| Japan Display Inc. touts two new large WQHD displays for smartphones Oct 28th 2013, 06:54, by Juan Carlos Torres Japan Display Inc. (JDI) seems to be on a roll of late, putting out extremely high resolution displays for smartphones and tablets to bolster its position as a top mobile screen manufacturer. This time the company is announcing two LCD modules for smartphones that not only posses high pixel counts but are also quite huge. 
This month alone has seen JDI out two other interesting LCD modules, one for smartphones and another for tablets. The first, a 5.0-inch 1080×1920 FUll HD screen, builds on the company’s popular WhiteMagic technology that adds a white subpixel in order to increase brightness without bumping up the backlight and energy consumption. While the company has already been producing WhiteMagic displays, the module was JDI’s first large 5.0-inch version. Just last week, the manufacturer also announced a 12.1-inch 4K2K LCD for tablets. While no Android tablet currently sports such a size, the screen’s insane 3840×2160 resolution will make future tablets look quite impressive. JDI is coming back to the smartphone space or, perhaps more correctly, smack right in between. It is introducing two TFT LCD modules that sport an impressive 1440×2560 WQHD resolution. The modules come in two sizes, a 5.4-inch model with a 543 ppi pixel density and a larger 6.2-inch with 473 ppi. Both modules only have 1.0 mm bezels on all sides, boast 160-degree viewing angles, and are, of course, manufactured using JDI’s Low Temperature Poly Silicon (LTPS) process for low power consumption and thinner profiles. The screens are said to be intended for smartphones, but the sizes obviously point to giant phablets. The new 5.4-inch and 6.0-inch WQHD TFT LCD modules, as well as the 5.0-inch WhiteMagic screen and the 12.1-inch 4K2K LCD for tablets were all set on exhibit at the Full Panel Display (FPD) International 2013 convention in Yokohama, Japan last week. At the moment, no major Android device manufacturer has come forward to announce their adoption of Japan Display Inc.’s fancy new screens. SOURCE: Japan Display Inc. |  | Playstation App for Android coming mid-November Oct 28th 2013, 06:28, by Juan Carlos Torres Gaming season is almost upon us and soon we’ll be seeing the next-gen consoles out on shelves everywhere. But no modern-day gaming experience would be complete without some sort of mobile tie-in and the Playstation 4 is no different. Sony is now confirming that owners of its new console will be able to experience the added power of the Playstation app for Android late next month, depending on their region. 
The Playstation mobile app first came to light early this year when Sony unveiled its next-gen Playstation 4 console. Back then, the app sounded like the holy grail of mobile gaming, allowing Android and iOS device owners to start a game on the console, pause it, and then pick up where they left off on their mobile device, all via the magic of “Remote Play”. Whether that feature actually makes it into the final iteration of the app, remains to be seen. The app that was showcased last month at the Tokyo Game Show was definitely more toned down and, in some sense, more practical. We didn’t see the promise of Remote Play. The app, however, demonstrated an Android device, in this case, a Sony Xperia Z1, used as a secondary input or display for games that have been built to support such a feature. Sony did indeed later detail the various features of the app, including, of course, social networking. Here’s the video again of Sony Computer Entertainment President Shuhei Yoshida using the app for an augmented reality game. It seems that the app won’t be limited to Sony smartphones, or at least we hope so, but all information we have so far point to working only with a Playstation 4 or at the very least requires a Playstation Network account. The Playstation app for Android will be rolling out in the US on November 13, while European gamers will have to wait a bit longer until November 22. VIA: IGN | | USB PD standard to usher in new era of charging Oct 28th 2013, 05:46, by Juan Carlos Torres One of the purposes of standards, at least the good ones, is to codify existing practices, instead of turning a blind eye to what everyone else is doing, even if it wasn’t the initial intention. That does seem to be the case here with a new USB PD (Power Delivery) standard that will, in a way, revolutionize something unrelated to the original purpose of USB: charging our electronic devices. 
USB, short for Universal Serial Bus, was originally conceived to have a standard way to connect computer peripherals such as keyboard, mice, printers, and more, throwing away the proprietary, device-specific connectors that plagued computing history. Over time, however, due to the growing complexity of electronic devices, USB connections have been used not only to transfer date between devices but to also transfer a bit of electricity enough to power them or, in some case, even charge smartphones. While that was probably not imagine by Intel’s Ajay Bhatt when he developed the technology, a great number number of people, as well as manufacturers, have turned to USB as the conduit to power. Thus, the USB standard organization has no choice but to formalize this use case as a standard. But, in fact, it is doing more than that and improving the standard as well in many aspects. The first is the increase to support up to 100W of power, 10 times more than what is currently in use today. USB PD will also allow bi-directional power flow, meaning that even laptops can be charged over USB instead of just acting as an energy source for charging gadgets. The standard will also introduce optimized and dynamic power management, letting devices take only enough power that they need, increasing or decreasing the amount depending on the need of the device. 
Of course, the new USB PD standard will still support the older USB Battery Charging Specification, so that older devices will not suddenly stop working or, worse, suddenly get fried by too much power. There is still no indication when we’ll start to see USB PD certified cables but, given the very young age of the standard, it might still take a while for manufacturers to start building around the specification. VIA: SlashGear | |
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