New Nintendo NX leak hints console is more powerful than a PS4

Another day, another leak (or supposed leak) concerning the Nintendo NX. In this case, an unverified poster to the NX reddit forum is claiming that the machine is “slightly above the power of the PS4.” Others in the subreddit have pointed out some discrepancies in the original poster’s comments that could indicate the entire thread is bogus — or might imply that the person in question simply doesn’t know the hardware specs very well.

There’s been a tremendous amount of chatter around the Nintendo NX these last few months and reports continue to swirl that Nintendo has slashed Wii U production after sales in Japan collapsed this year.

Wii U sales have cratered in Japan, the one market where it showed some faint signs of life. Q1 is always the worst period for console sales, but the Wii U’s reported performance to-date is bad, even by Q1 standards. It’s even worse if you compare global sales. Nintendo may or may not have pulled the plug just yet, but we suspect the fall-off in Wii U sales is going to decide it for them quickly (and not in a positive direction).

What can Nintendo build?

Just as the Wii U offered roughly the same horsepower as the Xbox 360 and PS3 (albeit with a more advanced GPU), there’s no reason the Nintendo NX can’t match the performance of the existing Xbox One and PS4. Questions like this ultimately come down to cost, form factor, and noise level. Historically, Nintendo has chosen to build small, quiet systems with hardware performance ranging from roughly on par with its rivals to roughly one generation behind. The Wii U was built on 40nm process technology at a time when 28nm was already readily available because Nintendo wanted to save money. Total main memory bandwidth is 12.8GB/s, nearly an order of magnitude lower than the Xbox One, and games have just 1GB of memory to work with.

In short, the reason the Wii U has roughly the same performance as a last-gen console (with some notable exceptions), is because Nintendo made design decisions that used last-gen technology. There’s an important lesson here: One reason the Wii U’s gamepad never took off the way motion controller titles did is because many Nintendo games are best when used for local multiplayer — and the limited horsepower of the Wii U simply couldn’t handle multiple simultaneous gamepads (at least not without compromising game performance). The idea of a portable gaming tablet that you carry around your house while tethering to a larger system is something we’ve seen both Shield and Steam explore, but they rely on substantially more horsepower to back up the capability than the Wii U offers.

There’s been a great deal of speculation about the NX’s hardware — is it x86 or ARM, is it AMD or IBM, does it use a GCN or Polaris GPU? All of this is interesting, but it’s not what will decide the shape or function of the console. If Nintendo wants to build a PS4-equivalent in 2016, it can obviously do so — Sony, after all, built a PS4 in 2012 and shipped it in 2013.

Does the NX bet on gimmicks or firepower?

Instead of taking yet another trip through hypothetical capabilities, I’d like to reframe the NX discussion around a different idea. The past two cycles have been won and lost based on whether or not the platform in question centered around a gimmick or simply provided more firepower.

The Wii and Wii U bet on gimmicks, as did the Xbox One with Kinect. Sony bet on firepower with both the PS4 and PS3, as did the Xbox 360. The PS3 arguably lost that fight (at least as far as total revenue across the lifespan of the console), because Sony took such a shattering loss on the platform in the beginning that we’re not sure the PS3 was a net earning’s positive for the entire time it spent as a leading-edge console.

Given that the PS4’s estimated cost in 2013 was a bit over $300, it’s entirely reasonable to think that Nintendo could build a PS4-equivalent in the Nintendo NX today. But based on even the limited facts we’ve heard from corporate, we know that the company is doubling down on the controller design and wants to field a “hybrid” platform.

Gimmicks don’t have to eat the console’s R&D budget, but they need to be cheap if they aren’t going to overwhelm total costs. Microsoft boasted that Kinect 2 cost almost as much as the Xbox One to develop — and when gamer’s turned out to hate Kinect 2, the end result was an underpowered console relative to the competition. As curious as we are about the Nintendo NX’s various specs, what’s going to ultimately drive its capabilities is how much cash Nintendo devoted to its hybrid controller concept, whatever that might be, and whether or not the company insisted on its previous $250 – $300 target with launch-day hardware profitability, or if Nintendo decided to be daring in of those areas.

