News tagged ‘display’
Apple Launches First Mac App Store Section: “Personal Projects”
Last week Apple launched the first Mac App Store section: Personal Projects, in which it displays apps for a specific creative audience. There are apps for musicians, designers, photographers and video editors to organize their projects and ideas at home. Now there are only five apps featured in each of four categories (covering things from design to music and photography). It looks like Apple had trouble finding enough quality apps to fill the space.
iPad 2 might have Samsung Super PLS display
Rumors say that display of future iPad 2 will be updated to Super PLS. It does not mean it will have a better resolution. iPad 2 will utilize the same 1024 x 768 display as the current iPad, Super PLS is just a different technology and it is better.
Current iPad, as well as the iPhone 4, use a technology called IPS. It provides outstanding viewing angles. However Samsung’s PLS technology is even better. The viewing angles provided by PLS are improved. In addition to that Super PLS display is generally 10% brighter than the IPS technology. And the best part is that they cost around 15% less to manufacture than IPS displays.
iPad 2 is expected to launch sometime this quarter.
HP Unveiled Its New Tablet And 2 Smartphones
This Wednesday HP announced its three new webOS-based devices - the TouchPad tablet and two smartphones named Pre 3 and Veer. Before they were unveiled general manager and senior vice president for the Palm Global Business Unit at HP Jon Rubistein told that the company is at the beginning of new epoch.
"Today we're embarking on a new era of webOS with the goal of linking a wide family of HP products through the best mobile experience available. The flexibility of the webOS platform makes it ideal for creating a range of innovative devices that work together to keep you better connected to your world."
HP TouchPad vs Apple iPad vs Motorola Xoom vs BlackBerry PlayBook
Engadget have posed a very interesting comparison table of the most interesting tablets that are known today. Have a look at specifications for HP TouchPad, Apple iPad, Motorola Xoom and BlackBerry PlayBook. Unfortunately there is no Apple iPad 2 in this table, becasue iPad 2 specs are all just rumors for now.
HP TouchPad |
Apple iPad |
Motorola Xoom |
BlackBerry PlayBook |
Platform | webOS 3.0 | iOS 4.2.1 | Android 3.0 | BB Tablet OS (QNX) |
Processor | 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 |
1GHz Apple A4, PowerVR SGX 535 GPU | 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 |
1GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core |
Display | 9.7-inch | 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD |
10.1-inch | 7-inch LCD |
Resolution | 1024 x 768 | 1024 x 768 | 1280 x 800 | 1024 x 600 |
Memory | 1GB RAM | 256MB DRAM | 1GB DDR2 RAM | 1GB RAM |
Storage | 16GB / 32GB | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB | 32GB | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB |
Front camera | 1.3 megapixel | none | 2 megapixel | 3 megapixel |
Rear camera | none | none | 5 megapixel with 4x digital zoom, AF, dual-LED flash, 720p 30fps video |
5 megapixel, 720p video |
Cellular radio | "3G and 4G variants" | UMTS / HSDPA / GSM / EDGE |
EVDO Rev. A | 3G and 4G |
WiFi | 802.11b/g/n | 802.11a/b/g/n | 802.11b/g/n | 802.11a/b/g/n |
Bluetooth | 2.1 + EDR | 2.1 + EDR | 2.1 + EDR | 2.1 + EDR |
Gyroscope | Yes | No | Yes | -- |
Accelerometer | Yes | 3-axis | 3-axis | Yes |
Battery capacity | 6,300 mAh | 6,600 mAH (approx.) | -- | 5,300 mAH |
Weight | 740g | 680g (WiFI), 730g (WiFi + 3G) |
730g | 400g |
Next Generation iPad In Production
Wall Street Journal reports that the next version of the iPad is now in production. The new iPad will be available through both Verizon and AT&T but not Sprint or T-Mobile, according to the newspaper.
The new device will be thinner, lighter and will come with a faster processor, more memory and a more powerful graphics processor, said the people familiar with the matter. It will have a front-facing camera for the first time for features like video-conferencing, but the resolution of the new iPad's display will be similar to the first iPad, they said.
HP’s Latest TouchSmart PCs Rips Off Apple Touchscreen iMac Patent
The new Windows PCs both, HP’s latest TouchSmart series, look exactly like Apple’s multitouch iMac. Some Apple’s patents over the past year suggest that the company has been experimenting with multitouch-capable iMacs with pivoting displays that pull down to a more appropriate horizontal orientation when a user wants to interact with on-screen elements directly. HP’s multitouch computers feature a pull-down design that drops the multitouch display into a horizontal position to reduce arm fatigue. Just like the Apple’s patent!
