Category: Displays

OLPC to use Pixel Qi 3Qi screens

Posted by Charbax – March 30, 2010
Category: Displays, Pixel Qi, OLPC

Image representing PixelQi as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

A cross-licencing deal between the One Laptop Per Child non-profit and Pixel Qi has been announced in this press release:

As a result of the agreement, OLPC receives full license to all Pixel Qi “3qi” screen technology, including 70+ patents in process and all current and future IP developed by Pixel Qi for multi-mode screens. Pixel Qi is leading the design of new screens for OLPC’s next-generation XO laptops.

“A huge barrier to getting computers to mass use in the developing world is limited access to electricity. Pixel Qi is designing new screens for OLPC that will keep laptops going even longer between recharges and excel in long-form reading while providing color and video,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child.

Mary Lou Jepsen, founder and CEO of Pixel Qi, added, “OLPC’s focus on the need for low-cost, low-power devices led me to invent power-efficient LCD screens that are optimized for reading. Commercial tablets, notebook computers and smart phones have precisely the same needs. This is one of the few examples in which cutting-edge computer technology first deployed for developing nations benefits the developed world as well.”

A few questions I would have about this awesome partnership:

1. Will a version of XO 1.5 come with the 10″ 3Qi screen in the same form factor design?

2. If 3Qi only comes to OLPC starting with the ARM Powered XO 1.75, will it come in the 10″ size or will they cut a smaller 7.5″ version of it? My guess is to keep the costs low, they will pick the mass produced 10″ size there, and fit it inside of the same design just removing most of the screen bezel.

3. I can’t wait to learn what power consumption the XO 1.75 and XO 3.0 can run at using the Pixel Qi screen. Does it now run 50 hours on a battery? How much better are ARM Powered laptops like the XO 1.75 and ARM Powered tablets like the XO 3.0 at implementing the DCON processor process where the main processor can turn itself off completely when not in use?

4. Can anyone confirm that we will soon see Pixel Qi in the Marvell Moby Tablet project? Thus sooner see some implementation of tablets for education leading to the full release of the XO 3.0 tablet.

Look perhaps for some answers at Mary-Lou Jepsen’s blog. Watch again some of my many Pixel Qi videos:
I’m testing it outdoors at CES
Interviewing Mary-Lou Jepsen about Pixel Qi’s status at CES
Demonstrating the Notion Ink Android tablet that uses Pixel Qi
Comparing Pixel Qi with Toshiba’s transflective screen and the Kindle’s e-ink
Filming in Mary-Lou Jepsen’s home lab
Interviewing Mary-Lou Jepsen at Computex 2009
Introducing the Pixel Qi screen at Computex 2009

This press release was found via: slashgear.com

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Samsung Galaxy S, 4″ Super AMOLED Android phone

Posted by Charbax – March 23, 2010
Category: Smartphones, Displays, Samsung, Android

I filmed some Super AMOLED videos last month at the Mobile World Congress:
http://138.2.152.197/2010/02/17/samsung-beam-android-phone-projector-at-mobile-world-congress-2010/
http://138.2.152.197/2010/02/15/samsung-super-amoled-screen-technology/

Super AMOLED is spectacular, that’s for sure. Blacks are incredibly black and vivid colors and brightness is super. The Super AMOLED is officially 20% birghter and reflects 80% less light than the first generation AMOLED screens, it removes some kind of layer that was covering the screen so devices can be thinner and the angle of vision is incredible.

Yet, my question is how much more does Super AMOLED cost compared to LCD, especially at sizes larger than 4″ in diagonal. I guess this is a matter of Samsung having invested huge amounts of billions of dollars into developing the AMOLED technology, that they have to try to mass manufacture those screens in quantities of millions for them to get down in cost. I wonder though, what is the difference in cost between AMOLED and LCD in those screen sizes? Anyone who knows the bill of material, please post in the comments.

