Gizmodo: Screens

Are These Screens from the New Nintendo DS?

Mark Wilson — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:29:00 EDT

This allegedly leaked photo of new Nintendo DS screens has played a game of Google Translate telephone before making its way to Giz wearing red sox and green hair, but from what we can make out from the source, the big difference in the updated display is a shift in screen size from 3 inches to 3.25 inches. It's still not a widescreen system like many of us would prefer, but then again, the alteration shouldn't mess with the aspect ratio of existing DS titles, either. [Byokan Sunday via GoNintendo]

Question of the Day: What Do You Use to Clean Your Screens?

Sean Fallon — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EDT

A big, bright, beautiful screen is a great thing—but keeping it smudge and dust free can be annoying to say the least. This is especially true with touchscreen phones and other portable media devices. With that in mind, I came up with a two section poll that involves larger screens like monitors and televisions on one side and smaller screens like cellphones and handheld game systems on the other. But both ask the same question: how do you clean your screens?

Some iPhone 3G Screens Are Looking a Bit Yellow

Mark Wilson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:33:00 EDT

We're not sure precisely how widespread the issue may be, but multiple reports on the Macrumors forums are bringing to light that some iPhone 3Gs are suffering from a screen with a yellow tint. While on a standard LCD the issue would probably just warrant a settings readjustment (like from Movie mode to Sports), we can't tell whether or not this is an issue with the display itself or the firmware driving the display. Is anyone else noticing that their shiny white/black iPhone 3G is looking a bit...yellow? [Macrumors]

AUO Curved Displays, Ultra Thin LCDs On The Way

Adrian Covert — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:20:00 EDT

At SID 2008 this week AUO announced the launch of curved displays, LCD panels that are just over a half millimeter thick and TFT multi-touch panels. The curved displays are said to be the first built on glass substrate (honestly, that's way over my head, but I'm sure a few of you will care). Because the display has a curve radius of 100mm, it requires a special thinning technology. But mostly, I like this thing because it just looks cool.

AUO will also release a superthin, 1.9" TFT display that is .63 mm thick, while the 8" multi-touch TFT panels that veer away from the trend of multi-touch glass panels. Can you say handheld tablet UMPCs? [InfoSyncWorld]

Dealzmodo: Twelve-foot Outdoor Projector Screen for $200

Brian Lam — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:14:52 EDT

Electronic home informs me of this Wal-Mart special on an inflatable twelve-foot 16:9 projector screen. It's meant for outdoor viewing, and has an auto inflating pump. Not bad for $200. [Walmart via E House]

Elite Portable Floor-Rising Screen is Pure Magic

Charlie White — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:00:00 EST

Good lord, look at this Elite Portable Floor-Rising Screen that's motorized. Carry it around with you, make it rise with its magic motors, and impress all those superficial suits on your next presentation road trip. Or, keep it right at home, take off that easily-removed handle, and it looks like it's a permanent installation. Available by June, your choice of either an 84" or a 100" diagonal screen will set you back $2000. Screen sizes up to 150" are planned.

Lifefast Transparent 360 Ad Display is LED Craziness in a (Big) Can

AddyDugdale — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:01:02 EST

Technohouse showed off the Lifefast, a radical transparent, 360 LED display unit at the Inter BEE 2007 fair in Japan. Placed at right angles to each other in the Lifefast's cylindrical design are four bars, each fitted with 600 three-color LEDs, which revolve between 12 and 13 times per second, flashing up images. More info and pics below.

The unit, which supports VGA, DVI and video signals, can display three 600 x 800-dot images, two 600 x 1,200-dot images, or one 600 x 2,400-dot image, and the size varies between 75 cm and 150cm tall. The unit, which is manufactured by German firm Kinoton GMBH, costs from around $6,450. New Launches

Samsung's 40-inch TFT-LCD is Just One Centimeter Thick

AddyDugdale — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:10:56 EDT

Samsung is to unveil a bunch of new screens in Japan at the end of this week, including the 40-inch beauty you see here, with a thickness of just 1 cm. The first of the Korean electronics giant's next wave of large-screen TVs, the 40-incher is as thick as a 10- to 20-inch LCD desktop monitor, and has a bezel of just 14.6 mm, reduced from 30 mm. LED backlighting reduces power consumption to around 90 watts. Another pic, and info on what to keep your eyes peeled for in Yokohama this week below.

