Hasta La Gadget!

In a world of sophisticated electronics these days, there are always risks to being an early adopter. Alas, it appears that our latest victims are owners of Apple’s Thunderbolt-laden MacBook Pros. Since launch, a number of frustrated customers have been reporting that their new unibody laptops — of all three sizes — are causing random flicker on both 24-inch and 27-inch Cinema Displays when connected via their Mini DisplayPort / Thunderbolt combo port, and now we have video proof to share the pain. Some also confirmed that even replacement machines from Apple are exhibiting the same behavior, though a source of ours says this doesn’t seem to be a widespread issue, and that the company’s hardware engineers are already looking into this. Either way, we’re likely to see a firmware fix for this bug soon — it’s no good having a large monitor constantly blinking at you.

[Thanks, Armando]

Update: sja3274, the creator of the original video above, informed us that his Cinema Display actually had a faulty connection anyway, but he still saw flicker on a new display — much like the behavior shown in the second video. As such, we’ve replaced our first video embed with our second one. Additionally, sja3274 was originally told to expect a software update last Tuesday or Wednesday, but obviously that didn’t happen, so perhaps this is a trickier fix than Apple expected.

Some Thunderbolt MacBook Pros causing flicker on Cinema Displays, Apple investigates (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 14:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You can’t have a 9.0 magnitude earthquake without breaking a few factories, particularly ones that produce fragile liquid crystal screens, and this week Toshiba, Hitachi and Panasonic are each reporting damages that have forced them to close LCD production facilities affected by the tsunami and quake. Panasonic isn’t sure when its plant in Chiba prefecture might resume carving up the glass sandwiches, telling Bloomberg that “there has been some damage, though not a fire or a collapse,” but both Hitachi and Toshiba will reportedly halt some assembly lines for around a month to deal with damages. It’s probably still too soon to talk about panel shortages — though they seem likely soon — but we’ll let you know how things progress.

Toshiba and Hitachi LCD plants damaged, will shut down for a month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look, we know you know all about LED backlights, light diffusion, subpixels, and the things that turn them on, but not everybody does. The humble LCD you’re most likely reading this on still retains a level of mystery about the nitty gritty details of how it works for the vast majority of its users, so here’s a terrific video breakdown of both its component parts and method of operation. Bill Hammack, a self-appointed Engineer Guy, takes us from the LED arrays that provide the light for most current LCDs, through all the filters and diffusers designed to make that light uniform, and into the ways thin film transistors make it possible for us to show moving color images of cats diving into boxes on such displays. It’s exciting, deeply nerdy stuff, and it awaits your audience after the break.

Continue reading LCD technology torn down and explained in the most lucid and accessible terms yet (video)

LCD technology torn down and explained in the most lucid and accessible terms yet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that many of you have collected and used your second generation iPad tablets for a few hours, we’re starting to see the inevitable reports of defects. Thus far, two issues have bubbled to the surface. The first issue — yellow spots beneath the LCD glass — is reminiscent of the same fresh-from-the-factory iPhone 4 issue that resolved itself just as soon as the bonding agent used for the LCD glass had time to evaporate. The second issue, which is being conflated with the first, is characterized by light bleeding through from the outer edges of the LCD panel. The bleeding is most noticeable when watching a dark scene in a movie or using an app with a black background as demonstrated in the picture above and video embedded after the break. For those affected, the issue can be minimized or exacerbated by adjusting the brightness in settings. So what say you dear reader, are you also a bleeder?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Is your iPad 2 backlight bleeding? (video)

Is your iPad 2 backlight bleeding? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 08:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The fight between the active shutter glasses 3D technology favored by TV manufacturers like Samsung, Panasonic and Sony against the Film Pattern Retarder (FPR) passive glasses 3D technology being pushed by LG got uglier this week. The Wall Street Journal points out LG’s print ads currently running in Korea (they could be running here already, but we’d have to read physical magazines or newspapers to know for sure) claim that unlike the competition, it will work even when viewers lay down on their sides, though the effect may be slightly weakened. Samsung responded by citing experts recommending keeping your head horizontal to watch 3D since the cameras used to film it are aligned horizontally, and an executive apparently called LG’s engineers “stupid” at a press conference, although reports of a “yo mama so fat” diss could not be confirmed.

Of course, since these are the world’s two biggest TV manufacturers, they sell to end users and other manufacturers like Sony, which Reuters reports LG is waiting to hear from about using its technology in the future. Sony and Samsung are already tight when it comes to LCD manufacturing but it’s obvious LG is looking for a few more friends to line up alongside Vizio, Toshiba and Philips (which just announced its latest displays using active and passive glasses.) But back to the end users for a moment, if anyone’s going to buy any of these 3DTVs, it may be wise to start selling consumers on why the feature is worthwhile at all and pointing out the growing amount of content — this week’s Big East basketball tournament, Killzone 3, the NBA Finals or Blu-ray 3D releases like Tron: Legacy — before folks decide just waiting for 4D would be the wisest choice.

LG woos Sony while it battles with Samsung over which 3D is best originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 04:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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