LG 3D SMART TV - Review

OK. Even though LG’s smart TV doesn’t have as many apps as Samsung’s smart tv, the apps are much better.  Let’s start with the menu. The menu is one of the cleanest ones  I’ve seen, and I’ve used almost every smart TV there is except for Philips. The simplicity of the layout gives great advantages in using the magic remote. I also noticed the speed is a lot faster than Samsung’s and Sony’s smart tv.

Now I’ll talk about the main app I use on the TV, facebook. To access this app, you need to set your privacy settings on your facebook account to allow access from the TV. You’ll have to do this from a computer by going to http://tvfacebook.lge.com . Afterwards, you can access your account from your TV. It has all the functions as using from the computer. You can watch videos, look at images, and even comment on them. Everything looks better IMO on the TV.

Another app that I enjoy is the MLB app. This app lets you watch any MLB game that is on, way better than watching games you’re not interested in on FOX or TNT. You can also watch previous games that you may have missed.  You can access it by just clicking it on the premium apps menu.

Youtube is another great app on this TV. All you have to do is click the app and type in any video you would like to see and you’re set. Watching the vids on a big screen definitely looks nicer.

There are definitely a lot of great apps on LG’s smart TV. More and more quality apps are introduced with each firmware update. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next one.

LG 3D SMART TV

Can you say smart? TVs are now called Smart TV, well at least LG models are. Im surprised they don’t come with a given IQ score. These Smart TVs are packed with all sorts of goodies; Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, MLB, you name it. All the stuff from the PC, straight onto your big screen TV.  That’s not all, facebook, the world’s most popular social networking site has now integrated its site into the Smart TV software. You can now enjoy everything with the touch of the magic wand remote, which is a remote with only a few buttons that utilizes a cursor on the TV to access the functions. The best thing is, all this can be enjoyed while sitting on the couch. I will post an update with an detailed review shortly.

Worlds most energy-friendly LCD TV

Say good bye to expensive heat… well in this case electricity.  You may now be able to pay your bills on time after those countless football games on a big HDTV. LG has developed a TV utilizing a one-sided Edge method, allowing only 28 w of usage while turned on, giving it the title, “Worlds most energy-friendly LCD TV”.

Power consumption is one of the main problems of big TVs especially plasmas, leaving consumers reluctant on purchasing current mainstream models. The difference in power consumption can be quite significant per inch when crossing over the 40” barrier. That is why engineers have been constantly working on developing more power-efficient products.

“LG says that they have set a new record as their 47-inch TV consumes just 28 W – even less than most 20-inch monitors today. LG also claims that they still achieve a fairly high brightness level from the 47-inch panel, which has a slim 8.5 mm bezel.  The low power consumption level is made possible by using one-sided Edge LED backlighting. Instead of incorporating LEDs on all sides or on top and bottom, LG has integrated LEDs on only one side of the LCD panel, thus lowering power consumption because fewer LED are lit. The light is distributed across the panel with a light diffuser”. http://www.flatpanelshd.com

LG has not announced a date for when these new panels will be implemented into current TV models however we can expect them in the lineup as earlier as next year. 

47LW5700 vs 44UND7000

I recently got the chance to check out two 3D LED TVs at a friend’s house and had enough time to do a small review.  The two models he had were the LG 47LW5700 and the Samsung UN44D7000.  He mostly does gaming on the LG and watches movies on the Samsung but this review will only cover the movie part.

Both TVs are 3D TVs and have a resolution of 1080p in both modes (2D, 3D) although the LG one is a passive type which means they require the use of polarized glasses (battery-free) while sending images to both eyes simultaneously when showing 3D images. The Samsung TV is an active type which shows its 3D images by the TV transmitting each image to the shutter glasses for each eye one at a time. This is done at a high rate of speed through the use of the battery-powered shutter glasses.

Now the remote for these two TVs are completely different.  LG uses a wand-like remote which has a only a few buttons with a motion sensor attached to the front. The Samsung uses the traditional remote with many buttons for each function. I highly preferred the LG remote. 