The Nintendo NX will probably put more emphasis on firepower this generation, because the failure of the Wii U was partly a sign that Nintendo had let a little too much space open between itself and the competition. Even if Sony and MS deliver new, more powerful iterations of their own hardware, an NX that targets the PS4 will still be a suitable platform for third-party game development. The company obviously wants a design that will help it stand out from the crowd, but hopefully it chooses to do that while simultaneously acknowledging that HDTVs are common now and people expect higher resolution targets and detail levels from console hardware — even if the company behind the console has a suite of first-party IP best described as “iconic.”

Electrifying Drone Race Tests Pilots' Sky-High Skills

The buzz of the engine roars as a vehicle launches from its start position, accelerates to high speeds and then banks hard around a corner. This may sound like your typical NASCAR event, but this thrilling race actually takes place on a different course — one that's high in the sky.

The Drone Racing League's semifinals for its first race of the season took place yesterday (Feb. 29) in Miami, where drone pilots from around the world gathered to test their chops on an aerial course that includes navigating tight turns, maneuvering through glowing gates and dodging objects throughout the stadium.

Racing at speeds that exceed 80 miles per hour (129 km/h) at times, the skilled pilots don first-person view (FPV) goggles (that show a video feed of what the drones are seeing) to race custom-built drones through a course that weaves in and out of Sun Life Stadium, home of the NFL's Miami Dolphins. [Photos from Above: 8 Cool Camera-Carrying Drones]

Eight pilots racaed in yesterday's semifinals, a field narrowed from the 12 competitors who took part in the first round. The racecourse required pilots to navigate around the stadium, zooming around bleachers, through concession areas, up a spiraling staircase, and then back around the bleachers again, according to a Drone Racing League (DRL) video about the event.

Each of the pilots raced with a custom-built DRL Racer2 drone that has a carbon-fiber frame to protect electronic and camera components, according to the DRL. The drones were also equipped with ultrabright LED lights to make them easy to identify on the racecourse. When pilots put on their flight goggles, they were able to see a video feed from a camera attached to the drone that helps them direct their machine through the course with handheld controllers, according to the league's website.

After yesterday's race, only the four highest-scoring pilots will continue on to the final round. To obtain the highest score, a pilot needed to pass through two checkpoints and cross the finish line in less than 2 minutes, according to DRL officials. The faster a drone flew through the course, the more points the pilot was awarded.

The Drone Racing League's scoring system awards each pilot 50 points for each checkpoint his or her drone passes and for crossing the finish line, according to league officials. In addition, each pilot is awarded 10 points for every second under the 2-minute time cap he or she posts as a final time, DRL officials added.

After months , Android 6.0 Marshmallow is only on 2.3 percent of devices

Android 6.0 Marshmallow launched in early October 2015, a bit over five months ago, and yet it’s only installed on a mere 2.3% of Android devices that access the Google Play Store. The version with the largest installed base is the previous one, Lollipop, at 36.1%.

Meanwhile, iOS 9.x, which was released just two weeks before Android 6.0 in mid-September 2015, is installed on 77% of all iOS devices that accesses Apple’s App Store. Android enthusiasts, analysts, and bloggers have been talking about Android fragmentation for years now. But, as evidenced by the current market share for Android Marshmallow, Google does not seem too concerned about the ongoing fragmentation problems.

Let’s take a look at how bad it is by combining a few numbers. If you combine the installed base for the last two Android releases (Lollipop and Marshmallow), the total is 38.4% of all Android devices. If you combine Apple’s last two iOS releases (8.x and 9.x), it accounts for an installed base of 94% of all iOS devices. The Android version with the largest installed base is Lollipop, which was released in November 2014. However, if you go back one more version to KitKat, released in October 2013, and combine its installed base with Lollipop, you’ll find these two older versions of Android account for 70.4% of the platform’s installed base.

While this fragmentation is probably not perceived as a problem by the vast majority of casual users, it remains a serious consideration for Android developers. Would you, for example, want to expend a lot of time, energy, and money getting up to speed on the latest Android APIs if you know nearly all potential customers won’t be able to access those features?

It’s no hypothetical question, now that Google has announced a preview release of the next version of Android, currently referred to as Android N. That version adds multi-window (really a split screen like iOS 9 allows on iPad devices), direct reply notification, and bundled notifications, among other things. If history is any indication, Android N will still have very low adoption six to 12 months after release; developers will likely focus their efforts elsewhere as a result.

