3D TV's

So, we rapidly head into 2011, and what does the next year hold for us in terms of technology. Well for sure 3D will take a bigger grip than ever with every major manufacturer now having either a shuttered or polarised 3D display on the market. I'm sure by the end of 2011 we'll start to see the emergence of credible parallex barrier screens that will be the first to allow 3D content to be viewed without glasses, for me the biggest barrier to 3D becoming commonplace in the home.

For now here the pick of the screens that are available with 3D

Sharp's top of the range offering is their LC60925E 60" Aquos with Quaterion LCD adding yellow sub pixels to the mix for greater colour depth and vibrancy.

Samsungs UE55C9000 is an absolute stunner, I've seen this in action showing Avatar on blu ray, while not 3D it made it seem like a wildlife documentary at times not a motion picture, such was the quality and fludity of motion. An expensive screen yes, but absolutely stunning quality.

Panasonic stick with Plasma for their 3D offering, their P65VT20B has both Freeview HD and Freesat HD built in along with wifi networking for instant content retrieval from the Internet and Network video stores.

LG as ever come in with a much cheaper offering in their 55LX9900 55 inch LCD TV this boasts 400Hz display technology and comes with two pairs of active shutter glasses. This television is also network enabled allowing for internet browsing from your TV as well as being able to stream content from other network enabled devices. This is quite a looker having a very slim bezil, the display really does go right to the edge of the screen.

That's all for now, and it just leaves me to say Happy New Year and make sure you come back to Tech Info Blog next year!

Panasonic HDC-SDT750

3D had only just entered the living room properly and already we have the first 3D camcorders coming out. This one from Panasonic uses an adapter lens to split the left and right images for stereo recording.

Video Image Perception Technology For Robots : DigInfo

This is a great technology, add it to a car HUD, and eventually into automated cars and we massively cut road accidents. And eventually it's a system that will allow automated robots to interact roperly with their environment. the future is closer than we think!

Acer Iconia

Not so long ago mobile computing devices with touch screens were only found in science fiction. Now Acer presents ICONIA, a new concept device set to add a brand new tablet experience, combining the versatility of a conventional 14” form factor with a unique dual-screen layout and highly intuitive all-point multi-touch functionality, which means you can use all the fingers of your hands to navigate ICONIA.

If you are looking for a different and innovative approach to personal computing, look no further. With its two all-point multi-touch displays Acer ICONIA offers an enhanced content consumption experience and brings the interaction with the tablet to a new level.

Multimedia, entertainment, communication, web browsing and office productivity seamlessly flow across the dual screen, allowing users to set the best scenario for what they are doing. To improve readability of web sites or documents, the window can be spread across both screens. But the dual screen also means you can do one thing in one screen and something else entirely on the other: you can browse a website on the top screen and view the contents of your favourite folder on the bottom one or you can watch a video on the top screen and check out your multimedia library in the other.

“We took this insight and created a range of easy to use devices with touch technology including Smartphones, Notebooks, AIO PCs, Tablet and our latest addition, the ICONIA Touchbook: this level of commitment to touch technology is something no other PC vendor can compete with.” states Jim Wong Acer Inc. Vice President and ITGO President. “The Intel® Core™ i5 processor together with our experience with touch technology has allowed us to completely remap the user experience to create a far more natural interaction with our devices.

"Intel is proud that our close collaboration with Acer has helped to deliver the world’s first 10 finger multi-touch dual-screen notebook with an exciting and innovative end-user experience, powered by the Intel® Core™ i5 processor,” said Mooly Eden, vice-president of PC Client Group, Intel Corporation. “Combining the adaptable and energy efficient performance of the Intel® Core™ i5 processor with Acer's Iconia provides new and immersive ways to seamlessly view and interact with your favorite videos, photos, websites and movies”.

Both 14-inch displays have HD 1366x768 resolution, high-brightness Acer CineCrystal™ LED-backlit TFT LCDs and take advantage of cutting-edge technologies supporting all-point multi-touch for precise on-screen input. Protected by the ultra-thin yet durable Gorilla® Glass, the displays are scratch and fingerprint resistant, easier to clean and offer the same touch functionality.

ICONIA is designed to provide the optimal all-point multi-touch experience on a dual-display tablet. This is why Acer equipped it with a full range of intuitive and easy to use features and applications that fully exploit the countless possibilities of multi-touch technology. The starting point to launch ICONIA’s touch features and controls as well as applications is the Acer Ring.

The Acer Ring appears simply by placing five fingers on the screen and making a grab gesture. The Acer Ring allows you to start touch applications by scrolling through the App cards and tapping on the one you choose. The Ring also provides fast access to: Virtual Keyboard, Gesture Editor, Window Manager, and Device Control Console.

The Virtual Keyboard can be launched from the Acer Ring or by placing both palms on the bottom display. The intelligent design senses the position of the user’s palms and launches the keyboard. It comes with a full-size QWERTY layout with international language support to give users the same experience of a traditional physical keyboard and features predictive text input for natural-speed typing while avoiding mistakes. The Virtual Keyboard also includes a touchpad and a numeric keypad and can be easily switched to handwriting mode. With all these functionalities you won’t miss the traditional physical keyboard!

With the Gesture Editor you can set customized gestures to launch specific applications, open websites, view your desktop or lock your computer. The Gesture Editor offers you a simple and intuitive way to personalize ICONIA to best suit your needs.

Window Manager allows users to organize the various application windows on the double touch screen. Windows and applications can be moved across displays, so you can always have what you need where you need it. Plus, you can browse through a list of running application, and resize, dock or close windows.

A wealth of built-in touch applications designed to easily manage content provides a seamless experience. Besides those already implemented on Acer’s touch devices, such as TouchBrowser, TouchPhoto, TouchMusic and TouchVideo, allowing an enhanced browsing experience with on-screen gestures to zoom, rotate, flip and scroll and to access and enjoy your multimedia from an integrated touch-optimized interface, ICONIA includes three new ones: SocialJogger, My Journal and Scrapbook.

SocialJogger lets you gather and check updates from Facebook, YouTube and Flickr in all in the same place, taking advantage of the dual screens to check posts and updates on the bottom display and use the second display for exploring and viewing more content.

You can use MyJournal to collect web clippings on your preferred topics. Web clippings are dynamically updated to display all the latest information and can be categorized and displayed according to your needs. Simply tab on a collected Web Clip to display the full webpage on the top screen for a complete access.

Scrapbook lets you easily store clippings, posts and just about anything else from different sources in the same place. You can capture screen shots from the web or an application, edit them and add notes. You can create photo collections with notes and comments. You can also add your scraps to presentations, and documents. Scrapbook helps you keep track of anything you find interesting, funny or valuable and share it!

Acer ICONIA is based on the Intel® Core™ i5 family of processors, delivering smart performance for multimedia, social networking and other demanding mainstream applications.

A fusion of the latest and best technology, ICONIA can also be equipped with 3G connectivity, for total freedom, while an HDMI™ port guarantees high-definition viewing and the Dolby Home Theater v3 provides vibrant audio for an immersive sound experience.

The result? An outstanding entertainment experience!

ICONIA offers an entirely new computing and touch experience. Are you ready?

Wristwatch Phone, a PHS device with smartphone connectivity : DigInfo

Check out this phone for your wrist!. I like the concept, but it's missing the mark really. It's too big and clunky to be a watch, and too small and featureless to be a decent phone. What would be more useful is a iPod Nano sized device that can connect to and operate your smart-phone wirelessly, at least until component miniaturisation can make the phone small enough to be ergonomically and aesthetically pleasing!