in buying a new set for their house party, recession or not.

They are just more careful about the value of their dollar this year. As a result, retailers and manufacturers are getting together to bring plenty of good last-minute offers, including sales by as much as 45% off, like a couple of Sharp TVs we found online. Most of the sales we’ve monitored this week, however, are coming in between 20% and 30%. That’s not too bad.

According to TV company reps, part of the motivation to pick up a new set this week is to also avoid problems with the upcoming DTV transition, but we don’t believe that at all. A big sports event supercedes any sort of concern people might have about that, and most people who are buying a TV for a SB party have previously upgraded to an HD feed. Often, they’re just trying to man up to something bigger and better.

Samsung, in particular, is trying to take all of the attention during the run up to the Super Bowl. Having paid a huge chunk of change to have the honor of being known as the "Official Sponsor" of this Super Bowl, they’re offering a $200 gift certificate on any TV bought over $1000 at Amazon.com.

This deal (and others online) might prove to be a Shipping Impossible Mission, what with the game coming in only 48 hours, but we’ve heard that many of the retailers are honoring online deals at their bricks & mortars. Even against offers of their competitors. So that means you should take your iPhone, G1, or Netbook with you to show the salespeople the competing offers and hassle with them for 15 minutes until they give you the appropriate discount. Believe me, they want to sell you that TV. This is not the time to turn away customers.

Check out some of the top TV deals we found that are available right now (above), and then check out our Google Docs spreadsheet with the larger list, right here. That one includes more big box retailers (so you don’t have to deal with the shipping nightmares) and we’ll update it throughout the day. Also, please let us know if you find out about any deals that are better than these in the comments below or by email, to jferm80@gmail.com. 

And here are a few important tips you should keep in mind before making a purchase:

• Do account for the number of people attending your party. If it will be less than ten people, consider buying a set at 40 inches of less. You don’t need a monster set, just sit a bit closer together.

• Do consider the viewing angle of the set. The larger the angle, the more people should be able to crowd beside the set. But the angle should not be a priority ahead of resolution, brightness, and image processing speed.
• Do stick with LCDs for their durability and power savings. That is, unless you pick up one of the ‘Ultimate Black‘ Kuros from Pioneer (with their ridiculous contrast ratios), or one of the Mitsubishi Laser TVs. In that case, you probably shouldn’t be checking out any posts that feature ‘deals’. But if you are really sticking to your price points and want to maximize size, there will be some, older good Plasmas available.
• Do try to pay for your TV straight-up, without buying into any interest deals. As the Wall Street Journal recently noted, many of the ‘no interest’ multi-year payment plans become horribly one-sided against customers the moment you send in one late payment. Please don’t be that guy.
• Don’t buy any high-end HDMI cables while at the store. They will pitch them to you, with ridiculous, cross-eyed, teeth-shattering lies. You don’t need any Monsters in da house, just the TV. And some some chips. And guacamole. Skip the peanuts this year.
• Do figure out the best seating arrangements before the game starts. HDGuru came up with a great list that defines the optimal viewing distance for each size of a television. The main rule is that you should measure the distance in feet that you (and your friends) prefer to sit away from the set. Then, multiply that number by four to get the number of (diagonal) inches of screen you need. Check out the full (PDF) list of distance measurements right here, or after the jump.
• Do calibrate the TV to produce the best picture quality possible. Associate Editor Joe Brown recently noted during a video of his winter outing at the Wired Store that calibrating displays is a key to get the best out of any TV. Often, big box retailers will amp up the contrast, brightness, and color levels on in-store TVs in order to stand out in the high-ambient light conditions.

See also:

• Thanksgiving Update: We Rank the Best Early Black Friday TV Deals

Gadget Lab 2.0: Jose Fermoso’s Twitter feed; Gadget Lab on Facebook.

Flexible displays that can be rolled up and stuck into the back pocket of your Levis were one the most exciting technology breakthroughs we saw last year.

