Writing a review for an iPad is a very hard task, especially after the wonderful reviews put in by Stephen Fry and Walt Mossberg, but here’s my attempt:

It’s such a brilliant device that I can’t imagine how I lived without it till now.

It is the electronic device I have been waiting so long for someone to invent for me.

It is a truly personal device. You can curl up with it in bed, you can carry it along with you to boring meetings, you can relax on the sofa with it, you could even carry it to the loo (though I haven’t dared to till now).

I had to wait a long interminable week after it was launched to see it getting delivered to me in all it’s glory. The un-boxing ritual that you undergo with most Apple products was hurried and frantic (but well captured for posterity), as I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it’s luminous screen.

The moment I switched it on, I had fallen in love with it for the umpteenth time.

All those glowing reviews not withstanding, I had been apprehensive that the moment would come and go and I would be underwhelmed. But the iPad had other plans for me.

Let’s go over the few things I can talk about in a coherent manner:

* Browsing – Like Steve Jobs said – It’s the internet in your hands. Believe the guy. Nothing can prepare you for the moment that you take it out and start browsing the web with it. The entire world ceases to exist. You find yourself lost in the interweb. The device itself functions as if it was created to make the web more personal.
All the normal sites you visit have no need to re-skin themselves for tiny screens anymore. Your sites render in their full versions, and are very usable from the get-go. The iPhone paradigm of tap to focus/zoom works as expected, but you don’t have to use it as much with the bigger screen. Scrolling, changing orientation etc. is so smooth and fast, you wonder how the device can do it while sipping minimal power.
On the negative side – when using multiple windows, it does annoy the hell out of you to switch windows and then revisit your previous ones to see them getting reloaded again.

* Apps – In sheer numbers, the apps store is disappointing, but there are more apps coming up as I write.
A few personal favourites are -

• iBooks (Free) is of course a no-brainer. The store-front and shopping experience is great, but the collection unfortunately isn’t. Apple says they are working on it. The reading experience is good (notice I did not say great). With the right levels of brightness, you can even read semi-comfortably at night with the lights off, though with the backlit iPad, it does strain your eyes a bit more than a Kindle would. This can easily be overcome, and I found myself enjoying the experience.
• With the app supporting the open ePub format, you can get non-DRMed books from multiple places to read on it.
• It also has some nice features like double tap to select, look up in dictionary, change the font, background light etc.
• Kindle (Free) – The bookstore with the most books in it is a must-have. The wide collection of e-books in their (unfortunately) proprietary format gives you the option to leave your tomes behind. The app though, is quite pedestrian. The features included are not enough, and it doesn’t seem like they tried to go any further than the Kindle device itself can manage.
• Amazon needs to rectify this fast. They have to realize the irony – the iPad is the best Kindle in the market. It is what the Kindle itself should have been.
• Epicurious (Free) – Huge database of recipes with the right search functions. For people who love to cook, this is a must-have.
• NYT Editor’s choice, WSJ, Bloomberg, NPR, USA Today (Free and paid upgrades) – Great news apps. Mostly US centric.
• Sundry Notes(was School Notes Pro) (Free) – Nice utility to jot notes, draw stuff, record memos etc.
• Tweetflow/Twitterific (Free) – For twitter fanatics, these should be good stream readers, as they allow for opening links in their own application, thus maintaining their state. I had tried Tweetdeck too, but found it too buggy in it’s initial versions.
• Games – Harbor Master, Table Checkers, Labyrinth, Sudoku Tablet, Air Hockey Gold (Free and paid upgrades) – These are the ones that have been able to amuse me for a week.
• Voice Memos for iPad – The essential recording utility which was surprisingly missing from the base OS.
• Comic Zeal ($7.99) – For anyone who has a large collection of CBZ/CBR comics, this is an easy choice. With iTunes syncing you no longer need to view compressed images anymore. You can see your comics at their original level of detail and can zoom in to admire the artwork.
• Marvel Comics (Free) – A way more better app than Comic Zeal in terms of the way it has been thought out. To be fair, they have the rights to all the original comics and can re-format them for any medium. So for the iPad, you have the never-before option of reading comics one panel at a time, to admire the artwork as well as preventing the misfortune of knowing the suspense as soon as you turn the page.
• and a few other notable ones – Offline Pages, Cogs HD, Evernote, Dragon Dictation, Air Video and IMDB

* Form factor, feel – The iPad looks slim and sexy, as do all Apple products.

