Looking suspiciously like something out of Tron, the new Sony 3D OLED Glasses have me wondering if some accident in the near future doesn’t change the course of humanity, making everything look like Tron. Forever.

Good, now that’s off my chest, I can tell you the grey, black and very light blue color scheme on Sony’s head mounted OLED glasses isn’t very fortunate. In fact, it looks like R2D2 and a 12 year old got together and designed these.

There is, however, much reason for joy and celebration on the technical side. With two OLED screens and a total resolution of 1280×720, there’s room for both HD and 3D with these babies, and they also come with simulated 5.1 surround sound and connection to most gaming and media devices through HDMI.

Just a prototype for now, Sony promised they’ll have a talk with R2D2 and the 12 year old, motivating them to double their design efforts in a quest for market release by the end of 2011.

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What I consider to be a totally odd product combination, the Twilight Air Purifier concept lets you stream videos and images across its OLED sheet surface.  WTF you ask?  Beyond cooling and circulating air, it is also a media viewer.  The pictures tell a story of a huge sheet hanging somewhere in a room with images draped across it.  Seems like something we would have seen in Minority Report.

Winner of Whirlpool’s Inova Award, the design is based on “future trends of architecture and behavior” and was developed by some Brazilian Industrial Design students.  Crazy!  Is this something you’d imagine yourself buying in the future?

[via Ubergizmo]

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Cell phone buffs, listen up, because the long awaited arrival of the Samsung Behold II in the United States is coming on the order of soon.

The Behold II, which uses Google’s Android operating system along with Samsung’s own Touchwiz interface offers a 3.2 inch AMOLED touchscreen, a five megapixel camera, GPS and Bluetooth, plus a host of built-in Google services and a 3-D cube menu interface which is reportedly cooler than the other side of the pillow.

A lot more cell phones are working Android these days, and Google’s becoming almost ubiquitous in the cell phone arena.  It’s a wonder not every cell phone includes this by now, and leaves me wondering just how long until the Justice Department wants a crack at Google.

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I’m still not sold on the whole OLED experience, at least as far as home entertainment goes.  Although, I do believe it’s a great piece of tech for the portable gadget market since it’s light on power consumption and boasts a stunning picture; laptops included.

So pardon mean when I don’t sound too excited about LG’s announcement to bring their 15-inch OLED screen to Korea this November with other markets following sometime in early 2010.  While this set does trump the competition in terms of size, it does make me wonder how much it will cost since Sony’s 11-inch XEL-1 is currently listed at a whopping $2,500.

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While it ain’t the Optimus Maximus keyboard, OCZ’s Sabre does strike a close resemblance thanks to the 9 programmable OLED keys located on the left most part of the keyboard.  Touted as the ‘world’s most intelligent gaming keyboard’, the Sabre also includes amber backlighting and blue sidelighting for those that prefer to game in the complete dark.  Additionally, the OLED keys can be programmed with a series of macros and using the included software display any text or image that your heart desires.  I just wish they chose a more slender/hipper profile.   Sorry, no word on price or release date.

[via TFTS]

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Today Microsoft officially announced the Zune HD to thousands of screaming fans.  While possibly too little too late, the Zune HD will attempt to steal some iPod Touch thunder with the inclusion of such features as:  A built in HD radio receiver, HD video capabilities, OLED touch screen, and WiFi.  What also will be of mass importance is the addition of Xbox Live’s MarketPlace, where you can go for movies and TV programs.  No word on whether or not games or apps are on the horizon, but I’m sure someone somewhere in the Microsoft matrix is gargling on about it.  E3 will have more to say about the Zune HD and will demonstrate the Xbox Live lovechild.  Is this cool?  Does anyone care?

Here’s a bit from our buddies in Washington:

REDMOND, Wash. — May 26, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the evolution of Zune, the company’s end-to-end music and entertainment service, to a new platform and new markets. Zune will extend its video service to Xbox LIVE internationally this fall. This marks an important development in the Zune strategy and brings the Zune brand to more than 17 million international Xbox LIVE subscribers. In addition, Microsoft confirmed the next generation of the Zune portable media player, Zune HD. Available in the U.S. this fall, Zune HD is the first portable media player that combines a built-in HD Radio receiver, high-definition (HD) video output capabilities, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touch screen, Wi-Fi and an Internet browser.

“The Zune music player is an integral part of the overall Zune experience, and we’re proud to be growing and extending our offering beyond the device,” said Enrique Rodriguez, corporate vice president of the Microsoft TV, Video and Music Business Group. “Delivering on Microsoft’s connected entertainment vision, this news marks a turning point for Zune as it brings cross-platform experiences and premium video content to living rooms around the world.”

Zune Service Expands to New Platform

Zune will be a premium partner in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, bringing an exciting catalog of TV and film to the platform. Zune will occupy the first slot within the Xbox user interface in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, exposing the Zune brand experience to millions of new consumers for the first time. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) next week, attendees will see firsthand how Zune integrates into Xbox LIVE to create a game-changing entertainment experience.

