Envision Peripherals Inc. (EPI), home to the AOC and Envision branded displays, today expanded its Envision line of value priced high-performance displays with the introduction of a new series of TFT active-matrix LCD monitors that allow users to take advantage of the benefits of Microsoft’s new Windows Vista Operating System.
Leading the new line of LCD displays is the 19-inch widescreen Envision G918w1, offering Windows Vista Premium certification to complement Microsoft’s aim to provide enhancements for productivity, multimedia and entertainment. EPI also announced the addition of two new Windows Vista-ready TFT active-matrix LCD displays, the 19-inch Envision H1981 and 17-inch Envision H1781.
The new line of Envision branded monitors is designed to be as attractive as it is functional. Featuring a matte-black cabinet with sleek low-profile design, these units complement virtually any PC or Mac computer, while saving valuable desk-top real estate. Their durable screens are finished with a glare-resistant hard coating that reduces eye-strain and helps prevent scratch-damage. Read the rest of this entry »
Techwell was showing off their broad line of high performance TW88xx In-Car LCD display processors at their booth in Las Vegas two weeks ago at CES. The leading manufacturer of semiconductor solutions for the automotive world produced these processors in response to the growing demand for LCD displays in vehicles, primarily for Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and DVD players. All of the TW88xx processors featured at CES 2007 can directly support a variety of small size LCD panels from LG.Philips, Sharp, TMD, Hitachi, and others along with integrated timing controllers.
“Techwell has made a determined effort through R&D and collaborations with panel providers to develop the most integrated and feature rich LCD display processors available for in-car display applications.” said Feng Kuo, Ph.D., Chief Technical Officer. He added, “We are very pleased to supply our high-performance, scalable, and low cost products to the growing in-car entertainment market.”
The great thing about these processors is that they have the ability to simultaneously display different content viewable from various user angles in the vehicle. This means that the driver can be getting directions from the GPS while the passenger can be watching a DVD. Or the two kids in the back who can never agree on what movie to watch can watch two different DVDs at the same time, all on the same screen!
According to Telematics Research Group, shipments of navigation, entertainment and driver information systems are expected to grow from a combined 16.5 million units to a combined 47.2 million units in 2009, representing a compound annual growth rate of 23%. Along with automobile manufacturers who incorporate them into their new vehicles, These systems are also increasingly being purchased by consumers in the aftermarket. The newest model, The TW8806 is in mass production and will be available in mid 2007. Visit www.techwellinc.com for more info on this product.
This year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it was the coming out party for Wireless USB. Not too many products were retail shelf products, but there was an abundance of prototypes, many that were very appealing. Alereon demonstrated two digital cameras transferring pictures from one to the other and vice versa, all using wireless USB technology. Now that in itself is awesome, being able to send pics from one camera to the other without wires is cool. But this will also work with cell phones, which is even more compelling. All those teenage girls who can’t stop text messaging will love this. Alereon also demonstrated printing photos from a Kodak camera on a Kodak printer, also using the Wireless USB technology. It’s extraordinarily fast, and you don’t have the messy wires to deal with. They also demonstrated the ability to transfer pictures onto an HDTV.
This new WUSB technology is an awesome feature that provides very fast performance and keeps your desk nice and neat at the same time, free of all those annoying cables. This was demonstrated by Toshiba. They used a high data rate version of Wireless USB and a 5:1 compression to connect a laptop to a wireless-enabled docking station. This in turn drives the LCD monitor. According to representatives, using this technology you can have your laptop 18” to 30” away from your monitor with yup, you guessed it, no wires. Alereon demonstrated a similar mechanism using a chip from DisplayLink of the UK. It’s a PC driver that transmits in a compressed fashion display data over WUSB. At the other end the chip decompresses the data and drove it to an LCD monitor. Using this method, you could be on your couch with your laptop looking at photos, watching music or youTube videos, all on your LCD screen! All without the hassle of wires. Very cool.