It also feels solidly built, with no flimsy parts.

The biggest drawback is of course the weight. It doesn’t strike you as an issue until you have held it for a while. Especially for night-time reading. I guess Apple ended up compromising on the weight to provide the superior battery life. The weight of the device is essentially that of the batteries.

* Battery Life – 10+ hours is an understatement if you set the screen to glaring brightness. I have managed to get more than 14 hours regularly.
Many users have reported 11-12 hours of battery life with it’s Wifi on, video playing the whole time, and a mid-level brightness setting.
Moreover, the opt-in battery replacement program that Apple runs for the iPad is truly innovative. They will replace your iPad when it cannot retain it’s charge anymore.

* Limitations -
Flash free -
The much ballyhooed issue with Flash not being supported is not much of an issue for me personally, but I can see it being a huge issue for people whose lives are incomplete without games like Farmville. Major game developers (including Farmville’s creator Zynga) have said they are looking at creating iPad compatible sites, but the wait could be a long one.
Most of the sites hosting videos (including YouTube) have created flash-free versions of their sites.

For me, Flash has mostly been associated with intrusive ads, and I am not too upset to see it banished from my screen.

Virtual Keyboard -
Lots of people have apprehensions about using a virtual keyboard for all sorts of input. Though I can imagine it being a limitation for a phone sized device like the iPhone; for the larger screen that the iPad provides, the keyboard is surprisingly usable.

In portrait mode, I could do a hunt and peck to type quite fast, and with practice, I believe I can soon touch-type in the landscape mode.

Multi-tasking -
know, I know – someone’s going to talk about the multi-tasking and how it’s a pain to have only one application running at any point of time (except for the music app which can run in the background).

iPhone OS 4.0 is on it’s way to fix multi-tasking, but believe me when I say – The experience is nowhere as annoying as it is on the iPhone. With the larger screen, Apple has come up with a few tricks of it’s own to make it a trivial matter while doing normal stuff like browsing multiple windows.

* Accessories -

Apple doesn’t ship any accessories with the iPad, not even headphones!
The iPad Case accessory is something everyone should get. My only complaint with it is that it hides the great looking aluminium back of the iPad. It is also cumbersome to get the iPad in and out of the case. But the case does have a few essential benefits:

• It allows you to use the on-screen virtual keyboard in a comfortable fashion while sitting
• You can watch videos on the iPad by making a stand from the case
• Gives access to all essential buttons
• and most importantly, it protects your iPad from accidental damage and careless storage

I haven’t tried out the other accessories, but the Keyboard Dock or Camera Connection Kit (which has just started shipping) did not enthuse me.

I have an Apple wireless keyboard, and it was child’s play to couple it with the iPad. Since that keyboard is usable both with my regular iMac as well as the iPad, it was an easy choice to stay away from the keyboard dock.

Conclusion - It truly is an awesome device, and I can see it taking over the role of a laptop for a large number of users who use their laptops primarily to consume media. It’s a great device to use on the commute, boring shopping trips, and going anywhere that involves waiting, twiddling your thumbs.

Chip Turkey pointed out that malware is not the only thing that wreaks havoc in the digital world. They went on to highlight the problems that spyware can cause for the unwary user, especially if they bank and shop online using a credit card. Chip Turkey stated that Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 was a lifesaver in this respect as it not only provided regular antivirus protection, but also included a comprehensive range of advanced security features that guards the users’ personal data from cyberthreats of any kind.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 incorporates a Safe Run mode based on innovative new Sandbox technology – a unique feature amongst Internet Security Suites. Safe Run enables the user to run suspect software in an isolated, virtual environment that protects the operating system against all types of malicious damage. Statistically, it has been demonstrated that vulnerabilities in operating systems and trusted applications are often exploited by hackers to attack applications that make use of the Internet.

Few phones have endeared themselves as much to us in recent times as the KS 360 has. For its design, ingenuity and great screen, it does deserve a lot of kudos. Unfortunately, skimping on the processor for such a loaded phone does cost it speed.