The glasses were quite interesting. The LG cinema 3D glasses didn’t look as nice as the Samsung shutter glasses, but after trying them on it was a different story.  The Cinema 3D glasses were very comfortable and didn’t have any like coming through from the top of the frames. The shutter glasses on the other hand were fairly heavy and uncomfortable. At times they felt like they were dangling from my head. The amount of movement restriction these glasses implement is quite annoying. 

Time was limited so the movie I chose to use was Tron, a highly demanding 3D title for blue-ray.  Both TVs had great, crisp 2D images. I was surprised to see such a difference in brightness between the two. The black levels seemed pretty mediocre but overall both did great. 

In 3D mode is where things started to differ. Even though LG’s  3D technology is the passive type, its resolution seemed more detailed. This might have been due to the crosstalk that kept occurring on the Samsung. Some of the images just didn’t seem that great.  LG is the winner for 3D.

LW5700, notice the clean crisp image

44UND7000, has some blurring and detail issues

I wish I had the chance to test out gaming on these two TVs but didn’t have enough time. My friend uses the LG for gaming and recommended it over the Samsung.  I might follow up with one in the future.

LG LW5300, LG's newest most affordable 3D LED TV

Today I want to discuss the new passive 3D LED TV that has been just released by LG. The LW5300 is one of the lower-end TVs  in LG’s cinema 3D line up but certainly proves to be a major contender for people who want an affordable 3D TV without sacrificing too much performance.

55" LW5300

Cinema 3D Glasses

 I’ll get right into the specs of this TV. The LW5300 is a passive 3D TV with LED Plus and Full HD resolution panels with Local Dimming giving you deep black levels and richer colors. The TV is equipped with plus Trumotion technology rated at 120Hz giving you virtually no blurring and includes Picture Wizard II self-calibration tech.  We can forget the flickers that are associated with active 3D TVs as this TV is certified flicker free. This TV comes in 47” and 55” models.  The 47” model is priced at around $900 and the 55” around $1300. This TV comes with four pairs of cinema 3D glasses which I will talk more about.

These cinema 3D glasses are not only battery-free but weigh at approximately 14 grams (1/2 oz).  They feel rather weightless yet at the same time durable enough to wear without them falling off. Now I noticed something that review sites don’t ever mention which is the light leakage from the active shutter glasses (active 3D types). If you ever happen to try them on and watch a movie, you will notice a lot of light leak in and out of the top part of the lens, which can be extremely annoying. The Cinema 3D glasses that come with this TV have very large lens that prevents light leakage through the top. 

For a 3D LED TV that’s 47” costing under a thousand bucks is certainly a great deal, especially when most of the TVs come bundled with a blue-ray player and a couple movies. You can find out more about these deals by searching google shopping or other internet retailers.  

Toshiba glasses-free and being broke , both available in 3D

Toshiba recently announced a 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV called Regza 55X3 which will be available in December 2011 in Japan.  The TV will be able to show 2D resolution at a mind-boggling 3,840 x 2,160 resolution using two CEVO image processors. Now I’m still at awe when I see my 1920 x 1080 resolution on my LG LW9800 and yet this TV has double the amount?? A big waste of money; only for the purest TV enthusiast indeed, especially when priced at a whopping $10,000. And with the highest percentage of TVs purchased by consumers being  21-34 aged males, I highly doubt many have 10 grand saved up at all, and yet for a TV.  Now lets take a look at the stats on paper:

Regza 55X3

55”

3840 x 2160 resolution in 2D

1280 x 720 resolution in 3D ( My LG LW9800 is 1080p in 3D)

120 hz rating (Mine is 480hz)

No glasses required

 Price $10,000 est.