As the idea marches towards reality, funding for it is on the rise. The U.S. Army bankrolled much of the initial research on the technology in 2004. Now it is pouring in another $50 million to support the Arizona State University’s Flexible Display Center, which has been doing a lot of research in the area.

Flexible electronic displays, which have long been in the realm of films like Minority Report and the James Bond franchise, may soon show up in a new generation of portable devices including
e-readers and e-maps. Major consumer electronics companies including LG, Samsung and HP showed prototypes of flexible displays last year and industry experts say the displays could come to market in the next three years.

The U.S. Army’s support could help accelerate that. The Army has committed to sponsoring an additional five years of research and development at the Flexible Display Center. So far, nearly $100 million has gone into the efforts to creating a viable flexible display technology.

So far the Flexible Display Center has developed a six-inch wafer-scale and 370×470 mm display-scale manufacturing pilot lines and related toolsets, it says.

See also:
Flexible Displays Closer to Reality, Thanks to U.S. Army
Top Technology Breakthroughs of 2008

According to Rob Galbraith, that is. The veteran photographer and detail-obsessed camera reviewer has turn his lens onto notebook display, reviewing them specifically as they relate to the pro-snapper.

The shocker is that the Dell Mini 9 beats the unibody 15" MacBook Pro on color accuracy, although on viewing angle it slips back down the league table.

It turns out that Galbraith doesn’t like the new glossy glass screens Apple has forced upon its two smaller notebooks:

For the longest time, Apple laptop displays ruled the roost around here. With very few exceptions, going back to the days of the PowerBook G4, portable Macs were considerably more colour accurate than any of the dozens and dozens of PC laptops we’d profiled […] Macs are no longer at the top of the laptop display heap in our minds.

That’s got to hurt. The test also took in an old classic, the ThinkPad T60, and Lenovo’s new 17" behemoth, the ThinkPad W700. Of the four, the ThinkPads swapped first and second place between them on color accuracy and angle of view. The giant desktop replacement got the color so spot-on because of the optional $70 built in color calibrator, which – at the touch of a button and close of a lid – will set the clors right in just three minutes.

It’s interesting the see the Apple machine score so badly, though. Macs are huge amongst photographers, and getting beat by a netbook is just plain embarrassing.

A look at the evolving laptop display [Rob Galbraith]

See Also:

• Review: Lenovo’s Mega Notebook Crushes Benchmarks, Femurs

This week, YouTube began offering a new channel built strictly for the browsers of the Wii and PS3 gaming systems. Judging by the early feedback, the one for the Wii can already be considered the better offering of the two.

The dedicated YouTube channel is also offered in a few other set-top boxes and will be coming up in several new widget-enabled TVs, but bringing it to gamers on their regular sets is a good move. According to the respective companies, there are currently about 40 million Wii owners worldwide and over 20 million PS3 owners. The intent of both channels is to offer an easy-to-use interface for full size screens.

The Opera browser for the Wii is already getting raves from users for its visual similarity to Wii Channels. The six-window arrangement makes it easy to find videos of interest, and when you blow up a video to perfectly fit a full-screen, it correctly behaves like a regular desktop browser. The regular internet Wii browser sometimes forced full-screen videos of the TV screen, which was annoying. I tried the channel earlier today and browsing through videos was simple and intuitive, just like the site. You do lose some functionality from the regular browser (like sorting by views), but it look great.

The PS3 YouTube channel, on the other hand, looks OK, but isn’t as appealing as the Wii’s. A few people are already saying their experience with the browser is a bit slow. Considering that the Wii has had the upper hand in terms of user experience since it came out a couple of years ago, this isn’t too big of a surprise.

Now, the only big-time system without a dedicated YouTube channel is the Xbox 360.

What about you, readers? Do you care about this new option on your gaming systems or not? Do you use their web browsers on your TV with regularity? Let us know in the comments.

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Photos: blogoscoped, lifehacker, Nintendo