Design
Slider phones are nothing new. But a slider that is horizontal and not vertical is always interesting. I-mate had a similar model that had a good run and not since that Windows Mobile device have we been as impressed with a phone of this form factor.

Solid and well built, despite its additional layer of the keyboard, the phone never feels bulky or ungainly. What’s more, the slider operates effortlessly and switches the screen layout to landscape almost instantly.

The top of the phone has a large 2.4-inch screen that also functions as touch-screen for select purposes: finding contacts, dialing numbers and well, that’s it! This is where the phone misses a physical keypad on the front. Searching through numbers can prove to be a painful task. You’re best served doing this through the main keyboard.

The top panel also offers a four-way navigation key cluster. The keys are a bit hard initially, but with enough use, they can offer good tactile feedback. The build of these did leave something to be desired, though. Rubbery and placsticky at the same time, they aren’t the most user-friendly.

There are an additional six keys that let you access the menu, make and cut calls, activate the touch screen keypad and delete text or numbers entered on the screen.

Coming to the main QWERTY keypad, this is where the phone leaps into another realm. Great tactile feedback, build quality and feature set means that you will rarely want to use the set of keys on the front. Also well marked is the navigation key set that is activated in combination with the Fn key. Not very easy, but it does look like there wasn’t much choice about this.

At 116 gms, this is a light phone with a power-packed design set that makes you want to use it. In fact, the phone wouldn’t look out of place alongside many of the more expensive Windows Mobile or Symbian smartphones.

The Review
Honestly, we weren’t sure what to expect from an LG phone. They’ve always looked great, but we have had cause to complain in the past. And not without reason.

The KS360, though, surprised us. The UI was incredibly easy to master and almost made Nokia look bad. The excessive use of colors for the various icons was the one put off we had, but that’s more to do with personal taste.

The amount of customization possible in the phone is also impressive. There are still a lot of phones out there that won’t let you change the default font, for example. Or the size. The KS 360 lets you do both. It employs a powerful and clear speakerphone. The antenna is a strong one… the phone was easily able to capture a signal even in basements!

Usability-wise, the QWERTY keypad is excellent and easy to operate, the buttons are well spaced, clearly labeled, backlit and – while they can feel a little stiff initially. Flying over the keyboard will take a while, but it’s not that difficult. Smart integration of a lockable Fn key also means numbers are easily accessed and the four-way arrow keys allow for easy navigation and editing of text.

In addition, smartly thought out softkeys in the top left and right corners of the keyboard mean navigating the various menus quickly and with less effort. In short, if you are buying this phone primarily for its keyboard and messaging ability, you won’t be disappointed.

While all these are impressive aspects, the thing that is disappointing is the 22 MB phone memory, which is very small even if there is the inclusion of a microSD expansion slot with support of up to 4GB.

We believe that this lack of memory slows down the phone no end since you do define the memory card as the default storage destination.

Connectivity on the KS360 is well sorted with Bluetooth V2.0 that is responsive making the transfer of data fast and easy but the major problem is one of data or the music is stored in the phone memory and then it needs to be shifted to the external memory so 22 MB will always cerate a problem

As for the camera, it is fixed focus but its two-megapixel shots are certainly above average and decent quality images can be produced in fair lighting conditions. It does miss autofocus and digital zoom badly, though. Video recording is also available on the KS360 for up to 4.30 minutes at about 320×240.

One thing that was a little disappointing was the MP3 player. It’s not totally bad, and the audio is pretty good even outdoors, but for a serious music lover, it may come up short even as a back-up music device. The headphones certainly don’t add to the phone’s good list with a very low-quality feel – looks-wise and audio-wise!

Internet browsing is fast in general using GPRS but the page display doesn’t offer the full-web feel that one gets on an iPhone or even the Windows Mobile phones. Perhaps the addition of Opera may help?

This is one aspect that all major manufacturers need to look at. The user manual. Why not make it simple? Why not give step-by-step instructions? For instance, there are little or no instructions about PC suite for first time users. And you will require the latest version of WMP for transferring music.

