Sony Unveils 0.3mm Thick OLED Display
by Paul Miller, posted May 28th 2008 at 4:08PM
[Image courtesy of All Things Digital]
Posts with tag oled
[Image courtesy of All Things Digital]
Samsung Demonstrates ePassport with Flexible OLED Display
by Darren Murph, posted May 20th 2008 at 9:24AM
It's been a tick since we've heard anything noteworthy on the e-passport front (that's probably a good thing, truth be told), but Samsung SDI and German security printer Bundesdruckerei are out to break the silence. The two have teamed up to demonstrate a passport that boasts a "slim and bendable" OLED color display within a "polycarbonate data page." Predictably, the aforementioned display can be used to "provide a raft of information including a video of the document holder." It's also noted that the units will be heat-resistant, enabling officials to laminate the cards and make them less susceptible to manipulation. Information about a potential release date wasn't divulged, but it sure sounds like this stuff is dangerously close to being ready for use. [Source: Security Document World]
Sony's New OLED TVs Reach New Levels of Thin
by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 16th 2008 at 3:45PM
We also noticed that Sony is showing off a 0.3-mm thin, 11-inch OLED with 960 x 540 pixel resolution. That's 10x slimmer than Sony's XEL-1 OLED TV. Check out our gallery below for more. These displays aren't out on the market yet, but we can't wait to start seeing innovative applications of super-thin screens in mobile devices, computers, and home theater setups.
Gallery: Sony OLED
Sony Stakes its Future In OLED TVs With Huge Investment
Sony announced Tuesday that it will spend $200 million on OLED development and production. OLED, a next-generation display technology, can be made extremely thin and flexible because they are built from organic carbon materials. OLED displays are currently prohibitively expensive and small--Sony's newest $2500 OLED-TV is only 11 inches--and a drive towards larger and cheaper displays may explain Sony's huge investment in the technology.
The future for OLED looks brighter and brighter, thanks to Sony's investment and an increasing number of OLED prototypes and products becoming available on the market.
From Newsvine
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Though Big and Bulky, Mitsubishi's New Laser TV Dazzles
The market for HDTVs is flooded with competing technologies and not to mention perplexing acronyms and abbreviations -- DLP, LCD, OLED, Plasma, SED. Now you can add Laser TV to your list of display technologies to know. Mitsubishi unveiled a 65-inch laser television at an event during this week's CES -- and people at this week's CES show were buzzing about the incredible color and contrast.
Mitsubishi isn't revealing details about exactly how it works, but we do know it is based on a rear projection system, meaning that this is never going to be as thin as those sexy OLEDs on display. And who knows what the future holds for big and bulky projection TVs, whose stars are falling almost as quickly as those of HD-DVD. But the laser TV does have a leg up in the image quality department. Apparently, colors were so intense and contrast so dramatic that Greg Adler at PC World described it as "artificial" looking.
Pricing isn't available, but Mitsubishi plans to have the displays on the market by fall of 2008.
From Engadget
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Samsung's 31-Inch OLED-TV Makes Jaws Drop
We couldn't stop drooling long enough for the Samsung reps to let us near this lust-worthy beauty. Thankfully, the folks over at Engadget were able pick there jaws up off the floor and snag some photos of this ultra thin, environmentally-friendly display.
It's only a prototype right now, and Samsung has no immediate plans to bring these to consumers, but we're sure plans will be announced soon enough. Samsung won't want to leave Sony alone in the OLED market for long, though. So head on over to Engadget to check out what is most certainly the future of TV.
From Engadget
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Sony OLED-TV Out This Month in the U.S. (Rolly Later This Year)
We've reported the rumors before, but now it's official: Two of 2007's coolest, only-in-Japan gadgets from Sony are getting the green light for U.S. release. Sony's crazy-thin (.3 millimeters, about .1 inches) OLED-TV will hit store shelves this month for $2,500, a whopping sum for an 11-inch TV, but surprisingly inexpensive if you're they type of early adopter who wants the latest in TV-screen technology -- namely, Organic LED (OLED), which delivers brilliant, vivid color, high contrast with paper thin screen dimensions. (Sony actually had this OLED on SonyStyle store shelves here in Las Vegas to coincide with the press conference -- a nice touch.)
Also guaranteed to make you the coolest person on the block: the Sony Rolly (pictured, above), a whimsical robotic-orb-cum-dancing-MP3-player from the same team that brought us Aibo (Sony's robotic dog). About the size and shape of a Nerf football, the Rolly will play tunes on its internal memory, or stream music from your PC via Bluetooth. Its various moving parts and lights move more gracefully than any other dancing speaker we've ever seen, which isn't that tough since we haven't seen that many, but trust us -- this thing is cool, in the completely useless way that only bonafide gadget heads will truly dig.
