Hasta La Gadget!

Sure, you’ve fawned over razor-thin OLED TVs and vibrant AMOLED screens, but as Philips keeps reminding us, the organic diodes are good for more than displays — they also make a fancy light bulb, too. This week, the company took the wraps off the latest advance in that direction: a bright-white OLED module that takes alternating current. Philips says that up until now, OLED technology required low-power DC voltage, which necessitated costly switching mechanisms built into such products in turn, but now they’ve got panels that sip fresh-squeezed AC juice directly from the wall. Now, it’s just a question of when they’ll be bright and cheap enough to be remotely worth your while. PR after the break.

Continue reading Philips claims first AC-powered OLED module, points the way to cheaper, more reliable bulbs

Philips claims first AC-powered OLED module, points the way to cheaper, more reliable bulbs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The problem with the future is that it’s always 3 to 5 years away. Nevertheless, what you’re looking at is what Philips and Dimenco, a small company of ex-Philips engineers, say will be coming to the consumer television market as early as 2013 — earlier if you’re in the professional advertising business or just want to view your family photos on a small 3D photo frame. Just remember that Philips has been showing off variations of the glasses-free technology behind this prototype lenticular lens television for years, so we’re not getting our hopes up. Nevertheless, Dimenco assured us that the path to the consumer market for its 3D display is clear.

So how did it look? Well, it was ok, we guess. It doesn’t have that in-your-face pop of the current generation of 3D televisions that require 3D glasses. The effect is more subtle (or maybe the content was). Our biggest problem was with the sharpness of the display. Although the 56-inch prototype CCFL LCD was 4k (that’s 4 times the resolution of your Full HD TV) the image we saw was coarse in appearance due to the lenticular lens required to refract the left and right images for each eye. Having said that, the lenticular lens technology used is certainly better suited for non-stationary viewing. While the border around objects on the screen tended to shift quickly and blur (see the video after the break) when looking at the panel frombetween any of its 15 viewing angles (spread across a 120-degree arc), at least it didn’t exhibit those horrible dark vertical bands seen when changing your angle even slightly while viewing 3D panels based on the parallax barrier method of glasses-less 3D. Still, it was hard to find the viewing sweet spot and honestly, given the option to sit in front of this display and a 4k panel “limited” to 2D, we’d have to opt for the latter. Get back to us in 3 to 5 and see if we feel the same.

Continue reading Philips Dimenco glasses-less 3D TV of the future, hopefully our future

Philips Dimenco glasses-less 3D TV of the future, hopefully our future originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As absurd as it might seem to dock a 9.7-inch tablet atop what amounts to a glorified boom box, let’s be real: the iPad’s meek speakers are easily outclassed by its ability to swallow gigabytes worth of music and high-quality video content. Sure enough, iPad-compatible docks are quickly becoming a thing now, and Philips is jumping head-first into the market with its Fidelio DS8550. Oh, but there’s more than meets the eye here — it’s not just a speaker with a giant slot in front for a 30-pin connection, you see. You can either connect the iPad to let it charge and get a direct audio connection or roam with it and let it talk back to the dock over stereo Bluetooth, which was demoed to us as an awesome option for gaming — as long as the Fidelio is within a few yards of you, games really become a more immersive experience when you’ve got thick, booming bass and virtually limitless volume nearby, and we found that you really don’t notice that the sound is coming from “somewhere else.”

The DS8550 also packs a handle on back and an internal battery, allegedly good for up to five hours of use off the grid so you’ll be able to kick it old-school with the Fidelio slung over your shoulder in the subway station. The unit makes use of a unique spring-loaded pivot on its 30-pin connector, which Philips says allows you to connect any iPod, iPhone, or iPad without needing the typical adapters — the device just sort of rests on the connector and the surrounding concave section of the speaker mesh. Check out a few more shots in the gallery!

Filed under: Handhelds, Home Entertainment

Philips Fidelio DS8550 iPad speaker dock hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s kind of hard to outdo yourself with only two dimensions when they read 21 and 9, respectively, so Philips has decided to do the only thing left for a trendy display maker: go 3D. Though we saw (and loved) a 3D prototype of the 56-inch variant at last year’s IFA, this new, 58-inch Cinema 21:9 Platinum HDTV looks set to bring the third dimension to actual retail. It’s got the Ambilight wall illumination that some people will like, LED backlighting with local dimming that most should love, and a slimmer, brushed matte bezel that will be appreciated by all. The 400Hz panel is capable of pumping out Full HD 3D and is expected to cost around €4,000 ($5,112) in Europe or £3,500 in the UK with a launch set for later this month. And if you want one in the US, well… things aren’t looking very Ambibright for you.

Philips’ Cinema 21:9 Platinum HDTV finally takes the leap into 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For all its success, the iPod touch has few dedicated media player competitors capable of matching its big-touchscreen, WiFi, and voluminous App Store. Until today. Philips just went official with its GoGear Connect featuring the full suite of Google Mobile applications pre-installed with access to the Android Market for pretty much everything else. Spec-wize we’re looking at a 3.2-inch display, WiFi, sound isolating earphones, built-in camera, and microSD slot. Sorry, no mention of the Android OS version though we’ve seen it listed at retailers with 2.1. Syncing your music is done over Bluetooth or a USB tether to your PC with Philips’ Songbird providing the software assist. The MP4 player also supports Maps and location-based services — presumably accomplished with the help of Skyhook and not via a GPS radio (though the Philips post is tagged “GPS”). Look for the GoGear Connect to land in Western Europe, China, and yes, the US, starting in late October with the price pegged at €249 (about $315) for the 16GB model.

Update: Philips got back to us with additional specs: on-board GPS and compass; 480 x 320 pixel LCD display; and support for .mp3, .wma, .m4a (AAC), .ogg, and .flac audio; .wmv, .mp4 (MPEG4 and H264 up to 720p), .avi (MPEG4 up to 720p) video; and JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF images. Oh, and it’s definitely Andriod 2.1.

Philips GoGear Connect is a legitimate Android-based iPod touch competitor (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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