Liquid-crystal display televisions (LCD TV) are television sets that use LCD display technology to produce images. LCD televisions are thinner and lighter than cathode ray tube (CRTs) of similar display size, and are available in much larger sizes. When manufacturing costs fell, this combination of features made LCDs practical for television receivers.

In 2007, LCD televisions surpassed sales of CRT-based televisions worldwide for the first time and their sales figures relative to other technologies are accelerating. LCD TVs are quickly displacing the only major competitors in the large-screen market, the plasma display paneland rear-projection television. LCDs are, by far, the most widely produced and sold television display type.

LCDs also have a variety of disadvantages. Other technologies address these weaknesses, including organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), FED and SED, but as of 2011 none of these have entered widespread production.

Basic LCD concepts

LCD televisions produce a black and colored image by selectively filtering a white light. The light is typically provided by a series of cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) at the back of the screen, although some displays use white or colored LEDs instead. Millions of individual LCD shutters, arranged in a grid, open and close to allow a metered amount of the white light through. Each shutter is paired with a colored filter to remove all but the red, green or blue (RGB) portion of the light from the original white source. Each shutter–filter pair forms a single sub-pixel. The sub-pixels are so small that when the display is viewed from even a short distance, the individual colors blend together to produce a single spot of color, a pixel. The shade of color is controlled by changing the relative intensity of the light passing through the sub-pixels.

Liquid crystals encompass a wide range of (typically) rod-shaped polymers that naturally form into thin layers, as opposed to the more random alignment of a normal liquid. Some of these, thenematic liquid crystals, also show an alignment effect between the layers. The particular direction of the alignment of a nematic liquid crystal can be set by placing it in contact with an alignment layer or director, which is essentially a material with microscopic grooves in it. When placed on a director, the layer in contact will align itself with the grooves, and the layers above will subsequently align themselves with the layers below, the bulk material taking on the director’s alignment. In the case of an LCD, this effect is utilized by using two directors arranged at right angles and placed close together with the liquid crystal between them. This forces the layers to align themselves in two directions, creating a twisted structure with each layer aligned at a slightly different angle to the ones on either side.

LCD shutters consist of a stack of three primary elements. On the bottom and top of the shutter are polarizer plates set at right angles. Normally light cannot travel through a pair of polarizers arranged in this fashion, and the display would be black. The polarizers also carry the directors to create the twisted structure aligned with the polarizers on either side. As the light flows out of the rear polarizer, it will naturally follow the liquid crystal’s twist, exiting the front of the liquid crystal having been rotated through the correct angle, that allows it to pass through the front polarizer. LCDs are normally transparent.

To turn a shutter off, a voltage is applied across it from front to back. the rod-shaped molecules align themselves with the electric field instead of the directors, destroying the twisted structure. The light no longer changes polarization as it flows through the liquid crystal, and can no longer pass through the front polarizer. By controlling the voltage applied across the crystal, the amount of remaining twist can be selected. This allows the transparency of the shutter to be controlled. To improve switching time, the cells are placed under pressure, which increases the force to re-align themselves with the directors when the field is turned off.

Several other variations and modifications have been used in order to improve performance in certain applications. In-Plane Switching displays (IPS and S-IPS) offer wider viewing angles and better color reproduction, but are more difficult to construct and have slightly slower response times. IPS displays are used primarily for computer monitors. Vertical Alignment (VA, S-PVA and MVA) offer higher contrast ratios and good response times, but suffer from color shifting when viewed from the side. In general, all of these displays work in a similar fashion by controlling the polarization of the light source.

Efficiency

LCDs are relatively inefficient in terms of power use per display size, because the vast majority of light that is being produced at the back of the screen is blocked before it reaches the viewer. To start with, the rear polarizer filters out over half of the original un-polarized light. Examining the image above, you can see that a good portion of the screen area is covered by the cell structure around the shutters, which removes another portion. After that, each sub-pixel’s color filter removes the majority of what is left to leave only the desired color. Finally, to control the color and luminance of a pixel as a whole, the light has to be further absorbed in the shutters. 3M suggests that, on average, only 8 to 10% of the light being generated at the back of the set reaches the viewer.

For these reasons the backlighting system has to be extremely powerful. In spite of using highly efficient CCFLs, most sets use several hundred watts of power, more than would be required to light an entire house with the same technology. As a result, LCD televisions end up with overall power usage similar to a CRT of the same size. Using the same examples, the KV-40XBR800 dissipates 245 W,  while the LC-42D65 dissipates 235 W.^[1] Plasma displays are worse; the best are on par with LCDs, but typical sets draw much more.

Modern LCD sets have attempted to address the power use through a process known as “dynamic lighting” (originally introduced for other reasons, see below). This system examines the image to find areas that are darker, and reduces the backlighting in those areas. CCFLs are long cylinders that run the length of the screen, so this change can only be used to control the brightness of the screen as a whole, or at least wide horizontal bands of it. This makes the technique suitable only for particular types of images, like the credits at the end of a movie. In 2009 some manufacturers made some TVs using HCFL (more power efficient than CCFL). Sets using LEDs are more distributed, with each LED lighting only a small number of pixels, typically a 16 by 16 patch. This allows them to dynamically adjust brightness of much smaller areas, which is suitable for a much wider set of images.

