Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, April 25, 2008

LG Display aiming to mass produce 32-inch OLED TVs in 2011

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/276975047/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Oh yeah, we're mildly excited that LG Display should be able to start cranking out product from its 8G LCD plant earlier than expected, but the real kicker here is the outfit's outlook on OLED. Merely two days after hearing that Samsung was hoping to dish out affordable medium-to-large OLED displays in 2009 / 2010, we're now getting word that LG Display is looking to offer up a 32-incher the year after. And we're talking "volume production," no less. Makes holding off on that XEL-1 that much easier, doesn't it? Nah, we didn't really think so.

[Via OLED-Info]

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MIT researcher aims to understand language with Human Speechome Project

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/277103137/

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It's far from the first time a researcher has enlisted the help of his own family or kids, but MIT's Deb Roy's latest endeavor looks to be a bit more ambitious than most, as he's aiming to do nothing short of understand how children learn language. To do that, Roy and his wife installed 11 video cameras and 14 microphones throughout their house to record just about every moment of their son's first three years. That, obviously, also required a good deal of computing power, which came in the form of a temperature-controlled data-storage room consisting of five Apple Xserves and a 4.4TB Xserve RAID (you can guess why Apple's profiling 'em), along with an array of backup tape drives and robotic tape changes (and an amply supply of other Macs, of course). While the project is obviously still a work in progress, they have apparently already developed some new methods for audio and video pattern recognition, among other things, and it seems they'll have plenty of work to sift through for years to come, with the project expected to churn out some 1.4 petabytes of data by the end of year three.

[Thanks, Jeff]

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Nokia Internet Tablets to get Ubuntu and Qt ports

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/277323521/

Filed under: Handhelds

We've already seen Google's Android mobile OS get shoehorned onto Nokia N810 tablet, but it looks like the Internet Tablet OS is about to get even more flexible with ports of Ubuntu and the Qt toolkit. Nokia is acquiring Qt developer Trolltech, so it's no surprise the Qt is making the jump, but it looks like it'll be mostly a third-party-targeted framework, with the ITOS interface and bundled apps still using GTK+. Nokia told Ars Technica that it's exploring cross-platform possibilities between ITOS and Series60, and that it wants to see if GTK+ and Qt can coexist on the tablets like they do on the Linux desktop. That's pretty ambitious for a low-powered tablet, but we're all for more flexibility -- which seems to be in the cards with the Nokia-sponsored port of Ubuntu to ARM. Several pre-Hardy Heron versions have been ported and run off SD cards, if you're feeling adventurous -- we're not sure what the advantages are, but it's nice to know that Nokia's keeping things wide open.

[Via Digg]

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Sharp-Willcom D4 UMPC With Intel Atom Centrino, Vista Hits the States on June 20th [Umpc]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/277148344/sharp+willcom-d4-umpc-with-intel-atom-centrino-vista-hits-the-states-on-june-20th

If, for some reason, you were interested in picking up one of Sharp-Willcom's new D4 WS016SH UMPCs, the device will be available in the States starting on June 20th from GeekStuff4U. Personally, I would not be thrilled about dropping $1,526.33 on a device running Vista huffing and puffing with only a 1.33Ghz processor and 1GB or RAM—but to each his own. [GeekStuff4U via BGR]

Blockbuster's Prototype Stores Look Like Best Buy [Blockbuster Stores]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/277165552/blockbusters-prototype-stores-look-like-best-buy

If you ever drunkenly stumble into one of these prototype Blockbuster stores in Dallas, you'll wonder why Best Buy has stocked up on so many movies and ditched the inkjet printers. These proto stores, or storetotypes, lay out little kiosks in the middle and test interesting concepts that have a tenuous relationship to renting movies such as:

• Opening up at 6 a.m. for people to rent stuff on the way to work and not watch it until they go home, thus perhaps losing the desire they had to watch that movie in the first place
• Selling cappuccino or fountain drinks (like at 7-11)
• Giving away free Wi-Fi and Rock Band play sessions on a 62-inch TV.
• "Offering new technology for watching movies, reading books or shooting video at a Blockbuster." We're not sure what this means, but it's probably selling gadgets like Best Buy.

Good idea? Bad idea? It's hard to say right now. On the one hand, Blockbuster employees these days don't actually know anything about movies and don't roam the aisles helping you find something you'd like. They're just there restocking shelves and ringing you up, both jobs that could be done much better by a computer connected to a robotic arm. [Dallas News]