HoloLens 'Teleports' NASA Scientist to Mars in TED Talk Demo

Something amazing happened at the TED2016 conference today: HoloLens developer Alex Kipman "teleported" a NASA scientist onto the stage, on the surface of Mars.

Jeff Norris of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was physically across the street from the auditorium in Vancouver, Canada, but with the HoloLens cameras, a hologram of him (a three-dimensional, talking hologram, which is made entirely of light) was beamed onto the stage where a virtual Mars surface was waiting.

"I'm actually in three places," Norris said. "I'm standing in a room across the street, while I'm standing on the stage with you, while I'm standing on Mars a hundred million miles away." [See Photos of the HoloLens Experience and Teleported Scientist]

Kipman demoed the HoloLens for the audience and, for the first time, revealed this new holographic teleportation aspect of the technology.

"I invite you to experience, for the first time anywhere in the world, here on the TED stage a real-life holographic teleportation…," Kipman said. When Norris, wearing a NASA T-shirt and baseball cap appeared onstage (his hologram, that is), Kipman was ecstatic. "Woo. That worked," he said.

The alien scape on which Norris stood was a holographic replica of the planet created from data collected by NASA's Curiosity rover.

To infinity and beyond

Kipman sees the technology as a game-changer for the world. Today, he says, humans are limited by our two-dimensional interaction with the world, through monitors and other screens.

"Put simply I want to create a new reality," Kipman said. "A reality where technology brings us infinitely closer to each other, a reality where people, not devices, are at the center of everything. I dream of a reality where technology senses what we see, touch and feel, a reality where technology no longer gets in the way but instead embraces who we are."

Enter the HoloLens: "This is the next step in the evolution. This is Microsoft Hololens, the first fully untethered holographic computer," said Kipman. "I'm talking about freeing ourselves from the 2D confines of traditional computing." [Here's How the Microsoft HoloLens Works]

The technology relies on a fish-eye camera lens, loads of sensors and a holographic processing unit, according to Microsoft.

And to allow the viewer to walk around in their own environment overlaid with various holograms, the devices maps your home or any surroundings in real-time. "The HoloLens maps in real-time at about five frames per second with this technology we call spatial mapping. So in your home as soon as you put it on holograms will start showing up and you'll start placing them, you'll start learning your home," Kipman said.

For the demo, where Kipman's headset was wirelessly linked to big screens, the HoloLens relied on stored information. "In a stage environment where we're trying to get something on my head to communicate with something over there with all of the wireless connectivity that usually brings all conferences down we don't take the risk of trying to do this live," Kipman said. "So what we do is we pre-map the stage at five frames per second with the same spatial mapping technology that you'll use with the product at home and then we store it."For the demo, where Kipman's headset was wirelessly linked to big screens, the HoloLens relied on stored information. "In a stage environment where we're trying to get something on my head to communicate with something over there with all of the wireless connectivity that usually brings all conferences down we don't take the risk of trying to do this live," Kipman said. "So what we do is we pre-map the stage at five frames per second with the same spatial mapping technology that you'll use with the product at home and then we store it."

Demoing more of the HoloLens experience, Kipman shows the audience what he sees through the headset as he dials his world from reality toward the imaginary, turning people in the audience, for instance, into elves with wings.

Exploring with HoloLens

The technology is already being put to good use in the scientific and consumer realm.

Medical students at Case Western University are using HoloLens to learn about medicine and the human body in an augmented-reality world; Volvo has developed a partnership with Microsoft to use the HoloLens for both design of their cars and as a way to enhance consumers' experiences with their vehicles and brand.

And Kipman's "personal favorite" — NASA is using the technology to let scientists explore planets holographically, a partnership dubbed OnSight.

"Today a group of scientists on our mission are seeing Mars as never before, an alien world made a little more familiar because they are finally exploring it as humans should," Norris said of the ability to use HoloLens to experience the planet as if one were there. "But our dreams don't have to end with making it just like being there. If we dial this real world to the virtual, we can do magical things. We can see in invisible wavelengths or teleport to the top of a mountain. Perhaps some day we'll feel the minerals in a rock just by touching it."

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have HoloLens headsets so that scientists on Earth can assist them as if both were in the same place.

New Garmin Bike Headset Gives you a Heads Up on Traffic Coming up Behind You

From bike helmets to reflector lights, there’s plenty out there intended to keep those bike bound safe. There are even smart devices which offer information on number of miles “biked” and calories burnt. Despite all of that, Garmin has figured out a new angle when it comes to smart headsets.

