Photo: Samsung / Flickr

Samsung on Thursday announced that it acquired Liquavista, a Dutch display firm that specialises in e-ink technology, as the company looks to make a move into the e-reader market. Samsung LCD displays are the most used in the world at present, and the company is clearly looking to expand its portfolio with the Liquavista acquisition.

Expanding the reach

The Eindhoven-based firm, which was spun out of the Philips Research Labs was acquired for an undisclosed price, reports Reuters.

What does Liquavista do?

Liquavista makes what’s called electrowetting, a new electronic display technology being used in e-readers, media players, and mobile phones. Samsung says that a massive advantage of this tech is that it purportedly consumes only 10 per cent of the battery power present electronic displays consume.

In a statement released speaking on the acquisition, Samsung says: ‘As electrowetting can be manufactured by modifying LCD production lines, Samsung will be able to realize significant synergies through the utilization of existing manufacturing equipment and capabilities.’ Basically, the company wants to apply this tech to as many Samsung LCD displays as possible, while ramping up production volume.

Moving in for the kill

Samsung is making major moves in reinforcing its competitive advantage in the display technology stakes. The company will look to adapt this technology to its present day LCD business, where it is seeing major success with smartphones and tablet PCs.

However it’s also a massive opportunity for the company to make significant strides in the e-reader market, where Samsung has little presence. The advantage the Korean firm has, in that it makes end use products as well as components, is that the Liquavista acquisition could prove an opportunity to start making its own e-readers, or a way to get a piece of the action by making the displays for e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and Sony’s offering.

It likely won’t be too long before Samsung LCD displays with electrowetting make an appearance.

Photo: Schodts / Flickr

Taiwanese company Hon Hai Precision Industry co, a major LCD manufacturer, is to buy a majority stake in a Hitachi-owned display unit, splashing an impressive $1.2 billion for the privilege. While the money spent is no doubt very impressive, it’s the implications of the transaction that are significant – this acquisition will make Hon Hai Precision the number one maker of small to medium sized LCDs in the world.

Money to build factory

The Nikkei newspaper reported this story (via Reuters), and its expected that Hitachi Displays Ltd will use these funds to finance building a new Japanese factory. This factory will then supply Hon Hai, allowing the company to output even more volume to its customers.

The intricate web of a mega firm

Incidentally this major spike in volume output is in line with a rumoured explosion in demand from one of Hon Hai’s key clients – Apple, who use LCD technology the firm makes in its iPhones and iPads. Incidentally Hon Hai, which recently Chimei Innolux Corp, a fellow Taiwanese LCD maker, is owned by non other than electronics giant Foxconn. For those who don’t know who that company is, it’s the firm where many of the world’s biggest electronics are assembled, and was marred with a suicidal employees scandal throughout 2010.

Anyhow, this joining of forces of these formidable LCD panel makers is said to give Hon Hai Precision Industry Co 17.3 percent of the smaller LCD displays market, relegating Sharp Corp to second position.

Why you should care

With the sharp rise in smartphones and tablet PCs, LCD panel makers and smaller LCD panels themselves have become a key component. Knowing who the big players are will help avoid situations like what was seen with larger LCD displays, where companies were recently fined for price-fixing.

Photo: Acer

The classic 4:3 display is fast becoming a relic in the home, and to a lesser extent on the PC. Widescreen monitors and displays simply look better and are how media, films and games should be played. Here’s a quick and dirty guide on the options available to those finally looking to make the jump.

Display sizes

Widescreen PC monitors are available from as small as 15 inches, but you really want to start at 19-inch display sizes at the absolute least. The reason for this is media viewed on a larger screen always seems more cinematic and, therefore, makes for a better viewing experience. More importantly, for those using their widescreen monitor for work purposes, we’re fans of 24-inch monitors for those who often require having multiple windows in view simultaneously as well as work that requires being zoomed in close to what you’re doing.

And finally, if your widescreen LCD monitor is predominantly for media viewing and gaming, 27-inch displays are great. We were blown away by the insanely high quality of the Samsung P2770H 27-inch widescreen PC monitor when we reviewed it. And it is surprisingly cheap, to boot!

Display types

Knowing size is not enough when it comes to buying a widescreen PC monitor. There are several different display types, too, to consider, namely widescreen LCD monitors, LED displays and the fresh-out-of-the-factory batch of 3D PC monitors. And being spoilt for choice is sometimes crippling when you don’t know what to go for.

