Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s practicing its self-imposed rule of supplier polygamy this week and Japan’s Nikkei is telling us all about it. It started off on Monday, when we learned that Toshiba’s throwing down some cash to build a new smartphone display production plant, with Apple as the key investor and subsequent consumer, and today we’re hearing pretty much the same story, only with Sharp playing the role of Japanese producer to Apple’s hardware whims. A “large portion” of the $1.2 billion cost — identical to what Toshiba’s said to be spending — of expanding Sharp’s Kameyama factory is expected to be shouldered by Jobs’ cash-rich crew, a postulation also confirmed by Reuters, who’s managed to dig up a pair of sources agreeing with the Nikkei. Our Japanese team reports that Sharp has made its expansion plans official, but obviously there’s nary a peep about any Apple connection, while DigiTimes says Toshiba has outright denied any involvement with Cupertino. Guess we’ll just have to wait for the iPhone 7 teardowns to find out.

Sharp investing $1.2b in expanding smartphone LCD production, Apple fingered as the major client originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung, being the global leader in mobile displays that it is, was understandably a little unnerved by Apple’s IPS LCD-sporting iPhone 4, but now it’s back to the forefront with its brand spanking new Super PLS tech. PLS stands for Plane to Line Switching, which helps Samsung deliver some pretty spectacular viewing angles — even better than the already stellar ones you’ll find on IPS panels — while also improving screen brightness by a reported 10 percent. The target market for Super PLS displays will be smartphones and tablets, with a delicious WXGA resolution on offer for the top bidders. Mind you, Samsung also claims production costs are 15 percent lower than comparable IPS tech, meaning that the only thing standing between us and the next new hotness is time — Sammy expects to begin mass production early next year. Oh, and it’s working on securing a set of 30 patents relating to Super PLS, so don’t go holding out hope for direct competitors from LG or anyone else anytime soon.

Continue reading Samsung touts Super PLS display as the evolution of IPS on smartphones, plans production in early 2011

Samsung touts Super PLS display as the evolution of IPS on smartphones, plans production in early 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Never mind your 103-inch plasmas or Guinness Word Record-holding stadium displays, real gamers do their thing on LCDs that span a cool seven thousand and five hundred square meters (translated into imperial measuring units, that’s… a lot!). What you see above is a little glimpse of an MMO enthusiast with a big passion and no less sizable wallet. The gent in question was displeased by the fact a competing guildmaster in the Chinese MMO Magic World Online 2 got to play in an IMAX theater, and therefore decided to one-up him in the only way possible: by hiring Beijing’s crazily oversized display (titled “All Beijing, look up!”) for a little session of supersized gaming. Jump past the break to see it on video.

Continue reading Chinese man plays MMO on titanic screen, pleads for higher pixel density (video)

Chinese man plays MMO on titanic screen, pleads for higher pixel density (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 04:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E Ink Triton. That’s the name we should all start getting used to as E Ink Holdings has just officially announced its first color electronic paper display. It was only yesterday that we learned Hanvon would be the first to bring the newly colorized e-reading panels to the market, so today the eponymous E Ink display maker has seen fit to dish out its own press release, catchy title, and even a handy explanatory video. The key points are that the new Triton stuff will offer 20 percent faster performance, sunlight-readable imaging, and up to a month’s battery life. That would suggest there’s almost no sacrifice in endurance relative to E Ink’s monochromatic screens already on offer in things like Amazon’s Kindle, which sounds all kinds of righteous to us. Skip past the break to get better acquainted with the Triton.

Continue reading E Ink shows off Triton color ePaper, touts faster performance, readability in sunlight (video)

E Ink shows off Triton color ePaper, touts faster performance, readability in sunlight (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 03:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They say two things about war: that it never changes and that nobody ever wins. Tell that to thin bezel fans, however, and they’ll point you in the direction of the LG-Samsung tussle for the title of world’s thinnest bezel separation. Samsung snatched the glory last month with its 55-inch Digital Information Display, but today LG is upping the ante with a nearly nonexistent frame around its new 37-inch LCD panel. There’s 2.5mm of bezel on the bottom and right side of the screen, and 1.5mm on the top and left sides, resulting in a microscopic 4mm (0.16 inches) of separation. The panel’s designed for outdoor advertising, can be stacked infinitely, and will get its debut demonstration at the FPD International 2010 show in Japan later this month.

LG Display snatches ‘world’s thinnest bezel’ title from Samsung with new 37-inch LCD originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 04:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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