Here at the Garmin booth (#35811) at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, they’ve unveiled a new headset that gives you not only traffic information on what’s ahead of you but also traffic in your rearview, meaning behind you (that clarification was for the layman). With this feature, cyclists have an added layer of security on those long bike rides or through the treachery that is city biking.

Known as Varia Vision this slick device attaches to either side of your sunglasses to give you a heads up display right in your line of vision. Unlike some other smart devices that attach to your handlebars making for a less than optimum experience.

You can be alerted to phone notifications, performance stats, navigational directions (how’s that for redundant?), speed and of course what’s going on traffic-wise behind you. As long as you’re paired to Varia rearview radar, you can be warned about vehicles and such that are coming up from behind you.

Garmin VP of worldwide sales, Dan Bartel expressed the importance of having in-sight displays, “We’re extremely excited to announce the next device in our line of innovative Varia cycling awareness products – the Varia Vision in-sight display. Cyclists can now easily view their data and receive alerts during a ride without needing to take their eyes off the road ahead.”

With its compact size, 8 hours of battery life and wet-weather and glove friendly touch panel the Varia Vision has been made incredibly convenient.

The proof of course is in the pudding or…actually the proof is in the practical use of the thing. Pudding is irrelevant unless you’re biking to burn off the guilt-laden pint of chocolate pudding you just devoured along with your feelings. But I digress. The proof is in whether or not the Varia Vision works well on the road.

We haven’t had a chance yet to test one of these puppies out while cycling. The concept admittedly is cool though. You can pick one up some time in the first quarter of this year atbuy.garmin.com for $399.99.

Google Nexus 6P Complaints Get Louder As Problems Persist: Screen Detaching From Frame, Buggy Marshmallow Update And More

Google's Nexus 6P has received a lot of positive reviews, but that doesn't stop others from experiencing issues with the smartphone. Problems range from a screen detaching from the frame to a buggy Android Marshmallow update and more. 

Users complain that their Nexus 6P is switching to landscape mode without a clear reason, and it would not go back to portrait. Another issue is related to the three-way calling feature, in which the user cannot send text messages when they have an incoming call. Other users report that they encounter random locking of their device during calls. A few of these concerns, nevertheless, might be resolved by means of a software update.

But even the software update itself could be problematic. Users took to forums to complain that the Marshmallow update rolled out to the Nexus 6P and older Nexus phones incorporates a handful of glitches. Specifically, the issue is associated with the Sync feature. The issue allegedly ruins the notification system in a variety of services, such as Gmail.

Not too long ago, a Reddit user said his Nexus 6P’s screen was detaching itself from the phone's frame. The user said that he can even slide a fingernail between the phone’s screen and its aluminum frame.

The user uploaded images of the “screen... prying off from the frame” via Imgur to back his claims.

“This phone has had so many build issues but people are still adamant this phone is perfect,” comments a Reddit user on the post. “It's worse when you consider the sales of this versus an s6 or 6s.”

In November, users of the Nexus 6P also took to different online forums to gripe on their concerns about the device. One user, for instance, took to the Google Product Forum to complain that the person on the other end of the call had trouble listening to the voice of the user of the Nexus 6P.

Another user on the XDA Developers forum said that whenever he put the device on a desk on its back, people on the other line say they couldn't pick up his voice.

Microsoft's HoloLens headset only works for a disappointing 5.5 hours on a single charge

Microsoft's augmented reality headset has been shown have a lesser lasting battery life

Microsoft's HoloLens headset lasts only five and a half hours on a single charge, dropping to just two and a half hours after continuous use.

The augmented reality headset, unveiled last January, will be completely wireless, depending only on its inbuilt battery for power, the company's Bruce Harris said at an event in Tel Aviv.

The news follows that of Google Glass, which was plagued by poor battery life during its few years of availability. Google's smart glasses were only capable of lasting around half an hour while shooting video before needing recharging, or three hours of general active use.

Unlike its virtual reality rivals Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, HoloLens overlays holograms into the wearer's real life environment, allowing them to battle robots and invading aliens inside their living room and witness the holograms appear to burst through the walls and ceiling of your physical room.

Other applications including creating your own holograms within the company’s HoloStudio and 3D printing the finished result.

