Hasta La Gadget!

Hot diggity. LG just announced an insane 5.5-inch smartphone screen that has pixels that must be made from some sort of mixture between dense diamond sparkles and unicorn blood paint. More seriously, the 5.5-inch AH-IPS LCD display’s resolution is 2,560 x 1,440 (Quad HD) and packs 538 pixels per inch. That makes it the highest resolution and ppi for a smartphone panel.

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iPhone cases are necessary in order to ensure that your precious iPhone doesn’t all scratched up. I’ve had a couple of friends who weren’t using any cases end up with a completely scratched up iPhone. While Twelve South’s earlier BookBook case had an interesting look to it – it was a bit thick for practical use. This new iPhone case from Twelve South is called the Surface Pad, and it’s much thinner than the BookBook case.

It’s made from Napa leather, and it’s lightweight and just 1.7mm thick, meaning that it will easily fit into most pockets without bulking up your phone.

The Surface Pad is supposed to stick to your iPhone thanks to a removable  reusable adhesive substance, and it’s supposed to wrap around your iPhone, protecting both the front and the back.

The case can also be used as a stand in landscape mode, which is also a handy feature. The SurfacePad sells for $34.99(USD) from Twelve South, and is available now.

One of the things you may not expect to see at CES is wristwatches. Despite that fact, it’s not uncommon for companies to show up with geeky timepieces claiming to be the “world’s first” or “world’s most” this or that. This year a company called Central Standard Timing has unveiled what it claims to be the world’s thinnest watch called the CST-01 (The CST stands for “Central Standard Timing“.)

The CST-01 watch is only 0.80mm thick. That means it’s thinner than a credit card. It uses E Ink electronic paper display to help achieve this feat. The patent-pending design is assembled by laminating the flexible watch components into a 0.5mm deep pocket etched into a single piece of flexible stainless steel. That flexible piece of stainless steel holds the display and acts as the watch bracelet.

Power for the watch comes from an embedded Thinergy Micro-Energy Cell that promises to charge the watch in just 10 minutes using an external dock. Thanks to the energy efficiency of the E Ink display, that charge is enough to power the watch for an entire month. One other unique feature is that you actually set the time on the base station, which cuts down on the need for buttons or a touchscreen on the watch itself.

The makers of the CST-01 are currently raising funds for production on Kickstarter, and you can pre-order one before February 22 for $129(USD). The watch is expected to ship in Q2 of 2013.

We’re a jaded bunch here at Engadget sometimes, and with most of us using SSD-based systems these days it’s hard to get too excited about good old spinny disks. Still we’re also suckers for impressive technology, so our interest was piqued when Western Digital announced its 5mm thin 2.5-inch hard drives the other day. Luckily, the company saw fit to bring samples of its skinny new WD Black hybrid drive and WD Blue HDD to IDF 2012 and let us handle both briefly. The verdict? These are impossibly thin — perfect for all those nice Ultrabooks we’re expecting to see hit the market in the next few months. Details on performance, availability and pricing are scarce since these drives are intended for OEMs. Take a look at our gallery below, which includes thickness comparisons with WD’s upcoming 1TB 7mm thin HDD and a standard-sized loyalty card — then peek past the break for our hands-on video.

Update: yes, the loyalty card was demagnetized in the making of this video, and you now owe us all coffee.

Continue reading Western Digital brings wafer thin 5mm hard drives to IDF, we go hands-on (video)

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Western Digital brings wafer thin 5mm hard drives to IDF, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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