AU: Is this a picture of Melbourne?! Thanks Lamul
Samsung has just popped out a ridiculously large 82″ LCD TV, boasting ultra high-definition resolution of 3840 x 2160. That is a four times increase on conventional LCD standards, and word on the street is Japan has already begun testing video broadcast in ultra high-definition. We are sure that’ll eat bandwidth faster than the cookie monster (Chris) eats cookies. That aside, the picture rendition is jaw dropping. Check out the gallery below.
newVideoPlayer("lcdbreak.flv", 475, 286,"gizmodo_ces_2008.png"); Back in Panasonic’s secret demo room at CES 2008, they’re showing off a stress test where they slam a metal ball into a plasma with one joule of energy, and see if the screen will smash up. (Guess what? They’ve also run the test on LCDs.) Videography by Curtis Walker
We bumped into Larry Weber, the shaggy professor mainly responsible for the invention of the plasma TV in the 1960s. He’s got a lot to say about his latest project, mostly too technical for our hurting little brains. Here’s the skinny: He wants to improve notoriously inefficient plasma energy use to a point that it drains a battery less than the LED light source in an LCD does. Pair that with super-thin plasma technology, and voila—plasma-screen MacBook Pro anyone? We were just kidding about that whole “saving Middle Earth” business…or were we? [Larry Weber's Society for Information Display]
The guy from yesterday’s CES rap is back, this time testing waterproof cameras… in a fishtank… on the CES show floor. Good news: they really are waterproof! If all CES coverage was this awesome, maybe I wouldn’t hate CES so much. [Digitalcamerareview.com]
With the LCD window thermometer from La Crosse, long gone are your days as the victim of weather-fashion faux pas. The unit mounts to a window and displays the current temperature, as well as the high and low. This gadget seems useful for the weather obsessed, or people who have no idea how to dress themselves. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the tried-and-true combination of looking out my window and remembering what month it is. If you still regret the time you wore a ski mask in July, it can be yours for 17 bucks. [ThinkGeek via DVICE]
newVideoPlayer("lgtouchscreen.flv", 475, 286,"gizmodo_ces_2008.png"); LG Philips dives into the multi-touch display game at CES 2008, seen here running Google Earth. Coolness indeed, but LG’s idea of mounting dual IR-sensitive cameras on either side of the display is still flawed.
Since it’s such a big screen, its two-point moving and zooming is not exactly an iPhone finger pinch, and zooming out requires two hands and a rather elaborate movement to get any action.
When we heard about Blu-ray-to-PSP movie transfers getting all official we got pretty excited, even though the announcement was a little skimpy on the details: How big are the files? How long will it take to download a movie? How odious is the DRM? Most importantly, when? Well, we’ve got ‘em all right here.
The Gadget: National Geographic are launching a night vision scope that has the ability to take still pictures. The NV20/20 will have a user variable frame rate, three infrared intelligence modes and it will be able to amplify ambient light by a factor of 650. The scope will ship in April and retail at $US520.
“If we get bigger than 150, we might have to go with Airbus.”
Heard in: Panasonic booth…an exec saying how they could only fit one of its prototype 150-inch plasmas in a Boeing 747 cargo hold—and only just barely.
newVideoPlayer("billgatesinterviewpolishmore.flv", 475, 286,"gizmodo_ces_2008.png"); We asked a simple question: what Microsoft product could have used a little more polish before release? The answer astounded us. We would just like to thank Bill Gates for his honesty and his openness.
Gizmodo’s Bill Gates CES 2008 Interview: Part 1 – On the difference between Microsoft and Apple Part 2 – On his changing public image Part 3 – What he worries about most