Other details Harris revealed include that every HoloLens will have WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, allowing wearers to connect with and play against others free from a laptop or smartphone connection.

Another slight niggle may be the headset's currently limited field of view. Harris said the company planned to expand its scope later in the developmental process, but that at present, its view is comparable to watching a 15-inch monitor from two feet away.

Concrete details around HoloLens are hard to come by; a definite sale date and price have yet to be announced, though developers kits will start shipping within the next two months priced at $3,000.

Microsoft's closest rival will be Sony's PlayStation VR headset in terms of an immediate focus on gaming. Microsoft showed off how Minecraft could be played on a coffee table using HoloLens at video game symposium E3 last year, while PlayStation VR is expected to play a key role at this year's E3 in June.

POLAROID SNAP IS DIGITAL CAMERA THAT PRINTS PHOTOS INSTANTLY

Polaroid is well acclaimed for the instant-film camera it popularized in the 1970s, the SX-70. The camera made it easy for anyone to be a photographer because it only had one button, and it spit out film that instantly developed right after the photograph was snapped. It's been decades since the SX-70 was released, but Polaroid thinks that it can rely on some of the legendary appeal of the SX-70 to attract new, younger customers.

The Polaroid Snap is a beautifully designed digital camera that spits out instant-film prints just like the SX-70, and it even has the iconic rainbow stripe. Since this is a digital camera, there's a little more flexibility than the one-button SX-70 camera. A 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD on the back of the Snap lets users line up shots or even select photos to print at any time.

The Snap's bluetooth capability allows the device connect to tablets, smartphones, and other gadgets that might be storing photos they want to print on Polaroid's new instant film called Zink Zero Ink. The Snap has a 10-megapixel sensor, shoots 1080p Full HD video, and has a microSD card slot for expandable storage. The Polaroid Snap is available now on Amazon for $99.

Pocket-sized photo printer for smartphone photogs

The Polaroid Zip printer is an inexpensive pocket size wireless photo printer that converts your smartphone pictures to full-color 2x3-inch prints. Simple to set up and use, it doesn't require any consumables beyond Polaroid's Zink paper.

Prints are small and cost about 25 cents each (£0.15, AU$1). The print quality is good all things considered, but don't expect inkjet or dye-sub printer quality. Built-in rechargeable battery lasts for 25 prints.Simple and fun to use, the Polaroid Zip is a great accessory for freeing your photos from your smartphone.

The Polaroid Zip is a small box a bit larger than a deck of playing cards, just under an inch thick (2.5cm) and weighs 186 grams (6.6 ounces). And it's a photo printer.

Similar to the Fujifilm Instax Share SP-1 , the Zip mobile printer, which sells for$129.99 (about £110 or AU$170), connects to your iOS or Android device via Bluetooth and, using a free app, turns photos from your phone or tablet into small, 2x3-inch borderless prints.

Ammunition, the firm that designed Polaroid's Cube camera, worked on the Zip too, and it shows. Like the Cube, the Zip is an attractive, simple device that looks more like a portable hard drive than a printer. The glossy plastic body quickly gets hairline scratches and fingerprints, so you'll want to hunt down a microfiber pouch to keep it looking its best since none is included.

The only button is for power and the only port is Micro-USB for charging. The battery is built-in and lasts for about 25 prints, which means for a long event like a wedding, you might have to plug it in to keep the prints coming. The top slides off -- a little too easily, revealing a compartment that holds 10 sheets of paper.

The printer uses Polaroid's Zink zero-ink printing technology, which uses special Zink paper embedded with cyan, yellow and magenta dye crystals. The crystals start off colorless, but as the print is being made, heat activates the crystals, changing them into the appropriate colors.

Unlike the instant film the Fujifilm Instax uses, there is no time waiting for the Zip's prints to develop and the prints are less expensive; a pack of 100 sheets of Zink paper runs about $25 (£15, AU$65). The paper is the only consumable, so you don't have to worry about ink cartridges, and the prints come out dry and smudge-proof because there's no ink involved.

Again, your phone or tablet connects to the Zip over Bluetooth. Using an iOS device, you can just go into settings, hit Bluetooth and select the printer. If you have an Android device with near-field communication (NFC), you can tap your device to the top of the Zip and it will start the connection and launch the Zip app.

