The interface and menus are really well done, and the FED display looks razor-sharp. Good luck to Anodos, the manufacturer, in making good on their plans to bring the price below $300 for retail. [Tech ON]

Sony's plans for FED displays are to push them to broadcasting and medical apps first, building slowly, rather than to jump right into the high-stakes plasma/LCD war, where nobody's making money thanks to the very bloody price war. Then it'll inch into the consumer market, first with 60-inch displays (at the level they can be more profitable, obviously). Looks like after plasma vs. LCD, we might have yet another fight on our hands: FED vs. OLED. [Nikkei]

This time Sony doesn't want to be left behind on the display front, and they are going to ship a real ultra-thin 11-inch OLED television in 2007. Not another prototype: a real TV. A small one that will cost a few times more than a comparable LCD, but a telly nonetheless.

They won't say how much but what it really matters is how many: Sony and partner Toyota Industries will only make 1,000 units every month, so don't count on seeing them at Best Buy. If Samsung or Matsushita don't give us another surprise, however, Sony will be the first to market an OLED TV of this size.

Given the state of OLED, the news is surprising but not really: after years of Trinitron domination, Sony completely lost the flat-screen bandwagon until they jumped back in with Bravia, all thanks to Samsung's LCD technology and their joint venture. This time they are joining forces with Toyota, and while Sony Executive Deputy President Katsumi Ihara said that "it won't be easy for OLED TVs to replace LCD TVs," the move demonstrates that they want to get there before anyone else, just in case. I am all for it Ihara-san, but please: no built-in Blu-ray drives this time. And if it doesn't work, we will always have FED. And Paris. –Jesus Diaz

Sony says to sell ultra-thin OLED TVs this year [Reuters UK]

First it was CRT. Then we got LCD and PDP and DLP and LCoS. After that, the never-growing OLED and the ever-delayed SED appeared. Today, it's all about WTF because FED has arrived and Sony wants it to stay.

But you are probably asking yourself: What in the name of all that is sacred, good and wears latex pants is FED? And would it require me to use one of those cool silver anti-radiation jackets? FED stands for Field Emission Display, a technology that is similar to SED but that uses a grid of carbon nanotubes to emit the electrons that excite phosphor dots in order to create the image.

Sony has just presented a new 19.2-inch 1280 × 960 pixel, 400cd/m2 panel demonstrating the technology, with an impressive 20,000:1 contrast. They want to release it in 2009, with models up to 30 inches with Full HDTV support. More details and photos after the jump.

In a way, FED it's like coming full circle to Sony's good old Trinitron, but with less power consumption, and in a super-thin frame. There's also a very wide angle of vision and a total lack of death pixels (apparently, even if 20% of the emitters fail, you won't see any dead pixels).

Looking at the pictures, however, it looks like FED will also have at least one of the issues of old CRT technologies: screen flicker. However, looking at the specs this doesn't seem to be the case: FED supports 24 to 240 frames per second refresh and the artifacts are likely due to the lack of sync between the ambient fluorescent lights and screen frequencies.

There's no word on prices yet, but apparently they are going to be cheaper to make than LCDs because it uses fewer components.

And answering your second question: the jacket, we can only hope, is optional. – Jesus Diaz

Technology announcing the new display "FED" which is succeeded from SONY (japanese) [AV Watch]