Sorry to say, I’m not impressed in the least bit. 720p in 3D? That’s a lower resolution in 3D than a LW9800 47 inch model which you can get for under $3000.  Usually, when something totally new is released, consumers have the obligation to pay a premium for the new technology. With that being said, as with all new techs, it isn’t the best possible grade. 3D TV has been around for quite some time now and the ONLY thing this TV boasts besides a heavy price tag is the “glasses-free” 3D feature which I would gladly omit from my TV if it had a $10,000 price tag. My LG cinema 3D glasses weigh 14 grams, that’s next to nothing.  Toshiba may deserve some credit for opening the door to the future for glasses-free 3D TV, but with current TV technology being so great and this being just a tip-toe ahead, I’ll wait.  

LG 47LW9800 ($2800 est)

Passive 3D TV with Titanic is good news for my LG

Ok. I finally bought my LG LW9800. I got it for around $3600 and boy, it was worth every penny. Oh my goodness, this is such a pretty TV. The features are awesome and the colors are crazy ( in a good way). Forget passive vs active debates, this TV is the BEST 3D TV. Now this blog post isn’t about my TV, I just thought I’d mention it before hand.

Now I’m sure everyone here has seen or at least heard about the huge mega-box office hit, The Titanic from the 90s. Well its back with 3D vengeance for 2012. James Cameron, the director of the two most successful movies in history (Avatar and Titanic box office sales top $4 billion combined globally) has begun the process of converting the film for Titanic frame by frame.

This gruel-some process has been a test of the director’s patience to fully manifest 3D into each scene with the correct depth and volume. So far the cost of the project is at a whopping $18 million and the movie isn’t even halfway finished. The release date for Titanic 3D is set for April 6, 2012.

This could be the beginning of a whole new industry. The remaking of old classics into 3D using current technology is just a mind-boggling idea that sends chills down my spine. As James Cameron put it, "Passive glasses are here and the quality is improving all the time. The fact that they are throwaway means this technology could be critical." Seems like passive 3D is the way to go and is here to stay. Glad my LG 3D TV is a passive 3D TV.  

                                                                                        

LG + THX means one thing, Pure Awesomeness

LG has recently released the emperor of 3D LED TVs from prison, the LW9800. This 55 inch Nano Full LED TV is the World’s First 3D TV that is certified by THX (out of ALL 3D TVs including passive/active). This is huge… We’re not talking our ordinary local movie reviewer, THX has reviewed hundreds and thousands of movies on hundreds and thousands of TVs from the top experts in their profession, no explanation needed.

What’s so interesting about this particular TV compared to the previous passive TVs by LG is that this TV is Full array Nano LED which means, the brights will be brighter and the blacks will be blacker.  LG claims this stunning new display holds the record for the highest contrast ratio, set at 10,000,000:1…unbelievable. This TV is also rated at 480hz, which virtually eliminates any type of motion blur. The 3D interface is pretty much the same from previous LW series except with certain new additions such as Amazon Instant Video. Aside from all the jaw-dropping specs, the design is gorgeous.  This ultra slim LED TV has one of the most beautiful designs I have seen yet. The TV actually looks really nice when its turn off as well. A huge step up from the LW6500 thats for sure.  I’m ordering one as soon as I finish writing this.

Nintendo 3DS expansion

Nintendo 3DS will become a little more robust with the addition of several new buttons to its main device.  Nintendo has confirmed the launch of the expansion which will feature an analog, an L and R button as well.

The revelation came after the pages of Famitsu announced Monster Hunter 3G, a classic game from Capcom for Nintendo 3DS. There are no prices or dates set for its release but a few Japanese insiders had figured out how the attachment could be attached to your 3DS. Take a look at the images. The name of the attachment is called “Circle Pad”. 

Active 3D vs Passive 3D…Final Round

Active and passive 3D duking it out is like the Ali and Frazier series. Just when you thought passive won it, active would come back with ferocity but in the end, passive would come and smash active to pieces, or at least it seems so now.

Dr. Raymond M. Soneira, President of DisplayMate Technology Co. has conducted the most in-depth review of these two technologies that I have seen on the internet. It is evident throughout the review that favoritism is at the absolute minimum and facts and results are what his opinions are based on.