We like:
• Shortcut key to new massage window.
• Shortcut bar on the screen
• Different languages setting including Hindi
• Flight mode option
• Moving display wallpaper and themes
• world clock
• FM Radio

We don’t like:
• The games in the phone are not that impressive, infact very boring.
• Lack of documentation
• Low internal memory
• No autofocus for camera

Conclusion
In short, the LG KS 360 is a good trendy phone with all the necessary features. There is, however, a bit of an identity crisis: it is neither a full-fledged business phone (which the keyboard can allow it to be) nor is it a full-fledged entertainment phone (the poor music players prevents it) It isn’t a great phone for gamers either (the hardware is built to support) since games provided are very boring!

Priced at about Rs 11,500, it is a fair ask for the features it offers. It can move faster if the price were brought down to about Rs 9,000, though!

Rating:
Looks and Design: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Features: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Ease of use: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Value for money: Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Overall: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The study is believed to be the first to systematically analyze the impact of product reviews in The Wall Street Journal column. The researchers identified and analyzed “abnormal returns,” meaning those returns that were over and above the normal rises and falls the firms would see in the market during the period following the reviews. The findings, recently published in Marketing Science, have significant implications for business leaders, investors and policy makers.

“When introducing new products, managers are often in a rush to market new products to beat out the competition. In doing so, they follow the logic of ‘It’s more important to be first than to be better,’” said co-author Professor Gerard Tellis from the USC Marshall School of Business. “This research proves that the successful business motto should be, ‘It’s better to be better than to be first.’”

“Because this study proves a negative product review can cause firms to suffer losses from which it might be difficult to recover, firms should wait to ensure that their products are good or very good before introducing them,” said Joseph Johnson, co-author and assistant professor of marketing at the University of Miami School of Business Administration.

A study published in the Journal of Business in 1991 found that the cumulative abnormal returns for all new products reviewed in the Mossberg column were on average .82 percent. Therefore, the results of this new study show that the premium for good quality (10 percent gain) and the penalty for poor quality (5 percent loss) are significantly higher than that for the average new product. This is a further indication that firms have much to gain by not rushing inferior products to market.

The researchers also found that the extent to which a firm’s stock price is impacted by a product review in Mossberg’s column depends upon the size of the firm. Small firms gained more from a positive product review than larger firms. And small firms were penalized less after a negative review than larger firms.

“This asymmetry occurs because investors react to news that surprises them,” said Johnson. “When the product of a small firm gets a positive review, investors are surprised – more so than they would be after a positive review about a larger firm’s product – so the stock price gets a significant boost. When the product of a large firm gets a negative review, investors are surprised, and the large firm’s stock price suffers more so than that of a small firm after a negative product review,” said Johnson.

Looks and Design Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Few phones in this form factor have ever been released and the greatest utility the ‘communicator’ form of Nokia offers is the full keyboard. The E90 builds on its predecessors, the 9300 and 9300i (with Wi-Fi) and makes it mighty comfortable to use the keyboard.

One immediate reaction that I got from most people who saw the phone was that while it was definitely beautiful, it didn’t exactly have the “wow factor” that perhaps an iPhone does or even the RAZR did when it was initially launched. But it does help to remember that this is a business phone and its users aren’t exactly looking to wow with the phone’s looks alone.

The E90 has a front panel with a standard keypad and a slightly larger five-way key than earlier communicators. The action keys to the side of these are however a little small and can be missed if you aren’t sure where they exactly are. A minor blemish to an otherwise good design.

The front panel screen is just as good as the internal one and with well-placed buttons on either side, it is a good phone to use. The camera button is to the bottom right of the phone and one needs to turn the phone on the side to use the camera.

Opening the phone reveals a full keyboard with shortcuts to access basic programs like Contacts, Messaging, Web, Notes and so on. The E90 also offers two customisable menu keys that can be programmed to launch any program or function. Useful! One major change to this part of the phone is the reduction of keys from the right of the screen from four to two on either side. Of these, the two on the left are answer and end call while the two on the right are contextual and change with the program in use. Unfortunately, the increased size of the phone makes these keys slightly out of reach as compared to previous models and I had to stretch a bit extra to reach these when holding the phone on my palm.

UI and Functionality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

A bit like showing light to the sun, calling the E90 UI impressive is an understatement! Ease of use is built in very well and a huge improvement over previous editions is the larger size of buttons. But the real improvement is the S60 interface.

