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]

OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode, meaning that the glow-y part that lights up when zapped with electricity has organic stuff in it. Because the particles light up by their own damn selves, they don't need a backlight like LCDs, so they can be stupid thin, and they use way less power than either LCD or plasma. The problem is, they're still a bitch to make, which is why they're expensive and teeny.

Wilson and Benny Boo took a tour of the place where OLED panels are born, and got the full rundown on how they're made. Basically, phosphorescent colored particles are fused to a substrate (glass, metallic or plastic screen), which can happen in one four ways (which are covered in more detail here):
• Vacuum thermal evaporation
• Organic vapor phase deposition
• Ink-jet printing
• Organic vapor printing

Though they each deal with the tiny pixel-sized dots of phosphorescent material slightly differently, all of them are a pain in the ass (read: expensive). The first two techniques require the substrate to be suspended in the air, making larger screens harder to do well (they tend to bow in the middle). Hence, Sony's wonder TV is a mere 11 inches and costs more than a good plasma, and Samsung's 31-incher was nigh miraculous.

One of the major problems with OLEDs is that the organic materials degrade over time, as organic things tend to do, with blue being the quickest fader. To wit, it came out that Sony's XEL-1's half life is only about 17,000 hours, not the 30K it was rated for, and not even close to the 60K+ hours that many LCDs and plasmas get.

And here's something you probably didn't know: While OLED does consume less power than LCD or plasma, its energy needs are content independent, so you'll be suckin' the same wattage whether you're watching the darkest scenes of Batman Begins or a virtual whitewall.

But, rest assured OLED is probably what you'll be watching Obama grow old and nasty on, with most majors promising mass production of big OLED TVs in the next couple of years. Presumably, that means prices and sizes will start getting reasonable. Not fast enough for our tastes, though—super thin, gorgeous picture, and none of the hallmark problems of LCD and plasma? Do want. So, so bad. [Giz Explains]

Brightness is the major issue here (though green is more saturated than the HDTV standard, if you care). If you move off-axis by 45 degrees horizontally (think viewing angle) then the image brightness drops by a third. And even if you actually calibrate the settings to "produce an optimum image," even on-axis, the best plasmas and LCDs are two-three times brighter (30-40 footlamberts vs. the XEL-1's 16.4 ft footlamberts).

Making the problem worse, one of the set's features is an auto-dimming circuit that slowly ratchets down the brightness (and contrast) within a minute of turning the set on (to around 7.8 footlamberts, way darker than "any calibrated plasma or LCD HDTV"). Sony says that it's to reduce the chance of burn-in, but it's more likely to help extend the set's life, which was discovered recently to only be half as long as it's rated for.

All that said, the picture quality remains "more breathtaking than its price," but you might wanna keep it in a dark room. [HD Guru]

The only problem is that they forgot that if it's electronic, chances are that it will be hacked, no matter what. According to Samsung SDI and Bundesdruckerei, however, their ePassport will be completely manipulation-proof. The thing is even heat-resistant, so it can be laminated to avoid access to it. The display itself won't use any batteries: it will be activated by a reader that won't require any contact, which will transmit electricity using induction. Jason Bournes and plastic surgeon junkies of the world, rejoice. [OLED Info]

Here's the full run-down:

•OLED screen: 1.3 inch OLED 260k; resolution:128 x 160px touching panel.
•Water proof, Shock-proof
•Languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, turkish, portuguese, french, chinese
•Standby english, thailand, dutch, german, russian,vietnamese,chinese,rabbinic,etc.
•Ring tone: 64 polyphonic; support format:mp3/midi/wav
•Incoming ring tone, incoming photo, incoming movie
•Music format: mp3
•Movie format: mp4,full screen
•Camera: 2.0m pixels
•T-flash support: free 512 tf card. extend to 2gb
•Bluetooth function: supported
•Picture format: jpg/gif

Its battery will give you about three hours of talk time and around 160 hours of standby, which seems fairly decent actually. The best bit about this piece of Dick Tracy tech, though, is the price: it's just $299, and is available from May 10th. [Surprising Gift via Howardforums]

