SlashGear » Dan Salazar

Samsung 0.05mm-thick ‘flapping’ OLED display

Dan Salazar — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:46:58 +0000

Samsung have been demonstrating a 4-inch OLED panel that, at 0.05mm thick, is flexible enough to flutter in the breeze from a fan. Coined the “flapping display”, the OLED was manufactured in the normal way up until the point where it would be sealed in a glass substrate; instead, they used a new membrane sealing technology that both protects the display but leaves it flexible.

According to a Samsung representative, the 0.05mm thickness was a relatively arbitrary figure rather than the limits of the manufacturing process. “It is technically possible to make the panel thinner,” they explained, “however, it is difficult to further reduce the thicknesses of the flexible substrates and circuit components around it.”

The 480 x 272 resolution OLED has a 100,000:1 contrast ratio and 200cd/m2 luminance, and is capable of displaying 100-percent of the NTSC color range. Low-molecular organic EL materials were used, together with a low-temperature polysilicon TFT control circuit almost as thin as the overall display itself.

[via OLED-News]

Samsung 0.05mm-thick ‘flapping’ OLED display is written by Dan Salazar & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung releasing first 1.3-inch HDD for mobile devices

Dan Salazar — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:22:18 +0000

You read right, come CES 2008, Samsung is unveiling a 1.3-inch HDD, a 1TB 3.5” RAID Edition HDD and a new 320 GB 2.5” HDD. More curious than I am to see a 1.3” HDD, I wonder what the capacity will be.

For those of you wondering what a 1.3-inch HDD might look like, crack open a hard-disk-based iPod and look at that HDD, then imagine it smaller, noticeably smaller. Sure, it’s just a half inch, but a half inch off the diameter of the platter is a good place to lose some size.

And, with Samsung constantly pushing the data density barrier, it wouldn’t surprise me to see iPods the size of the newest nanos sporting 80 and 160GB HDDs in the not so distant future. A 1.3 inch HDD would also be a major move towards smaller, thinner, lighter laptops without having to resort to the high prices of SSD drives. Well, if Samsung is dropping this tech at CES, you can expect to see it widespread by the middle of next year, likely.

Samsung releasing first 1.3-inch HDD for mobile devices is written by Dan Salazar & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft finally launching Xbox 360 Video Marketplace across the pond

Dan Salazar — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:23:20 +0000

We’ve been enjoying the privilege of downloading movies and TV shows in both HD and SD formats for over a year now, but alas, our friends in the UK are finally getting a taste. They are starting out with just movies, with the newest one apparently being 300.

The SD ones will cost you 250 points to rent, while the HD ones will cost you 380 points to rent. The rentals last for 2 weeks, or 24 hours once you actually start the film. I don’t have a monetary equivalency for the 250 points, but 380 of them are roughly £3.20.

Once again, if you are going to make heavy use of this service, especially if you prefer HD films, I’d recommend upgrading that hard drive. However, since they expire 24 hours after you start watching them, you should be alright with the 20GB HDD as long as you don’t download too many films at once.

Xbox 360 Marketplace Video Store arriving in the UK on December 11 [via TechDigest]