The first 100Hz LCD TV sets were shown off by Samsung back at CeBit back in 2006. Using advanced processing powers, the TV analysed each frame, and then created a composite frame in between the two to smooth over motion blurring. This essentially allows the picture to run at 100 frames per second, which translates to smoother pictures.

If that sounds a bit confusing you should check out this old post explaining the NTSC version of the same technology, 120Hz. The difference between the two is that NTSC traditionally runs at 60Hz, where as PAL runs at 50Hz, and so both techs simply double the frame rate. It’s argued though that 120Hz, which is a multiple of the 24p frame rate of movies, is therefore superior for watching films.

The simple rule today is that if you’re buying an LCD TV, make sure it has at least 100Hz technology on board. There’s another, newer version of the tech called 200Hz, but as a minimum requirement, having 100Hz is a must.

History of TV is Giz AU’s month-long look back at the development of the world-changing medium and its influence on our daily lives.

I don’t agree with everything in the issue—I will not accept Facebook friends I’ve never meet in real life, I think it’s rude to text message in front of other people, and I will not, under any circumstances, pretend I don’t hate Twitter—but it’s definitely a fun and thought-provoking read. My favourite is this article on haggling over Craigslist, which has saved me hundreds of dollars over the years. [Wired]

Hopefully Bluetooth 3.0 lives up to its official specs in this plane of existence, ’cause they’re nice: Using the 802.11 radio protocol, average transfer rates are between 22-26Mbps and devices even get better battery life.

Besides making batteries go further (obviously in terms of idleness, since every wireless connection uses more juice to send more data) Unicast Connectionless Data makes gadgets more responsive over Bluetooth, and Enhanced Power Control will supposedly translate to less disconnects from shoving your phone in your pocket.

Too bad we’ll have to wait nearly a year for the first Bluetooth 3.0 gadgets. I’d like a Bluetooth 3.0 mouse with built-in flash storage, electric razor and mini cooling fan. [PC World]

Energy could be harnessed from eternal sources, like the sun, the wind, or the seas. But there is only a limited amount of elements in planet Earth and—what’s worse—bringing them from other planets will prove impractical with our current technology (and the technology that will be available in the next century).

In the meantime, copper—which is everywhere around you—will be gone in about 61 years; antimony—widely used in medicines—will be depleted in 20 years; while indium, rhodium, platinum, or silver—which are present in many essential consumer electronics—won’t last much longer. And those estimations are only valid if we manage to consume half of what we are consuming now.

So, unless we really push technology forward, dramatically increase our recycling rhythm, or something extraordinary happens first—like Apophis obliterating us or the Large Hadron Collider blows us to another dimension, or Nazi zombies getting out of their crypts to make bacon of all of us—we and our children are going to have a really hard time pushing the world forward.

I guess we will have to keep taking life one weekend at a time. [New Scientist via Dark Roasted Blend]

Making a huge leap forward from Bluetooth’s current transfer speeds, spec 3.0 will have a bandwidth in line with 802.11n Wi-Fi—at least, some of the time. During low bandwidth tasks, like interfacing between a phone and a earpiece or making small file transfers, Bluetooth 3.0 will behave and perform like current technology. When needed, it can switch to a faster mode, in which it creates a sort of ad-hoc Wi-Fi network that actually adheres to 802.11n standards.

Details are all still sparse, but the announcement and probable release date has been set for April 21st, when the Bluetooth Special Interest Group is expected to name hardware manufacturers who are on board with this new standard. [ArsTechnica]

A really surprising story in the Washington Post today: 30-45 percent of D.C. homeless people have mobile phones, and they’re unexpectedly essential to their way of life.

The Post talks to several homeless people and advocates, but Chris, a recovering crack addict, probably has most the stereotype-busting story of all. He works various entry-level jobs and keeps his homelessness a secret from employers (for obvious reasons), but lost a job at a Verizon call centre last year when his boss couldn’t reliably get in touch with him. Now that he has a mobile phone, employers can call him anytime they need an extra hand, and he’s even been promoted at one of his jobs, despite being homeless.

