Samsung announces new transparent and mirror OLED displays
![Samsung-Display]-55-inch-Transparent-OLED_1_1](https://i2.wp.com/cdn01.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Samsung-Display-55-inch-Transparent-OLED_1_1.jpg?resize=700%2C404)
Samsung has introduced its first mirror and transparent OLED display panels today, which the company will be targeting at the personalized shopping market. The company will also be teaming up with Intel to make use of its Real Sense technology, in order to create displays that can also interact with their viewers.
Samsung showcased the technology as an ad billboard and virtual necklace stand, but plans to build the technology into a virtual fitting room, where users can see what various items of clothing would look like before having to try them on.
Intel Real Sense seems like a good fit for this type of market too. The Real Sense platform consists of a series of 3D cameras and a software suite that can recognise people, their actions and surroundings, similar to what Microsoft did with Kinect.
The technology supports gesture controls and face tracking, can measure distances, and can scan objects to be ported into 3D environments. This could lead to some quite novel interactive shopping and ad experiences in the future.
As for the actual display technology, Samsung boasts some big improvements over the competitors in the transparent display market. The company says that its transparent OLED technology has a substantially higher color gamut, increased transmittance and superior viewing angles than conventional LCD alternatives. For comparison, Samsung’s transparency level reaches 40 percent, compared with just 10 percent for LCD. LG’s similar technology was at around 30 percent transparency last year.
As for the Mirror OLED panel, Samsung claims that it reflects more that 75 percent of light, and features improved color gamut, contrast ratios (100,000:1 vs. 4,000:1) and faster response times than LCD (under 1ms vs. 8ms). Another benefit is that OLED technology doesn’t require a backlight, resulting in less light leakage.
While Samsung is clearly marketing this technology at advertisers for now, transparent OLED technology could also eventually find a home in augmented reality situations, including in automotive, smart home, and medical markets. Not forgetting all the weird and wonderful transparent and flexible display smartphone concepts that have appeared over the years.
Samsung certainly isn’t the only company working on transparent display technologies, so whoever is first to market could end up with a big advantage.
Apple is sending cars to help build its own Street View
Google’s Street View cars are well known, but you may also soon see vehicles from its biggest rival: Apple. The company today confirmed that in order to improve Apple Maps, it’s embarking on a mission to drive cars all over the world, starting in the US, UK and Ireland. It’s created a dedicated website detailing the locations it intends to visit and when it expects to be there, which may allow you to “accidentally” get snapped by one of its vehicles. From June 15th, Apple will visit a number of US states and cities, including California, Florida and New York, as well as London, Birmingham and Essex in the UK.
Transparency appears to be Apple’s aim here, so it’s listing areas before the cars actually arrive. The company also says that it will “blur faces and license plates on collected images prior to publication,” which suggests that the company isn’t just mapping directions, but that it’s also building a Street View service of its very own. It comes just days after Apple announced a number of Maps improvements, which includes the roll out of transit directions in a number of US and international cities, reiterating Apple’s desire to beat Google at its own game.
Filed under: Transportation, Internet, Apple
Via: The Guardian
Source: Apple Maps Vehicles
The future is now: Samsung unveils its transparent and mirror displays
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Technology is a wonderful thing and it’s so exciting to be around when so many new concepts and ideas are coming to fruition. Today’s biggest technology news is that Samsung unveils its transparent and mirror displays, special OLED screens which do almost exactly what you might expect them to – the transparent display allows you to see straight through it while the mirror display shows you an exact reflection of yourself.
Now what use are these in the real world? Well, Samsung is already talking up several uses including allowing people to virtually try clothes on themselves using a mirror display in a store, or some interesting advertising applications for the transparent displays. Not only are these displays novel in application, but Samsung says these displays are better than LCD displays of today. We imagine it will be some time before Samsung has these out in commercial “virtual fitting rooms” and such, but it’s exciting to see where technology is headed, and tantalizing to consider whether this technology has an application in the mobile world. Transparent smartphones anyone?
What do you think about Samsung’s announcement of its transparent and mirror displays? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The post The future is now: Samsung unveils its transparent and mirror displays appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
People upgrading to a Samsung Galaxy S6 are mostly coming from other Samsung devices (55%) or Apple (40%)
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Not long ago, we took a look at HTC One M8 not really wanting to update to the HTC One M9 (for various reasons). Thanks to the hard work of mobile trade-in sites CompareMyMobile UK and GadgetValuer USA, we now also have statistics for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and what devices its customers are coming from. After surveying customers from April 10th, the survey has found that 18.5% of them upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S6 – not a bad percentage seeing as how many other devices there are out there.
