Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, June 01, 2009

http://ping.fm/LcdOh - does the Bing logo look TOO familiar to anyone else?

microsoft bing seems to work, but … - http://ping.fm/j83GP

DuPont crafts ultra longevous OLED materials, which likely won't be affordable

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/31/dupont-crafts-ultra-longevous-oled-materials-which-likely-wont/

DuPont's been dabbling in OLED advancement for years now, and while the world waits for the introduction of market-ready big-screen OLED HDTVs, engineers at the miracle-working company are toiling away to make sure those very sets last quite some time. For anyone following the OLED TV scene, you'll know that luminance longevity has been a nagging issue, but if new developments pan out, stamina will be the least of our worries. In fact, the firm has crafted a green light-emitting material that can purportedly push onward for over a hundred years... continuously. Furthermore, the same scientists have engineered a new blue light-emitting material with a luminance half-life of 38,000 hours along with a red light-emitting material with a life of 62,000 hours. Unfortunately for the laypeople out there, we can't imagine this stuff being even marginally affordable -- but hey, it's great news for the sybarites!

Filed under: Displays

DuPont crafts ultra longevous OLED materials, which likely won't be affordable originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 07:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IDT to swap solar cells into LCDs, but not for energy reasons

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/31/idt-to-swap-solar-cells-into-lcds-but-not-for-energy-reasons/

Solar-powered LCDs? Oh, yeah -- we've got those. Sadly, that's not at all what Integrated Digital Technologies is aiming to improve upon next week at Computex, though we still find its approach to trimming LCD weight and manufacturing costs an interesting one. If we're digesting this correctly, we're hearing that the outfit plans to create interactive displays (or iScreens) that have embedded solar cells in the TFT array rather than extra film or glass with photo sensors. The result? A cost savings of up to 30 percent in manufacturing, not to mention a rather significant decrease in weight. Without any images to go by, it's still a wee bit tough to really wrap our heads around this new take, but hopefully we'll see more next week in Taiwan.

[Via TG Daily]

Filed under: Displays

IDT to swap solar cells into LCDs, but not for energy reasons originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 09:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Olidata Conte ultraportable finally shows itself, looks mighty good

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/31/olidata-conte-ultraportable-finally-shows-itself-looks-mighty-g/

My, my Olidata -- why on Earth have you been depriving our wandering eyes from this beauty for so long? After being originally introduced at CES, we've heard precisely nothing since... until now, obviously. At long last, the striking Conte ultraportable has found its way outside of the lab over in Italy, sporting an ultrathin frame, chiclet-style keyboard, a bezel that's a bit too wide for our tastes, an HDMI output and a price tag starting at just €799 ($1,129). From what we can gather, a few versions of the machine will be available, one of which sports an SU2700 CPU, 13.3-inch LED-backlit display, a 120GB hard drive, 3GB of RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi and a multi-touch trackpad. Another variant is slated to include a Core Solo SU3500 CPU and a 120GB HDD, while yet another gets a Core 2 Duo SL9400 and a 128GB SSD. Peek the read link for a few more looks, including one of the most bizarre advertisements we've ever seen for a mere laptop.

[Thanks, Andrea]

Filed under: Laptops

Olidata Conte ultraportable finally shows itself, looks mighty good originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 11:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft showing off Windows 7-powered Viliv S5 MID at Computex

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/31/microsoft-showing-off-windows-7-powered-viliv-s5-mid-at-computex/

Being that Release Candidate 1 just hit the tubes, we weren't really expecting a big Windows 7 presence at Computex this year. Much to our surprise, Viliv has announced that it will be showcasing the first official Win7-powered MID at the Taiwan-based show later this week. The heralded S5 will be the lucky device, with a duo of WiMAX-equipped cousins (X70 EX and S7) hanging around to demonstrate live video streaming. Needless to say, we'll be doing everything we can to drop by and see how things are going.

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Handhelds

Microsoft showing off Windows 7-powered Viliv S5 MID at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ultra-powerful laser could make incandescent light bulbs more efficient

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/31/ultra-powerful-laser-could-make-incandescent-light-bulbs-more-ef/

Look, LED light bulbs are fanciful, great for Ma Earth and a fine addition to any home, barber shop or underground fight club. But let's be honest -- even the guy that bikes through blizzards to get to work and wears garb that he grew in his basement isn't apt to shell out $120 a pop to have what's likely the most efficient light bulb American dollars can buy. Enter Chunlei Guo from the University of Rochester, who has helped discover a process which could morph a traditional incandescent light bulb into a beacon of burning light without using nearly as much energy as before. In fact, his usage of the femtosecond laser pulse -- which creates a "unique array of nano- and micro-scale structures on the surface of a regular tungsten filament" -- could enable a bulb to increase output efficiency in order to emit 100-watts worth of light while sucking down less than 60-watts of power. Per usual, there's no telling when this new hotness is likely to hit the commercial realm, but one's thing for sure: we bet GE's paying attention.

