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OLED Displays Will Soon Make LCD Screens Obsolete

7/26/2015

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Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) screens are frequently touted for their resolution and picture quality over their liquid crystal display (LCD) competition. But it’s the malleability of OLEDs that will forever change the way we use displays in the near future. OLEDs are not limited to large screen televisions. You’ll be seeing the technology on a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) near you within a few years.

You’ve seen OLED displays if you’ve shopped for a TV recently. Samsung has been using OLED technology for some time and is now even including it in their new Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone which bends the screen around one long edge of the phone. LG is also producing large-scale, super thin TVs with OLED technology.

Janice Mahon, who serves as VP of Technology Commercialization for Universal Display Corp. says, “One of the things that sets OLED technology apart from LCD and other technologies is its intrinsic ability to be flattened and rolled. We’ve been focused on rollable OLEDs for over 15 years.”

“This technology, I believe, is really going to change how we use displays dramatically,” Mahon continues. “We’ll see foldable displays, we’ll see smartphones that go back to clamshells opening up to a full sized screen [and even] wearables like wrist-based displays.”

The new technology is not without its problems. The main reason we don’t see OLEDs everywhere is the manufacturing quality control and cost reduction that has to improve before we see the technology in mainstream products.

“One of the challenges is simply improving manufacturing techniques to reduce defects,” Mahon says. That’s because of the way OLEDs are commonly made right now, which involves a massive swath of substrate from which multiple displays are cut.

“Envision a large glass substrate,” Mahon says. “If you are building cellphone displays on that substrate, if you have 100 or 200 that it gets cut into, if there’s one point defect you can recover 199 cellphone displays, and only throw away one. If, on that same piece of glass, you build two TVs and you have one point defect, you may be in the position of having to throw one of your two TVs away.”

That’s part of the reason OLED displays haven’t taken over the marketplace as quickly as some would like, and it’s part of why OLED TVs are so pricey right now (some 4K units are priced today at $9,000 or double their LCD counterparts.) The exciting development, however, is Samsung’s use of OLEDs on the S6 Edge as a precursor of things to come in the mobile space.

From entire walls lined with brilliant images, to tiny screens folded into our clothing, OLED technology is helping to make incredible strides in how we use, design, and even think about displays in the near future and beyond. So fasten your seatbelt and get ready for an OLED revolution arriving at your doorstep in the not too distant future.


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The Upgrading of Internet Protocols

7/19/2015

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Today, we are so used to communicating over the Internet we don’t know that under the covers there are major changes needed to keep those communications going.

Currently, most people and websites communicate with a protocol called IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4). It provides for a 32-bit address for each device on the Internet. Since everything is kept in binary (base 2), that’s 2 to the 32nd power or a little over 4 billion device addresses available. Earlier this year, we actually ran out of IPv4 addresses.

It has been clear for years, that we needed to skip an order of magnitude and not even implement IPv5 and, instead, go directly to IPv6 that is a 128-bit address or 2 to the 128th power. That allows for 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses. More than we’ll need for quite a while.

Here’s a graphic comparison those two numbers:

4,000,000,000

340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Today there are over 20,000 websites already using IPv6 including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia and YouTube.

So other than web masters responsible for their website’s technical specs, why do we need to know about IPv6? The answer is that many companies are now moving the implementation of IPv6 to the front burner. Apple, as an example, told its developers at the recent Worldwide Developers Conference, “Because IPv6 support is so critical to ensuring your applications work across the world for every customer, we are making it an App Store submission requirement, starting with iOS 9." This means that over a million apps written for iOS now have to be converted to run over IPv6.

There is a alternative to use translators between the two protocols, but it’s evident that the cellular carriers aren’t going to support both protocols much longer and plan to go to an IPv6-only cellular network in the not too distant future.

Here are sample addresses for both protocols:

IPv4 – 1.160.10.240

IPv6 – 3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf

Be on the lookout over the next year to see these changes occur.


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Add 30 Hours Of Battery Life To Your Apple Watch With ‘Reserve Strap’

7/12/2015

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Developers Lane Musgrave and John Arrow have been working on a strap product for the Apple Watch for four months and this past week they announced their new product, Reserve Strap.