The U.S. release of the Rolly some time in 2008 will be a relief to anyone who's been struggling with getting the doodad's current Japanese-language OS to work with U.S. PCs since Sony will be offering up an official English-language OS to go with the U.S.-ready Rolly.
The introduction of the OLED-TV to the U.S. market is a milestone, because it's quite possible that OLED will be the next big technology in televisions (not to mention displays for smaller gadgets like digicams and cell phones). The Rolly, not so much, unless you'd consider yourself one of the aforementioned gadget heads.
Either way, color us delighted.
Gallery: Sony OLED-TV and Rolly
Related Links:
Sony's Almost-Paper-Thin OLED-TV Coming to the U.S.
Samsung One-Ups Sony With 31-Inch OLED-TV
Sony Unveils First Super-Thin OLED TV
Pioneer Unveils Super-Thin, High-Contrast Plasma TVs
Green Tech to be a Major Theme at Next Week's Gadget Show
Not like we couldn't see it coming, but news is that a big theme at this year's CES will be "green technology." The environment, being green, and global warming have been on everyone's minds this year. The Prius, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' OLEDs, and tons of research into alternative power sources and fuels were all the rage in 2007, and '08 doesn't look to be any different.A number of new technologies are expected to make their debut, or at least US debut, at CES next week. Among them is a new Silver-Zinc battery technology that will increase battery capacity by up to 30 percent, and will also yield more recoverable metal when recycled than the currently common Lithium-Ion batteries.
Fujitsu will show off a laptop with a plastic case made partially from corn byproducts. The case will not be biodegradable, because it still contains petroleum based plastics, but when the case is recycled the petroleum based plastic mixed in with the corn will separate and the corn plastic will be biodegradable.
Even cell phone chargers are getting a green makeover. As much as two thirds of the power drawn by a phone charger is wasted because AC adapters continue to draw energy even after the phone is fully charged. A company called GreenPlug will show off a universal hub that it hopes to convince electronics companies to support. The hub works by "talking" to devices to determine how much power they really need. Another perk is that the universal hub could eliminate the need for carrying a separate adapter for every phone, iPod etc. However one very un-green side effect is that the hub, even if supported, just means more non-biodegradable plastic going into circulation.
From CNN
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Samsung To Show 14-inch OLED Display Prototype at CES
Samsung will be using the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week to show off a prototype OLED-TV set, a technology that promises less power-hungry display screens than what you find now in LCD panels.
What is OLED, you ask? The folks at Kodak have a nice summary of the technology to help you get started.
Production is expected to start later this year.
While OLED screens will start out with price tags much higher than LCD -- likely more than $3,000 for the 14-inch Samsung model -- the benefit is in power conservation. At first glance, saving energy may have you thinking of good "green" products, but in this case the benefit is for small, portable devices such as mobile phones and laptop computers rather than bigger televisions since the biggest drain on a small device is often the display. (The challenge for consumer electronics makers is always to make small devices that don't need big, heavy batteries to provide power.) Think about all the times your digital camera has run out of juice before you were done snapping all the pictures you wanted or your MP3 player made it only halfway though a cross-country flight. A low-power OLED screen would have helped you there.
Portability and low-power consumption go hand in hand.
Small screens are not the only use, however, and both Samsung and Sony hope to use the technology in TVs. Sony, in fact, will be introducing a 3-millimeter thick TV to the U.S. market later this year.
Samsung's prototype will be thicker than its production model the 14-inch screen will be sure to impress.
From BetaNews.
Related items:
- Samsung One-Ups Sony With 31-Inch OLED TV
- Sony's Almost-Paper-Thin OLED-TV Coming to U.S.
- The World's Thinnest TVs
Samsung One-Ups Sony With 31-Inch OLED TV
OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens use electroluminescent organic material to produce images, instead of the liquid crystal and back-light combination found in traditional LCDs. This gives OLEDs several advantages, including lower power and higher contrast and brightness.
At CES, Samsung is expected to show off a 31-inch prototype along with a 14-incher that will go in to production in 2008. This bests Sony's 27-inch prototype and 11-inch production unit. But don't expect to see that 14-inch screen in a laptop anytime soon, as it's expected to hit the market to the tune of roughly $3,000.
From BetaNews
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Sony's Almost-Paper-Thin OLED-TV Coming to U.S.