[Via Physorg]

Filed under: Household

Ultra-powerful laser could make incandescent light bulbs more efficient originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 16:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qualcomm's 1.3GHz QSD8650A Snapdragon chipset is 30% stronger, uses 30% less power

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/qualcomms-1-3ghz-qsd8650a-snapdragon-chipset-is-30-stronger/

Toshiba's TG01 made us quick fans of the 1GH Snapdragon processor. Now we hear that Qualcomm will have its 1.3GHz QSD8650A chipset on the market for sampling before the end of 2009 -- that means new smartphone and smartbooks (get used to it netbook fans) in 2010 running 30% faster while using 30% less power (and just 10 milliwatts in standby) thanks to the use of reduced 45-nm manufacturing processes. The new chipset supports multi-mode UMTS and CDMA 3G connectivity in the same 15 x 15-mm package as well as featuring enhanced 2D acceleration and 3D graphics core, integrated GPS, high-def video recording and playback, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, and support for WXGA (1280x800 pixels) displays pumping out your choice of MediaFLO, DVBH, or ISDB-T digital mobile television. The new chipset makes for a snug fit right in between the existing 1GHz QSD8x50 chipset and Qualcomm's dual-CPU 45-nm QSD8672 chipset running up to 1.5 GHz. After seeing the TG01 in action, you'd better believe that we'll be hunting down all the Snapdragon devices we can find at Computex this week.

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Qualcomm's 1.3GHz QSD8650A Snapdragon chipset is 30% stronger, uses 30% less power originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's Pixon 12: a dozen megapixels of cameraphone nonsense in June

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/samsungs-pixon-12-a-dozen-megapixels-of-cameraphone-nonsense-i/

After failing to show at the Mobile World Congress event in February, Samsung's rumored 12 megapixel cameraphone has finally arrived. Meet the Pixon 12 and its 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a Sammy promise of fast shutter speeds and quick browsing. As a camera, the Pixon 12 (M8910) brings a dedicated shutter button, touch auto-focus (wherever you touch becomes the focal point) that locks in to track moving subjects, Smart Auto mode that adjusts to conditions, and a 28-mm wide angle lens. The unit also saves images relatively quickly (for a cameraphone) so that you can fire off the next shot within 2 seconds. Just remember, more megapixels do not make for better photos especially when jammed tightly into a sensor small enough for a cellphone. And 12 megapixels translates to files ranging from 2MB to 18MB and beyond depending on the compression used (Samsung doesn't say). So ask yourself: is it really worth the storage space and the associated delays when uploading images to Samsung's Share Pix service (with Facebook, Picasa, Flickr integration) over the Pixon 12's built-in WiFi and HSUPA data? No rush, you've got time to decide -- Pixon 12 will be hitting Europe in late June, other regions sometime in August. One more pic after the break.

Update: Full specs just came in: 150MB of on-board storage (up to 16GB MicroSD expansion); quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, HSPA 900/2100MHz; Xenon + Power LED flash; 720 x 480 pixel videos at 30fps; internal GPS, and FM radio with RDS.

Continue reading Samsung's Pixon 12: a dozen megapixels of cameraphone nonsense in June

Filed under: Cellpho nes, Digital Cameras

Samsung's Pixon 12: a dozen megapixels of cameraphone nonsense in June originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's WVGA AMOLED: 800x400 pixels and swine-flu immune

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/samsungs-wvga-amoled-800x400-pixels-and-swine-flu-immune/

There it is, the display that wil undoubtedly find its way into your future high-end smartphone. You're looking at Samsung's newest AMOLED display now pushing 300 pixels per inch scattered across a 800 x 480 (WVGA) panel with improved brightness. That's a damn fine display when you consider how brilliant typical 400 x 240 OLED displays are including that of the 480 x 272 pixel stunner found on the Zune HD. Sorry, no word on when these will go mass production but it's gotta be soon, right? Right!

Samsung's WVGA AMOLED: 800x400 pixels and swine-flu immune originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

MSI X340 Review: The Unemployed Man's MacBook Air [Laptops]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/EEu-PHFFtRc/msi-x340-review-the-unemployed-mans-macbook-air

It's impossible not to be at least a little impressed with the MacBook Air, but who can spend almost $2,000 on that laptop? The solution? The MSI X340, a $900 MacBook Air. And it's a great idea...in theory...

