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Will we run out of some of the basic elements fundamental to modern technology? This is a question that has recently lit up the blogosphere. In particular, the elements Indium and Gallium are frequently referred to as "threatened." The herd latched on to an eloquent post on Asimov's Science Fiction, which was itself a rehashing of a New Scientist piece, which took its cue in part from an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (which, oddly enough, does not discuss either Indium or Gallium). Regardless of the convoluted history, is there anything to really worry about...

The heated debate over whether Apple is tricking you into believing you can see millions of colors on your Mac has come to a quiet conclusion. The Chicago Tribune noted last week (spotted by AppleInsider) that Apple has settled a lawsuit brought by two professional photographers claiming that the company falsely advertised the capabilities of their MacBook Pros as being able to display "millions of colors." The plaintiffs claimed that Apple could achieve those heights only through "dithering."How many colors can you see? Thousands? Millions?(Credit: Apple) There's an option in the Displays screen, under System Preferences in Mac OS X,...

We bought a Sony Bravia KDL-46XBR2 LCD television recently. We get "regular" television via a DirecTV receiver. The input to the receiver is coax cable from the satellite, and the output from the receiver (and hence input to the TV) is S video and audio red/white. Question: the family is complaining about the quality of the satellite TV reception. In testing things, I disconnected the satellite receiver and plugged in a VCR. Then I played a pre-recorded videotape. The family looked at the videotape and are happy with the quality. They think the quality of the video is better than...

We are trying to connect a laptop to our new Sony Bravia TV, model KDF-46XBR2. Both the laptop and the Bravia have an RGB female 15-pin jack, and we have a cable that connects the two. We've read the manual, but it is basically useless. Obviously, we'd like the PC output to display on the TV. Question: what else must we do besides the Fn-F8 to "toggle" the PC display? Which video input (1 through 9) if any does the PC use? Or, does it simply override whatever video is playing at the moment? Thanks.

I spend a few minutes each day staying in touch with pop culture and news; Digg, Youtube, and Freerepublic are my mainstays. I have discovered, as I'm sure most readers have, that the comments and discussion of an article or post is as, if not more, interesting, funny, and informative as the original article. The problem is wading thru all the mediocre comments (often 100's) for the real gems among the bunch. I would like to suggest a rating system similar to other sites that allow other readers to rate comments which will allow other users to sort the comments...

Okay, I am going to spend some of my mad money for a large screen HDTV. I want either a LCD or Plasma TV, no projection tv's. I want 1080p resolution. I'll have around $2000 to spend. What I need is advice on what is good, what sucks, what breaks, what keeps on working, plasma tv life expectancy, etc. Hit me!

physicist says multiple factors affect picture quality. If you own a high-definition TV, don't read Edward Kelley's new tipsheet for folks in the market for plasma, LCD and other high-end displays. He doesn't want to ruin your day. Kelley is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Flat Screen Display Laboratory in Boulder. He wrote most of what one in the industry called "a bible" for the industrial testing and certification of flat-panel screens. Kelley's tipsheet opens sternly, with an all-caps warning. "SOME PEOPLE HAVE FOUND THAT THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL HAS REDUCED THEIR ABILITY TO ENJOY THEIR...

PARIS (AFP) - French Nobel laureate Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, a pioneer of the liquid crystal display (LCD) that is now a standard technology in today's consumer gadgetry, has died, his family said on Tuesday. ADVERTISEMENT De Gennes, who was 74, won the 1991 Nobel Prize for Physics for groundbreaking work in liquid crystals and polymers, for which some of the judges accorded him the accolade of "the Isaac Newton of our time." He died on Friday. President Nicolas Sarkozy led tributes to de Gennes, describing him as "an exceptional physicist and one of our greatest scientists." Prime Minister Francois Fillon...

Televisions grabbed the spotlight at the Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday with companies showcasing everything from super-sized models for the red-hot LCD market to technology enabling TVs to play video straight from the Internet. A slew of consumer electronics makers introduced bigger flat-screen TVs, while others highlighted products to enhance viewing, such as a DVD player that could be a bridge between rival formats for next-generation video discs. Sharp Corp showed off a 108-inch high-definition LCD television to rival a 100-inch model introduced only hours earlier by LG Electronics Inc. Sharp said its was the biggest yet among liquid crystal...

