in-cell

Apple reportedly now has a third company supplying displays for its new iPhone.

Sharp kicked off mass production of iPhone 5 display panels earlier this week, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing "a person with knowledge of the situation," the Journal said that the electronics company just started shipping the panels to Apple after a delay of several weeks.

Sharp was struggling to ramp up production of the screens for the new iPhone but fell behind in August, according to Reuters. The company is in the midst of severe financial problems and reportedly had to mortgage several … Read more

A bigger screen on the iPhone 5 means more pixels in order to maintain the Retina branding. So, what can we expect exactly?

I asked Paul Semenza, senior vice president of analyst services at NPD DisplaySearch.

"To the best of our knowledge, the display will be 4 inches, with the same 326 ppi [pixels per inch] resolution, which would make it 1,136x640," he said, confirming current speculation.

That would keep the ppi ahead of popular phones like the 4.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S III (306 ppi at 1,280x720 resolution) and the 4.7-inch HTC One X (… Read more

LG Display has begun to make a display that could be slated for the iPhone 5, according to a Reuters report.

"We just began mass production and we don't expect any disruption in supplies," Han Sang-beom, chief executive of LG Display, told reporters Wednesday, according to Reuters.

LGD, along with Samsung, are the two principal display suppliers for Apple's marquee products, such as the iPhone and iPad.

Other reports, however, have Sharp making the displays for the iPhone 5. And Toshiba has also been rumored as a display supplier for the iPhone 5.

It's not … Read more

Apple's next iPhone may tap into new touch panel technology, allowing for a lighter device, according to an Asia-based report.

An improvement in production "yield rates" of "in-cell touch panels" has induced Apple to begin working with two Japanese companies, DigiTimes said, citing sources.

Those panels are being made by Japan-based Sharp and a division of Toshiba.

In-cell multitouch technology integrates touch into the thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD manufacturing process, obviating the need for additional sensors and glass. This reduces the weight of the device, among other benefits.

Upcoming display conferences in Taiwan will highlight … Read more

The CTIA Fall 2011 show kicks off on Tuesday, and Nicole and Jessica are in sunny San Diego to bring you all the latest announcements and hands-ons with new devices. Lucky for us (and you), Jessica had a few spare minutes between prepping the show and devouring some sweet desserts to call into dreary San Francisco to give us a preview of what to expect from the show.

Also, though it already feels like ages ago, last week we saw the debut of the iPhone 4S, as well as the passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. We recap all the news from a crazy week, plus go over the latest reviews in Dialed In episode 194. … Read more

Compared with the past few weeks, this seems like a relatively slow news week, but there's still plenty going on in the mobile world. The AT&T and T-Mobile saga continues with a new lawsuit from Sprint, and a court date between the Department of Justice and AT&T. HTC is fighting back and suing Apple (anyone else need a chart to keep track of all these lawsuits?) with patents it received from Google, but perhaps most important of all, the Motorola Droid Bionic is real and it's finally out. Get our final verdict on the … Read more

(Programming note: Today, the role of Roger Cheng will be played by Optimus Prime.)

Earlier this week, HTC made a big to-do about a "major news announcement" that would be revealed on Thursday morning. There was speculation that it could be a settlement with Apple or a partnership with HP and WebOS. However, no one expected what was actually announced: a majority stake in Beats Electronics, the makers of Beats by Dr. Dre and other headphones. We go over the details of the partnership and try to make sense of the decision on this week's podcast. Plus, Nokia pulls back on Symbian and feature phones in North America, and we take a look at this week's reviews. Get your Dialed In fix right here. … Read more

Bonnie is returning an important assignment in Toronto this week so our new colleague in CNET News, Roger Cheng, joins us to talk new BlackBerry phones, prepaid carriers, and Android rumors. Formerly of the Wall Street Journal, Roger works with Maggie Reardon in New York to cover the wireless industry from all sides. Also in the podcast, I call Jessica by Bonnie's name, Nicole rules the review roost, and we give Roger a crash course in our weirdness.

We're all back from Orlando, Fla., and CTIA 2011, and we're joined in studio by our wonderful colleague at CNET News Maggie Reardon and our new technical producer Stephen Beacham. We have a lot to talk about in this week's podcast, including a little story about AT&T buying T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. You know, nothing major. Plus, we recap the highlights from CTIA and discuss our controversial Best of CTIA picks. So grab a seat, cell phone fans, and settle in for an action-packed episode of Dialed In.