15.4" LCD with active white-LED backlight.
22" desktop LCD with DisplayPort interface
46" digital information display (1500nits)
7" mobile display with touch screen
2.1" LCD with sensor-based automatic brightness control
14.3" plastic display
8.1"e-paper
14.1"active-matrix OLED. [via Press Release]

Home Theater Screen Disguised as a Bookshelf

Charlie White — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:30:00 EDT

Now, here's a great idea: Why not disguise a projection screen as a bookshelf, and then place a few other identical-looking shelves nearby as decoys? That's just what Italian designer Matteo Ragni has dreamed up here, trying to cross that bridge between a dedicated home theater room and a multi-use space that might double as a reading room, too. The only problem we see? If this is going to be a big enough screen, it's going to amount to one tremendously long shelf. This example is 170 centimeters, or 66.9 inches wide. That's not going to give you much of a big-screen experience. [Livit (Italian), via Red Ferret]

Sharp's Multitouch New LCD Panel Can Go Up to 12 Inches (I Smell an Apple Multitouch Tablet)

Brian Lam — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:43:40 EDT

Those manufacturers of multitouch devices of the high visual quality and resilience of the iPhone's might have another option from Sharp. According to Impress, the LCD veterans have made a 3.5 inch, 480 x 320 screen, capable of multitouch. These can be made up to 12 inches in diagonal size. Perfect for a portable. Somehow, sites are reporting that this thing can SCAN, too. Strange, and unconfirmed, at least by me.

Sources of mine have speculated that the iPhone's German-made Balda screens fail at anything much larger than iPhone sizes, potentially one roadblock in a multitouch display/tablet from Apple. Sharp LCDs are some of the best out there, with Samsung. But they have been known to have uneven backlighting. I wonder if they can keep the quality up once these start going into mass production. [Impress]

Rumor Smashed: MacBook Pro CCFL and LED Displays Have No Discernible Difference

Jason Chen — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:30:16 EDT

According to sources very familiar with Apple displays and MacBook development, there is no discernible difference between CCFL MacBook Pro displays and the new LED MacBook Pro displays. All the eyeball tests so far have been either faulty or just plain wrong.

Think about it for a sec. If Apple's displays were even 5% brighter now than before, don't you think that'd be one of their selling points? They're a company known for picking the "optimum" (some would say misleading) test results and figures and using that as something to boast about.

If you wanted to make a slightly more scientific test between the two displays, here's how.

First, you need to give CCFL displays a half hour to warm up to full brightness. Then, turn plug both MacBook Pros in and turn them up to full brightness. You'll need two "new" laptops as well—that 6 month old laptop you got for Christmas won't make for an accurate assessment.

A couple more things to note. The best way to test the displays are to calibrate them with an external device. Also, the LED display can run at very low brightnesses, but the CCFL one can't. That's why 50% brightness on LEDs is not as bright as 50% on CCFLs.

Then again, Apple may want to save their "it's brighter!" selling point for a case when it's 30% or 50% brighter than the previous generation. Saying it now and having people not be able to tell that it's brighter kind of hurts their rep. – Jason Chen

Proof That Zune Screens Are Cracking?

Louis Ramirez — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:25:23 EST

Microsoft may be denying it, but a handful of Zune owners are still insisting that their player's screens are cracking on their own for no apparent reason. One of the owners went as far as taking stills and video of his damaged Zune. Apparently the crack is only visible when the Zune is turned on. Last time we checked, no one else seemed to have this problem so it's looking more like an isolated case or complete hoax. – Louis Ramirez

Zune Screens Are Still Cracking! [ClicZune]

LED-Backlit Apple and HP Laptops in Q2?