Of that 18.5%, CompareMyMobile and GadgetValuer say that 55.17% of those converting to a Galaxy S6 have elected to do so after owning another Samsung device, and a whopping 40.69% of them were coming from an Apple device. This is especially surprising seeing as last year, Sony and Nokia converters to the Galaxy S5 made up about 25% of trade-ins, whereas anyone not called Samsung or Apple has made up less than 5% of this year’s trade-ins to a Galaxy S6.
If you’re wondering which devices were the actual top trade-ins for the Galaxy S6, they were:
- Samsung Galaxy S4
- Apple iPhone 5
- Samsung Galaxy S5
- Apple iPhone 5C
- Apple iPhone 5S
The Galaxy S4 topping the list is no surprise at all, but I’m genuinely surprised that so many iPhone users are making the jump to the Galaxy S6 – guess Samsung’s strategy is paying off after all.
What do you think about this data about people upgrading to a Samsung Galaxy S6? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: CompareMyMobile, GadgetValuer
The post People upgrading to a Samsung Galaxy S6 are mostly coming from other Samsung devices (55%) or Apple (40%) appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Samsung reveals plans for new mirror and transparent OLED displays
Samsung has unveiled its new mirror and transparent OLED displays in Hong Kong, and from the sound of it, the company has big plans for both of them. While the event has only showcased the screens as ad billboards and as a virtual necklace stand, Samsung believes they have bigger uses in the future once they’re integrated with Intel’s RealSense technology. It plans to develop the mirror display, for instance, as a “virtual fitting room,” made possible by the Intel technology’s 3D cameras and an “automated library of stored perceptions.” Customers can use the high-tech mirror to see what jewelries, clothes or shoes look like on them before actually trying them on to make sure they fit.
On the other hand, Samsung plans to use its transparent OLEDs for interactive ads that will take advantage of RealSense’s voice and gesture control capabilities. The company claims its mirror OLED is sharper, clearer, has higher contrast and faster response times compared to mirror LCDs already available today. Its transparent OLED is apparently more colorful and clearer than similar technologies, as well. It’ll likely take Samsung some time to make these plans a reality, but we doubt the company’s slacking off either. After all, it has to compete with a lot of other companies also developing virtual fitting rooms and interactive ad displays of their own.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung
Source: Samsung
T-Mobile to retry updating its LG G3 to Lollipop today
T-Mobile is rolling out another over-the-air update for its variant of the LG G3 today, having previously failed to bring Android 5.0 Lollipop to all of its customers earlier in the year. The update will bring handsets up to build number D85120e, states T-Mobile Senior Product Manager Des Smith.
According to the Twitter message, the update D85120e should have begun rolling out just after midnight, but it will likely be rolling out in waves so might not reach your particular handset until a few days later.
T-Mobile Software Update: The new #LGG3 SW build is D85120e and should start rolling out to customers tonight after 12:01 am Pacific
— Des (@askdes) June 9, 2015
Back in April, T-Mobile had begun rolling out an Android Lollipop update to G3 owners under the build number D85120b. This update was quickly pulled shortly following its release, leaving some users updated and others without Lollipop. The reasons for cancelling the update have not been made official, but some T-Mobile LG G3 owners have apparently been having problems with their handsets after updating.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a detailed change-log for the update online yet, so we can’t be sure of the differences between versions b and e. Although those upgrading from KitKat will finally get to play around with the changes to notifications and the recent apps menu, along with all of the under the hood Lollipop changes.
Keep an eye out for that OTA notification.
Vodafone returns to broadband with ‘Connect’
More than three years after it left the market, Vodafone has made a return to broadband. After months of teasing, the carrier has unveiled ‘Connect,’ a new internet and home phone service that will initially only be available to existing customers. Like many of its rivals, including Sky and TalkTalk, Vodafone will piggyback on BT’s Openreach infrastructure, offering 17Mbps speeds as part of its basic package, or 76Mbps fibre in its top-tier plan.
All plans all come with a minimum 18-month contract, but the carrier has made sure that pricing is competitive. The lowest-tier package costs £2.50 a month for 12 months (£10 for non-Vodafone customers), and £5 for the remaining six months of the plan, while the fibre product will cost £10 a month (£25 a month for non-Vodafone customers) for the first year, before rising to £20 thereafter. They are introductory prices, though, and Vodafone will also levy a £16.99 monthly line rental charge.
So what do you get for your money? For a start, all plans include unlimited broadband usage and inclusive evening and weekend calls to UK landlines. Vodafone Red customers will enjoy 300 Anytime & Mobile minutes on top of that. You’ll also get the Connect router, which Vodafone says offers a “richer, smarter, more responsive Wi-Fi experience.” It comes with a “Boost” feature that will let you maximise download speeds on a chosen device for up to 2 hours at a time and will also offer a separate WiFi connection for guests, letting you choose how long users are connected for (one for the kids, maybe). Vodafone has also built a dedicated mobile app that helps set up your connection, choose which devices should benefit from Boost and blocks access to nefarious websites.