With basic office functions well built, emailing is a breeze. One the front panel, there are configurable buttons and the optional Active Desktop as well. You could turn this off to make the down arrow navigation key take you to the contacts or any other feature of your choice. Otherwise, the down arrow key will navigate through the active desktop option.

One feature that you cannot remove is the W-LAN scan. This can be turned off to preserve battery but it is a little strange that this can’t be removed.

Email set-up is a breeze and like with all features, one needs to open the mailbox fully to read mails. In a split-screen mode, the phone only displays the headers. Not so user-friendly, but in a short while, you will get used to it!

The signal catching capability of the E90 is impressive to say the least. Where other phones were struggling to catch a signal, the E90 stayed afloat. Even during roaming usage, the battery consumption was not as bad as I thought. One of the things about the battery consumption that I did notice was that it died rather quickly on a couple of occasions after extended periods of browsing. And the fall in battery strength was rather sudden too. Perhaps this is more a visual bug than an actual functionality bug, but it can be alarming.

One interesting insight was provided to me by a gentleman at an airport. He walked up asking for a charger and was cursing the battery life no end! After an extended discussion, he conceded that the 9250i, his previous phone, performed far better. My guess is that he had not turned off the W-LAN scanner!

One of the biggest additions to the E90 is the camera. An absolute brilliant one at that too! Take a look at the sample gallery and you’ll know what I mean. I have seen some good cameras on enterprise-level phones (the BlackBerry Pearl for example), but this beats them all hollow. If only the button positioning was better.

Overall Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Do you have Rs 34,500? Do you need a business phone? Don’t think twice. Just go for it. Remember some of the negatives, though: heavy, slightly bulky and can take some getting used to especially if you haven’t used one before. I will wait for the price to fall further!

Image Gallery (more to come)

And there was something about an iPhone competitor too… Anyway, this one will be available from Q4 07 in ‘select’ markets but the price was not immediately known.

Full details…

Sony Ericsson’s new K770 Cyber-shot™ phone, announced today, is a digital camera, a photo album and an elegant phone all in-one. Still a phone first and foremost, it allows you to send and share your photos as soon as you’ve taken them.
At just 14.5mm slim and finished in a fashionable Truffle Brown, the K770 can take pictures as good as a standalone digital camera; pictures can be printed up to A4 size. The camera can also be used for video and comes with a powerful photo light for indoor photo-taking and filming. As with all Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot™ phones, ‘ease of use’ sits at the heart of the experience. To take a picture, just slide open the lens cover, find your subject and shoot.

“The best moments in life always seem to happen when you don’t have a camera,” says Helene Barnekow, Head of Central Marketing at Sony Ericsson. “If you like the idea of having a snapshot camera on your phone, and want shots that look good in your family album, then the K770 is perfect.” Barnekow continues, “The real beauty of the K770 is that you can let your friends and family share your experiences. Once you’ve captured the moment, it’s easy to print the picture or upload it immediately to your personal on-line gallery.”

Great results

Capturing the perfect picture is easy with the K770 Cyber-shot™ phone. Just slide open the lens cover and you’re ready. Once in camera mode the 1.9inch screen becomes the viewfinder, the Cyber-shot™ based menu becomes visible and you’ll also see eight lit icons appear across the phones keypad. These serve as 1-click shortcuts to each of the camera’s key functions, such as picture size and photo light.

If you take a spontaneous snapshot and the light conditions are poor, simply select Photo fix for PC-free photo editing on your phone.

Shared instantly

The most direct way to share your photos is perhaps through a slide show on the K770’s screen. When you want to show them to people that are not around, though, you can post your pictures to your own ‘blogsite’ or on-line gallery. Share the web site address to share your photos.

If you want to transfer photos swiftly from the K770 Cyber-shot™ phone to your PC or laptop, then simply use the USB Cable provided in-box to drag and drop them from one to the other. Alternatively, if you prefer to print your pictures, the 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus delivers picture quality that is good enough to print your photo out at upto A4 size (297mm x 210 mm). You can even connect your K770 direct to a printer using PictBridge™ for PC-free printing.

