Samsung Readies 30-inch Display Port LCD Channel

Samsung’s latest 30-inch LCD panel sports a DisplayPort interface. The new Samsung panel can process 10 bits of color depth with 2560 x 1600 resolutions via a single DisplayPort interface. Current high-resolution 30-inch displays required dual-link DVI ports to drive such high resolutions.Samsung collaborated with Genesis Microchip Inc. to develop the 30-inch display with DisplayPort.

The new DisplayPort compatible display features a Samsung Super Patterned, Vertical Alignment, or S-PVA, display with 300 nits of brightness. The panel also features a 180-degree viewing angle. "We have received many inquiries from computer integrators interested in DisplayPort-based LCD panels, which prompted an acceleration of our R&D for this first DisplayPort LCD panel," said Brian Berkeley, vice president of Samsung's LCD business, in a statement to EETimes.The Video Electronics Standards Association, or VESA, previously approved the DisplayPort 1.1 standard last April. DisplayPort is set to replace LVDS, DVI and VGA interfaces for computer displays. Other DisplayPort supporters include AMD, NVIDIA, HP, Intel and Lenovo. Dell plans to offer DisplayPort-equipped displays later this year. Intel plans to integrate a native DisplayPort interface in its next-generation Eaglelake chipset.

Alienware Launches Solid State HDD Laptops

Solid-state hard drives, or SSDs, have finally emerged this year as viable, though expensive, products. The great benefit of SSDs is the fact that they are rather akin to giant blocks of ram—sturdy thanks to the fact they have no moving parts, power efficient because there's no motor needed to spin drive platters, and very fast since there's no issue of the drive spinning up to top speed and seeking for various bits of data. Alienware is apparently the first of the gaming PC makers to begin adding the drives to gaming laptops as it today announced the availability of both single and RAID 0 options for owners building mobile powerhouses. The Area-51 m9750, Aurora m9700, and Area-51 m5550 notebooks will each be available with SSD options. Only the m9750 and m9700 will have the option of a 64-GB dual drive RAID 0 array. These models will also be available with a 32-GB SSD and a 200-GB traditional HDD. Lucky owners of these new SSD based gaming notebooks will likely get some big performance gains in load times and battery life. The upgrade won't come cheap however, as a single 32-GB SSD drive adds $500 to the cost of an Alienware notebook, and the 64-GB RAID 0 arrangement $920

Panasonic cameras offer auto auto auto mode

Some subset of photographers would like a compact camera with lots of higher-end features and manual controls. But a vastly larger quantity want their cameras to take photos with the correct focus, exposure, white balance and other factors without having to do more than press the shutter button.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18(Credit: Panasonic)
Which is why Panasonic's three newest cameras, the Lumix FX-33, FX-55 and FZ18 are notable. For one thing, Panasonic is catching up with competitors such as Fujifilm and Canon by introducing face detection, which lets the camera guess more intelligently about what the photographer is trying to shoot and adjust settings accordingly. But more novel is what Panasonic calls Intelligent Scene Selector.
Intelligent Scene Selector, if switched on, replaces a common set of broad parameters that otherwise must be manually activated. It lets the camera take its best guess about whether the scene is one of five modes: portrait, landscape scenery, macro close-up, night scenery and night portrait, said Alex Fried, Panasonic's national marketing manager for imaging in North America. And when the camera is in portrait modes, it uses the face-detection technology for further refinement.
"All that takes place without touching a button," Fried said. "Consumers don't utilize scene modes to their fullest capability. A lot don't go that deep into the manual or into the menus."
All three of the new cameras feature the face detection and automatic scene selection as well as two earlier technologies, Panasonic's Mega OIS, which shifts the image sensor to counteract camera shake, and Intelligent ISO, which increases the camera's sensitivity to try to deal with moving subjects. Boosting ISO lets the camera use a shorter exposure to freeze action better, but it produces more off-color speckles called image noise.
Collectively, Panasonic calls the four features Intelligent Auto Mode. I suppose camera makers can be excused for attaching official names to their features, and now metafeatures, in the effort to distinguish their models from the herd. But I fear it causes brand exhaustion among camera buyers.
As my comrade Will Greenwald noted on our Crave blog, the three new cameras are 8-megapixel models due in September and sporting zoom ranges that begin at a nice 28mm wide angle. The FX33 and FX55 are smaller, with 3.6x zoom lenses and LCDs measuring 2.5 inches and 3 inches, respectively. The FZ18 has a huge 18x zoom range, a notch longer than the predecessor FZ8, which began at 35mm and spanned a 12x zoom range. And for control freaks, it offers manual control and raw image support, Fried said. Prices, in ascending order, are about $300, $350 and $400.

