It was a long and exciting first day at CES, with the Palm Pre proving to be the biggest announcement made at the show. It certainly made us do a double (and triple) take, but there's plenty more to report and lots of surprises still to come.

• Grippity Keyboard Reinvents Typing - There's a very strong chance you're sitting in front of a keyboard right now as you read this, and while the things are nearly ubiquitous when it comes to home consuming, many (including us) would be very happy to see a typing interface that's a little more fresh. One possible solution is called the Grippity, a handheld device that looks something like an overgrown PS3 controller with a normal QWERTY graphic layout on the front but with the keys themselves on the back. While we find the idea to be totally intriguing, it sadly feels a bit clumsy to use.

• Gateway's Mid-Range MD and UC Laptops - There's something of a growing divide in the laptop realm between high-end, powerhouse laptops and low-end, budget netbooks. Gateway is filling the void with its MD and UC series laptops, both with stylish designs and practical specs at reasonable costs that should fit into most people's budgets. They're not exactly groundbreaking in any respect, but they're solid choices for sure.
  

• Samsung Shows Off Flexible OLED - LCD screens have definitely reached something of a saturation point, but the way things are going, it looks like they'll soon be superseded by OLED. These new screens don't require backlighting like an LCD, so they can be ridiculously thin. They can also be extremely flexible, as is Samsung's trick screen shown in the above link. Right now, OLEDs tend to be small and expensive and, generally, not available, but we expect to see many, many more of them this year.
  

• Skype Hits Android, Java-Compatible Handsets - Millions have used Skype to make free online calls, and now it's getting much easier to make those calls on the go as the folks at Skype have announced the program's compatibility with numerous handsets. First up is a version of the app capable of running on Google's free mobile operating system Android, meaning anyone using a G1 can make calls without using minutes. Skype has also released a streamlined Java version of the client that's compatible with many handsets. If you're pushing the limits of your calling plan's allocation, you may want to make the leap.

• Coby Shows Off Sub-$200 Netbooks - Netbooks are great, truly bringing low-cost portable computing to the masses, but they still need to get a bit cheaper before they're ubiquitous. While Gateway is filling the middle of the cost spectrum, Coby is heading to the bottom with its lineup of under-$200 offerings. The machines have the standard tiny netbook styling and hardware specs, with Intel Atom processors, but their bright coloring and low cost should make them a hit -- if and when the company actually puts them into production.

• Mattel's Mind Flex Will Challenge Your Kid's Minds - There are plenty of games out there that will make your kids think, but not many tax the ol' noodle quite like this. The Mind Flex uses a headset to detect your brain activity which, in turn, levitates and guides a ball through an obstacle course: relax to lower and focus to raise. It's actually a lot of fun and we're eager to hear what others have to say when it's released this Fall for $80. [From: Engadget]
  

Has your $2,500 XEL-1 display already started to show a case of the dimming blues? If so, and if you can go without seeing Cookie Monster in his natural hue for a few more months, you may have another OLED replacement option after this summer. LG is indicating it will begin producing a 15-inch panel in June of this year. No word on whether it'll match the Sony's 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, but it will offer a higher resolution of 1,366 x 768, and LG is pledging a 30,000 hour shelf life. We'll see about that.

Sony's Walkman series of media players has done its best to keep stride, stuffing in new features and design refinements over the years, but touchscreen-dominated players are clearly in vogue, and it looks like the company is finally ready to break down and get touchable. According to the Sony stalkers over at Sony Insider, there will be 16 and 32GB touchscreen Walkman players at CES 2009 this coming January.

The literal and figurative centerpiece is to be a 3-inch OLED display (possibly that 3.3-inch panel making the rounds, or something more Sony specific), running a touch interface with many similarities to the current Walkman players. Also slated for inclusion is WiFi, enabling a YouTube app, over the air podcast downloads, built-in access to Amazon's MP3 store and an unspecified web browser. The shots of the player above are obviously mockups, and the real hardware is supposed to have physical music control buttons -- and hopefully hold to some sort of reality-based conception of scale. All this info is exclusive to the Sony Insider ninjas, so we can't vouch for its veracity, but it's an obvious and welcome move from Sony, so we won't look a gift rumor in the mouth.