I probably don’t really like Samsung’s attempt at making a different UI layer on top of Android which they call “S Life UI”. With the bit that I played with it on the Samsung Beam, I would probably prefer to disable that and somehow enable a normal standard Google Experience user interface.

This video was released at: IntoMobile.com

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

IDTI $300 21,5″ 1080p Touch Screen

Posted by Charbax – March 17, 2010
Category: Tablets, Displays, Exclusive videos, CeBIT

IDTI, which I filmed their early prototypes at last year’s Computex, is now showing this finalized implementation of their technology in this touch screen product which is a 21,5″ 1080p screen that integrates their specific stylus based touch screen technology. IDTI’s touch screen technology claims to provide same visibility as capacitive screens but for a price closer to resistive screens, though it only works using their stylus.

Liquavista sunlight readable color e-reader displays

Posted by Charbax – March 5, 2010
Category: Displays, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, MWC

Liquavista is demonstrating a new type of screen technology which could provide very low power black and white and color screens based on the LCD manufacturing process, though where the screen refresh rates can be automatically turned down below 1hz. Together with Pixel Qi http://138.2.152.197/2010/01/08/charbax-tests-pixel-qi-at-ces-2010/ or as an alternative, this type of LCD screen technology will enable all Tablets and Laptops to also become full e-readers and could in theory have 50-100 hours battery runtime or longer.

Aiptek 3D camera and 3D screen

Posted by Charbax – March 2, 2010
Category: Displays, Cameras, Exclusive videos, CeBIT

Aiptek is showing probably one of the cheapest 3D camcorders on the market so far. It films 3D at VGA resolution, to then watch on any TV using polarized auto-shutter 3D glasses (or however they are called).

NewGadgets.de: Qualcomm Mirasol display demonstration

Posted by Charbax – February 23, 2010
Category: Displays, Qualcomm, MWC

A new reflective display technology by Qualcomm, filmed by newgadgets.de:

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Motorola Head-mounted Computer Gen.2 Kopin Golden-i

Posted by Charbax – February 22, 2010
Category: Displays, Wearables, Smart Glass, Other, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, MWC, Kopin, Windows

Imagine walking around with a head-mounted 15″ display to view informations available to you at all times. This system features a pretty cool six-axis position tracker from Hillcrest Labs that allows you to operate a cursor with nearly pixel-for-pixel accuracy by just moving around your head when for example panning around a large image or a map. There is a highly targetted microphone that understands voice-commands where you can for example zoom in on maps or images, you can exit back to the programs menu, launch specific applications and open specific files.

Here are the specs of this Second Generation Kopin Golden-i Motorola-branded Head-mounted Computer system:

Processor — TI OMAP3530 clocked at 600MHz
Display — Kopin SVGA (800 x 600) liquid crystal micro display (LCD)
Networking:
Bluetooth 2.0
WiFi — “Will be offered soon”
User interface — Includes speech recognition and motion sensing
Other I/O — 1 x USB
Expansion — microSD slot
Power — 1200 mAh battery provides more than eight hours of operation
Weight — 3 oz (85g)
Operating system — Windows CE

More coverage of this device from Mobile World Congress:
http://www.buzzcritic.com/gadgets/kopin-golden-i-wearable-pc-hands-on-video
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/motorola-golden-i-virtual-display-for-outdoor-types/

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Samsung Super AMOLED screen technology

Posted by Charbax – February 15, 2010
Category: Displays, Exclusive videos, MWC

Interview with a Samsung Super AMOLED representative at the Mobile World Congress 2010, explaining why Super AMOLED is better than first generation AMOLED by Samsung. Samsung is probably the first to mass manufacture AMOLED screens.

Freescale at CES 2010

Posted by Charbax – January 9, 2010
Category: Tablets, Laptops, E-readers, Displays, PMPs, Exclusive videos, Freescale, CES, Android, Ubuntu

Steve Sperle, head of Consumer Segment Marketing at Freescale, shows us an overview of the product demonstrated at their Suite several new tablet, e-reader, laptops, smartbooks and interactive display implementations of their i.MX515 ARM based processor technology.