With the app you can pull photos straight from your device's gallery or launch your camera to take a fresh shot. There are some basic editing options including filters, frames, stamps and stickers and you can add text or draw on the photos.

Once you have your picture selected and ready to print, you can hit the print icon in the app, or tap your Android device to the top again for an automatic print. From hitting print to actually having one takes 50 seconds give or take a few seconds

Along with regular prints, you can create basic photo ID cards and make mini collages. You can also make private edits to a picture that are only revealed by scanning a QR code printed on the original image. For example, if you wanted to attach a voice message to a print, you select a picture with the Zip app and record the message. The photo will then be printed with a QR code which, when scanned with the app, you'll be able to play the attached audio.

The tiny sticker-backed prints aren't the best quality. They're more novelty than anything else and can't (nor are they intended to) compete with a traditional inkjet or dye-sub photo printer. If quality is most important to you, you'll likely want a Canon Selphy or similar printer.

Overall, though, the Zip is excellent for what it is: a pocket-sized photo printer to use with your smartphone or tablet. It could easily fall into that category of gadgets you use a couple times and then stick in a drawer, especially if you don't keep a supply of paper on hand. But if you frequently find yourself wanting to decorate your home or office or belongings with pictures from your phone, it's worth the investment.

The Polaroid Zip is a great little accessory for freeing your photos from your smartphone. It's not a device everyone will have a use for, but if you can already imagine plastering your stuff with small prints of your friends and family and pets, go ahead and grab one and stock up on paper.

HTC WILL LAUNCH ITS VIVE VR HEADSETS IN APRIL 2016

Before that, it will make 7,000 units available to developers.

It sound strange that  HTC will make a limited number of Vive VR headsets available for purchase by the end of 2015, as it once told Engadget. But now has a chosen date for the device’s commercial release: April 2016. In a blog/social media post detailing the device’s timeline, HTC said that it’s hosting a developer conference in Beijing on December 18th and launching a second-gen dev kit before the masses can start buying the headset. It also plans to distribute 7,000 units to developers in early 2016 and taking the product of its partnership with Valve on a demo tour at a number of key events, such as The Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, GDC and MWC. Bottom line is that the headset will finally come out next year, likely a bit after the consumer version of Oculus Rift becomes available — good luck to your poor, poor wallets.

Lumus and InfinityAR aim to do with augmented reality what Oculus has done with VR

Whether or not huge sales projections for Oculus and other VR devices come to reality, there is no doubt that the aray of developer kit from Oculus has assisted onset of the industry. Before now, Augmented Reality (AR) has been without a well set-out developer platform that rivaled the capabilities of VR. Wave guide provider Lumus and software developer InfinityAR have partnered to do just that. The Lumus DK-50 developer kit will include not only the DK-50 AR glasses, but also a version of InfinityAR’s markerless AR tracking system.

The DK-50 breaks new ground in AR

When I first demoed a Lumus wave-guide-equipped pair of glasses last year, I was very impressed by not just the realistic projection of objects into my field of view, but the very wide field of view. It is similar to (and some speculate the same as) that found in the original Microsoft HoloLens prototype (though more recent versions seem to have a narrower field of view). This is huge for AR, as existing devices force you to work or focus on only a small area — typically 22 to 26 degrees. The 40 degree FOV provided by Lumus makes a very tangible difference.

Designed in concert with InfinityAR, the DK-50 also includes everything needed to support self-contained, markerless, AR tracking. It has a 9-axis IMU that includes both an accelerometer and magnetometer for motion tracking, twin 4MP cameras for stereo-vision-based object tracking, and two 720p optical engines for a convincing visual experience (Lumus expects to bump this up to 1080p later this year). Each optical engine consists of Lumus’s patented Light-Guide Optical Element (LOE), a reflective waveguide, and a Micro Display Pod, essentially a miniature projector. The DK-50 is expected to be available in Q2 this year, and while pricing has not been finalized, Lumus expects it to be around $3,000 including the needed software.

Can they pull it off?

While you may not have heard of Lumus, they have been providing optical solutions for AR applications in industry and defense for 15 years, so the technology itself is proven. Infinity AR is a newer player, and I think the acceptance of the DK-50 kit will depend in large part on how much performance developers can get out of their software running on the Android-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon in the hardware. The demos I saw looked good, and certainly good enough to develop with, but as Oculus has found, it can be a long road from something developers will work with and something that consumers will be happy to make a part of their everyday life.

