LG to demo 5-inch unbreakable and flexible plastic OLED panel at SID

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/19/lg-5-inch-flexible-oled/

LG's got quite a bit in store for us this week at SID's annual display exhibition in Vancouver. In addition to that 55-inch curved OLED TV we first heard about last month, the company will be demonstrating a very nifty 5-inch OLED panel. Created for mobile devices, the display is constructed of plastic, making it both flexible and unbreakable -- certainly a welcome quality when it comes to smartphone design.

Also on display will be 5- and 7-inch HD Oxide TFT panels. That first size features a bezel that's just 1mm wide, enabling a borderless frame when installed in smartphones. Both displays are lightweight and consume less power than their traditional equivalents. Finally, LG will have a 14-inch 2560x1440-pixel laptop panel on hand, along with LCDs designed for use in refrigerators and automotive dashboards. We'll be live from the SID show floor later this week -- check back for our hands-ons with all of these new LG panels, and quite a bit more.

Filed under: Displays, HD, LG

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ASUS Transformer Book review: meet ASUS' first detachable Ultrabook

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/20/asus-transformer-book-tx300-review/

More Info

• ASUS announces line of Transformer Books
• ASUS Transformer Book shows sudden sign of life: 13-inch Core i5 model coming to Japan this week
• ASUS Transformer Book hybrid PC gets May 21st release date

For a while, it looked like ASUS' Transformer Book would turn out to be vaporware: after debuting to much fanfare a year ago, it encountered numerous delays, and even missed the crucial holiday shopping season. Now it's finally here, priced at $1,499 with a Core i7 processor, a 13.3-inch (1080p) screen and a detachable keyboard dock housing both a spare battery and a 500GB hard drive. The problem is the timing: Intel is about to launch its new Haswell chips, and here's the Transformer Book, arriving on the scene with a lofty price and a year-old CPU.

It'd be easy enough to tell you just wait for a refresh, which is how we've been ending all of our PC reviews in the weeks leading up to this year's Computex. But it's still worth investigating whether the Transformer Book (aka the TX300) is a compelling idea. Though we've seen many tablet hybrids (the Surface Pro, etc.), they've mostly had smaller 11-inch screens. So what happens when you take that form factor and stretch it to accommodate a bigger screen -- and a more spacious keyboard? And how does it compare to all those convertible options out there, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 or the Dell XPS 12? Let's have a look.

Gallery: ASUS Transformer Book review

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, ASUS

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Sony Xperia UL announced for Japan: 5-inch 1080p display and 15-frame burst photography skills (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/20/sony-xperia-ul-announced-may-release-date/

The FCC may have spoiled the surprise, but Sony's now gone official with yet another smartphone and this one's for its native Japan. The Xperia UL appears to be a slightly thicker riff on the Xperia Z, matching the display of the company's early-2013 flagship, with a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064) ticking behind the 5-inch 1080p screen. It's worth noting that it's a substantial resolution bump from the similar-looking 720p NTT DoCoMo Xperia A. Although it's not the Snapdragon 600 rumored, Qualcomm's S4 Pro flexes its muscle through Exmor RS 13-megapixel camera sensor, offering up the ability to capture 15 frames in a second. NFC, naturally, is already in attendance as well as the Felica wireless payment system. You'll also get the benefits of both a physical camera button and water (IPX5/8) and dust resistance (IP5X) -- two features in tandem that should help separate it from Sony's pair of existing 5-inch 1080p smartphones. The Xperia UL will launch on KDDI's au network in white, black and hot pink colors on May 25th. Check out the obligatory close-up ad after the break.

Update: The Xperia UL runs on an S4 Pro processor, not the Snapdragon 600 initially stated.

Gallery: Sony Xperia UL press shots

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony

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Source: Sony (Japanese)

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Google's Field Trip app granting free admission to 13 museums

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/20/google-field-trip-free-admission-to-13-museums/

While Mountain View's Field Trip app may find attractions off the beaten path, footing the bill for excursions has been up to users. Now, however, the Niantic Labs-made application is handing out freebies for an unspecified limited time, allowing those who wield it to waltz into 13 museums for free. Folks near the establishments will receive Free Entry cards in the "nearby" tab, which will let them pass turnstiles without forking over a dime. Although Field Trip has been beefed up with points of interest in over 80 countries, the participating institutions -- which range from The Field Museum to the Walt Disney Family Museum -- are all located in six US cities. Head past the break for the full list.

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Google

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Source: Field Trip (Google+)

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The first Jolla phone: 4.5-inch display, Android app compliant, 399 euros

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/20/jolla-phone/

Jolla's heavily teased launch day in Finland has already spilled some major news: pricing and specs for the first Sailfish OS handset. The phone seems to be called "The Other Half" -- or at least that's the working title for now -- and judging from Jolla's Facebook page it consists of a colorful plastic case, available in various shades including orange or green, which hooks onto the main chassis containing a 4.5-inch display (of unknown resolution), dual-core processor, microSD expansion with 16GB onboard, a "4G" modem, user replaceable battery and an 8MP rear camera. The chassis recognizes which case is attached and adapts the visual theme of the OS to match, creating "your other half, exactly as you want it to be."