The Reserve Strap is a specialized Thermoset Elastomer Silicone band that contains embedded lithium polymer cells that recharge the Apple Watch battery providing 167% more power than without the band. The Reserve Strap uses the watch’s hidden accessory port. The developers claim the product can add more than 30 hours of additional power to the watch.

The Reserve Strap weighs 65 grams, is 25mm wide, and measures between 3-9mm thick. The strap comes in white, gray and black, fits wrist sizes from 130-210mm and fits both 38mm and 42mm watch sizes. The developers state that the product is as resistant to water as the Apple Watch and it doesn’t affect any of its functionality.

Recharging the Reserve Strap is done via a micro USB connection and features a pass through system so that both the watch and band can be charged at the same time.

The Reserve Strap costs $249.99, and begins shipping November 3, 2015. For more information, click here.


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Phree - Make The World Your Paper

7/5/2015

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Phree™ is the world’s first unrestricted, high resolution, write-virtually-anywhere mobile input device.

We live in a world of screens. But writing or drawing on them isn’t always spontaneous and doesn’t always feel natural, especially if they’re put away somewhere. Screens are useful, sure. We love our screens, too. But sometimes, they’re just too limiting.

Phree lets you write, draw, annotate, and express yourself in countless other ways, on virtually any surface.

Phree™ will easily connect to all your devices: phone, tablet, laptop, TV…anything with a Bluetooth connection. And Phree is compatible with software and apps like Office, OneNote, EverNote, Acrobat, Google Handwriting Keyboard, Viber and more. So you can instantly sketch or jot down ideas, notes, thoughts, email addresses and phone numbers...whatever crosses your mind!

You’ll use Phree in ways you never expected.

It even functions as a headset and has an integrated screen for brief texts. When you get one, just write back and send.

A lot of thought and prototyping was invested in Phree to ensure a great user experience. It’s thin and it has an oval cross section, so it’s both useful and comfortable. And when you hold Phree in a writing position, the touch display always faces you for easy activation. Just touch to change from a pen to a highlighter, or from red to blue, or from messaging to dialing.

The Israeli company set an original funding goal with Kickstarter for $100,000. As of this writing, they have over $1 million in pledges. Delivery is promised for late in 2015. Here are the remaining funding levels available on Kickstarter.

  • $168 - EARLY ADOPTER - One Phree
  • $219 - EARLY ADOPTER WITH CASE - One Phree + Case
  • $316 - TWIN PACK - Two Phree
  • $416 - TWIN PACK WITH CASE - Two Phree + Case  
  • $449 - FAMILY PACK - Three Phree
  •  $599 - FAMILY PACK WITH CASE - Three Phree + Case 

Here are some of the features of Phree:

  • Jot down notes and numbers without pulling your phone out
  • Write messages and emojis with your own handwriting
  • Receive, write and send text messages
  • Summarize, take notes and annotate documents
  • Sketch a drawing and doodle on photos
  • Text entry using handwriting input in multiple languages
  • Bluetooth headset including dialing numbers
  • Bluetooth mouse 

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    Author

    Rick Richardson, CPA, CITP, CGMA

    Rick is the editor of the weekly newsletter, Technology This Week. You can subscribe to it by visiting the website.

    Rick is also the Managing Partner of Richardson Media & Technologies, LLC. Prior to forming his current company, he had a 28-year career in technology with Ernst & Young, the last twelve years of which he served as National Director of Technology.

    Mr. Richardson has been named to the "Technology 100"- the annual honors list of the 100 key achievers in technology in America. He has also been honored by the American Institute of CPAs with two Lifetime Achievement awards and a Special Career Recognition Award for his contributions to the profession in the field of technology.

    In 2012, Rick was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame by CPA Practice Advisor Magazine. He has also been named to the 100 most influential individuals in the accounting profession in America by Accounting Today magazine.

    In 2017, Rick was inducted as a Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achiever, a registry of professionals who have excelled in their fields for many years and achieved greatness in their industry.

    He is a sought after speaker around the world, providing his annual forecast of future technology trends to thousands of business executives, professionals, community leaders, educators and students.

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