Apple to hold "small event" in March to usher in new iPad
Macotakara, Japanese blog, reports that Apple is planning to conduct a smaller than usual event to launch the next generation iPad. The site thinks that such event appears to be on track for March. It is believed that the device may only see an announcement during that time frame in the United States Shipments and international availability possibly will follow at a later date. Moreover, the site posted one more exclusive photo of the second generation iPad display (see above).
iPad 2: Carbon Fiber, NFC Features, 7-inch Model
iLounge claims that got some details about what may be in store for the second-generation iPad. So the new device’s shell will be made from a carbon fiber that would allow reducing the weight of the second-generation iPad. Moreover Apple has not yet abandoned the idea of a smaller iPad carrying a 7-inch display, contrary to Steve Jobs saying that 7-inch tablets were dead on arrival, and Apple's suppliers has been asked to manufacture a component that would be used in a 7-inch iPad. About NFC, iLounge mostly quotes the previous Bloomberg report:
iPad's App Store gets search filters
Apple yesterday added a new feature in the iPad App Store. The new search filters appear as a toolbar at the top of search results pages. The filters allow users to search by category, release date, customer rating, price, and device compatibility. These filters also aren't yet available on the desktop version of the App Store, so right now the iPad seems like the best way to search for apps. The second change shows the previously-purchased applications. Typically, results have been displayed with a button showing the price of the app. Now the results for apps already installed on the device are displayed with an inactive button simply saying "installed".
iPad 2 display leaked
iFIxYouri.com managed to acquire the new iPad 2 LCD display from iPhone repair shop in China. The display is a 9.7-inch display from LG with a 1024 x 768 resolution, the same resolution as the current iPad and is definitely higher quality in terms of its build. The display is also lighter and over a millimeter thinner than the current iPad's display with a smaller surrounding frame, suggesting Apple is looking to shave as much weight off the next iPad as they can for this update.
5 million next-gen iPads will be shipped in the Q1 of 2011
Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has recently released another report, where he states that the next-gen iPad won't get new resolution this year.
"The most important reason why iPad 2 won’t have retinal display is yield rate of panel making. At this point, making high resolution and bright IPS/FFS panel is not easy and the production volume and cost couldn’t meet Apple’s requirements."
Samsung Will Produce 4X More chips for Apple
New report from Korea Times reveals that Samsung "has agreed with Apple to quadruple monthly shipments of its mobile AP chips to 20,000 sheets throughout this year from 5,000 last year". This information came from sources related to Samsung's suppliers.
According to Korea Times, that means that in 2011 a half of Samsung's mobile Application Processor chip capacity will be dedicated to Apple. Therefore, Apple becomes a bigger consumer of Samsung's chips that Samsung itself that produces similar chips for its smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablet.
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Sony unveiled its next-gen PSP and Android game store
Today at the media event in Tokyo Sony unveiled its next-gen PlayStation Portable that will challenge Apple's iOS as a game platform.
The device's codename is NGP (Next Generation Portable) and it was built around five concepts: Revolutionary UI, Location-based Entertainment, Social Connectivity and Converging Real and Virtual Reality. And here are the characteristics of the device according to Engadget:
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New iMacs in March
As far as we know, Apple pushes out a refreshed iMac every 8 months and a major update every 27 months. The last major update was in October 2009 and the last refresh was in July 2010. So, the iMac lineup is due for a refresh this March. The update will up-to-date the iMac, prepare it for Mac OS X Lion. Moreover, Apple is expected to start bringing the MacBook Air Solid State Drive (SSD) modules to the rest of the Mac family, will add the new Intel’s microarchitecture Sandy bridge to improve graphics and resolution on the 21.5" and 27" displays. Adding this option to the iMacs will improve the readability. Perhaps, Apple will also add an anti-glare option to their iMac display offerings. This will be a minor update, with a major one expected sometime around January 2012.
Readers Like Ads On The iPad More Than Its Print Versions
Dave Dickson from Adobe Digital Publishing blog published the results from another interesting survey that studied people's perception of different ads.
The research paper is entitled "Digital Ad Engagement: Perceived Interactivity as a Driver of Advertising Effectiveness" and was conducted by Alex Wang, Ph. D. at the University of Connecticut.
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