Samsung transparent LCD panel

Transparent LCD panels are more often than not the stuff of sci-fi movies, but will they ever make it to our realm and dimension? It seems that the stuff you normally see on the silver screen is now about to arrive in real life, thanks to South Korean technology giants Samsung. We are talking about the Samsung LTI460AP01 transparent LCD, where it obviously works differently from regular LCDs in order to get the job done. Standard LCD panels require BLUs (Back Light Units) as a light source so that they are able to display an image, making BLUs an essential part of a LCD panel. As for transparent LCDs, it does away with BLUs but relies on other available light sources instead such as sunlight and in-door lighting. What about when you prefer watching your movies in the dark? Just activate the transparent BLU, and you are good to go.
This looks set to be quite the hit in markets, and hotels who want to up the ante by offering the latest and the greatest to its guests might also look into transparent LCD panels. Energy efficiency in a transparent LCD display is also rather impressive – whenever the transparent BLU is not activated, the transparent LCD consumes a mere 10% of the electricity that is required by a standard LCD screen of equivalent size.

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ASUS Not Phased By Hasbro Lawsuit – Continues Rolling Out Transformer Primes

Like water off a duck’s back, ASUS seems to be unphased by their legal troubles with Hasbro. Despite being slapped with a lawsuit — which has to do with ASUS taking advantage of Hasbro’s “Transformer” and “Prime” trademarks — it’s all business as usual for the Taiwanese company who expects to continue pumping out Transformer Primes to meet demand. ASUS also claims to have held their own internal studies and found “no issue” with the Transformer Prime and it’s association with Hasbro’s popular tv shows/movies/toys. This is great news for those who have been planning on picking up the supertablet with the lawsuit having no affect on supply — for now.
[FocusTaiwan via TheVerge]

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HTC Evo View 4G and Mytouch 4G Slide Now Officially Unlockable From HTC

Two new HTC devices have found themselves a part of the official bootloader unlocked family of devices by way of HTC’s developer site, HTCDev.com. The Evo View 4G (Sprint’s version of the Flyer) along with the T-Mobile MyTouch Slide 4G were the newest additions to the list. The Evo View 4G more specifically, has been making its way around the internet as the center of more than a few “fire sales” offering the device at a deeply discounted price.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, having an unlocked bootloader means you can generally tinker around a little more with the software of your device, adding things like root access and/or installing custom ROMs. While, HTC provides the unlocking for specific devices, not everything will be covered under warranty, should something go awry. Of course, there are always the unofficial methods of unlocking a device but it’s nice to see HTC putting in the effort.
[HTCDev via AndroidPolice]

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Amazon Kindle Fire gets an Ice Cream Sandwich alpha port

More than a few of you are probably running brand new Kindle Fire tablets through the ringer right now, as it’s been one of the most popular electronics gifts of the season. But the default Amazon interface isn’t really anything to write home about – the Gingerbread-based version of Android is primarily designed to access Amazon’s content, with a few apps and web browsing on the side. If you’re handy with a bootloader, you can try out an early version of Ice Cream Sandwich on your shiny new 7-inch tablet, courtesy of “bl1nkk” and company at XDA-Developers.

Before you break out your USB cable, remember that this is a pre-alpha build. That means that performance will be well below what you see in tablets that run Honeycomb at retail, and a lot of features including the horizontal launcher, proper partition mounting and a few others aren’t fully baked. But for the Kindle Fire owner with decent technical skills and no fear, it’s hard to argue with a $199 Android 4.0 tablet. If you want to try out a more stable version, CyanogenMod 7/Gingerbread (as opposed to CyanogenMod 9) is available for the Fire.
In order to apply the ICS ROM you’ll need to use a tool called the Team Win Recovery Project. It’s an alternative recovery like the familiar ClockworkMod, but the more popular one apparently hasn’t made it to the highly customized Amazon tablet just yet. Once you’ve got your recovery ready, just flash the ROM file from XDA, as well as the ICS version of the Google Apps ZIP (Gmail, Android Market, etc) and the root files, if you wish. Remember to always back up, and don’t cry to Uncle Harold if your tinkering messes up your new toy.
[via The Verge]

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Crunchyroll Adds Google TV Support – Watch Your Favorite Anime Or Dramas On The Big Screen

When it comes to Google TV, one could say it’s more of a niche market than anything. So what happens when you combine one niche with another like Japanese anime? Pure magic. Well, if samurais and robot maids are your thing. Crunchyroll has finally added Google TV support to their popular anime viewing app, giving free and premium users the ability to watch all their favorite anime from the comfort of their living rooms.