Kodak next-generation CMOS sensor in entry-level digicam

New sensor offers 2X to 4X improvement in light sensitivity thanks to a new colour filter.
In a surprise move, image company Kodak has decided to use its new revolutionary CMOS image sensor in an entry-level 5MP/3X-optical zoom digital camera.
Originally announced on June 14, the new KAC-05011 CMOS sensor adds new panchromatic or “all colour” pixels to the traditional red, green and blue pixels to allow the sensor to establish more accurate light levels for all three primary colours.
But while the new image sensor was originally described as “groundbreaking” in its initial press release, the company has decided to be its first customer but use the sensor in a low-cost budget entry-level digicam, the EASYSHARE C513.
Kodak’s rationale is that the C513 shows off exactly what the image sensor was designed to do – make a decent photographer out of anyone who can basically hold a camera.
Kodak hopes to also sell a truckload of these cameras, pricing it at a very competitive $US79.95.
Image size is 2592x1944-pixels and images are captured in JPEG format. In addition to the CMOS sensor, the C513 incorporate digital image stabilisation with shutter speed range of between ½ and 1/1400th second.

While the camera can also capture video, the specifications are below par for typical cameras these days with VGA (640x480-pixel) capture only at 15fps (frames per second) and QVGA (320x240-pixels) at 24fps. The C513 comes with 16MB of on-board flash storage but supports SecureDigital (SD) flash memory cards.
Taking advantage of the increase in high-definition widescreen televisions, the C513 in addition to capturing 5MP images, can also capture 1920x1080-pixel stills suitable for use on HD LCD televisions.
Power for the C513 is provided by two low-cost AA-size batteries. Alkalines are provided in the kit although we recommend you consider NiMH cells for added firepower and vesting lower running costs.
“The C513 provides consumers true value through easy-to-use and intuitive technology at an affordable price, thanks to the efficiencies that Kodak’s CMOS technology has brought to camera design,” said John Blake, General Manager, KODAK Digital Capture and Devices. “Traditionally, CMOS has allowed for lower cost camera design but was not able to provide top image quality. Kodak has changed that dynamic with the introduction of a digital camera at a remarkably affordable price without compromising image quality or camera function.”
The C513 comes with software for both Windows and Mac OS computers but requires at least Windows XP or Mac OS X 10.3 or newer operating systems.
The camera retails for $US79.95 and will be available in August 2007.

SONY NWD-B100 Series MP3 Walkman

This time the lipstick lookalike range is designed to be the easiest and most effortless way of transferring and storing music from your PC to your MP3 player. A new ‘Auto Transfer’ function allows you to load your fave tracks without the need for wires, just by plugging the NWD-B100 directly into your USB port and the tunes will automatically be loacted and transferred without any instruction from yourself. It will also search for the most recent downloaded tracks, so if the NWD-B100 is getting full it will replace the older tracks with the newly downloaded ones. And just to add the cherry to the cake, the NWD-B100 will also charge its battery whilst plugged

in to the USB port.

Searching for songs is a dodlle too, as tracks are displayed on the 3 line colour LCD display and are stored by song/album/artist or by file/folder.
The models which will be available vary in storage capacity and start with the NWD-B103/103F which has 1GB and can store upto 660 tracks and the NWD-B105/105F which has 2GB and can store upto 999 tracks. The NWD-B103F & B105F versions can record radio shows from the bult-in FM tuner, which is a fantastic added bonus (we think the F is for Fantastic). All models double up as voice recorders and can record voice memos and personal voice notes instead of having to search for a pen and paper as you will always have this handy device with you at all times, we guarantee it.
There is a 6-mode equaliser so you can alter the sound levels as you prefer, but the sound promises to be superbly crisp and dynamic without needing to.
The Sony NWD-B100 series comes in three trendy shades, black, white and violet and will be available from August 2007.