Displays & Projectors - Page 85

Rumor has it that Apple could be preparing to launch the long-rumored Apple television in 2012. The project is reportedly being led by the same software engineer who developed iTunes, according to Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the product. Jeff Robbin, who helped created the iPod, is set to be leading the Apple television development.

Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Munster, believes that Apple already has a prototype in the wild, and could be prepared to launch it late 2012, if not, early 2013. But, Munster has been saying this since 2009, so we should always take that with a grain of salt. Rumors have floated around of an Apple-branded television set for years now, but what has changed the playing field is Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Steve Jobs.

Excerpts hit the Internet last week, with Jobs telling Isaacson that he wanted to create a television set that was integrated with Apple products and would be easy to use. Jobs elaborated in the Biography with:

Its only been in the last 18 or so months since the release of the iPhone 4 and it's "Retina Display" that smartphone and tablet display resolutions have been a key marketed feature when the products are advertised or sold. Just last month Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S II HD LTE which sported a 4.65-inch 1280x720 display.

It was the first smartphone with a HD (720p) resolution and there are already a few smartphones who have followed, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and LG Optimus LTE. Back in May, Samsung also showed off a 10.1-inch panel capable of 2560x1600, something that we only see on current high-end 30-inch displays.

Toshiba have gone one better, releasing a 6.1-inch LCD with a 2560x1600 resolution. If we're talking pixels per inch (PPI), that's an astounding 495. How does that compare to the best our currently?

It has just been announced that Sony's PlayStation 3D Display is finally getting released in Australia. The display allows gamers to play split screen games on a full screen via 3D glasses, with the 3D display receiving a limited "test" release in Australia - exclusively through Harvey Norman.

Sony Australia's Michael Ephraim says that this limited launch is to test the market. He goes on to say:

Once upon a time Sony was killing it in the TV market with their beautiful Bravia line, but thanks to increasingly fierce competition from the likes of Korean players Samsung and LG over the past eight years, Sony has been experiencing continuingly declining losses.

This latest report that's come out via Routers certainly doesn't help the situation for Sony, with word that several of its Bravia series LCD TVs manufactured in 2007 and 2008 have been subjected to faulty parts that may cause the TVs to overheat and emit smoke, or melt certain components inside. Lovely.

While Sony has noted 11 overheating incidents solely in Japan, the company has said in a news release that the faulty parts may affect TV sets sold all over the world, although the majority of the ones in the bad batch were apparently sold in Europe and the U.S.

Toshiba's 3840x2160 resolution autostereoscopic (no glasses) 3DTV was announced in Europe at IFA last month, but it has now debuted in Japan during CEATEC. This time, with more details. Toshiba revealed that in lenticular 3D mode, it's limited to an effective resolution of 1280x720, and also showed off the face tracking that automatically optimizes the experience for up to nine simultaneous viewers depending on where they're sitting.

Toshiba also mentioned that there was an optional THD-MBA1 input adapter due out in 2012 and that 4K-res streaming IPTV is currently being tested. The Regza 55X3 will be priced at roughly $10K, which is close to its Euro-specced counterpart when it launches in December. No US launch date is currently known. But, I'll take 3 of them, thank you.

Sony are planning to update their PlayStation 3 to allow it to have support for 4096x2160 (4K) content. It will only be still content, but showing off some super high resolution photos on a 4K-capable screen or projector will look insanely awesome. The firmware update is planned for early 2012 and will let the PS3 support native output of 4K stills. The PlayStation store in Japan already has a PlayView "visual magazine" which supports both 4K and 3D.

This new update will allow any high resolution image to blow up to 4K resolution. Obviously you need a 4K-capable display or projector, but at least if you have the cash to spend on a 4K screen you now have something to use your PS3 for other than gaming and Blu-ray movies.

LG have introduced a new TV range dubbed "Dual View". The new Dual View televisions allow gamers to use the same television but see different images thanks to a new style of 3D glasses. The new tech was shown off by Microsoft and is set to go on same with a limited number of LG TV's, displays two separate pictures on the same screen, and then uses the power of the new 3D -style glasses to ensure each player can see a different image each.

Screen cheating be gone! This new tech is only available on the Xbox platform and works with LG's Cinema 3D range, inclusive of the new flagship LW980T. Gamers will have to slap down more dinero for additional pairs of special glasses. Usually gamers play with split screen, but this new tech would allow both gamers a full-screen gaming experience, with each of them looking at completely different images.

Cool, huh?

MacRumors have picked up on a number of non-posted images from Apple.com, showing Apple having a $999 display. In the pics, the display has a new part number (which is in the URL), and a newer background to match the default wallpaper of Mac OS X Lion which is being released next week. What makes this interesting is the below pic which shows two of the newer displays, with one plugged into the other.

Maybe Apple are allowing mirrored or extended displays through USB, but most likely this is Thunderbolt-powered and it's down with the latest-generation iMacs which share many design similarities with the LED cinema display. If Apple wants to push Thunderbolt, this would definitely be the way to go about it. On something like a MacBook Pro, using the Thunderbolt port just to power a monitor would use up the port, but daisy-chaining them like this would allow a user to use the Thunderbolt I/O on the MBP, then daisy-chain something directly into the Cinema Display.

Thunderbolt is capable of daisy chaining up to seven Thunderbolt-equipped devices together, whilst retaining full speed across ever single one of them, this is thanks to the existing DisplayPort and PCI-Express data protocols to open up what you can do with a single port into multiple uses and at high speeds.

Eizo have unveiled their latest beast of a monitor, the 36-inch DuraVision FDH3601. The FHD3601 spots a native resolution of, wait for it, 4096x2160. The monitor is LED-backlit, features a 10-bit panel supporting 1074.74 million colors, 700cd/m2 brightness and a contrast ratio of 1000:1. The viewing angle is 176 degrees which suggests that Eizo are using a Sharp ASV panel.

The DuraVision FDH3601 includes all the advanced technology Eizo has been developing for the past few years, inclusive of their human presence sensor and the Digital Uniformity Corrector (DUE) that ensures perfect light homogeneity. Eizo plan to launch this puppy in Japan on September 7, 2011 at a price of 2.88 million Yen, or approx US$36,000. Eizo hope the FHD3601 appeals to example flight control centers, oh and me.

If this were my own tech site, where I didn't have to type up a few paragraphs on the news I post, the only word that would accompany this news would be: Wow. I would end it with "Wow" and a link to the YouTube video - but holy bloody crap, Sharp and Japanese national TV broadcaster, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have jointly developed an 85-inch LCD compatible with Super Hi-Vision, a next-generation television broadcast format.