Another ongoing area of research is to use materials that optically route light in order to re-use as much of the signal as possible. One potential improvement is to use microprisms or dichromic mirrors to split the light into R, G and B, instead of absorbing the unwanted colors in a filter. A successful system would improve efficiency by three times. Another would be to direct the light that would normally fall on opaque elements back into the transparent portion of the shutters. A number of companies are actively researching a variety of approaches, and 3M currently sells several products that route leaked light back toward the front of the screen..

Several newer technologies, OLED, FED and SED, have lower power use as one of their primary advantages. All of these technologies directly produce light on a sub-pixel basis, and use only as much power as that light level requires. Sony has demonstrated 36” FED units displaying very bright images drawing only 14 W, less than 1/10 as much as a similarly sized LCD. OLEDs and SEDs are similar to FEDs in power terms. The dramatically lower power requirements make these technologies particularly interesting in low-power uses like laptop computers and mobile phones. These sorts of devices were the market that originally bootstrapped LCD technology, due to its light weight and thinness.

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Acer Ferrari AD60, red

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·         Android 2.1 OS

·         Multi Touch Screen 3.5 inches

·         5 Mega Pixel Camera

·         3g plus Wi Fi

 Features:

Operating System: Android 2.1

Unique Design

3G Plus Wi Fi

 Chipset

Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon

 Camera

5 Mega Pixel Autofocus

2560x1920 Pixels

Connectivity

Bluetooth: Yes

Infra Red: No

Wi-Fi: Yes

3G: Yes

GPRS: Yes

Display

Type: TFT Capacitive Touchscreen

Size: 480x800 Pixels, 3.5 inches

Memory

Internal: Yes

Card slot: MicroSD type

Sound

Alert types: NA

3.5MM jack: Yes

Loudspeakers: Yes

Tech so smart it doesn’t compute

NICOLA RUSSELL

From iPads to Android phones, voice-controlled computers and gesture-controlled games to internet-connected TVs – technology is transforming our lives for the better. Or is it?

Computer-based technology might be getting faster and smarter, but frustrated users are getting angrier.

In a Sunday Star-Times readers’ poll, almost half of respondents said they became so irked with technology they resorted to yelling at their computers or phones.

Almost half of those surveyed (47 per cent) were driven to yell occasionally and 10 per cent frequently found themselves driven to shout.

Half of those who resort to yelling at technology do so in the privacy of their home but 40 per cent of the furious will vent their frustration anywhere.

Many readers voiced their frustration at the complexity of technology, and their comments reflected a yearning for simplicity.

“A lot of the ‘thrills’ of technology seem pointless, just time-wasting rather than enhancing efficiency,” said one reader who thought mobile phones were the “new cigarette, something to do with your hands to fill in time or look cool”.

Another said: “I find that much modern technology does too much – we have had to buy a new mobile phone, all we need it to do is make and receive calls.

“But the simplest one we could get has a camera, computer compatibility, and heaps of other stuff. And yet we can’t understand the `how-to’ book. We’re considering hiring a teenager to show us how to get it started.”

Many readers who were “digital immigrants” (new to technology) said they found the instructions were aimed at people who already had a high level of technological expertise.

“I acquired a cellphone for the first time a couple of years ago after never having used one before,” said a reader.

“Those responsible for writing the instructions appeared to assume that I had either owned one previously or else was a teenager, whose brains are apparently compatible with them.”

The older generation were grateful to grandchildren for getting them out of sticky technological traps.

“One of the greatest blessings of having grandchildren is they can guide you through the labyrinth of modern technology (from somebody who was brought up in a society where the typewriter and Gestetner were king)”.

But those not born into a digital world had a strong desire to embrace technology. “I hate computers but if my house burned down a computer would be the first thing that I would buy and I am 85 years old. It connects me to the world.”

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Many readers expressed frustration at the over-reliance on technology: “I sometimes want to yell at people who are obsessed with using their gadgets over personal communication.”

Other annoyances included the speed of New Zealand’s broadband and the changes that came with upgrading programmes and applications.

The majority (59 per cent) of readers rate themselves as having a medium level of skill with technology. Males and those under 40 years rate themselves more highly when it came to technological literacy.

- © Fairfax NZ News

USB 3.0 picks up mobile backup pace

By  Micheal J. Miller

If you’ve ever backed up a hard drive, or just wanted to move files between systems, you know the process almost always takes longer than you’d like. That’s why I’ve been so enthusiastic about new technologies such as USB 3.0, which promises transfer rates as much as 10 times faster as USB 2.0. In practice, I haven’t seen that drastic of a performance improvement but I have seen some very noticeable improvements, depending on the kind of data being backed up.