Back in October, Sony wowed us with delicious pictures of a ridiculously thin television, the XEL-1 OLED TV. Its screen enclosure was just three millimeters (about .1-inches!) thick -- or thin rather. Okay, so it's only 11-inches across, meaning you wouldn't want to make one the focal-piece of your home theater system. But it's hard to resist, given its lithe design. It was supposed to be Japan-only, but now Sony's saying we can have one. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until some undisclosed time next year before the TV gets its U.S. release.The sets, which dropped in Japan for about $1,700, use a newer type of display called Organic LED, or OLED. The technology isn't altogether dissimilar to that of your typical LCD television, but where an LCD display requires backlights to illuminate the picture from behind, an OLED panel illuminates itself. Without the backlight, the bezel can be made smaller, resulting in the thin set seen here. OLED also can offer brilliant brightness and contrast compared to a traditional LCD, but its biggest problem is degradation. Where an LCD will last you pretty much forever (if you replace the backlights), OLEDs eventually fade and die.
The XEL-1 suffers from this problem, rated to deliver about 30,000 hours worth of viewing before having to be retired. That's less than half your average plasma set, and at the extreme price for the size, the XEL-1 is more a design and technical exercise than anything. We saw it on the show floor at CEATEC a couple of months ago and loved the look of it. We're glad to see Sony will be bringing it to the U.S. ... even if we can't necessarily afford one.
From Engadget
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The World's Thinnest TVs
First they got flat, then they got big, and now, with nowhere else to go, TVs are getting thin, thin, thin! At least that's the trend we're extracting from all of the ultra-slim TVs on display at CEATEC, the annual Japanese consumer electronics show we're currently checking out in Tokyo. Take a look at the above-pictured Hitachi super-flat 32-inch LCD-TV prototype, which, at just .72-inches thick, makes the average flat-panel TV look like huge slab of thickly-cut meat (or something like that). After all, .72-inches thick is more like a cell phone than a TV, in terms of thickness.
But Hitachi, which unveiled its super-thin prototype to the public today for the first time, isn't alone in the ultra-flat-panel game. Thin LCD TVs are also on display from Sharp (52-inch TV that's .78-inches thick), JVC (42-inch TV that's only 1.4-inches thick, pictured, right), and even Fujitsu, which can only mean one thing: That even flatter panels are on their way to your local Best-Buy-Circuit-City-Fry's within the next five years. You can even throw Sony's groundbreaking 22-inch Organic Panel, a .12-inch thin portable display that uses OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode Technology). Though shown in prototype form at places like CES, the Organic Panel in its more-or-less ready-to-ship version is being shown here in Tokyo for the first time. And it's actually coming out, in Japan, anyway: The set will be in stores on December 1st for around $2500, which is a lot for a 22-inch TV. That said, we are blown away by the rich colors and crisp, 1,000,000-to-1 contrast ratio that the OLED screen brings to this widescreen wonder. The Little flexible arm that lets you adjust the screen's position is a nice detail, too, in that nifty, Sony-gadget way.
We took a bunch of pictures, but since we wanted to show you some other TVs in this post, check out Engadget's gallery on the Sony Organic Panel.
Now, does the new you-can-never-be-too-thin TV trend mean you should wait before you buy that flat-panel? Not at all -- all the TVs we mentioned are prototypes, so we don't know when they'll actually come out for real. (Regardless, when they come out, they will be pricey). Only the Sony Organic Panel is actually coming out in Japan-only, and it's expensive.
It's likely some of these TVs will be the star of the CES Show come January, but the earliest any of these models (other than the Sony) come out would be late next year, so we're betting it'll be a good half-decade before these are even remotely affordable for the rest of us.
In the meantime, we're gonna keep dreamin' about 'em!
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Sony Unveils First Super-Thin OLED TV
Some details have changed since our first mention of what is now known as the Sony Drive XEL-1. For one, the design is drastically different, much more focused on maneuverability and showing off its super thin form factor. Also. the screen's resolution has changed. Originally, Sony was touting a 1024x600 resolution (near HD's 720 lines, but not quite) which would have been mind-numbingly crisp across its 11 tiny inches. The final resolution got bumped down to a still-respectable 960x540.
So now for the bad news. Like all new technology, the Sony Drive is quite expensive -- ¥200,000 or about $1,740, which wouldn't be too bad if it measured 37 inches as opposed to its 11. Also, for those who have the money to burn, the XEL-1 will be released on on December first as a Japan-only affair. There is no word about releases anywhere else in the world.
From Reuters and Engadget
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Sony Unveils Its LCD Killer
Though resolution limits and shorter display lives have thus far relegated OLED to phones, media players, and cameras, Sony has stepped up and announced that it will be releasing an OLED TV to the public later this year. But before you get too excited, the set will measure only 11 inches and won't be HD (1024 x 600). And along with that stunted lifespan, it'll also likely come with a very high price tag.
From Engadget