LG unveils 18-inch OLED display that ‘can be rolled like a newspaper’

LG, Samsung, Sony, and other display manufacturers have launched flexible screens earlier, however this concept is more advanced, and astonishing. The company is showing off at CES 2016 an 18-inch foldable display that can be rolled like a newspaper. What’s cool about this is the large size of the panel, if you call it such; most manufacturers have shown off bendable displays of numerous smaller sizes in the past, and of course curved (but fixed) HDTVs have been in stores for several years now.

Instead of this fitting a smartphone that you could put in your pocket, a display like this is much tougher to pull off, and removes the hard barrier you’d find on a large tablet or convertible laptop that sets its form factor a certain way. Thoughts can vary about the possibilities; a few off the top of our heads would be a second screen for a smartphone, or (eventually) a full-blown tablet with an on-screen keyboard that you could just unroll onto a table and start working on.

At the show, LG is also showing a range of new products, including a dual-window 55-inch display, an 86-inch LCD, and a 139-inch Vertical Tiling OLED displays all appropriate for commercial signage; a 25-inch “waterfall” curved LCD designed for car interiors; and a 10.3-inch car display that works with gloved hands. We imagine LG will show off a bunch of new HDTVs we can actually buy, too.

LG is not a stranger to solid display tech, even though Samsung and Vizio seem to have the most mindshare for consumer HDTV shopping these days. In May, LG unveiled a wallpaper-thin 55-inch OLED concept (pictured above) that weighed just four pounds and attached to the wall via a magnetic mat; you could then peel the display off of it and move it from room to room, assuming you had multiple magnetic mats installed on the walls.

Back in September, DisplayMate’s Ray Soneira pitted the $6,000 65-inch LG 65EG9600 OLED panel against a $5,000 Samsung UN65JS9500, and tested it for color gamut, backlight bleed, viewing angles, and more. The LG did substantially better on a variety of tests against the Samsung.

Two New TV Breakthroughs That Will Blow Your Mind (Op-Ed)

I usually ask the question "Should I buy a new TV?" The answer is usually complex than people know, but that's because we are on the verge — perhaps 6 to 12 months away — from seeing huge changes in television. 

Thus my answer is usually,if you can wait a bit, then no, hold off. And here's why. 

For a lot of people, while the hype of 4K TV has been great, the value proposition hasn't been there.Since there is a huge difference between analog TV and HDTV, unless you are sitting near an Ultra HD/4K TV, the differences are more minor when compared with HDTV, only instances of very large screens. 

A closer relationship with your TV

TV, for the greater part, has been through an evolutionary process of increasing display pixel density, and recently the TV in the living room or home theater is complete.

To know why, think about how humans see images. In 1886, impressionist painters Georges Seurat and Paul Signat unveiled a new method of painting images,known as pointillism. Pointillism is a technique where a painter employs thousands of small dots which, when viewed from a distance, forms an image. This process is similar to the way television images are created today. 

Analog TV broadcasts consisted of vertical and horizontal lines, and where they intersected a dot was formed,known as a pixel — short for picture element. In a standard definition 480i image, there is a potential 307,200 pixels on the screen (potential because of interlaced vs. progressive scanning). When analog TVs were in their height, the image transmitted using interlacing (hence the "i" in 480i). In interlacing, half of the scan lines would be displayed at one time, alternating between odd and even scan lines. This was an efficient way to transmit an image, as it happened so quickly, typically at 29.97 times (frames) per second. However, interlacing — particularly in analog — reduced image quality. As televisions advanced towards digital, the transmissions always arrive as progressive scans, which are sequential scan lines, not alternating. 

While 300,000 pixels sounds like a lot, the moment manufacturers started making televisions bigger, the picture quality reduced. Thus, just like a pointillism painting, the bigger the picture, the further away you needed to sit. This was because increasing screen size, or painting size, proportionately increases the size of the dots. 

In the 1980s, large screen TVs became a fad. For those of us old enough to remember them, the thought of moving one was dreadful, as they were just as heavy as they were big. The problem was that the recommended seating distance for optimal viewing was, at minimum, six times the screen size. Thus, if you bought a primo 50-inch big screen TV, you needed to sit 300 inches away (25 feet). 