Charlie White — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 08:59:38 EST

Laptops from Apple and HP might use LEDs as a backlight source starting in the second quarter of this year. These LED backlights distribute backlight more evenly than the cold cathode florescent backlights used in laptops today, and also offer a higher range of colors.

We've tested LCD monitors using LED backlight, and their increased color saturation gives the screen noticably more-intense colors—so much so that they look almost unnatural at first. This technology has been around for a while. In fact, we tested an IBM monitor with an LED backlight four years ago. However, LED backlights haven't been adopted in laptop screens thus far because of fears of high power consumption.

What about higher prices? If the cost of these fancy screens raises the prices of notebooks by too much, this tech will probably not hit the mainstream for a while. There's no word on which models will be upgraded with the LED technology. – Charlie White

Apple and HP to launch LED-based notebooks [DigiTimes , via electronista]

Concrete TV Causes Retailers To Rethink Delivery Policy

kthompson — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 17:32:28 EST

Ladies and gentlemen, today is a sad day for the television theft protection industry. The good people at Innovation Lab have removed our need for their services. Say goodbye to locking wall mounts, cable tethers and bolted rails, because in the world of tomorrow all our televisions will be made...of concrete!

How will they make televisions out of concrete, you ask? Put on your thinking caps, because here comes the science: magic! You were thinking something more along the lines of optical fibres being embedded in the concrete acting as pixels, but watch that video again—that's magic, folks. If a giant slab of concrete doesn't fit your home d cor (I'm seeing an 'unfinished basement' theme), you'll just have to go anywhere in the outside world with large slabs of concrete and hope advertisers have placed one there for your viewing pleasure. Betting on that proposition begins now. – Karson Thompson

World's First Concrete Screen [Product Web]

LG and Philips LCD Hone Cellphone Screens to 1.3mm

Charlie White — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:54:22 EDT

Instead of boring you to tears with pics and specs of every goddamn cellphone that's ever been released, let's just take a look at this one reed-thin screen that will tell you a lot about what's going to be happening with those ubiquitous communicators in the next few months. LG and Philips have somehow created an LCD screen that's between 32% and 55% slimmer than its nearest competitor, springing the caliper at a mere 1.3mm. Jeez, look at that—it's about the thickness of a credit card or a piece of cardboard.

So what's going to be happening with cellphones in the next few months? They'll be even more slender than they are today if this new screen has anything to do with it. Your cellphone will be so razor-thin, you'll be able to slash your wrists with the thing if you hear that annoying ringtone one more time. – Charlie White

Slimmest cellphone screens in the world [uber gizmo]

Just Another Fancy Projector Screen

Travis Hudson — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 08:01:48 EST

Wissmann Raumobjekte decided that having a plasma TV or LCD TV was just too plain. Hell, he even thought that having a projector on the wall was too plain. So he designed a "contemporary entertainment surface." It is mounted in a cool manner, and comes with stands for surround sound speakers. It is essentially a screen to be projected on. Contemporary chair and conveniently empty studio apartment are not included.

Projecta Art 110 [MocoLoco]

Epson Claims Better LCD On Its Way

tgrumet — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 08:06:09 EDT

WIth more LCD displays being banged out in Asia every day, we're hoping to see not only a dip in prices, but better quality products as well. So it's nice that Epson (or Sanyo Epson in Japan) is claiming its three new displays will include a technoloyg called Photo FIne Chromarich, which they claim "achieves more than 100% coverage of the NTSC* color gamut." This really means you'll get better color rendering and higher resolution while the display actually consumes less power. Of course, these particular LCD will be manufactured for mobile devices, measuring only a tiny 2.2, 2.8 and 4.5 inches. But if you wish real hard, maybe we'll see them in bigger sizes sometime soon.

Epson Develops Photo Fine Chromarich LCD displays [Ubergizmo]