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Sony showcased some of their new OLED display panels at CES 2007 recently. The largest model is a super-slim 1080p 27 inch OLED TV at a mere 10mm or just over 1/3 inch deep. 

Sony says that the top 3 features of their OLED display are the 1:1000000 contrast ratio, 100% NTSC color gamut and a peak brightness of more than 600 cd per sq meter.

Also has a nice 10-bit color depth. And while Sony did not make note of it at CES, the pixel response time for OLED is outstanding & on the order of 0.01ms.

No word from Sonja on availability. Another thing worth waiting for, like the long-delayed SED TV.

About 2007 International CES – Sony Press Release, 2007 January 8   

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On the opening day at CES I went to see the keynote address from Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasuvuo. He’s a very professional, conservative looking gentleman who delivered a presentation that was anything but conservative. In between slides there were video interludes of hip teenagers who never stopped moving – even when communicating – to the backdrop of a pulsing club mix. Read the rest of this entry »

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Strategy Analytics took 7 well known music phones, threw them at 48 reviewers and asked for their opinions. In a bit of a surprise, the apparent experts voted for the Samsung SGH-A707, aka the SYNC,  as having the best combination of music quality, usability and style & design.

Another surprise was the poor showing of the Sony Ericsson W810i, as its generally well regarded as being a competent music phone. For another perspective, pls see Best of 2006: Music and Multimedia Phones - they seem to favor the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic.

Samsung Cingular SYNC Beats Mobile Music Competition - Strategy Analytics Press Release, January 3 2007

Posted in Phones ~ 3 Comments

Nokia introduced their new Internet Tablet, the model N800, at CES 2007 a couple of days ago. Compared to the predecessor product the N770, the N800 gets you a beefier processor (320 MHz, up from 250 MHz) and more memory – but the screen stays at a resolution of 800×480. Oddly, still no PDA/PIM functions.

We’re not huge fans of this type of device, but it works for some, if not many. If you’re a yoof, you might want to consider the Sony mylo - it’s not as corporate, but the screen’s not as nice.  

Take the internet to new places – the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet - Nokia Press Release, January 08 2007  

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Well, it was a long time coming, about 2 and a half years or so, but Apple finally announced their iPhone today. As expected the gadget combines a phone with a music player, but also throws email and Internet access into the equation as well as OS X.

The iPhone has a nice screen at 320×480 pixels; thin at 11.6mm or less than 1/2in; capacity at 4/8 GB.

The iPhone looks like another winner from Apple.

Reminiscent of the all-glass now-defunct BenQ Black Box and the LG/Prada KE850.

It’ll be interesting to see how well users warm to tactile-less virtual buttons and scroll-wheel-less navigation…not to mention the $499/$599 price tags.

Apple iPhone - product homepage

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Calorie Answer is a Japanese firm that markets a microwave oven-sized machine that provides a read-out of the estimated calories of the food placed in it. Model JK-CA1-R does that by shining near-infrared light (700-3000nm) on the food, measuring the reflectance spectrum to determine the amount of fat, sugar, protein, carbs and minerals and extrapolating by the weight of the sample. They claim an accuracy of plus or minus 10%. Marketing niche seems to be the health conscious, those who are concerned about diabetes, as well as specialty restaurants. 

Device developed to indicate the calorie levels of food- Mainichi Daily News, January 7 2007

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HP/Voodoo launched what is probably the world’s largest notebook computer today at CES 2007. The model HW:201 has a very large 20.1 inch screen, 2 two NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX video cards and is intended for gamers.

No word on price (expected to be high) or battery life (expected to be low). 

VoodooPC Introduces ENVY HW:201Gaming Notebook PC - Business Wire, January 8, 2007

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I just witnessed my father die at age 85 from the effects of smoking for many decades. Not a pretty picture. If you’re a smoker, you have my sympathies – its very difficult to quit. I have only trite platitudes to offer: cessation and early screening.

The standard treatments for lung cancer consist of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation – i.e. cut, poison & burn. While this approach does indeed prolong life for many, it had no efficacy in this particular case.

It’s difficult to know if/when/how to opt out of standard approaches. Things like thalidomide, Tarceva, dichloroacetate and Gleevec seem to offer some potential, but none of the attending oncologists offered/mentioned/suggested anything other then the standard treatments noted above.  

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Sharp has just announced the world’s largest LCD TV, measuring 108 inches diagonally.

The model 108V as its called, is a 2 mega-pixer with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels.

While the 108v is indeed larger than the Panasonic 103 inch Plasma TV that we made note of a while ago, its not quite as ginormous as the 110 inch rear-projection model from JVC. 

Developing the World’s Largest LCD TV - Sharp Press Release, 2007 1 8

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Frank Gehry, he of Guggenheim / Bilbao fame, is at it again. This time its the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute in Las Vegas. Like many of the famous architect’s recent buildings, the LRBI is decidedly not rectilinear, and could be described as naif and primitive, but not in a bad way. 

The Lou Ruvo Brain Institute is intended to treat those with Alzheimer, Huntington, Parkinson and ALS diseases – while the architect himself describes the building as comforting, others suggest that patients with those afflictions might find the unusual shapes to be disorienting.        

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