Todays & Tomorrows Technology

After already committing to releasing a 15-inch OLED TV potentially as early as December 2009 in Korea, LG have now revealed their plans to have a 32-inch OLED display on the market in 2012. Suggesting that OLED would provide a new source of revenue, LG Display CEO Kwon Young-soo told press that the company’s focus is on larger panels rather than cellphone-sized versions.

This, the executive claimed, is because “the larger the display, the more efficient the OLED technology.” It’s certainly given the company’s HR department a boost: LG Display have apparently taken on 1,700 new staff in research and development this year.

“The commercial success of OLEDs hinges on how it shows its superiority compared to existing liquid crystal display (LCD) technologies. We will focus on TV panels rather than cell phone panels because the larger the display, the more efficient the OLED technology” Kwon Young-soo, CEO, LG Display

LG Display are still investing into LCD, however. After reporting a profit in Q2 2009 after panel prices rose and demand outstripped supply, the company is investing the equivalent of $2.59bn into an eighth-generation production line, which will be operational by the second half of 2010.

LG’s latest super-snapper cellphone has broken cover, and from the spec-sheet at least you’d think this was the handset to quash all point-and-shoot digicams. The LG GC990 Louvre is tipped (despite LG’s own denials; see after the cut) to launch later on in 2009, taking the place of the existing LG GC900 (aka the Viewty II), and brings with it a 12.1-megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach optics, Xenon flash and what the company suggests is ISO 3200 sensitivity.


Call us terrible skeptics, but we’re wondering exactly how much noise will be in images at those sort of ISO levels; this may be a case of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” Elsewhere the camera can be re-purposed as a camcorder, grabbing 720p HD video at 30fps. Like the iPhone 3GS it supports touchscreen-controlled focus and GPS geotagging, and LG are claiming zero shutter lag too.

Elsewhere there’s a 3.2-inch 16:9 aspect touchscreen with the company’s S-Class UI, WiFi and Bluetooth, together with DivX and Xvid playback plus TV output. It can also stream media to and from other DLNA compatible devices.

LG have unveiled two new ”full LED” HDTVs, each with 55-inch LCD panels and 240Hz refresh rates. The LG 55LH95 and LG 55LH93 both use 3,360 individual LEDs and boast a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1; the company’s backlighting technology can individually control 240 sections of the display, dimming or brightening as suits the image on-screen.
Despite sliding in all those LEDs, the new HDTVs are still slimline. Depth is just 24.8mm, despite the company also fitting in wireless connectivity; it’s unclear from the press release exactly which format LG have selected, but considering they’re boasting zero degradation we’re assuming it’s some type of ultrawideband HDMI.

The two new sets will be released in July, priced at around $5,500 for the 55LH93 and around $5,900 for the 55LH95. Smaller 42-inch and 47-inch “full LED” sets will follow by the end of 2009, though they won’t be as slimline as these 24.8mm flagship models.

LG and ARM have announced a partnership that will see the former’s HDTVs use the latter’s ARM11 MPCore multicore processor and ARM Mali GPUs. The system will allow for not only high-definition 1080p processing but video-on-demand, voting and polling, games, and e-commerce without the need for a separate set-top box.

ARM’s range of processor and GPU options will allow LG to target different levels of performance and capability to different HDTV price-points. That way, high-end sets could use multiple SMP cores and offer 4x and 16x full scene anti-aliasing (FSAA), 2D and 3D graphics processing and OpenGL ES 2.0 support.

The most obvious benefit to consumers will be straightforward connectivity with a home network, and the ability to view video and other media content on their sets without needing external boxes. LG have not confirmed when the first HDTVs using the ARM CPU/GPU components will be released.

LG and NComputing have announced a new range of “Network Monitors“, LCD displays with integrated thin-clients that can be used as virtual desktops or with cloud computing systems. Unlike most thin-client systems, however, LG’s looks straightforward enough for home or SOHO implementation, requiring just an X550 PCI card to be installed into the server PC, the included vSpace virtualization software installed and then up to five N-series monitors hooked up via ethernet cable.


