Nanosys Inc. and the Optical Systems Division of 3M Company are joining technologies to provide wide color gamut technology for consumer electronic displays, allowing Liquid Crystal Displays ("LCDs") to display 50 percent more color.

3M and Nanosys will work together to commercialize Nanosys' Quantum Dot Enhancement Film ("QDEF") technology. QDEF is a drop-in film that LCD manufacturers can integrate with existing production processes. It utilizes the light emitting properties of quantum dots to create an ideal backlight for LCDs -- one of the most critical factors in the color and efficiency performance of LCDs.

AU Optronics Corp. announced that it will participate in China Optoelectronics Display Expo & China International TV Festival 2012 (CODE & CTVF 2012) in Shenzhen from May 10-12 and showcase its varied combinations of innovative display technologies and interactive applications to offer high value-added customized solutions.

AUO's theme for the show this year is "Boundless Views, Lively Up Close", as illustrated by more advanced 3D functions, super narrow bezels, and next-generation technology integrations to deliver the ultimate viewing experience for consumers. The exhibition highlights include 50" Super Narrow Bezel 3D TV display, Pattern Retarder 3D TV displays featuring the all-new 39" and 50" in size, and 4K by 2K Ultra-High Resolution TV display. In terms of public information displays, AUO will demonstrate a 138" LED display wall assembled with AUO's 46" Super Narrow Bezel LED panels, boasting the world's narrowest bezel-to-bezel distance. The 65" Photo-Sensor In-cell Touch E-board and 50" FHD Transparent display with application on vending machine will also be on display. In addition, qHD Ultra-High Resolution AMOLED, Transparent AMOLED, and One-Glass-Solution (OGS) touch panels are being demonstrated to provide customers with the widest choices of high value-added display applications.

Apple wants to hold patents to the wedge-shaped design of its MacBook Air, and an interesting technique to adjust OLED display brightness. The application for this patent passed through USPTO, on Thursday. The application describes claims over "wedge shaped top case", with a lid hinged to a base. The wedge-shape contributes to the user's impression of a device, its lightness, and its durability. Apple's MacBook Air bears this design, and reports indicate that so will the upcoming MacBook Pro series. Wired.com opines that the move is to block out partners of Intel's Ultrabook ecosystem from imitating the design.

Another more interesting patent application for a technique to adjust brightness of OLED displays. None of Apple's products, not even the iPod Nano, feature an OLED screen, yet Apple is frantically applying for the patent. While conventional LCD panels use an augmented illumination source (such as LED or CCFL), in OLED displays, there is no external illumination, and hence adjusting brightness is very tricky from a technical standpoint. The method Apple described in its patent claim consists of converting an image (frame) on a logarithmic scale along the palette, dimming it, and then displaying that dimmed frame. This patent could prove valuable for Apple, as the industry is beginning to transition from TFT-LCD to OLED flat-panel displays.

Samsung Display is almost ready with high-resolution AMOLED panels for use in computing devices of all shapes and sizes, its family is named "Youm". Shown first to the worl at last year's CES, Youm is ready to be mass-produced, and Samsung Display could open up to orders. It is also possible that Samsung Electronics could work on flagship products that demonstrate the capabilities of Youm. At last year's CES, a 4.5-inch variant of Youm was shown to the public, with 800x480 (WVGA) resolution. The pixel densities have since gone up significantly. Practical applications of Youm are numerous, including high-end ebook readers, augmented reality (AR) devices, and 3D-capable tablet PCs.

There has been excitement recently, that the much-anticipated next generation OLED display technology for consumer TVs and computer monitors will finally make an entrance in the market in 2012. Fuelling this, was the announcement last week that LG is to showcase their OLED TV at CES this month. Sony was also due to introduce OLED TVs to consumers. However, this plan has now been shelved, according to The Daily Yomiuri, with Sony only continuing to sell this technology to corporate customers such as broadcasting companies, along with the associated research and development into better displays. The reason for dropping the consumer market is partly due to poor business performance in this area, so Sony cut back on capital investment, which in turn reduced its price competitiveness with its Korean rivals such as LG and Samsung.