LED is widely regarded as being superior to LCD, but the price premium you pay is usually not worth it. The same applies for buying 3D PC monitors today –  there’s very little 3D content to justify purchasing a 3D monitor. So, in short, if you have the money, go with LED made by a trusted manufacturer like Samsung or LG, but if you’d like to be thrifty while still getting a great piece of kit, a widescreen LCD monitor is certainly the way.

And the technical stuff

Photo: LG

Knowing what display size and display type you want is, believe it or not, still not enough. You have to be particular about the aspect ratio you want your screen in – always go 16:9 – as well as the resolution. With regards to resolution, while resolutions like 1366 x 768 and 1280 x 720 work fine, 1920 x 1080 is fast becoming the de facto resolution on all monitors at an affordable price, too, so there is very little reason not to save up a few extra pennies for full HD resolution. Finally, you need to consider response time, with a 2ms response time being the optimum. Anything slower than that means you’ll have blurry images when watching high-speed action films or playing action-packed video games.

Now go out and try all the widescreen PC monitors that fit your criteria. Filter according to size, type and the technical stuff, then use your eyes to judge what is for you and what is not for you.

Photo: Displax

The Portuguese company Displax is the next organisation surfing the crest of the multi-touch wave by introducing its thinner-than-paper polemic multi-touch skin. By skin, they mean it can be skinned over any surface, transforming that area into a multi-touch device reactive to both pressure and moving air (which means even blowing on it will have an effect).

The inner workings

This amazing technology is powered by several arrays of nanowires that run beneath the film and detect pressure from fingers and air, as well as the directionality of the latter. This technological architecture has given the Displax multi-touch the versatility to be placed on curved surfaces and transparent and reflective surfaces alike.

Why?

It is unclear right now what this technology will be used for outside of its usual environments and where (and how) it will be implemented. In it’s current incarnation, it does not support any multi-touch functionality, but it can detect 16 fingers on a 50”. All the while, the real retail-ready Display X devices will be set for a June launch.

Towards Technological Evolution

Photo: Displax

This device will require Displax to prove the viability of the platform to software developers, and then for software development to create the right type of applications for it. Displax’s current strategy is to sell the technology, capable of going from seven inches to a full three metres, to LCD manufacturers. That is their ideal short-term strategy for profitability and viability. The long-term strategy, insofar as it is more ambitious, could mean a lot for the advancement of touch technology moving forward. Here, we’re talking touch technology to control all the electronics in your home -  a giant, interactive remote control, if you will. Touch technology for accessing medical records for patients in hospital, as well as displaying where the problem lies in an interactive manner that allows one to zoom, rotate, pan and so forth. Touch technology that could very well change the world.

The upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the stage at which many companies are presenting new and exciting mobile computing devices this year. One common theme among a few top notch computing device manufacturers is that all of them are putting emphasis on introducing dual screens in laptops. A few days back Apple talked about its Tribook having three displays. After that the Lenovo announced the coming of its dual screen laptop and now the HP has decided to do the same thing.

The Hewlett Packard is going to develop a dual screen laptop with an advanced configuration. The laptop is called Firefly and is especially geared towards hardcore gamers and multimedia fans with its specifications that outdo most rivals, including the Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion DV7-1020 laptop. The Firefly will contain high performance hardware chips in its compact body that will make this device a complete desktop replacement gadget. Firefly will also possess a 20 inch enclosure. It will have a primary display of 17.1 inches (1920×1200 pixels) and a secondary display of 4.3 inches (800×480 pixels) that is positioned underneath the primary one. At its core, the Firefly is powered via Intel Core 2 Extreme processor running at 2.4 GHz. 4GB of RAM, as well as two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs running in CrossFire mode are also onboard. As far as storage is concerned, this laptop equips a 250GB hard disk drive running at 7200rpm.

Such a high end configuration definitely makes the Firefly a gaming monster. You can play any game on it smoothly with all the advanced graphics settings on at a high resolution.

Display developers are now concentrating on improving the LCD screen of laptops so that the existing batteries can run for longer time. With the new innovative LCD technology it is speculated that future laptops will be able to run for approximately 40 hours on a single charge. This means you won’t have to worry about carrying around extra batteries, like the Lenovo 43R1966, or even battery enhancers anymore. The new energy efficient LCDs will not be responsible for draining out most of the battery power and this will not result in a corresponding loss in display quality either. Users will still be able to enjoy high definition media and 3D gaming as well.

Mary Lou Jepson, the founder of Pixel Qi has decided to work on the new technology. According to her, the new LCDs can be easily manufactured in conventional factories and will be launched in the market next year. However the exact date is not known yet. The new LCD will have another advantage. They will also let users view the screen directly under the sunlight and have a fully saturated HDTV-quality colour mode.