First, let's focus on what the X340 gets right. It's a 13-inch (16x9, 1366x768) laptop that weighs just 2.86 pounds with its 4-cell battery. It measures .78 inches at its thickest point and .24 inches at its thinnest. (The MacBook Air measures but .76 inches at its thickest point and .16 at its thinnest.) In real life application, the X340 seems a tad bulkier than specs might reveal because the tapering isn't as dramatic as the Air's. But it's still thin.

The 1.4GHz Core2 Solo processor is quite a bit faster than your average Atom, and its HDMI I/O port and draft n Wi-Fi are a welcome addition to such a tiny machine.

OK, now for the bad stuff.

The keyboard feels dreadful. Not only are the keys...mushy...the center of the keyboard literally bends while you type. It's frightening to watch and extremely disconcerting as you wonder if they next keypress will greet your fingertips with a charged circuit board.

As for the remainder of the machine, it doesn't feel much better. The only way to describe the plastic body is "cheap." Not only does the glossy black finish reveal a strange, flecked iridescence under light, tap on the palm wrests with! your kn uckle and something about the hollowness of the pitch assures you that it could easily crack under a moderate amount of pressure.
Molding the trackpad into the case...that was a bad idea. The surface simply doesn't feel lacquered as a working trackpad. Literally, it feels unfinished, like someone on the assembly line went on break instead of gluing on the proper touch sensitive rectangle.

When you hold the Air, it's an incredible sensation not just because of its size but because of how sturdy it feels at its size. The X340 misses the pleasure of this dichotomy and gives us what I'm willing to wager is the most fragile laptop I've ever put my hands on.

Performance
Believe it or not, while the X340 is burdened by Vista's heavy footprint, it's quite usable. General navigation seems infinitely faster than running Vista on a true netbook, like the Dell Mini 12. The benchmarks support the fairly fluid experience of the OS.
The X340 is clearly closer to a netbook than the MBA in performance, but that performance gap between netbook and X340 is definitely noticeable in your general day to day experience of loading apps.

The X340's graphics chip is the Intel GMA X4500MDH. All you really need to know is that this architecture is nowhere near as good as NVIDIA's 9 series stuff, like the 9400M. And it's not powerful enough for heavy gaming (the 9400M is already scraping the barrel pretty hard). You can see the two platforms side by side here:

Sti! ll, MSI claims that the system can handle smooth 1080P playback. Can it? In a word, no. Neither HD web content (like Vimeo) nor 1080P MPEG4 played back smoothly on the system. The Blu-ray quality MPEG4 probably never broke 15fps.

In reality, the X340 performs up to most of my expectations (since I never believed it could handle 1080P clips anyway). Just don't expect it to be some sort of dream multimedia machine. In that regard, the X340 is like a netbook on steroids—fine for general use, just not juiced up enough to handle the next tier of graphics-intensive operations.

The battery lasted 1 hour, 43 minutes - ouch*
You could probably stretch the life beyond two hours with a few tweaks, like gimping the processor or squinting at the screen, but if you're planning on watching a movie during your next flight, it'd better be from the 90-minute Pauly Shore Archives.
*MPEG 4 playback, Wi-Fi on, screen at full brightness, "balanced" performance. You can purchase an 8-cell battery that should hit 3 hours for a bit more weight

The Sad Conclusion
I should be thrilled with the X340. It's lighter than many netbooks that have smaller screens. While not as tailored as the MacBook Air, hey, it's damn close. It also runs Vista at a reasonable speed.

The problem is, I just can't look at this machine, as thin and light as it may be, and feel good about dropping nearly $1000 to make one mine. If the X340 were much cheaper (unlikely) or sturdier (quite feasible), there's a good chance I'd be thrilled in this review. I just can't imagine showing this machine off to a friend, or getting extreme satisfaction when pulling it out of a bag. And if I've lost those attributes, I might as well settle for a somewhat thin full-blown laptop for less money, or a very light netbook for even les! s money.

But if you're looking purely for the lightest way to fit a 13-inch screen into your bag that's waaayyyy cheaper than the Air, and you only want to use a computer for 1 hour and 34 minutes at a time, then I'm not stopping you.