With a 960x540 resolution, this panel has very similar specifications to the XEL-1, but it's just a mere 0.3mm thick. The as-yet-unnamed panel is clearly just proof that they're able to create such a skinny display, so don't look for it in Best Buy anytime soon—it'd probably set you back somewhere in the solid five figures—but it doesn't take a soothsayer to envision 50-inch OLED TVs hanging on your wall, making the photo frames hanging next to it look downright obese. Sounds good to me. Make it happen, Sony. [Impress via Engadget]

1) OLED in a display the size of an iPhone is expensive. EXPENSIVE.
2) OLED sucks under sunlight right now. The iPhone is awesome under sunlight. They're not going to trade in for a crappier technology.
3) Apple doesn't use unproven technology. Until lots of phones have OLED, count on Apple sticking with cheaper (and very usable) LCDs.

[Apple Insider]

I single out LCD because the folks taking the lead on OLED are Sony, Samsung and others firmly entrenched in the LCD business, and because LCD still suffers from image demons that plasma overcomes more easily, and OLED smashes with a hammer, even at infancy.

Also, although everyone is demoing thinner and thinner sets in both LCD and plasma, most of the weight loss is currently on the plasma side. LCD seems to have hit some firm threshhold that, again, OLED and even plasma seem able to conquer. But at 11 inches, Sony's first production OLED is laughably small. What the hell, Sony? Way to taunt a guy. Seriously, there are major amounts of taunting happening here:When you put an LCD next to a plasma, you almost always notice the contrast issues. Fiddle with the settings all you want, and you generally still can't make the blacks black enough on that LCD. When I first set up the OLED next to this Panasonic, a 50" 1080p 50PZ700U, I thought for a moment that maybe OLEDs had a contrast problem, too. But then I realized that whoever had the thing before me had been jerking the controls around too much. I reverted the picture settings to "standard" and suddenly the contrast was deeper than the plasma, with brighter highlights. OLEDs are self illuminating, so the very same thing that makes them super thin also gives them awesome contrast.
Obviously another big challenge for LCDs is the motion blur problem, which is mostly solved in higher-end LCDs using 120Hz systems and other similar techniques, but leaves cheaper sets hanging. It's most noticeable when you put an LCD side-by-side with a plasma showing the same movie. Fortunately, here again, the OLED did as well or better than the plasma at motion in the side-by-side test. In the end, you're essentially staring into what could very well be the perfect TV. Only you're not a hobbit, and this isn't Bag End.So why the dinkiness? OLED production is tricky, as you might recall from
this video of Benny the Intern and me at an OLED factory. Methods are best suited for small sheets of "substrate," not big screens of the stuff. Sony couldn't produce anything bigger now and still guarantee this kind of quality.

OLED makers also have to deal with panel half-life issues similar to those that used to afflict plasma in the days of yore. The XEL-1 is rated for 30,000 hours, or roughly 10 years of use; today's plasmas, including the above Panasonic, get something around 60,000 hours. In other words, long enough.

In the end, it's not a thing you go out and buy. It's a message in a slender frame. Sony never had massive R&D investment in LCD like Sharp or in plasma like Panasonic, and it's clear that this is Sony's way of saying, "Screw all of those, cuz OLED is what will matter, and oh yeah, Sony will drive OLED." Am I putting too many words in your mouth, Sony? I hope not, because this time next year, I'd like to be staring at a 50-inch version of this junior wonder. OK, 32 inches will be fine. 25 inches? 20????? [Sony XEL-1]

In the media player, you get FF/RW and play/pause controls; in the calculator, you get plus, minus, subtract and divide buttons. The soul patch (my name) even vibrates when you click it, thanks to the same Immersion tech found in Playstation and Wii rumble controllers. Congrats to Samsung in making a touch UI that overcomes some of the shortcomings of touchscreen controls in a nice looking package.

• The TV has two HDMI ports
• It's not quite HD, with a res of half of 1080p (960x540, although it will of course accept HD resolutions, and that is enough for an 11-incher.)
• 3mm thick on the main screen unit, about the same as three credit cards!
• The base unit contains the ports and upward firing speakers aiming through an aluminum grill.
• There is a USB port for media modules; right now there is a web content streamer, but DVD and wireless HDMI modules are coming.
• The remote is slim and controls a cross media bar interface like that on the PS3.
• The set is terrible in direct lighting because of a highly reflective screen.
• Visual quality was on par with the best plasmas and LCDs, and surpassed many sets in contrast and shadow detail.