To test this out, I reran some of the tests I did with the first USB 3.0 drives using a newer machine that comes with a built-in USB 3.0 port, rather than using an add-in card. For my tests, I used a Lenovo ThinkPad X1, which has an internal Hitachi 7,200GB drive as well as both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports. (By convention the USB 3.0 ports are marked with a blue connector and the cables say “SS” for “super speed.”)

As before, I started with Seagate’s FreeAgent GoFlex drive, a 5,400-rpm 500GB drive that is available with multiple connections. I tested with both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0, and then tried again Seagate’s 7,200-rpm BlackArmor PS100, a USB 3.0 drive. Next, I tried a USB 3.0 flash drive, in this case Kingston’s DataTraveler HyperX 3.0, a 64GB flash drive that promises read speeds up to 225MB/s and write speeds up to 135 MB/s (both big jumps over what you can expect with traditional memory sticks).

I started by backing up a 1.25GB video file and testing each drive from both the USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports; the differences were dramatic. In all cases, the drives performed much better when connected by USB 3.0:

I wouldn’t pay much attention to the minor differences among the various drives. Recall that hard drive performance can vary depending on where on the drive the actual file is written. The flash drive was slightly faster than the hard drives, though nowhere near the rated speed; all the drives are impacted somewhat by the time it takes to start the drive and by the overhead of the operating system. More importantly, the overall speed was two and a half times faster on USB 3.0 than on USB 2.0.

I also tried backing up a set of folders of photographs, containing 16,842 items, totaling 26.7GB of data. I think this is representative of the kind of personal information that many people will want to back up to an external drive and it’s in this case that performance is most important. Here are my results:

As you can see, overall the speeds are much slower, in part because Windows—like any operating system—not only has to copy over the data, but has to write the location of the data to its file allocation table (NTFS for the hard drives; FAT32 for the USB drive). In both cases, I used the default. With more files, there are more individual writes and that makes a big difference. Don’t pay too much attention to the minor differences among the various drives; as before, remember that hard drive performance can vary depending where on the drive the actual file is written and (especially on this test) by how fragmented the drives are.

Here, the DataTraveler flash drive is notably faster than the external hard drives running USB 3.0 (although slower when attached to a USB 2.0 port). In general, I still see a noticeable improvement, but it ranges from a 33 percent improvement to just less than twice as fast. It’s good but far from the tenfold difference in rated speeds among the interfaces.

Still, a nearly twofold improvement can be a big deal. On my tests, writing the multiple file backup took 37 minutes to the flash drive on USB 2.0, but only 20 minutes on USB 3.0. For the single video file, it obviously took much less time (about 20 seconds versus one minute), but a bigger percentage change.

Overall, then, I’d call USB 3.0 a success even if it’s not quite as big a breakthrough as the vendors tout. I can certainly see the benefits of carrying a USB 3.0 memory stick, such as the Kingston DataTraveler HyperX, for backup as opposed to a 2.0 one, particularly if you’re going to be doing many backups.

Copyright © 2010 Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc.

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. As of September 30, 2011, 57.6 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide.

The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The console sold out completely upon release in all regions except in Japan.

Several major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online, download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, music and movies and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox 360 also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming services such as Netflix and ESPN in the US or Sky Go in the UK.

At their E3 presentation on June 14, 2010, Microsoft announced a redesigned Xbox 360 that would ship on the same day.^[  The redesigned console is slimmer than the previous Xbox 360 model and features integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, TOSLINK S/PDIF optical audio output, 5 USB 2.0 ports (compared to the 3 from older versions) and a special AUX port. Older models of the Xbox 360 have since been discontinued\ The first new console to be released features a 250 GB hard drive, while a later, less expensive SKU features 4 GB internal storage.

With the announcement of the Xbox 360 S, Microsoft have said that they believe that the console is only mid-way through its life-cycle and will continue through 2015. However, unnamed sources have claimed that Microsoft’s next video game console is being slated for release as early as the 2013 holiday season.^[  Development of the system has also been implied by updates Microsoft employees have made to their resumes, which state that they were working on the next Xbox console.

Known during development as Xbox Next, Xenon, Xbox 2, Xbox FS or NextBox,^[  the Xbox 360 was conceived in early 2003. In February 2003, planning for the Xenon software platform began, and was headed by Microsoft’s Vice President J Allard. That month, Microsoft held an event for 400 developers in Bellevue, Washington to recruit support for the system. Also that month, Peter Moore, former president of Sega of America, joined Microsoft. On August 12, 2003, ATI signed on to produce the graphic processing unit for the new console, a deal which was publicly announced two days later. Before the launch of the Xbox 360, several Alpha development kits were spotted using Apple’s Power Mac G5 hardware. This was because the system’s PowerPC 970 processor running the same PowerPC architecture that the Xbox 360 would eventually run under IBM’s Xenon processor. The cores of the Xenon processor were developed using a slightly modified version of the PlayStation 3’s Cell Processor PPE architecture. According to David Shippy and Mickie Phipps, the IBM employees were “hiding” their work from Sony and Toshiba. Jeff Minter created the music visualization program Neon which is included with the Xbox 360.