Expect more

The K770 is about much more than just camera features. Supporting Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™), the K770 comes with a 256 MB memory card that lets you store up to 200 photos of the best quality. Peruse your photo album whilst listening to your favourite music tracks on the in-built media player. Or tune in to the FM radio with RDS that seeks out clear reception when you’re on-the-move.

With all of this music at your fingertips, it’s worth investing in a Stereo Bluetooth Headset that will stream music wirelessly from your phone and let you enjoy your favourite songs hands-free. The Stereo Bluetooth™ Headset HBH-DS200 can be auto-paired with the K770 and offers up to 6 hours of talktime or music listening time.

The K770 Cyber-shot™ phone is all about understated style. It’s a discreet, grown-up looking phone that slips neatly into your pocket or bag. Yet when you need it there is a digital camera on-board that can give results as good as you expect from a digital camera.

The K770 is a GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 and UMTS 2100 phone that will be available in Truffle Brown in selected markets from autumn 2007.

The ideal solution for many would obviously be if they could get this done online. Since most digital photos do end up on the computer, it is only logical. But investing in a printer of photo quality may not be everyone’s cup of tea. So a big (although slightly premature) welcome to Zoomin!

Zoomin is perhaps India’s second chance for an online photo delivery system. There were some abandoned efforts by Kodak to launch Ofoto about four years ago but that amounted to nothing. Whether Zoomin works will also depend on how easy the interface and transaction processes are but more importantly, can users do more than just order prints? Yes they can and I think this will be one of the biggest advantages that Zoomin offers. In fact, you can import your photos from a couple of the most popular services like Flickr and Picasa and order prints!

As is the trouble with most online entities, people won’t sign up for the same service in ten places (unless it’s social networking we are talking about!) and the import function that Zoomin offers therefore becomes all the more important. It’s simple and you just need to ignore Flickr’s warning that it may be unwise to allow Zoomin access!

Once imported, you can also edit the photos and place your order. I was quite impressed with the range of editing features on offer and the buying process was quite simple as well. And there are other photosharing options as well which means you won’t really miss Flickr too much. Nah, we didn’t mean that!

While no launch date has been specified, and the site still seems to be in internal beta, it does seem like they will offer 15 free 4×6” prints with the first order. This, however, may change as the launch date approaches. Costs are now available on the site and a 4×6” print will cost Rs 4, while a 5×7” will cost Rs 7, an 8×10” Rs 40 and four 2×3” Rs 20. The prices for the first two items are really competitive but for the 8×10”, they seem a little steep. There is no indication yet as to where the photos are going to be printed.

The good part is that Zoomin will deliver even one photo (they didn’t object to me not including more in my order) but it’s best if you have more than that in your order since the shipping (courier) charges are Rs 25 and my order for one photo was coming up to Rs 28.12. Same cost of shipping for 20 prints too! You can do the math.

This was a long-overdue service for India and can perhaps make it easier for people to own and use digital cameras while also giving them the advantages of traditional photography thanks to the prints.

Tags: Zoomin, online photo printing, photosharing, order prints

Mobile phones now integrate larger, higher resolution displays, high spec baseband processors, and increasingly advanced system LSI, shaping an environment increasingly able to support complex software and games. However, the performance of graphics LSI has lagged that of overall system development, and current chips render images at only a few millions of polygons a second. This low level performance has held back development of complex games for mobile phones, add the porting to mobile phones of games developed for other platforms.

Toshiba’s new chip integrates a new developed 3D graphics processor that achieves 38 times*2 the performance of existing products. Its extremely advanced capabilities open the way to further development of software applications of mobile phones. The new chip is also compatible with programmable shader*3, and its advanced rendering capabilities will bring realistic shading and reflectivity to mobile phones for the first time.

Alongside the new 3D graphics processor, the new LSI also integrates Toshiba’s “Media Embedded Processor” (MeP) to handle sound, a host processor, a WVGA LCD controller for wide-screen displays, and brings all the essential components of a game console onto a single chip dedicated to enhancing mobile phone game performance.

With the launch of the high performance TC35711XBG, Toshiba will contribute to further development in games for mobile phones, while reinforcing its position as a technology and market leader in advanced LSI.

*Footnotes:

1. In terms of pixels, it can render 800 mega-pixels a second.
2. Compared with Toshiba’s existing product, TC35296XBG, which offers a high performance of 2.6 mega-polygons a second.
3. The latest programmable technology for 3D graphics which brings realistic shading.