Perhaps more usefully, the Sailfish operating system will also be Android app compliant out of the box, and we're currently on the ground in Helsinki trying to discover exactly how developers and users will be able to put that feature to work (while also chasing down the rest of the specs). Meanwhile, there's an emphatic video message from Jolla co-founder Marc Dillon after the break, seeking the world's assistance in taking the heritage of MeeGo into a new era.

Update: We now hear that the phone will simply be called the "Jolla."

Update #2: Jolla has just clarified that 4G means LTE.

[Thanks, Toni]

Gallery: Jolla unites the halves

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Jolla

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Fitbit now syncs to Galaxy S 4, broader Android device support is coming

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/fitbit-now-syncs-to-galaxy-s-4/

The state of Fitbit wireless syncing is far from ideal for Android users, but the company's latest step is proof that it's slowly getting better. Today, Fitbit updated its Android app to bring wireless syncing to the Galaxy S 4, which follows a previous update for the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II. According to Fitbit's blog, its difficulty in supporting more devices stems from software differences on various Android smartphones, which causes trouble regardless of whether the device includes Bluetooth 4.0. On the upside, just yesterday, the Bluetooth SIG announced that Android will gain support for Bluetooth Smart Ready and Bluetooth Smart devices in the coming months, which Fitbit reckons will solve much of the compatibility issues that it and other device manufacturers have faced. So, if you have a Galaxy S 4, take the opportunity to get syncing your fitness data today -- it won't be long before other Android devices get to join in the fun.

Filed under: Misc, Software, Mobile

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Source: Fitbit

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Corning intros Lotus XT Glass for next-gen mobile displays, touts more efficient production (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/corning-lotus-xt-glass/

Corning's Lotus Glass promised a world full of thinner, more advanced mobile displays when it was unveiled in 2011, but it hasn't always been easy to build with the volumes or features that customers want. Enter the company's new Lotus XT Glass as the solution: clients can produce it more reliably at high temperatures, leading to more usable panels for our LCDs and OLEDs. The improved yields should not only result in larger device volumes than the original Lotus Glass could muster, but push the technological limits -- Corning notes that hotter manufacturing allows for brighter, sharper and more efficient screens. The glass is commercially available today, although we'll still need to wait for gadget makers to choose, implement and ship it before we notice the XT difference.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Source: Corning

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Google's Blink team pulls 8.8 million lines of WebKit code in one month

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/google-blink-team-pulls-8-8-million-lines-of-webkit-code/

Google let us all know that it would strip out unneeded WebKit code to make its Blink web engine scream, but it never said exactly what kind of pace we could expect. The answer, it turns out, is "breakneck." The company's Alex Komoroske told Google I/O attendees that the Open Web Platform team has already yanked 8.8 million lines of programming from Blink in about a month, with 4.5 million of them scrubbed almost immediately. Removing so much cruft has reportedly improved not just the upcoming engine, but the engineers -- they're far more productive, Komoroske says. The team has already had time to explore new rendering techniques and garner code contribution requests from the likes of Adobe, Intel and even Microsoft. Although we don't yet know if all the trimming will be noticeable to end users by the time Blink reaches polished Chrome and Chrome OS releases, it's safe to say that some developers won't recognize what they see.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Google

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Source: TechCrunch

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MIT crafts analog circuits from living bacteria

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/mit-crafts-analog-circuits-from-living-bacteria/

Previous work on using organisms as circuitry has usually involved shoehorning parts of the digital world into a very analog environment. MIT has just found an approach that uses the subtlety of the natural world to its advantage: the circuits themselves are analog. By combining genes that produce similar molecules in response to different inputs, the school's scientists have created bacterial cells that perform basic math -- the exact quantity or ratio of a given molecule is the answer. The approach offers a much wider range of results than a binary circuit (10,000 versus 2), and it exploits the cell enzymes' inherent ratio awareness to do some of the hard work. MIT wants more variety in genetic ingredients before it can produce a truly universal system, but its work could lead to organic sensors that are much simpler and more precise than their digital peers.

Filed under: Science

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Via: ExtremeTech

Source: MIT

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Archos intros Xenon 80 8-inch tablet, delivers Jelly Bean and 3G for $200

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/archos-xenon-80/

Just in case that recently announced ChefPad wasn't suited to your tastes, Archos is now introducing a smaller, not-so-kitchen-friendly Android tablet, the Xenon 80. Naturally, the main highlight of this 8-inch slate is that it boasts 3G capabilities, and the company's quick to point out it's SIM-unlocked. Archos also endowed the Xenon 80 with some decent specs, including a vanilla flavor of Google's Jelly Bean, an unnamed Qualcomm quad-core CPU, a 1,024 x 768 IPS display and 4GB of internal storage (expandable to 64GB by way of a microSD slot). And as with other recent Archos tablets, the Xenon 80 carries the proper Google Play credentials, making it easy for you to have access to all your favorite apps. It'll cost a mere $200 when it hits shelves in June, which is on par with competing offerings. Now, whether it's worth taking the plunge, well, you'll have to make that call for yourself.