Jepson Commented, “At Pixel Qi, we have a new series of inventions that go well beyond the OLPC screen that we are developing right now. We are working with a number of notebook and e-book makers on a number of different form factors. We can enable an increase of 5-10X battery life between charges compared with a standard notebook. This means that rather than needing to recharge your batteries every few hours, you could run 20-40 hours of use on a one charge.”

Tags for this article: laptop, battery, technology

The Sony VAIO VGN-AW17 is an ultra powered laptop, which is designed to deliver super performance in terms of processing speed, graphics quality and video rendering. It uses the new full-HD 18.4-inch, 16:9 display.

The laptop’s main selling point that it is one of the few models to make use of the same 3LED technology that is used in high-end Bravia LCD TVs. Most other Vaio and laptops models, like the Sony Vaio VGN-FW21L, cannot say the same for themselves. According to Sony, the VAIO VGN-AW17 can display the full range of Adobe RGB Colour Space. This is really a boon to professional artists and photographers. Otherwise, this laptop shares most of its performance specs in common with other AW series Vaio laptops, such as the Sony Vaio VGN-AW11M/H laptop. Finally, a high speed CompactFlash card slot is also imparted on the Vaio VGN-AW17 to allow quick image downloads from a dSLR. The integrated Blu-Ray writer ensures next generation high definition entertainment as well.

Sony VAIO VGN-AW17 tech specs:

• T9400 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor on Intel PM45 chipset
• 4 GB RAM
• 640 GB Hard Disk Drive
• SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro and CFI card reader
• Blu-Ray writer
• 3 USB ports, FireWire, VGA out, HDMI out, Ethernet (10/100/1000), Bluetooth and Modem (56K data/fax)
• Built in ExpressCard/34 slot, fingerprint sensor and web cam
• Wireless LAN (802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n)
• Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT 512 MB display adapter
• 18.4 inch Transflective TFT widescreen display (1,920 x 1,080)
• Intel High Definition audio (2 speakers with subwoofer)
• Win Vista Ultimate operating system

The Acer eMachine e510 is an all purpose laptop that offers performance and speed at affordable price. This notebook has a slim design and pleasing configuration, but it is not meant for playing sophisticated games, which demand hi-end graphics adapter and CPU.

The processor installed in the E510 is the Intel Celeron with a FSB @ 533 MHz, clock speed of 2.13 GHz, and 1MB of cache. The processor is backed by 2 GBs of RAM, which gives it enough power to handle complex tasks. This laptop can run HD videos @ 720p smoothly; process photos and delivers hi-fi audio. The only grey area is its highly reflective display and graphic chip. Because of the reflective LCD it becomes hard to concentrate on the data. Apart from this, the Intel GMA X3100, which is a low end video adapter, limits the level of game play and other graphic intensive applications.

But this doesn’t mean that the e510 is not worth buying. If you are only interested in doing your office work, enjoying multimedia content and playing low-end games, then the Acer eMachine E520 is an ideal solution. It also has an additional VGA port, which can be used to send video output to an external device such as an HD Ready TV-set with a VGA input port. E510 comes with a preinstalled Linux OS on its SATA HDD. This notebook may create some problems while installing or running Windows OS. So this device is intended only for Linux enthusiasts.

G-NET Incorporated is proud to present two new products: the Industrial Panel PC and the Rugged Tablet PC. G-NET is recognised as a provider of LCD monitors and industrial vehicle mount computers. The new models are revolutionary while still being affordable.

Among the two, the G-NET Rugged Tablet PC features a 1.2 GHz processor and a 40GB rugged hard drive, along with a 512MB of RAM. Additionally, there is a 10.4” wide touch screen that is even readable under the glaring light of the Sun. Preloaded with Windows XP; the Tablet PC is tough enough to withstand harsh environmental conditions that other more delicate tablet PCs, like the Dell Latitude XT, cannot. The Industrial Panel PC, on the other hand, is 10.4” wide and includes a 1.5 GHz CPU. While the Rugged Tablet PC focuses on ruggedness, this model is built with affordability in mind. However, the RAM and hard drive are identical in both the products.

G-NET seems to be quite enthusiastic about simultaneously releasing two, innovative products. The company’s CEO, Shawn Gusz said, “These two models represent a big step forward for our company.” He feels that G-NET has made a move to the industrial computer market from the consumer market in the past few years. Gusz also finds this launch to be a great step in reaffirming this status.

Both the products are marketed with different strengths: affordability and robustness. It is easy and simple for a buyer to compare them and pick the one that serves his purpose best.