When HDTV came out, manufacturers were able to add enough pixels (between 1 million and 2 million) to be able to bring the seating distance down to three times the screen height. While the shape of the screen widened, with the same size TV, based on screen height, you only needed to sit 12 feet away to not sacrifice image quality. 

However, in the last few years the term Ultra HD/4K has hit the market. Ultra HD comes in at a whopping 8.3 million pixels, and the seating distance for that same 50 inch TV drops down to 6 feet. 

Now, we have attained the threshold of human vision regarding image resolution. 

With pixel resolution totally solved, the industry has moved onto the next problem: how to make better pixels. Over the last few years, manufacturers, content creators and standards bodies have been working on improving the other two main parts of an image: contrast ratio (dynamic range) and color space (gamut). Combined, these two innovations allow for a significantly greater picture, one that is significantly noticeable by viewers. 

The resulting two technologies that manufacturers will promote during the next few years are high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (WCG).

HDR: Killer contrast

Dynamic range, in this context, is what is referred to as contrast ratio. Contrast ratio, in layman's terms, is the ratio between the brightest whites and the darkest blacks a display can reproduce. Despite marketing hype, a 100:1 contrast ratio, particularly on a projection system, is a very, very good image in today's video world.

However, humans can see far beyond a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, and HDR will get many displays much closer to that level. This is a very promising development because the human eye is very sensitive to changes in contrast due to the anatomical structure of the eye.

The biggest driving force behind HDR is the increasing light output of displays. The average TV of the 2000s and before had a maximum white level of 100 Nits (100 cd/m2). (A Nit is unit of measurement for light output.) The amount of Nits is the maximum light output a display produces. Taking the average black levels and 100 nits, the dynamic range of most televisions equated to roughly 7 f-stops on a camera — humans can see between 14 and 24 f-stops of contrast depending on the condition.

HDR displays, once they truly hit the market, will have the ability to hit 1,600 nits (or greater) for brief scenes, such as the sun reflecting off a metal surface or an explosion. This equates to 5 f-stop increases in brightness. At the same time, manufacturers are able to reduce black levels 400 percent, which equals an additional 2 f-stops in black levels. What this ultimately means is that high dynamic range will equate to a significantly greater image from a contrast ratio perspective, allowing us to get much closer to the desired, true, 10,000:1 contrast ratio. 

Wide Color Gamut: 50 percent more hues

High dynamic range alone is enough to be extremely bullish about the new wave of displays hitting the market. However, it's only half of the equation. The other half of the equation is in the color that a display can reproduce. Most displays today use an ITU (International Telecommunications Union) standard called rec.709, which standardizes the maximum values of the primary colors: red, blue and green and any colors in between . (This gets a little complicated, but there are specific x and y coordinates for each primary color, with a related chart called the CIE 1931 color chart.) Wide Color Gamut: 50 percent more hues

High dynamic range alone is enough to be extremely bullish about the new wave of displays hitting the market. However, it's only half of the equation. The other half of the equation is in the color that a display can reproduce. Most displays today use an ITU (International Telecommunications Union) standard called rec.709, which standardizes the maximum values of the primary colors: red, blue and green and any colors in between . (This gets a little complicated, but there are specific x and y coordinates for each primary color, with a related chart called the CIE 1931 color chart.) 

Rec. 709 allows for a television to reproduce approximately 16 million colors. This is due to using an 8-bit scheme for each of the primary colors. Color TV uses a bit value (either 0 or 1) to represent varying shades of each primary color. In 8-bit, there are 256 variations of each primary color (red, blue and green). What this means, in 8-bit, is that there are 2 values (either 0 or 1) to the 8th power (2^8 = 256). Since each pixel has 256 shades of red, blue and green, there are roughly 16 million colors that a display can reproduce. While this may sound like a lot, it really is nowhere near the colors the human eye can see.

The new color space is called ITU BT.2020 and will offer 50 percent more colors than current televisions. Utilizing 10 bits for each primary color giving 1024 variations, BT.2020 allows for much deeper reds and more vibrant yellows and has 1024 variations allowing for much smoother gradients. 

So what does this mean? 

Thus, the combination of all these enhancements, HDR which enables a 7-fold (6,400 percent) increase in contrast ratio, Wide Color Gamut, which allows 1024 shades of each primary color through 10-bit color, and also increased pixel resolution, we are in for an amazing increase in home video experience.