This is the real sort of 3D we’re talking about, now, as opposed to audio 3D… The LG 2D/3D LCD is an autostereoscopic display, which means that it fools your brain to thinking that a flat image has depth. A few other companies at CES had 3D displays that require some sort of glasses, but this one works (and, by George, it actually works) if you just stand there and look at it. Of course, the effect doesn’t transmit well in the above pic, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that the hamburger in the fake commercial is tasty in all three dimensions. The only caveat is that you have to be standing in a fairly specific spot to get the autostereoscopy to work like it’s supposed to… they actually had an “x” on the floor, but it’s more flexible than that. The visual effect can be a bit strange at times, but I’d take it over a pair of glasses any day.
There was literally no info on this besides the name, but it’s more or less self explanatory. I really liked the look, and it was somehow relaxing to stand there and look at the calm artwork in the midst of CES. The four displays are interlinked, but they’re not exactly skinny or light, and it makes the screen itself somewhat questionable when it comes to practicality as a piece of furniture. Hmm, if only someone would come up with some really skinny displays…
CES is stuffed to the brim with LCDs that are slightly bigger, slightly brighter, and slightly skinnier than last year. The Crystal from Dell is a departure from the norm, with a large tempered glass bezel surrounding the LCD itself. Four speakers (as well as the monitor controls) are embedded directly in the glass, with exposed wiring that definitely looks different, but in a good way. There’s an integrated webcam, and the monitor has a response time of 2ms. Downside: the 22″ Crystal costs about $1200, which is rather substantial for the modest 1680×1050 resolution it offers.
This wraparound display from Alienware was probably the most obviously interesting eye candy at the Pepcom show at CES. It’s rear projection, with a wraparound effect that mimics peripheral vision, which is great for FPS games like Crysis (which it ran without a hitch). I’m not sure exactly what’s in there, but if you look very closely at the picture, you can see three vague vertical lines, which makes me suspect that there are four projectors working in concert. It doesn’t slow the screen down, though… The response time (this is not a typo) is 0.02ms, and the resolution is a whopping 2880 x 900. Although this unit is only a prototype, it should be commercially available sometime in the latter half of 2008. Price? Yeah, good luck.
If screen real estate ranks higher on your list than graphics performance, a couple of these USB video cards could be a nice addition to your workstation. They’re from a sister company of Buffalo named Kuroutoshikou and are available with either a DVI or RGB video connection.
They’re both capable of displaying either 1440×900 (WXGA+) or 1280×1024 (SXGA) on a separate monitor and besides a USB 2 port, you’ll also need a system with at least a 1.2GHz PIII and a half gig of RAM. What’s particularly cool is that you can actually add up to 6 of these devices to one computer, though your system requirements jump up to a 1.6GHz Core Duo machine with 1Gb of RAM, and don’t expect to use any of the fancy 3D effects in Vista’s Aero theme either.
The USB video cards should be available in Japan in late December and will range in price from about $81 to about $107.
When it comes to digital imaging (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.), there are some things that you just can’t do efficiently without a graphics tablet. In my somewhat limited experience, most things are way easier to do with a pen than with a mouse. The only problem is the discontinuity between what you’re drawing on the tablet, and what’s happening on the screen, especially if the size of your tablet is different than your screen size. Wacom’s Cintiq (don’t ask me how to pronounce it) series of graphics tablets incorporate high resolution displays into the tablet surface, to create a slick digital canvas.
The tablets come in three sizes and resolutions: 21″ diagonal (1600×1200), 20″ diagonal (1680×1050), and 12″ diagonal (1280×800). The largest tablet weighs a whopping 19 pounds, so it’s not really something you’d want sitting on your lap for any appreciable length of time. The pens are powered by induction from the surface of the tablet, and offer over 1,000 levels of pressure sensitivity. You’ve also got a bunch of touch sensitive controls and presets around the edges of the tablet, to adjust zoom, brush sizes, or whatever you find convenient.
So, what’s not to like (besides the weight?). Well, it would have been nice if the largest model was HD resolution. Even at UXGA, the 21″ tablet still costs $2500 (!), and the display itself is mediocre at best, with a brightness of 220 cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 550:1. Also, it’s not multitouch, which is all the rage now. So unless you’re a hardcore graphics editor (in which case you’ll probably be willing to sell your soul for one of these babies), I’d recommend saving a bit of money and just getting a decent tablet PC.
Sorry for that headline, but that’s what Kloss gets for naming something “DeLighTable.” It’s not a bad descriptor, however: it’s a table, it lights up, and it’s pretty nifty. Two years in the making, the touch sensitive surface glows where it senses pressure. A svelte 25 millimeters thick, the surface itself it waterproof, a major plus when a large part of the attraction of the table is being able to place drinks on it and have them light up. I’m happy to report that this coffee table (consisting of the surface mounted on a stainless steel frame) is commercially available… Expect each made to order table to take six weeks to construct and set you back a smidgen over $2,500.
Desktop real estate is at a premium these days, what with multicore chips encouraging obscene amounts of multitasking. I’m currently using my laptop’s UXGA (1600×1200) plus an external SXGA (1280×1024) and it’s still not enough space. So, going on my [insert your favorite holiday here] list is a new WQUXGA monitor with a resolution of 3840×2400. That’s 9.2 megapixels. Toshiba’s “super Kousei small LCD monitor” manages to cram 200 DPI over 22″ to achieve WQUXGA resolution, but the contrast isn’t great and it costs something like $18,000, plus another few grand for a PCI card capable of outputing enough video bandwidth to run it.
After some poking around, though, it turns out that you can already get monitors like this. ViewSonic, for example, has a monster 22.2″ 3840×2400 resolution monitor sporting a 400:1 contrast ratio and a viewing angle of 170ยบ. Weighing in at somewhere north of 40 pounds, it’s only about $6000.
Forget about wireless, audio or video capabilities, the most important things I want in a digital picture frame are size and resolution. But for some reason these have taken a back seat to other features people will rarely use. I mean what’s the point of owning an 8+ mega-pixel digital camera when you’re only going to show off your photos on a 640×480 pixel (or less) display?
Thankfully this Gigantor digital photo frame is a step in the right direction. At 15 inches in size it looks like a giant when compared to other frames on the market, and it has a half-decent resolution of 1024×768. I mean we can still do better, but this is a good start. Other features include support for 8 different types of memory cards, a USB port for flash drives and will play MP3 audio or MPEG 1, 2 and 4 video files.
The best part of the Gigantor digital photo frame though is the $249.99 price tag from ThinkGeek. At only $100 more than most other digital frames on the market, I’d definitely recommend spending the extra money.
The Project-a-Phone ICD-1300 is a somewhat compact device that lets you see the screen of your mobile phone or PDA on a larger display, like a computer monitor or even a projector, though in a rather roundabout way. The device uses a video camera on an arm that’s not unlike the document cameras included on some projectors. When you clamp your phone or PDA in and line up the 1.3 MP camera you end up with an image that’s similar to what you see on the right. (Taken directly from the Project-a-Phone website without any additional color correction.) I’m particularly fond of the barrel distortion.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure someone, somewhere will have a use for a device like the Project-a-Phone, but if being able to display your mobile device on a large screen is a necessity why not just get a model that already has that functionality built-in? Given the $295 price tag of the Project-a-Phone, upgrading your phone or PDA to a more capable model is probably even the cheaper way to go.
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