[Sound and Vision]

And in a few years, you might not need to sling a set of extra batteries with you—Westfall says that fuel cells with "maybe twice the capacity as lithium-ion batteries" are on the horizon, which, combined with OLED displays (which are also brighter, clearer and all-around sexier) translate into a shitpot more snaps before your battery begs for more smack.

Even if the switch to fuel cells takes a stretch to actually happen, the OLED transition won't—Canon has been dumping a lot of cash into the tech, giving them "the infrastructure needed to bring this online." It won't just be in the super high-end stuff either, they're planning to "implement OLED in all our consumer products: digital still cameras, camcorders, and inkjet printers."

Yeah, the megapixel race might be over, but this is just getting good. [Crave]

Foxconn, if you remember, manufactures many of Apple's iPods while at the same time breaking Chinese labor laws—which to us screams low, low prices. The team-up will bear fruit "as early as summer," bringing keyboards with OLED keys like the one pictured. It's still unclear which name brand company will be contracting Foxconn and United Keys for their technology, but our guess is that all the major keyboard manufacturers (Microsoft, Logitech, Apple and Razor) will get in on their party. Well, maybe not Apple. Either way, expect a keyboard that's slightly less than $1500.

(Toshiba already took its 30-incher out of this year's battle.) The active-matrix organic light-emitting diode technology (AM-OLED), produces brighter images and use less power than any current TV—this Samsung uses half the power of a "typical" 32-inch TV. The 1080p panel is just 4.3mm thick (.17-inches), thinner than any LCD other than the prototypes we've seen this week. The 14-inch is even more impressively razor thin (maybe as thick as a USB flash drive). We were hoping to see the fabled 40-inch prototype, but no luck. The colors pop, the blacks are deep and it makes me think that Samsung, like Sony, is going to transition to OLED more quickly than anyone guessed. Plasma's not dead, but LCD might be. Photos by Curtis Walker

[Yanko Design]

For our inaugural Justify Your Gadget, we talked to Art.Lebedev's very own Art Lebedev. So can he justify all the Optimus Maximus Keyboard's delays? And can he do it in 15 seconds?

The units we got to play with were both fully working—one of which was hooked up to a Mac and the other was running in demo mode. Here's what we think:

• Each key's display is very bright and very crisp.
• The keys aren't too clacky and aren't too soft. A good and happy medium between the old ass IBM clackers and the scissor-style laptop keys.
• Unless you wash your hands regularly (which apparently trade-show attendees do not) the keyboard gets greasy. Very greasy. I need some anti-herpes wipe.
• The shift and caps lock keys were working, and they change the entire layout to CAPS (just as you'd expect). We've got video of this later, but it's very crisp and makes it extremely easy to tell whether or not YOU"VE GOT THE SHIFT KEY HELD DOWN.
• It's extremely customizable. We didn't get to see it here, but you can use the utility to change the background, foreground, and make the whole keyboard rainbow-colored if you so wish.
• It's super responsive hitting the keys as well—absolutely no difference between this and a regular keyboard.
• It feels very solidly made, more so than many other keyboards.
• Taking keys out is fairly easy, and it pops right back into place.

Is it worth $1500? We weren't sure before, but after getting hands-on time with it we're definitely leaning toward a maybe. And if they can lower the price by 50%, then it's a yes. It's one of those things that we'll save up money for and buy after a drunken night out.

We also got to meet Art Lebedev, the guy responsible for the Optimus and many other designs, and we can totally tell that he's on the level and a great guy to boot. In case any of you still thought the Optimus Maximus was vaporware, it's not.

XEL-1 Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) Television
Available in January for about $2,500
• North America's first Organic LED television
• 11-inch screen is ultra slim with a depth of only 3 millimeters
• Light emitting structure delivers 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, very deep blacks and unmatched color expression and picture detail
• Extremely bright picture with low power consumption
• Rapid panel response time for a clear, blur-free picture
• Exceptionally wide viewing angles unmatched by other TV devices
• Remarkably wide color range surpassing other displays

Pocket Album Deluxe OLED 2.8 Features:
2.8" (320 x 240) Active Matrix OLED screen with contrast ratio of 10,000: 1.
Holds over 3,000 digital photos with internal flash memory.
Folder structure for organizing photos.
Also works as alarm clock and calendar.
Compact photo viewer with wrist strap.

