lcd

This is an update of a deal I posted a few weeks ago. I know monitors are a little dull, but this one has a decidedly newsworthy price.

You can have my second monitor when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands. I can no longer compute productively without it. Most of the time I keep my browser open on one screen and Outlook on the other. It's awesome.

If you, too, want to experience the joys of a second monitor, now you can do so for less than $100. Best Buy has the Acer A221HQV 21.5-inch LCD monitor for $99.99 shipped (… Read more

Apple is planning to invest $1 billion in a Sharp LCD plant, Reuters is reporting.

For several months, rumors have swirled that Apple is looking to invest heavily in Sharp's LCD plant. So far, however, the companies have not publicly said that they will, in fact, work together.

According to the news service, Apple's expected investment in Sharp's LCD plant stems from its desire to secure displays for its iPhones and iPads while limiting its reliance upon any single supplier. One such supplier, according to Reuters, is Samsung.

Apple and Samsung are currently waging a bloody patent battle … Read more

Making tablets with a very-high-resolution display in large volumes is posing a challenge for Apple, according to analysts and an Asia-based report.

Two analysts contacted by CNET today said that they don't expect a new version of the iPad, dubbed the iPad 3, until next year because of high-resolution display supply constraints. And a report today from Digitimes made similar claims.

"We have heard that panel makers have had trouble manufacturing panels at efficient yields with the resolutions that Apple is requesting," said Richard Shim, an analyst at DisplaySearch. "There's even been discussion of lowering the resolution to get better yields."

A 9.7-inch tablet display with 2,048x1,536 resolution "has been under development for some time," Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli, said in reply to an e-mail query. Alexander said iSuppli has built its projections on a 2012 introduction of an iPad with this kind of very high-resolution display. Apple's iPad 2, announced back in March, has a 9.7-inch display with a resolution of 1,024x768. … Read more

Nearly every LCD TV on the market has a problem: uniformity. Certain areas of the screen are going to be brighter than other areas. On dark scenes, this can be visible and sometimes distracting.

So what causes it? What can be done? … Read more

I first published this post in June as a comparison between the two most high-end plasma TVs from Panasonic and Samsung, and now it includes a third, the Samsung PND7000. All three are superb examples of everything good about TV technology (except maybe energy efficiency), but if you have money to burn and want the best 2011 TV available today, you might be wondering which one wins.

First it's worth reiterating a couple of oft-made points. The best plasma TVs have generally performed better in CNET reviews than the best LED and LCD TVs (like Sony's XBR-HX929), mainly … Read more

Wow! Awesome response to yesterday's post about favorite freeware. I discovered a lot of programs I'd never heard of--and I thought I'd heard of them all! Great stuff, peeps. Stay tuned for more freeware goodness.

Until then, want to give your productivity a big boost? Run a second monitor. You'll be amazed at how convenient it is to have, say, your word processor on one screen and your Web browser on another--both always visible, always available.

The LCD sweet spot continues to be 22 inches (or 22-inch "class," a fancy way of saying 21.… Read more

Sony took a loss in its fiscal first quarter due largely to the Japanese quake and to lower TV sales, forcing the company to lower its annual forecast.

For the quarter that ended June 30, the electronics giant reported today a net loss of 15.5 billion yen ($199 million), compared with a net profit of 25.7 billion yen a year ago. Revenue dropped 10 percent to 1.49 trillion yen from 1.66 trillion yen in the prior year's quarter.

The weak quarter prompted Sony to lower its forecast for the full year. For the fiscal year … Read more

Unless you have $22,000 or more to spend, the 70-inch Sharp LC-70LE732U is the biggest flat-panel TV you can buy today--the competition maxes out at 65 inches. Moreover, it's a pretty good deal by giant-TV standards, available for less than $3,000 at press time. Sure, rear-projection models offer more screen size for the buck, but judging from past testing, they can't match the picture quality or design of this Sharp. The fact that it's one of the most popular TVs on CNET this summer proves that huge TVs are gaining mainstream appeal.

Compared with the … Read more

There's been a lot of talk in recent weeks about Amazon releasing an Android tablet to take on the iPad. But much less has been said about a smaller tablet, a 7-inch model, that the company has been rumored to have in the works.

Now Taiwan's DigiTimes, which we can't say is terribly reliable, is reporting that Foxconn will deliver the larger 10.1-inch Amazon tablet in early 2012 but that Quanta Computer has already begun shipping a 7-inch model to Amazon.

We've been hearing similar reports on that 7-inch model. A major app and content … Read more