Freescale powered Smartbooks at CES 2010

Posted by Charbax – January 9, 2010
Category: Laptops, Displays, Exclusive videos, Freescale, CES, Ubuntu

Freescale is powering a new Smartbook design by Wistron running Canonical’s Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Sharp runs a Freescale processor in the Sharp PC-Z1 and Acer is launching the DisplayPlus D241H 24-inch smart monitor.

Charbax tests Pixel Qi at CES 2010

Posted by Charbax – January 8, 2010
Category: Tablets, Laptops, E-readers, Displays, Exclusive videos, CES, Pixel Qi

I am testing the latest production ready Pixel Qi screen outdoors by the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. It is the technology that will combine Laptops with Tablets and Ereaders.

Click on the images for the full sizes available at Picasa (please link back here if you use them):

Pixel Qi CES 2010
Pixel Qi CES 2010 Pixel Qi CES 2010 Pixel Qi CES 2010

Notion Ink Pixel Qi tablet with Nvidia Tegra2 processor

Posted by Charbax – January 8, 2010
Category: Tablets, Displays, Exclusive videos, Nvidia, CES, Pixel Qi, Android

Notion Ink is the first example of awesome Pixel Qi screen integration in ARM Powered devices. This is the first example of the huge revolution that comes with ARM Cortex A9 Power and a Pixel Qi display. This is awesome.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Chumby powers the Sony Dash (interview with Chumby)

Posted by Charbax – January 8, 2010
Category: Tablets, Displays, Exclusive videos, CES

Interview with Steve Tomlin of Chumby about how they have worked with Sony to make the Sony Dash. Chumby has been making Flash based widget systems for embedded Linux powered small screen tablet devices that are not meant to be put in the pocket but that are meant for the home. On your office desk, in the kitchen, in the living room, you can activate any among thousands of widgets that automatically scroll informations, videos, audio from the Internet. You can use it to wake up to music from Last.fm, Pandora, with videos from Youtube, RSS feeds, your latest Facebook comments, IM, it can alert you when you get new emails and more.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Sony Dash at CES 2010

Posted by Charbax – January 7, 2010
Category: Tablets, Displays, Exclusive videos, CES

This was probably one of the most interesting announcements at the Sony CES press conference. It has a pretty nice 7″ capacitative touch screen, USB host and $199 is an okay price! I’d really like clever USB accessories such as somehow a detector in a pillow and have the Dash wake you up at the end of your sleep cycles instead of in the middle, wake you up with the most relevant informations from your email, IM, social networks, RSS feeds and using videos from Youtube or music from Last.fm or Pandora.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Nvidia Tegra Powered Android Tablet uses Pixel Qi screen!

Posted by Charbax – December 18, 2009
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Displays, Nvidia, Archos, Pixel Qi, Android

Here is the worlds first announcement of a Tablet with the revolutionary Pixel Qi screen (that I filmed at Computex 1, 2, 3, 4), on top of that as a 10.1″ touch screen tablet, using the NVIDIA Tegra T20 chipset supporting 1080p Full HD video, with WiFi, Bluetooth, HSDPA, in a 1.5cm thickness and 771 grams. Notion Ink will show this cool looking ARM Powered tablet at CES, I will try to film hands on video there. This ARM Powered tablet form factor with Pixel Qi screen, as well as the swivel tablet Laptop form factor, is the form factor that I think will revolutionize the Laptop, Tablet and E-reader industry and I really look forward to seeing these demonstrated for the first time at CES from January 7th to 10th, look forward to my full video coverage here on http://138.2.152.197

Nvidia Tegra powered with Pixel Qi Notion Ink Tablet

Source: slashgear.com

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

The Google Phone, guessing on the price and a possible picture

Posted by Charbax – December 13, 2009
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, Displays, Opinions, Qualcomm, Archos, Google, Android