Current models (Xbox 360 S)

Technically designated the Xbox 360 S^[ and marketed simply as the Xbox 360; current Xbox 360 consoles are based around a redesign of the Xbox 360 hardware which was officially announced on June 14, 2010 during a press briefing prior to that year’s E3.

It was speculated that a complete redesign of the Xbox 360 hardware was being produced after pictures of a possible new motherboard design surfaced on March 17, 2010. Ads later surfaced on June 13, 2010 showing a slimmer Xbox 360 design, which was expected to include a 250 GB hard drive and integrated Wi-Fi functionality.

Xbox 360 S consoles feature redesigned internal architecture with the Valhalla motherboard, which allows for around 30% more space than previous motherboards, and the XCGPU, an integrated CPU/GPU/eDRAM chip using a 45 nm fabrication process. This allows them to be both smaller and quieter than the previous versions of the Xbox 360. They also feature five standard USB 2.0 ports (two more than previous models) and an additional custom USB port for use with peripherals such as the kinectsensor. Unlike older models, 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and a TOSLINK S/PDIF optical audio connector are also built-in, allowing for digital audio and wireless networking without the need for external adapters. The Memory Unit slots found on previous consoles have been removed in favor of the USB flash drive solution added in a previous system software update (released on April 6, 2010) and the power and DVD drive eject ‘buttons’ are touch sensitive rather than the physical buttons found on previous models. The external hard disk drive connector has also been swapped for an internal bay for use with a proprietary hard drive. The hard drive bay is designed such that a specially formatted laptop hard drive may be loaded in. It has been noted that users can also open up the casing of the original model’s hard drive and simply load it into the drive bay instead of purchasing a hard drive branded for use with the new model. Other notable hardware changes include the use of one larger fan compared to the previous Xbox 360 models (which used two smaller ones) and the design of the vents, which are similar to those used on the original Xbox. Unlike previous generations of the console which had names to distinguish different SKUs, the new models are to be marketed solely by the amount of included storage, in a similar fashion to current models of its main competitor the PlayStation 3. When the first new models began to ship, remaining stock of the Elite package dropped in price to US$249.99 or A$349and the Arcade dropped to US$149.99.^[

Xbox 360 250 GB 

The first Xbox 360 S SKU to be revealed includes a 250 GB hard driveand its casing featured a glossy black finish. It was shipped to US retailers the same day it was announced (June 14, 2010) and went on sale later that week. It was released in Australia on July 1, 2010, in New Zealand on July 8, 2010and in Europe on July 16, 2010. It retails at US$299.99, £199.99, A$449.00, NZ$499.00 or€249.00, replacing the Xbox 360 Elite at that price point.

In August 2011, Microsoft announced they will be streamlining their models by discontinuing the glossy finish and future 250 GB consoles will use the matte finish found on 4 GB models.

Xbox 360 4 GB 

A second SKU which includes 4 GB of internal flash storage and has matte black casing (much like the Xbox 360 Elite) was released on August 3, 2010 in the US and August 20, 2010 in Europe.^[  It replaced the Xbox 360 Arcade and is priced at US$199.99, £149.99 or€199.99. Although this model has on-board storage, Xbox Product Director Aaron Greenberg confirmed that it does have a drive bay which Microsoft has “the opportunity to use in the future”.On August 20, 2010, Microsoft announced a 250 GB stand-alone hard drive for use with Xbox 360 S models priced at US$129.99.^[

Xbox 360 320 GB limited editions 

Further information: #Xbox 360 S special editions

In June 2011, Microsoft announced a “Limited Collector’s Edition” Xbox 360 S console to coincide with the launch of Gears of War 3, which featuring custom finish, a 320 GB hard driveand sounds from the Gears of War 3 game which are played when the console is switched on or the disc tray is opened.

Other 320 GB Xbox 360 S limited editions soon followed. Like the 250 GB “Super Elite” consoles, 320 GB Xbox 360 S consoles are only available as part of limited/special edition console bundles (as of September 2011), with stand-alone 320 GB hard drives also available for purchase.^[

Reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360

A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audiotechnical standards, two different and incompatible standards.

Some manufacturers originally announced that DVD players would be available as early as the middle of 1996. These predictions were woefully optimistic. Delivery was initially held up for “political” reasons of copy protection demanded by movie studios, but was later delayed by lack of titles. The first players appeared in Japan in November, 1996, followed by U.S. players in March, 1997, with distribution limited to only 7 major cities for the first 6 months. Players slowly trickled in to other regions around the world. Prices for the first players in 1997 were $1000 and up. By the end of 2000, players were available for under Rs 5000 at discount retailers. In 2003 players became available for under Rs 2500. Six years after the initial launch, close to one thousand models of DVD players were available from over a hundred consumer electronics manufacturers.