This is a shame, because for a healthy and good value OLED TV and monitor market, there need to be many players competing with each other, which will drive down prices and increase product quality over time. However, if OLED takes off in the consumer space, it seems very unlikely that Sony wouldn't return to it eventually.Sony XEL-1 OLED TV.Picture credit: engadget

LG Electronics (LG) will present the future of TV technology at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas with the unveiling of the world's largest OLED TV with a display size of 55 inches. By incorporating the company's 4-Color Pixels and Color Refiner features with LG Display's advanced OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panels, LG OLED TV generates the most natural colors of any TV set at a much lower price point than could have been achieved using the standard manufacturing process.

LG Display, a leading innovator of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) technology, today announced that it has developed the world's largest 55-inch OLED(Organic Light Emitting Diodes) TV panel. The 55-inch panel is a significant step forward in the popularization of OLED TVs and demonstrates the effective application of AM OLED technology to larger panel sizes at a more cost efficient level.

"Our objective has always been to actively define and lead emerging display technology markets," said Dr. Sang Beom Han, CEO and Executive Vice President of LG Display. "Although OLED technology is seen as the future of TV display, the technology has been limited to smaller display sizes and by high costs, until now. LG Display's 55-inch OLED TV panel has overcome these barriers."

The current display technology standard for most PCs and TVs is LCD nowadays. However, LCD technology has significant and well known drawbacks, such as limited viewing angles, poor colours, motion blur and input lag. These problems cause some people to swear by and hold on to the old and now obsolete CRT monitors, as it had none of these problems (it did however, have lots of others). There are various types of LCD technology in mainstream use today which attempt to address these shortcomings, but none fix them all. For example, TN displays are cheap to buy, relatively fast which reduces motion smear and input lag, but at the expense of viewing angle and colour accuracy, making them suitable for fast gaming and animation. Meanwhile, IPS displays have the opposite characteristics, making them suitable for professional photographic work, where accurate colours and vibrant pictures are essential.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) announced PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) (PCH-1000 series) as the official platform name for the next generation portable entertainment system at E3 2011. With an RRP of €249 for the Wireless model and €299 for the Wireless/3G version, PS Vita will launch in the global market starting at the end of 2011.

"Vita", which means "Life" in Latin, was chosen as the most appropriate name for the next generation portable entertainment system as it enables a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context as SCE aims to transform every aspect of a user's daily life into an entertainment experience and an opportunity to play.

Sony launched 17-inch and 24-inch Trimaster EL professional-grade monitors, which are based on the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology. OLED is not to be confused with LED-backlit LCD, which is merely LCD with LED illumination instead of CCFL. OLED is a kind of a flat-panel display technology in which electroluminescent organic compounds spread across a film generate images. Hence, OLED provides far greater picture clarity, and eliminates pixellation, a problem encountered with low pixel-density LCD displays. OLED-generated images are more CRT-like in terms of fidelity. Sony's new Trimaster OLED monitors are targeted at the broadcasting industry and professional studios that seek bleeding-edge image quality.

Both Trimaster OLED monitors feature resolutions of 1920 x 1080 (full-HD), with 10-bit drivers, 100 cd/m² brightness, and 178° viewing angles. Display inputs include HDMI, DisplayPort, and SDI, which is used in professional development houses. Carrying the model numbers BVM-E250 and BVM-E170, they will cost $28,900 and $15,710, respectively.

In the digital age, people are creating and accessing digital content like never before. As such, they require a storage device that is powerful enough to store and serve this content, but friendly enough to manage quickly and effortlessly. Today, digital storage leader Thecus Technology is proud to announce the Thecus N4200. Fast, secure, and incredibly easy-to-use, the N4200 is the ideal home NAS for the digital lifestyle.

The N4200 was designed to enable users to access their data both quickly and easily. It begins with the new Intel Atom dual-core processor D510, which runs at 1.66 GHz and, in combination with 1GB of DDR2 memory, delivers both blistering data transfer speeds and increased system response. Users can easy manage their unit with the N4200's dual displays. The LCD offers a wealth of system information, including hard disk and network status, while the big and bright 2.8" OLED display allows users to modify a number of settings directly on the device including WAN, LAN, Link Aggregation, languages and more, making the N4200 the friendliest Thecus NAS ever.

