Toshiba reveals 6.1-inch, 498ppi display

Toshiba has announced a new 6.1-inch display which boasts an incredible dixel density of 498 pixels per inch.

The Toshiba Mobile Display LCD panel is capable of displaying photo print quality images and has a quite remarkable 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, far in excess of high definition (1920 x 1080).

However, the pixel density will make the headlines, smashing Apple's Retina Display on the iPhone 4, 4S and iPod touch, which comes in at 326ppi.

Perfect for a tablet screen

The design, which has no firm production date as of yet, also has a 1000:1 contrast ratio and is capable of showing 16.7m colours.

The company says the viewing angles are an impressive 176 degrees, which would be perfect for use on a tablet screen.

It could be 3D too

Tosh is also saying that the Mobile Display LCD panel, while only 2D for the moment, could also be implemented for glasses-free 3D viewing.

The press release says: "This newly-developed world-class, high-definition LCD panel is based on our processing techniques for forming fine-pitch and high-performance, low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) thin-film transistors (TFT) on glass substrates, and other precise fabrication techniques which have been cultivated over the years.

"This direct-view LCD panel achieves high-definition images with photographic quality, and although the images are displayed in 2D format, they impart a sense of depth and realism."

The display will be shown off next week at an exhibition in Yokohama, Japan.

Google has announced that web users who're signed into a Google account will now benefit from securely encrypted web searches.

The company says it's adding the same SSL encryption protocol it uses to protect your Gmail account onto Google search results, to keep away prying eyes.

The company, which continues to abide by its "don't be evil" mantra, says that if you're signed into your account, web searches will automatically be diverted to https://www.google.com - note the extra 's'.

Increasingly customised experience

In a post on the company blog, Google says that as personalised search becomes more and more important, it's crucial that the privacy of what we're Googling is of the utmost importance.

"As search becomes an increasingly customised experience, we recognise the growing importance of protecting the personalised search results we deliver. As a result, we're enhancing our default search experience for signed-in users.

"This change encrypts your search queries and Google's results page. This is especially important when you're using an unsecured internet connection, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot in an Internet cafe," the blog said.

Get your SSL on

Google says that users can also navigate directly to the encrypted https site, by typing https://www.google.com into the URL bar. The change will be rolling out over the next few weeks.

The company also says it wants other companies to follow its SSL lead by adopting similar encryption for their users

"As we continue to add more support for SSL across our products and services, we hope to see similar action from other websites," the blog added.

Xbox 720 console to launch in 2013?

The long awaited next generation Xbox console will launch at E3 in 2013, according to new reports.

Develop claims to have been told by that multiple sources, from chip manufacturers to middleware firms, to expect the console to arrive at the gaming expo in June 2013.

The heavily-touted Xbox 720, or whatever Microsoft eventually likes to call it. has been the subject of much speculation in 2011.

Develop says that Microsoft is likely to focus on pushing the current model, Kinect and Windows Phone for the next two Christmasses before pushing the next console in 2013.

Fable Next to headline new line-up

The site also claims to have the scoop on one of the launch titles, with Lionhead Studios working on another addition to the Fable series, codenamed Fable Next.

Interestingly, one of the site's sources still asserts that EA has a prototype version of the new console for testing purposes. EA has previously rubbished the claim.

News that the new Microsoft console may not arrive until 2013 will be a huge boon for Nintendo, which will have at least a year to push the Wii U before the news Xbox arrives.

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ARM: low power is in our DNA.

ARM Holdings is one of the biggest successes of recent years.

It's responsible for licensing (not manufacturing) the processor tech behind almost all tablets and mobile phones including everything from the humblest 1998 Nokia to the Motorola Xoom and iPad 2 – as well as having involvement in oodles of other markets such as automotive. ARM's partners shipped a scarcely believable six billion processors.
Now a PLC, ARM was formed in 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines, ARM was a joint partnership between Acorn Computer (of the Archimedes and BBC Micro fame), VLSI and some other company called Apple.

ARM-POWERED: The iPad 2 runs the Apple A5 chip. It's made by Apple, but again based on the ARM architecture
The RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) chips we use in our iPhones today are direct descendants of the work Acorn did with the BBC Micro and later Archimedes computers – VLSI produced the first ARM silicon in 1985 for the BBC Micro (ARM2). ARM chips then powered the Apple Newton and other handhelds and mobiles.
Tablet growth
We took a few minutes to talk to Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at ARM - he's been at the company since 2005 before which he worked for Intel.
So is he pleased at the huge growth in tablets and other mobile devices using ARM-based silicon? "It's always nice when a strategy comes together," he says. "But there's a long way to go yet. There's a lot more we can do. I think this is a start rather than an end. It's very nice seeing TI, Nvidia and Qualcomm and everybody else in the market as we have been talking about it for a few years.
"Low power is very important, and we've had that built into our DNA from day one and I think that's very important in consumer devices and embedded devices right through to TVs, etc. You're now seeing TVs that are ultrathin with no heatsink or anything."
"The plethora of partners are doing about 6 billion [units] last year… that volume, that partnership, that model is really, really important to us." Over 200 companies license technology from ARM.
We asked Drew about the close relationship between ARM and its partners and the fact that ARM is already working on processor designs that we won't see in devices until 2015. "It helps our partnership model because of all that…we're able to influence short, medium and long term. [Our partners] help us with our roadmaps as well. It's a two-way relationship, not just a one way thing."
Competition from Intel
We then asked Drew how he reacts to the competition ARM faces from Intel. "We're an IP company. We work with the OEMs and they do what they think is right. ARM doesn't compete with Intel anyway, it's the ARM partners. Intel has a vertical model, we have a horizontal model. We don't make silicon, Intel doesn't license IP as far as I know."
We revisit the question, something that clearly irks Drew - after all, Intel has been clear in its aim to muscle in on ARM's mobile market while ARM is set to muscle in on Intel's traditional stronghold of Windows."We don't make chips and Intel does. Intel has a different business model to us. If you were really competing for a socket then it's the Nvdias, TIs and Qualcomms and everybody else that really competes with Intel. I know that they would like to say it's ARM but it's really our ecosystem that's the strength of ARM. It's a unifying force."