In the automotive world, Intel and DaimlerChrysler demonstrated the connection between a mobile PC and a monitor in the headrest of a car, using controller chips from Intel and WUSB chips from Alereon. This can also be used for video iPods and other MP3 players. Life without wires. Sounds good to me.
Someone once mad the comment that: “I’ll be willing to look at thinking outside the box only after I’ve seen proof that there’s any thinking going on inside the box first.” This new product is definitely an example of thinking outside that box, and I mean, way outside.
The new product, Concierge, is actually quite simple. It’s an LCD screen built into a shopping cart. When a customer walks into their local supermarket and grabs a cart, the screen will come to life. It’ll tell its user about the store, provide them with a map so they don’t get lost. But it doesn’t stop there, oh no. Concierge will be able to provide shoppers with coupons, recipe ideas, and even keep an ongoing tally of your selected items.
It’s not only a tool to help shoppers; it’ll benefit storeowners as well. With built in GPS technology, managers will be able to see what isles are most visited, which ones aren’t visited at all, and what products are most often selected or just left alone on the shelf (hopefully for not too long.) Supermarkets and stores everywhere will be able take this info and tailor their establishments to consumers needs.
Rob Segal, Springboard’s CEO puts it this way. He said: “Every so often, you read about a device that just makes sense – so much so that you if find yourself thinking, ‘I can’t believe no one thought of that before.’ Concierge is just such a device.” Read the rest of this entry »
We told you about Westinghouse’s Digital LCD Photo frame early this week and now we’ve seen it in the flesh. I must say, when I first glanced at it, my eyes almost seemed to be deceived as the picture was too bright, too vibrant, too hardcopy like. I picked up the frame, gave it a close look to see if pixels in fact where being displayed and not ink. Then I found the NEXT button on the rear. I pushed it and sure enough a new image appeared. ‘Wow,’ I thought, ‘This really is the display!’
It’s incredible kids and if you’re looking for an easy way to display your pictures but would like to add pizazz to the frame with frequent changes to the art being displayed, this I think may be your ticket. In fact, this is the first time that I would even recommend a digital frame. I was impressed!
We just got word from our contact at Westinghouse that it is now showing off the worlds largest LCD TV. It’s a honking 82 inches large and has all that quality of the other Westinghouse monitors. If you’re lucky enough to be at CES, go by its booth (#21707) for your picture next to the President, er, Largest LCD TV.
We’re working on getting you a picture now as we won’t be at CES until Wednesday.
UPDATE: Our crack contributor Jon has just informed us that Westinghouse only held this honor for a few minutes as Sharp 26 inches! That’s right, Sharp now is the holder of the worlds largest LCD TV at 108″.
UPDATE II: At closer inspection of our press release we received, we missed the “one of the” in the line about the worlds largest part. Sorry, when your Inbox gets blasted with releases, it’s hard to keep up. We’ve whipped our monkey and asked him to be more detailed in his reading. We’re sure this won’t happen tomorrow at Macworld.
Get ready for some new TX Series 1080p HDTVs from Westinghouse as it has just unleashed a list of new models to the world from CES today (TX-52F480S pictured). Featuring 42”, 47” and 52” screen sizes, the new TX Series, “Deliver razor-sharp images with their Full Color Spectrum and High Contrast Picture — which creates deeper blacks and richer dark scene details by dynamically matching the brightness of the TV backlight to that of the on-screen image.” DayBright helps give you a stunning picture for daytime viewing while also assisting in stunning night time viewing as well. Bullet details available by clicking the more link.
Westinghouse also is bringing DayBright to LCD monitors and the L2410NM is one such monitor that will be able to display your dull daily work in a 1920 x 1200 resolution with 700:1 contrast ratio, but also play HD content such as DVD movies and high-def video games. This 24″ wide-screen is a multifunctional monitor with HDMI-HDCP inputs, YPbPr with audio, CVBS/S-Video with audio, and PC with Audio In. You’ll be able to grab this by the end of this month for a dollar under $700.