Three N-series monitors will be available initially, the 17-inch N1742L-BF, 18.5-inch N1941W-PF and a 15.6-inch model only on sale outside the US. Each has an ethernet port, for connection to the X550 PCI card, together with PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse. There’s also a VGA port for using the display as a regular LCD with a local computer, plus built-in speakers.

Each server PC can use up to two X550 cards, allowing for a total of eleven users at any one time. Both Linux and Windows are supported and, while no pricing for the displays has been released, LG are calling the X550 a “sub-$200″ product. It, plus the N-series monitors, will go on sale worldwide this month.

The latest batch of new laptop and ultraportable rumors are spilling out of the Far-East, tipping new touchscreen models running Windows 7 and at least one ultra-thin from LG. According to industry sources, HP, Acer and Lenovo have all placed orders with Taiwanese capacitive touchscreen manufacturer Cando; meanwhile MSI are said to be supplying LG with an ultra-thin notebook that will ship in the second half of 2009.

The Cando touchscreens in question are the company’s 12.1-inch model, which have recently become the first such panel to receive Windows 7 compatibility certification. That means Microsoft agree that the panels will work with Windows 7’s extensive multitouch technology. Shipments are expected to begin in August, with Cando currently capable of producing 400,000 to 500,000 panels per month, rising to 1m per month in 2010.

As for the LG ultra-thin notebooks, no hardware specifications are known but according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News report the company is in talks with telecom providers regarding bundling WWAN connectivity. That would imply that the notebook will have integrated 3G.

LG have announced a new QWERTY smartphone, and it looks as though they’ve been cribbing some design ideas from Nokia. The LG GW550 runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and has a 2.4-inch QVGA display, 3-megapixel camera and 7.2Mbps HSDPA / 2Mbps HSUPA with support for the 850/1900/2100MHz bands.

Otherwise there’s quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, stereo speakers and a 1,300mAh battery. Up front there’s a VGA-quality camera for video calls, and the whole thing measures 116.3 x 61.5 x 12 mm.

No word on when we could see the LG GW550, nor for how much, and nor indeed where – LG are keeping such details to themselves. However given the OS we’d presume it’ll be launching sometime soon, over the summer, before Microsoft release Windows Mobile 6.5.

LG Display’s 15-inch OLED TV prototype will launch in Korea as early as December, according to Won Kim, the company’s VP of OLED sales and marketing. According to Kim the 15-inch TV, which was first shown back in January and tipped for a 2009 launch in April, will arrive in December or January, though it’s unclear which brand will be offering it.

A global launch will follow on from Korean availability, as LG Display’s manufacturing scales up. The company is already selling mobile-phone scale OLED panels to two unspecified brands in Korea; ironically, though, LG’s own cellphone arm have decided not to use OLED at present, citing high cost and sub-230ppi resolution as their main concerns.

Kim also revealed that the company has no current plans to move into OLED lighting, and that while their flexible-OLED project with UDC continues it’s targeted initially at military applications. As for the OLED TV, no confirmed specifications but the original prototype ran at 1366 x 768 resolution and offered 1,000,000:1 contrast; we’ll have to wait and see what price-tag it carries.

LG's LH-series wireless HDTVs just made their debut in South Korea last month, and it looks like they're on their way to a Stateside launch soon -- there's the 55LH85, sitting pretty in Uncle Sam's FCC workshop. Of course, the real noise with these sets is the ASW1000 Media Box, which has three HDMI jacks, a pair of component inputs, antenna in, and VGA, all of which it can wirelessly send to your set from 10 meters (32.8 feet) away at 60GHz. Sadly, you can't just tuck it away, since it needs line of sight or close to it to work -- it'll bounce the signal off walls, but placing it right next to the TV won't work so great, according to the manual. Still, it's definitely cool tech -- let's hope ol' Sammy gets through with it soon so we can try it ourselves.