In a recent ToN, I typed about the Toshiba 3D TV that didn’t need special glasses to see the 3D part, and the fact that, while it might not be an amazing experience now, its emergence on the market signals the coming of some amazing tech. Well, for a truly amazing 3D experience, in your living room and without the silly glasses, you will need a big, high quality, low power display. Mitsubishi’s latest product is, well it’s not that, but it is a step down that road, just as Toshiba’s TV is for 3D.

Mitsubishi have announced (and more importantly, shown) their new Diamond Vision OLED display. It is made up of smaller bezel-less screens, that fit together seemingly… uh, seamlessly. I did say that Mitsubishi isn’t quite there. The reason for this is that the screen only displays 69dpi, so don’t expect that crystal clear cinematic experience in your home just yet.

Two different groups of boffins, at the University of California, Berkeley and at Stanford University, have developed robot skin!

OK, it is not actually robot skin, but what have created is a thin, flexible material that can detect tiny changes in pressure, comparable to that of human skin. The material consists of a criss-cross of nanometre scale wires topped by a thin rubber sheet; the more pressure applied to an area of the sheet, the more electrical current is allowed to pass through, giving the ability to ‘touch.’

Projected uses include a ‘skin’ for robots, that would allow them to handle fragile objects, and, potentially, to be wrapped around prosthetic limb. I’m not quite clear how this would be relayed to the owner of the prosthetic limb, but it is a cool technology nonetheless.

This technology may yet save humanity; when Skynet becomes self-aware, it may be a little less inclined to destroy humanity if the terminators keep complaining about bone splinters in their hands.

Stephen Fry, one of my favourite intellectual types, today launched his memoirs, and insisted that the physical book is not dead, despite being a well known fan of new technology, and releasing his book in a number of enhanced formats. He makes the point that new media, as good as it is, does not replace old media.

I like this story because, as I have said, I don’t think physical media will die. Its market share will be severely cut by the convenience factor for the consumer, the cost effectiveness of not having to produce the physical side of physical media, and the green aspect also. But paper books, as well as Blu-ray’s, disc games, etc, will always have a home in the collectors/special edition market.

Some other stuff

Yesterday, a certain little Italian plumber celebrated his 25th birthday. Personally, I was more of a Sonic the Hedgehog person. Obviously I played Mario in the early days, but when the battle between the little red plumber and the fast blue hedgehog really broke out, I was in Sonic’s camp. That said, I can’t deny the impact Mario has had on the world of gaming, having practically defined platform gaming as we know it. So, happy belated birthday, Mario.

Halo Reach, the latest instalment in Xbox’s hugely successful FPS franchise, will be launched at midnight around the world. Halo 3, the last (real) part of the Halo series, was one of the biggest selling games of all time, so Reach has a tall task ahead of it to top its predecessor, but expect hundreds of eager gamers to be queueing into the night to get their hands on it. I’m totally useless at first person shooters, so I won’t be one of them, but it will be interesting to see what Bungie do with this one.

The new Xbox 360 dashboard has been leaked to the net. A little was already known thanks to the Kinect beta program, but now, a number of screen shots and videos have emerged, showing what the new dashboard will look like. The main difference seems to be that the overall look is squarer. I may be way off base here, but I get the impression that Windows Phone 7 may have played a small part in the decision to go that way; Phone 7 also has a square tile based layout, and Microsoft will be looking to integrate their services as much as possible.

That was your ToN for Tuesday. Check back tomorrow for more of the same… but with different news.

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