Fujitsu supposedly released the first DVD-ROM-equipped computer on Nov. 6 in Japan. Toshiba released a DVD-ROM-equipped computer and a DVD-ROM drive in Japan in early 1997 (moved back from December which was moved back from November). DVD-ROM drives from Toshiba, Pioneer, Panasonic, Hitachi, and Sony began appearing in sample quantities as early as January 1997, but none were available before May. The first PC upgrade kits (a combination of DVD-ROM drive and hardware decoder card) became available from Creative Labs, Hi-Val, and Diamond Multimedia in April and May of 1997.

Today, every major PC manufacturer has models that include DVD-ROM drives.

The first DVD-Audio players were released in Japan by Pioneer in late 1999, but they did not play copy-protected discs. Matsushita (under the Panasonic and Technics labels) first released full-fledged players in July 2000 for $700 to $1,200. DVD-Audio players are now also made by Aiwa, Denon, JVC, Kenwood, Madrigal, Marantz, Nakamichi, Onkyo, Toshiba, Yamaha, and others. Sony released the first SACD players in May 1999 for $5,000. Pioneer’s first DVD-Audio players released in late 1999 also played SACD. SACD players are now also made by Accuphase, Aiwa, Denon, Kenwood, Marantz, Philips, Sharp, and others.

A DVD player has to complete these tasks:

§  Read a DVD disc in ISO – UDF version 1.02 format

§  optionally decrypt the data with either CSS and/or Macrovision

§  read and obey the DVD’s Regional lockout codes and display a warning if the player is not authorised to play the DVD

§  decode the MPEG-2 video stream with a maximum of 10 Mbit/s (peak) or 8 Mbit/s (continuous)

§  decode sound in MP2, PCM or AC-3 format and output (with optional AC-3 to stereo downmixing) on stereo connector, optical or electric digital connector

§  output a video signal, either an analog one (in NTSC, PAL or SECAM format) on thecomposite, S-Video, SCART, or component video connectors, or a digital one on the DVI or HDMI connectors.

Due to multiple audio (and video) output devices, a consumer has many outputs on a DVD player, and may become confused with connecting a player to a TV or amplifier. Most systems include an optional digital audio connector for this task, which is then paired with a similar input on the amplifier. The physical connection is typically RCA connectors or TOSLINK, which transmits a S/PDIF stream carrying either uncompressed digital audio (PCM) or the original compressed audio data (Dolby Digital, DTS, MPEG audio) to be decoded by the audio equipment

 Video:

Video is another issue which continues to present most problems. Current players typically output analog video only, both composite videoon an RCA jack as well as S-Video in the standard connector. However, neither of these connectors was intended to be used for progressive video, so yet another set of connectors has started to appear, to carry a form of component video, which keeps the three components of the video, one luminance signal and two color difference signal, as stored on the DVD itself, on fully separate wires (whereas S-Video uses two wires, uniting and degrading the two color signals, and composite uses only one, uniting and degrading all three signals). The connectors are further confused by using a number of different physical connectors on different player models, RCA or BNC, as well as using VGA cables in a non-standard way (VGA is normally analog RGB—a different, incompatible form of component video). Even worse, there are often two sets of component outputs, one carrying interlaced video, and the other progressive, or an interlaced/progressive switch (either a physical switch or a menu setting).

In Europe (but not most other PAL areas), SCART connectors are typically used, which can carry composite and analog RGB interlaced video signals (RGB can be progressive, but not all DVD players and displays support this mode) or Y/C (S-Video), as well as analog two-channel sound and automatic 4:3 or 16:9 (widescreen) switching on a single convenient multi-wire cable. The analog RGB component signal offers video quality which is superior to S-Video and identical to YPbPr component video. However, analog RGB and S-Video signals can not be carried simultaneously, due to each using the same pins for different uses, and displays often must be manually configured as to the input signal, since no switching mode exists for S-Video. (A switching mode does exist to indicate whether composite or RGB is being used.) Some DVD players and set-top boxes offer YPbPr component video signals over the wires in the SCART connector intended for RGB, though this violates the official specification and manual configuration is again necessary. (Hypothetically, unlike RGB component, YPbPr component signals and S-Video Y/C signals could both be sent over the wire simultaneously, since they share the luminance (Y) component.)

HDMI is a new digital connection for carrying high-definition video, similar to DVI. Along with video, HDMI also supports up to eight-channel digital audio. DVD players with connectors for high-definition video can up convert the source to formats used for higher definition video (e.g.,720p, 1080i, 1080p, etc.), before outputting the signal. By no means, however, will the resulting signal be high-definition video; that is, aside from optional deinterlacing upconverting generally consists of merely scaling the video’s dimensions to match that of higher resolution formats, foregoing the scaling that would normally occur in the output device.

Liquid-crystal display televisions (LCD TV) are television sets that use LCD display technology to produce images. LCD televisions are thinner and lighter than cathode ray tube (CRTs) of similar display size, and are available in much larger sizes. When manufacturing costs fell, this combination of features made LCDs practical for television receivers.

In 2007, LCD televisions surpassed sales of CRT-based televisions worldwide for the first time and their sales figures relative to other technologies are accelerating. LCD TVs are quickly displacing the only major competitors in the large-screen market, the plasma display paneland rear-projection television. LCDs are, by far, the most widely produced and sold television display type.