If you dream of buying a keyboard with OLED keys, but you don't have a thousand dollars to spend on a keyboard, your dream may finally become true. OCZ Technology is now shipping its own Sabre OLED gaming keyboard for the price equivalent of $135, which immediately makes it number one choice in OLED peripherals. ZipZoomfly is now taking orders here. For that money, OCZ gives you a pretty decent gaming keyboard, with nine fully customizable OLED keys, 103 super tactile low-noise keys, software macro configurator, 128 MB of onboard flash memory, blue LED side backlight, and a USB 2.0 interface. Full specs of the OCZ Sabre OLED keyboard are listed here.

OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and components, today announced the highly-anticipated Sabre OLED multimedia keyboard for advanced gaming and customization complete with intelligent management software. The Sabre's unique combination of user-friendly functions, durability, and personalization features is the answer for serious gamers and professionals seeking improved productivity and competitiveness.

We managed to take a close look at a new product that Coolermaster is working on, which combines their expertise for PSU with the functionality of creating a network using the power lines within your home. This 700 W & 80Plus Silver certified power supply has a Power LAN adapter built in, so by plugging it into a socket, you may simply route the outgoing Ethernet port to the one of your PC.

A rival of Art Lebedev is approaching. UnitedKeys OLED, a relatively new name in the computer OLED business, is now pre-ordering two OLED peripherals that resemble Art Lebedev's Optimus Maximus and Optimus Mini Three keyboards. I'm starting with the UnitedKeys OLED gaming keyboard, a 103 standard keys keyboard with 9 customizable monochromatic OLED buttons. This keyboard is 20.5-inches long, 7.25-inches wide and fully functional under both Windows XP or Windows Vista. You can pre-order the UnitedKeys OLED keyboard now for $259.99. Also announced was the UnitedKeys keypad with just 9 OLED (customizable) keys. Both peripherals connect to the PC using normal USB 2.0 connection. The keypad has a MSRP of $199.99 and is also available for pre-order now. For more information, please click here.

Art Lebedev has presented a new member of the Optimus family, Optimus Pultius. This gadget like its older full-featured cousin the Optimus Maximus, uses 15 OLED embedded keys that make them fully-programmable. The Optimus Maximus did go on sale with a price tag as much as US $1900. The Pultius can be used with the Maximus for expansion of programmable keys or a side-kick to your existing keyboard. This product launches sometime end of 2008 thru early 2009.

Art. Lebedev Studio, creator of the Optimus Maximus OLED keyboard, informed that it has started working on a completely new design of Optimus mini, their first portable OLED keyboard with three keys. The new mini 3.0 will feature one small sensor display divided into three (maybe more) zones. It may also have wireless capabilities, but don't count on that for now since it's writen in the wish list. Pictures of the new project will be available soon. Meanwhile you can read our review of the old Optimus mini.

In the quest to replace LED technology, Sony recently dropped ¥22 billion (£105 million/€140 million/$205 million) on OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) panel production. The large sum of cash will be spent upon "middle and large size OLED panel production technology", and plans on having something operational by April 2009. Most of the research and production will be done at Sony Mobile Display Corporation's factory in Japan. Once Sony does have an operational product, and a lot of them, they will hopefully implant them in just about everything involving a screen coming out of Sony's factory doors. OLED technology is, at this point, known for being extremely thin and obscenely expensive. If all goes well, Sony will negate the latter.

Sony looks set to win the race to become the first company to release an OLED television with its SonyDrive XEL-1 display. OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, and such displays do not require a backlight to function, unlike standard LCD displays - as well as boasting superior contrast ratios such as the 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio of the XEL-1. Sony's 11-inch TV will offer a 960 x 540 pixel resolution, a digital tuner, 2 x 1W speakers and HDMI, USB and Ethernet ports. It's dimensions come to 287 x 140 x 253mm, weighing in at 2kg. The XEL-1 will hit be available from 1st December this year with a price tag of about $1,740 - which works at at $160 per inch of OLED. Perhaps a little expensive for the Christmas wish list?