Others use the phones to keep up with food stamps and various appointments or to take pictures—a million phones popped out when Michelle Obama worked at a soup kitchen, as pictured above. Many blog as well, with blogs hosted at Streats.tv. Really fascinating, it might change the way you look at the homeless: [Washington Post, Image: Martinez Monsivais/AP]

Spotted initially by CrunchGear, the movie links to a web site called What’s In The Box, but the trail pretty much ends there. They don’t have any ideas either.

If anything, it’s just a cool short film that successfully combines gadgets, sci-fi and film making into a nice little package. That it apparently doesn’t have any point whatsoever, and ends somewhat abruptly with a “singularity,” well, that’s another thing. For now, enjoy this on a lazy Sunday. [CrunchGear]

Sun—once a bright star in the technology universe, who even wanted to buy Apple—is about to get swallowed by IBM for $US7 billion, say New York Times’ sources. [NYT]

(If you have the time, you can go through the whole video and Pattie Maes’ explanation. If not, go to minute 3:10, where the cool demonstrations begin. There, Pranav Mistry—the MIT student who has implemented Sixth Sense—shows how it works)

Basically, Sixth Sense is a mini-projector coupled with a camera and a mobile phone—which acts as the computer and your connection to the Cloud, all the information stored on the web. Sixth Sense can also obey hand gestures, like in the infamous Minority Report.

However, instead of requiring you to be in front of a big screen like Tom Cruise, Sixth Sense can do its magic—and a lot more—everywhere, even while you are jumping hysteric over Oprah’s sofa.

The camera recognises objects around you instantly, with the micro-projector overlaying the information on any surface, including the object itself or your hand. Then, you can access or manipulate the information using your fingers. Need to make a call? Extend your hand on front of the projector and numbers will appear for you to click. Need to know the time? Draw a circle on your wrist and a watch will appear. Want to take a photo? Just make a square with your fingers, highlighting what you want to frame, and the system will make the photo—which you can later organise with the others using your own hands over the air.

But those are just novelty applications. The true power of Sixth Sense lies on its potential to connect the real world with the Internet, and overlaying the information on the world itself. Imagine you are at the supermarket, thinking about what brand of soap is better. Or maybe what wine you should get for tonight’s dinner. Just look at objects, hold them on your hands, and Sixth Sense will show you if it’s good or bad, or if it fits your preferences or not.

Now take this to every aspect of your everyday life. You can be in a taxi going to the airport, and just by taking out your boarding pass, Sixth Sense will grab real time information about your flight and display it over the ticket. You won’t need to do any action. Just hold it in front of you and it will work.

The key here is that Sixth Sense recognises the objects around you, displaying information automatically and letting you access it in any way you want, in the simplest way possible.

Clearly, this has the potential of becoming the ultimate “transparent” user interface for accessing information about everything around us. If they can get rid of the coloured finger caps and it ever goes beyond the initial development phase, that is. But as it is now, it may change the way we interact with the real world and truly give everyone complete awareness of the environment around us.

Or just make a few people look like dorks. It can go either way, really. Whatever it is, I want to try it. [TED]

These bishops apparently issued a blanket suggestion against all technology, including iPods, Facebook, television, text messaging, and Twitter. While I understand the impulse to ban the latter, the bishops stated that they hoped a ban on text messaging would “draw attention to the conflict in Congo, which it says is fuelled by a struggle over mines that supply minerals used to make cellphones.” That’s sort of reasonable and at the same time also totally unreasonable, in that nobody is going to make that connection unless their phones are inscribed with “MADE WITH THE BLOOD OF CONGOLESE MINERS” on the front.

The Pope, apparently, is still out there YouTubing, which kind of takes the sting out of the bishops’ words. Is anybody out there giving up any sort of technology for lent? And if not, may I suggest Twitter? [LA Times]