Our TVs have come a long way, but they can still be pushed further. A Japanese company called Zeon is doing the pushing with a film it has developed for the polarizing plates of LCD screens, which would boost picture contrast quite a bit.

This phase difference film is created from Cyclo Olefin Polymer, which makes it suitable for LCD TVs based on in-plane-switching (IPS) technology, which is used by companies like Panasonic or Hitachi. The new film inhibits the diffusion of light from the backlight and that gives you clearer pictures. The company would like to mass produce the films this year, and are aiming at LCD TVs 40-inches or larger.

If you thought the tape format was deader than a cassette tape, think again. At least two companies are still playing with magnetic tape. IBM and FujiFilm have spent the better part of three years in order to achieve a new record in areal data density on linear magnetic tape.

They have results, having successfully recorded data onto a dual-coat barium ferrite prototype magnetic tape at a density of 29.5 billion bits per square inch. That’s 39 times denser than current magnetic tapes. Neither company has announced when this will be available.

The Eolic is a foldable, portable wind-powered generator for the masses. The idea is that you just set it up where a breeze is, and start turning that wind into energy for your TV, Xbox 360, whatever.

It’s certainly an idea whose time has come, but to be practical, it would need to generate a large amount of energy. You would also need windy days on a regular basis. But we like it and would love to give something like this a try.

TruTouch Technologies has been hard at work on non-invasive ways to detect drunk humans. The TruTouch Guardian pictured above is one of these ways. Now they are taking it a step further with the new TruTouch 2000 device.

The TruTouch 2000 uses near infrared light to detect possible intoxication and it apparently does this by just scanning your finger. It seems impossible, but according to the company it will ‘produce accurate results in less than 15 seconds,”. The Device features a built-in biometric identification system to make sure the test results are authentic.

The VESA group has released the latest DisplayPort version 1.2 which delivers 21.6Gbps of data rate, making it ideal for handling 3D, color depths higher than 24-bit and faster frame rates. It can also handle multi-streaming. A single cable is capable of outputing two 2560×1600 displays at full frame rate, four 1920×1200 screens, or a single screen with a resolution of 3,840 x 2,400 pixels.

The data channel that was introduced with DisplayPort now hits 720Mbps with DisplayPort 1.2, enabling it to run at full speed via the display cable and gives it Dolby or DTS audio as well as headroom for webcams, 100Mbps Ethernet and other technology that would normally require a separate cable.

Everyone is trying to do their part when it comes to helping those in Haiti. The Faith Comes By Hearing group are doing something as well, but they aren’t sending food, blankets or water. They are sending 600 audible Bibles.

Each of the Bibles can broadcast scriptures in Haitian Creole to an audience of up to 300 people. Aside from those 600 Bibles, they’re also raising money to send 3,000 more solar-powered audio Bibles to Haiti.

Netflix have now officially announced an agreement with Nintendo of America to stream it’s video content to the Nintendo Wii game console. We had heard it was coming way back in October and now Netflix has rounded out its coverage with the big three game consoles including Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PS3.

The new deal allows Wii console owners who are also Netflix subscribers and have a broadband internet connection to select movies from a catalog of choices and stream them to their television instantly. The service will be offered at no additional cost to subscribers to the DVD by mail service with Netflix with at least an $8.99/month plan.

A mobile phone running Google’s Android software along with a third party security app was recently stolen in Oregon and was able to fight back against it’s captors, getting itself home again. The Motorola Droid was stolen out of a couples home late at night along with a number of other electronic items and things of values.

Shortly after stealing the device the thieves snapped a few photos of themselves with the on-board camera which, unknown to them, were then uploaded to a server as part of a backup process that runs each night. The owners were then able to download the photos from the servers website and turn them over to police which eventually led to the capture of at least one of the robbers.

The backup/security application was a free download for the Android phone called …

We’ve all heard that cellphone radiation can be bad for you, even if it does remain unproven. But a new study in mice suggests that using cellphones may help prevent some of the brain-wasting effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

After long-term exposure to electromagnetic waves like those in cell phones, mice that were genetically altered to develop Alzheimer’s performed as well on memory and thinking skill tests as healthy mice. So I guess cellphones could be good for us and bad at the same time.

The new Marvell Plug Computer is packing a 2GHz Armada 300 processor, WiFi, Bluetooth and a hard drive. But alas, it isn’t for all of you consumers. So you and your smudgie fingered hands can’t have one.

The unit is marketed as a development platform for building embedded devices. Nothing on price yet, but remember this isn’t for you. It’s for developers. You are just browsing. That’s it. Nothing else to see here. Move along.

Google is expected to release it’s own mobile phone in a press conference schedule for today, going by the name of Nexus One. The new phone will be the first to actually be sold by Google and will also run Google’s very own Android software stack for mobile devices.

The Nexus One is rumored to also become available through the T-Mobile and their wireless carrier network in addition to the unlocked version direct from Google. The Android software has already been available on a number of mobile phones starting back in 2008 with a device from HTC. The device Google is introducing today is expected to also be from HTC, touting a 3.7 inch touch screen, 5-megapixel camera and a Snapdragon processor.

We’ve all heard and seen the stories of police brutality. They sure are taser-happy these days. Well, officers in San Jose, CA are being outfitted with head-mounted cameras. They hope this will help stop such situations. The kit includes a camera, a control piece and a computer for their belt. Every time an officer interacts with a civilian, they are supposed to activate the AXON camera.

Afterward, the officer can put the camera on a “buffer” mode that records limited video, or turn it off. At the end of a shift, the video is downloaded to a central server. The problem here is that the officer can turn it off at all. Obviously if you are going to give somebody a beatdown, why would you turn it on.

The debate continues as to whether or not cell phones can harm us, but one state may be ready take the next step in warning consumers about the dangers. If she has her way, a Maine legislator wants to make the state the first to require cell phones to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer, even though there is no consensus among scientists that they do.

Cell phones carry these warnings in some countries, but right now no U.S. states require them. A similar effort is underway in San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom would like his city to be the nation’s first to require such warnings. These measures seem premature, given the fact that there is no hard data to support the claims.

Scientists must have already discovered everything they need to know, so they have plenty of time for play. This looks like a cool piece of Mario art and it is, but this is created using glowing bacteria.

These pixels are made from genetically engineered bacteria and come from Team Osaka, at the nanobiology laboratories at the University of Osaka, Japan. Now you know what all that fancy lab equipment is really being used for.

This winter several American states are reporting that LED traffic lights are so energy efficient that they don’t produce enough heat to melt any snow that covers them. And this is causing accidents. One of the side effects of the previously used incandescent light bulbs was that they would melt any snow that covered them.

So the new LEDs have caused a few accidents and even a death is being blamed on them. Not to worry though, a fix is being worked on. I’m surprised none of the engineers thought of this problem before hand.