This review covers everything, top to bottom and the only conclusive arguments I can think of are based on personal preference over facts. These are some of the many things covered:

-Brightness

-Flicker

-Left-Right Crosstalk and Ghosting

-Crosstalk and Ghosting with Viewing Angle and Position

-Crosstalk, Ghosting with Head Tilt

-3D imaging, Resolution and Sharpness Viewing Tests

-Recommendations for Viewing 3D TVs

This review seems to deal a heavy blow to active 3D claims over its superior imaging over passive 3D. You should check the article out for yourself. You can find the article here.

Yaskawa-kun, the icecream-making robot.

Do you remember these types of toys?  They were a part of every girl growing up’s life. The desire to make as well as enjoying the pleasant taste of ice cream, all included in a pretty pink little toy.  Too bad the ice cream made from this was beyond awful. Fortunately in Japan, a person has created a robot that actually makes great-tasting ice cream.

The Yaskawa-kun has a touchscreen that allows the person to choose between flavors and types.  The robot was exhibited at a trade show in Tokyo recently however no release date has been confirmed. You can check the video yourself.

Coffinternet... it will happen

Imagine yourself in a coffee shop ordering your favorite Iced Latte variation. The time it takes from chattering up the cute barista girl up until she solidifies her interest in you with a genuine wink, flies by so quickly that even the slightest thought about looking at the time might leave your coffee after lunch a bit stale. Now let’s back track to the beginning. What if you could order a fresh cup of Vanilla Iced Mocha Brave, a grande size that is, in less than 10 seconds. You would have your hands instantly wrapped around that warm paper shape that our palms have subconsciously reinforced; the caffeine craving. A sudden upgrade of such magnitude would surely increase the sales of coffee, hardly soporific, no pun intended. I like to compare this thought to the internet. Coffee and the Internet have become synonymous in many ways. For example, we want our coffee to be hot; internet to be ready, (no logging in, inputting password). Next, we want our coffee tasting somewhat pleasant, at least for the $5 you would’ve have otherwise spent on a gallon of gas to take the long way home from work after a bad day. This I would refer to as Internet connectivity; disconnects, sudden bandwidth issues, reliability. And finally the time it takes to receive your fresh cup as speed, pure internet speed.

Hehehe. Sorry for all this Coffee talk, let’s get down to brass tax. British scientists have discovered a way of using Graphene, the thinnest material in the world, to capture and convert light than any other material used for the same technology; internet speed. The process could increase performance capacity of current speeds (avg: 100mps) by over 200 times. That means you could download a 2 gigabyte file, in one second. 

In previous experiments, a solar cell that generates electricity was created by laying out two closely spaced metallic wires on top of grapheme and exposing it to light. This process however was found to be low efficient as grapheme only absorbs 3% of light.

Fortunately, a research team in England has solved this problem by combining graphene with tiny plasmonic nanostructures. This enhanced the performance of graphene by 20 times. Although still at its infant stage, this is a brand new step for the future of the internet.

LG 3D TV and Cinema 3D glasses under attack?

It seems like the big dogs in the TV business, Royal Philips Electronics, Sharp Corporation, TCL Corporation and Toshiba Corporation are planning to promote a new standard for wireless active-shutter 3D technology. LG and Vizio will not be on board for the “globalization” of 3D glasses.

It was announced today (Tuesday, Aug. 30) that Philips, Sharp, TCL and Toshiba have expressed support for the initiative announced earlier this month for which competing titans Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, and XPAND have agreed to work together on the development and licensing of Bluetooth-enabled radio frequency (RF) system 3D active-shutter glasses technology, including RF system protocols between consumer 3D active shutter glasses and 3D displays such as televisions, personal computers and projectors, as well as 3D theaters with XPAND active shutter glasses. The standardization will also include several types of infrared (IR) system protocols between 3D active shutter glasses and 3D displays, ranging from the protocols jointly developed by Panasonic and XPAND 3D to the proprietary protocols of Samsung and Sony. I will post more updates in the future. 