Introducing Zune HD

Zune HD is the next iteration of the Zune device family and brings a new level of listening and viewing experiences to the portable media player category.

·         Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver so users can listen to higher-quality sound than traditional radio on the go. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you don’t like the song playing on your station’s HD channel, switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.

·         The bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease, and the 16:9 widescreen format display (480×272 resolution) offers a premium viewing experience on the go.

·         The HD-compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p.*

·         Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.

·         Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.

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I can’t say I’ve been holding my breath waiting for Sony’s latest X Series Walkman (NWZ-X1000) with OLED screen to release here in the US.  But today Amazon US officially received pricing info for the 16GB and 32GB MP3 player.  It will set you back $299.95 and $399.95, respectively.  Unfortunately, there is no mention of an actual ship date, but expect it any day now since Amazon rarely posts new products unless they’re a few days out from shipping.

[via Oled-info]

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Kyocera, which isn’t exactly known for their cell phones, apparently has a couple tricks up theirs sleeves and if they’re not applied correctly they might just remain that.  What you’re looking at is the EOS, an ultra smart cell phone that features ‘a soft, semi-rigid polymer skin [which] surrounds a flexible OLED display’.  When the keys aren’t in use ‘shape memory’ allows them to morph into the phone’s surface.  What’s wackier than that?  The ability to charge itself through physical interaction using an array of nano-scale piezoelectric generators.  It’s extremely unlikely that we’ll ever see this concept come to fruition, but Kyocera hopes to incorporate some the technologies into future phones…of this decade.

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LG Korea “allegedly” claims that the new iPhone and iPod Touch will use LG OLED screens and that Apple has paid them $500 Million upfront to work on new screen technologies.  LG themselves is throwing down $3 Billion over the next 18 months to these screen and monitor technologies.  Part of this money and time will be devoted to a touch screen OLED that will be void of finger grease and smudges!  That will be awesome as I’m constantly wiping down my iPhone as it is.  LG will also increase R&D 25% towards Solar OLED’s and new battery tech.  The Life is green.

[SmartHouse]

Displaying your geekiness is as easy as purchasing one of these: the Video Watch.  It’s a generic, no name device but sports a 128×128 OLED screen and 8GB of on board storage.  Unfortunately, it might not serve as a practical watch, since it only achieves a 7 hour music playback time – 4 if video – and requires charging courtesy of USB.  Well, at least in the first half of the day you’ll be able to record some voice notes, see what time it is and catch up on your favorite episode of ‘Chuck’.

Available here for $100

OLED screens are showing no signs of slowing down.  Generally they’ve been reserved for ‘premier’ like devices, but one company, MyRacer, is changing that.  The Lisse S10 is an MP3 player that measures 46x40x11mm, comes in 2GB and 4GB capacities, and includes, yes you called it, a 128×64 OLED screen that also doubles as a directional pad for traversing the player’s menus.

Don’t expect this ‘Shuffle meets OLED screen’ MP3 player to come State side any time soon, but if you hop a plane to Korea I’m confident you could pick one up.

[Oled-Display]

The Kodak OLED 7.6-Inch Wireless Digital Frame is old news by now, but we still thought it would be fun to shoot a quick and dirty video walk through of the device.

Buy one of these and you’re the epitome of ‘early adopter’.  Sure it will cost $1,000, the cost of some big screen LCD TVs, but you can endlessly bask in all the OLED glory you’ve come to afford.  Specs have pretty much remained the same since we told you about OLED photo frame: 7.6-inch screen, 800×480 resolution, WiFi, 2GB built-in memory, and 30,000:1 contrast ratio.

You can buy one here

[Slashgear]

Customization is good, right?  United Keys thinks so, and they want to offer you the opportunity to customize your own keyboard, well at least part of your keyboard.   The keyboard is pretty standard with the exception of 9 keys that are in fact mini OLED screens that can be programmed with whatever suits your taste.  If the keyboard proves not necessary, you can opt for the smaller and more subtle OLED keypad.  Course, with customization comes cost.  The United Keys OLED keyboard will run you $260, where as the keypad will set you back $200. Oh, and it doesn’t appear to be compatible with Macs.

Both are available here

[Thanks, Dan]

Samsung showed of a massively awesome flexible OLED screen at this year’s FPD 2008.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any specs to go on and it’s difficult to tell how large the screen is, but I think the embedded video says enough.  Here’s looking at a huge ass phone screen in ’09.

It’s worth noting that the ‘flexing’ intervals are pretty few and far between, which leads me to believe the technology isn’t totally sound.  In other words, fold the screen 5 times in 30 seconds and perhaps it would have problems.

[Oled-Display]

[Thanks, Erik]