News Bits: LG eBook Concept Notebook, AMD and Nvidia Investigation, Strong Holiday Notebook Sales

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LG eBook concept features OLED display, liquid fuel

LG's innovative eBook concept is a step apart from the ordinary. It replaces the traditional LCD display with an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) display, which does not need a bezel and consumes less power. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the eBook concept is how it is powered - by blue methyl alcohol fuel.

The eBook concept from LG has won the &quot;Best of the Best&quot; Red Dot Award (a German prize for industrial design). Now the only question is, will the eBook ever make it to production?

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Notebook sales up 52% on Black Friday while Desktop PC sales fall 7% compared to last year

The overall growth of the number of PCs sold in the U.S. retail channel during the week of Black Friday 2006 was slower than the Black Friday week of 2005. Black Friday 2006 growth for all PC unit sales was 22.9% on-year, compared to 36.2% for the same period last year. Desktop unit sales were down 7.2% this year, while notebook sales skyrocketed up 51.6%.

Notebook sales are up 44.6% sequentially so far in 2006. The strong growth is due in part to the agressive pricing strategy that has been undertaken by manufacturers to boost sales during the holiday season.

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U.S. Department of Justice to investigate AMD and Nvidia

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has subpoenaed Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia as part of an antitrust investigation into the market for graphics processors and graphics cards. AMD recently bought out ATI Technologies so this investigation would be covering possible illegal activities that Nvidia and ATI may have collaborated on in the past. While the DOJ did not specify what this investigation is about, it's assumed that it would be related to some sort of price fixing. Back in 2002 Dell complained of graphics chips prices being set inordinately high and an investigation took place then. However, nothing is known about any manufacturers complaining about prices recently so it's unclear what the DOJ is after here.

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3D transistors have 50% less power consumption

Infineon today said it has developed 3D transistors, or multi-gate FINFET (Fin Field Effect Transistor) transistors, which minimize the amount of leakage current. Portable devices built around 3D transistors could run for twice as long as a device using regular planar circuitry.

Infineon has fabricated a 65nm chip which has more than 3,000 3D transistors. Initial tests show them to be as powerful as today's mature technologies, while consuming about half the energy with the same functionality. Infineon claims that their 3,000-transistor chip has 10 times less leakage than a single-transistor device.

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New device for road warriors charges and syncs all mobile gadgets

Malleable Devices Inc. today announced the kwikSynCh charger, which charges a large range of small electronic devices and also transfers data between the devices and your laptop. It is compact, lightweight, and portable, and uses interchangeable tips to provide data and power compatibility with thousands of different mobile devices. The kwikSynCh charger is also a universal USB 2.0 data system.

Other features of the kiwkSynCh include its ability to simultaneously charge two devices from a single car socket, wall outlet, or USB port.

For more information on MDI products, please visit their website at MDIGlobal.com.

 

I guess they choose the Blue Pill....


But nonetheless, its pretty amazing stuff, I've always been impressed by OLED's, and the lack of it in today's technology.

 

Honestly, I hope there is some major innovation with notebooks soon, things don't change a whole lot in terms of design, mostly just components. Then again, that keyboard on the LG concept device looks awful. Who wants a keyboard with no tactile feedback, it'd drive us touch typists crazy.

 

You have to admit though, that thing looks amazing. Wow, I want Asus to top that and then someone to give me enough money to buy one. Wow.

 

Although I'm not particularly crazy about that LG design, I'm sure I could easily get on board with what they're working towards. If they actually make them, that is...

 

I'd be intrigued by the possible increase in battery life an OLED screen would offer.

Battery technology hasn't had any big revolutions lately.

 

I'm obviously not a science whiz, but don't we consume enough fuel already? Oil is rather scarce right now (one of the major reasons for high prices as of late) and this would just further irritate the situation.

 

Like I said, why should I have to go out and buy fuel at some obscure store, when I can stick it in my wall and have it charge?

 

That LG sure is crazy looking. I can't say I like it. I think innovation needs to work toward a safer longer lasting battery to stick in notebooks rather than a fuel based approach. That seems like it would be so much more of a hassel.

 

OLED displays are neat, but I read somewhere that they don't live long, especially under constant use. I hear they are being used already for small displays on cell phones and digi cameras...devices that consumers regularly update every two years (or sooner).

 

I think it's cool looking but woefully impractical. Would be neat in a movie, though.

I don't understand the move towards fuel cells, it just seems...stupid? Stupid's a good word for it. We need advances on battery life, but not if it means having to go buy new batteries once a week. That's insane. What good does this do for the consumer?

 

@cyOO7

I believe the article said it was fueled by methyl alcohol. (Ch3OH)That's not oil.
I dont think it would exacerbate oil issues.
Funny to see the stuff I used to work with in chemistry and biochemistry lab fueling a laptop lol

 

Last thing I read is that OLED was ready to go unless you wanted to view the color blue. The other colors had the same lifetime as current Plasma TV displays, but blue had only about 2,000 hours max or so. For some reason it would fail very quickly. That was 3 or 4 years ago though so maybe they have fixed that now.

I really like all this innovation. The new OLED screens open up a new list of design features and could help notebooks shrink in size. The same goes for all this new circuitry technology too. I'm not too fond of having fuel-based laptops though. Maybe if they can demonstrate that it's cheaper than having electric batteries I might think about it. I admit, it looks cool, but it eliminates the recharging feature we've all come to love. Who wants to go back to disposable batteries again? (the fuel will run out) Not me.

Also, I wouldn't mind seeing something negative happen to AMD/ATI and Nvidia over the graphics cards stuff. Have you seen the prices lately? They're getting absolutely absurd. Graphics cards didn't use to be THAT much especially when they want people to buy multiple cards. They need to bring down the prices and start offering better promotions because it's just rediculous right now.

 

The problem is I can understand why the hardware is as expensive as it is.

Graphics chips are in many ways substantially more complex than CPUs, and then when you have to account for the costs of designing/manufacturing the PCBs for them and THEN adding on the exotic memory, I can see why this stuff might be so expensive.

 

But then again I think CPU's are expensive and overpriced too. True, the extra work going into GPU's can justify their prices, but considering sales numbers are just about always increasing in one way or another as more people purchase this stuff, and these graphics companies are seeing increased revenue from the expansion of the console market and multiple graphic card arrays, I just don't think the prices are warranted. I'm not spending $600 on a top of the line GPU. $300 probably.

Do note I am talking about mid-upper and beyond systems. The cheaper systems are properly priced. I know there's a premium on cutting edge technology, and I respect that. However, I think it's gone up at a rate inconsistent with where it should be.