Tags: cell phone tech, toshiba, LSI, 3D

The materials were developed through a project announced last year with the United States Display Consortium (USDC), a public-private partnership chartered with developing the supply chain for the flat panel display industry, and in collaboration with the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University (ASU FDC), an industry-government-academic collaborative venture focused on developing advanced high information content flexible displays and associated materials and manufacturing technology.

Honeywell’s material enhances the amount of visible light that passes through the display while only absorbing less than 1 percent of the light. In addition, Honeywell’s material achieves smoothness, also known in the industry as planarity, in excess of 90 percent. As a result, the color uniformity of the display is improved. Additionally, initial manufacturing results, supported by operational models, show cost of ownership decreased by 10 percent or greater.

“Honeywell was able to leverage its existing technology and experience used in semiconductor material production in a way that addresses critical challenges facing the flat panel display industry,” said Peter Smith, display business director for Honeywell Specialty Materials. “Our collaboration with the USDC and ASU’s FDC Pilot Line Team has led to a new offering will help drive industry growth by making displays more rugged and cheaper to manufacture.”

The new materials are specifically focused on overcoming the challenges of planarization, or smoothing, encountered in fabricating thin film transistors for flexible display applications, long a focus of the USDC members and technical council.

Thin film transistors are a critical component of flat panel displays, which are commonly used in notebook and laptop computers. Flat panel displays are comprised of an array of pixels which together create an image on the display. Thin-film transistors act as switches to individually turn each pixel on or off. Planarization is critical for creating the uniformly flat surfaces necessary during the production of these transistors.

The new materials address planarization in order to enable flexible displays to realize their promise of information displays that are ultrathin, lightweight, and intrinsically rugged. The materials improve manufacturability in terms of both costs and yields, and the improved product performance results in a better viewing experience with the resulting display.

Tags: Honeywell, LCD, cheap LCD, materials

Read on for details about all products

MX 70 Sport & MX 70 VC Sport: The winner of the iF Product Design Award, MX 70 Sport is a set of earphones with magnetic surfaces and comes with a convenient volume control. These earphones are ideal for joggers. The faces of the earpieces are magnetic, allowing these attractive models to be casually clipped around the neck whenever the headphone is not being used. The earphones come complete with a carrying case and an extension cable for the asymmetrical cable. This allows a player to be worn at different heights, with a convenient cable clip to hold the connection cable to the clothing. Ear adapters ensure an optimum fit inside the ear canal. The model MX 70 VC Sport also has a lanyard with a volume control integrated into the cable, and the earpieces can be clipped to this. Price: MX 70 Sport: Rs. 2,290 | MX 70 VC Sport: Rs. 2,590

MXL 70 VC Sport: This model has an additional feature: a lanyard with a volume control and a small, removable cord that secures the mobile player to the neck strap. For sports enthusiasts who prefer to keep their player in their pocket, an extension cable is included. Price: Rs. 2,990

MX 75 Sport: Struggle no more to keep on your earphones as you jog! The MX 75 Sport ear-phones feature an innovative, patent-pending “twist-to-fit” system that guarantees optimum fit during all kinds of sports. A small “stopper” that is twisted gently into the outer ear makes sure that the earpiece stays in place even during the most energetic activities. Rubber pads in various sizes ensure optimum fit and comfort. The earpieces themselves also have a choice of three sizes, allowing them to be optimally adapted to the ear canal. Price: Rs. 2,990

LX 70 Sport: One of the most unusual models, the headband in LX 70 has been replaced by a thin, flexible plastic tube with a metal core. The extremely lightweight model (patent pending) has a single-sided cable attachment and comes complete with ear adapters, a cable clip and a case into which the flexi-headphones elegantly slide after use. Maximum flexibility is the trademark of these completely new “flex” headphones. Price: Rs. 2,490

PMX 70 Sport: These neckband headphones are both sturdy and ergonomically optimized. Their vertical transducer system ensures that they sit extremely comfortably, and the single-sided cable attachment and practical cable clip allow absolute freedom of movement during sports. Price: Rs. 3,190

Tags: Audio, earphones, Sennheiser, Sport, MX70, MX75