Today at an investor conference hosted by Goldman Sachs, Tim Cook had a few things to say about OLED, none of the them good. According to Cook, the color saturation on OLED displays are “awful” and that if you ever buy online and want to know the true color that you should “really think twice before you depend on the color from an OLED display”.

Cook then went to praise his company’s retina display as superior, and how it is twice as bright as OLED. Of course OLED is a new technology and will continue to evolve. For example, think back to the LCD technology of the early 90s and compare that to today.

It’s also worth noting that Apple recently hired an OLED expert from LG, so they clearly are interested in the technology despite his comments. Of course Steve Jobs tended to do a similar thing back in the day, where he would criticize a device and then Apple would release their own “superior” implementation. Marketing at its finest I suppose.

Cook also mentioned the idea of a larger-screened iPhone like rumors are claiming is in the works, stating that he wouldn’t comment on the company’s plans but then criticizing the competition for focusing only on size and specifications instead of creating “an amazing experience”.

What do you think of Tim Cook’s statements about phablets and OLED? Agree or not?

[ source ]

The post Tim Cook Says OLED Displays Are “Awful” appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

A huge shift is coming for the South Korean based company Samsung.  The Korea Times reports that Samsung is planning to focus on organic light emitting diode displays (OLED) and flexible plastic based displays in place of traditional liquid crystal displays (LCD) going forward.

The Korea Times also advises that Samsung is already working on the Galaxy S4 with plans of revealing it at February’s Mobile World Congress, which we have heard before.

As if that wasn’t enough in the rumor department, Korea Times also claims that Samsung is working on the Galaxy Note 3. Apparently the new phablet will increase the screen size even further, with a staggering 6.3 inch OLED display.

The OLED magic won’t end there. Samsung will also be selling a line of 55 inch OLED televisions starting next year.

“The global LCD industry is seeing signs of a major shift as Samsung is spending less on conventional LCDs. With money saved from LCD restructuring, the firm plans to spend more on OLED and flexible displays. Profitability is the top priority for Samsung’s display-making business next year,” an executive from a part supplier to Samsung said on Monday.

Keep in mind that this is all unofficial and should be taken with a grain of salt. Could this be the beginning of a major shift in display types?  Or is this all nothing but a rumor?

[ source ]

The post Samsung Gearing Up to Release Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 With OLED Display, says Rumor appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

How would you like to own a personal mobility transporter from Volkswagen that hovers a few feet above the ground? Sounds really exciting, right? Say hello to the new Hover Car design, one of three top concepts from the company’s crowd-sourced “People’s Car Project” (PCP).

Volkswagen started the project in China nearly a year ago and so far has inspired 119,000 unique ideas for possible products and technologies. Luca de Meo, Director of Marketing, Volkswagen Group, says, “The ‘People’s Car Project’ in China marks the beginning of a new era in automobile design. We are no longer just building cars for, but also with customers and at the same time initiating a national dialog which gives us a deep insight into the design preferences, needs and requirements of Chinese customers“.

Among the three ideas that were selected, the Hover Car is the most exciting maybe because it brings back memories of Marty McFly’s hoverboard. According to Volkswagen, the Hover Car is an all-electric two-seat city car that can hover above the ground and utilizes electromagnetic roadways to move around. So it’s eco-friendly as well, and the car also features distance sensors to prevent collisions with other vehicles.

The second concept is the Music Car which has exterior OLED lights for creating light shows in tune to the music played inside. But that design most likely will never be applied to cars anytime in the future. The third concept, Smart Key, is that of a vehicle key equipped with a touchscreen that will display information about the car, such as fuel level, climate conditions and security.

After seeing the strong response to the project, Volkswagen is saying that the program will be sponsored indefinitely. They might extend it into other markets as well. But although they are interested in a few ideas from the PCP, the company will always have the ultimate say about which all models enter production.

As de Meo said, “In a long-term context, the findings of the ‘People‘s Car Project’ will influence Volkswagen’s product strategy. The design of our models will, however, continue to reflect the tradition of the Volkswagen brand. If at some time in the future we are to produce a vehicle from the ‘People’s Car Project’, it will be a combination of customers’ opinions and brand tradition“.

The following video is in Chinese, but you can take a closer look at the Hover Car.

The post Volkswagen Hover Car Concept (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

As great as touchscreens may be, they are inherently rigid and must take on a completely flat form. Or do they? Atmel is challenging that notion with the development of its XSense bendable touchscreen technology, flexing its way around all kinds of surfaces.

The obvious application would include tablet and smartphone devices that can then have curved edges and other kinds of designs, but Atmel is quick to point out that the possibilities are limitless. You can create interesting wristwatches with full touchscreen tech, as well as wraparound coffee-maker displays. The tech itself is a flexible, film-based touch sensor that is ultra-thin. I’d imagine that combining XSense with flexible OLED display tech could make for some gorgeous products. Looking at the video, edgeless displays are a distinct possibility.

Atmel isn’t exactly new to this game either, having contributed to the touchscreens of devices like the Galaxy Note. Even so, I almost feel like this is a product pitch that belongs on Dragons’ Den or Shark Tank. “Today, dragons, I’d like to present to you an idea I have for flexible touchscreen technology. I am prepared to offer 5% of my company in exchange for $200,000.”

[Source via Atmel]

The post Atmel’s XSense Flexible Touchscreen Tech Has All The Right Curves appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

He’s a cognitive science researcher and this has been a hobby interest of his for several years. Jansen first began work on the project in 2007, sparked by curiosity and looking to spark curiosity in others. With the second-generation model, he has loaded up a couple of OLED resistive touchscreens and plenty of sensors.