Virtual Box

VirtualBox is a virtualization software developed by Sun Microsystems that was later acquired by Oracle.  Like VMware Workstation, they aim to create environments for installation of separate systems. It allows the installation and use of an operating system inside another, as well as their software as two or more independent computers, but sharing the same physical hardware.

Created by the company Innotek, they initially offered a proprietary license, a version of the product for personal use without charge. In January 2007 were released VirtualBox OSE (Open Source Edition) with the GPL (GNU General Public License) version 2. In February 2008 Innoteck was  acquired by Sun Microsystems. On April 20, 2009 Oracle bought Sun Microsystems and all of its products, including VirtualBox.

VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with internal programming interfaces and a well-defined design client / server. This makes it easy to control several interfaces at once. For example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical GUI machine and then control that machine from a command line, or possibly remotely. VirtualBox also comes with a complete software development kit, although it is open source, you do not have to hack the source to write a new interface for VirtualBox.
 

The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent from the local machines. Therefore, settings can be easily transferred to other computers.
VirtualBox has special software that can be installed inside the Windows and Linux virtual machines to improve performance and make integration more precise. Among the features provided by these Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (eg, resizing the client window).
 
Like many other virtualization solutions, to facilitate data exchange between hosts and guests, VirtualBox allows for declaring certain host directories as "shared folders", which can be accessed from within virtual machines.

Linux Anniversary

Many have only heard of it, some may have used it once, others use it every day. Finally, the operating system that has started as a hobby has become the system used all over the world.

Yesterday on August 25^th marks the 20^th year anniversary of Linux, an operating system originally created out of hobby without any professional purposes. The creator is Linus Torvalds.

This system is favored by the hackers, elite, all the top expert users in computers because of its extreme mobility and the current restricted functions mainstream OS users face.

Swede arrested was trying to split an Atom at home

Swede arrested was trying to split an Atom at home

A Swede named Richard Handl was arrested for trying to split a atom in his home.
He was charged with being in authorized possession of uranium and americium. His intent was to create a nuclear reactor for his home and had experimented for months and kept a blog in which he told his experiences about creating a thermonuclear fusion in his oven

He came to wonder if what he was doing was unlawful so he sent a letter to the department that handles these situations in Sweden which is how the police found him.

Handl says he has always been interested in physics and chemistry.

"I just wanted to see if it was possible to split an atom at home, but from now on, I'll just stick to the practical part"

Despite not having found alarming levels of radiation in the apartment, Handl will no longer be able to continue with his experiments and, moreover, will be judged for what he had done already. The penalty for possession of radioactive material is fine or up to two years in prison.

3D Printing

3D, which generally depicts three dimensions of matter is now becoming mainstream through TV and many other gadgets. A new addition to this list is 3D printing. Think about the situation when simple commands over the computer can print a solid 3D gift item for your friend’s birthday or your friend just emails you a flower pot.  Yes, this all will be possible by an innovative technology called 3D printing.

This unbelievable technology will have a huge impact in the world.  In the future, we can expect to be able to download and print ordered purchases through the internet.

The development of 3D printers is in continuous process through its initial phase. Now there are several 3D printers available in the market which can easily convert any virtual 3D object into a physical 3D object.

This magical 3D printing technology works on simple additive manufacturing technology where the three dimensional object is made by laying down many successive layers of material. 3D printing in the future will not only have impact on prototyping, but also in medicine, arts, auto parts, and even outer space.

Electric Guitar T-shirt

Every time I search for new things on the internet about technology, gadgets, etc., I come across something amazing or extremely dull and pointless created by people who do not have an active social life, and also do not have many friends. Anyway, this time at least I found something interesting, an electronic T-shirt that mimics the sound of an electric guitar.

The shirt comes with a small amplifier that, when connected, interact with the touching sensitive T-shirt, reproducing the sound of an electric guitar with distortion. The shirt only plays power chords and works only with the magnetic reed that is included in the purchase of the shirt.