Pocket Album OLED 1.5 Features:
1.5" Passive Matrix OLED screen with contrast ratio of 1000:1.
Holds approximately 120 digital photos with 32MB internal flash memory.
Portable digital keychain.

Pocket Album OLED Series General Features:
Runs automatic photo slideshows with adjustable time intervals or scrolls photos manually.
Supports random photo playback.
Built-in clock with automatic on/off timer.
Runs on rechargeable battery rechargeable via the included AC adapter or with USB power by connecting it to your computer.
Photo Viewer Software included for converting images from your computer to Pocket Album OLED. The Photo Viewer Software lets you crop and rotate photos you wish to transfer, before automatically resizing them for optimal storage and display on the photo viewer.

Lebedev's manufacturing cost is said to be astromical for each keyboard, so maybe Apple could bring that price down with economies of scale. Heck, Robert Krakoff, CEO of peripheral company Razer, told us he thinks his company could do the same thing and sell it for under $500, so it can't be impossible.

One important advantage Apple has is that it has control of the operating system software, and according to the patent application, the software applications would talk to circuitry inside each key that could control what was displayed on its OLED. Here's the language used in the application, whose drawings are dated 1/3/08:

"Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for providing a computer peripheral including one or more keys. Each key has several light emitting diodes disposed on a face of the key. Each of the light emitting diodes can switch on or off in response to a data signal received from an application specific integrated circuit dedicated to the key. A corresponding key and manufacturing method, as well as a computer system including one or more such keys are also described."

As yet, there are no details on when the 31-incher will be available—or how much the thing will cost. The company is, however, already plowing ahead with mass-production of 14-incher OLEDs, which should be available next year.

AM-OLED, or active-matrix organic light-emitting diode technology, produces brighter images and use less power. Samsung's OLED display has a lifespan of 35,000 hours, which makes it the best-performing OLED display so far.

First out of the starting stalls was Sony, whose 11-inch OLED screens went on sale in November of this year, and whose largest display is, so far, 27 inches. [Reuters]

Most of what the guys at TechOn realized during the process was observational. For example, the 3mm thickness was achieved by arranging the drive circuit and other parts of the OLED panel at the lower side of the unit. They also noticed that an inordinately large number of radiation sheets were attached on the back side of the mainboard and the unit. In other words, Sony wasn't taking any chances with the heat. Hit the link for the full details. [TechOn and Product Page]

It has been an OLED fantastic week here at Gizmodo, and this just polishes off all the dinky display shenanigans. The 1000000:1 contrast ratio has us all dizzy with excitement, but we cannot but help notice that hefty base. We did not make much of it the first time we heard word of the XEL-1, but it seems as though Sony are trying to push a pseudo-skinny on us. We shall excuse them, as we just can't get over that ridiculous contrast ratio. Did we mention it? 1000000:1! That's just crazy talk. If it wasn't Sony, we'd say it's black magic at work. We wait for our own XEL-1 to arrive...oh, it's a long dark wait, with a comparatively pathetic contrast ratio to boot. [TV Snob]

As you may know, each key is a mini OLED screen, one that can display any character you want (and even the icon of our worthy competitor). As such keys are slightly oversized, but placed together almost too closely, so that typing might get tricky.

Benny our NYC editorial assistant says the effect is subtle: it doesn't look pixelated from an appropriate distance. That said, they don't look like regular keys on a keyboard either, especially when a single key is showing an entire multicolored picture. Benny prefers the picture keys to the letter keys because they letters on black are almost too striking (though that surely can be fixed with a decrease in brightness). We were all disappointed that there were no animated keys. I mean, if you're gonna put tiny screens on every key, why can't I watch a bunch of teeny tiny movies?

Richard, our video pimp, says it feels big like it was "made for seniors" but admits his own zeal at having touched it: "I want one" is his final verdict. Wait till we tell him it costs $1,564. –Video by Richard Blakeley; photos by Nick McGlynn [Optimus Project]