Extremely light and thin form

Runs Vista adequately

Short battery life

Weak for multimedia applications

Unreasonably poor build quality

[Additional research from Geekbench]

Video: HTC Hero with 'rosie' Android UI leaked?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/29/video-htc-hero-promotional-video-leaked/

After making a brief appearance on YouTube this morning, what seems to be a promotional video for the HTC Hero has been resurrected courtesy of Android Community. Not only do we see Hero in 7 different colors, but we get another glimpse at HTC's purported "rosie" Android UI already seen in that supposed tutorial video a few weeks back. So sit back and click on through, don't cost nothin' but 89 seconds that you were just going to dither away anyway.

Continue reading Video: HTC Hero with 'rosie' Android UI leaked?

Filed under: Cellphones

Video: HTC Hero with 'rosie' Android UI leaked? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 08:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pixel Qi demonstrates 3qi display, merges e-ink with LCD

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/29/pixel-qi-demonstrates-three-mode-3qi-display-merges-e-ink-with/

Pixel Qi demonstrates three-mode display set to merge e-ink with LCD

We knew Pixel Qi was up to something when it pledged to give us a cheap laptop that could last 40 hours on a charge. Now we can finally see what, with the OLPC spin-off releasing some images of a prototype screen called 3qi that looks like it can combine the best of e-ink and traditional LCD displays -- prototypes that will be shown in the flesh at Computex next week. The screen can work as a traditional backlit LCD when indoors, can have that backlight disabled to be perfectly visible outdoors (shown after the break), and, as its pièce de résistance, can be toggled into an energy-efficient "epaper" mode. How exactly the company is fitting these seemingly disparate slices of technology into a single 10.1-inch screen is something of a mystery, but we're guessing much will be answered next week ahead of a planned product launch by the end of the year. Color us intrigued.

[Via PC World]

Continue reading Pixel Qi demonstrates 3qi display, merges e-ink with LCD

Filed under: Displays, Laptops

Pixel Qi demonstrates 3qi display, merges e-ink with LCD originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 08:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GigaPan Epic 100 hands-on and review, panorama style

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/29/gigapan-epic-100-hands-on-and-review-panorama-style/

You're already well aware of what GigaPan's wild camera robot is capable of when its in masterly hands, but have you ever wondered if such a device is practical for folks who don't have excellent seats for events such as Presidential inaugurations or the Arirang Mass Games? We've been toying around with an Epic 100 for the past week and change, and now that we've had a moment to upload a few of our own panoramas, we figured we'd toss our two pennies into the ring. Eager to know if this gigapixel image creator is really worth its avoirdupois in cold, hard cash? Head on past the break to find out.

Gallery: GigaPen Epic 100 hands-on

Continue reading GigaPan Epic 100 hands-on and review, panorama style

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Peripherals

GigaPan Epic 100 hands-on and review, panorama style originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Foxconn shows off Moblin-running SZ901 netbook

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/29/foxconn-shows-off-moblin-running-sz901-netbook/

Well, it wasn't too hard to see this trend coming, but it looks like Foxconn is among the first out of the gate with a Moblin-running netbook at Computex Taipei, with its new SZ901 model opting for Linpus' just-revealed distribution of the OS. As you might expect, however, there aren't exactly many surprises beyond that welcome addition, with the 10.1-inch netbook packing the usual Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and built-in 3G, along with a glossy finish all around. No word on a price or release date just yet, but this is Foxconn after all, so there's a good chance this one could be showing up under any number of different brands. Head on past the break for a quick hands-on courtesy of the folks at Netbooknews.de.

Continue reading Foxconn shows off Moblin-running SZ901 netbook

Filed under: Laptops

Foxconn shows off Moblin-running SZ901 netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, June 01, 2009

DuPont crafts ultra longevous OLED materials, which likely won't be affordable

IDT to swap solar cells into LCDs, but not for energy reasons

Olidata Conte ultraportable finally shows itself, looks mighty good

Microsoft showing off Windows 7-powered Viliv S5 MID at Computex

Ultra-powerful laser could make incandescent light bulbs more efficient

Qualcomm's 1.3GHz QSD8650A Snapdragon chipset is 30% stronger, uses 30% less power

Samsung's Pixon 12: a dozen megapixels of cameraphone nonsense in June

Samsung's WVGA AMOLED: 800x400 pixels and swine-flu immune

Saturday, May 30, 2009

MSI X340 Review: The Unemployed Man's MacBook Air [Laptops]

Video: HTC Hero with 'rosie' Android UI leaked?

Pixel Qi demonstrates 3qi display, merges e-ink with LCD

GigaPan Epic 100 hands-on and review, panorama style

Foxconn shows off Moblin-running SZ901 netbook

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