LCDs also have a variety of disadvantages. Other technologies address these weaknesses, including organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), FED and SED, but as of 2011 none of these have entered widespread production.

Basic LCD concepts

LCD televisions produce a black and colored image by selectively filtering a white light. The light is typically provided by a series of cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) at the back of the screen, although some displays use white or colored LEDs instead. Millions of individual LCD shutters, arranged in a grid, open and close to allow a metered amount of the white light through. Each shutter is paired with a colored filter to remove all but the red, green or blue (RGB) portion of the light from the original white source. Each shutter–filter pair forms a single sub-pixel. The sub-pixels are so small that when the display is viewed from even a short distance, the individual colors blend together to produce a single spot of color, a pixel. The shade of color is controlled by changing the relative intensity of the light passing through the sub-pixels.

Liquid crystals encompass a wide range of (typically) rod-shaped polymers that naturally form into thin layers, as opposed to the more random alignment of a normal liquid. Some of these, thenematic liquid crystals, also show an alignment effect between the layers. The particular direction of the alignment of a nematic liquid crystal can be set by placing it in contact with an alignment layer or director, which is essentially a material with microscopic grooves in it. When placed on a director, the layer in contact will align itself with the grooves, and the layers above will subsequently align themselves with the layers below, the bulk material taking on the director’s alignment. In the case of an LCD, this effect is utilized by using two directors arranged at right angles and placed close together with the liquid crystal between them. This forces the layers to align themselves in two directions, creating a twisted structure with each layer aligned at a slightly different angle to the ones on either side.

LCD shutters consist of a stack of three primary elements. On the bottom and top of the shutter are polarizer plates set at right angles. Normally light cannot travel through a pair of polarizers arranged in this fashion, and the display would be black. The polarizers also carry the directors to create the twisted structure aligned with the polarizers on either side. As the light flows out of the rear polarizer, it will naturally follow the liquid crystal’s twist, exiting the front of the liquid crystal having been rotated through the correct angle, that allows it to pass through the front polarizer. LCDs are normally transparent.

To turn a shutter off, a voltage is applied across it from front to back. the rod-shaped molecules align themselves with the electric field instead of the directors, destroying the twisted structure. The light no longer changes polarization as it flows through the liquid crystal, and can no longer pass through the front polarizer. By controlling the voltage applied across the crystal, the amount of remaining twist can be selected. This allows the transparency of the shutter to be controlled. To improve switching time, the cells are placed under pressure, which increases the force to re-align themselves with the directors when the field is turned off.

Several other variations and modifications have been used in order to improve performance in certain applications. In-Plane Switching displays (IPS and S-IPS) offer wider viewing angles and better color reproduction, but are more difficult to construct and have slightly slower response times. IPS displays are used primarily for computer monitors. Vertical Alignment (VA, S-PVA and MVA) offer higher contrast ratios and good response times, but suffer from color shifting when viewed from the side. In general, all of these displays work in a similar fashion by controlling the polarization of the light source.

Efficiency

LCDs are relatively inefficient in terms of power use per display size, because the vast majority of light that is being produced at the back of the screen is blocked before it reaches the viewer. To start with, the rear polarizer filters out over half of the original un-polarized light. Examining the image above, you can see that a good portion of the screen area is covered by the cell structure around the shutters, which removes another portion. After that, each sub-pixel’s color filter removes the majority of what is left to leave only the desired color. Finally, to control the color and luminance of a pixel as a whole, the light has to be further absorbed in the shutters. 3M suggests that, on average, only 8 to 10% of the light being generated at the back of the set reaches the viewer.

For these reasons the backlighting system has to be extremely powerful. In spite of using highly efficient CCFLs, most sets use several hundred watts of power, more than would be required to light an entire house with the same technology. As a result, LCD televisions end up with overall power usage similar to a CRT of the same size. Using the same examples, the KV-40XBR800 dissipates 245 W,  while the LC-42D65 dissipates 235 W.^[1] Plasma displays are worse; the best are on par with LCDs, but typical sets draw much more.

Modern LCD sets have attempted to address the power use through a process known as “dynamic lighting” (originally introduced for other reasons, see below). This system examines the image to find areas that are darker, and reduces the backlighting in those areas. CCFLs are long cylinders that run the length of the screen, so this change can only be used to control the brightness of the screen as a whole, or at least wide horizontal bands of it. This makes the technique suitable only for particular types of images, like the credits at the end of a movie. In 2009 some manufacturers made some TVs using HCFL (more power efficient than CCFL). Sets using LEDs are more distributed, with each LED lighting only a small number of pixels, typically a 16 by 16 patch. This allows them to dynamically adjust brightness of much smaller areas, which is suitable for a much wider set of images.