This may be a picture of the Google Phone:

Google Phone Nexus One

From rumors on Techcrunch, this may be a pre-paid only $100 device, for WiFi and pre-paid 3G Voice over IP usage such as on Google Voice. Exactly the revolutionary business model that I have been talking about for a while. My guess on the Google Phone price, or what I think it should cost is following:

$100 for the 3.7″ high density WVGA Google Phone Nexus One
$150 for the 4.8″ medium density Google Tablet Nexus XL

All should come based on ARM Cortex A8 processors, probably OLED capacitative on Nexus One and LCD resistive on the Nexus XL. My suggestion is basically that the Nexus XL may be similar to my favorite consumer electronics device the Archos 5 Internet Tablet which I talk about in countless videos: http://138.2.152.197/?s=archos and on my other site: http://archosfans.com

The most important factor here would be if the rumors are true and if my guessing is right, that the Google Phone and Tablet will be the first pre-paid Android phone and tablet. Affordable, my guessing also may even make it so that Google may not only sell it through all retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Wal Mart, Media Markt, Aldi and such, but that one may even be able to buy it on google’s own website and based on how active one has been on Google over the past few years, Google may even subsidize the purchase price of the phone or tablet. That is, cause Google can know it will more likely make more money on mobile ads from users who use Google services a lot. This way, look forward to Google Phone at $50, Google Tablet for $100 and even the Google Laptop/Tablet/E-reader at $150.

Some times, I think that it does take a big giant technology company like Google to really invest not only in the platform, not only in software, but also dedicate teams of hardware engineers into actually releasing own branded hardware on the market and push the boundaries in terms of business models to apply to the distribution of such technology. To push things forward faster, Google needs to make hardware.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

FaceVsion HD Video Conferencing solution

Posted by Charbax – September 5, 2009
Category: Laptops, Displays, Cameras, Exclusive videos, IFA

FaceVsion of Taiwan now has added HDMI-input and Full HD 1920×1080 HD video-conferencing in the new FVexpress Pro card, as well as they still have the FVexpress combo with a new higher quality HD webcam included and a mini-PCI module that can be integrated in certain compatible netbooks (when the Express Card slot is not present on the netbooks) to integrate their HD video-conferencing directly into the netbooks.

What this technology from FaceVsion does is that it integrates HD H264 encoding and decoding into their express card device, or into their mini-PCI module, for netbook/laptop manufacturers to integrate or for end-consumers to buy as an express card solution or as a mini-PCI module to install inside of the netbook or laptop.

FaceVsion’s Qulive software automatically adapts the upload and download bitrates to and from each party according to the stable and reliable bandwidth that is available, it also support SIP to SIP connections and even IP to IP direct connections, thus it could be perfectly suitable for implementation at the Enterprise, for large, medium or small businesses. But also, especially, for just $119, this FaceVsion HD video-conferencing solution could easilly reach end consumers in masse if they manage to offer the right combination of product and value proposition.

Imagine sitting in your living room with a HD camcorder or cheaper HD webcam on your HDTV, and the same for your grand parents wherever in the world they live, simply sit back and have a real-time HD quality discussion in each of your sofa’s, the siye of a 42″ HDTV making it look like you are nearly sitting in the same room!

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Chumby

Posted by Charbax – June 7, 2009
Category: Displays, Other, Exclusive videos, Marvell, Computex

idti touchscreens

Posted by Charbax – June 7, 2009
Category: Displays, Exclusive videos, Computex

Pixel Qi vs Kindle vs Toshiba R600 vs regular LCD tablet

Posted by Charbax – June 7, 2009
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, E-readers, Displays, Exclusive videos, Computex, Pixel Qi

Side by side comparison video showing the Pixel Qi 3Qi LCD screen next to the E-ink based Amazon Kindle, next to the transflective Toshiba R600 and next to a regular resistive touchscreen tablet laptop. Comparing performance in direct sunlight, in the shade and in a dark room with and without the backlight.