Maybe the incandescent light bulb has been sitting in its socket-shaped throne for too many years -- GE thinks so, anyway. GE R&D guys have produced a machine that prints OLED materials newspaper-style onto 8-inch sheets of metal foil in hopes that the sheets -- which can be pinned to just about any surface -- will start the process of home lighting biz regime change in 2010. Picture, if you will, wallpaper or window blinds that provide soft, diffused lighting for the living room after dark -- no need for special fixtures, just a wall plug. OLED lighting isn't yet cost-efficient for the average consumer, but GE hopes that will change soon. In the meantime, expect to see these sheets in a trip-out Flaming Lips concert in the somewhat-near future. [From: CNN]

By this point, you should fully understand that "Dubai" and "world's largest" go hand-in-hand, so it's quite fitting that said city is receiving the planet's most humongous LED screen. Designed by UAE development company Tameer Holding, the 33-story high display will reportedly be "embedded on an intended commercial tower in the Majan district of Dubailand," where it will stand tall and blast out advertisements to onlookers some 1.5-kilometers away.

Dubbed Podium, the building will also house 33 levels of "premium commercial office space, two floors dedicated to retail and four floors for parking." There's no word on when the project will be completed, but we don't suspect Tameer will be dragging its feet in getting this up.

[Via Coolbuzz]

The last time we saw Sony's 0.3mm OLED protoype, it was encased in lasers and protected by deathbots in an underground prison of doom. This time around, Sony is showing off the razor-thin display for all at CEATEC to see, and they went all bendy on us. The new prototype has a curve to it, perhaps foretelling some curious plans for the technology in its expensive years ahead. Despite the curve, the picture remains as sharp and contrast-heavy as one would expect from OLED. Pictures and proof of the curved madness below.

For more images, head on over to Engadget to see a full gallery.

We figured it was coming, now sure enough, Kodak just let loose a new picture frame based on CMEL's new mass-produced, 7.6-inch OLED panels. Ultra-thin as you'd expect and wireless as you'd hope, the new 800 x 480 pixel Wireless Frame should be ready for the holidays sporting 2GB of internal storage, integrated audio, a 30,000:1 contrast, 180-degree viewing angle, and photo service compatibility with Flickr and others. Unfortunately, it's got a price you'd expect from this nascent display tech: $999. Sparky, had better be worth it.

[Via OLED-Display]

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! (Sorry, but where else were we gonna use that line?) For those unaware, Esquire's October issue is on newsstands now, and 100,000 99,999 lucky souls out there will receive one with a flashing E Ink display.

Just in case you aren't quite lucky enough to apprehend one of your own, however, The Dastardly Report's Ryan Joseph was kind enough to snap a few photographs and even host a video of the exclusive mag before tearing it down for hacking purposes. Head on past the break for the clip, and tap that read link to have a gander at the stills. Oh, and dart out right this instant to snag your own.

At D6 today Howard Stringer showed off a brand new "thinner than a credit card" 0.3mm thick OLED panel that Sony is working on. They're planning on a 27-inch version of the screen in the short term for the ultra-rich, but the obvious hope is to fight LCD for dominance in the home in the coming years. This could very well be that 11-inch 960 x 540 display we saw last month, but specs are slim at the moment. More shots after the break.

[Image courtesy of All Things Digital]

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]

Yes, the photo above is actually showing a new flat-screen display from Sony. It's a mere 0.2-mm (0.0079-inch) thin OLED display, a next-generation display technology. Granted, this 3.5-inch prototype is only capable of resolutions of 320 x 220 pixels, just shy of a cellphone standard QVGA resolution, but it's the thinnest display we've seen yet. And just look at those blacks -- you can barely see the bezel!

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.

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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• Samsung To Show 14-inch OLED Display Prototype at CES
• Sony's Almost-Paper-Thin OLED-TV Coming to U.S.
• Japanese Scientists Already Moving Beyond HDTV

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

Related links:

• Hands-On With Philips' New Dream HD LCD TV
• Samsung's 31-Inch OLED-TV Makes Jaws Drop
• Video: Alienware's New Curved, Wrap-Around Display

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

Related links:

• Sony OLED TV Out this Month in the U.S.
• Samsung One Ups Sony With 31 Inch OLED TV
• Pioneer Unveils Super Thin, High Contrast Plasma TVs
• The World's Thinnest TVs

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.





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