The new Tricorder can measure temperature, humidity, magnetic fields, atmospheric pressure, color, ambient light level, GPS location, and distance to an object. It’s actually pretty advanced and it all runs on Debian Linux. Power comes by way of six AAA batteries. Even better, Jansen is offering up the whole project for free for others to attempt. The schematcs are available through a TAPR non-commercial hardware license and the source code is available under GPL.

[Source]

The post Live Your Geeky Fantasies With Real Working Star Trek Tricorder appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It appears like the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds are getting thinner and thinner. Microsoft’s Applied Sciences team has shown off their prototype 3D desktop which allows you to interact with the objects on a transparent screen with something called “view-dependent, depth-corrected gaze”.

The team has been studying what things they can do with a transparent Samsung OLED screen and Microsoft’s Kinect technology, along with some special software. What they have come up with is a virtual desktop which can be manipulated with the hands in real-time.

As you will see in the video clip below, there is a keyboard behind the transparent screen which does the same job as your normal computer keyboard. But to interact with the desktop, instead of using a mouse, you just have to reach up and manipulate the virtual objects with your fingers. What makes this possible is the Kinect tech.

The Kinect sensors will track where your hand is and at the same time will also detect your head and eye position for delivering a 3D image with depth and perspective based on your position. But sometimes a short clip is better than a thousand words. So check out the video below and don’t forget to place your thoughts below.

Head here to stay updated about all the things from MWC 2012.

The post Microsoft’s Transparent 3D Desktop (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Ahnood’s system uses solar cells in the screens to harness some of this lost energy. This system currently has only about an 11% efficiency, far from what is needed to make this technology worthy of helping expand battery life, but it is a start.

Anhood believes that this efficiency can eventually be increased with further research, to a point that this could improve the average battery life for a smartphone by several hours. He believes the efficiency can be increased significantly, to the point where this system could extend battery life by a few hours. If this technology proves cheap and efficient enough, even thirty or forty more minutes would be a welcome addition for most smart phones out there. And who wouldn’t want a solar cell in their phone?

[ source ]

The post Arman Ahnood’s OLED Solar Cell Screen Could Expand Your Battery Life appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

OLED displays look quite amazing compared to traditional LCDs. And that’s why it’s awfully enticing to hear that Apple could soon be dabbling in the world of Organic Light Emitting Diods for many offerings within their product range.

Three patents from Steve Jobs and his team have been leaked on the Internet, revealing Cupertino’s intention to implement OLED displays on everything from iPads and iPods to MacBooks and possibly even Apple TVs. Having OLED on a phone or media player is nothing new, but seeing it on a tablet would be great. Having it on a notebook would be even better.

But that leaves us wondering about the possibility of an OLED Apple TV. Could this mean that the Apple TV could soon be, well, an actual television? Somewhere between a Cinema Display and the current Apple TV is… and OLED iTV?

Well, these are just patents and we’re probably getting way ahead of ourselves. Unless there really is “one more thing” just around the corner.

[Giz via Patently Apple]

The post Could Apple switch to OLED within MacBooks and iPads? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Far be it for me to call myself an expert in the field of manufacturing, but you have to admit that Samsung is doing some rather interesting things these days. We’ve already seen the flexible AMOLED, but how about a display that comes off an inkjet printer? How about one that measures 19-inches?

As odd as it may sound, that’s precisely what Samsung has been able to achieve. Apparently, the Korean firm was showing off a 19-inch AMOLED TV prototype “made using a printing method.” More specifically, the company says it’s using an “inkjet method” for its production.

I imagine this is still quite different from you printing off some family photos, but it does demonstrate some revolutionary manufacturing techniques. Seiko Epson had a 14-inch OLED panel last year, but the Samsung unit today beats it out in almost every respect.

That said, it’s still not up to snuff with regular LCDs just yet. The active matrix OLED only has a resolution of 960 x 540, which is about a quarter of full 1920×1080 HD. It also only has 16.77 million colors with an 8-bit color scale, 58ppi resolution, and 200cd/m2 luminance. On the bright side (no pun intended), it’s only 4mm thick.

I dig the super high contrast that AMOLED is able to provide. If Samsung can up the ante with the resolution (and bring the price down on a per unit basis), this tech could expand well beyond its smartphone line and they’ll be practically printing money. [TechOn]

The post Samsung prints 19-inch AMOLED display with inkjet printer appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Are you tired of taking your phone out of your pocket just so that you can check up on your Twitter stream or skip to the next music track? Sony Ericsson thinks you are and that’s why they’ve announced the new LiveView gadget. It’s about the size of a watch face and it comes with a wrist strap. You can kind of figure out where they think you should put it, right?

Basically, the Sony Ericsson LiveView is a Bluetooth external cell phone screen that pushes most of the functionality from your phone onto its 1.3-inch OLED display. You can read RSS, check Facebook, and do whatever else without ever taking your phone out of your pocket. If you’re not the wrist watch type, it can also be clipped onto your clothing like the new iPod nano.

For controls, it has a touch-sensitive bezel and physical buttons on the corners. I don’t think it has anything in terms of a microphone or speaker, though, so you don’t quite get the James Bond watchphone experience. Based on how watch phones have been doing these last couple of years, that might be a good thing. I think I’d still rather just use my phone as-is though.

The LiveView should be compatible with smartphones running Android 2.0+, so long as the app you’re using is designed for this interface. You’ll need the Sony Ericsson LiveWare Manager app from Android Market too. Look for it in Q4.

[Live View product page via Wired]

The post Sony Ericsson LiveView extends your phone to a nano-like display appeared first on Mobile Magazine.