Vodafone’s starting small, targeting existing customers in Manchester and selected parts of Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. After that, the provider will extend the service to Essex, Hertfordshire and Yorkshire, before opening it to all Vodafone customers “later this year.” Everyone else will have to wait until Autumn.
Filed under: Household, Internet
Via: Vodafone Blog
Source: Vodafone Connect
YouTube has an 8K video (that almost no one can watch)
The equipment to shoot it might not exactly be widespread, and the displays needed to view it at home are even less so, but 8K video has made its way to YouTube. It’s a feature the outfit announced way back in 2010, but only just recently did a clip surface that actually uses all of those lines of resolution. The clip’s called Ghost Towns and it’s a slow-panning journey through what looks like a recently abandoned mining settlement. Mountain View told 9to5Google that the 8K label was added earlier this year, but 4320p footage has only appeared pretty recently. The video description notes that Ghost Towns was shot using a RED Epic Dragon 6K camera in portrait orientation and to hit the higher resolution, some of the footage was upscaled or stitched together with Adobe’s After Effects suite.
Very few of us will be able to watch this on our everyday machines thanks to the sheer amount of system resources it takes to handle a video of this magnitude, but those who can should be happy to know it apparently runs in Chrome and Safari. Of course, you can peep it in lesser resolutions below as well.
Filed under: Cameras, Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Google
Via: 9to5Google
Source: Neumannfilms (YouTube)
Phil Schiller Talks 16 GB iPhones and Thinness vs Battery Life Tradeoffs
A day after the WWDC keynote address, Apple SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller joined Daring Fireball’s John Gruber on Gruber’s podcast, The Talk Show. The episode has not yet been posted, but The Verge was on hand to document the interview. Schiller addressed concerns about 16 GB iPhones, the decision between thin devices and battery life and the single USB port on the MacBook.
Gruber suggested to Schiller that the Cupertino company’s iOS devices should come with larger storage capacities on the low end, as the 16 GB of storage provided in the base iPhone 6 or 6 Plus is harder to live with with the current size of apps. Schiller countered that services like iCloud could make up the difference.
“The belief is more and more as we use iCloud services for documents and our photos and videos and music,” he said, “that perhaps the most price-conscious customers are able to live in an environment where they don’t need gobs of local storage because these services are lightening the load.”
Schiller also said that using 16 GB storage for lower-end models allows Apple to save money for use on higher-end components in other parts of the device, like the camera.
When asked about the relationship between the thickness of a phone and battery life, and whether maintaining the thickness of its devices could lead to more power-efficient internals and bigger batteries, Schiller said that Apple has the right balance with its devices. He points out that a device with a larger battery and thickness becomes heavier and takes longer to charge. Schiller notes that Apple tries to figure out the tradeoffs with every device it makes, and he thinks the company has made “great choices” in those tradeoffs.
The Apple SVP also acknowledged that the new MacBook, with its one USB-C port and new keyboard, isn’t for everyone. However, he said he believes that Apple is a company that needs to release forward-thinking products like the new MacBook, which is an effort to push the world into a place where users don’t plug things into their laptops. Schiller said he wants an Apple that’s “bold and taking risks and being aggressive.”
Apple has faced criticism for its “bold decisions” in the past, with users unsure of whether a 16 GB device is enough for a daily driver, concern about whether new devices will have improved battery life with thinner designs and products with new technology that come with heavy initial limitations.
While the episode has not yet debuted online yet, it should be available on Daring Fireball in due time.
AT&T Address Book enhancement update hitting LG G4 devices, don’t panic
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The web is all a flutter about an update that is landing on LG G4 devices on AT&T’s network. The update is a minor one, coming in at 26.5MB’s, and actually was released on June 5th, which was the official launch date for the device. Being that updates don’t always hit devices immediately, it isn’t much of a surprise that it is just now starting to grace consumers devices. Unfortunately the update isn’t anything that is all that concerning. AT&T’s software update page for the LG G4 tells the story as it being an AT&T Address Book enhancement update.
The AT&T Address Book is AT&T’s app, of sorts, to back up and sync your contacts with the carrier. It makes it easy to retrieve your contacts if you are bouncing between various devices that sport different operating systems. It is also useful for those newer to Android who have saved their contacts to their device rather than their Gmail account. Similar situation for users coming from feature phones to smartphone. Believe me, it happens more than we all might think. AT&T bundles the app with the OS build since it is more of a service than an app, and runs the first time you try to get to your contacts. Hence the need to manually push an OTA to the device. While a bit archaic in the current era, it is still how some things get done. Hopefully they can migrate it out as an app and put it in the Play Store soon to help avoid this confusion in the future.
Via: AT&T
The post AT&T Address Book enhancement update hitting LG G4 devices, don’t panic appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
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