Gallery: Archos 80 Xenon press shots

Filed under: Tablets

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Source: Archos

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HOUSE OF THE DAY: An Octagonal Penthouse In New York City Is Back On The Market For $100 Million

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/klar-penthouse-relisted-at-cityspire-2013-5

One of the most impressive properties in Manhattan — an 8,000-square-foot penthouse condominium in the CitySpire building on West 56th Street — has returned to market for $100 million, The Real Deal reports.

Owner Steven Klar, president of Long Island real estate developer The Klar Organization, first listed the blockbuster with a broker apartment last July.

But he pulled the listing after about six months when it failed to sell. It just reappeared on StreetEasy, and it looks like Klar is acting as his own broker, The Real Deal notes.

The penthouse is octagon-shaped and has six bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

Klar purchased the apartment in 1993 for $4.5 million as "raw space." It now spans three floors, and includes a separate guest apartment one floor below.

The entryway is reminiscent of Versailles.

Famed architect Juan Pablo Molyneux designed the apartment.

The home has an eat-in chef's kitchen with adjacent butler's pantry.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Lego Mindstorms EV3 intros three new models, ready for summer tour (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/lego-mindstorms-ev3-new-models/

When Lego introduced the Mindstorms EV3 earlier this year, it bundled building instructions for five "hero" models, several of which can be seen in our CES hands-on. But that complex kit of sensors, modules and bricks lends itself to endless possibilities, and Lego community members have come up with 12 more designs, three of which were unveiled today. These include a dinosaur, a guitar and a whack-a-mole-style arcade game.

From our brief hands-on, all three models seem worthy additions to the original lineup. We enjoyed the sauntering steps of the mini triceratops and the way it snaps and backs off from obstacles, the fun bloops and bleeps of the guitar, and delighted in the sheer satisfaction of bopping a popped "mole." The latter two, particularly, are decidedly whimsical implementations compared to the usual ambling robot -- and we can't wait for Lego reveal the rest of the bonus models later this year.

Filed under: Robots

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Google and NASA team up for D-Wave-powered Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/google-nasa-quantum-computing/

Google. NASA. Quantum computers. Seriously, everything about the new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at the Ames Research Center is exciting. The joint effort between Mountain View and America's space agency will put a 512 qubit machine from D-Wave at the disposal of researchers from around the globe, with the USRA (Universities Space Research Association) inviting teams of scientists and engineers to share time on the unique super computer. The goal is to study how quantum computing might be leveraged to advance machine learning, a branch of AI that has proven crucial to Google's success. The internet giant has already done some work with quantum computing before, now the goal is to see if its experimentation can translate into real world results. The idea, for Google at least, is to combine the extreme (but highly-specialized) power of the quantum bit with its oceans of traditional data centers to build more accurate models for everything from speech recognition to web search. And maybe, just maybe, with the help of quantum computers your phone will finally realize you didn't mean to say "duck."

Filed under: Misc, Alt, Google

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Via: New York Times

Source: Google Research Blog

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NHK has a theoretical fix for OLED's theoretical longevity problem

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/nhk-ioled/

Japan's National Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, reckons OLED displays don't last long enough. And they have a point, because OLED pixels that are exposed to the air can lose half of their brightness in just 100 days. Commercial products are of course protected from the elements, but they're not perfect. This is where iOLED comes in. NHK inverts the anode and cathode layers in traditional OLED configurations, hence the added "i", and then adds an additional protective coating above the cathode. The result is a display that retains its brightness even when not fully sealed from the environment. Hopefully, this sort of solution will make its way into OLED TVs by the time OLED TVs are actually affordable, but in the meantime we're expecting to hear more about NHK's technology (and maybe see it in action) at Display Week later this month.

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Source: NHK

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ASUS Transformer Book hybrid PC gets May 21st release date

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/asus-transformer-book-may-21st-release-date/

Remember ASUS' Transformer Books? All is forgiven if you don't, as we're already approaching the one-year anniversary of when they were first revealed at Computex in Taipei. You'll get your choice of Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, and the ability to detach and use the device as a standalone 13.3-inch tablet when the devices finally arrive in the US next week. Sure, Japanese buyers might have picked one up first, but interested hybrid PC shoppers should mark May 21st into their diaries. No official word on pricing, but preorder pages from MacMall earlier this year had the Core i7 model pegged at a hefty $1,479.99.

Filed under: Laptops, ASUS

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Source: ASUS US (Facebook)

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