Another ongoing area of research is to use materials that optically route light in order to re-use as much of the signal as possible. One potential improvement is to use microprisms or dichromic mirrors to split the light into R, G and B, instead of absorbing the unwanted colors in a filter. A successful system would improve efficiency by three times. Another would be to direct the light that would normally fall on opaque elements back into the transparent portion of the shutters. A number of companies are actively researching a variety of approaches, and 3M currently sells several products that route leaked light back toward the front of the screen..

Several newer technologies, OLED, FED and SED, have lower power use as one of their primary advantages. All of these technologies directly produce light on a sub-pixel basis, and use only as much power as that light level requires. Sony has demonstrated 36” FED units displaying very bright images drawing only 14 W, less than 1/10 as much as a similarly sized LCD. OLEDs and SEDs are similar to FEDs in power terms. The dramatically lower power requirements make these technologies particularly interesting in low-power uses like laptop computers and mobile phones. These sorts of devices were the market that originally bootstrapped LCD technology, due to its light weight and thinness.

Electrolux Microwave Oven Solo EM20SSLN- 20 Ltr

Technical Specifications

Capacity: 20 Ltr

Cabinet Finish: Silver 

Front Finish: Silver 

MWO I/P Power: 1270 W

Wattage (MWO): 800 W

Power Levels: 5 

Cavity Coating: Powder Coated 

Handle Type: Bar 

Door Opening: Pull 

Control Type: Mech 

Turntable Diameter (MM): 245 

F1 (Express Cooking): Yes 

F3 (Cooking End Signal): Yes 

f4 (Child Safety Lock): Yes 

 Electrolux Microwave Oven Convection EJ30CSS6- 30 Ltr

Technical Specifications

Capacity: 30 Ltr

Cabinet Finish: Black 

Front Finish: Stainless Steel 

MWO I/P Power: 1400 W

Wattage (MWO): 900 W

Wattage (GRILL) :1200 W

Wattage (CONV): 1350 W

Power Levels: 5 

Combi Function: 3 

Cavity Coating: Stainless Steel 

Handle Type: Handle 

Door Opening: Pull 

Control Type: Jog Dial 

Auto Defrost: Yes 

Turntable Diameter (MM): 315 

F1 (Express Cooking): Yes 

F3 (Cooking End Signal): Yes 

f4 (Child Safety Lock): Yes 

Auto Cook Menu: 66 

Onida Microwave Oven Convection MO23CJS11B- 23 ltr

Technical Details

Power Consumption (Cooking): 1300 Watts

Power Consumption (Warming): 1200 Watts

Watt: 800 Watts

Voltage: 230 V 

Miscellaneous

Dimensions

Width: 410 mm

Weight: 13.8 Kg

Depth: 485 mm

Height: 287 mm

Other Info.L Stainless Steel Cavity and Multi Stage Cooking, Easy to use Jogwheel controls, Comes with Magnetic R 

Key Features

No Preset menus: 54

Child Safety Lock: Yes 

Cavity Type: Stainless steel 

Power Levels: 10 

Type Of Wave: Surround Wave  

Capacity: 23 Liters

Convection: Yes 

Microwave Oven Type: Convection 

Capacity range: 21 to 25 Liters 

 GODREJ GMX 20CA1 MIZ FEATURES :

8 AutoCook Menus

6 Power Levels

·         Allows you to cook food at different power levels for various types of food.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Flexibility to decide the microwave power level, based on whether you would like to defrost, melt, cook or warm.

Stainless Steel Cavity

·         Highly Reflective, easy to clean and hygienic stainless steel interiors.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - The stainless steel interiors ensure faster and even cooking. It is easy to clean and hence helps to increase the life of the microwave oven.

Multi Stage Cooking

·         Set upto 3 stages of cooking at a single go.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Once set, the Microwave oven will automatically cook your food through the 3 stages while you spend your precious time with your family.

Combination Cooking
Preset Cooking

·         Set the microwave to start cooking at a later time as per your convenience.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Now you can wake up to a fresh cup of coffee or serve your children fresh, healthy and hot food when they come home after a long day at school.

Express Cooking

·         Start the Microwave oven cooking without setting the power and time.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Start cooking or increase the cooking time with a single press of a button. It is very useful for reheating.

Auto Deodorizer

·         Removes odour and vapours from the microwave oven after cooking.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Keeps the microwave oven cavity odour free. Increase the life of the magnetron, electronic parts and cavity by immediately removing vapours after the cooking is complete.

Auto Reminder

·         Microwave oven beeps once every minute after the cooking is completed if the door is not opened.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Reminds you to remove any food that may be kept in the microwave oven after the cooking is completed.

Auto Protection

·         Microwave oven automatically shuts down and gives an error message in case of any malfunction.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Protects you from any accident that could happen due to any malfunction and also protects the microwave oven from damage at all times.

Child Lock

·         Locks the Microwave oven control panel keys.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Prevents unintended alteration of the microwave settings hence protecting your loved ones.

Weight Defrost

·         Defrost food based on weight.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Save time by using microwave power to defrost frozen food by just setting the weight.

Jet Defrost

·         Defrost food based on time.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Save time by using microwave power to defrost frozen food by just setting the time.

