Samsung to unveil large LCD TVs

by Eric A. Taub

Samsung, the world's largest seller of televisions, will introduce at next week's Consumer Electronics Show a new line of rear-projection liquid crystal display televisions that will not be much thicker than flat-panel TVs but will cost about 30 percent less.

The new sets, aimed at those who want a bigger set but cannot afford a plasma TV, will come in 50- to 60-inch sizes. At 10 inches deep, they can be hung on a wall.

While consumers are embracing LCD flat-panel TVs in ever-larger sizes, Samsung has also recommitted itself to plasma TV and will double its current plasma production capacity later this year, said G.S. Choi, the company's president for digital media, in an interview from South Korea.

Plasma will continue to dominate in larger sizes, and the company will add an 80-inch model to its lineup this year, Choi said. To help consumers fit these larger sizes in their homes, Samsung said it was redesigning the TV frames to make them up to 30 percent thinner.

At the electronics show, held annually in Las Vegas, Samsung will also introduce a wireless plasma TV that will be able to receive HDTV programming sent from an HD DVD or Blu-ray player or set-top box. Because there will be no cables to hide, consumers may be more likely to hang such a plasma display on a wall.

The company, which was the first to introduce a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player last year, will announce its second-generation player next week. The new model is expected to cost about 20 percent less than the current version, but will have more interactive functions.

Although LG will introduce a dual format HD DVD/Blu-ray player, Samsung has no plans to do the same. "If the market is still divided, we could do a dual-format player, but we will wait and see," Choi said.

Entire contents, Copyright © 2007 The New York Times. All rights reserved.

Samsung Samples 50nm 16Gb NAND Flash

Samsung inches closer to making SSDs more mainstream

When it comes to storage technology on computers, hard drive technology has advanced the slowest as far as performance is concerned. Companies like Samsung are looking to Flash Solid State Disks (SSDs) to replace the spinning disk and reduce loading times for applications.

SSDs have the advantage of rapid response times without having to wait for a hard drive to spin up/seek and have drastically reduced power consumption compared to traditional hard drives. SSDs use zero watts when not being accessed, and as little as 200 milliwatts during read/write activities.

Given the lower power requirements, company’s like Sony and Fujitsu are looking to Samsung to provide SSDs for their mobile computers. Samsung also uses its SSD drives on the Q30 notebook and Q1 UMPC.

Samsung announced today that it has produced samples of the world's first 16Gb NAND flash memory device built on a 50 nanometer process. The multi-level cell (MLC) design uses a 4KB page size instead of the 2KB used in competing designs. As a result, read speeds are double that of 2KB designs while write speeds are increased by 150%.

The increased storage capacity and faster write speeds will help Samsung reach its goal of producing 128GB SSDs by the first half of 2008.

Samsung will begin mass production its new MLC 16Gb NAND flash memory chips in Q1 2007.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Samsung Unveils Mobile Phone With 'Optical Joystick'

 By Jennifer LeClaire

Samsung on Tuesday released a new cell phone, the SCH-V960, touting its unique "optical joystick," which is used for navigating menus, as a "world's first." The phone also has a 2 megapixel camera, GPS and Bluetooth functionality, and a screen that automatically adjusts its brightness based on ambient light levels to conserve battery life.

Samsung Electronics' latest mobile phone sports a gaming element -- a joystick. The company on Tuesday released the SCH-V960, which features a unique "optical joystick" to help users navigate the wireless device's menu and user interface.

Unlike most cellular devices -- which depend on the use of a scroll bar on the side of the phone or a series of clickable buttons to navigate the on-screen menus -- Samsung's joystick is reminiscent of a PC mouse.

Like an iPod

Unlike most cellular devices -- which depend on the use of a scroll bar on the side of the phone or clicking a series of buttons to navigate the on-screen menus -- Samsung's joystick is reminiscent of a PC mouse.

Users can operate the optical joystick by placing one finger on it and moving a cursor to navigate through the menu. At a high level, the process is similar to navigating an iPod, though it uses different technology.

Optical sensors read and react to finger movements, breaking down the traditional four-way menu navigation.

Users can point the cursor and click directly on icons in order to gain direct access to frequently used menus, such as the photo album, messaging and music functions. They can also use the optical joystick to scroll through play lists while listening to music.

Like a BlackBerry

With this joystick, Samsung can claim a unique innovation in the cell phone market, according to M:Metrics Senior Analyst John Jackson.

The concept echoes the trackball functionality of the new Pearl smartphone from BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) , he said.

"Samsung's optical joystick is certainly innovative. It's a good example of progress toward solving some of the usability conundrums that have always characterized handsets. Navigation and user interface advances are something that will continue to be a key area of focus and investment and innovation," Jackson added.

Although Samsung called its optical joystick "revolutionary," Jackson won't go that far. However, he did say that consumers will appreciate the innovation.

As advanced mobile applications become easier to use, and as their menus become easier to navigate, consumers will be more drawn to value-added services. "That means more money going through the wireless channel," Jackson said.
Smart Lighting

The V960's illumination sensor enables "smart lighting" -- a feature that automatically controls the brightness of the LCD screen and keypad, designed to protect users from eyestrain and minimize the device's power consumption.

In addition, the V960 supports a 2 megapixel camera, as well as global positioning system and Bluetooth functionality. The device will be launched in the Korean market at the end of December.

(c) www.technewsworld.com