There’s a myriad of content offering everything from G-rated material, to more mature themes (stay away from anything that mentions “tentacle” in the description — don’t say I didn’t warn you) and even non-anime like Korean/Japenese dramas (read: soap operas). Crunchyroll also mentioned they plan to introduce 720p HD videos sometime early next year so be on the lookout for that.

You can download Crunchyroll for free right now from Android Market on your Google TV or Android powered smartphone.

[Via GTVSource]

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Pro Tip: Take Photos During Video Recording with the Galaxy Nexus

With Android 4.0′s updated camera software, the Galaxy Nexus has quite a few tricks up its sleeve for blossoming photographers. Time lapse video and sweeping panoramic views are just the tip of the ice berg. Here’s one feature that you will hopefully be as pleasantly surprised to discover as I was.
While using the camera in video mode, tapping the screen will take a snapshot of the scene without interrupting video recording (a red box around the viewfinder means you’re doing it right). Results aren’t as instant as when using the camera in photo mode and you lack the ability to refine the shot’s focus and adjust other parameters, but the functionality insures the best of both worlds, allowing you to capture life’s precious moments without missing a beat. Opinions may vary on the image quality of the Galaxy Nexus’ 5MP camera, but you can’t argue with the rich set of capabilities Google has built into the Ice Cream Sandwich software.
[via Reddit]

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Budget-priced Ice Cream Sandwich Tablet Ready for Pre-oreder in the US

Ainovo’s low-priced Novo 7, one of the first tablets to sport Ice Cream Sandwich, may finally be making its way to the United States. The slate was announced earlier this month for a release in China, at the time priced at an extremely reasonable $100. Throw on the $60 shipping fee that some sites were charging to import the tablet and the deal became a little less sweet. The 7-inch Novo 7 with 1GHz CPU has gone on pre-order through several US retailers at a slightly marked up priced of $120, a bit pricier but still better than having the device shipped in from China. Get it here or here.
[via AndroidCommunity]

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LG Announces Ice Cream Sandwich Updates to Begin Q2 2012

LG has provided an update on their Android 4.0 upgrade timeline via their Facebook page. For a selection of their 2011 smartphone lineup, an Ice Cream Sandwich treat will arrive starting in Q2 of next year. The first phones to receive the new version of Android will be the LG Optimus LTE, LG Prada 3.0, LG Optimus 2X, LG Optimus Sol, LG myTouch Q, and the LG Eclipse. In Q3, updates will start rolling out to the LG Optimus 3D, LG Optimus Black, LG Optimus Big, LG Optimus Q2, and LG Optimus EX. As can be discerned from the selection of handsets, the rollout will be global, though exact dates will vary by region and carrier. It also isn’t clear if re-branded variants such as the T-Mobile G2X (Optimus 2X), LG Thrill (Optimus 3D) and LG Nitro HD (Optimus LTE) are in line for the same upgrade schedule.
LG is “taking all possible measure to offer a smooth OS upgrade in a timely manner” and will be providing further updates, such as specific release dates, as they become available.
[via Facebook]

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Custom ROM Makes ICS Face Unlock Available to Nexus S Users

What’s better than unlocking your phone with your finger? Unlocking your phone with your FACE. And now even the Nexus S will drop its lockscreen at the sight of your beautiful face. A custom ROM is necessary (of course), but the best Galaxy Nexus party trick is available for both the GSM Nexus S and the Nexus S 4G. The available ROMs are based off of the Android 4.0.3 AOSP release and the installation journey begins at the source link below. Don’t call it a gimmick, it’s the future!
[via AndroidCentral]

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