Accessories 
Grill Rack

·         Stainless Steel Rack for Grilling

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Food placed on the rack is closer to grill ensuring quicker and uniform browning.

Steam Clean Bowl

·         Cleans the interiors of the microwave oven after completion of cooking.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Helps keep the interior surface of the microwave clean and hence increases the life of the microwave oven. Improves the performance of the microwave cooking.

Cook Book

·         Contains up to 65 mouthwatering 5 star recipes

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Recipes handpicked by chefs from renowned 5 Star Hotels across the country to offer you delicacies from various Indian Cuisines.

Starter Kit

·         Multipurpose set of microwavable Utensils.

·         Benefits to customer :

·         - Microwave safe kit to meet all your basic cooking requirements.

           6 Crazy Tech Predictions for 2012

by Lance Ulanoff

We live in a world of absolutes: Here’s what happened. Even when we look to the future, our predictions are couched in the world’s sometimes difficult realities. It can, to be honest, take all the fun out of guess work. So, once a year I allow myself to go beyond the likely, beyond the possible and deep into the world of the implausible. What follows are my most ridiculous and unlikely predictions. Most are just nuts, but one is, to be honest, all too scarily possible. See if you can guess which prediction I’m talking about.

1. Facebook Buys Digg

Facebook’s 2012 will look a lot like its 2011: More growth, more change. Still, it hasn’t quite broken through on the content curation and voting side of things. With all the frictionless sharing people will be doing, they may no longer think about accumulating “likes.”

Digg started using Facebook’s OpenGraph in 2011, which makes it easy to share what you’re reading on Digg to Facebook. As I see it, this is simply the first step on the road to a much deeper relationship. When Facebook buys Digg next year, users will get the ability to “Digg” not only profile pages, but people. That’s right, you could really “Digg” someone on Facebook. It’s so 1976, but also so cool.

I foresee another side to the Facebook universe where people, places and things are Dugg on a more generalized basis, but those Diggs bubble up to individual profile pages and appear alongside Likes, Readings, Watching, etc. There is an 85% chance that all of Digg’s existing audience will walk away from the service if this acquisition happens, but I’m not sure most of them will stay with the content curation destination anyway.

2. Scientists and Hollywood Develop New Way to End Movies

3D has pretty much flopped, and it’s getting tougher and tougher to get movie-goers into theaters. Scientists will partner with Hollywood studios to unveil a new technology known as “Fresh Ends.” Using CGI, Hollywood script writers, voice and context recognition and logic algorithms, Fresh Ends technology will generate new endings for some of the world’s most popular films. These slightly rewritten movies will be re-released to theaters — just like the 3D rereleases — and are expected to add 15- to 20% additional box office returns to each film. For now, Fresh Ends only works with movies shot digitally.

3. SOPA Becomes the Law of the land

Myopic congressman and a distracted president take the Stop Online Piracy Act and pass it into law. Designed, at least according to the bill, “To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes,” SOPA has an almost unprecedented chilling effect on the web. Thousands of U.S. sites shut down, other larger ones continue, but are now full of boring pap that could never be misconstrued as content piracy.

Content creators of all stripes are so unsure of what will be labeled piracy they struggle to create anything. By the end of 2012, however, an underground Internet (The UnderWebs) arises. It’s full of unfettered communication and content, and slowly but surely, millions of web surfers around the world begin using it instead of the government-policed Internet — a platform that dies a sad, quiet death in 2018.

4. Apple Intros a 5-inch Tablet Phone Hybrid

Sorry, no iPhone 5 or iPad 3. Unable to decide whether it should deliver a 7-inch iPad 3 or a 4.5-inch iPhone 5,Apple comes down squarely in the middle with a giant handheld that, naturally, makes calls and is almost large enough to be a usable tablet. The hidden bonus? It’s also a fully functional HDTV. Apple, however, will remain mum for most of the year on whether or not it plans on actually delivering a larger Apple iTV.

5. Google+ Takes Center Stage

Virtually unchanged for more than a decade, Google’s search page undergoes a subtle, yet important transformation. The search giant places a “+” sign right next to the “Google” Logo. But the change is more than logo-deep. If you hit your own “+” sign on your keyboard before typing in your search query, all results will feature Google+ search results on top. If you hit “+” twice, your search query can be used to launch a new Google+ post. You’ll still have to select which circles you want to share your search query with. Rumors will swirl throughout 2012 that Google wants to rename the entire company “Google+.”

6. Honda Releases Asimo to Consumers

Japanese auto manufacturer Honda shocks the world by unveiling a fully operational, $1,999 Honda Asimo Home Helper Robot. Like the Asimo we’ve seen in product demonstrations and on YouTube, “Home Asimo” can walk, run, jump, make coffee and sandwiches and, as we soon learn, clean toilets. Honda sells a stunning half million units before August, 2012. The most startling news, though, comes when one Home Honda robot in Dearborn, Michigan turns on its family’s computer and signs itself up for Twitter and Facebook. By December, more than 300,000 of the robots have been destroyed or returned.