Best Buy Co. turned in disappointing third-quarter results on Tuesday as the battle to sell flat-panel TVs, MP3s and other hot electronic gadgets has slashed prices and cut into profit. the nation's largest home-electronics retailer said the "very competitive climate" -- plasma and LCD TV prices dropped 25% to 30% -- held its profit to $150 million, or 31 cents a share, up nearly 8% from last year's income of $138 million, or 28 cents a share, but short of Wall Street's expectations. That sent shares lower by 5% to $51.30. The total results were mixed compared with Wall Street's...

There are many reasons to buy an HDTV now. 1) Your team could be good this year. 2) There’s more stuff on high-definition TV than ever. 3) Prices are dropping. If you’re looking, here are some things you should know: DLP •Millions of tiny mirrors reflect light to produce a picture. You can recognize DLP (digital light processing) sets in the store: They’re the big, boxy televisions. LCD •Electrically charged liquid crystals untwist just enough to let the correct shade of light pass through. PLASMA •Bits of gas are ignited to produce light. FAQs Which is better, LCD or plasma?...

MAKUHARI, Japan--Anyway you look at it, 8.84 million pixels is a lot of points of light. Sharp has produced a 64-inch LCD monitor that provides screen resolution four times that of normal high-definition screens. Normal HD screens have 2 million pixel points. The new Sharp monitor, which is being shown off by the company at the Ceatec consumer technology trade show in Japan this week, sports a 4096 x 2160 pixel-line resolution--double the number of vertical and horizontal pixel lines offered by a normal HD screen. This comes to almost nine million pixel points. Small details, like plumes of smoke...

I just broke down and bought a 26 inch HDTV/LCD Monitor. This thing has everything. DVI/PC/AVI/Svideo. Two inputs and outputs for everything, 800 to 1 contrast ratio, Game modes, Stereo. I'm watching TV in the lower right corner while surfing the net. Walmart actually had one I could afford...sort of. It’s a PC monitor. It’s a TV monitor. It’s the only screen you’ll ever need – the IT-23M1U LCD IT-TV. The possibilities are amazing. Work on your PC and watch your favorite TV show or DVD at the same time, courtesy of multi-screen functions. Or enjoy the wide-screen TV via...

The wraps came off high-definition DVD players at this year's annual Consumer Electronics Show, offering the final component to replicate the movie theater experience at home. And while a fierce DVD format war likely will delay the mass adoption of such devices, digital video is here to stay - the Consumer Electronics Association trade group estimates 25 million U.S. homes will have a high-def TV set by year's end. But big, expensive flat-panel sets aside, this year's gadget show offered plenty of smaller screens for video... Yahoo Inc., DirecTV, Starz Entertainment Group and Sony were also among the companies getting...

Gizmos land among CES 'mega-trends' as U.S. sales rocket It's all about portable music players and flat-panel TVs. One look around the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center confirms that, with much of the space devoted to companies pitching all manner of MP3 devices and big- screen televisions. And no wonder - U.S. shipping revenues of portable MP3 players in the first 11 months of last year were up 224 percent over 2004. And sales of flat-panels - LCD and plasma sets - are expected to go from $6 million in 2005 to $10 million this year, helped by...

Please offer your expertise and research into the "State of the High Definition TV". Is plasma or LCD the way to go? I heard that most of the makers bring out new models in the April-May period next year. Will prices for 2005 models plunge then after New Year's? What manufacturers offer superior quality? Should one wait a year or two due to rapid change in technology? When will the technology advancement in HD TV slow? Best Buy has a 42 inch plasma from Panasonic for about $2900. What types of prices are you seeing out there for various size...

hile hanging a television on the living- room wall may have captured the imagination of American consumers, it has yet to empty many pocketbooks.That may soon change as a glut of liquid crystal display flat-panel televisions, called L.C.D.'s, enter the market, a result of a boom in new factories. According to several manufacturers and analysts, the prices for L.C.D. flat-panel TV's will drop in the new year, falling by as much as 30 percent by the end of 2005. The prices of plasma flat-panel TV's are also expected to fall significantly. That is not a message that the electronics retailers...

Rapid evolution for flat panel TVs 10:30 21 November 04 NewScientist.com news service Anyone planning to ditch their conventional cathode-ray tube TV in favour of a much wider flat panel TV will be spoilt for choice. With the rewards so great for companies who can dominate this market, competition between manufacturers is intense. The result is that flat panel TVs are being enhanced so rapidly that any performance comparisons quickly go out of date. Take a simple measure like screen size. At Japan’s leading consumer electronics show, CEATEC, held in Makuhari on Tokyo bay in September, hundreds of would-be...