With 22″, 20.1″, and 19″ LCDs also on tap for release in March, Westinghouse is playing serious with its new LCDs. Also on tap are 10.2”, 8”, 7” and 5.7” Digital LCD frames. The frames will play slideshows from your digital content off of just about every flash card type including CF I/II, MD, MS, MS Pro, MS Duo, MS Pro Duo, SD, MMC and XD. Pricing starts at $119 for the 5.7″ model going all the way up to $229.99 for the 10.2″ model.
Today at CES, Proton Electronic Industrial Co. will be showing off new LCD HDTVs that use LEDs to brighten up the picture. Up for the crowd to see this innovative LED BLU High Definition LCD will be the preview the 32-inch P32L1 and the 42-inch P42L1 LCD TVs (not pictured). Part of Proton’s Premiere line, SvenOnTech was told that, “The new backlight technology provides the P32L1 and P42L1 with broader chromaticity than CCFL-backlit sets — that is, a wider color range, helping them to present the best picture quality available. LED backlighting also offers a number of additional advantages over CCFL technology. It promises to last longer, it displays no distortion, it possesses greater translucency, it weighs less and consumes less power, and it uses no mercury, making it ecologically friendlier.”
The new models stats include progressively scanned 1080p HD resolution for the 42-inch P42L1, 720p resolution (1366 x 768 pixels, WXGA) for the 32-inch P32L1, built-in digital and analog tuners, and HDMI inputs. Their widescreen, movie-style aspect ratio is augmented by conventional 4:3, 16:9 Zoom, and Panoramic display modes.
Keep your eyes open for more details and pictures here on SvenOnTech
When this digital photography revolution took off, one of the first things to come out of the gates after cameras was LCD desk displays. With the lack of brightness and power consumpution such a deficit, I’ve never been a big fan of these displays. But, with technology, everything ends up improving to a point (sans batteries, it seems.)
Looks like Digital Foci is one leader in this improved technology as its LCD displays are both stunning and practical. With a large 8 inch high-resolution display bordered by a beautiful selection of interchangeable frames, you’ll be sure to impress even the stingiest art critic. Its built-in support for common digital camera memory cards such as Secure Digital (SD) and Compact Flash (CF), automatic on/off timer, and brackets for easy wall mounting, make this a really versatile and nice picture frame. Going a step further, Digital Foci also added such features as a slideshow, video and music playback, and an excellent file management system that supports copying, deleting, and renaming pictures.
At $299 $229, I must say, I am impressed with this LCD display and we’re hoping to get one to review and let all of our readers know if the picture frame technology has finally arrived to the point in which you can show it off without shame.
Now that the U.S. is catching onto this thing called Bluetooth that all the kiddies in the EU have enjoyed with an emense appetite for the last five years, we’re starting to get more and more fun and useful accessories. One such gadget is hands-free kits with built-in speakers and mics. Parrot has received a lot of attention here in the States for its devices, but I think Roadmaster has the right idea with the VR3.
The Roadmaster VR3 LCD Wireless Hands-Free Car Kit slips onto your cars sun visor instead of plugging into your cigerette lighter outlet like so many other hands-free kits do. To me, this seems a better spot for such a device as it allows the mic to be right in front of you as well as having the speaker closer to your ear. Further, it keeps your eyes looking up instead of down when making or receiving calls.
The VR3 comes packed. Along with the speaker phone and mic, this baby syncs with your Bluetooth phones phone book with a touch of a button. You’ll be able to view caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding and last number dialed all from its cool blue lit display. No worries on chucking out batteries when it dies as you simply plug in the charger to your cigarette lighter to juice up the lithium ion battery. All this for about $69. Oh ya, it also supports ringtones.
We’re told you can pretty much find this anywhere from superstores to car stores to retailers. We’ll see about getting a review unit and let you know our thoughts on it if we do.