WINDOWS ON ARM: Windows 8 is set to run on ARM-based systems
"So it's really the ARM ecosystem partners and our licensees that compete with Intel. Where they take us… that's really up to them. The business model where you can have multiple licensees enables growth."
So did ARM really think the tablet market was going to take off in the way it has? "We saw the explosion in internet everywhere. I spoke to TechRadar a couple of years ago when we talked about browsers being important and plug-ins being important and optimising around the Adobe announcement and what was happening with Mozilla and the Android activity.
"We actually talked about smartbooks at the time – we thought that might take off and then one or two came out with tablets and that just exploded. I think in reality I don't think anybody quite forsaw the tablet explosion, but the internet everywhere was important.
"I also think the diversification opportunities in our business model helped as well because you're allowed to try lots of different things along the spectrum of products. Could I stand there and say I thought about tablets five years ago? No, I don't think anybody did that."
Beyond tablets
But Drew does think that ARM's move into computing will go beyond the mobile and the tablet – and that we'll see plenty of 3G-enabled laptops – dubbed smartbooks - running operating systems such as Google's Chrome OS.
"I think there will be ARM smartbooks, we've seen traction there. I hope there's growth there but again its consumer dependent and we're so far removed from consumers."
Drew also thinks that future technology growth will be governed by connectivity - and that 'internet everywhere is the key unifier. "The 4G LTE stuff, the cables in homes, lots more people in emerging markets having access via mobiles and tablets than they ever did with PCs, there's a whole revolution going on.
"If you look at the growth of the internet, the fastest growth is on smartphones and tablets and that's really important.
"I think this thing is just starting rather than ending. The internet everywhere story is just beginning."

LG LCD panel defect causes iPad 2 screen yellowing.

An defect in the LCD panels LG made for the Apple iPad 2 has caused the company to give the majority of the manufacturing privileges to Samsung.

Digitimes is reporting that the screen yellowing, which sees light leak from the edges of the display when darker objects are displayed, reported by some users is attributable to the panels made by LG.
Samsung has shipped four million of the 9.7-inch panels, whereas LG reports shipped only 800,000 after being forced to halt production to address the issues.
The report also claims that LG displays will make a return to the supply line in the second quarter, according to sources.
Shortages
Apple shifted 3.2m iPad units during the first three months of 2011, but massive backlogs have prevented the company achieving its full potential.
COO Tim Cook called the shortages "the mother of all backlogs" during a recent earnings call.

British computing: cakes, codes and creativity.

It's all too easy to think of the computer as a piece of Americana. With the likes of Microsoft, Apple and IBM clouding our collective cultural memory, it's easy to overlook our small isle and its massive influence on modern computing.
After all, it was British engineers, British inventors and British manufacturers who were very much responsible for inventing the humble PC, from cracking codes at Bletchley Park to counting cakes for Lyons Tea Rooms, the first company to put computers to business use.
So why hasn't Britain stayed at the top of the technological game?
"Most of the early research into computing was done in Britain," Tilly Blyth, Curator of Computing at the British Science Museum, tells us. "And not just building the hardware, Britain had a massive influence conceptually, too. Alan Turing's 1946 paper was absolutely fundamental in exploring the potential for computing.
"But in the UK, we had lots of different industries all looking at computers and creating different kinds of machines; IBM became so huge and had such a large market internally in America that British companies simply couldn't compete."
Still got it
"But don't do us down," she warned. "There are still things we're incredibly well known for, that we do very well in Britain – and are internationally renowned for. ARM, for example, is doing incredible things with processors down in Cambridge.
"It's just that we don't have those major consumer brands, we don't have any Apples or Microsofts."
The American technology companies are very glamorous; they've got all kinds of gadgets and gizmos packaged up into neat and attractive parcels.
That glamour is something British tech companies seem to lack; engineering and processors are more likely to conjure up images of elbow grease and grime than to come in a svelte box with an Apple logo. Perhaps British computing has an image problem.
"I don't think technology has an image problem in the UK; it's become very cool to be into computing and know your way around a PC. But the problem here is creating the right kind of culture for innovation.
"The Government can help to lead that, but it has to start earlier too; it's about education, learning more than just how to use existing programmes, learning how to think creatively with computing, how to free your imagination."
Freedom and creativity
It's true that computing has become ring-fenced, in a way. Operating systems are easier to use, but the flip side is that more functions are automatically decided for you. Long gone are the days of the Commodore and the Spectrum for which we'd lug about those enormous ring-bound books and write our own programmes as we went.
"I think it's hard these days because computers have come so far – previous generations would only need basic knowledge but with the complexity of computing these days – it can be hard to find a way in to that at a young age," agrees Blyth.
"Maybe the development of apps and web pages can get people interested in technology. The small things can really show what we can achieve with it; perhaps that's the way in.
"And museums, of course. We're there to inspire people and open up ideas and show career paths that might not be immediately obvious.
"For example, our Making Modern Communications gallery is focused on creativity and how users, not just manufacturers and engineers, have helped to mould and shape communications technology. It shows you the influence you personally can have."
Unfortunately, Making Modern Communications won't be finished until around 2014; but it's never too soon to start thinking creatively about technology.
A bit of good old British creativity – and perhaps a nice cup of tea – is just what British tech needs.